Social media has expanded beyond providing family and friends with an easy way to stay in touch as it has become a part of everyday life. It was unheard of fifteen years ago to recruit employees through social media. Despite its long history, social media is quickly taking over the recruitment industry. Nowadays, it doesn’t matter if businesses use social media to recruit; rather, it matters how they use it, with an emphasis on contemporary messaging.
Although social media can be a great way to lose potential candidates, it can also be a powerful recruiting tool. Employers and job seekers alike now have access to new avenues thanks to social media. It’s a great way to advertise your business and find candidates, but there are a few drawbacks you should be aware of before diving in headfirst.
Employers used to find potential candidates by filling out a job posting on a website or cold-calling their corporate headhunter. The use of social media in the recruitment process is becoming increasingly important as a result of its growing influence.
The process of sharing job postings, networking with professionals, and researching potential candidates through social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is known as “social media recruiting.”
Utilizing social media platforms to find, engage, and screen potential employees is referred to as “social media recruitment.” Social media and other internet options, such as blogs, are used in this HR practice, which is sometimes referred to as social hiring or simply social recruiting.
Social media’s widespread use has prompted HR departments to formalize their social media recruiting strategies and incorporate them into their organizations’ human capital management plans. Employers can reach a wider pool of candidates and better target them with social media recruiting than with traditional recruiting efforts.
Social media recruiting can also be more cost-effective than traditional recruitment methods like on-campus events and in-person job fairs, which frequently necessitate extensive travel and staffing time.
The diversity or focus of a company’s pool of potential employees is influenced by its talent acquisition strategy and the platforms it employs. HR professionals can easily tailor messages to each candidate group on many social media platforms.
In order to pursue social media recruiting, businesses establish a social media presence as a means of strengthening their brand, showcasing their corporate culture, and ultimately attracting applicants for positions.
They either employ an “organic” (nonpaid) strategy or a combination of the two to launch paid media campaigns, in which social media networks target ads to individuals identified as being most interested in the messaging.
Leaders in HR see these strategies as a way to attract active and passive job candidates more effectively. Candidates who are actively seeking employment Passive candidates are open to new opportunities but do not actively seek employment.
In the first two decades of the 21st century, the rise of social media recruiting coincides with the rise of social media itself. Employers quickly realized that a lot of working-age people spend a lot of time on social media, especially members of the millennial generation and Generation Z after they entered the workforce. “The biggest social media trends for 2022” by research company GWI says that 58.4% of the world’s population uses social media every day, spending an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes.
The development of both online entertainment and web-based entertainment enrolling has comparably brought about HR experts who work in this space. Additionally, because of the symbiotic relationship between enterprise recruiting efforts and social media platforms, organizations now have access to recruitment features and tools. HR professionals can also manage, improve, and support their social media recruitment activities with third-party software.
The use of social media channels significantly simplifies the recruitment process. The three reasons are as follows:
- Millennials are already looking for jobs on social media
- Social posts increase your job listing’s visibility
- Candidate interaction on social channels improves your brand awareness
73% of millennials have successfully used social media to search for job openings, according to an Aberdeen Group study. Companies only gain from advertising job openings on social media because millennials are already using these platforms to look for employment.
2. Social posts increase your job listing’s visibility
Social media is used by billions of people. Your job postings will undoubtedly attract interested and qualified candidates from those who actively search for employment as well as those who are passively browsing their social media feeds.
Some candidates might not have heard of your company at all. Your brand’s visibility and reputation can be enhanced by connecting with candidates through social media and networking.
Because job seekers are utilizing the technology to find employment, employers have little choice but to incorporate social media into their recruitment strategy. Software company CareerArc found that 86% of job seekers use social media to look for work. Facebook; Facebook’s research, which was published in its “2021 Future of Recruiting Study,” also found that audit destinations, like Glassdoor; and LinkedIn are the top three websites that workers use to find information about their employers.
Utilizing social media platforms can also boost a company’s visibility, regardless of whether it is hiring now or in the future. By highlighting, for instance, a positive corporate culture, excellent benefits, or a robust promote-from-within policy, business leaders, such as recruiters and HR managers, can position their organizations as positive places to work.
Additionally, organizations can simplify the recruitment process by establishing simple channels through which potential candidates and job seekers can interact. However, social media recruiting hasn’t completely replaced traditional recruitment methods like job boards, corporate websites, and advertising; rather, it is adding to them.
The point is reaffirmed by the talent acquisition software vendor Employ’s “2022 Job Seeker Nation Report:” Although 59% of respondents said that online job boards are still the most popular way to post job openings, 46% said that information about job openings came from friends. 39% said virtual entertainment destinations, like LinkedIn and Facebook; 33% said career sites for employers; 25% mentioned professional relationships; and 23% mentioned job fairs.
Indeed, the use of social media by professionals in general and job seekers in particular continues to rise, and HR leaders have acknowledged that they must meet workers where they are in order to reach the most extensive and qualified pool of potential employees.
The process of recruiting candidates through the use of social media platforms is known as social media recruitment. Employers and job seekers both benefit from this process. Jobseekers can find jobs that are relevant to them, while employers can quickly find the best candidate for the position.
In recent years, the use of social media as a recruitment tool has increased exponentially. In point of fact, Standout CV reveals that 91% of employers incorporate social media into their recruitment strategies.
There are numerous benefits to this strategy: It improves productivity, cuts costs, and saves time, among other benefits. Virtual entertainment can assist scouts with a few in any case troublesome parts of occupation enlistment:
- Reaching passive candidates
- Interacting with interested candidates
- Finding niche networks
- Participate in the right conversations
- Take a soft approach and promote your culture
- Don’t overlook the niche networks
- Involve every employee
- Help your recruiters grow a social media presence
How to recruit on social media?
1. Reaching passive candidates
Latent competitors are the people who are not effectively searching for a new position and are pretty much happy with their present place of employment. However, they may enquire about the most recent job postings on social media because they are interested in other positions.
Being visible to these passive candidates browsing their feed can be made easier by posting frequently. If you want to connect with these candidates, you might also want to use videos. Videos are very interesting and can quickly tell passive candidates about your company, its culture, and the job you’re offering.
2. Interacting with interested candidates
Candidates who are interested are more likely to apply, but it is helpful to cultivate and motivate them.
For instance, some interested candidates might be hesitant or have inquiries regarding the open position. They can also comment on your posts and send direct messages through social media. Assuming you communicate with their inquiries, you can begin building proficient connections before you even get an application.
3. Finding niche networks
On social media, you can find thousands of qualified candidates, but you might want to look for candidates who are qualified for a very specific position. You can find these candidates by searching forums and social media pages. Your ideal candidate, for instance, might just have posted an insightful response to a question on Quora or Reddit.
Additionally, it is essential for you to establish your brand in these niche online locations so that candidates can easily locate you as well.
4. Participate in the right conversations
Finding the right candidates through social media is the most important part of recruiting. Utilizing hashtags and participating in LinkedIn groups are excellent strategies for putting your open positions in front of potential applicants. Twitter hashtags like #devjobs or #NYChiring, for instance, can assist you in reaching the ideal candidates.
5. Take a soft approach and promote your culture
Posting open positions from company accounts is only one aspect of social media recruiting. In order to naturally attract candidates, you should also share content that demonstrates why your company is a great place to work. This kind of content frequently receives a large number of shares because people enjoy discussing unique businesses and cultures.
6. Don’t overlook the niche networks
Yes, everyone these days, including their parents, is on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. However, browsing niche networks and forums can help you locate particular candidates. Developers, for instance, are exchanging information on StackOverflow and GitHub. On Moz and Warrior Forum, marketers exchange concepts. Additionally, your next great leader might just have responded to a Quora question with an insightful response.
7. Involve every employee
There are probably influential social media users at work. Be an evangelist for your brand on social media in general and encourage your entire staff to share job openings. While allowing employees to talk about their work experiences in a responsible manner can pique the curiosity of a potential candidate, some organizations have strict social media rules.
There is a limit to what corporate accounts can achieve. Individual recruiters can connect with candidates face-to-face, but they must first be familiar with social media best practices and regularly use their accounts.
Many of the main advantages of using social media in comparison to traditional methods of recruitment are also driven by the technology that underpins it, most notably advanced search capabilities, filters, and automated suggestions that create connections between people.
First and foremost, social media enables recruiters to not only reach a significantly larger number of people but also locate professionals with the relevant credentials. A strategic social media recruitment campaign can theoretically reach millions almost immediately due to the internet’s vast reach.
Recruiters can also use social media tools to find candidates who have the skills or degrees they’re looking for. Social media makes it possible for recruiters to communicate with both passive and active candidates about the organization as well as job openings. Online job boards and advertisements, two examples of traditional recruiting methods, typically only attract interested candidates.
Second, recruiters can use other people, such as colleagues, professional connections, and associations, to amplify their messages through online networking thanks to social media. Compare these capabilities to conventional approaches to recruitment, such as cold calling potential candidates and employee referrals, which rely on the laborious process of making one-on-one connections.
Thirdly, compared to conventional strategies like job fairs and generic advertising campaigns, social media permits these extensive yet specific capabilities at a lower cost. Additionally, social media frequently provides these advantages more effectively than traditional recruitment strategies.
The tools you need to get around the vast social media universe range from simple to sophisticated. Some products only assist users in finding the contact information for a candidate. In contrast, there are platforms that use machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to target messages, generate leads, and narrow searches.
Some vendors have a strong focus on finding passive candidates. A single profile view that can be integrated into a recruiter’s applicant tracking system is created by their software by combining relevant candidate data gathered from a variety of sources.
Using job descriptions, AI can rank applicants based on whether or not they meet requirements. The employer must then contact these passive candidates to determine if they are interested in discussing employment.
It may take some fine-tuning to contact passive candidates through social media recruiting. Automated checks on current employees to see if anyone has a connection to a candidate, such as if they previously worked for the same company, are one capability that vendors provide. Such a methodology might be combined with a worker reference program.
For instance, LinkedIn provides tools for locating passive candidates. Its Ability Experiences investigation can assist organizations with recognizing likely focuses for ability poaching. By measuring the volume of LinkedIn InMail, the tool can also estimate attrition rates and the demand for employees with particular skill sets.
Tools to assist employers have also been developed by other social media platforms. Facebook, for instance, developed a business plan to assist businesses in creating recruiting websites. After that, it developed a careers chatbot that was compatible with Facebook Messenger in collaboration with Marriott International, a hospitality company that was utilizing Facebook as part of its strategy for social media recruiting.
This virtual assistant for job seekers talks to people and leads them to jobs they might like. A job seeker might inquire of the chatbot: Do you have openings for event managers in Chicago?” and the bot would respond to the person and point them to relevant ads.
Your recruitment strategy should always include social media recruiting. If you use it, you’ll be able to reach more people.
LinkedIn continues to be the primary social media platform of choice for many recruiters. In one of its global recruiting surveys, the recruitment platform provider SocialTalent discovered that 98% of all recruiters use LinkedIn.
That statistic, however, does not imply that all job seekers utilize LinkedIn. It just implies that selection representatives esteem LinkedIn as an asset. Recruiters must have a way to reach job seekers, particularly younger people, who use a variety of social media platforms. The percentage of Fortune 500 companies that use the most popular social media platforms is shown in the chart.
It’s not just the big social media sites like Facebook and Instagram that should be targeted. People with talent are more engaged on websites that meet their professional and social media needs. Dribbble, a community for designers, and GitHub, a platform for software development, are examples of this.
In contrast, younger professionals typically engage in social media more actively than older individuals.
It’s also important to remember that people tend to group together online based on shared interests or personal affinities, and they choose social media platforms that cater to or appeal to their particular interests. For instance, Twitter and Reddit will quite often attract clients who need to participate in exchange – – or if nothing else share their thoughts – – on current happenings, while Pinterest will in general get all the more outwardly disapproved of individuals who make networks around shared thoughts.
Successful social media recruiters are aware of these site differences and are able to tailor their messaging to each platform’s typical engagement patterns, which is essential for generating interest and discussion. They also know when to limit or avoid recruiting on platforms if the actions are in opposition to the brand, image, and values of the organization.
HR professionals are also better able to determine which platforms attract professionals who are a good fit for a job because they are aware of each platform’s personality. Good recruiters also know how to make the most of the tools on different websites to get candidates interested.
They build a positive social media presence for their organizations so that professionals can learn about them and engage with them beyond online recruitment. Also, successful recruiters keep an eye on the social media market to find new platforms that could help them expand their recruitment marketing strategy. They also keep an eye out for changes in how people use social media, which could affect how effective it is as a recruitment tool.
Social media recruiting is possible on the majority of popular social media platforms. Here are some of the major social media platforms for recruitment:
- YouTube
1. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the most widely used job-hunting social media platform. Since the site is planned in view of expert systems administration, it has devices that make posting position and tolerating resumes staggeringly simple. Post boosting is another feature of LinkedIn that lets you promote job postings.
2. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
For social media recruiting, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are also viable options. You can use specific demographic data to boost posts on these platforms. You can also get a sense of the personality of your candidate because these platforms are less formal than LinkedIn.
3. YouTube
A candidate’s YouTube account may also be looked at by some industries, especially if the job requires video skills. You can get a good idea of the candidate’s skill level by looking at what they post on their channel.
Corporate recruiters have been able to quickly acquire information on candidates as a result of the development of social media use, which has decreased the amount of time required to locate the ideal candidate. Because of this, businesses are able to take on more risks during the hiring process in order to acquire superior talent with a better chance of success.
Social media allows candidates to share their experiences with friends and family, which can be beneficial or detrimental to recruiters. The candidate and employee experience is the only thing that matters.
There are a number of benefits for businesses that use social media to recruit:
- Cost per enlist is essentially decreased.
- Candidates can be screened more easily.
- Occupations can be filled all the more rapidly.
- More qualified candidates are available.
- Selection representatives can track down additional up-and-comers through references, supporters, and systems administration.
- Candidates can be found for very specific positions.
What are the disadvantages of using social media for recruitment?
Utilizing social media for recruitment has many advantages, but finding the right candidates can be challenging.
- A specific recruitment and targeting strategy is required.
- To differentiate yourself from other businesses, you need to put in a lot of creativity.
- Post promotion can be costly.
- Your crowd may not be on a specific web-based entertainment stage.
- Bias, like seeing a candidate’s picture, is hard to overcome.
- Applicant profiles might be conflicting with what their identity is and the way in which they will proceed as a representative.
Disadvantages of using social media for recruitment
Social media is a great recruitment tool, but it also has some drawbacks. Here are few more disadvantages that you can go through to understand the typical disadvantages of social media recruiting:
- Difficult to find candidates with exact skillsets
- Takes time to search through profiles
- Lacks diversity
- Can create hiring biases
- Candidate profile data may not be up to date
- Low job applications with passive candidates
- Social media minimizing Information for job postings
- Difficulty successfully contacting candidates on social media
- Difficulty protecting brand image
- Social media Increases Visibility
- Social media recruitment can get expensive
- Not all candidates are on social media
1. Difficult to find candidates with exact skillsets
Finding a candidate with the necessary skillset can be challenging on social media, which is one of its drawbacks.
2. Takes time to search through profiles
Additionally, it takes time to search through all of the social media profiles to locate the ideal candidate for the position you are seeking.
3. Lacks diversity
The recruiter has a wide range of candidates from which to choose based on personal preferences and preconceptions. Because they have decided who they think will work best for their company, these businesses don’t have a lot of diversity because they don’t hire people who don’t fit neat categories. This creates a bubble in which only those who are better suited to the company can be hired.
4. Can create hiring biases
There are many different kinds of biases that can affect hiring decisions, and issues of favoritism and partiality can be brought about by social media profiles. A recruiter’s entire perception of an applicant’s qualifications could be influenced by a single Facebook comment or LinkedIn post.
People’s social media profiles typically contain a lot of information about their lives, which can result in a shallow and biased portrayal—even if it only highlights the positive aspects. In the end, this contributes to the emergence or consolidation of unfair biases.
Glancing through somebody’s virtual entertainment profile will provide you with a smart thought of what their identity is and what sort of individual they are. Be that as it may, it’s trying to stay objective given the quantity of individual subtleties you go over. Some of these will have no bearing on the qualifications of the candidate.
5. Candidate profile data may not be up to date
The possibility that information shared on social media platforms is out-of-date is yet another drawback.
6. Low job applications with passive candidates
You might not get enough applicants because they are not actively looking for work. This is another disadvantage. For an employee to leave their current position for a new one, a lot of things need to be taken into consideration. The risk does not justify the switch for many.
7. Social media minimizing Information for job postings
It can sometimes be challenging to convey all pertinent information about a job in a single tweet. For instance, if you work a job that requires you to keep your identity confidential or work certain hours. Fortunately, your posts have room for additional content (140 characters).
Job seekers will spend more time learning about your business if you streamline your social media and only post relevant information. As a competitor, summing up your CV utilizing just 140 characters can be intense. Employers have a harder time finding the information they need about you because of this.
8. Difficulty successfully contacting candidates on social media
On social media, making direct contact with potential employees can be challenging for recruiters. Private messaging to users who are not already connected is not available on the majority of social media platforms, making it challenging.
When you tweet, for instance, the only way to send a private message to someone is if they already follow or are following you. As a result, many people tighten their privacy settings and begin to question the legitimacy of social networks. This makes it even more challenging for potential employers, who might not have previously spoken with candidates.
9. Difficulty protecting brand image
Finding a balance between successfully recruiting on social media and protecting the brand’s image may be difficult for some businesses. For instance, when an organization posts employment opportunities via web-based entertainment, it might get a great deal of utilizations and decide to call a couple of possibilities.
Those who didn’t get a call could get angry and say the worst things about the company. Companies with poor social media might also discourage job seekers. However, these businesses can work with reputation management firms to improve their public image.
10. Social media Increases Visibility
You cannot simply post a job advertisement on a social network and hope that the right people see it because social networks are not technically platforms for recruitment. Furthermore, a Convince and Convert study found that 67% of social media users do not follow any brands.
11. Social media recruitment can get expensive
You might need to spend some money for your job postings to get the attention they deserve. Despite the fact that there are numerous methods of inbound marketing, this concept may dissuade companies with limited resources or a weak online presence.
12. Not all candidates are on social media
Last but not least, keep in mind that not all professionals will have profiles on all social media platforms. While Facebook continues to be one of the most widely used online social networks, there are those who have had enough or simply wish to withdraw from it.
Never rely solely on social media to determine a candidate’s skill. You should talk to them and see what they have to offer first, even if you don’t find someone with a strong social media presence.
When is social media recruitment most effective and what are the best practices?
Social media recruitment is a great way to find passive candidates who might not be actively seeking employment. Additionally, it enables recruiters to contact individuals who have previously applied for jobs but have not received a response.
The best practices include:
- Develop a social media recruiting strategy that is in line with the goals and objectives of your business.
- Be consistent with your updates and posts to avoid wasting time and causing confusion for the audience.
- Ensure that you are only targeting relevant audiences, such as those who live in your area, are interested in your sector, or are employed by one of your rivals.
- Don’t be afraid to ask a social media manager for help.
The Lesson: Although social media is not itself a recruitment tool, it can be a useful tool for reaching and engaging your target audience.
Statistics of social media recruiting for 2022
You’ve heard of social recruiting, but you’re still not sold. Does it truly work? Should you really invest in social media recruiting when there are so many other options for acquiring talent? We decided to gather as many social media recruiting statistics as we could find and share them with you rather than trying to persuade you in either direction.
Therefore, without further ado, the statistics of social media recruiting are as follows:
Are candidates on social?
- Social media is used by 90% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29. Social media is used by 82% of adults between the ages of 30 and 49 and 69% of adults between the ages of 50 and 65.
- Every day, the typical American spends 2 hours and 6 minutes on social media. 2.5 hours per day is the global average.
- Between the ages of 18 and 34, 73% of job seekers used social media to land their last job.
- Social media is used by 86% of job seekers in their job search.
- 44% of workers are passive candidates.
- Since 2020, job seekers have used fewer job boards by 13%.
- In terms of places to look for new jobs, social media comes in third, behind job boards and friends (numbers 1 and 2), career sites, professional connections, and career fairs (numbers 4, 5, and 6). However, job seekers’ utilization of job boards has decreased by 13% since 2020.
- LinkedIn has a user base with 51% of college graduates, which is nearly the same as Instagram’s (49%).
Our 2021 Future of Recruiting Study is the source of the majority of the data presented here:
- 82% of occupation searchers consider manager brand and notoriety prior to going after a position.
- Top 3 locales representatives go to survey business brand and notoriety: Facebook (50%), audit destinations or review sites such as Glassdoor (45%), and last but not the least, the LinkedIn (44%).
- Social media is the first place 48% of job seekers look for information about “deal breakers” like lower pay, less flexibility in the workplace, and less work-life balance.
- Candidates say that the following three types of content have an impact on their job search: jobs (information about open positions and a link to apply), employee spotlights and stories, and DEI messages.
- Social and professional networks, as opposed to job boards, job ads, employee referrals, recruiting agencies, and recruiting events, are rated by job seekers as the most useful resource for job seekers.
- 68% of millennials specifically visit a company’s social media accounts to evaluate the employer’s brand.
- 79% of job seekers say they interact with brands on social media, and 90% of job seekers say they follow brands on social media.
- 63% of job seekers say they check social media for employee and customer feedback on a company’s workforce diversity or lack thereof.
- 26% of job seekers say that employers’ diversity, equity, and inclusion messages would increase their likelihood of applying.
- The most popular social media channels for recruiting: 1) Facebook (68%) 2) LinkedIn (65%) 3) Twitter (48%) 4) Instagram (46%) 5) YouTube (35%).
- Social channels that source the highest quality candidates: 1) LinkedIn (53%) 2) Facebook (33%) 3) YouTube (22%) 4) Twitter (2`%) 5) Instagram (20%) (Jobvite).
- In 2021, employers were most likely to use professional and social networks to find talent, with 92% of respondents stating that they do so.
- 41% of recruiters indicated that they would increase their investments in technology in 2021, placing social media and social media recruiting software at the top of the list.
- The following are the top three reasons why businesses invest in social recruiting: 1) to raise awareness of the employer brand (45.99%), 2) to reach passive candidates (45.62%), and 3) to get more applicants.
- The majority of businesses are “on” social media, but they aren’t using it to its full potential as a strategic recruitment tool.
- Only 62% of jobs are shared on social media.
- Hashtags are used by 39% to target specific audiences.
- Beyond job postings, 39% share employer brand content.
- 35% use recruiters’ social media accounts to post.
Adapted from our 2022 Social Recruiting Benchmark Report, which compiled information from nearly 10 million application clicks and 33 million job views in 2021.
- In 2021, CareerArc clients’ average CPC for job-related social media posts was $0.35, which was 68.2% lower than the CPC for other recruitment marketing methods.
- In 2021, 41% of CareerArc clients used strategies for employee advocacy and ambassadorship, compared to 23% in 2020.
- In 2021, we will have saved 949 hours of work per year on average for each client, an increase of 14.6 percent.
Employers who use social media recruiting software to power their strategy are, according to our Future of Recruiting Study:
- 2.3 times more likely to cite utilizing social recruiting to reach passive candidates.
- 2.4 times more likely to say that investing in social recruiting will increase candidate engagement.
- As a reason to invest in social recruiting, three times more likely to source difficult-to-fill positions.
- Four times more likely to use hashtags to specifically target talent audiences.
- 3x bound to present all positions via online entertainment.
- Three times more likely to post jobs on recruiters’ social media profiles.
- 2.4% more likely to share content from the employer brand other than job postings.
Recruiters can use key performance indicators and other metrics to see how well their work is working, such as the following:
- How many people visit the company’s online employment page or other corporate information through the social media activity;
- Essentially, how much traffic is headed to the association’s employment form page;
- The number of individuals who that draw in with the association via online entertainment go after positions, the number of those candidates are qualified or profoundly qualified, the number of are offered positions, the number of acknowledge, and so forth.
- Evidence of engagement from the organization and potential candidates or other professionals in the form of likes, shares, and comments.
Social media platforms need to be used strategically by recruiters, even though many people use them casually. It’s easier to say than to do.
The following are examples of typical challenges and difficulties:
- Locating and keeping recruiters who are proficient in or have previous experience using social media to attract candidates.
- Developing and funding a comprehensive strategy that works well with the organization’s overall branding efforts and aligns online recruiting strategies.
- Maintaining appropriate levels of ongoing engagement with professional communities and potential candidates without depriving resources of more profitable recruiting work.
- Making full use of professional networks and employee networks in conjunction with the organization’s traditional HR recruitment strategy.
When using social media, recruiters need to be careful not to take any actions that could backfire and result in a lack of online engagement with potential candidates or, even worse, the loss of promising leads.
- Avoid these social media recruiting blunders:
- Sending messages to candidates who might be interested.
- Posting information on the organization’s website and social media platforms that is inconsistent or even contradictory;
- Being too active or too passive in your efforts to engage others.
- Ignoring or misunderstanding the qualities of ideal candidates, as well as the best social media channels for contacting them.
- Failing to provide user-friendly routes to the application process from social media platforms.
Leaders in HR seem to agree that social media is not a one-size-fits-all method for finding candidates for jobs. However, a number of recruiters offered similar suggestions for achieving success in this endeavor, stating that successful social media strategies should include the following features:
- A specific objective for each social media campaign, such as raising awareness of the business and its workplace culture in advance of future hiring, quickly filling open positions, or both.
- A target audience determined by the stated goals.
- A list of the various social media platforms that can be utilized to reach that audience.
- Posts in which the information you want to convey is presented in a way that fits the overall flow of the platform but also stands out enough to be noticed.
- A multichannel strategy.
- Personalization and customization, when feasible and necessary.
- Information that is clear, direct, and concise, as well as simple options for following up.
- Metrics to use to gauge how well you’re using social media according to your goals. For instance, if you’re running a campaign to raise awareness of your company and its culture, tracking click-through rates might be a good idea. On the other hand, conversions and the cost per applicant might be more important for recruitment campaigns that are launched to bring in applicants for open positions.
- A focus on developing professional relationships, followers, and networks even when there are no open positions. These can assist in increasing the company’s visibility, intensifying recruitment efforts, and establishing connections with potential applicants.
- A strategy for dealing with trolls and other negative responses to online activity and posts.
The following social media recruitment campaigns are acknowledged by a variety of organizations, including HR and recruiting associations and software vendors:
- In the 2021 Rally Awards, ADP won the award for best social careers channel, in part due to its 12% increase in application clicks from organic social posts.
- Zenopa, a recruitment firm based in the United Kingdom, was awarded the Onrec 2022 award for its innovative use of social media in the recruitment process. It won for a video about apprenticeship.
- As an early adopter of social media for recruiting and promoting its own stories across a variety of channels and on its own website, UPS has been acknowledged.
Hey, I am Sachin Ramdurg. I run and manage futuredecider.com website that helps students, graduates, and professionals, to find and decide on their future career with ultimate future career advices and future career guides. I have an overall 12+ years of career guidance experience in multiple domains which has helped multiple students, graduates, and professionals to find the best career path for their future.