Social media is where people go to connect, express themselves, and become inspired. Now more than ever, it’s also where people “hang-out,” meaning it’s the best place to go to engage with candidates and showcase your company.
Globally, 3.96 billion individuals use social media for an average of 2.4 hours a day, and a staggering 49% of professionals are following companies on social media in order to stay aware of job openings. All recruiters are familiar with the benefits of LinkedIn, but less so with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
These social media channels also offer a wealth of benefits when it comes to attracting the best candidates, and best of all, using these platforms to promote your employer brand and open positions is free (unless you decide to pay for an advertised campaign). Candidates trust brands more with strong social media presences, so now is a great time to get connected!
Company pages on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram give your company the opportunity to showcase its values and why it’s a great place to work. What can you do to highlight your employer brand and culture? You can share content, especially employee testimonials, to promote your company culture, and you can directly engage with your audience, many of whom could be prospective candidates. You can respond to comments, answer questions, and like relevant posts.
Wondering what you should share besides job postings? There are lots of options. Employee or customer testimonials are ideal. Photos of virtual events and links to blog posts to keep your followers up to date are all welcomed content. Additionally, social media is an opportunity to showcase your corporate responsibility. 64% of millennials won’t consider taking a position if they don’t feel the company has strong corporate responsibility practices.
So, if your team has volunteered or gave back to your community in some way, your followers will want to know! And encourage your current employees to get involved too, by sharing job postings with their network and testimonials bolstering your employer image.
Let’s dive into the platforms individually, allowing you to pick the channel(s) best for you!
Facebook has almost 2.45 billion monthly active users with more than two-thirds visiting the site daily, so there is a huge candidate pool ready to be tapped.
Benefits include:
- Facebook’s Jobs tab allows candidates to apply directly on a company’s Facebook page.
- Joining Facebook groups like Recruiters Online or The Facebook Corporate Recruiters Network to stay on top of the latest trends and seek advice from other recruiters.
- If you’re a larger organization and expect to get a lot of applicants, you can host candidate information sessions directly on Facebook.
No matter your size, it’s essential your organization has a strong presence on the world’s most widely used social media platform. Make sure you create a professional profile page and include a profile photo, cover photo, and other visuals like a stock photo to create a strong impression.
Twitter has a total of 330 million global monthly users and provides an easy way to reach a large number of people quickly and build relationships with followers.
Benefits include:
- Using hashtags to attract the right candidates like #devjobs, #NYCjobs, or #hiringnow.
- The advanced search function to search for candidates by title, location, hashtags, and mentions.
- Sharing relevant articles and retweeting industry experts to attract candidates with interests in your field.
- Joining in or perusing conversations on relevant topics to find passive candidates as well.
If you’re willing to invest a little bit of time, Twitter holds plenty of opportunities to recruit top talent.
Instagram is the place to go if you're trying to hire younger millennials and Gen Z-ers. With more than 1 billion active monthly users, the largest age category is 18 to 24-year-olds.
Benefits include:
- Similar to Twitter, Instagram allows you to use hashtags to attract specific candidates to your posts.
- You can use photo editing tools like Picsart to make posts look as professional as possible and make sure your brand matches your feed.
- 90% of Instagram users follow business accounts so your future employee of the year could be following you!
When setting up your company’s Instagram account make sure to ask, “who is our audience and what do they care about?” Using this guiding principle for all of your posts will keep you on the right track.
No matter which platform you’re using, make sure to track your data to see which sites and post times are getting the most interaction. Be active! Launch polls on Twitter or run competitions on Instagram. Those who engage with your content could be future employees.
Lastly, make sure that your employer brand is clear and uniform across platforms. Followers should be able to tell what your brand stands for and what it’s like to work for you no matter which platform they’re visiting. Don’t delay -- the use of social media is on the rise with a projected number of 4.41 billion users by 2025. So, if you haven’t set up accounts on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, get started today and be set up for success in 2021!
About Fetcher
Our mission is to help you engage talent that will transform your business aspirations into reality. Great talent is hard to find - that's why we offer a talent sourcing platform that not only gets your brand in front of the right candidates but also gives you a competitive edge in talent acquisition.
Begin building a relationship with your next great hire today, and let Fetcher handle the rest. Get started for free.
