How to Use Social Media for Job Search Recruiting

Introduction

In a day and age when social media is all the rage, it is not unusual to find the recruitment industry increasing its dependence on it. With all sorts of people being a part of the online community at large, recruiting through social media becomes an easy task. As per a study, 92% of recruiters find it a favourable option. And why not? Millennials and Gen Z, who form the major chunk of the present active workforce, are largely dependent on social media for communication and socialization. Let’s understand how to use social media for job search.

Generally speaking, social media recruiting refers to the practice where both active and passive prospective employees are attracted by companies by making use of social media. LinkedIn is one such site that was created solely for professionals. The one thing that sets this form of recruitment apart from the others is the fact that it allows direct communication between the recruiter and the candidates. A recruiter always searches for the perfect fit and what better way to find them than by engaging with them directly. 

How to Use Social Media for Job Search

Before reaching out to candidates and helping them in their job search, a recruitment agency or a job portal must follow some strategies that target prospective candidates. Let’s understand how to use social media for job search.

• Create an Online Presence

Using social media websites to create an image of yourselves in the minds of candidates is the best and easiest marketing strategy. While your work ethics and success will help in bringing in people, your online image will create an emotional bond in the minds of candidates. Different sites should be leveraged differently to optimize maximum interaction. 

You can use LinkedIn to share updates and the latest media coverage of your company. You can also highlight your employees and their achievements over the past years. The aim is to keep it professional. On a lighter front, you can use Facebook to post articles or blogs related to your company. Similarly, you can also use Twitter to post live updates. Instagram could be your “fun zone”. It can be a place to highlight the fun aspects of working in your company. Make sure that the content shared by you is fresh and original to garner more interest. 

Potential candidates, both active and passive, should have an idea of what working in your company means. A good working atmosphere lures candidates like no other. 

• In-Depth Targeting on Social Media

While building a social face is important, you need to target specific skill sets that you are looking for in candidates for your company. Facebook allows you to choose from educational qualification, age, gender, and more, which will let you choose from among the perfect candidates. LinkedIn targets location and Skill, so you would be required to select the most efficient Skill keywords required for the job. On Twitter, targeting conversation threads or interests would get you good results. 

Apart from these, niche networks would surely bring in exactly the type of candidates you are in search of. If you are looking for a good developer, you can go to StackOverflow or GitHub. If it is a marketer you are on the lookout for, you can go to Moz. 

• Involve Your Employees 

Your current employees can help by creating their content that revolves around your company. Recruiting involves getting as many people to know about it as possible, and your employees will help in doing that. A recommendation from someone working at the same company would create an interest in the candidate. A report claims that information spreads 561% more when shared by employees than by the company itself.  

Benefits of Social Media Recruiting

While building an online presence takes time and energy, the benefits it poses are manifold:

• You can reach passive candidates. Most people settle down in their jobs and stop looking for new opportunities. A social advertisement would show them the possibilities and hopefully turn them into active participants. 
• Prospective candidates would find you directly accessible through Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp for Business. They could then contact your company and discuss profiles or available opportunities. 
• You could screen the candidate without even reading his resume. Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to view the educational qualifications and work history of an individual. 
• Since social media allows you to gauge the thoughts and ideas of an individual. You can see for yourself if the candidate is a good culture fit for your company or not. While competency is an important aspect of an employee, an outstanding personality is equally important. 
•  It is an extremely cost-effective strategy, and the money saved could then be reverted towards other departments. 

Examples of Companies using Social Media for hiring

Despite all the pros, you might still have second thoughts about social recruitment. If so, you might want to re-think as some of the biggest companies have successfully used it over the years, some of which are-

• Taco Bell

Taco Bell does not merely operate through Facebook and Twitter, but also through less popular sites such as Pinterest. While the restaurant chain itself is pretty popular, its presence in a wide variety of platforms means more reach thus, making the circle of candidates bigger.

• Sodexo

The world’s 20th largest employer, Sodexo made use of the fact that a majority of social media users spend more time on their phones than on their desktop. Therefore, it drove traffic towards its mobile app where candidates can search for and apply to jobs. The use of the mobile space led to an extension of its hiring network. 

• Disney 

Disney uses the dream-like quality about it to its advantage. It highlights employees and creates an atmosphere through its social media outlets, which makes applicants believe that they could follow their desires in the company. The consideration of employees’ passions and showcasing this aspect through their Twitter handle makes it favourable for prospective candidates.  

• Marriot

With over a million likes on its Facebook page, Marriot uses personalized conversations. Candidates find their queries answered by real-time employees of the hotel in “Career Chats”. It lends a human touch to the whole recruitment process.  

Similarly, countless companies make use of social recruitment- UPS, Home Depot, Nestle, Zappos, Dell and many more. 

How to Use Social Media for Job Search – Final Thoughts

Well, we have learned how to use social media for job search. In case you want to set up a job board or a recruiting website from scratch, the first thing that you need to focus on is having a massive repository of updated jobs. That’s where JobsPikr comes in. The fully automated job discovery tool is one of the many industries-specific web scraping service by our team at PromptCloud that helps companies use data to get ahead of their competition.