Are there qualified applicants when recruiting through social media?
Social Recruiting is not a new practice in finding the next workforce superstar. You might have an idea about it or probably tried posting a couple of job openings, but the response did not match the invested effort. People looking for jobs are abundant on social media platforms, and opportunities are a loss for hiring managers that are not maximizing these platforms.
Research made by Aberdeen Group shows that 73% of the 18-34 age group found a job opportunity through various social platforms. When combined, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok have an average of 265 million daily active users browsing on different social networks, and a handful of them might be interested in working for you.
Now that we know that there are more than enough eyes to read your job opening, is it possible to find and hire the best person for the job via social recruiting or remote hiring? Yes, and here’s a guide for best practices that you can apply in getting your next employee of the year via social hiring.
Related article: Social Platform Hiring: Facebook
Why should businesses adopt social media recruitment?
As the demand and pressure of finding the right candidate increases by the day, HR managers should start moving where the applicants are. Social Media hiring is a must in every recruitment strategy as the cost of vacancies continues to rise not until the position is filled.
Is social media hiring replacing conventional recruitment? No, but it should supplement the overall recruitment strategy. From finding top potential candidates to the associate level, HR leaders should acknowledge the possibilities of the pool of talents that are active and engaging on these social platforms.
Here are some benefits to better understanding why HR leaders should be on engaging on these social media platforms:
- Social media platforms provide recruiters with several features to run a quick applicant culture check.
- Reach of job postings is broader and faster than traditional recruitment.
- Employees’ close networks are more likely to see the job ads. This is a perfect tool for job referrals.
- High response rates and reduced unintended applications, professionals are worried about their online presence and portfolio.
- Company pages are making their job boards active, so interested applicants can regularly check for openings without leaving the social media platform
- To further scale job opening announcements, HR managers can place ads that target the right demographic.
It’s not new to use social media as part of recruitment strategies, the question lies in how companies are using these tools to their advantage making hiring faster and more cost-efficient.
No Social Media Platforms Are The Same When Recruiting Talent
The communities surrounding social media networks are by no means the same, such as personal interaction and content consumption. For recruiters looking for ways to attract more applicants and find the right people for their jobs, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok are ways to build the right team based on corporate culture.
Let’s dig deeper and find out how these social media sites help employers in identifying, attracting, engaging, and hiring their potential candidates.
How to Create the Best Job Posts on Facebook
Since most job seekers are using social media for their job search, Facebook is also considered a very effective way of recruiting most especially, to reach passive candidates.
Nonetheless, applying for a Facebook job posting is easy since job seekers are already logged in to the site. Just as simple as clicking the “Apply Now” button for the preferred job posts of an interested candidate and the auto-fill feature will just complete in digital form all the required details by the employer, including the contact information and education/work history—which are essential for the recruiter. Time-efficient for both the job seeker and the recruiter, isn’t it?
Currently, most people already have a Facebook account, including job seekers and we cannot deny that social media is already part of almost everyone’s life, considering the number of hours spent by most people on social media. Going back to the previous point on how easy it is to apply, it could be compared to just liking and commenting on another person’s post. Further, applicants or viewers can also share that particular job post, an effortless way for the recruiter in sourcing additional candidates.
Although recently, there has been an update on The Jobs on Facebook, as stated on Facebook.com, and these are as follows:
What’s changing
- Existing Facebook Groups with a “Jobs” group type will be changed to the “General” group type and the “Jobs” group type will no longer be available.
- The ability to distribute free jobs via a partner integration with the Jobs on Facebook API will no longer be available.
- Jobs on Facebook will no longer be available on the Facebook Lite app or Facebook mobile website (m.facebook.com/jobs) for both employers and seekers.
- The Jobs on the Facebook browser will no longer be available.
- Jobs on Facebook is shutting down outside of the United States and Canada.
What’s not changing
- Employers in the United States and Canada can continue to use Jobs on Facebook tools to create job postings on their Page for free on the Facebook app and Facebook desktop website (www.facebook.com). They can also choose to boost their posts as ads.
- Employers in the United States and Canada will continue to be able to manage their job applications and view details about all their job posts (boosted & non-boosted) through the Inbox and Manage Jobs sections of their Page.
- Job seekers in the United States and Canada can continue to apply to positions using Job on Facebook product features like clicking Apply now on the job post, which will bring them to the detail view and then to an application form.
As social media sites continue to develop tools to help employers, Facebook developed the chatbot feature, a business strategy that could be taken advantage of for the recruitment process. The chatbot will serve as a “virtual assistant” to all the inquiries regarding the Facebook job post an interesting candidate may have.
Example of Facebook Job Postings
Set applicants’ expectations by including as many details on your job descriptions.
Showing work culture, diversity, ethnicity, and inclusion in your job post.
Create a Facebook account that is solely focused on growing your talent database.
How To Use Instagram for Hiring
Instagram is a social networking app designed for users to share photos and videos in feeds, stories, or reels. With its visual appeal, it could help you attract both passive and active candidates as well as contribute to your branding. Instagram is said to be a highly effective recruitment platform that attracts all ages especially if you target to hire the next generation of millennials.
Here are some of the Instagram marketing strategies to consider:
- Define and clearly articulate what makes your company special by highlighting your company culture. Attract attention by showing them what day-to-day life is like at your company and let candidates imagine what it is like working there. Good photos and videos are a must!
- Instagram has always been known as a platform for an aesthetically pleasing feed so it is of utmost importance to have creative content consistent with the brand image. Brand consistency matters, especially in building trust. Be extra innovative in your job postings.
- Use the tools that Instagram offers that may actually help boost the visibility of the job posting content posted in the feed. Instagram stories offer a great way to connect with followers which also increases the organic visibility of your brand. Maximize posting stories to capture behind-the-scenes of the company’s operations, such as employees’ stories and celebrations, an inviting office space, and company events or team outings.
- Keep your captions short and concise and get straight to the point to communicate the job responsibilities. You may use bullet lists or may try separating the paragraphs with a divider to make them easier to read.
- Decide on what hashtags to use in your post. Another important aspect of your content strategy is deciding which hashtags to utilize on Instagram. Other strategic hashtags will be necessary to attract your desired candidates. Hashtags must be relevant and a topic of interest to the job seekers you are targeting.
- Run a paid ad on the Instagram platform. Paid Ads are important to reach out and engage the target market better. Further, Instagram Stories ads can also create high visibility as it can be optimized to match based on your recruitment objective.
- Getting your employees involved may also help in the recruitment strategy to widen the pool of candidates. You may encourage your employees to post about your company on social media and you may offer them a reward in return.
Related article: How to Hire on Instagram
Example of Instagram Job Postings
Hiring managers can include job details inside the creative or let the applicants read through their content.
IG Stories reach your engaged followers and at the same time, recruiters can create Instagram highlights containing all job opportunities.
Use of appropriate hashtags in exploring feed. You may also include job location in the hashtags. Most used hashtags are #hiring #hiring[joblocation] example: #hiringorlando #hiringcalifornia
How to Use LinkedIn When Recruiting
LinkedIn is the most popular professional online platform for building connections. It also offers tools for identifying passive candidates in which the site assists companies through talent poaching or job poaching targets, where the intent of one company is to hire employees who work at competing companies. By tracking the number of the platform’s InMails, the technology may also assess attrition rates and demand for personnel with specific skill sets.
The following are some of the ways to utilize Linkedin in your recruitment strategy:
- Use profile recommendations. This engine is based on a unique algorithm that has been fine-tuned based on product interaction and product usage.
- Stay up-to-date with the changes that candidates made in their public profiles through the Update Me feature of LinkedIn.
- Maximize the Talent Updates to be able to send targeted messages through sharing a status update which will help you reach passive candidates
- LinkedIn has Activity Filters that give you the ability to search based on your previous team activities.
- Utilize your employees’ professional network. To build trust with your prospect who may seem not to be actively looking for opportunities, you may opt to personalize your InMail messages and be able to further establish a real connection with your prospect.
- Posting a link to the job vacancies on your LinkedIn careers site is free, thus, a better advantage to get it in front of a larger audience.
- Most importantly, stay engaged! Be informative and engaging to retain an interest in your company.
Examples of Linkedin Posts
Introduce the culture and standard of work through job posting creatives
Capture curiosity and attention when finding the right talent by adding humor and fun to your job post.
Get Savvy with Tiktok Recruitment
Tiktok as introduced has a primary goal to entertain by creating short videos of shared experiences about anything. This social media gained popularity with its dance trends or challenges, showing off talents, how-to videos, and funny pranks, edited through the platform’s effects, filters, music background, and a lot more. As mentioned, Tiktok is about any shared topic with unimaginable possibilities–including job search tips, career advice, and company culture, learned in a 15-60 seconds video. Thus, this is how Tiktok could be used for recruitment.
Explore these suggestions on how Tiktok can be used in Recruitment Strategy:
- Consider BTS or “Day in a Life Videos.” What is your company all about? What could be the job offer? What are the responsibilities? You can describe this by posting a short video of what is happening while employees are at work. You may also reshare employee content.
- Post video offerings like career advice. An example is how to improve a retail resume, which is especially helpful for jobseekers. Or it could also be tips on how to answer a particular job interview question, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”
- Use Tiktok as an advantage for brand awareness. Be creative on how to attract talents while incorporating your brand in the videos. Recruitment can think of a fun challenge that could actually go viral which has your brand and make job seekers aware of your company. Another means to broadcast your hiring campaign to more people.
- Tiktok may also be a media channel that will help you find the person best fit for the job vacancy. As in Tiktok, you can see the person’s real personality. You can also compare one applicant with another since they also post videos about themselves.
- If you aim to find younger entry-level hires, Tiktok is the place to be. Video resume could be entertaining for you in making your search where you will also see how creative your possible hire could be.
- Just the same as other social media, Tiktok also offers paid ads where it allows you to target candidates based on your preference.
- Hashtags also work in Tiktok and could be helpful in your recruitment strategy. You can encourage applications in your job hiring by promoting and using hashtags. For example, #TikTokResumes
- Related post: Social Platform Hiring: TikTok
Example of TikTok Job Postings
Including job details in your content creates more engagement and time spent on your content.
To leverage job hiring posts, recruiters can use trending dance or challenges to capture more attention.
Sharing daily work routine. Applicants can visualize their work schedules as well.
Conclusion: Strategies To Use For Successful Hiring On Social Media
As observed, people nowadays are spending more time on social media platforms than before. With the social media strategies explained above, building relationships and connecting to potential hires is possible. Nonetheless, keep in mind that every brand needs a social media strategy, and recruitment strategies are part of its overall plan. Recruitment on social media takes time, it does need a lot of planning-–an ongoing process.
Further, nearly half of the recruiters who use social media recruitment strategies report an improvement in both the number and quality of candidates. Recruiting through social media can be a bit tricky to do right, but when well-executed, there are significant benefits. It’s important to make sure your recruitment strategy is consistent with your sales and marketing strategy. Therefore, it is worth investing time and energy in implementing these strategies and choosing which is the best platform to use.
Further reading: ContactOut’s Definitive Guide to Talent Sourcing