10 Ways Social Media Can Help You Recruit

4 December, 2014
3 min read
Katherine Wood

Social media presents businesses large and small with many opportunities. Many companies may simply approach Facebook and Twitter as marketing and sales platforms, but these sites can prove equally valuable for customer service and recruiting. In this post, we will look at 10 ways social media can help your company recruit top employees.

1. Unique Branding

Every social media platform provides unique branding opportunities. Finding ways to show off your company's culture will help attract workers who are looking for a positive and relatable work environment. Employees, especially younger ones, care about more than the paycheck; they want the entire work experience, including a great company culture and opportunity for development. Social media sites let you demonstrate how great yours is by highlighting certain values and benefits that appeal directly to candidates.

2. Greater Visibility

Social media also can give your company greater visibility. As long as you post engaging content, your brand will regularly show up in users’ feeds. Keep on posting, and you will be fresh in prospective employees' minds when they start looking for a new job. Sendible's content recommendation and RSS feed capabilities enables you to find this engaging content on demand through the social media management platform.

3. Network Globally

Social networks make it easier for companies to go global. No other hiring platform gives you access to as many people, making it the best place to network, build your employer brand, and even hire directly. Improved technology also makes geography less of a hiring constraint. You can now interview international candidates using video channels such as Skype or technical assessment tools so you never have let geography prevent you from hiring top talent.

4. Reach a Broader Potential Applicant Pool

Through your company's social media network, you can access a broader applicant pool. Some may be interested in job listings themselves, while others may know of colleagues who are qualified for the job. But this broader network doesn't just help with your visibility; it also helps with you improve. Social media networks provide a unique opportunity to interact with and receive feedback from both customers and candidates in real time. Learning from these interactions can improve your hiring process and make you more likely to land top talent in the future.

5. Widen your Applicant Pool

Because social media platforms are so broad, well-connected companies often see a large influx of applicants. In other words, as you reach more potential candidates, the number of applications you receive will increase. A larger applicant pool gives you more choice over who you hire. An increased reach, and advertising on some non-standard social media sites, can help you expand into a more diverse employee base. The wider your applicant pool and the more varying the opinions and ideas of your employees, the more versatile and innovative your business can be.

6. Leverage Employees for Referrals

The best hires are often referrals from current employees, since your employees already know your company’s culture and better understand what kinds of employees you want. Social media makes the referral process simpler. All your employees need to do is share, like or retweet a job posting or join a job chat through your company's page.

7. Connect with Job Seekers

One of the biggest challenges in settling on the perfect candidate from your pool is developing a personal connection. The more you get to know applicants, the more accurately you can judge whether they would be a good fit for your company. Connecting over social media personalizes the hiring process, so you can get a feel for an applicant before an interview. Social media also makes it possible for hiring to be a two-way street. Effective use of these platforms through using social media management solutions such as Sendible can help your candidates feel like they are getting one-on-one attention from your recruiters, even when your talent department may have automated the process.

8. Find Passive Applicants

Often the most qualified candidates for a position aren't actively looking for a job. Globally, 75% of candidates currently consider themselves passive, but 45% of those candidates are open to talking to a recruiter about new opportunities. By posting an opening on social media, along with or instead of a traditional job posting site, you can reach passive candidates as well as those who are more actively looking for a new position.

9. Attract College Students

Younger job candidates can provide fresh ideas, an outstanding drive, and a new perspective to your workforce. If you want to attract younger applicants, you need to be where they are--on social media. College students are some of the most active Facebook and Twitter users, and many are primarily interested in companies also on these platforms. Thanks to social networks, you no longer have to venture on campus to reach students.

10. Speed the Hiring Process

It takes just a few minutes to post on Facebook or tweet a job opening. Whereas probably will want to spend more than two minutes on an effective job listing, you can speed up the process with social media. Some third party applications also allow you to hire directly through your company's social media profile. Candidates can apply, follow their interview process, and accept employment through platforms specifically designed to speed up social interactions, so your recruiting department can be more efficient than ever.

Most companies today have social media profiles, but many primarily use it for reaching customers. With these 10 ideas, you can also leverage your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts to find new employees. Begin growing your network now, and it will pay off next time you have an opening.

Try a free trial of Sendible, our social media management software. Ideal for recruiters to enhance their reach, visibility, management and ROI of their social media activities.

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