10 Best Practices to Follow When Recruiting Through Social Media

By Vaibhav Kakkar

Share on: 

Source

In recent years, social media has emerged as the go-to avenue for everything from posting recommendations to learning about new brands. Social media, however, is gaining popularity and attention for uses besides these. It is now utilized in various business contexts, from marketing to selling items. If used appropriately, social media can also become an excellent tool for recruiting. As businesses of all sizes struggle to find and retain competent employees, it is crucial to take advantage of any opportunity. 

Finding prospects using social media ads, including hashtags and reference links, has become widespread. Whether you're seeking to fill entry-level positions or discover leaders for management positions, you'll need a solid social media management and social recruiting approach to find top talent among today's candidates. 

However, to successfully recruit through social media, as mentioned above, not only will you need a solid strategy but also an in-depth understanding and resilience. This article will highlight ten best practices for social media recruiting. But first, let's quickly go over what social media recruitment is and why one should use this strategy.

 

What is Social Media Recruiting?

Source

Social media platforms are used for social media recruitment, which involves identifying, engaging with, and screening potential employees. This HR technique, also known as social recruiting or simply social hiring, utilizes blog sites and other digital resources to connect with possible job prospects.

Due to social media's widespread use, HR departments have been forced to create comprehensive social media recruiting strategies and formally incorporate them into their firms' human capital management plans. Employers may target candidates more precisely and reach a larger pool of prospects with social media recruiting than they can with conventional recruiting methods.

 

Why should you use Social Media Recruitment for your business?

Source

With multiple social media platforms, discovering suitable candidates for your organization has become extremely simple. The following are some of the reasons why businesses should employ a social media recruiting strategy.

 

  • Many inactive prospects wish to switch jobs but find it difficult to go through job listing platforms. However, when these individuals are browsing through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn and come across a new job opening, there is an excellent possibility that they will be intrigued and contact the recruiters.

 

  • It is easy to identify applicants that are a good fit for the company via social media. Furthermore, they are easy to reach via social media networks.

 

  • Conventional recruiting methods were not cost-effective. Recruiters had to pay magazines and newspapers to announce a job vacancy, but due to significant communication problems, the rate of success was meager. But social media recruiting is different. Leveraging social media for recruiting lowers costs significantly because the success rate is relatively high compared to traditional recruitment methods.

 

  • Furthermore, most platforms offer filters that allow you to target applicants by education, location, nationality, full-time or part-time requirement, etc.

 

  • Social media recruiting saves time for both recruiters and applicants. Recruiters can evaluate whether an applicant is qualified by reviewing their resume. Similarly, job searchers can learn everything they need about the position, duties, and pay without contacting the recruiter.

 

10 Best Practices to Follow When Recruiting Through Social Media

 

1. Develop an online presence

Given that Gen Z and millennials seek information online mainly through social media, it's critical to establish a robust online presence that relates to your company's values and goals. Don't just provide facts, since the youth today value emotional attachments. 

Employ a solid narrative to demonstrate what your firm stands for. Convey that your employees do not have to choose between ethics and values and that everyone is accepted. Furthermore, use social media to promote your company as a leader in the industry, and be consistent - allow one theme to flow through all of your ideals.

 

2. Network with the appropriate parties

Even though it is good to be accessible to anyone and everyone, if you intend to take your approach to the next stage, you must focus on the relevant people. Ensure that all your social media pages are industry specific and focus on engaging with industry leaders. However, avoid taking a general approach. Be deliberate and personalize your communication with a particular individual or company. 

To obtain the best results, you must address your audience's concerns. Clarify what you provide and why working together will benefit both of you.

 

3. Employ live streaming to boost the participation of potential candidates

Use social media platforms that allow live streaming to engage inactive prospects, professionals, and like-minded individuals in your domain during the social media recruiting process. Live streaming allows you to share your perspective and arrange interactive sessions. You can customize the live stream and give viewers a glimpse of your workplace culture and strategy.

Furthermore, you may personalize the content for your intended audience and change it based on their reactions and suggestions. What matters most is that live broadcasting will demonstrate to your viewers that you understand and that their voice is valued.

 

4. Utilize relevant hashtags and keywords

One of the best practices for social media recruiting is to use hashtags and SEO-optimized keywords. Using this technique can help you disperse your message and expand its reach.

Whether you are trying to increase your reach on LinkedIn or raise your Youtube video ranking, it is a good idea to find out what hashtags and keywords job searchers use on these platforms. These hashtags and keywords, however, are frequently generic, and you'll need to analyze and filter them down. Don't give up if your industry lacks trending keywords and popular hashtags. Create your own and develop a strategy to make them famous. Make your hashtags distinct and clear enough to represent your company image.

 

5. Create or join LinkedIn groups

One of the most critical aspects of recruiting is polishing and upgrading the company's LinkedIn page, as this site is the most popular for candidate sourcing. However, optimizing it and showcasing that the firm is open to hiring is insufficient.

Create, join, and participate in sector-specific LinkedIn groups. That is where you might locate the star players and top talent as individuals strive to attract recognition for their knowledge and experience.

 

6. Experiment with different social media channels.

Many businesses believe they must follow an underlying set of guidelines and avoid using specific platforms on social media. However, being bold and distinctive is necessary.

You will have a wider reach if you can utilize every platform in advance and deliver a professional message across all channels, including Snapchat and Twitter. While Snapchat and Instagram will assist you in reaching a younger demographic of applicants, you can utilize them to create visually attractive content.

Every social media outlet serves a distinct role. Thus, instead of focusing solely on one social media site, use a variety of them to optimize the effectiveness of social media recruiting.



7. Encourage staff participation in posting their thoughts and ideas regarding the organization.

Employee references are generally beneficial, and your new hires can also be engaged in social media recruiting. They can increase their own and the company's reach by sharing the company's articles and job postings on their accounts. As a result, your recruitment messages may spread rapidly. However, your company's social media strategy must be set ahead of time to avoid giving contradictory information.

 

8. Use Paid social media promotion. 

When organic efforts fail to provide the intended results, it becomes necessary to resort to sponsored content, as most social media sites allow users to promote their message in this approach. The costs differ for various industries on different social media platforms. The average cost per click (CPC) for Facebook advertisements is $1.72  for all sectors, while for Instagram, the average cost per click is $0.40-$0.70. Nonetheless, try to limit your use of paid advertising to instances when you are actively hiring.

 

9. Post-High-quality content

While it is a basic need and the most crucial task, it is essential to mention that you must pay attention to the standard of the content you upload. You could post consistently and spend significant money, but the exposure will only provide the desired outcomes if the content is up to the mark. Ensure that all your advertising material and posts are informative, relevant, and engaging.

 

10. Get familiar with your applicants.

There are no great tactics if the right people are not reached. The advent of social media provides ample opportunities for you to gain insight into the online behavior of applicants for your business. Such information can assist you in determining what they need, what grabs their interest, and how to modify and tailor your content to their requirements.

 

Bottom Line

According to a CareerArc 2021 report, 92% of companies use social media to discover top talent. Social media is currently the preferred means of sourcing candidates for many businesses. Social media recruiting can help your company find, connect with, and hire high-quality prospective employees if implemented intelligently.

However, if you are new to this and will be using social media recruiting for the first time, you should be patient throughout the recruitment process. The reason for this is that recruiting through social media takes time. This article guides you through the top ten best practices for recruiting through social media. Don't hesitate to adopt these social media solutions; they will benefit you and your company.



Author bio:

Vaibhav Kakkar is the Founder and CEO of Digital Web Solutions, a globally trusted agency with a full suite of digital marketing services and development solutions. Vaibhav believes in building systems over services and has helped scale up agencies from scratch to niche leaders with million-dollar turnovers.







About the company

The Social Hire team don't just do social media.

We're an organisation that helps our clients boost their social media marketing by offering social media marketing on a monthly basis.

You might like these blog posts The L.E.G.O principle explained, Social Media & the Ethics of Privacy, Five Business Investments that are Worth the Price, and The Very Real Dangers of AI and How HR Tech Vendors Can Fight Them.

  Back to Small Business blogs