Recruiting Strategies For Social Media

How to attract best candidates and increase your company's overall brand awareness

Social media has quickly become a top place where candidates look for the best jobs. Recruiters have gotten on board with this trend, with 92% of them using social media to find high-quality candidates, according to an Adweek survey. If you’re not properly leveraging social media for recruitment, now is the time! We’ve compiled some key strategies that will not only attract the best candidates using social media, but will also increase your company's overall brand awareness.

Establishing an authentic online brand for your company is crucial in recruiting effectively on social media. High-quality candidates are looking for companies with an authentic brand because they want to envision themselves working there. This is the chance to go beyond the surface details and show what your company is about philosophically. It’s also important to leverage how easily you can connect with potential candidates online. This will show candidates that you actually care about them and want to go beyond the hiring process.

Hashtags are a powerful tool in getting your message out to your target audience, and connecting with the right candidates. Spend time researching hashtags your target audience or potential candidates might be using or searching for. If you’re recruiting for the healthcare industry, for example, hashtags like #HealthcareJobs or #MedicalJobs would be a good place to start.When you search a specific hashtag, any post (whether it be on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) using it will come up. The same is true if you use that hashtag on one of your posts.
 
You can also utilize hashtags to start conversations with other companies and professionals in your industry! Companies will host chats on social media as a way to engage with anyone who may be interested in a specific topic, such as employer branding trends. They can do this by using a hashtag in every post they make in relation to the chat, which allows anyone to read the whole chat and jump in whenever they like. This is a great way to connect with the right people while also driving engagement and brand awareness.

It goes without saying, but all recruiters and companies should be on LinkedIn as a primary social media platform. This is where high-quality candidates live and breathe, especially if they’re actively looking for jobs. Your company’s profile page should effectively showcase the brand, as well as share any pertinent information, like your address, website, phone number, and other social media handles. You can also regularly share updates, such as open positions, new hires and any company news.

Did you know your best assets for recruiting on social media are right under your nose? Employees are your best resource for social media sharing, networking and expanding your profile’s reach. When employees share open positions or status updates with their social networks, your brand is being seen by hundreds, or even thousands, of people - at no cost to you! Encourage employee sharing by offering incentives or praise for any successful employee-referred candidates.

When recruiting on social media you may want to consider paid advertising campaigns, especially if you’re already recruiting actively. These campaigns are generally very cost-effective and highly targeted, allowing you to reach the right candidates for a small fee. Budget, demographic profile and settings can be easily changed during the campaign, so you can consistently focus on what is or isn’t working best and adjust accordingly.
 
Leveraging social media when recruiting is an important way to attract some of the best candidates while also driving brand awareness. You can do two things at once for a very low cost.