Social media is the second most effective source for hiring candidates after referrals. According to research by Aberdeen Group, 73% of employees (18-to-34-year-olds) found their last job through a social media network.

Using social media for recruiting purposes gives you access to a large global pool of candidates. Facebook has more than 1.86 billion users, Twitter has 320 million and LinkedIn has over 450 million. These channels not only allow you to reach active candidates but also enhance your ability to reach passive candidates.

Also, check How To Post a Job On LinkedIn For Free?

Why use Social Media for Recruitment 

Incorporating social media into your recruitment approach offers the opportunity to engage both active and passive candidates effectively.

Social media recruiting enables precise targeting of your desired and optimal talent pool, enhancing your employer brand and fostering a positive company culture. Additionally, integrating social media into your strategy is cost effective.  Below are few benefits of using social media for recruitment:

1. Enhanced Job Visibility: In today’s digital landscape, almost every potential candidate is active on social media platforms. With Facebook’s user base exceeding 2.19 billion and LinkedIn being a popular platform for job seekers, social networks provide an excellent avenue to identify and attract talented individuals for your organization. The extensive social media reach ensures access to a caliber of talent unmatched by other platforms.
2. Improved Candidate Quality: Numerous companies report receiving high-quality candidates through social media recruitment. This success can be attributed to the tech-savvy nature of social media users, a crucial trait in today’s job market. Moreover, these candidates often possess up-to-date knowledge of emerging business trends, contributing to their skill set. Utilizing current employees to announce openings on social media can lead to hires who are more productive and likely to stay longer.
3. Strengthened Employer Brand Awareness: Social media recruitment not only aids in finding ideal candidates but also boosts brand visibility. Advertising job positions on social platforms with the help of social media kits fosters brand recognition and instills trust among potential employees. A solid social media presence enhances the perception of a trustworthy brand, creating an appealing workplace.
4. Cost-Efficiency: Compared to traditional recruitment methods, social media recruiting is cost-effective. While expenses are involved, the value derived from hires acquired through social media outweighs the costs. For example, a simple Facebook ad can yield greater visibility than traditional classified ads or job boards. And with AI tools like the Instagram engagement rate calculator, keeping track of ROI is easier than using traditional methods.
5. Facilitates Engagement: A well-established social media presence can leverage engagement when promoting job openings. As interested candidates seek more details, interactions on your social media page increase. Conversations, comments, shares, and direct messages create an active platform for engagement. Such dialogues can introduce potential employees who might not have considered your company through other channels.
6. Targeted Vacancy Promotion: Social media recruitment enables precise targeting of specific candidate groups. Platforms like LinkedIn offer industry-specific groups for professionals, allowing you to tailor job postings effectively. Implementing this strategy requires a balance to ensure that promotion does not become intrusive or overwhelming, maintaining credibility and appeal.
7. Candidate Screening: Social media provides insights into candidates’ personalities and values, aiding employers in hiring decisions. While reviewing candidates’ social profiles is commonplace, respecting privacy and seeking consent is crucial. Many candidates voluntarily include social media links in their CVs, indicating their openness to scrutiny.
8. Expedited Hiring Process: Social media recruitment often accelerates the hiring timeline compared to traditional methods. The efficient communication and prompt responses facilitated by social networks lead to quicker interactions between employers and candidates. This speed and shared values and interests contribute to forming strong work relationships.

So if you don’t have a social media strategy, it’s time to make one. Here are some tips that you can use on the following social media channels: 

Using Facebook for Recruitment

Facebook has a Jobs section which is on the Facebook page where recruiters can post their job requirements.
Add a cover photo that depicts your company’s culture. Also, fill in the details about your company on your page.

Ask your employees to engage with your brand on Facebook.

Join groups and like pages that are relevant to your prospective candidates. For instance, if you are hiring Software Developers you can join a Python group and like a similar page. Look out for members who match your candidate persona. Don’t spam on these forums otherwise, you will be blocked from them.

Keep sharing images and videos about your company on your Facebook page. Usually, images and social media videos have more engagement on Facebook than on traditional media. Share images with the following resolution (in px):

• Post: 940 x 788
• In-feed ad image: 1200 x 628
• Right column ad image: 1200 x 628
• Carousel ad image: 600 x 600

Create a Facebook event whenever you are doing a hiring event. Invite people from your network, and ask your employees to invite their relevant friends. Additionally, post about the event in groups and ask page moderators to share your event on your company’s social wall tools.

Hold Facebook Q&A with your employees talking about your teams and culture. Occasionally use Facebook Live to showcase your company.

Use Facebook Graph Search to find relevant candidates.

Dig deeper into your page audience using Audience. Understand their demography, and interests to optimize your posts accordingly.

You can also run ads targeted to your target audience.

Using LinkedIn for Recruitment

LinkedIn is the largest professional networking site and is a gold mine for recruiters. You get to know candidates and all about their professional experience.

Create a LinkedIn company page. Add an image that tells about your company culture. Having an image on the company page increases the chance of viewing by 14X.

Write a description of your company. to give your readers a brief understanding of your company that’s much similar to what an essay intro does to a narrative essay. LinkedIn uses this description to tell people about your company. Google also crawls this description to decide your order in its search results.

LinkedIn only shows 200 characters of your description above ‘See More’ and Google only shows the first 154 characters in its search result. Use your first 154 characters wisely and frame the rest to give the desired information.

There are a number of professional groups on LinkedIn. Join groups relevant to you.

Ask your employees to mention your company name in their description.

You can also create a job ad on LinkedIn. LinkedIn charges for job ads and charges extra (CPC) if you want to boost it.

Always use boolean commands to search candidates on LinkedIn. It gives you a much-filtered result as compared to putting in a generic keyword.

Use the Recruiterflow Chrome extension to actively source candidates and run personalized drip email campaigns on them.

Using Twitter for Recruitment

Create a separate Twitter handle for jobs like Airbnb has done.

You can also use a tweet scheduler to schedule tweet 2-3 tweets every day talking about your culture, open positions, and company.

Tweets are really powerful with hashtags. Use hashtags wisely! If you are hiring a back-end developer in Chicago your tweet can have hashtags like #pythonjobs #chicagojobs etc. Do research your hashtag before you use it, always see if it’s not there for any other messaging. Always use one hashtag for your company-specific job (something like #yourcompanyjobs) which you accompany every job opening tweet.

Do a Twitter AMA between your employees and prospective candidates. Find people relevant to your job using search, lists, and tweets. Follow these people as there is a high chance they will follow back and will then subscribe to your tweets.

Find people relevant to your job using searches, lists, and tweets. Follow these people as there is a high chance they will follow back and will then subscribe to your tweets.

Using Snapchat for Recruitment

Snapchat is all about storytelling.  If you have never used Snapchat we advise you to use it first personally and then create a business account. Alternatively, you can also ask someone who knows Snapchat in and out in your company to handle your company handles.

While using Snapchat for recruiting you can use some of the following ideas:

• Give your followers an inside peek at your office culture using Stories. Share your office space, cafeteria, employee short videos, CEO desk, sessions, etc.
• When you are hosting a college event, a guest lecture in your office, or if someone from your team is speaking at some event, share stories. Do mention the relevance of the story in each video/picture as your followers won’t have many ideas about it.
• Share snaps of office birthdays, parties, events, etc.
• Whenever opening a job, post a preview on Snapchat as well.
• Ask questions from your followers through Snapchat and answer them through your employees by creating a story.
• Always have a call to action where users can know more or apply for a job.
• Always feel free to use filters.  

The above ideas only work when you have a good follower base on Snapchat. Use your other social media handles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to ask people to follow you on Snapchat.

Using Instagram for Recruitment

Instagram with its latest update has become very similar to Snapchat. Memories on Instagram are equivalent to stories on Snapchat. You can also share images/short videos which remain on the platform until you delete them. Create a separate Instagram handle for your careers and keep sharing an inside peek into your company culture, job openings, team members, etc., and embed your Instagram feed on the website. For this, you can create short videos of your office and edit them with Instagram video editing tools to create engaging Reels that can attract candidates. Always have a call to action in the description. Hashtags are another popular Instagram hack, so they can also be used here. You can follow the same methodology as Twitter.

Here are 9 Tips for Sourcing and Attracting Candidates Through Social Media

Memories can be used to showcase an event, what’s happening at the office today, or a job opening or you can ask your followers to ask questions, and then your team can answer them in the form of memory.

There is no guidebook for social media recruiting. You have to constantly evolve as per your audience’s interests. Always experiment with content, images, videos, and snaps, and measure the result. Scale what you think works for your brand!

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