One of the biggest trends in recruitment over the years has been the use of social media to attract and recruit talent for organizations. This popular practice is called social media recruiting or “social recruiting”. It has not only emerged as one of the most effective ways to find qualified candidates, but is also helping showcase the company’s work culture or “employer brand” organically. So, let’s understand how to reap the right benefits out of this social media recruiting.
WHAT IS SOCIAL RECRUITING? DOES IT WORK?
Social recruiting is the process of sourcing and hiring talent through social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and other websites including online forums, review sites, and job boards.
Social recruiting is a vital part of recruitment marketing. It works because it places your organization in the orbit where your potential employee spends a considerable amount of their time.
For believers, it offers a more efficient and cost-effective alternative to conventional recruiting. In fact, according to a study, nearly three-quarters of workers between the age group of 18-34 found their most recent job via social media. Moreover, nearly 90% of recruiters report that they have hired someone from LinkedIn.
When done right, social recruiting strategies help organizations reach desired candidates, gather more referrals, and enable their brand message across numerous social platforms while showing potential candidates an enticing picture of what their company culture is like. In fact:
- 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search. (Glassdoor)
- Recruiting via social media is growing, with 84% of organizations using it currently and 9% planning to use it. (SHRM)
- 80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates. (Betterteam)
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PLATFORM FOR SOCIAL RECRUITING
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all present potential useful social recruiting platforms. Each of them supports your social recruiting efforts in a unique way. While LinkedIn is a suitable platform to share company news and hiring requirements and attract passive candidates, Facebook and Instagram enable you to share photos, videos, create groups, organize virtual events and highlight your corporate culture.
Apart from the social media platforms, review websites such as Glassdoor and Indeed.com significantly impact an organization’s social media brand. These platforms are utilized frequently by candidates to know what your current and former employees are saying about your company, how your culture looks like, and what benefits you are providing to your employees, say in terms of career growth, work-life balance, and overall wellness.
Further, many social media platforms offer different search features that are highly beneficial for social recruiting. These features, like social listening and sentiment analysis, help you gather more insights about your audience and target the right groups basis the information received.
From our standpoint, the following alternatives should be considered while choosing the right platform for social recruiting:
WHY EMPLOYER BRANDING IS CRUCIAL FOR SOCIAL RECRUITING?
Your company is a great place to work. Sure! But how do you advertise this?
Well, if you are having a difficult time attracting applicants and recruiting top talent through social media, you need to redo your strategy.
If you are in these dire recruitment straits, you must act now to build a strong employer brand presence on social media platforms because what good is a brand if no one sees, reads, or hears about it.
Employer Branding is meant to convey the identity of the organization, the working culture, and why it makes sense for a potential employee to choose them. Employer branding helps land the right talent as well as help the existing employees build a deep sense of loyalty towards the organization. An organization’s name or logo eventually has very little to do with its brand. A brand is a synopsis of what the organization stands for and helps a candidate decide why to choose your company over others.
WHAT ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOCIAL RECRUITING STRATEGIES?
An effective social media recruiting strategy should be tailored as per your organization’s specific employment needs.
From our standpoint, there are important fundamentals of effective social recruiting, a few of which are compiled here:
1. BUILD YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION ORGANICALLY
Whether it’s a business profile or a Glassdoor company page, ensure that it grows organically to attract and engage your target audience.
2. BE ACTIVE ON MULTIPLE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
Don’t just stick around one place. Leverage different social media channels to multiply your reach. LinkedIn, undoubtedly is an important platform to receive job applications and attract passive candidates but not being active on Facebook or Instagram may limit the reach of your business.
3. ENSURE YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE REFLECTS YOUR BRAND IDENTITY
The ability to create a desirable reputation for your company brand will continue to climb the ranks on your future candidates’ list of requirements. To develop a more active and positive social media presence, consider the key aspects of your brand manifesto and how you can highlight the most valuable parts of your company through social media.
4. DIRECTLY ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Making a personal connection, however small, is essential. If a potential candidate comments or reacts to your Instagram or LinkedIn post, make sure to reach out to them in person. You can simply thank them for commenting/connecting and ask them to check out the vacant positions in your company.
5. MAKE SURE YOUR SOCIAL RECRUITING HIGHLIGHTS YOUR COMPANY CULTURE
Your social recruiting strategies should give a clear and detailed idea about your organization’s core values and culture.
6. BE CONSISTENT AND KEEP UPDATING YOUR APPROACH
Social recruiting requires consistent engagement with your audience and potential candidates. In addition, businesses need to monitor and update their strategies regularly.
CONCLUSION
From recruiting to retention, ensuring your potential candidates and employees are engaged at every step of the process helps build your employer brand and promotes your work culture. In such a fast-changing scenario, social recruiting has emerged as a powerful solution for companies to streamline recruitment processes to attract and engage with a larger pool of candidates.
Companies today, cannot undermine the power of a well-designed social recruiting plan. In the war for talent, it can help you differentiate your brand and stay ahead of the competition. In the long run, it’s not the salary or bonuses that matter the most. It’s the ability of a company to engage its employees and prospects in an atmosphere of mutual growth and respect which makes it an employer of choice.
