13 Approaches to Recruiting Employees via Social Media
Welcome to Recruiter Q&A, where we pose employment-related questions to the experts and share their answers!
Today’s Question: What is the best way to use social media to recruit new employees?
The answers below are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year, and have created tens of thousands of jobs.
1. Be Authentic
Your social media should reflect your company and values. Attracting great employees requires presenting yourself as authentically as possible.
Design something for a short attention span when you are creating social media content. Don’t get into the weeds. Show off a few of your job perks, whether that’s a Friday happy hour or a great view from the office. Most job posting is in text. Think visually when you are working on social media.
3. Research Social Media Bios and DM Your Candidates
Search relevant keywords related to the job you are trying to recruit for and review candidates’ bios and work histories. If there is a match, candidly reach out via a direct message and start the conversation. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram have become great platforms to find new candidates.
Take full of advantage of your social media. Market your products and services, but also use it to showcase a day in the life of your team. Let recruits know what to expect. Note that it goes both ways: Social media can be a window into candidates to see if they would fit into your company culture and with your clients.
When using social media to recruit new employees, be sure to use relevant hashtags in your posts. Using hashtags will help widen your reach, introducing your company and position to a broader range of candidates — not just the ones who already follow you.
Social media is there to promote your brand, conduct marketing, and connect to/grow your audience. You want people familiar with your company to be the ones applying to work there, so make sure the images and tone of voice for a post about hiring match any other post you would make on social media. This shows brand consistency and awareness, which inspires confidence in the applicants.
A core part of our process for hiring includes coopting our investors and advisors. We ask them to share all new job descriptions to LinkedIn and Twitter. We’re fortunate to have a diverse group, which means we get out of our own echo chamber and open up our jobs far and wide to a high-caliber talent pool.
Create exciting content about your brand, company, and culture! Promote it actively and pay to boost your reach, if you’ve got the cash. Then make sure you engage any comments you get and try to leverage referrals.
Being active in the social media communities related to your industry can attract quality candidates to learn more about your organization and seek opportunities you may have open. Likewise, as you observe potential employees in active conversations, you will get a good feel for how they may fit into your overall organization.
We don’t actively recruit on social media, but we routinely use social media to share how great our culture is and to let followers have a look into what it is like to be part of our company. I have heard many potential employees say in interviews that being able to see inside of our company in this way was a part of their decision to apply.
When sharing your job posts on social media, don’t just share the details about the position. Make them more engaging. Add an interesting photo that shows off your company culture, pair it with a behind-the-scenes video, or ask a question or create a poll. People might scroll right by your plain job posts, but if you make them more engaging, you are sure to catch their attention.
When you use social media to market your culture, you will gradually receive new interested people without doing much of the hunting yourself. You want to be able to hire people who will serve the culture you have presented. If people like what they see online, that’s the first step in gaining their interest in your company. Focus on building your presence first.
Not every social media platform is going to attract the type of employee you are looking for. Do your research, know who spends time on what platform, and decide where your time is going to be best spent. Trying to recruit over every platform is a waste of time and energy.
