Ever heard of social recruitment? 🤷🏽‍♂️ With new generations of digital natives entering the workforce and millennials advancing to higher positions, social media has become increasingly important in the world of recruitment. Let’s take a look! Â
Social (media) recruitment is a method of recruiting where social media platforms are used as talent databases or for online advertising. There’s no exclusive use of social media profiles here though; the website, vacancy page, and blogs of the organisation are also added to the equation in the search for that perfect candidate.Â
Did you know that this method is gaining popularity? Research has shown that 90% of organisations use social media in their recruitment strategy. When done right, it can positively affect your employer branding, candidate engagement, and recruitment results. Pretty good, right?
Absolutely! Thanks to social recruitment, recruiters can target the ideal candidates in that huge candidate pool more precisely. Maybe your dream candidate already has a job and is not actively looking for a new opportunity. These candidates are called passive candidates. With proper targeting, you can reach them via ads on social media and maybe even convince them to apply!
To go about these targeting opportunities effectively, most social media platforms offer their own tools:
Meta allows you to advertise on all channels of the Meta Family: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network. For recruitment ads, you can target based on specific interests and locations with a minimum 15 km range. You can also retarget people who have previously visited your website or interacted with your ads or page.
TikTok isn't just for dance challenges and lip-sync videos, it can also be an effective platform for recruitment ads. With its extensive targeting options, recruiters can reach their desired audience with precision, such as location, specific interests and certain behaviors.
Just like the above-mentioned platforms, LinkedIn also allows for various targeting options. Here you can target based on job-related characteristics, such as job title, years of experience and industry.
If you use a traditional online job board, it can get expensive very quickly. Most websites use the cost-per-click principle: you pay a small amount every time someone clicks on your vacancy. That may not seem so much at first glance, but if 1000 fingers decide to click on that vacancy, the amount to pay will gain zeros as well (ai ai ai). Social recruitment saves you a lot of money; creating accounts on social media platforms is generally free of charge. You pay for online advertising, but the size of that budget is entirely up to you!
Targeting with social recruitment will also speed up the recruitment process. So, we’re done waiting for candidates who may, by chance, come across your vacancy online.
Social media isn’t called social media for grins and giggles. It is, besides targeting candidates, also smart for your organisation to be socially active online. Make an effort to post regularly. A photo here, a video or a blog there… It’s up to you! Try to interact with your followers in the comments. You’ll create a sense of trust with your potential candidates if you’re approachable on social media and available to answer their questions.
You probably know this, but social media is, by far, most often used via smartphone. Make sure that it’s easy to apply via social media platforms, use crystal clear and simple steps, and don’t ask the candidate to upload their CV (nobody has got that saved on their smartphone!). If you do, you’re risking your candidates to drop out early, and you want to avoid that at all costs! If you refer your candidate to your own vacancy page, your website should be entirely mobile-friendly. Absolutely no scrolling from left to right! 🤳🏼
Well then! Hopefully, you’ll have a better idea of what social recruitment is and how it can add to your recruitment strategy. Are you ready to go social?