How to Take Advantage of Social Media in Hiring

When it comes to recruiting candidates you probably think you’ve done everything you can. You’ve written concise and compelling job descriptions, posted open positions on your company website, asked employees to submit referrals, and you may have even partnered with an agency to help you find your next great hire. However, one valuable recruitment tool you may be overlooking is social media. Social recruiting has become increasingly popular in recent years It’s time to use it to your advantage. By adding social media to your recruitment strategy, you can attract active and passive candidates, target your specific and ideal talent pool, showcase your employer brand and company culture, easily screen candidates, and save on recruiting costs.

Attract Passive Candidates

Advertising job vacancies purely on job boards, unfortunately, limits your reach to those who are searching for new roles. According to a survey, 73% of candidates are passive job seekers making it that much more important to source top talent and encourage them to join your company, rather than the other way around. Social media has become an essential tool for tapping into that sought-after pool of potential candidates who aren’t actively seeking a new role but would be open if the right opportunity came along.

Showcase Your Employer Brand

An appealing employer brand has become one of the best ways of attracting and retaining top talent and an online presence has become a must in this digital world. Creating an engaging presence on social media can significantly boost your employer brand by promoting your values, mission, and company culture. Promote your employer brand and company culture in a way where candidates will want to be a part of it. You can do this by composing content about your employees, office and working environment, team events, perks and benefits, and other attractive aspects of your organization.

Target Specific Talent Pools

Thanks to social media’s diverse range of specific groups, filters, and hashtags, utilizing these platforms for recruitment can bring in higher quality candidates. Some social media platforms allow you to set advanced search filters that align with your ideal candidate and can set this criterion based on location, industry, and specific keywords. Apart from filters, these platforms also offer targeted advertising. This means ads can be designed to target candidates that are within your parameters helping you find the right talent pool and receive better applications.

Screen Your Candidates

Social media isn’t just a great asset for advertising your vacancies, but also a tool you can use to screen candidates. When assessing a candidate’s application, you get insight into their skills, previous experience, and personal qualities, but with social media, you can also check for alignment with your company culture and values. Taking a look at their profiles will provide you with a glimpse into their interests, hobbies, as well as the kind of content they’re posting and engaging with. This will give you a better understanding of your candidate and if they’re the right fit for your organization.

Save on Recruiting Costs

Recruitment marketing can be extremely expensive, especially when you’re advertising on multiple channels. Though some features on social media do cost money, such as paid advertising, creating a social media page is completely free, and social ads are available for any budget. The efficiency and low time to hire of social recruitment can save you money overall, so why not take advantage of social media platforms? Just remember to track and report your insights to see which platform is the most effective for you.