Most companies and job seekers today use social media on a regular basis. When you have job openings you are looking to fill, you should use as many avenues as possible to find potential candidates, and social media is a great way to do that. Recruiting employees through social media is less expensive than other avenues, and it also allows you to give job seekers a bigger picture of what it is like to work at your company.
According to software web service Capterra, 94% of recruiters use social media for recruitment of job candidates, and employers using social media for recruiting report a 49% improvement in the quality of candidates they find to fill jobs. In order to see results, however, you need to use the social media platforms correctly. Here are some of the best ways of using social media for recruiting candidates:
1) Put A Lot of Thought Into How You Post Jobs
When you post job openings through social media, it’s important to put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and think about what wording they would use to search for the job you are posting. When recruiting employees through social media, make sure you include the right keywords often enough in your job posts. Also, when using Facebook you may want to create a page specifically for job seekers, instead of posting jobs on your company’s main page.
2) Post Content About Your Company, Not Just Job Openings
When using social media for recruiting candidates, you want to help job seekers understand what it’s like to work at your organization. Use social media to paint a picture of your company culture and build a base of potential employees that are drawn to what your company has to offer. Post videos of company events, pictures of office renovations or awards your company receives, and highlight employees of the week. Engage job seekers by posting surveys and asking questions. Recruiting employees through social media will be much easier if you can communicate to them why your company is unique.
3) Involve Your Employees
When using social media for recruiting, it’s important to build your company’s network on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites. To help you do this, encourage your employees to share the company’s job postings and other social media content on their own personal accounts. This will greatly expand the reach of your social media posts and increase the chance of success when recruiting through social media.
4) Utilize Hashtags
When you post on Twitter, make sure you include relevant hashtags, so any job seekers that aren’t currently following you can find your posts if they search for the topics you are talking about, or the types of jobs you are posting. Some tweets that will attract potential employees when using social media to recruiting candidates are #jobsearch #jobseeking and #hiring. Do some research by searching different types of phrases related to your job postings and see what comes up on Twitter.
5) Analyze Results
When recruiting job candidates through social media, you don’t want to waste your time on efforts that aren’t bringing enough results to your company. Experiment with different methods of using social media for recruitment, such as changing up the wording of your posts, trying out Facebook and LinkedIn ads, and playing with images and infographics. Insert tracking URLS into all of your social media posts and ads to see how they perform. And get adventurous when using social media for recruiting by going beyond Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and trying other social media websites such as Pinterest and Reddit.
Author: Jessica Cody
Jessica Cody, a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, has a background in online marketing and public relations. Currently, she works at VHMNetwork LLC in the role of Marketing Analyst. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, where she studied Journalism and Political Science. She is also an avid runner with a passion for the outdoors.
