Social Recruiting: A Modern Hiring Method for Recruiters

Social media channels have become an essential part of our lives as they changed the way we communicate and exchange information. Many of these platforms have evolved from social networking alone to becoming a powerful recruitment channel for recruiters, especially those who have identified their target groups.  And now, with Facebook on the road to becoming a ‘metaverse’ it opens the door to endless possibilities for users to interact online like never before.

As we are now driven by hyper-connectivity in the information age, more companies are relying on social media when it comes to approaching potential candidates and achieving results. 

Social media’s round-the-clock availability as a platform has given users the ability to efficiently reach, establish connections, and engage with their target audience from all around the world, 24/7. This is how it has transcended purely social purposes and become an important platform for businesses today. This has made way for what we now call ‘Social Recruiting.’

What Is Social Recruiting  

Also referred to as ‘social media recruiting’ and ‘social hiring,’ social recruitment is a hiring method through which recruiters seek out and attract the interest of potential candidates via social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

Social recruiting can be done in a variety of ways. Companies or recruitment agencies can browse social media platforms to find potential candidates. LinkedIn would be the channel to view candidates' professional skills and experiences while Facebook would be the channel to browse through a candidate’s character traits. Once they find individuals that possess qualities that they are looking for, they would simply contact those individuals via direct message and establish relationships with them.    

Recruiters have seen how social media has affected candidates' habits in finding jobs, and on the back of that, the popularity of social media among hiring professionals has risen over the last decade. 

A study last year showed that 92% of organizations around the globe use social media for their recruitment while 75% of hiring managers get to know candidates better by visiting their social media profiles. 

The past year - also known as the period of The Great Resignation - over 33 million Americans left their jobs, with over 51% of both casual and serious job seekers in the U.S. looking for jobs through social media platforms.    

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How Social Recruitment Works

In order to reach the target candidates, recruiters must identify the social media channels that are appropriate with their recruiting campaigns.   

LinkedIn is a global platform used predominantly for professional networking. It allows companies and recruitment agencies to approach candidates in several ways. Firstly, they can simply advertise their job opportunities as a regular post. Recruiters can join LinkedIn groups to reach candidates for niche positions or they can browse through the platform to find passive candidates and directly establish relationships with them via the messaging feature. 

Facebook is a pool for broader audience groups, where companies or recruitment agencies can share job advertisements on their page as regular posts or share it in Facebook groups for specific audiences like job seekers who are looking for available positions in certain industries. Interested individuals who would like to get more information can communicate with companies via direct message.      

Twitter, on the other hand, does not allow recruiters to directly message candidates. The platform, however, enables recruiters to tweet job advertisements and target the right audience using hashtags. 

One of the benefits of posting through these platforms is companies or recruitment agencies are able to insert a link that leads the audience directly to their main websites or career pages at the end of each post’s caption.  

This is the main reason why companies around the globe include social media in their recruitment strategies. Marriott, one of the largest hotel chains in the world, has been successful using social media to attract candidates. Its Facebook account holds over 1.3 million likes which is more than Facebook’s (or Meta’s) own career page!  

The luxury hotel chain is using social media to attract candidates by posting engaging content at least twice a day. Marriott’s content aims to show its target audience what it’s like to be part of the international company. 

Another example is Taco Bell, which has gained over 100,000 likes on its Facebook page. The company lets its employees contribute to its brand image via Facebook page by having them post selfies while in uniforms. Taco Bell also takes advantage of social media by displaying its employer brand through multiple platforms including Pinterest. 

Why You Should Invest in Social Recruiting

It Reduces Time and Cost

Generally, businesses spend over $4,000 to hire new employees. At the same time, the average period of companies succeeding in filling in vacant positions is 42 days. Yes, recruiting is a task that demands a lot of money and time.  

While there are advertising features on social media that require payment like Facebook’s ‘boost post’ or ‘LinkedIn advertising,’ simply sharing your job ads as regular posts will not cost you a single dime.

At the same time, distributing job advertisements via social media allows you to reach candidates and push the recruitment process forward faster compared to traditional recruitment methods. Moreover, social recruiting allows you to review the performance of each platform and determine the best channel for your future job posts and make more efficient online campaigns.    

It Attracts Passive Candidates 

Passive candidates may not hang around job boards, but they surely will be scrolling through social media. Social recruiting acts as a doorway for you to efficiently reach passive candidates in a more personable way than other forms of recruitment. 

Instead of posting your available positions on job boards and waiting for candidates to find your advertisements, you can engage with them through their social media accounts right away.    

In addition, passive candidates tend to keep up with industry news and trends via social media while keeping an eye on companies they are interested in. With their professional details showcased on their social media profiles, you can simply review their experiences and reach out to passive candidates who are likely to fit your vacant positions.    

For recruiters who are looking for passive candidates to fill in niche positions software engineers or health professionals, establishing a positive social media presence will attract the right candidates, both passive and active, to follow your page and inspire them to quickly step out to join your team. 

It Expands Visibility for Your Job Posts

Every major social media platform today is the gathering place for billions of active users. Twitter is famously known for its ability to host a job search with #JobHuntChat and Facebook is of course a doorway to companies' career pages while millennials are actively using LinkedIn as their job searching platform. 

The fact that users can access information regarding job opportunities from wherever they are and whenever they like makes social media networks an effective tool for companies and recruitment agencies to amplify the reach of their job ads and make them more visible to a broad audience group. When it comes to creating a talent pool filled with high-caliber candidates, just turn on your phones or computers and go straight to social media.  

It Helps You Screen Candidates 

With candidates' basic information publicly available via their personal social media profiles, recruiters have the power to better select potential candidates from a large list of hopefuls. 

Social media is a free space for its users to express whatever they feel like sharing to the online world. Recruiters can grab this opportunity to take an in-depth look at candidates through their personal posts and get to know them better. This is the important information that would help recruiters to efficiently decide which candidates possess the personality traits that could go along with their companies’ values and cultures.   

If you wish to make better use of social media to strengthen your social recruitment game, an efficient digital tool designed to optimize the recruitment process like Manatal is able to help you. 

With the social media enrichment feature, Manatal’s AI would browse the web to search for candidates’ data on more than 20 social media platforms and distill this information into a single platform. You will be able to get to know more about candidates’ capabilities and make better decisions.

Attracts High Quality Candidates

The ability to reach active and passive candidates in the spectrum of specific knowledge, skills, and experiences is the main reason why social recruiting helps you source higher-quality candidates. 

Obviously, candidates who are looking for job opportunities on social media are equipped with a certain level of tech-savviness, although some more than others. This is a fundamental requirement for several positions in today’s global industries, and those who show these skills are more likely to be noticed.

Establishes Better Employer Brand Image 

Seventy-two percent of recruiting leaders around the globe acknowledged that the employer brand makes a significant impact on recruitment as a large number of professionals are likely to leave their current positions if a firm with a better reputation offers them greater career progression. In this case, social media can come into the picture as a channel to help you promote a better employer image. 

How would social media help you create a better brand image? Well, in terms of advertising, it goes without saying that your post could reach millions of people. This will surely increase the visibility of your brand while creating a certain level of trust among candidates who are on the lookout via social media. 

While looking for top candidates through social media, it is a good idea to establish your social media reputation as well. Inspiring followers with meaningful posts that show what it’s like to be working in a company that puts people at the heart of its growth story is likely to attract a large number of interested candidates your way. 

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Best Strategies for Social Recruitment

Choose the Right Channel 

Knowing your candidate profile and understanding which social channel they are likely to spend their time online will surely help you efficiently acquire the right candidates.  

Choosing the right channel with the right content will give you the best result. For example, if yours is a marketing agency looking to recruit candidates for a digital campaign manager position, Facebook might be one place to post your job ads. Your target group is likely to be attracted to flashy graphics with short and catchy captions. So, be sure to keep your message tight and get to the point right away. 

In terms of hunting for candidates through their social media profiles, LinkedIn is the best place to explore their professional histories as well as their skills. If you wish to see more of their casual side, Instagram is a good place to take a visit. 

Strengthen Your Social Media Profiles

Your company’s social media page should represent your company’s internal culture and core values. It has been shown that company culture helps attract the top 20% of candidates. The stronger your reputation and online presence get, the higher the chances of high-quality candidates - especially passive ones - walking right to your doorstep, as 75% of job seekers are likely to apply for companies that are actively managing their employer brand. 

Now, there are several ways to improve your social media presence. Many companies choose to create separate Facebook and Instagram profiles specifically to establish employer branding and communicate with potential candidates. These profiles usually feature employees' stories to provide audiences with an idea of your company's culture and the behind-the-scenes of your company.  

To make it easier for job seekers to find your profiles, it is a must to include keywords like your industry, location, while addressing that you are looking for new additions to your organization in your social media profiles. At the same time, always write the job title and location in the caption of every job posting to maximize the visibility of your post.

Ask Your Employees to Share Job Ads 

Having your employees involved in sharing job advertisements via their personal social media accounts is a tremendously powerful way to build on your employer brand and organically increase recruitment reach. 

Think about it, if 80 employees share the ads and each of them has 200 followers, there is a chance for your ads to reach up to 16,000 people! Take the example of Starbucks. The globally famous coffee house encourages its employees to share content across their personal social media profiles as the company’s partners to boost reach and expand brand visibility.   

Aside from job posts, having your employees also post via Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn about their experience being part of your organization would naturally draw in more interest and build a stronger online presence for your company. 

Potential candidates surely would like to see that your people really do enjoy their work lives. As the brand ambassadors for the company, your employees can deliver powerful and meaningful messages of growth and career progression to your target audience. 

Use Quality Content 

When it comes to spreading the word about your job opportunities, the first thing to keep in mind is the message - it must be clear and of value to a prospective employee. Say no to a boring robotic text only, say yes to cool images that include short but right to the point text. Buffer’s research revealed that over 63% of social media feeds consist of images. Content with relevant images or graphics has a 94% higher response than the ones without it. 

To keep the audience engaged, you must know their questions and answer them creatively. In layman’s terms, keep it entertaining and interesting when it comes to providing information regarding your recruitment. Try using videos or infographics or you can even go as far as turning it into a podcast or a live stream. Quality content like these will surely make your posts viral. 

Hashtag Is Important 

It is essential to include hashtags in every one of your job posts. Some job seekers look for job opportunities by following hashtags like #jobopening or #hiring. Adding hashtags at the end of your caption in job posts could help boost the reach and deliver your advertisements to the target audience faster. 

Some big players in the industry gave evidence that hashtags are powerful agents in pushing the boundaries of their advertisements. Dell, one of the most recognizable brands in the world, successfully established its employer brand image with #IWorkForDell. Dell employees have been known to share this to show that they are proud to be part of the company.  Similarly, big box department store chain Target also inspires and attracts passive candidates with its hashtag, #worksomewhereyou❤.

As for yourself, don't be afraid to experiment while exploring the power of hashtags. Learn the reach of your hashtags, see how many people use them. If the hashtags fail to reach your target audience after a couple of tries, drop them. On the other hand, if the hashtags are super trending, you might be at risk of sending your posts to the infinite void. Another way of making hashtags fun and interesting to both you and your audience is to invent your own hashtags. Use words that coincide with your current project, goals, or you can even put trendy words at the end of your company name. 

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Looking ahead

However you may feel about social recruiting, it is a hiring method worth investing in. Social recruiting is an effective way to optimize your recruitment while attracting both high-quality active and passive talents.

Amidst the ever-competitive recruitment market, you can head closer to the finish line before your competitors with the help of Manatal. As we aim to steadily drive you towards success while simplifying the recruitment pipeline as much as possible, you can be on top of the social recruiting game with many of our innovative features like sharing your job advertisements across social media platforms at once within a few clicks.   

Start your 14-day Free Trial now and discover more of Manatal’s powerful features that will help elevate your recruitment via social media channels while efficiently streamlining the whole process to make sure that the top talents are as close as your reach.