With 97% of Gen Z admitting to social media being their main source of shopping inspiration … it only makes sense that this will trickle into recruitment too.
Recruiting in the modern working world sees popular social media such as LinkedIn and Facebook used to cast the talent sourcing net wider and find more suitable candidates. This is a talent acquisition strategy called social recruiting.
In this article, we explain why social media recruiting is a vital thing to include in your talent attraction process, what the benefits of recruiting via social media are, and what opportunities you can take advantage of when forming a social media recruitment strategy.
- What does social media recruiting mean?
- Why use social recruiting?
- What are the advantages of social recruiting?
- What options are there for social media recruitment?
What does social media recruiting mean?
Simply put, social media recruitment means using social media network platforms to bring in talented candidates and fill roles. It’s a fantastic way to broaden the reach of your job adverts and target a whole different range of qualified candidates who you may not have previously been able to. For a more detailed insight on the definition of
Why use social recruiting?
If you’ve not heard about social media recruiting before, or are only just learning about it, chances are you might be sceptical. Is social media not just used for memes, after all?
Well, let’s take a look at the facts:
The existing ‘skilled labour shortage’ that exists within Europe has increased in severity over the last few years. In Eastern Europe, 42% of companies in construction complained of labour shortages reducing their production potential. Meanwhile, a quarter of surveyed medium-sized businesses across the UK have said staff shortages are affecting their ability to operate as usual.
This skills shortage means that competition for the skilled applicants is rife. Those looking to employ construction workers, web developers and other skilled roles are up against a whole market of other employers looking to fill these roles too. While some larger companies may be able to throw money at this problem, smaller businesses won’t have this option. So, how can they stand out from the crowd and hire the roles they need?
Social media recruitment can help level this playing field, and bring much needed assistance to companies looking to recruit skilled employees.
What are the advantages of social media recruiting?
Attract passive candidates
Currently, the average internet user spends around 145 minutes a day on social media. That makes this an excellent opportunity to attract passive candidates and gain traction, without investing huge amounts of time and money on laborious recruitment campaigns.
Posting a “We’re hiring” social media post is a great way to reach those individuals who may not have even considered a new job before, and get your name and message out to them. If it’s a good enough post, you can pique their interest and start a conversation. This technique gives you an instant edge over your competition, who may only be targeting job boards.
Increased reach
LinkedIn is currently hosting to nearly 800 million members, while Facebook has 1.9 million active users. This is a huge market, and with the right approach, it can be used as a tool to communicate with talented individuals across the globe. Plus, with social media’s popularity among the younger generation, this is a great way to tap this harder-to-reach market.
More diversity
Recruiting from such a huge talent pool that spans across the globe, as well as with such a high number of younger members, means that a lot of recruitment diversity is gained from this strategy. According to the “Diversity Charter,” this is great for your business! Diverse teams not only approach problems with a more holistic view, they also come up with more innovative solutions and are much more effective for reaching new markets and target groups.
Better employer branding
Having social network recruiting as part of your strategy also means that your business will have a more active presence on social media, which will have a positive impact on your employer branding. This is important as it’ll have long-term benefits on your recruitment, as well as the audience you reach with each future post.
What options are there for social media recruitment?
To reach the qualified candidates you want to reach via social recruiting, there are several social media platforms and posting methods to choose from. But whether you’re choosing to announce “We’re hiring” via text, video or an eye-catching graphic, there are a few tools and tricks you can use to make life easier, and broaden your reach:
Utilize multiposting
With the amount of social media platforms available to post your job advert on, you could easily spend hours trawling through them, typing out your ad, readjusting the format and posting it. However, this doesn’t have to be the case.
Tools like JOIN allow you to post job ads on multiple social media channels and job boards simultaneously with just one click. That means you can take care of your LinkedIn, Facebook Jobs, Xing and more, in mere minutes – JOIN even automatically adjusts to the layout of each platform. Multiposting is the magic word here. You can learn more about our effective and time-saving multiposting feature at “our Promote page“. As a bonus, the responses to your job advert will all be managed in one place, too, cutting down on even more time.
Social media posts
These are best used as an extra layer of promotion to your multiposted job advert mentioned above. These posts can be written by a social media manager, marketer or content writer and will allow you to announce to those who already follow you that you’re hiring! As these are completely customisable, it gives you the chance to add your brand’s tone of voice and personality to the message, which will help when attracting the right people.
Talent Sourcing
Another method that can be used when social media recruiting is what is known as “talent sourcing.” This is a much more manual process than the above, as it involves companies specifically searching for, identifying and contacting qualified individuals themselves in order to gradually convert them into active candidates. This is often done via specific ‘career based’ social media, such as LinkedIn, which allows headhunters to see a candidate’s experience and job titles.
As this method is so time-consuming, it is usually reserved for niche roles or positions of a certain seniority. There’s also always a chance that this can backfire, as if utilised too much it can negatively impact employer branding by having the company appear ‘spammy.’
Creating a well-rounded recruiting arsenal
The benefits and opportunities of social media recruiting are undeniable, and if you’re not already forming a strategy, it’s time to step up to the mark. However, that doesn’t mean you should shun all other recruitment platforms. The best way to build a well-rounded team is to have a well-rounded strategy. This means using a good mix of social media recruitment, alongside the more traditional online job boards!
