Social Media Recruiting use social media to your advantage
Is your company active on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn? If so, do you know how to use this platform to obtain new employees?
At the moment,71 percent of Swiss people use social media almost every day. You can also use the advantages of social media for your recruiting. But where and how do you find suitable candidates for your company?
We will provide you with tips on how to attract the attention of potential applicants and target qualified specialists using social media recruiting. Stop waiting for applications but become active yourself.
The advantages of social media recruiting for your company
One of the most significant advantages of using social media for personnel recruitment is that you can quickly build up a large pool of potential candidates which you can fall back on at any time. Recruiters can build up trust with candidates by means of communicating directly with them.
Social recruiting also has other advantages:
You can reach candidates who are not currently actively looking for work.
You will be perceived as a modern and attractive employer.
You will gather valuable data for your Recruiting Funnel and can optimise your application process.
Thanks to targeted searching in social networks, you can speak to your desired candidates directly and acquire them for your own company by means of Active Sourcing.
By using interesting content, you will increase the reach of your posts and increase the awareness of your brand as an employer – particularly with Generation Y.
Implementing social recruiting in your company
Different methods are available for achieving the goals of personnel recruitment 4.0:
Active sourcing
This is when HR employees go on a targeted search for suitable candidates for their vacancies. The basis of Active Sourcing is the information which the users put in their social media profiles. In this way, recruiters can find candidates with special qualifications or skills which are required for the available positions. The HR employees can then contact these persons directly, and awaken their interest in the vacancies.
Employer branding
Show who you are. You can attract the attention of your target group to your company by means of regular content such as pictures, videos or texts. Offer your potential candidates an exclusive look behind the scenes. Tell them about your values, show portraits of current employees and give them an impression of your company culture.
Our tip: Establish which platforms your target group uses, and design your posts with an eye on that particular target group.
Influencer marketing
That which is effective in selling products also attracts interested parties in recruitment. Use “brand ambassadors“ such as employees, customers or business partners for your company and kick-start your referral marketing. With the help of influencers, you will increase your reach and recruit new talents by means of recommendations.
Career pages and job ads
Link the career and job ads pages of your website with the career portals of social networks. This will make more potential applicants aware of your vacancies. You can also ask your employees to share current vacancies in their personal networks. This increases the reach of your job descriptions.
And if that doesn’t produce the desired effect, you can use paid campaigns and online advertisements for your recruitment search.
In the same way that you follow a fixed recruiting process to recruit new personnel, setting up a social media recruiting strategy also pays off for your company. An actual status analysis, the current challenges and a target group analysis form the basis for your social recruiting strategy. Measures and formats which allow you to achieve your goals can be developed on this basis. Focus on the needs of your target group, and find the answers to their questions or the solutions to their problems.
Before diving straight into implementation, answer the following questions. The answers will help you at every other stage of your social media recruiting.
What is the goal of my social media activity?
Who is my target group? Which talents do I want to appeal to?
Which social networks should I use to appeal to my target group?
Which content will be of interest to my target group?
Which resources are available in my company?
With regard to your recruiting measures, you should also answer the following questions:
In which areas are we currently looking for employees?
In the same way that you follow a fixed recruiting process to recruit new personnel, setting up a social media recruiting strategy also pays off for your company. An actual status analysis, the current challenges and a target group analysis form the basis for your social recruiting strategy. Measures and formats which allow you to achieve your goals can be developed on this basis. Focus on the needs of your target group, and find the answers to their questions or the solutions to their problems.
Before diving straight into implementation, answer the following questions. The answers will help you at every other stage of your social media recruiting.
What is the goal of my social media activity?
Who is my target group? Which talents do I want to appeal to?
Which social networks should I use to appeal to my target group?
Which content will be of interest to my target group?
Which resources are available in my company?
With regard to your recruiting measures, you should also answer the following questions:
In which areas are we currently looking for employees?
Together with your web site, the social media profile of your company is another channel which is often the first point of contact with your company. Your social media presence should therefore be impressive and also be both personal and serious.
Concentrate on having a high degree of recognition of your employer brand on all social media channels – also with regard to your corporate design. This means: Use the same fonts, colours or wording, and use your own company hashtags which will connect the users to your company.
You should also keep an eye on the messaging options of the social media platforms. Interested parties will use these to contact you, and will expect professional answers. Decide who in your team will look after community management, and draw up some social media guidelines if necessary.
Together with your web site, the social media profile of your company is another channel which is often the first point of contact with your company. Your social media presence should therefore be impressive and also be both personal and serious.
Concentrate on having a high degree of recognition of your employer brand on all social media channels – also with regard to your corporate design. This means: Use the same fonts, colours or wording, and use your own company hashtags which will connect the users to your company.
You should also keep an eye on the messaging options of the social media platforms. Interested parties will use these to contact you, and will expect professional answers. Decide who in your team will look after community management, and draw up some social media guidelines if necessary.
Social media is not something on the sidelines which is only to be used when capacity happens to be available. Your posts will quickly lose their reach if you only publish on social media at irregular intervals or hardly at all. It would be a good idea to draw up an editorial plan.
Include the following content in your editorial plan:
Introduce your employees and show insights into a typical working day.
Has something new occurred within your company? Inform your followers about it.
Provide tips on how candidates can put together their application and the kind of information you want from them.
Offer an exclusive look behind the scenes. What do your premises look like? Which technology is available to your employees?
Display the latest data and facts from your branches or your company as a whole.
Our tip: Your posts will be most successful if your target group is online. You should therefore attempt to post your content in the early morning, at midday or in the evening.
Social media is not something on the sidelines which is only to be used when capacity happens to be available. Your posts will quickly lose their reach if you only publish on social media at irregular intervals or hardly at all. It would be a good idea to draw up an editorial plan.
Include the following content in your editorial plan:
Introduce your employees and show insights into a typical working day.
Has something new occurred within your company? Inform your followers about it.
Provide tips on how candidates can put together their application and the kind of information you want from them.
Offer an exclusive look behind the scenes. What do your premises look like? Which technology is available to your employees?
Display the latest data and facts from your branches or your company as a whole.
Our tip: Your posts will be most successful if your target group is online. You should therefore attempt to post your content in the early morning, at midday or in the evening.
Every social network has its own form of communication. That which works for Instagram might be ignored on LinkedIn, for example. Always communicate on an equal level with your target group, and use the “language” of the platform in your posts. But remain true to your company culture. If you address applicants formally during the recruitment process, you should do so in your posts as well.
Every social network has its own form of communication. That which works for Instagram might be ignored on LinkedIn, for example. Always communicate on an equal level with your target group, and use the “language” of the platform in your posts. But remain true to your company culture. If you address applicants formally during the recruitment process, you should do so in your posts as well.
Your posts are representative of your company. Having a clear set of communication rules in the form of social media guidelines will help you to maintain quality:
Are our users addressed informally, or formally?
What is the correct way to write our company name and the names of our products and services?
What does our imagery look like?
What is our editorial plan?
How do we assign responsibilities?
How should we react to criticism?
How do we evaluate our social media activities?
Who produces statistics, and which factors are decisive for our success?
Your posts are representative of your company. Having a clear set of communication rules in the form of social media guidelines will help you to maintain quality:
Are our users addressed informally, or formally?
What is the correct way to write our company name and the names of our products and services?
What does our imagery look like?
What is our editorial plan?
How do we assign responsibilities?
How should we react to criticism?
How do we evaluate our social media activities?
Who produces statistics, and which factors are decisive for our success?
Your social media activities may take place in your company profile on Meta (Facebook), LinkedIn or TikTok, but the private profiles of your management and employees are also of interest – especially to potential candidates. You should therefore inform your workforce about your activities, and encourage them to also become active and create company-related posts on their private profiles. Provide your employees with pictures, videos and other information for this purpose – but they should create the posts themselves. This increases the reach of your content.
Your social media activities may take place in your company profile on Meta (Facebook), LinkedIn or TikTok, but the private profiles of your management and employees are also of interest – especially to potential candidates. You should therefore inform your workforce about your activities, and encourage them to also become active and create company-related posts on their private profiles. Provide your employees with pictures, videos and other information for this purpose – but they should create the posts themselves. This increases the reach of your content.
The success or failure of your post depends on what the respective post was intended for. Was it your intention to generate as much reach as possible, generate clicks or even receive applications? The majority of social media networks will provide sufficient data for your chosen formats or even paid campaigns.
Important figures (KPIs) for your success are:
Reach
Impressions
Likes
Comments
Shares
Messages
Number of applications
Our tip: Decide which KPIs are the most important for your campaign. Because the values are not always mutually dependent. In other words: Just because a post has large reach, it doesn’t mean that you will automatically receive many enquiries. But if your goal is to be seen as often as possible and to make your employer brand more recognisable, reach is a good indicator of the success of your post.
The success or failure of your post depends on what the respective post was intended for. Was it your intention to generate as much reach as possible, generate clicks or even receive applications? The majority of social media networks will provide sufficient data for your chosen formats or even paid campaigns.
Important figures (KPIs) for your success are:
Reach
Impressions
Likes
Comments
Shares
Messages
Number of applications
Our tip: Decide which KPIs are the most important for your campaign. Because the values are not always mutually dependent. In other words: Just because a post has large reach, it doesn’t mean that you will automatically receive many enquiries. But if your goal is to be seen as often as possible and to make your employer brand more recognisable, reach is a good indicator of the success of your post.
The best tips for social media recruiting on a wide range of platforms
Every social media network has its own characteristics, and is used by a wide variety of target groups for certain purposes. But which network is suitable for your company's recruiting? whether it's Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn or Xing, Twitter or YouTube – get the best out of these platforms for your social recruiting.
And this is how it's done:
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is currently the ultimate career platform. This is where experts meet and share their knowledge, discuss current topics and carry out active networking. There is good reason why HR employees specialise inLinkedIn recruiting. You will find many specialists and managers on this network. The filter function makes it possible to search for candidates who meet your requirements. You can contact them directly. But you should also use your company profile to share your content, initiate your own discussions and expand your network.
To put it simply: LinkedIn is the platform for your social recruiting. Build up your employer branding, create your own career pages, and make use of the reach of brand ambassadors. You will build an emotional connection between yourself and qualified specialists and managers by means of employee blogs, recommendations and authentic videos.
Facebook
On Facebook, users mainly share content from their leisure time, and exchange information with friends and acquaintances. As far as your activities are concerned, this means: Communicate with short and casual formats which are primarily entertaining. Make target group-related posts several times a week, using advertising if necessary, and interact with your followers.
Do you know that Facebook’s advertisement targeting is currently the best of all social media channels? A little effort and expert knowledge is required to get it right, but the reach that you achieve with your posts will make it worthwhile.
Instagram
Instagram is also focused on leisure time and entertainment – but the target group is much younger than on Facebook. Fixed formats with recognition value will help your users to notice your posts. You should also use stories to only inform your followers via temporary stories and trigger interaction with them - preferably in an entertaining way.
YouTube
Reap the benefits of the biggest search engine for videos for your personnel marketing 4.0. Please take into consideration that your target group also expects high quality on YouTube. Invest in your concept and equipment. Provide authentic insights into your company, show your employees and give people a proper look behind the scenes. You might even go viral with one of your videos.
Social media recruiting will take your personnel recruitment to the next level
Social media are now an integral part of personnel recruitment, and is becoming an increasingly important factor in the “War for Talents”. The company which succeeds in presenting itself in a way that is as attractive and authentic as possible, attracting the attention of users and orienting itself to their needs will be the one which acquires new employees.
But social recruiting isn't something that will be successful overnight. Personnel marketing 4.0 needs time to develop. Continue developing your social media activities, work on new formats and particularly contact your required candidates directly. Because you won't be seen if you don't put yourself on show.
