Searching the best talent in your field isn’t always an easy task. If you talk to someone who works in talent acquisition, they will often say that recruiting in today’s market is difficult and more taxing than ever before. Between the increased competition for top talent to shifting expectations of job seekers, firms are pressured to modernize their recruiting strategies.
One of the strong trends in recruiting over the past years has been using social media platforms to convert and attract talent—also known as social recruiting. Many organizations have added social recruiting as one of their strategies to reach an even larger talent pool.
To attract today’s candidates, it’s crucial for businesses to use social media effectively to assist in the recruiting process and efforts. To get the most ROI, recruiting leaders must craft an action plan and stay on top of the latest trends. With that said, here are the best social media recruitment strategies you can use to reach and connect with the right candidates.
Build Your Company’s Online Reputation
Social networking sites and social media tools have revolutionized communication methods, both for personal and professional use. With this, using social media as a recruitment tool is beneficial as it makes the recruitment process more efficient and allows you to attract specific candidates.
Beyond that, social media also enables you to present your business in the best possible light. Thus, the key to successful recruitment is being active online and presenting yourself as an authority figure in your field.
First, you must select the right social media platforms for your business. The potential candidates you are searching for tend to be more socially active on specific platforms. Twitter and Facebook propose outstanding opportunities, but there are still various platforms your company could use. Make an effort to try multiple approaches to see which ones get you tons of engagement and the best results.
Use Live Video Streaming
Once you’ve established your presence on your chosen social media platforms, you’ll want to maximize your time and effort. Live streaming platforms, such as Periscope, offer innovative opportunities for you to interact with an audience such as candidates or professionals within your industry.
Periscope is a live video streaming platform that enables you to give a behind-the-scenes look of your company culture. You can also host Q&A sessions easily. With this type of approach, you can speed up the application process, enhance the quantity and quality of the connections you make, and create the best candidate experience.
Harness the Right Hashtags
Take time to understand and acknowledge the power of the humble hashtags. Hashtags are powerful tools that help you expand the range of your message on particular social media platforms. However, if you can’t find relevant and applicable hashtags, this could be the time that you establish your own and get it trending.
To make that happen, you’ll have to create meaningful and purposeful content that people would want to share. If your hashtags are linked to informative posts, you’ll increase your chances of trending.
LinkedIn Profile
When social recruiting first rose in prominence, LinkedIn was the first platform of choice for candidates and recruiters. LinkedIn is still an excellent source for recruiters to network with others. Aside from being a professional social network, statistics show that 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find high-quality candidates.
As a best practice, you should communicate the types of jobs and industries you recruit for in the first 200 characters of your LinkedIn profile. By doing so, individuals will know that your company is searching for new employees without having to click through to reach your corporate page.
Share Quality Content
Establishing connections with the right people by sharing quality content is a significant step in the recruitment process. If you are sharing content, be it curated content or your own, make sure that what you are sharing isn’t viewed as spam. Pay attention to the questions your readers ask and answer them to keep them engaged.
Social media will not work for you if you don’t offer content that others want to share. Your content has to be useful, entertaining, and engaging. The formats can be anything such as:
- how-to guides
- photography
- videos
- blog posts
- infographics
- podcasts
- images
Use Instagram for Social Recruiting
You don’t have to stick to the more traditional platforms to find quality candidates. The rules of the game are changing when you’re trying to reach Generation Z and millennials. These candidates tend to turn to the internet first to look for information about employers. They also have much more specific preferences and needs than preceding generations.
With that said, it might be time that you add a bit of fun and show an insider’s look at your corporate culture. You can capture pictures around the office, present corporate team building events, and show the work your employees do. By following those steps, you truly start to build connections with the right people who are interested in your company.
Use Multiple Techniques to Keep Potential Candidates Engaged
By following all the strategies above, we hope that you can reach and connect with several quality candidates. Once you’ve made new connections and garnered a following, it’s important to keep top talent engaged online.
Companies really have the opportunity to form a strong connection with the right people on social media. There are several opportunities to keep the engagement levels high. The simplest way would be sending direct messages to the strongest candidates to build your talent pipeline. Sharing information about a particular company and recruitment opportunities regularly is also essential.
Moreover, sharing useful content that is tailored to your audience will also be necessary to keep your network interested. Remember to present yourself in a positive light so that you don’t negatively impact your image and reputation.
Takeaway
Social recruiting and building a quality online presence will take time. Keep in mind that each platform has its own purpose, and they differ to one another. The campaigns that you carry out on Facebook will be different from your LinkedIn presence.
Understanding the specifics and benefits of each platform will help you and your recruitment process. The strategies mentioned above should be enough for you to get inspired to refine and build your own recruiting strategy.
Author’s Bio
Louise Davis is a content writer and a single mom with a 5-year-old daughter. She often loves reading publications about business, accounting, and digital marketing. When not engrossed in writing, Louise visits Flat fee recruitment agency in Vancouver BC to gain insights on the objective of finding the best talent available today to solve the hiring need problem.