More and more businesses are currently utilising social media platforms as a tool in order to help them in their process to match up the best candidates with the right roles. However, it's become a well-known fact that social media can raise a lot of issues within recruitment, with many different factors that need to be considered before you even start. In this blog, we decided to delve into how you can effectively use social media platforms whilst hiring to bring you the best results in such a competitive market.
With social media being so popular within recruitment, this brings along some issues within the hiring process - will discrimination issues emerge whilst using it as a screening tool? How representative of the applicant pools are these social media platforms? It's extremely clear that social media won't ever be the one and only tool used in a successful recruitment strategy, however, when being used within a long term strategy, it can definitely be used as a tool to attract strong, highly-skilled candidates.
The top social media platforms used by recruiters are currently LinkedIn, Facebook and also Twitter. Studies show that LinkedIn leads with 94% of recruiters using this specific platform, followed by Facebook at 47%, and Twitter at 44% - but what are these recruiters using social media for?
While using social media to source candidates and also as a screening tool may work in the short term, having a strong online presence for your company is a far better long-term strategy. Becoming a consistent voice and the 'go-to' place for information, you'll start getting noticed a lot more by the top talent. If your business has made the most out of using social media, by the time you're ready to post your latest job opportunity, you should have a pool of enthusiastic candidates ready and waiting for you.
It's extremely important to acknowledge that whilst many recruiters use social media as a way to find their candidates and even use it as a screening tool, it also works the other way around. In a recent survey, nearly half of job candidates have used social media on their search for their most recent job - so if your media platforms aren't up to the standard that they should be, you may be putting off some of the better candidates for your latest roles.
With that being said, the key takeaway is that using social media platforms for recruiting is about so much more than just simply posting your latest job openings. Building your brand and attracting talent is essential when using social media. You need to make it apart of your long-term strategy, and with our lives becoming increasingly digital, deciding to not invest time and effort into your social media can leave you with the risk of being left behind in comparison to your competitors in the market - with that being said, how can you make the most out of using social media?
Top Tips:
Optimising Your Company LinkedIn Profile
For many businesses, LinkedIn is the main priority - it acts as an invaluable tool for getting your business ahead of others that work within the same industry and it also provides great opportunities to share new and exciting company developments. To do this, you need to make sure that your brand page is fully completed, so for anyone who comes across your page, they will know exactly who you are and what you're about. Active jobseekers will also be able to see straight away whether they're interested or not whilst having your business stand out to the passive jobseekers who may be the perfect fit.
Once your LinkedIn is up and running, it's extremely important that you don't neglect your other platforms. The networks that you're likely to turn to next will be Facebook and Instagram, but you shouldn't pass over more niche networks if they're relevant to your industry. It's great to keep in mind that it's better to have an excellent presence on one platform, rather than putting your brand on multiple different accounts that you struggle to maintain.
Knowing Your Audience
With millennials making up the largest generational portion of today's workforce, it's extremely crucial that you understand how they operate online. Research has made it evident that what this generation looks for in employment has since evolved from the more traditional requirements of long-term commitment and a great retirement package - whereas now, job satisfaction along with a sense of purpose is a lot more important to jobseekers.
If you want your online presence to really call out to this generation, your company values and goals need to be extremely clear in everything that you post. You will also need to make sure it's obvious how much your business values its workers, whilst highlighting the opportunities your company can offer with personal development.
Consistency
Consistency is one of the most important factors. There have been many instances with plenty of corporate social media accounts, where they started off posting plenty of quality content for consecutive months before running out of content and going silent. This can be really off-putting to potential candidates who are trying to find out more about the business.
Creating a plan that includes a regular posting schedule is crucial. You need to make sure that you consider how much time it takes to create the content that you want to post. It could be a good idea to start off with a couple of high quality posts a week and gradually scheduling more through out time, instead of posting every single day and quickly becoming frustrated due to the lack of time and resources.
Maintaining your visibility is another factor that's highly important, whether that's setting time aside to log on often to see what's happening, responding to questions, messages and comments and also checking up on the top hashtags and profiles for any new discussions that could be relevant to you and your company - this will all help to maintain your visibility and make an effort with those connections that count.
Showcasing Your Company Culture
Ensuring that the cultural fit is right for a new recruit has an essential part to play, whether the hire is successful or not. Social media platforms are a great place to show people what it's like to work for a company and your best brand ambassadors will be your current employees - getting your employees involved will help to reveal what it's like to work for your company on the typical day-to-day basis.
Whether you encourage your employees to post on their own profiles or help to produce content for your corporate accounts, this has the potential to add a more personal perspective, which can make your content feel a lot more genuine.
Following these tips will help you to be well on your way to building a stronger social media presence, which is crucial to any brand. Showcasing your company online, whilst engaging in the top topics of the day, you'll start to gain some traction with some of the best candidates out there. Although effectively using social media isn't a key hiring strategy itself, making a plan and working efficiently on your brand online can make engaging the right candidates a lot easier when it comes to hiring.