7 Open Secrets of Social Media Recruiting

Social media seems like an unlikely destination for recruiters but 94% of recruiters use social media to attract top talent. Social Media is no longer the hot invention of the 21st century, it’s the norm. HR pros today cannot afford to overlook the benefits of social media for recruitment. 

The future of branding, especially employer branding, has to resonate personally with candidates.

But the basics first.

What is social media recruiting?

Social media recruiting is the means of recruiting possible talent using social media. Through social media, you can advertise your openings and build connections with your prospective talents. 

But how effective is social media recruiting?

Let’s go over some stats–

• 67% of recruiters believe that competition for top talent is likely to increase.
• 80% of employers believe that using social media helps them to find passive candidates.
• 75% of prospective talent aren’t actively searching for a job, they were contacted by recruiters through social media. 
• Over 70% of recruiters have successfully hired through social media. 
• 89% of companies plan to recruit through social media. 

The edge online/social media recruiting has over offline techniques is that you can track the efficiency of the process. In social media recruiting, you can effectively get an idea of the number of prospects clicking your job ad and the rate of conversion. 

But how do you optimize social media for your hiring needs?

Here are a few ways you can go about it.

Optimize Your LinkedIn Page

According to roberwalters.com, LinkedIn is preferred as the most important social media channel for recruiting. 85% of the people in the survey conducted had a LinkedIn profile. 

If your company is missing from LinkedIn, your organization is losing a big chunk of great talent. Having a great and active LinkedIn page is a prerequisite for attracting top talent. LinkedIn makes even more sense if you are looking to attract more experienced talent in your pool. Passive and active candidates with more experience usually flock to LinkedIn for opportunities.

Also, Google uses the text in your company LinkedIn profile to feature your company in its search results. Google only shows the first 154 characters, so you need to make sure the first 154 characters are very clickable.

Promoting Your Openings

When you have an opening, the first step is to make sure people know about it. Advertise your opening on all the relevant social media channels to get maximum engagement. Also incorporate the opening in your newsletter. This way you can get maximum interest with the smallest impact to your hiring budget. 

But doesn’t everyone advertise their open positions on LinkedIn and Facebook? According to recent research, only 13% of professional recruiters use social media sites for posting ads about their organization’s vacancies. 

Employee Branding

If Steven shares a picture on Facebook with a caption “Work is fun when coworkers are great!”. Their middle manager probably considers it employee branding. Sealed and delivered. 

We have seen countless companies get on board with employee branding without any proper planning. And the problem is simple, that’s not employee branding. None of Steven’s 2020 Facebook friends have any context of the picture or the message, unless they know Steven outside of Facebook.

The viewers of pictures like this usually don’t have an idea of where someone works or the services the poster’s employer provides.  

You don’t have to urge your employees to fully explain all the context behind their post. But a little context goes a long way in creating an exciting employee brand. 

Beware: you don’t want every employee’s post to feel like an advertisement for your employer brand. Your messages should be short and with enough context to leave appropriate candidates excited about working for you. 

Attracting through Instagram

Instagram might seem like an unlikely tool to attract new employees. 6 years ago, getting engagement for free was easier on Facebook, now that spot seems to have been taken by Instagram. It’s unlikely you are going to get sizable engagement through Facebook without the cost of promoting your posts going through the roof. 

Also, in 2019 Instagram recorded 10 times more engagement than Facebook and 84 times more engagement than Twitter. Additionally, 67% of its users are below the age of 29. Engaging and attracting through Instagram ensures a young, dynamic and future-proof workforce. 

Using Videos For Audience Engagement

There is no better way to take your relationship with your potential candidates to the next level than to engage them with an exciting video. 

According to a recent survey, videos are likely to engage 10 times more people than any other medium. Adding a video increases click-through rates 300-400%. Also, Youtube is the new social media kingpin. Youtube has 1.9 billion users worldwide and available in 80 languages which cover 95% of the internet population 

You can make interesting videos about what it’s like to work in your organization or even an employee testimonial video. Make sure that the video is interesting enough to engage your audience of potential talent. Better yet, you can make a behind the scenes video of a different video released in the past. People love behind the scenes footage, so give them what they want. 

Content is King

Sharing content is one of the key ways to not only hire exciting talent but also generate sales leads. The secret to success on social media, and social media recruiting campaigns is they won’t work if you don’t have quality content to share.

Having a great content strategy also shows you are an industry expert. Candidates love to work for industry leaders. 

Your content can range from blogs to podcasts to infographics to ebooks. Or, better yet, all of the above. It becomes that much easier to convince top talent to join your organization if they already follow your content. 

Create a feeling of FOMO

The ultimate aim of social media isn’t to create a feeling of FOMO, or fear of missing out, among your prospective talent. Your employer and employee branding should focus on how great your company is and how exciting it is to work there. It should broadcast your superior company culture and the uplifting work environment. By creating a small amount of FOMO, you encourage candidates to become part of the action by joining your company.

Wrap Up

Social media not only increases the efficiency of your recruitment but also minimizes cost. You should be wary of jumping into social media before you are ready. We have seen countless examples of how companies fail to have an optimized and well thought-out recruitment strategy on social media.  Realize which strategy works best for your open positions.

Author Bio

Iftekar is a content marketer at Vantage Circle, an employee engagement platform. Vantage Circle helps corporate organizations manage human resources efficiently. Iftekar has worked in various departments in his professional career ranging from finance to marketing. He is an avid reader and likes to be updated in every business field.