How to Advertise a Job Role on the Top Social Media Platforms to Find the Right Candidate

By Yvette Mckenzie

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If you’re hiring, the power of social media cannot be ignored. But how do you tailor a job role advertisement to look attractive, interesting, and perform on the various top social networks? It’s not a matter of just copying-and-pasting the same text into your social media planner, you need a clear strategy. Here are tips for each of your favourite social platforms to make sure your recruitment ad is seen by the right type of candidate.

Why advertise a job on social media?

More and more companies and organizations are now stepping outside the realm of traditional job seeking platforms and publications and are posting job advertisements on social media. Recruiter Tiffany Black points out, “You want to be where the most qualified, talented, and largest pool of applicants are. Human resources can leverage social media to tap in to potential recruits.”

There are so many platforms out there and they’re always changing process but here are several ways to leverage your job ad, according to the social media platform you’re publicizing on.

How to advertise a job role on Facebook

Let’s face it, Facebook is a great way to reach a diverse pool of candidates easily and quickly but many recruiters might find it overwhelming due to the many algorithm changes that happen multiple times a year. How do you know if your post is gaining any traction at all? A good place to start is to think of all the potentials you might have in your current database, as well as trying to reach new audiences as well.

According to Zuckerberg himself, Facebook has over 1 billion active users in a single day. The first thing to think about is that every position you want to advertise needs its own ad. Advertising multiple job roles in one post will be too limiting with Facebook’s format. Sure, you can list lots of text and even break it up into paragraphs, but it’s clearer and more inspiring to keep things short – ideally one or two paragraphs – and keep your copy tight.

Think about the intended audience when choosing an image and writing text for Facebook. You want to attract the best candidate to the role so you need to think of words and images that will appeal to that audience. It’s a good idea to do some research; look at pages they follow, publications and influencers they are inspired by.

Consider boosted posts on Facebook and Instagram

There are now many ways to increase the reach of your Facebook and Instagram posts, whether they’re an ad, a job placement or another content type. Depending on the platform and country of origin, there are sponsored posts, boosted posts, promoted posts and Facebook and Instagram ads; head to Facebook itself for more detail into which is the best fit for your content and platform.

Put simply, “Boosted posts appear higher in News Feed and on Instagram, so there's a better chance your audience will see them,” according to the platform. As Facebook and Instagram are now linked, this can be a great way to gain additional traction, provided you create the right type of content. Remember that content will appear slightly different depending on the platform, so factor this into your content creation and make sure you take the time to carefully review your job ad before posting.

How to advertise a job role on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is known as the original career networking site and this has its advantages when it comes to advertising a job role. Worldwide, there are now over 500 million LinkedIn users, according to figures from 2017. Their audience is one of the biggest.

It’s quite simple to create a job ad on LinkedIn, and it’s easier than other platforms to include lots of information, including links to the hiring company or organization hosting the role; the background of the person prospecting for candidates and so much more.

To post a job ad (and track its progress) click on the “jobs icon” at the top of your LinkedIn homepage, then select “post a job” which appears on the right-hand side. Follow these instructions from LinkedIn help to gain a bit more detail. It’s important to use engaging language, make sure company logos and other trust symbols are all displaying correctly, and that you consider publicizing the job ad – perhaps in the company’s news feed. Here's how to get the most out of LinkedIn

How to advertise a job role on Twitter

Twitter is an exceedingly popular platform and may be a great way to reach diverse audiences. There are a few tricks and tips you can employ to make sure that your job ad is getting the visibility and the audience that you want. An obvious place to start is to make sure that you include a link to the live job posting, preferably from your own website, but potentially with a second party website if needs be.

Use a location hashtag to let people know where the job is located and use job search related hashtags too. One thing to consider is how to make your job advertisement stand out. Use creative text and think about your intended audience.

Remember, you only have very limited space – so create a few drafts until you settle on one you are happy with. You might want to consider adding a hashtag that is unique to your industry, or if you can, your company or organization. Head to the Twitter ads login page for more information on a paid campaign if you can include that in your budget scope.

Can you advertise job roles on Snapchat?

There have been many commentators who have suggested that young people are abandoning traditional social media giants like Facebook in droves, and are turning to platforms like Snapchat, at an estimated rate of up to a million a year.

Recently, a massive global brand teamed with Snapchat to recruit new employees (with an 18-25 age group focus) with a “Snapalicious” campaign where applicants could apply via a short video resume “snap”. While technology like this is in its infancy, be prepared for more recruitment drives via the app in the future.

Consider your end-to-end recruitment strategy

With some careful and thoughtful planning, you can decide on the best platforms and audiences to seed your job role advertisements on. This will allow you to reach a wide, but considered the pool of applicants and will make your brand, job role and organization seem more trustworthy and relevant. Speak to the parties involved in the process, from the HR department, the division manager and those who will be interviewing candidates, and gather feedback and ideas.

Although diverse, various social media platforms can be a great way outside traditional media avenues to broadcast new roles for your organization. Keep on top of new trends in social media and see the results you want to achieve.

Yvette McKenzie is a content marketing and media specialist with online education brand Upskilled. She is passionate about new technologies, accessible education, social media and worldwide job market trends.

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