4 Must-Have Social Media Recruiting Strategies

How much time do you spend on social media looking for the perfect candidate? While LinkedIn has become a traditional way of recruiting, a little innovation never hurt anybody. You need to be present on all social media platforms, especially on the less common ones. Here is why diversifying your social media recruiting strategy can have a positive impact on your organization.

According to a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 84% of recruiters use social media for recruiting. This number has been increasing steadily for the last 6 years. In 2011, 56% of companies were recruiting via social media, but in the last year, millennials have caused a shift in social media recruitment practices. An Aberdeen study found that 73% of 18-34 year-olds found their last job via social media.

Therefore, we need to adapt our recruiting strategies and attract top talent through our professional online brand presence. In 2017, the employer brand must be where the candidates are–and that is online. If you want to be aware of the latest trends in social media recruiting and avoid losing fantastic candidates, this article is for you.

Communicate Directly on the Social Media Platform

If candidates spend most of their time on social media, why not contact the potential hires directly via Twitter or LinkedIn? LinkedIn is still the preferred tool for recruiting. There are 6.5 million active job listings on LinkedIn. 48% of recruiters use LinkedIn for social outreach, and 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates.

While LinkedIn is a great tool for recruiting, Facebook Business is quickly gaining ground. On February 15, 2017, Facebook launched this new feature for businesses in the U.S. and Canada. Employers will be able to post job openings on their company business page, and candidates can easily find the posts on an employer’s page or in the jobs bookmark. While Facebook and LinkedIn make efforts to make our job easier, I believe we can do more.

Be Present as Social Media Platforms Evolve

This is especially necessary if you have a creative job opening. Instagram and Pinterest profiles allow you to see if candidates are creative and their approach to artistic tasks. For example, if you need to hire a brand manager, you could easily find out on candidates’ Instagram profiles if they have an inclination for creating their own brand through their photographic choices and style.

In other words, these profile checks allow you to read between the lines. You probably know the saying “a photo is worth a thousand words”. It is also true when you are recruiting. Whether it’s behind-the-scenes pictures, how-to videos, or stories, Instagram can be a game-changer for your recruiting strategy.

Prioritize and Optimize Your Career Site

Once you are successful in using social media to get candidates to visit your career site, if your career site looks bad or functionality is non-existent, candidates will likely bounce from your site. Your site must work well on a computer and also be mobile responsive, as most job seekers scroll for job openings from their bed with a mobile device. According to Glassdoor, which made an annual survey called the Rise of the Mobile Job Search, up to 37% of applicants have used mobile devices to search for a job.

Strengthen Your Corporate Culture

It is very important to invest in corporate branding and in social responsibility projects and to participate in community events, hackathons, marathons etc. Why? Because 84% of candidates would consider leaving their current company if another company with an excellent reputation for community service offers them a job. Also, you can create an “About the Team” page, with testimonials and thoughts about working for your company.

Do you like reading LinkedIn recommendations and testimonials of your candidates? Guess what? They also like reading them about you. Glassdoor and Indeed provide venues for current, prospective and past employees (and anyone else) to rate your company. There are also other useful tools on the market built with the intent of leveraging social networks to engage your employees to share your roles and drive employee referrals.

Get Creative in Your Social Media Recruiting Approach

It is said that, no matter the content we put online (a video, an image, or a message), we only have 3 seconds to capture the audience’s attention. That’s why short videos, usually no more than 30 seconds, are the most successful and an article’s headline determines if the article will be read or not.

In this context, the online market ‘forces’ us to create more innovative approaches for recruiting through social media: phone apps, video content and advertisements with creative images can be the way to attract qualified candidate’s attention. Here are 2 ideas to take into consideration for your future strategy:

1. Create Video Job Ads–A Buffer’s survey states that 83% of marketers said that if there were no obstacles, they would like to create more video content. So why not create video content for your next job opening and post it on all social media platforms? Of course, creating video is more time-consuming than posting text, but, Visual content is 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.
2. Create a Job Game Test–This is a creative idea that can determine if certain candidates are compatible with your company before they even take the time to apply. You can create a testing game with questions about personality, hypothetical situations and multiple choice. It is like a career assessment test, but more fun and relaxed. At the end of the game, depending on the result, you can include a “Call to Action” which says, “We could be a good match–Apply Here”.

Once you have successfully recruited applicants for an open position, your next step is to find out if they have the skills for that position. Consider using skills assessments. They are an effective tool for hiring candidates based on their abilities, which can lead to a better hire and a happier employee.

Let me know in the comments below what other ideas you already implement in your social media recruiting strategy.