Your Guide to Social Media Recruiting

Social media recruiting should be integrated into your hiring strategy. Not only will it help you reach a targeted audience faster, but it will lead you to quality hires, as well. It’s not a walk in the park, but we’re here to help. We created a guide with everything you need to know and remember to get you started.

What is Social Media Recruiting?

Let’s go to the basics and start with definitions. Recruitment through social media is a strategy that consists of various factors that intertwines employer branding and marketing to entice and connect with all sorts of candidates on different platforms online.

It veers away from the traditional way of posting a job on job boards and career pages and waiting for applicants to apply. It lets you reach out to people faster in a multitude of streams effectively and efficiently.

To that end, it’s a great way to scale your recruiting efforts exponentially.

Importance of Social Media in Recruitment

You are able to reach more people

Let’s speak facts. According to Forbes, 73% of workers from 18 to 34 years old found their job through social media. That is more than half of the global workforce!

If you’re having troubles filling roles and your time-to-fill is costing you a lot, this is a solution that can shorten time spent in sourcing talents.

You can let passive candidates come to you voluntarily

Additionally, you’ll be surprised to know that 82% of companies use social media recruiting attract passive candidates, which make up 70% of the total candidate pool. That is a very big number to consider since you can tap untapped potentials by just posting on these platforms.

You’ll get even better results and have the best of the best joining your company if you hit the right marks from the right angle.

Here’s a run-down of the benefits it provides:

• Allows you to reach a huge number of job seekers easily
• Promotes employer branding and improves company culture
• Connects you with passive candidates
• Gives you more information about applicants beyond their resumes
• … and many more!

Amazing, right? There are tons of advantages to streamlining this into your workflow. If you just know where to optimize your recruiting efforts, these effects will be bolstered tenfold!

Which Social Media Platforms are Prominently Used?

To continue what we mentioned above, knowing which platforms to post job ads will be useful in two ways. One, you would know where the majority of the users are. Two, you would be able to pinpoint a niche if necessary.

Number of Users on Major Platforms as of 2021

Here’s an estimated number of users of the major social media platforms at the moment.

• Facebook – 2.8 billion
• Instagram – 1.1 billion
• LinkedIn – 740 million
• Tiktok – 689 million
• Twitter – 192 million

With this in mind, you already know you’d get a lot of applicants if you post on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. These are active websites and people are on them daily.

Social Media Reveals Niches

What do we mean by this? Simply put, each website has a different purpose and that includes the “personality” of its users. When you talk about Behance, for instance, you immediately know it’s where creatives post their artworks. Be it in graphic design, photography, typography, and many more, it’s all there.

If you’re looking to tap the creative market, this is the best place to be. You just explore the website and find anyone who might suit the position you are trying to fill. It takes time, but it guarantees top-notch individuals that you can connect with with just a single message.

Depending on the niche you want to target, just search online and there are bound to be forums where this niche thrives.

How to do Social Media Recruiting

Now that those are clear, it’s time to learn how to recruit via social media. Here are steps to remember:

1. Set goals and targets

This is the most important step of all. Don’t just recruit blindly. Ensure that you set goals and targets so you know exactly the results you want to achieve.

Is your goal to have an equal male-to-female ratio? Is it to hire more millennials or Gen Z talents? When you have finalized these details, it will be easier to proceed with recruitment in social media.

2. Post on relevant social media platforms

We wrote an article before about this. You need to optimize where you post job ads so you get maximum results.

You can always post on all platforms, but you might just waste effort and lessen the chance of finding the best fit. When you focus on relevant platforms, you can invest more time in posting more and improving their quality.

This will greatly increase your application rate with exactly the applicants you’re looking for. This is opposed to doing one post per day on all platforms-- it will be less effective.

Do your due diligence and study the market of each social media website. This will help you determine the proper ones to consider.

3. Engage with your audience

To connect with our point above, take the time to post more on your brand’s social media accounts. Keep your LinkedIn, Facebook page, and many more active by posting other content, as well.

You’re not just limited to job ads. You can also do lots of content that can pique the interest of those that follow you. This is a great way to improve employer branding and attract passive candidates!

You can talk about your company culture, diversity efforts, and many more. Collaborate with your marketing team and yield better results together.

4. Involve all your employees

Some companies may be strict about this, but you have to consider the power of your social media influence. When you encourage employees to share their work experiences and share your posts online, word of mouth can spread very quickly!

Why is that? There is already a credibility built. When an employee posts positive things about your organization, their friends will take their word for it. This might even be a reason for them to also apply since they’ve been hearing positive feedback from people they know.

Try to involve your employees. All it takes is just the share button!

5. Check reports and analytics

Lastly, don’t forget to check the big data. This information isn't just for show. These are there for you to study and interpret so you can better understand what works and what doesn’t.

Take the time to analyze the reports and plan your next steps accordingly. You might notice things such as more applications coming from LinkedIn, more female applicants from Facebook, etc. Align all these findings to your next goals and targets.

You’ll see exponential growth and results next time around for sure!

Social media recruiting can be very different from the traditional methods as it involves strategizing more about how to connect with people, what to post and where to post them, and a whole lot more. However, once you integrate this into your hiring process, the outcome will be excellent.

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