In today’s highly competitive job market, simply posting open roles online is no longer enough to attract top candidates. However, you can open up a world of possibilities by understanding the potential of leveraging social media to enhance your employer brand and amplify your recruitment marketing efforts. When used strategically, social platforms can give your organization a powerful edge in attracting, engaging, and hiring exceptional talent.
Why Use Social Media for Employer Branding?
Social Media is a great space to connect with top candidates and show why they should work for you. Don’t just take our word for it -let’s dive into some data:
- In the US, six people are hired every minute on LinkedIn,
- 90 job applications are submitted on LinkedIn every second, and
- 54% of Gen-Xers and 68% of Millenials will look at your social media accounts before applying for the role.
Building an employer brand on social media is paramount in today’s job market. Neglecting these channels means squandering chances to connect with potential hires, maintain a consistent influx of top-tier talent, and expedite filling vacant positions. The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates the advantages of cultivating a robust online employer presence.
Build Your Social Presence
The first step is to ensure your organization has an active presence on key social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok (if that fits your target audience). These channels provide opportunities to showcase your company culture, values, and mission. Share photos and videos that give candidates a glimpse into what working at your organization is like. Celebrate team achievements, community involvement, and employee milestones. Building a vibrant social presence helps humanize your employer brand.
A recent Glassdoor study found that users are 44 percent more likely to engage with brands that post pictures or videos than brands that don’t and 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search.
Capitalize on Employee Advocacy
Your employees are not just workers but your best brand ambassadors on social media. Encourage them to share company updates, job postings, and employer branding content through their personal networks, especially on LinkedIn. Their testimonials and endorsements resonate strongly with potential candidates. Consider implementing a formal employee advocacy program with shareable content and incentives for participation, empowering them to contribute to your employer brand.
Target Specific Audiences
Social platforms’ advanced targeting capabilities enable you to get laser-focused with your recruitment ads. Define your ideal audiences based on skills, job titles, industries, interests, locations, etc. Leverage tools like LinkedIn’s audience forecasting to refine your targeting even further. This precision lets you put your open roles before the most qualified passive and active candidates.
Share a Steady Stream of Content
Beyond job postings, share a consistent stream of content that appeals to your target candidates. This could include industry news and trends, career advice, skills-building resources, behind-the-scenes videos, and more. Such content helps position your organization as a thought leader and authoritative voice. It also encourages engagement, giving you organic opportunities to begin conversing with interested candidates.
Try to be consistent with your posting schedule.
Analyze and Optimize
Like any marketing channel, measuring and optimizing your social media recruitment tactics is critical. You can gain valuable insights by studying performance metrics like audience demographics, engagement rates, cost-per-click, and source of hire. Play around with various content types: run A/B tests on creative, copy approaches, posting frequency, and ad targeting parameters. This consistent refinement of your strategy based on concrete data will give you the confidence to improve.
Social media has become an indispensable channel for effective recruitment marketing. By leveraging best practices, your organization can amplify its employer brand, expand its candidate reach, and hire higher-quality talent more efficiently.
