4 Tips for Social Media Recruiting

Posted on September 25, 2012 by author in Best Practices, Talent Acquisition

Social media is a great platform for business. Not just for marketing, but for recruiting as well. With photos, keywords and the right sharing you can attract great employees that you may not have found otherwise.  And, if you aren’t ready to commit to a full social recruit, it’s still an excellent addition to your standard hiring practices.

For example, if you’re utilizing HR software that is designed for recruiting be sure that the social component is integrated in. Software is a smart way to organize your recruits. Still, before you start the hiring, you have to make sure you’re doing all the right things.  So, consider these four tips as you begin social recruiting for your business.

Put Your Best Brand Forward

You want current and potential employees to be attracted to your business brand, as well as your employee brand. With photos, you can showcase your employee brand in a variety of ways. This is not only beneficial in attracting the right people, but getting the wrong ones out of the mix before interviewing. Using Social Media to Recruit Gen Y Workers suggests, “Gen Y job seekers will look at your culture can decide immediately if they would fit in, which saves everyone time.” Just remember to be strategic in your photo use.

• Employee events: Show potential candidates the fun events your company takes part in; charity events, office parties, and the like.
• Employee initiatives: Do you offer a health initiative? Upload photos of healthy events you participate in or office furniture that promotes a healthy lifestyle such as yoga balls or standing desks.

Attract the Right Candidates

Every social media platform has become over-populated, and thus your shares are often watered down by the plethora of other noise around it. In order to reach the right candidates you need to utilize the right tactics.

• Twitter: You want to be sure you’re using strategic words and hashtags.
• Facebook: Mashable suggests including a careers tab on your page.
• LinkedIn: Start discussions about your industry and create groups to engage with potential recruits.

Share Outside Of Your Industry

As with any marketing you do on social media, you want to be sharing about everything within your industry, not just marketing materials focused on selling. To attract candidates, you want to not only share business materials but fun stuff too.  Consider:

• Interesting news stories
• Days of the week shares: Motivation Monday, Tip Tuesday, Hump day Wednesday, Thirsty Thursday.
• Quality information that they’ll benefit from or find interesting such as new stories.

Include Your Current Staff

You already trust your current employees. They work hard, come in on time, and probably have a lot of friends looking for a steady income. While social media recruiting from scratch is valuable, it’s smart to inquire within about potential recruits, as well.

• Share on their pages: Ask, but don’t require, employees to share job openings on their social pages. Give them incentive to share by offering compensation to those who bring in a successful hire.
• Connect with their references: Let your employees be the middle man, and help you get connected with potential candidates.

Using social media to recruit is a great way to get the best candidates for the position. Your reach will far extend that of the standard job sites, especially if you’re looking to hire remote or telecommuting employees. Just be sure you’re using the right tactics to find the right candidates.

Bio: Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer. As the marketing copyeditor of Resource Nation, she touches on a range of topics such as workers compensation and background checks.