Social Media Recruiting Approach for Recruiters

The act of socializing or the ability to interact with others has always been a vital part of human existence.

Social media is a medium used by the masses to access and spread information in a variety of ways such as blogs, instant messaging, social networking sites, podcasts, photo-sharing sites, widgets and more.

By sharing a global footprint, these platforms have reduced distances between people dwelling in different parts of the world.

Apart from facilitating communication, social networking promotes the development of professional networks and collaborations between various entities.

Do you know that 73% of the recently employed 18 to 34 years old candidates found their last job via a social network?  In other words, all you need to conquer the world is a handy smart device and a powerful internet connection.

Adopting Versatile Social Media Recruiting Approaches:

Using social media to recruit employees for your company can act as a powerful tool for its growth as it helps you get acquainted with your candidate and their current skill set.

It becomes possible to communicate portfolios, resumes, personal information along with other required documents, certifications etc. via these platforms. This practice also aids in the rapid identification of valuable human resources within a short span of time.

Encompassing Social media recruiting strategies can be used in complement to traditional recruiting methods. Recruiters claim that media increases their reach, narrows down the candidate pool and helps them find the required qualified candidates online.

It has been observed that most professionals follow their dream company on LinkedIn to stay updated with new technological advancements and job opportunities in their area of expertise.

How to Proceed with Social Media Recruitment?

There are always more than one way to proceed with social media recruitment. It is now up to employers and recruiters to determine how long it will take them to embrace several social media recruiting approaches.

According to the statistics, 84% of companies are currently using social media to recruit candidates and more are hoping for this trend in the near future.

Some of the recruitment channels that resonate well with most recruiters are as follows:

• Identify Your Goals and Create a Plan in Advance

Make a detailed plan that focuses on the best social media platforms to find ideal candidates and funnel prospects through those communication channels on which regular traffic is obtained.

• Researching Competitors & Candidates

Find out the competitors in your industry-specific niche, study their strategies and then create your own. Repurpose and pinpoint the content to the targeted audience visiting each platform. Shoutout to the potential candidates and keep track of the engagement rate.

• Assessing Candidate Personas

Develop a resource hiring clientele profile according to the culture and requirements of your company. Then you must devise the appropriate social media recruiting approach for them. This is equivalent to creating recruitment collateral for making the process organized and less time-consuming.

This might include contact information, a vivid job description, the required documents list, introductory materials including the application form, and so on.

• State Clearly The Top Perks and Benefits of Working in Your Company

According to recent research, companies that offer multiple benefits and work perks to their employees such as rewards, health insurance and flexible working hours observed higher headcount growth when compared to others.

• Keep a Track of KPIs to Assess the Success of Your Efforts

Recruiters can assess the effectiveness of their social media recruitment approach by examining key performance indicators (KPIs) such as the traffic generated by social media activity to the organization's online employment portal, social engagement, and offer acceptance rate.

Other metrics such as time spent, cost, source of hiring and how these factors are cumulatively affecting your goals must also be taken into account.

A company’s talent acquisition strategy and the number and types of platforms it uses in carrying out the recruitment activities are together responsible for the results obtained. These results determine how broad or targeted the pool of potential candidates is.

Some common pointers to keep in mind when engaging in social media promotional activities include

1. Taking advantage of Hashtags to reach out to possible referrals.
2. Publishing quality content and repurposing it according to the visitors of a particular social media platform.
3. Employee Advocacy must be an essential part of your agenda
   

Source: Slideshare

1. Live-streaming Recruitment events across all organization's primary social platforms.
2. Joining industry-specific groups on various platforms for networking.
3. Tagging potential candidates and getting connected to them.
4. Investing In other Social Media Advertising strategies.

Some Important Recruitment Channels

Hiring is a difficult and time-consuming process, Hence, to amplify one’s reach and availability in today’s era, one must be familiar with all social media platforms. According to statistics, over 3.8 billion active social media users spent an average of over 2 hours a day on various social media networks.

It is easy for HR professionals to tailor messages to each candidate group using different social media platforms. A comparison between recruitment strategies of 5 popular social media channels has been drawn below:

• LinkedIn

Tap onto this platform to put your best Social Media Recruiting Approach to work. The professional qualifications, certifications, and work  experience of a candidate are all there on LinkedIn. Your company can easily maintain a high-profile relationship with both active and passive candidates thanks to its extended network of professional connections.

• Instagram

If you want to build personal connections with potential job candidates, Instagram is a good place to start recruiting for your organization. Using a networking site like Insta, provides you with a flexible and friendly environment which fosters prompt conversations.

• Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social networking website in the world. Recruiters primarily use Facebook to monitor how potential candidates present themselves to strangers, kin, family, and friends. As a recruiter, you can join various active industry-specific groups on Facebook. Here you will find the appropriate candidates as well as participate in discussions that are of interest to you.

• Twitter

Recruiters are able to discover more about their interests, values, and cultural fit by engaging with candidates on Twitter. Other than this, Twitter can be used to connect with young minds in graduate, internship, and apprenticeship programmes. It can be readily used to host live chats with them to gain a better understanding of their viewpoints and opinions.

• YouTube Marketing

Video marketing relay the maximum impact on its viewers. Videos offer the spectators a deeper insight into the company's workings, values, and culture in almost every way. You can find best video ideas here.

You can create versatile YouTube video content by uploading employee-generated videos, promoting premium products and developing corporate social networks.

Image Courtesy:rchilli.com

Developing The Company’s Reputation Online-

The goal of every company online is to develop and maintain a positive online presence and strong brand identity. 82% of job seekers take note of employer branding and the company’s reputation in the market before applying for an opening. .

Your current employees are your most valuable asset and by showcasing their narratives and videos, team events, and other company culture programmes, you provide an unsaid incentive to prospective employees.

Bring out your company's vision, culture and goals in front of everyone to endorse your company. This helps candidates gain a better understanding of how you operate and how they can contribute to the organization’s overall development.

Benefits of Recruiting Candidates using Social Media

One can harness versatile recruitment techniques along with channelising and publishing appropriate content on different social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

It’s strongly believed that socially engaged employees are more optimistic, inspired, connected and tenured according to a recent report by Altimeter Group. Establishing a social media presence in recruitment can be beneficial in the following ways:

• These platforms open a myriad of recruitment opportunities.
• Provide the exceptional advantage of creating your brand value.
• Amplifies your reach to both passive and active candidates
• Supplements your employee referral program
• Cuts down recruitment costs
• Aids in performing background research about the prospective candidates
• Promotes better candidate screening
• Quick and time-saving recruitment strategy
• Opens the door to engagement
• Ensures your continuous online market presence
• Expands the Diversity of Your Candidate Pool

Tips for Social Media Recruitment:

Intellectuals should continuously engage with your brand even when job opportunities aren't available. This encourages the creation of a talent pool that is accessible when job openings arise.

In the section below, we will discuss the advantages of using various social media recruiting strategies along with a checklist that will assist recruiters in onboarding their employees.

Before recruiting a candidate, you must be prepared with

1. An Onboarding Plan

• Having a well-structured process is the key to a successful plan
• Explain your company’s culture and vision in detail.
• Clearly define your expectations of the candidate.
• Introduce the new hires to their peers
• Assigning mentors to guide them
• Rolling out Live Question and Answer forums so that prospective candidates can enquire about the company and open positions freely.
• Disseminate proper information about the code of conduct, working hours, relevant company policies and company culture guidelines ahead of time.
• Create an extended onboarding schedule for your new hires i.e. give them time to get familiar with the tools, processes and responsibilities associated with their new job role.

2. Providing Candidates with Proper Evaluation Results and Constructive feedback

The final stage before hiring entails not only evaluating the performance of your new hire, but also providing them with a performance review, detailed evaluation report, or feedback. This motivates them and indirectly establishes a positive image of the company in the eyes of the public.

Last but not least, a good company extends a welcome letter to the new team member while taking all necessary steps to make them feel at ease and a part of the team.

Final Thoughts

The use of social media for recruitment ensures that the organization's communication with candidates is consistent and seamless. Networking sites make it possible to distribute CVs and schedule interviews over long distances. This enables recruiters to select the most qualified candidates for the open positions.

Engaging talented candidates is critical for any company's growth. Investing in web communication technologies and developing streamlined social media recruiting approaches will undoubtedly give recruiters access to the most recent developments taking place around the world.

It's time to harness the power of LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and other suitable media platforms, as professional research tools, to reach the desired talent pool.

In today's competitive market, recruiters must be proficient in handling different social media platforms to hire optimistic and motivated candidates

Author Bio:

Fahad Khan is a Product Manager and digital marketing enthusiast who works at Ubuy Technology. Content marketing, PPC, email, and social media marketing are among his areas of expertise. He has been exploring the field of digital marketing to share his pearls of wisdom with the whole world. He enjoys working on different niches and creating valuable content for readers.