Social Media is used by 4.70 billion people in the world -that’s 59% of the population - and is now a tool that people use not only for their personal life but is an instrumental marketing & advertising tool for organisations to market their employer brand.

Traditionally companies have used the opportunity to advertise who they are on job boards and by word of mouth, but with people spending an average of two and a half hours daily on social media in 2022 [Techjury], savvy companies know that social media is where they can showcase who they are and maximise their exposure to their ideal candidates.

Why Social Media is Important in your Recruitment Strategy

The recruitment landscape has changed, with candidates now wanting to know more about the company, culture and team in the context of the job that they are applying for. This means that job-seekers are doing more research than ever before, checking out a company’s profile usually by looking at their website and social media to gather any information they can.

96% of candidates research a potential employer’s reputation before switching jobs - [LinkedIn]

What does this mean? This means that your social media is an important part of your recruitment strategy and an extremely valuable tool in marketing your employer brand! Using social media is a great way to organically build and enhance your employer brand to a wide network of candidates. A stronger employer brand will bring great candidates to you and will cut the time it takes for recruiters and hiring managers to source, ultimately reducing your overall costs!

LinkedIn reported that a strong employer brand can cut recruitment costs by up to 43%!

How to build Social Recruiting into your Recruitment Marketing Strategy

Which Social Platform?

The first port of call is to identify where your ideal candidates are. LinkedIn is the go-to platform for recruiting as the professional social media platform with 13 million people on in Australia, however, depending on your industry and your candidate demographic, you might want to spend time on other platforms too including Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. For example, if your ideal candidates are graduates you might want to look into your presence on TikTok, with 43% of TikTok's global audience being between 18 and 24 years old.

Connect with the right people and build a network

To start your social media recruitment marketing strategy, you first need to have the network there. This means connecting with the right people. As a Hiring Manager/ Recruiter you need to be connecting with the group of people that you want to market your brand to. To do this, you need to understand your candidates’ personas. From here, you can then share your company’s brand.

What to Post on Social Media?

Now you have started building your network with the right people, you can demonstrate your Employer Value Proposition to market your Employer Brand. Anything that gives insights into what it’s like to work at your company means people will feel like they know and trust your brand more and can envision the team that they will be joining.

Examples of things to post include:

• Achievements/awards

• Team events

• Industry updates/news

• Industry specific thought leadership content

• Simple day to day activities such as an insight into a day in the office

• ‘Meet the team’ post of a team member

• Charity/volunteering days

• Culture insights such as ‘bring your dog to work day!’

If you are stuck on what to post, go back to your EVP assessment, remembering the key factors to consider (see our post on Why your EVP Matters!).

Remember that the use of image and video is great when it comes to posting – LinkedIn posts with images get 2x higher engagement! [Hootsuite]

Consistency

Consistency is key in your social recruiting strategy so that people are familiar with your brand. You will not only be reaching people you have connected to, but people within your connections network too! The more regularly you post, the better exposure your brand will have.

The minimum should be 2-3 posts per week. Try mixing it up with diverse content so you don’t run out of ideas! People like to see a mix of industry related and team content! Companies that post weekly see 2x the engagement, while brands that post daily gain even more traction!

Create a seamless candidate experience

Think of your social media as the start of your candidate experience. You want to make it enjoyable and as seamless as possible. To do this, make it possible for candidates to apply for the positions you have in a few clicks.

Employee Advocacy

Content that comes from employees can be impactful to potential candidates as it can feel more relatable. Encourage staff to tell their stories and represent your brand online by recognising those who do.

Social content can be some of the quickest and easiest to produce, especially organic content showing what life is like in your organisation. Through the power of social media, your employer brand can be elevated and should be a key part of your recruitment marketing strategy to find you the right people as well as to cut recruitment costs!