Social Recruiting: Revolutionising Talent Acquisition in 2024

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Over the course of only a few decades (Myspace launched in 2003!), social media has changed our way of life, from how we find our news to how we learn about new products to buy. It’s also affected the way companies hire top talent today.

According to a 2023 survey, 70% of companies use social media to find and research potential job candidates. Many of them like the results they see, with 41% of hiring managers saying that social media networks are the best place to source employees.

Like hiring managers, job seekers themselves have embraced this surge in social recruiting, particularly in the case of Millennial and Gen Z workers. A poll commissioned by CareerArc found that 48% of millennial and Gen Z job seekers have applied to a job posting they discovered on social media.

Want to get in on the action? Then come along as we explore how social recruiting works and how you can make it work for your company.

What Is Social Recruiting?

Social recruiting refers to the process of using, you guessed it, social media to find new talent, foster relationships with them, and encourage them to come on board. This recruitment strategy can come in many different forms and requires long-term investment and planning — which we’ll help you with later in this article.

Why Pursue Social Recruiting?

Through social recruiting, you can essentially make your company’s social media accounts work for you to bring in new talent. When you share job postings through social media, your best new candidate can come to you rather than you having to go out and find them yourself.

However, social recruiting goes beyond sharing job postings. This recruitment strategy can also foster a positive image of working at your company. As you share information about your company culture, benefits, and exciting advancements in your organisation, you’ll not only interest candidates but excite them.

Excitement leads to engagement, which is vital for you to nurture in your employees, especially as a recent Gallup poll found that only 32% of employees feel engaged at work. When you build excitement and engagement early in employment, you can set your team on a path to success and growth.

7 Strategies for Using Social Media for Talent Acquisition

Intrigued?

The following tips will help you become an expert in social recruiting.

1. Share job postings on social media

One of the most approachable social recruiting tactics is to share job postings on social media to attract potential candidates. LinkedIn can be a great place to start, as the career-focused social networking site has a section specifically dedicated to job postings.

However, while LinkedIn may be the place to start, it’s not where you should stop. You could join a Facebook Group dedicated to your industry and share the job posting there, where candidates in your line of work can find you. You can post on Instagram, where you might turn a fan into an employee. You can also post on X (formerly Twitter) or Threads to connect with potential candidates using social networking sites to find work.

2. Build your employer brand on social

If you want to turn your social media into a recruitment tool, it should also be active beyond just sharing job postings. Ultimately, when using your social media for social recruiting, you want someone to see your social media handle and know your name right away, hopefully with positive feelings associated with that name.

Building your brand on social media helps candidates come to you and goes back to the idea of nurturing excitement over your brand. Candidates can’t connect with you if they don’t know you. Maintaining a regular posting schedule on your social media, from LinkedIn to TikTok, ensures that your name gets out there.

3. Turn your employees into brand advocates

According to TINT’s State of Social and User-Generated Content, content created by employees receives 24 times the shares that content created by a brand does! And employee profiles receive eight times the engagement that branded profiles do. This disparity has a lot to do with trust. Research suggests that trust in brands is decreasing, but you need to build confidence in your brand to encourage candidates to want to work for your company.

When you turn an employee into a brand advocate, they can help you nurture that trust. Encourage employees to reshare brand posts and job listings, talk about and promote their work online, and build their own brands on social media to establish themselves and their coworkers as thought leaders in the industry.

4. Create content that talks about your employee benefits

When posting on social media, you want to demonstrate to viewers why your company is where they want to work. Highlight the work your teams are doing, from the exciting advancements they’ve created in their space to the challenges they’ve overcome that drove their career and company growth.

You should also highlight the benefits that come with working for your company, like any career advancement offerings and mentorship programs. When it comes to marketing, you know how important it is to stand out on social media. For social recruitment, it’s just as vital to stand out to your potential candidates. Consider talking to your employees about what benefits matter most to them and factored into their decision to join your company. Clearly promote those benefits on your social.

5. Keep candidates interested with an effective email marketing strategy

Social recruiting isn’t just about job postings or social media promotions, it also requires fostering the relationships you build with potential candidates. Ideally, you want to become the company that potential candidates are always looking for opportunities to join. You might not always have the perfect position available for interested candidates, so keep them engaged beyond when you’re looking to hire.

An effective email marketing strategy helps you keep candidates thinking about your brand. When your brand name pops up in their inbox, you’re reminding them about who you are, what you do, and what you offer. Like your social media posts, your emails should be well-rounded and talk about everything from new advancements in your company’s offerings to the values you’re striving to show through your internal initiatives.

6. Track your recruitment program

When you use social recruiting, you may develop a fanbase, especially if you establish yourself as an industry leader. Organise and make the most of that fanbase using an ERP to build your recruitment program. You can utilise your groomed, engaged list of qualified candidates as soon as you do have a position open, saving you time in the hiring process.

7. Stay on top of your social media analytics

Testing and reinvesting is one of the most vital things to do in the world of social media marketing, as it’s a fast-moving space. You should always look for new ways to optimise your posts. This same fact holds true for social recruiting.

Consider using a social media analytics tool to stay on top of which posts are generating interest in your company and which posts aren’t creating the excitement you wanted. Optimising your posts can ultimately save you time and ensure your social recruitment strategy is getting results.

Social Recruiting in Today’s Digital World

Social recruiting makes your social media work for you, bringing you interested candidates and saving you the time of having to search for those potential employees yourself. From job postings to brand advocacy, the many different facets of social recruiting can help you find your next great employee.

Your online brand isn’t just a crucial part of your marketing but also a part of generating excitement and engagement in your candidates. Soon enough, you’ll become the company candidates dream about joining, always looking for ways to become a part of your business and help you create the next big thing in your industry.

Author Bio

Jacqueline Gualtieri is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Huffington Post, Insider, and The Slowdown. In addition to writing, she works as a digital media consultant and content marketer, driving online traffic for her clients. She’s always looking to advance her skillset and believes strongly in the early adoption of new technology.