Using Your Social Media to Boost Recruiting
Just do it! In your effort to locate top talent, get the attention of clients and build your company branding, you need to use all the weapons in your arsenal. Social media have been proven to be a very effective tool you can employ to achieve objectives like the ones mentioned above. However, before you start creating multiple account profiles and going crazy posting valuable content, you need to realize that social media recruiting requires a more strategic approach. Take a look at the tips below on how social media can complement your recruiting and hiring process.
Think Through
When it comes to social media recruiting, the majority of staffing firms make the same mistake. They falsely believe that all they need to do is create company profiles on the most known social media platforms and then randomly post what they perceive as being appealing content. That is not right. Social media offer great opportunities to promote your brand thus you need to think through your approach. Conduct research to determine which platforms your audience prefers to use the most, create an editorial calendar of engaging content that speaks to the needs of your audience and designate who will be responsible for executing your plan. In other words, have a good understanding of your game plan before you put it in action.
Don’t Forget Your Staff
Once you know what your goals are, how you are going to achieve them and who will help you get there, you need to follow one simple rule. Don’t leave your own staff out of your efforts. Social media recruiting is not only the responsibility of the people who design and carry out your strategy. You need to make it a company effort and ensure that everyone stands behind it. Hold regular and brief social media meetings where you remind your employees that it is important to share your content on their personal accounts as a means to increase exposure and draw in more attention to your services. Recruiting through social media must be a collective effort.
LinkedIn
As mentioned above, you need to do research and find where your audience like to spend more time in order to increase your social media presence accordingly. A vey important advice to keep in mind is that LinkedIn must be the flagship of your social media recruiting. The reason is that LinkedIn allows you to leverage your firm’s network as well as the network of your staff and their individual connections. This by definition maximizes exposure and boosts you recruiting efforts. Join industry groups and make sure you share content with them. In addition, post open positions and ask your sales and recruiting teams to re-post them on their personal accounts. Finally, ask applicants, clients and staff to like your company’s LinkedIn profile.
Be Selective
Not everything has to be posted on your social media nor you need to flood your audience with unsolicited information. The secret is to keep a nice balance between what you post and when you post it. Remember that in order for your social media recruiting to be effective, you first need to increase your credibility as an organization and draw the attention of your industry. This means that you need to be selective of what you put out there. Don’t turn your accounts into job boards by simply posting open position after open position but rather keep symmetry with your social media activity to win more followers who can be potential candidates.
Keep Evaluating
Like with everything you do to promote your services and increase brand awareness, your social media recruiting efforts also need to be evaluated on a regular basis in order to produce the results you anticipate. For example, does your audience engage more when you provide a brief description of the open position or they prefer abbreviated postings with links to a job page? Do paid campaigns have better results than regular social media efforts? How many applicants do you receive through each platform? Do blogs with specific topics bring in more candidates? Don’t leave things to luck. Assess your strategy frequently to make it better.
Key Takeaways for Using Your Social Media to Boost Recruiting:
- Be sure to understand thoroughly your social media recruiting strategy
- Make sure your staffing firm staff has an active part in your efforts
- Pay special attention on your LinkedIn efforts
- Keep a balance with your social media activity to boost social media recruiting
- Keep evaluating the results of your social media efforts
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.