When small business owners think of recruiting and job postings, job sites like Indeed and Glassdoor are often the first that come to mind—but there are many more options, including social media recruiting. And we know what you’re thinking, but when it comes to social media, there is more than LinkedIn, too!
If you haven’t used social media for recruiting before, you may be wondering if you really need to learn and manage another way to find new candidates. According to statistics, yes! Zippia found that 79% of job seekers use social media while searching. It’s where young candidates hang out: 73% of job seekers aged 18-34 found their last job through social media.
Read on for some benefits of social media recruiting and how to think outside the box to leverage social platforms for your hiring strategy.
Benefits of Social Media Recruiting
Connect with Passive Candidates
It’s not all about active candidates. What about those who may not be looking but would be open to a new opportunity if it were the right one? Passive candidates make up 37% of US workers, and 82% of employers use social media to recruit them.
Simply put, social recruiting works! It gets your job openings in front of those you wouldn’t reach otherwise because they’re not looking. After all, most people are on some form of social media. That way, a candidate who comes across your job listing can check out your company’s social media and decide if they want to apply—in which case, it means they think your role and business are a good match!
Screen & Spot Talent
Employers can also use social media to check out potential candidates. You can get to know them and possibly get a glimpse of their talent and witness their passion through their posts.
Many people talk about their work, interests, and hobbies via social media, meaning you can get a good initial picture of a candidate. What else keeps them busy? What do they care about? This can indicate if they’ll fit in with your team’s culture.
On the flip side, you can quickly see if someone has a negative social media presence based on their content and rule them out.
Shorten the Recruitment Process & Save Money
According to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), it takes employers an average of 44 days to hire a new employee, and the average cost per hire is $4,700. That’s a lot of time and money!
Social media recruiting is free or low-cost. Post organic content from your company profiles at no additional cost. Even if you want to hone in on your ideal candidates, you can invest in paid ads and stay within budget. While job boards can be effective, they’re also expensive, and you can’t be sure you’ll reach the right prospective employees.
Social hiring speeds up the process by helping both employers and candidates quickly decide if it’s a good fit and streamlining the application process.
Highlight Your Company Culture & Brand
Currently, millennials comprise nearly 40% of the workforce, with Gen Z at 6% and counting. Both generations have a common desire for a positive, transparent company culture that aligns with their values and supports work-life balance.
Social media recruiting effectively showcases your culture and brand, from behind-the-scenes photos and videos to sharing your business practices, employee benefits, and team activities. This allows you to give candidates a sneak peek of what life is like in your workplace.
7 Steps to Maximize Social Media Recruiting
1. Set Your Recruitment Goals
Know your goals before recruiting—this will guide your social media recruitment strategy. Outline key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you track how your social hiring is working, such as a job posting’s reach or traffic. How will you measure success and determine when and how you should make changes? Start with these KPIs!
2. Create an Ideal Candidate Persona
Consider the experience, characteristics, and skills you’d want to see in a candidate for the job opening. This will help you identify the best social media platforms to reach them and craft messaging around their job goals and desires. When you create an ideal candidate persona, it will help you target the best-fit candidates.
3. Choose the Social Platforms That Make Sense
Next, think about where your ideal candidates hang out online. LinkedIn is often the first platform that comes to mind when discussing social media recruiting, but it’s certainly not the only option—and it may not even be the best option for you!
Thanks to its advanced search function, LinkedIn is great for corporate roles and searching for particular skills and experience. However, if you own a construction company, you might be more likely to find prospective team members on Facebook. Facebook allows you to:
- Leverage Facebook groups: You can find business/network groups, city/town groups, or industry-specific groups to share your job postings, connect with others in your industry, and find local talent.
- Create job postings: If you have a Facebook business page, you can add job postings, too, which will show up under “Jobs” on your page.
- Target with paid boosts: You can quickly and affordably target candidates even more precisely with paid boosts, which let you specify locations, work experience, and education.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for a professional in the creative field, you might use a visual platform like Instagram. Or, if you’re recruiting for a technical position (e.g., engineers or programmers), you might check out discussion boards. These channels don’t necessarily offer job posting functions, but you could begin by building relationships through conversations and posting about current openings. They also have paid ad options.
4. Establish a Social Media Presence
If your company is new to your platform of choice, you’ll want to build up a presence before you dive into social media recruiting.
That means ensuring you have established a consistent brand voice and message. You’ll also need to post appropriate content types based on the platform. For example, you’d want a mix of photos, videos, text, and links on Facebook. While Facebook allows text-only content, it’s not ideal, so include visual content in your posts and job descriptions.
Post regularly to build a community and help your audience get to know your brand. This will help you become an authority in your industry, including potential candidates and those who are not yet candidates but could be in the future! You might even host specific networking events based on the types of candidates you want to attract.
For example, an HVAC business aiming to diversify its workforce might host a “Breaking Barriers in HVAC Networking Event” focused on creating new opportunities for minorities and marginalized groups. Promoting this conveys the company’s values and fosters goodwill.
5. Get Your Team Involved
Use your current happy team members to spread the word! Every employee has their own network, so why not take advantage of it? Ask your staff to share job openings along with their experiences with your company on social media. While you can’t mandate this and may have a social media policy with rules for discussing work, encouraging them to share their experiences constructively can connect your brand with potential candidates.
6. Tell Them How to Apply
Ensure your job listings and related social media posts clearly explain how to apply and the next steps! You may have them complete an online application or email the hiring manager. Whatever your process, make it easy for both candidates and your team. If they can’t figure out how to apply from the post or it’s too complex, they may give up, thinking it’s not worth it.
After all, social media recruiting should make hiring more accessible and efficient!
7. Assess & Adjust as Needed
Be sure to analyze the performance of your social hiring content, revisit your goals, and adjust accordingly. Remember, you can try one platform and strategy at a time to find out what works best for your business. Patience is vital, so give your content and techniques long enough to determine what is effective or needs changes.
Then, tweak and try new things as you learn, and always ensure they align with your overarching business and recruitment goals.
Start the Conversation with Social Media Recruiting
As Millennials and Gen Z combined make up nearly half of the workforce and continue joining, social recruiting is becoming a must. And it’s not all about LinkedIn—those in various fields, from landscapers to auto mechanics to painters to hospitality workers and many in between, can leverage platforms like Facebook and Instagram to reach new candidates!
The key is to create a consistent, authentic social media strategy and naturally incorporate recruitment content into it.
Do you need support optimizing your job descriptions and incorporating social media recruiting into your talent acquisition strategy? Contact BlueLion today at info@bluelionllc.com or 603-818-4131, and we’ll help you level up your hiring efforts!
The information on this website, including its newsletters, is not, nor is it intended to be legal advice. You should contact an attorney or HR specialist for advice on your individual situation.
