The role of social media in recruitment

Social media is such a huge part of our lives these days, whether it’s curating the perfect feed on the gram or sharing a funny TikTok with friends. For savvy businesses, social media is also a crucial platform when it comes to their recruitment process and brand reputation. We’re here to explain the role of social media in recruitment and exactly why you should spend a little less time on those spreadsheets and a bit more time posting to Facebook – all in the name of work!

What is social media recruitment?

These days, we’re all very familiar with the process of browsing our feeds or checking up on our latest messages. Social media recruiting involves businesses and recruiters harnessing popular social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to find new talent and nurture the all-important employer brand.

Is using social media in recruitment common?

These days, yes! At least for medium to larger-sized companies with dedicated individuals or teams for their social media presence and hiring. It can be fairly time-consuming if done well, hence the need for some individual attention, but a social media recruitment strategy can be really productive and cost-effective. Data has shown that 94% of professional recruiters utilise social media recruitment.

Are social media sites effective in reaching job seekers?

They certainly can be. According to research by the Aberdeen Group, 73% of 18 to 34-year-olds found their last job through social media. A significant 79% of job applicants use social media to search for roles. And that’s not counting the potential reach to passive candidates, who aren’t actively seeking but may be curious about new opportunities.

Why should businesses use social media recruiting?

Here are just a few reasons why you should utilise social media to find your next great hire.

The potential of a huge audience

If used well, social media has a huge potential to exponentially boost your reach into corners of your community (or even the world!) that you’ve never reached before. The key is in building a strong target audience through your social media channels – for example, if you have 3500 followers on Instagram, and you put up a post advertising a role, that’s 3500 potential pairs of eyes that could see it. Plus, some of those people might know others who might be a great match for the role, and share it with them. It’s worth a try, right?

A cost-effective recruitment method

For the basics, such as putting up a post about job openings on your feed, social media recruiting can be completely free. That’s a substantial amount of savings, especially when you consider that in the UK, it costs on average £3,089 to advertise an open role.

If you’d like to reach a little further beyond your current audience or are feeling ambitious, there’s definitely room to put some money into promoting posts or upping the production value of the content you post. However, many businesses find that they can get great results with very little costs incurred, which is always appealing.

Improved brand visibility

It’s easy to get caught up in just filling a single role in your company, especially if you’re a small business and you need that person like, right now. However, a big part of a social media recruitment strategy is playing the long game.

If your business’s social media presence shows a company that is fun to work for and is supportive of its employees, then you could potentially build some online renown. Maybe that one person who saw your post about an exciting team day out will have you in mind when they’re looking for a new job a few months later. It’s all about being memorable and appealing online.

How can you use social media as part of your recruitment strategy?

Here are just a few ways for you to get started with social media recruiting.

Post your open roles

The first is the easiest for any business with a social media channel. Make an appealing post that advertises your role clearly, with a description that’s easy to understand and ideally with an image or a video.

It seems obvious as well, but make it clear how people can actually apply – sometimes roles go up but then there’s no single way suggested for people to reach out and apply. You could find applicants turn up at the door, ring the wrong phone line or get lost in an abandoned email inbox – and this confusion can be terrible for the candidate experience! So be super clear about where any applications should go, and what is required in an application and then monitor that channel carefully.

Showcase your company culture

What makes your company a great place to work? Whether it’s an appealing work environment, a strong team spirit or regular celebrations, find a way to show it off online. If you’ve still got some way to go when it comes to creating a strong company culture, it’s never too late to start improving it. Check out our company culture guide and make your business an appealing place to be.

Engage with candidates

Remember that social media isn’t just a one-way platform for your business to advertise itself. It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason! Make your communication with your audience two-way, whether that’s inviting questions on a new role or replying to queries and comments on a job post. A survey from Clutch revealed that 80% of people expect brands to reply on social media, with 90% of those saying communication should be done within a day. So make time to keep the discussion flowing.

Encourage employee advocacy

It’s all very well advertising your business as the representative of that said business, but you might want to consider bringing in additional voices. If you’ve got employees who love their work, ask them if they’d be happy to share their perspective, whether that’s on their own personal social channels or through a ‘takeover’ of your business page.

Statistics show that 84% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know over any other form of advertising, so employee advocacy can add a crucial level of authenticity to your posting.

Which social media platforms should you use?

Around 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn for social media recruiting, and 55% use Facebook. We’ll have a small exploration into these two channels, as well as the newer kid on the block, TikTok.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn – where everyone dons their best virtual get-up and puts their professional face forward. As a platform dedicated to career building, it makes sense that LinkedIn is the most popular place for a strong recruitment strategy. Apart from posting job openings and updates, you can get a good picture of potential candidates and even reach out to passive candidates who could be a great fit for your business. Your business-focused content is going to be best received here.

Facebook

Facebook is a great place to build a dedicated audience and reach new people who wouldn’t have heard about your business. Plus, with over 3 billion daily users, there’s a good chance you’re fairly comfortable with the platform already. One caveat for success though – as this isn’t a totally business-focused channel, post regularly and with some variety to cut through the noise. That means not just a job posting once every few months, but updates about your company and your people that your audience will find interesting and entertaining.

TikTok

Ah, TikTok. This platform has rocketed in popularity over the last couple of years, with its 1.5 billion users spending 4.43 billion minutes watching content every single day. It’s simultaneously amazing for audience engagement and inaccessible for most people who aren’t users themselves. This applies particularly for older generations, many of whom aren’t up on the latest dances or trends on the platform.

With that in mind, if you go for a business TikTok account, get someone to run it who really knows the platform well, and can tap into the trends quickly and effectively. Otherwise, you’ll look like the kid who turned up in a blazer on your school’s non-uniform day.

Are there any risks from using social media platforms as a recruitment tool?

The biggest risk to businesses when using social media for recruitment is reputational. Many businesses have had their reputations torpedoed by poor social media use or thoughtless posting. Don’t forget, businesses can go viral for bad reasons just as quickly as they go viral for good reasons – if not quicker.

This can be a fairly easy fix with a few precautions in place. First, make sure the person in charge of social media has an approval process in place. That could be as simple as a second objective pair of eyes, who can check over their content. It’s amazing how easily things can be misread, so there’s a chance that that second opinion could pick up something that could be hugely damaging.

Secondly, keep it positive and constructive. While outrage has proven to get attention online, it’s best to ensure that people have a positive impression of your business. Boost the kind of information that you think will bring people joy, and avoid complaining or ranting – no matter how bad a day you’re having.

Get candidates fast with Employment Hero

Employment Hero is the world’s first employment OS that takes the stress out of recruiting. Once your social media recruitment has got some top talent interested, that’s where the really exciting bit starts! Make your recruitment process easy for both your team and your job candidates, with Employment Hero’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

Our ATS makes candidate communication a breeze and supports you through the interview process, the final offer and onboarding of your new team member. You can even create candidate talent pools, so all that hard work on social media doesn’t go to waste further down the line.

Find out more and reach out to our team today.