Amanda Brown

The term ‘social recruitment’ has gradually seeped into business language as recruitment and HR departments take advantage of social media platforms and online forums for sharing career opportunities. According to research from Cybercrew, the average amount of time spent on social media is 102 minutes a day. Sharing job opportunities on platforms where potential candidates are already active makes good business sense.

Recruiting via social media helps reach a younger audience who expect a strong online presence from companies. In addition, a company may attract passive candidates who are not actively seeking new opportunities and also sharing career-related posts helps to improve the reputation a company has as an employer – their employer brand.

In a hard-pressed labour market, with shortages across many sectors, from professional services through to hospitality, employers are keen to use every avenue possible to attract high quality candidates, and social media adds to the mix.

Organic social recruitment

The term ‘organic’ social media refers to the posting of updates to company pages and personal profiles free of charge. Simply post a description of the vacancy, accompanied by an image or video, and a link to the careers page on the website. LinkedIn and Twitter are the platforms of choice for B2B organisations, whereas Facebook pages and groups are invaluable for local jobs, and for the B2C market, Instagram may be the social media site of choice.

These job-related posts can be amplified using social media advocacy whereby current employees reshare them with their own personal, online networks. According to LinkedIn, the network of a company’s workforce is 10 times that of the LinkedIn company page, and some employees may have several thousand connections.

If the manager of the company’s LinkedIn page uses the ‘Notify employees’ function, employees are notified of the post the HR or recruitment department wants to share. Regular communications between the marketing department and those responsible for recruitment will ensure the jobs posts are timely.

Having a current employee record a short video about their experience of working in a company is a very powerful draw for applicants and a cleverly scripted video can be reused in multiple situations.The video taken on a smartphone or, if budget allows, one that is professionally produced.

#Hiring

For active LinkedIn users involved in the recruitment process, adding the #Hiring outer ring to their profile picture is a simple way to indicate that there are career openings.

Adding hashtags to posts is also advisable as candidates frequently use them as search terms when looking for job opportunities. It is therefore worthwhile spending time researching which ones are most popular in specific industry sectors and for different roles.

Paid social recruitment

In addition to sharing posts in the usual way, launching an advertising campaign, where adverts are listed in the news feeds of social media users, is another alternative. Using the targeting and filters available on the social media advertising platforms means that adverts are only shown to highly relevant audiences. ‘Stopping the scroll’ by using eye-catching images or video helps the advert to shine out on the screen.

Another ‘paid-for’ route is LinkedIn’s jobs’ listing function which allows candidates to search for and apply directly on the platform.

In conclusion, whether the organic or paid route is chosen, having up-to-date, enticing company profiles on all social media platforms is an essential part of being a successful social recruiter. Regular posting of content which demonstrates the company values their employees will help attract high-quality candidates, reduce the cost of recruitment and speed up the hiring process.