Social Recruiting: 5 Tips To Help Attract Top Talent

One of the biggest transformations in recruiting over the past couple of years has been the heightened use of social media to attract and retain talent. This strategy has been so successful that it has even adopted its own buzzword - ‘Social Recruiting’. 

What does ‘Social Recruiting’ really mean? 

The phrase refers to various ways of using social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc, and websites (blogs, forums, and job boards) to search for, attract and hire talent. 

It is now seen as a vital part of recruitment marketing. And, it goes much further than just posting the latest vacancies to your social accounts. You can use it to search for potential talent and build long-lasting, meaningful relationships. 

Why is social recruitment important? 

Let's take a look at some statistics which showcase exactly why you should utilise this marketing strategy as a recruiter.

• According to a Career Builder survey, 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates during the hiring process. 
• A study by Aberdeen Group, found that 73% of millennials (18-34 years) found their last job on social media.

Considering these statistics, this indicates that social recruiting isn’t just an emerging marketing strategy for recruiters. Instead, it is deeply ingrained in the workflow of recruiters and expectations from jobseekers. 

Social strategies apart from delivering expectations to candidates offer a range of other benefits.

Some of which include: 

• Allows you to target your ideal candidates as well as tapping into the younger, tech-savvy professionals. 
• Enables you to connect and engage with potential candidates as well as passive professionals.
• Allows you to build an online personality and employer brand image for your company. As well as giving you the tools to curate and publish content, engage and share with others.
• Most importantly save money!

Tips to make social recruiting easier 

Below we have gathered some tips, which are designed to provide guidance on creating and executing a great social recruiting strategy. The process you follow as an organisation and the tactics you adopt will vary depending on your goals, resources available, and strategic priorities. 

Keeping that in mind, here are some tips:

1. Optimise your LinkedIn company page for search 

The text on your LinkedIn company page is more important than you think. The platform uses the copy you write for your description to help people find you. On top of this Google uses the text from LinkedIn pages to decide where they’ll show in the search results.  

• Write a brief but to the point main message - This is because when your company LinkedIn page shows up in Google search results, the search engine only shows the first 154 characters. Hence, why it is important to focus on the message you want to convey to your audience. 
• Fill out your description - your description is all searchable text for Google, so you want to optimise it for SEO as much as possible. You will want to include keywords that your audience will use to search for your business on Google. 
• Always fill out the ‘company specialities’ section. 

2. Define your strategy for recruiting passive and active candidates 

For both passive and active candidates, as a recruiter, it is your job to have different tactics and strategies in place to successfully engage with both groups of professionals. 

For active candidates: 

• Post job ads to your social media channels will help to generate interest and reach a large number of people 
• Get your team involved - create a slack channel and share your posts with your colleagues for them to repost to their social channels. Allowing your posts to reach a larger audience of job seekers. 
• Keeping check of the SEO on your social pages. You can optimise your posts and job ads for search. Making it easier for active job seekers to find your posts.

Contrarily, reaching out to passive candidates can take a bit more work on your side. Meaning more active outreach and engaging content is needed. Here are some examples of content you could create:

• Hopping on the video bandwagon. This type of content is attention-grabbing and will reach more people. 
• Create content that showcases your employer brand and values as a company. When candidates relate and align themselves with your values they will be more likely to respond. 
•  Making sure to be active on LinkedIn and post regularly. Joining different groups and communities to engage, respond to conversation, and start conversations with passive candidates.  

3. Create and share organic content 

As a recruiter, you want the social media presence of your brand to attract the best talent to your open job vacancies. You want to develop a great reputation for yourself and your business, by creating compelling organic content. This is one of the biggest advantages of social recruiting. Being able to use your social profiles to broadcast messages for your company. 

Content marketing is an impressive force in leveraging your company's presence, helping you stand out from your competitors and stay relevant.

When creating your own organic content here are some pointers to keep in mind: 

• Always start with an attention-grabbing, strong headline 
• Make your content actionable 

By actionable content, we mean content that gives the reader a sense of how to apply the information. The content should provide assurance that they know how to use the content. For example, blog posts that include ‘top tips’ are always popular with audiences. 

• Provide your audience with answers to FAQ’s

When people read a blog, view an infographic, watch a video, or read a post, they are most likely looking for an answer to gain knowledge on a particular subject. Making your content easy to read and take in is also important. 

• Enhance your communication by adding images and video 
• Be accurate when sourcing your information

It is important that any statistic you include in your blog, or content can be verified. The best way to show accuracy is to link from your blog straight to the statistic and source. Remember… accuracy builds trust with your readers. 

• Upload regularly and follow a content calendar

Running a successful blog is a commitment. If you're not uploading regularly, readers will start to drop off. It is said that sites posting more frequently receive a stronger influx of visitors. 

4. Utilising the right social media recruiting tools 

Here are the best social media recruiting tools, best utilised by recruiters:

• LinkedIn 
• CRM Platform  
• Facebook 
• Twitter 
• Instagram 
• Social Media Management Tool 

Alongside this...

Understanding the social platforms you are using 

Knowing your social platforms inside out is needed when carrying out a successful social recruiting strategy. Each social channel has its strengths and weaknesses, as well as offering different functionalities and opportunities for recruiters. 

Let’s start with LinkedIn; the most popular amongst recruiters and hiring managers. The platform is no doubt the most effective professional networking site for connecting with potential candidates. It is seen as less time-consuming, more targeted, and streamlined than online job boards.  

Facebook on the other hand can be seen as more personal than business-focused. But the pro’s of the platform is that it has the largest audience. Its widespread use provides greater opportunities for recruiters to connect with job seekers. The key to making it work is making your page attractive and engaging. When developing a talent community on Facebook; consistency, engagement, high-quality content, and personality are key.   

With 15.25 million Twitter users in the UK alone, chances are a high percentage of your talent pool is actively using the platform. The platform is effective for starting and engaging in candidate conversations around viral topics. As well as being a place to provide answers and support to potential professional candidates. 

And lastly, we come to Instagram. Believe it or not, the platform's visual appeal will help you to attract both passive and active candidates, and help boost your employer branding at the same time. Yes, a large proportion of users on the platform are millennials, but even if they aren’t your target audience, Instagram can attract all ages. With the level of industry competition currently, Instagrams visual format enables users to consume content fast. 

5. Determine your goals and success metrics 

Before you start any new social recruiting strategy, it is always a good idea to establish what your goals are going to be and what kind of success you want from the content you are producing. 

• Are you looking to connect with passive or active candidates? 
• Or are you more focused on building a strong and engaging brand for yourself or business? 

Once your goals have been determined, deciding on the metrics you will use to measure your success is the next step. Then keep track of your metrics and use dip points to help you optimise your content and receive even more success. 

Conclusion:

There we have it! As you can see the benefits of social recruiting are great! As workforces continue to shift their strategies towards being more digital, social recruiting tactics are set to become the number one way recruiters interact with candidates. 

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