Social Media Recruiting: Everything You Need to Know to Excel at it in 2023

From in-person interviews to virtual ones, from newspaper recruiting ads to online hiring, the face of recruiting has completely transformed in the 21st century. In Jobvite’s recent survey , nearly 94% of the surveyed recruiters said they already use or plan to turn to social media for recruiting. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly pushed online recruiting to the forefront of talent acquisition. According to one poll, 67% of employers used social media to capture potential candidates in 2020.

Hiring via social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn quickly gains an edge over traditional recruiting methods. 

So then, how can HR leaders and business owners identify if a social media recruiting strategy is right for them, and how can they leverage this state-of-the-art hiring approach to its full potential to land the best hires and optimize their recruiting efforts?

Review Your Company’s Existing Social Media Accounts

To begin with, start assessing how your company is using social media platforms at present and what goals you have in mind for them in the future. 

For instance, to attract job seekers with your social media profiles, you should consider posting photos highlighting your team’s accomplishments and company culture and positively showing your employer brand.

Here are a few other points you can consider when assessing your current social media platforms:

• Which social media platforms are getting maximum traction concerning potential candidates at present?
• Are your job openings receiving positive responses on these channels?
• Is the content shared on those platforms relevant to your goals and hiring process?
• Do you feel confident about potential candidates landing on your page? Would they be compelled to work at your company?
• Will your existing profiles improve your social recruiting efforts?

Now that you have a brief understanding of whether or not you need to look at formulating a social media recruitment strategy for your company let us dive into some tips to help you out.

1. Engage Candidates With Video Content

Our brain has the potential to process images 60,000 times faster than textual content. Additionally, 90% of the data transferred to the brain is in a visual format. 

Hence, utilizing video content such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Stories can help you instantly capture job seekers’ attention. 

You can engage active and passive candidates with unique videos involving non-verbal messages, visual clues, or educational content. Another best practice would be to create videos through which candidates can experience your company culture virtually or host rapid Q&A sessions to make your social feed more interactive.

2. Focus on Building a Strong Online Reputation of Your Brand 

“Now, more than ever, it is critical to share your voice for others to get to know who you are and what you stand for. Customers can tell when you ‘sell’ to them versus when you are just trying to help.

“Find organic outlets (blogs, forums, articles) to share what makes you special, help them with the subject matter you are an expert on and be authentic. Your reputation and reviews will follow,” says Joshua Curlett of Sound Productions, in one of his recent interviews with Forbes.

Per Glassdoor, 79%of job seekers use social media for job searches. Hence a well-defined brand online attracts the right potential job candidates for your company. 

Some of the things you can do to establish a robust brand reputation on social media sites include:

• Post about your company’s perks to attract talent
• Set a tone for your employer brand
• Identify customer pain points and provide solutions to those
• Set measurable and clear recruiting goals if you engage a hiring agency to expand your brand reputation online

3. Look at Ways You Can Increase Employee Engagement on Social Media Channels

Your employees are one of the best resources you can leverage to create a brand reputation within your niche today.

According to Social Media Today, content shared by employees gainseight times more engagementthan the content posted by brands themselves; therefore, one best practice when leveraging social media hiring would be to involve your employees in the recruitment drive by asking them to share posts on the company’s social media platforms. 

Ensure you have a social media policy and employees know what’s expected of them while posting. Guidelines help to maintain your brand reputation and voice. 

In addition, allow employees to join professional groups relevant to your industry. Networking via these groups helps locate top talent in the employment market and attract the right candidate profiles for your company. 

You can then make use of employee referrals to augment your recruitment efforts.

4. Be Specific About Your Target Group and Potential Employees

Brands waste over $37 billion each year on ads that ultimately fail to engage their target audiences. 

This statistic points out that you first need to set clear goals and requirements to attract and recruit the right talent. Identify better cultural fits that align with your organization’s core competencies. This requires research on their motivation, interests, and aims. 

You can start with these three tips:

• Create a list of your potential candidate personas
• Ensure that your recruiting team or hiring manager understands who you’re targeting
• Spell out your requirements within job postings

5. Cast a Wider Net to Target Both Active and Passive Candidates

Per CareerBuilder, 73% of job seekers are passive candidates. You’re missing out on many potential solid partnerships if you aren’t targeting passive candidates with your social media hiring strategy. 

While passive candidates aren’t actively seeking opportunities on job boards, they often use social media channels to research and keep themselves updated on the latest industry trends. 

You can easily attract such candidates through their social profiles and reach out to them. You can also furnish educational content for them on your company’s social media profiles, such as blog posts or infographics that subtly embed or talked about the existing vacancies at your company.

Doing this will grab their attention and place you in an authoritative position, but it will also compel them to join your team because of your strong social media presence.

6. Leverage Content Marketing

Content marketing can be a powerful tool to attract candidates, especially passive job seekers, because they highly value educational content from within their niche.

Share curated or original content on your company’s social media platforms. Research what your target audience wants to know and is demanding answers to. Keep them engaged by giving them the correct answers. 

Ensure your content is entertaining, informative, educational, interesting, and valuable. Here are a few content formats that you can use:

• Videos
• Blog posts
• How-to guides
• Images
• Infographics
• Photography
• Podcasts

7. Make Use of Social Media Advertising

Connecting with candidates through an advertisement on social channels they are active on or use often is comparatively easier than taking missed hits and reinventing the wheel regarding social media recruiting efforts. 

According to onestudy , 70 percent of the US population has a social media account, and this is expected to rise to 243 million by 2025. Hence, using social media for advertising job openings opens opportunities to hire the right talent. 

Social media ads that signify a brand message, personality, and voice help build authentic connections with your target candidates. Marketing via online advertisement improves visibility and helps gain recognition for your company. Thus, making your brand familiar and accessible to new seekers. Further, social ads define your ideal candidate, refining your search parameters. 

Now that we’ve discussed social media recruiting best practices let us look at which social networking channels you can leverage to maximize the efficiency of your campaign.

8. Embrace the Power of Analytics

Social media platforms provide valuable insights and data that can help you understand which strategies are working and which aren’t. By leveraging these analytics, you can adjust your recruitment strategy based on what’s driving engagement and what’s not resonating with your audience.

For instance, you might find that job posts with videos receive more engagement than text-only posts. Or perhaps you discover that posts shared at a certain time of day receive more views. Use this information to refine your strategy and improve your social media recruiting efforts.

9. Keep Communication Open and Engaging

When candidates reach out to you on social media, it’s crucial to respond promptly and maintain open lines of communication. This not only improves the candidate experience but also enhances your employer brand. Remember, every interaction with a potential candidate is an opportunity to showcase your company culture and values.

10. Keep Up with Social Media Trends

Social media platforms are constantly evolving, with new features and trends emerging all the time. To stay ahead of the curve, it’s essential to stay updated with the latest social media trends and incorporate them into your recruitment strategy. For example, the rise of live streaming, Stories, and augmented reality are all trends that can be leveraged for recruitment purposes.

11. Use Social Media Listening Tools

Social media listening tools can help you monitor conversations about your company and industry, allowing you to stay on top of what potential candidates are saying. This information can help you understand what job seekers are looking for, their pain points, and their perceptions of your company, which can inform your recruitment strategy.

12. Keep Your Social Media Profiles Updated

Ensure your social media profiles are up-to-date and accurately represent your company. Include information about your company culture, benefits, and values, and regularly post content that highlights why someone would want to work for your company. This not only attracts potential candidates but also gives them a better understanding of what it’s like to work at your company.

Some of the Best Social Media Recruiting Platforms For Businesses

1. LinkedIn

According to some research, LinkedIn is extremely popular amongst college students, and50%of college graduates in the USA have active LinkedIn accounts. Hence, if you’re primarily looking at recruiting freshers out of college, you can easily do that by leveraging LinkedIn.

LinkedIn’s search filters make locating candidates with specific experience and skills easy. You can receive smart suggestions and integrate those with your candidate tracking system. Further, LinkedIn’s premium subscription gives you access to InMail, on-demand videos, and features such as who’s viewed your profile. These features help send hiring details directly to the desired candidate.

2. Instagram

Instagram is another social media platform taking the world by storm at present.

Posting your company’s social activities on Instagram can help attract many job seekers. This is true because Instagram isn’t a professional network per se, but it can attract people to your company pages if your work culture or company ethics stand out.

Also, use the right hashtag strategy for recruiting. Think of the hashtags used by your candidates as well. Instagram’s direct message feature also allows you to message potential candidates. 

3. Facebook

Facebook’s Graph Search allows you to scan people’s profiles based on their interests, location, education, followed, and liked pages. This approach can quickly help you to detect ideal candidates. 

You can post job openings on Facebook by creating a Business Page and bookmarking it as jobs. Your hiring managers can then share this page on their timeline for recruiting people. Further, you can reach job seekers via paid boosts, enabling you to target specific candidates based on your requirements.

4. Twitter

Twitter is a fantastic platform for networking and engaging with potential candidates. Utilizing Twitter for recruitment allows you to post job vacancies and share them with your followers. Additionally, you can use hashtags related to your industry, job role, or location to reach a wider audience. Engaging with followers through retweets, likes, and replies can also help build relationships and encourage potential candidates to consider your company.

5. Snapchat

While Snapchat might not be the first platform that comes to mind regarding recruitment, it’s a popular social media platform, particularly among younger demographics. Sharing behind-the-scenes snaps of your workplace, employee takeovers, or fun office events can help potential candidates get a glimpse into your company culture. You can also use Snapchat ads to target potential candidates based on location, interests, and more.

6. TikTok

With over 1 billion active users worldwide, TikTok has fast become a global phenomenon. It’s not just a platform for dance trends and viral challenges; businesses increasingly recognize TikTok’s potential as a recruitment tool. See the end of the article for a special section on TikTok tips – it’s becoming one of the most important trends!

Conclusion

In today’s digital age, social media has become a powerful tool for recruitment. By leveraging social media platforms, you can reach a broader audience, engage with potential candidates, and showcase your company culture. However, it’s important to remember that social media recruitment isn’t just about posting job vacancies. It’s about building relationships, engaging with candidates, and promoting your employer brand.

As with any recruitment strategy, it’s essential to continually evaluate and adjust your social media recruitment tactics to ensure they’re effective. Remember, the goal is to attract top talent that aligns with your company’s values and contributes to its success.

In the world of recruitment, there’s always something new to learn, and there’s always room for improvement. So, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep innovating. Your perfect candidate might be a tweet, post, or share away!

Design Your Social Media Recruiting Strategy Today

If you don’t have a social media recruiting strategy in place, don’t worry. While these tips can help, sometimes relying on an expert’s help is best.

That’s where Recruiter.com comes in. We have powerful AI tools and an extensive network of contract recruiters to create or augment your recruiting strategy.

Contact us today to learn more about other innovative social media recruiting strategies!

Special Section: Leveraging TikTok for Recruitment

With over 1 billion active users worldwide, TikTok has fast become a global phenomenon. It’s not just a platform for dance trends and viral challenges; businesses increasingly recognize TikTok’s potential as a recruitment tool. Here are some strategies on how to use TikTok for recruitment.

1. Build a Strong Employer Brand

The first step in using TikTok for recruitment is to create a strong employer brand. Share videos that showcase your company culture, office environment, and employee experiences. You can also highlight the benefits and perks of working for your company.

2. Share Job Openings Creatively

Unlike traditional job postings, TikTok allows you to share job openings more engagingly and creatively. You can create short, catchy videos detailing the job role, requirements, and how to apply. Use trending songs, hashtags, and effects to reach a wider audience.

3. Create TikTok Challenges

TikTok challenges are a great way to engage potential candidates and raise brand awareness. For example, you can create a challenge related to your industry or the job role you’re hiring for. This engages potential candidates and allows you to see their creativity and skills in action.

4. Engage with Your Audience

Engagement is key on TikTok. Respond to comments on your videos, engage with other users’ content, and be an active part of the TikTok community. This helps build relationships with potential candidates and makes them more likely to consider your company a potential employer.

5. Leverage TikTok’s Algorithm

TikTok’s algorithm is based on user behavior, so the more often users engage with your content, the more likely it is to be shown to them. Regularly post content that your target audience will find interesting and engaging. This could be industry-related content, behind-the-scenes looks at your company, or employee testimonials.

6. Use TikTok’s “Resume” Feature

TikTok recently launched a new feature called “TikTok Resumes ” which allows users to apply for jobs directly through the app. Users can create a video resume, showcasing their skills and experience, and send it directly to employers. This feature provides an innovative way to screen potential candidates and can be particularly effective for roles requiring creativity or strong communication skills.

7. Partner with Influencers

Influencers significantly impact TikTok, and partnering with them can help you reach a wider audience. Choose influencers who align with your company values and have a following that matches your target demographic. They can promote your company as a great workplace and even help advertise specific job openings.

8. Analyze Your Performance

Finally, use TikTok’s analytics to track the performance of your recruitment efforts. Monitor views, likes, shares, comments, and followers to understand what type of content resonates with your audience. Use this data to refine your strategy and improve your recruitment efforts.

In conclusion, TikTok offers a unique and innovative platform for recruitment. It allows you to reach a younger demographic, showcase your company culture, and engage with potential candidates creatively. By leveraging the power of TikTok, you can make your recruitment process more effective and efficient.