Today, social recruiting has become the latest trend in talent acquisition. As businesses have started to look for new skill sets and talents, they are using social media channels to attract and convert talent.

The job market is shifting, with more companies looking for their ideal candidates through virtual methods of recruitment. 49% of HR professionals say that their organization plans to increase virtual methods of recruitment in 2022.

How can you take advantage of this in today’s business world? As a new generation of digital natives enters the workforce while Millennials move into leadership roles, social media will remain an essential source for finding top candidates.

By using social media to recruit employees, employers may be able to access new pools of talent. Several organizations have already started employing social recruiting techniques. Nine out of ten companies now use some form of social media to find, attract, and engage their fresh recruits.

What is Social Media Recruiting?

Simply put, social recruiting is the practice of using social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others) to recruit. The phrase refers to a variety of strategies for locating, attracting, and hiring people via social media networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and SnapChat) and websites (blogs, forums, job boards like Glassdoor and ZipRecruiter).

When you advertise a position on your company’s social media platform, you leverage your followers’ and employees’ connections to get the word out on these channels. It’s a method of recruiting in which candidates apply for jobs through social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.

Does Social Recruiting Work?

Yes!

Using social media to find and engage with high-quality candidates may help your organization identify, reach out to, and hire top talent. According to a Jobvite poll conducted in 2019, 35% of respondents learn about open positions through social media. 41 percent of younger people said they would most likely use social networking to search for new employment opportunities, while only 17 percent of older people said the same.

Social recruiting can be broken down into three main categories: 1 internal social media use for recruitment (employees), 2 external social media use for recruitment (customers/candidates), and 3 employer brand presence on social networks. Each option plays an integral role in identifying new talent to fill open positions at your company or organization.

Internal Social Media Use for Recruitment

These platforms are typically used by current employees who want to share job opportunities with their connections through various methods including email blasts, direct messages, posts on individuals’ timelines, etc., all in efforts to spread the word about these vacancies throughout their network. This is a great way for organizations that lack more robust marketing budgets to get the word out without having to spend a dime.

Social Networking Sites for Recruitment

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites are the most popular platforms that companies use for their recruiting efforts because of the potential reach they allow you to have. LinkedIn is still considered by many as being one step above all others when it comes to finding qualified professionals who are looking for opportunities at organizations similar in size or type.

LinkedIn, with more than 740 million monthly active users in 2020, has evolved from a networking site for professionals to one of the most popular social media platforms. There’s no reason your company shouldn’t take full advantage of LinkedIn’s search capabilities if it hasn’t already!

Employer Brand Presence on Social Networks

Many companies have begun to take advantage of social media as a way to build and maintain an employer brand.

This means utilizing these platforms to show off what makes your company unique, the opportunities that exist within it, and why those who are interested should want to work for you!

With these three channels under your belt, you should be well on your way toward successful recruitment through social media methods. Keep an eye out though, as social media is always changing and new channels are popping up all the time that you may want to explore. For example, Twitter recently added a job-posting function within its platform for businesses.

Companies, particularly recruiters, have been using social media to an increasing extent for many years. According to a 2017 CareerArc study, employers anticipated that social media marketing would be the most in-demand HR skill by 2020—and the trend has not slowed down.

What Are The Benefits Of Social Recruiting?

Many social media sites may be used for recruiting. From Facebook and Instagram to Linkedin, there is a tremendous potential for businesses in this area to find new talent. Here are some of the advantages of utilizing social media to recruit:

Reach A Wider And More Diverse Candidate Pool

Hiring is no longer local, businesses can cast their nets into the vast web of social media to find people who are interested in working for them. This also means that companies will have access to a greater pool of talent than ever before, which allows them to choose from qualified candidates with varying skill sets and cultural backgrounds.

Create Your Company Social Presence

Social recruiting is not just about posting jobs or searching through profiles; it’s also about building credibility by creating an image/brand around your organization on various platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Potential recruits will use these sites as well (if they want more information), so having your brand out there gives you visibility when these individuals do look you up.

Developing and amplifying a distinct corporate culture is an important element of attracting new employees and brand development. People would want to join your company if you demonstrated a fantastic culture!

It builds trust between potential employees and employers too! The average candidate sees about 25 social media profiles before accepting a job offer, so it’s important to make the right impression.

Reach Passive Candidates

Social recruiting is a great way to reach passive candidates, which accounts for 80% of the talent pool. Passive candidates are a lot easier to recruit because they’re not constantly being bombarded by companies with job offers and challenges.

They aren’t necessarily looking for new jobs, but if one comes along that piques their interest, you have a much better chance at getting them on board when compared to active applicants who may be actively applying elsewhere.

Which Social Media Platforms To Use

To find the best new talent, starting with LinkedIn or Twitter may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s critical to study your ideal candidate profile and where they’re most likely to spend their time on social media.

Here are the social media sites most likely to be visited by your target audience, depending on who you’re looking for:

• If you’re looking to attract the younger generation, it may be beneficial for your organization to invest in a social media platform they are most likely using. For example, if you were recruiting college students or recent grads who love Snapchat, TikTok, Triller, and Instagram stories, setting up an account on those platforms would reap more benefits than LinkedIn (although that should still definitely be included).
• An engineer will likely spend their time on StackOverflow Question, Reddit Technology, Github Community, or other engineering-specific forums.
• A social media manager will be most active on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit Marketing, and industry-specific subreddits like r/socialmedia.
• A sales professional will spend their time mostly in LinkedIn groups related to Salesforce, Hubspot CRM systems among others which are focused on the Biz Dev world – Linkedin Sales Solutions for example.
• A UX/UI designer will be on Dribbble, Behance, Pinterest, DeviantArt, or Creative Market.
• A Digital Marketing Specialist will spend their time on Inbound, Hubspot Community forums, Growth Hackers among others – again the focus here is on community-based groups where they share knowledge and can pick up tips from other professionals in the industry. Other places to look include Quora which has a specific category for marketing that you can search through or post questions to get involved with conversations happening there as well as Udemy courses that people take lessons from around social media best practices.
• A photographer will likely hang out on Instagram, 500px, Flickr, and Pinterest as these are the best places to showcase their work. Creating a social media presence is also necessary for those in creative fields such as designers, writers, or artists who need their portfolios showcased online so potential employers can find them easily.

The goal of Social Recruiting is twofold – attract ideal candidates who are active on these channels by showing them your culture and attracting them with stellar content (content about your company, how it works, etc.) but also engage the right talent within your existing network (friends, colleagues, etc.).

Using The Right Keywords & Hashtags For Best Results

You can’t assume that just because you’re on social media and posting job advertisements that they’ll be seen. You need to be methodical about which social media sites you utilize for recruiting, as well as the hashtags and keywords you employ.

As an example of this strategy in practice, take a look at #BigDataJobsInPhilly tag used by Philadelphia’s Big Data community – it has over 700 posts so far with many of them being job announcements. That’s some serious momentum right there! Another good one we’ve seen recently was #SAPCareersUSA where SAP posted all their open positions across North America – talk about convenience for both parties!

So, keep in mind that when posting jobs online or communicating with talent on social media, you should use particular keywords and hashtags while sharing your job postings to ensure that they appear higher in searches by potential applicants. These keywords and hashtags not only increase the visibility of your career possibilities but can also speed up the process of receiving qualified applicants!

Be Presence, But Also Engage With The Audience

It’s critical not to lose sight of what social recruiting is truly about: social connection. This implies that your discussions should be a two-way street and that you should always be prepared to ask and respond to questions.

At the same time, don’t concentrate only on job advertisements. You should continually aim to start debates that include a variety of people, provide useful information, and infuse your message with your company’s distinct tone and beliefs.

Even if job roles aren’t available, smart individuals should continue to interact with your brand for you to develop a pool of talent from which you may draw whenever new employment openings arise.

Participating in groups, DMs, and chats allows you to reach a significant number of people with information about your job. Before posting a one-time employment opportunity announcement, be an active member of groups so that you don’t appear promotional and invite bad publicity.

Create Culture People Wants To Belong

If you want to attract top talent that appreciates your company’s culture, you must describe it in a non-biased way so that job seekers can have an accurate picture of what working for your organization is like.

Make sure you mention it in your social media descriptions if you have access to free snacks, a ping pong table, and an office dog who always takes the elevator to get around the building. These are all factors that job seekers consider when making their decisions.

And, leverage your current employees to do the talking for you. Make sure they talk about your company’s culture on their social media pages and profiles, too!

Create a positive culture that fosters healthy employee engagement and encourages strong internal communication. Communicate with staff, incentivize hard work, and provide development possibilities to show that your organization is worth recommending. No amount of effort will cause employees to suggest your brand to others if these components are not in place.

Key Takeaways

Every organization is unique, and the ultimate goal of social media is to create an authentic brand that engages its following. Try not to be hyper-focused on getting new hires, but rather use your branding strategies for driving engagement with people who align with your company’s values while pushing out relevant information about career opportunities at some point down the line.

Some companies such as LinkedIn have made it easier than ever for professionals (and recruiters) alike by providing a plethora of tools like job postings and searchable candidate databases which save time in searching through potential candidates. Other platforms such as Twitter offer more interactive options like real-time chats or direct messaging, giving you one-on-one access to individuals interested in learning more about specific positions without having them fill out endless forms online.

Regardless, social media has become a hot market for recruiters and successful companies alike. In fact, 97% of all job seekers have used the Internet to search for jobs – so why not leverage that same access to reach out directly? Today’s candidates are looking at your company brand online before even applying or bothering with submitting an application because they want to feel as though you’re someone worth their time. If potential employees aren’t finding your organization on social media channels, then chances are those who need it will never find them either. That means no one knows about what you offer and great talent goes wasted! So how do we #likeaboss?

Let’s go! #postup