Social Recruiting — How to Use Social Media in Recruitment Processes?

The company’s presence in social media is a necessary element in both the Employer Branding strategy and during recruitment processes. Thanks to it, you have the opportunity to communicate with people interested in joining the company, as well as passive candidates. Social media will help you accurately define your target group, and thus reduce the costs of recruitment marketing and recruiter’s working time. It’s also perfect for promoting the company as a friendly workplace.

Social media has a huge database of candidates. It’s also a great source of information when the recruiter wants to learn a little more about the potential employee during the screening process.

You don’t have to be present in all media at once. It is better to focus on one or two portals and ensure the quality and regularity of the shared content. Which social media channel you choose depends largely on the group to which you will target your messages.

If you’re looking for people to enter the job market, TikTok may be a good choice. Young people often publish short films about themselves there, which they often treat as their CVs. TikTok influencers also give young candidates tips to help them get their dream job and how to present themselves well during an interview.

If you are most often looking for experienced specialists, LinkedIn, which brings together professionals, will probably be a better medium. Facebook will also be great and might help in increasing the reach of your messages and engaging employees to recommend the company to your friends.

According to the research conducted by Hootsuite in January 2021, as many as 31.97 million people in Poland use the Internet, which represents 84.5% of the entire population of the country. On the other hand, social media in Poland are used by 25.9 million people, i.e. over 68% of Poles.

Poles aged 16 to 64 spend on the Internet an average of 6 hours 44 minutes a day. Of which 2 hours are spent visiting social media.

In Poland, we most often use Youtube (92.8% of users). Facebook is in second place (89.2%), including Messenger being used by 76.5% of users, Instagram by 60.6% and WhatsApp by 48.2%. Twitter ranks 6th in the ranking and Tik Tok is 9th. On the other hand, LinkedIn took 11th place.

The use of social media in recruitment processes can bring many positive effects.

1. You will increase your reach — due to a large number of users, you will reach a wide audience on social media. You can find there not only candidates who are actively looking for a job, but also those who are passive. Thanks to this, you have a chance to attract more possible candidates.
2. You will reach the right people — social media ads can be adapted to your target group, both in terms of their interests, education and skills.
3. You can freely contact the candidates you are interested in — social media enables a quick exchange of information and reduce the distance in communication between the potential employees and recruiters.
4. You will present your company in a positive light — thanks to having active profiles of your company on different social media channels, you will be able to build the employer’s brand. The candidates will have a chance to get to know your company (and potential co-workers) better and will be able to imagine what working there looks like. As a result, it will be easier for them to decide if they would like to join the organization.
5. You will verify information about the candidate — you will be able to learn more about the candidate before inviting them to an interview, e.g. by visiting their profile on LinkedIn, it will be easier for you to prepare for the interview.
6. You will save time and money — social media allows you to effectively search for the right candidates. It offers many opportunities for free publishing of job advertisements and even sourcing, e.g. by being part of the themed groups. What’s more, you can increase the reach of your messages for free through reactions, comments and shares of posts, e.g. by the current employees.

Recruitment via social media will be a great option at the stage of searching for candidates. You can also use it to find more information about the candidate you want to invite to the meeting.

However, it is not a substitute for the selection process. To accurately verify the candidate’s skills, we should still use personal contact and methods of candidate selection, such as recruitment interviews, tasks, tests or Assessment Centers.

However, at the stage of attracting talent, we should remember that social media has its own rules.

Coherently, but not the same

On the one hand, it is very important in the recruitment strategy to ensure consistency of the communication. All the graphics you publish should be similar so that they can be easily associated with your company.

On the other hand, messages in social media cannot look the same as, for example, an advertisement published on job portals. If you do not deliver a creative message with a lot of conspicuous elements, there is a high risk that your offer will disappear in the maze of posts on the user’s wall. It is good to diversify the forms of communication. Publications should include both text messages, photos, posters, charts and videos.

Social media posts are also characterized by a looser form of communication. It is worth including information about the atmosphere in the company and the benefits for the employees. Only when the candidate becomes interested in our message, you can redirect him to a longer description of the job offer, e.g. by using a link to the website with the said advertisement.

In a few different places

It is worth publishing information and announcements in several places. Depending on the target group, we can, for example, use a company page on Facebook, a profile on LinkedIn and themed groups on both of these portals.

By replying to comments

Reactions and comments may appear below your posts and it is worth answering them. Social media engages the audience much more than other advertising portals. Candidates expect to receive quick answers to their questions regarding the offer, even before they decide to send their CV. Also, check your inbox frequently after posting, as you can have private messages from people interested in the offer.

Consistently

Company profiles on social media should be managed consistently. Audiences quickly get used to receiving new content, so consistent publishing of fresh information will not only allow you to stay in touch with the recipients, but also show that you care for the brand image.

It is also worth ensuring that the company pages are complete. Not only that the “about us” section is filled in, but also the linked profiles of current employees contain up-to-date information. This will allow the candidates to familiarize themselves with their potential colleagues.

For Employer Branding purposes, publishing employee statements will also be great, thanks to that the information provided to the candidates will be more credible.

Articles from the “Social Recruiting” series will appear regularly on our blog.

You will find them in the “ Recruitment “ tab.

Originally published at https://nexttechnology.io on January 14, 2022.