Did you know LinkedIn has over 7 million members, Facebook has over 2.7 million active users per month, Twitter receives 500 million tweets a day, and nearly 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day? These statistics are staggering. Social media platforms certainly cannot be ignored by companies with the wide penetration and adoption they have in the masses, especially Millennials and Gen Z with smartphones in hand.
Gone are the days when recruiters posted job openings on portals and waited for applications to be received. In this talent show, recruiters must be proactive. They need to be where the talent is going, that is, on social media, to connect with active and passive candidates and achieve their nomination goals. You can attract, identify, engage and hire candidates using social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and many more, based on your target audience. Candidates join them for a variety of reasons, such as finding new opportunities, establishing contacts, learning, or keeping up to date on a personal or professional level. Organizations are harnessing the power of social media for Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding as part of their hiring strategies to attract the best talent.
Why use social media for recruiting?
• Expand your reach to passive candidates: According to SHRM, “passive candidate recruitment (82%) is still the number one reason organizations use social media for recruiting.” Most passive candidates don’t have their resumes on job boards to appear on a recruiter’s search list, but they often visit multiple social media platforms. By constantly sharing relevant content on social media, you can catch the attention of passive candidates and turn them into potential candidates over time. You can establish and maintain relationships with passive candidates by sharing personal communications, information related to your interests or specialties, or even your open positions.
• Build your employer’s brand: Your social media content is critical to building brand awareness and influencing the potential talent community to see you as their employer of choice. It’s like a storyboard that informs professionals about the company’s mission, vision, values , and culture and shows why they should work for it. 75% of job seekers consider the employer’s brand before applying. Company culture, professional life, benefits, growth plans, diversity and inclusion, recruitment opportunities, job vacancies, and other points acquired through images, videos, blogs, infographics, texts, reports, podcasts, etc. offered to make the placement more attractive among candidates. An employee testimonial video or employee benefits infographic, a video with virtual office visits, or an attractive recruitment campaign template – all of these will help candidates connect and be part of the organization.
• Cost savings: Most of the core features of social media sites and posting content on the business or professional page are free, making them cheaper than the high commissions paid to agencies or consultants. Recruiters, along with employees, can be employer brand advocates on social media. Paid services such as LinkedIn Premium Account, LinkedIn Recruiter Subscription, Facebook, or Instagram Ads can be made available at a reasonable cost.
• Cultural Suitability Assessment: The candidate’s profile and social media activity through likes, posts, comments, and shares provide an overview of the candidate’s personality and serve as an assessment of the organization’s cultural fit. The hard and soft skills required for startups can be very different from large established companies. A resume may not give a clear picture of a candidate’s personality. Profiles and social media connections can indicate whether a person fits the role and culture of the company based on the candidate they can approach.
Platforms for Social Media Recruiting
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site with over 300 million monthly active users, which makes it a great place to find your purple squirrels. Organizations can create their company’s LinkedIn page and post relevant content to showcase their employer’s brand. They can also get LinkedIn Recruiter subscriptions and assign jobs to their recruiters. This subscription allows recruiters to post, email 2nd or 3rd class links that are not directly linked, and advanced keyword search and filtering. It can also track Analytics and get information about job offers, application status, or recruiting activities. Recruiters can connect or track potential candidates and cultivate relationships with personalized messages. LinkedIn Recruiter has several features such as projects, talent pool, pipeline, spotlight, advanced search with custom search filters, and more, making the acquisition effort easier for recruiters to save time. LinkedIn groups can be searched to reach audiences, and LinkedIn Live can run expert sessions.
• Facebook: With over 2 billion users worldwide, Facebook is the largest social networking platform, making it even more important for recruiters to explore FB to find talent. Organizations can create company and career pages to advertise job openings and promote the employer’s brand. Host virtual recruiting events or expert sessions via Facebook Live or events. Facebook has groups for specific audiences/skills or interest groups. FB messenger allows the creation of discussion rooms between participants. Paid Facebook ads linking to a landing page (website or career page) can generate leads by reaching an audience based on algorithms.
• Twitter: With a 280-character limit, Twitter has become a favorite place for headlines, updates, or quick views with related #hut signs to start conversations and connect with candidates with similar interests. Use hashtags with short tweets of job openings and provide links to career pages. Like, comment, tweet, and retweet to interact with candidates. Tweet chats can generate question and answer sessions related to functions and companies. Use the Advanced Search option to find and add potential candidates to your Twitter list to send personalized messages for open jobs.
• Instagram: Known for visual content popular with Millennials and GenZ and most relevant to creative roles. Instagram Live with Candidates can make recruiting fun with casual discussions or question and answer sessions about industry trends, the hiring process, interview preparation, and more. Use the story feature to share updates, employee testimonials, success stories, and open jobs to increase your company page followers.
• YouTube: YouTube is a video gold mine. Organizations can create videos about the company – its mission, vision, values, work-life, benefits, employee testimonials, and more to get the candidate’s attention. Recruiters can create videos about the job search, hiring process, and interview tips to help candidates.
• Other platforms: Snapchat, Whatsapp groups, Quora, Glassdoor, and many others also contribute to social recruiting, gradually increasing usage. Recruiters can leverage platforms like GitHub or StackOverflow for technical functions. Freelancers are available from websites like Upwork.com or Freelancer.com.
Conclusion
Social media is a way to improve your rental game. It has become a major game-changer in the digital transformation of the hiring process with maximum reach. An effective social media recruiting strategy is key to attracting passive candidates and enhancing your employer’s brand.