What’s the best way to get noticed by job seekers? Monster? Glassdoor? Indeed? If you want to stand out from the competition and start reaching new talent, you’ll need to take a different path.
While recruiters across the industry talk incessantly about how to attract new candidates, social media offers blue-collar companies unrivaled opportunities to reach them by the millions. And not just reach them but hire them too.
Now more than ever, recruitment is taking the form of marketing—marketing the opportunities and benefits of working with your organization. Your brand shows job seekers what it’s like to be on your team. Like it or not, your business expresses its value to applicants throughout the hiring process, and social media plays a significant role in how your brand’s message comes across. A strong brand impacts whether a qualified candidate will decide to join your team—or work with a competitor instead.
Other than a minor time commitment, social media recruiting can be free. And you can reach those passive candidates that would have never seen your posting on Indeed or Glassdoor. So, what message are you sending on social media?
How Social Media Entices Candidates
Today, job seekers rely on social media to search for new jobs. With over 3.6 billion people worldwide using some type of social media, there’s no denying the impact of social media on candidates. What’s stopping you from using social media to recruit new talent?
To get noticed by the right candidates, you need to connect to the communication channels they’re using. Then, you need to use captivating messaging to cut through the noise.
Your main goal is to show candidates what it’s like to work with your organization—from your company culture to the employee experience. With social media, you can help candidates learn more about the ins and outs of your company.
Behind-the-scenes posts and employee stories build trust, positioning you as a talent magnet in the industry. When job seekers realize the benefits of working for your organization, you’ll start attracting more skilled, qualified candidates. Plus, social media gives you exclusive access to the passive candidates that aren’t searching job boards.
In 2017, over 84% of organizations were recruiting via social media, with another 9% planning to do so. Of those organizations, 82% reported that recruiting passive candidates was their top reason for social media recruitment. What does that mean for your strategy? If you’re new to social media recruiting, you’re going to need to go the extra mile to gain a competitive edge.
Ignite Your Social Media Recruitment Strategy
Is your company wasting time, money, and resources on its social media recruitment strategy? If you’re not up to speed on the best social media practices, your brand is going to suffer. How else are you going to connect with skilled workers?
To use social media to your full advantage, you need to fuel your recruitment strategy with calculated social media posts and curiosity-provoking communication, including:
1. Employee Stories
Internal storytelling isn’t new, but sharing employee stories on social media is one of the best ways to give candidates a glimpse into your company culture. According to LinkedIn, candidates trust the company’s employees 3x more than the company to provide credible information on what it’s like to work there.
But how can your organization use employee stories authentically? And how can you maximize your social media recruitment efforts with internal storytelling?
Employee stories offer endless potential for creating an attractive workplace culture. Provide opportunities for all employees to tell their stories, and encourage employee-generated content. This is key to creating organic employee stories (and driving talent acquisition).
The best way to promote employee storytelling? Make employee stories part of your workplace culture. This isn’t just valuable to your current employees—it also informs new hires that your brand genuinely cares about your employees.
Some ways to showcase your organization’s commitment to storytelling include:
- Talking about employee stories during orientations
- Sharing employee stories on social media and corporate accounts
- Adding employee stories to company handbooks
- Showcasing employee spotlights on social media (How long have they been working for your organization? What milestones have they achieved? What about their personal interests?)
- Encouraging employee-generated content (i.e., pictures from company events, employee-written blog posts)
2. Behind-the-Scenes Work and Case Studies
Social media recruiting requires companies to adopt a fresh, new perspective on content. If you’ve been using social media for years, shifting your mindset isn’t going to come easy. So, how can you integrate recruitment into your social media strategy?
The answer is simple: Start sharing your work. You don’t have to hide unfinished projects behind a veil of secrecy anymore. In today’s digital age, every one of your employees has a smartphone, and they can instantly share their lives online at any time.
In addition to behind-the-scenes pictures and videos, make sure you’re using social media to share case studies of your finished projects. This way, you’re giving potential candidates an insider look at your company that they can’t find anywhere else. By positioning your brand as relatable and approachable, you’ll build trust among candidates. In turn, you’ll be one step closer to finding the right person for the job.
Afraid of exposing your trade secrets? Chances are, your main competitors already know all about your company’s biggest secrets through word of mouth. Remember: your competitive advantage isn’t your materials, equipment, or tech—it’s your people.
3. Current Job Openings
When you leverage social media to your advantage, you can get creative with your job postings. By sharing or advertising job openings on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can increase your chances of finding skilled candidates faster. That’s because social media helps you:
- Post and share your jobs for free. That’s right—you don’t have to sacrifice any of your recruitment budget to share job openings on social media. Just update your Facebook status to share your job posting with candidates, at no cost. When people share your posts with their friends, you’ll increase your reach exponentially with minimal effort.
- Create targeted ads. Social media recruitment is free, but you can boost your job’s visibility with paid ads on LinkedIn and Facebook. Why pay to advertise? You’ll get advanced targeting options, so you can target candidates who have the skills and background you’re looking for.
- Captivate passive candidates. Passive candidates are candidates who aren’t actively searching for a new job but are open to opportunities. They’re probably not visiting job boards, but they’re still scrolling through Facebook, which gives you the perfect opportunity to sweep them off their feet with a great job opportunity.
- Build an enticing employer brand. Unlike traditional job boards, you don’t need a formal job description on social media. But what does this mean for your brand? Use this opportunity to highlight your company culture, showcase your workspace, and show candidates what it’s like to work with you.
What About Your Value Proposition?
No matter what industry you’re in, you need to make sure you have a great story to tell—and you need to tell your story better than the competition is telling theirs. Your social media posts should show candidates your employer value proposition. So, how can you show candidates what’s in it for them?
Above all else, candidates want answers. Why should they work for your organization? Showcase your company culture to start attracting talent. Ask your employees for “endorsements” by encouraging them to like or share your content. And make sure you’re regularly posting job openings on social media—this shows that talent acquisition is a top priority for your company.
Streamline Your Recruitment Process With Social Media
Social media is gaining traction in the recruitment process, and this is only going to increase in the coming years. Regardless of your current social media presence, it makes sense to take full advantage of the power of social media recruiting.
So, what are you waiting for?
Start using social media to capture the attention of your future workforce with enticing, engaging messaging. Schedule a discovery call to transform your recruitment process and start finding skilled, qualified candidates.
