Top 5 Social Media Recruiting Strategies

Did you know 92% of recruiters use social media as part of their hiring strategy?

The reason for such a high percentage is simple: the majority of today’s workforce live online. We’ve reached the point where social media recruiting is no longer a gimmick by quirky companies – but a must-have strategy to fill in the gaps of the modern workforce.

As a recruiter in the digital age, you simply must direct more effort into social media. If that’s your plan, here are five social media recruiting strategies to help you crush it and find your next candidate.

Polish your company’s online presence

Get this: 59% percent of employees say a company’s social media presence was part of the reason they chose their workplace.

How your company presents itself online can make or break your social recruiting success. There’s no room for blurry profile pictures, walls of corporate jargon, or missing descriptions. Regardless of which social media network you’re using, here are a few key tips to nail your profile.

• Include keywords relevant to your company in all your descriptions. Google indexes these texts so it’s a good idea to make them searchable.
• Humanise your company. Candidates want to connect with humans, not faceless corporations. Use a personable brand voice and try to incorporate humour to boost engagement (where applicable).
• Add custom images to your profiles to attract more views. You can use free tools like Snappa or Canva to whip up designer-like images in less than 30 mins.
• Highlight any charitable or humanitarian efforts your company is passionate about. Nearly two-thirds of millennials lean towards companies that have a ‘higher purpose’.

Publish relevant content, often

When candidates nosey your company profile they want to see an active feed packed with engaging posts. This shows them that the company is responsive and cares about their audience.

Alternatively, if they find a lonely profile page with a single post dating back to November 2015, that’s probably the end of the road for them. Make a habit of posting good content at least once a week.

Ideally, said content should showcase your team and company culture to help candidates decide whether they’d fit in. Content with images is 650% more likely to be viewed, so post photos of happy people at work, team outings, individual accomplishments, fun moments from company events, etc.

The goal with this kind of content is to hype up the company and show candidates it’s worth pursuing a position there. It also serves to attract passive candidates.

Use popular hashtags

Hashtags add searchability to your posts. People actually do go to Twitter and search for things like #TechJobs to see what pops up. If you’re skipping the hashtags, you’re losing countless opportunities to connect with interested candidates.

Dig a little to discover which hashtags your audience uses and which are broadly popular so your posts can be viewed by more job seekers. A good (free) tool for this is Hashtagify, but you can also find popular hashtags manually using the search bar in each social platform.

To cover all your bases when posting a job opening, include the following types of hashtags:

• Job role hashtag (#Marketer)
• Location hashtag (#Perth)
• Broad hashtag (#job, #career, #jobsearch, etc.)

It’s also a good idea to brainstorm a new hashtag that’s unique to your company. This way candidates can click on it and view all your other job postings. Try to make it memorable, but it could also be as simple as #[company name]Jobs.

Word to the wise: Posts with too many hashtags get ignored. Limit yours to 3 – 4. Remember that online less is always more.

Join the conversation

Posting quirky statuses and using memes in your job posts will only get you so far. If you really want to connect with the right candidates, you’ll have to dive deeper into the online realm.

LinkedIn is the most popular platform for recruiting due to the hoards of professionals virtually at your fingertips. There are dozens of groups you can join, countless threads you can comment on, and a pool of people you can network with to increase your chances of getting a response later on.

But before sending them that connection request and leaving a generic message, check out our post on 5 Lesser-Known Ways to Find Prospects on LinkedIn.

You should also take a peek at our post on how to avoid generic recruiting so you can stand out and easily nab that candidate.

But don’t limit your efforts to LinkedIn. Twitter, Facebook, and even Snapchat and Instagram are also productive places to initiate conversations and touch base with the right people. Find the channels that best suit your company’s identity and go all in. The more active you are, the more chances you’ll have to connect with candidates.

Automate prospecting

Automating your recruitment prospecting with a decent platform can give you back precious scouting time. With the right tool, you can zero in on the best candidates for the job in minutes instead of scrolling through LinkedIn for hours.

Triggr is a platform that helps recruiters identify and connect with top talent at scale. You can also download the results in a .CSV to plug into your CRM and marketing systems. If you’d much rather spend your time engaging with candidates and filling in job roles than hunting for talent online, use Triggr.

Interested? Sign up for your free Triggr account or chat with us to learn more.