It’s no secret: social media, particularly Facebook, has changed how businesses operate. Not only has it changed how companies connect with customers, but Facebook recruiting has also changed how organizations attract qualified candidates. Now, recruitment starts on social media.

With billions of monthly active users across the Meta ecosystem, Facebook remains one of the world's largest social platforms. Its robust advertising capabilities make it a valuable channel for reaching both active and passive job seekers. 

Facebook Recruiting: Is It Worth It?

Unlike traditional recruiting, which requires regional newspaper ads and cold calls, social media recruiting opens up new opportunities to quickly get your company in front of qualified candidates in a broader search area.

Facebook recruiting is worth the effort to acquire qualified talent for your company. You can expand your search area and hire candidates faster.  Facebook's advertising platform allows employers to reach highly targeted audiences while maintaining cost-effective recruiting campaigns. The low costs and high return rate make using Facebook as a recruiting tool a no-brainer.

How to Recruit on Facebook

Facebook recruiting is simple. When you work with a recruiting service well-versed in social media recruiting, you can rest easy knowing your job advertisement will land in front of qualified potential candidates.

Here’s how to use social media best practices to leverage Facebook recruiting.

1. Create a Facebook Business Page

Before your company can advertise open positions on Facebook, you need to create a Facebook Business page. Setting up a Facebook Business page is easy and only takes a few minutes. Make sure you set a company photo as the profile picture and add any relevant business details to your page.

A Facebook Business page will help you get your business in front of the right audience, including potential recruits. So, the more information on your Business page, the better!

2. Describe Your Company Culture

On your Facebook Business page, you will want to describe your company culture accurately. Your Facebook Business page is not only a marketing tool for potential clients, but it is also a valuable recruitment marketing tool for attracting potential candidates

Your Facebook Business page will be the first place candidates look for information about your company. Interested candidates will want to know what it is like to work at your company. To describe your company culture, think about ways you can use photos or videos to highlight business events, employees, or training opportunities.

3. Create Recruiting Content

Facebook no longer offers native job postings in the way it once did. Today, organizations use organic content and paid advertising to promote career opportunities and direct candidates to their careers page or job application.

Eye-catching graphics, employee testimonials, workplace videos, hiring event announcements, and "We're Hiring" posts help increase engagement and encourage qualified candidates to learn more about available opportunities.

4. Create an Ad Campaign

To get your job opportunity in front of the appropriate audience, you should create a Meta ad campaign to promote your job advertisement.

You can set Meta ad campaigns for various targets, depending on the goal of your post. For example, if you want to spread the word about your position, you might set up your Meta ad campaign to maximize your reach. Or, if you are looking for a specific candidate, you may target only a particular audience that most likely fits your job description.

Your recruiting service can help you decide which type of Meta ad campaign will be best for the position you need to fill.

5. Share Your Post

Finally, when you have created a Facebook post on your Business page, you should share your post with the masses. Sharing your posts on your personal page and asking your current employees to share the post will increase the visibility of your post among potential candidates.

Think about where else you can share your post, too. Is there an appropriate Facebook group that allows sharing? If so, consider posting your job advertisement there.

Social media is an essential part of any business’s online marketing strategy. But your online marketing strategy does not mean you only market to your buyers. Use social media to attract talent, too.

FACEBOOK RECRUITING AND RECRUITMENT MARKETING

Facebook recruiting is most effective when it is part of a broader recruitment marketing strategy.  Along with employer branding, programmatic job advertising, and social media recruiting, Facebook helps organizations  increase awareness of career opportunities and connect with qualified candidates where they already spend time online.

Facebook recruiting is an effective way to attract qualified candidates and support your recruitment marketing efforts. Learn how ProIQ's recruitment marketing solutions help organizations to attract qualified candidates and improve hiring outcomes.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the way organizations attract, engage, and hire talent. As one of the most widely adopted AI tools, ChatGPT has become a valuable resource for recruiters looking to streamline repetitive tasks, improve communication, and support recruitment marketing efforts. While AI can't replace the expertise and judgment of experienced recruiters, it can help teams work more efficiently throughout the hiring process. 

ChatGPT is an extremely helpful tool in many fields, including recruitment. With the help of ChatGPT recruiting, acquiring the best talent for your open positions has never been an easier process.

Can ChatGPT be Used for Recruitment?

ChatGPT is a language tool powered by AI. ChatGPT is trained to respond to prompts or queries in an in-depth, conversational-like manner. Using the tool, a user can ask ChatGPT a question or a prompt and expect to receive a detailed answer. Users can even ask follow-up questions to the initial prompt and engage in back-and-forth dialogue with the bot.

Because ChatGPT is a natural language tool, it begs the question: can ChatGPT be used for recruiting?

The answer is yes—but it's most effective when used as a tool to support recruiters rather than replace them. ChatGPT can help generate ideas, draft content, summarize information, and automate repetitive writing tasks, allowing recruiting teams to spend more time building relationships with candidates and making informed hiring decisions.

SIX Ways to Use ChatGPT Recruiting

ChatGPT recruiting can help streamline many recruiting tasks, from content creation to candidate communication. There are many benefits to implementing ChatGPT in your talent acquisition search. Not only can ChatGPT save your recruiter time, but it can also provide valuable information, like industry term definitions, to help find the best candidate.

Here are five ways to effectively use ChatGPT recruiting:

Draft Outreach Emails

Outreach emails can seem daunting to write. But, when using a recruitment service that understands the power of ChatGPT, recruiting teams can use ChatGPT to help you craft the perfect email to send to potential candidates.

Think of ChatGPT as a notepad for generated ideas. For example, recruiters might ask ChatGPT to create an email outreach template to invite candidates for an interview. Recruiting teams will likely need to make minor edits to nail down your company’s voice and brand because while ChatGPT is efficient, it can be clunky and repetitive.

Once the edits are complete, recruiters can send the email to potential candidates.

Write Job Descriptions

Not only can ChatGPT help recruiting teams compose emails, but it can also help you and your recruiter write the perfect job description for your vacancies. For example, your recruiter might ask ChatGPT to “describe the role of a digital analyst.” In just a matter of a few seconds, ChatGPT will provide a lengthy description of the role.

A recruiter will then take what ChatGPT provides and tweak the job description to fit your company’s brand, as needed. In no time, you and recruiters will have a solid job description to add to your vacant position’s listing or use as part of your social media recruiting strategy.

Create Interview Questions

A major component of hiring a new candidate for a role is the interview. Because not every role within your organization will be the same, recruiting teams will need to prepare various questions for different positions. This can take a significant amount of time and brain power. But the good news is it doesn’t have to be this way.

ChatGPT can be used to help write interview questions based on the role you are advertising. For example, if you are advertising a position for a marketing director, recruiters may ask ChatGPT to source questions regarding the role. Within no time, ChatGPT will provide a list of potential interview questions, including questions like, “How do you measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns?”

Source Job Role Information

Every now and again, a client might present a recruiting service with an obscure and hard-to-describe job. Before recruiting teams begin looking for the ideal candidate, they need to fully understand the role, including the industry terms and definitions.

That’s where ChatGPT comes in. In a way, ChatGPT can quickly summarize unfamiliar industries, explain technical terminology, and provide background information that helps recruiters better understand specialized roles. Your recruiting team can ask ChatGPT to describe the position or define specific industry terms, and without spending hours on Google learning bits and pieces about the role, your recruiter can get a basic understanding of the role and industry.

Create Conversation Scripts

An important part of the recruitment process is contacting potential candidates. This part of the recruitment phase can easily be done with a conversation script. ChatGPT can be asked to create a conversation script to use on calls with potential candidates. Once the bot provides a script, you can modify the script to fit your company’s needs.

With the conversation script in hand, your recruiter will have a good idea of how to steer the conversation to spark interest with your future employees.

Summarize Resumes and Candidate Information

ChatGPT can help recruiters quickly summarize resumes, identify transferable skills, compare candidate qualifications, and organize interview notes. While every recommendation should still be reviewed by a recruiter, AI can reduce administrative work and help recruiting teams focus on evaluating candidates more efficiently.

While ChatGPT can improve efficiency, it shouldn't replace human judgment during the hiring process. Recruiters should review AI-generated content for accuracy, maintain compliance with employment laws, and ensure hiring decisions remain fair, transparent, and free from bias. 

ChatGPT recruiting can be a valuable addition to a broader recruitment marketing strategy by helping recruiting teams improve efficiency and candidate communication. The biggest pro of ChatGPT is it can save you and your recruiting service time in various ways.

ChatGPT recruiting is most effective when it's part of a broader recruitment marketing strategy. By combining AI-powered tools with experienced recruiters and data-driven marketing, organizations can improve efficiency while creating a stronger candidate experience.

Ready to modernize your hiring strategy? ProIQ helps organizations leverage AI, recruitment marketing, and digital marketing to attract qualified candidates and improve hiring outcomes. Contact us today to learn how we can support your recruiting goals.

Job recruitment isn’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when hiring managers could rely on newspaper ads, cold calls, and good old-fashioned word-of-mouth to attract new job candidates. Instead, social media is now the dominant way that professionals network, find job opportunities, and highlight their skills and accomplishments.  

Before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the process of finding and securing job candidates was still relatively simple. Recruitment options included:  

• Posting openings on a digital job board. 

• Encouraging individual candidates to apply via the company website or job page. 
• Calling or emailing potential candidates and scheduling them for in-person interviews  

Now with online career fairs, video interviews, and virtual networking events added into the mix, the recruitment game has become much more nuanced and multi-faceted. Social media plays a key role in the new hiring process. 

What is social media recruitment? 

Social media recruitment refers to the process of using social media platforms to advertise jobs and identify candidates. With platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter boasting over 3.5 billion combined users, social media holds exciting potential for companies interested in recruiting skilled and unskilled talent.  

Recent studies have found that over 90% of surveyed companies already report using social media as a resource when hiring. Want to know if your candidate has any embarrassing photos out in the digital netherworld? Search for their name on Facebook and see what comes up. 

Similarly, Facebook and LinkedIn are the two dominant platforms that job seekers use for networking and portfolio-building. Candidates consistently post on job boards and in social groups when they are in the market for a new position or recently completed a certification. Taking your open job listings directly to these prospective hires is critical in an era when constant ads and updates threaten to overwhelm the average user. 

Social networks are a hub for the largest online repository of talent in the world, which is why it’s important for you as a recruiter or talent acquisition manager to not let them go to waste. For companies looking to navigate the opportunities and pitfalls of social media recruitment, here are some tips to keep in mind.  

Cast a wider digital net 

Most people in the market for a new job today are active on social media. If you want to get as many eyes on a job posting as possible, listing it on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can increase visibility and candidate applications by up to 50%. 

In addition, social media recruitment can also help you connect with a pool of higher-quality candidates. This is because job seekers who engage with employers via social media are likely to not only be tech savvy, but also up to date with the latest digital trends. For roles involving a fair amount of computer work, this skill is critical. 

Putting some dollars behind “hot jobs” on Facebook can also be an effective way to generate applicants quickly. Boosted posts and strategically targeted ads can get your job in front of the audience most likely to respond. It also helps you gather valuable information on the demographics and behaviors of your ideal candidate. 

Forge a personal connection 

When candidates apply for a job, they are not just searching for a way to pay the bills. They are seeking to build a relationship with their prospective employers before even accepting a new role. They want to get to know you as a person and determine if your organization is the right fit for them.  

With this insight in mind, you can use social media to resonate with candidates in a way that helps you stand out from other employers. Show them who you are and what makes you unique. Even if those candidates do not turn into actual employees right away, you will still have access to a community of talented people that will help your organization fill future roles.  

Get a 360-degree view of your candidates  

Selecting a candidate after weeks of vetting and interviews only to find out later that they weren’t right for the job is every hiring organization’s nightmare. While these missteps are bound to happen every once in a while you can avoid them by looking at your candidates’ Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles to get a better idea of who they are as an individual and employee.  

This strategy has proven successful for recruiters in the past, with 61% of hiring managers finding information they didn’t like on a candidate’s social media account and 55% reconsidering the hire based on what they found.  

Running paid ads on social media gives you direct access to candidate accounts. Applicants will often use their personal social media profiles to apply (think LinkedIn “Easy Apply” options) and may even engage with a hiring ad via comments and likes. Tracing potential new hires back to their accounts in these cases is simple and a no-brainer for companies interested in long-term candidate retention. 

Develop your company’s workplace “brand” 

Regardless of the job description, candidates are more likely to accept a job (and stick around for a while) if they align with your company’s mission. Over the past few years, job seekers increasingly prioritize personal fulfillment and value alignment in their employment. In fact, a driver of the Great Resignation was the lack of perceived purpose candidates felt while at work.  

As such, it’s important that you harness the power of social media to build up your brand and create awareness of your organization as a fulfilling workplace whenever possible. Just like when marketing to customers, potential employees want to know what they’re getting by committing to you. That could include: 

• Employee benefits like strong healthcare plans and 401(K) matching 
• In-office rewards (i.e., free lunches or “take your dog to work” days) 
• Remote or hybrid working opportunities 
• Office culture and the ability for workers to network 
• Volunteer initiatives and monetary donations supported by your organization 
• Political stances and election support 

By making your brand’s mission statement, benefits, and values visible and top-of-mind to candidates, you will attract quality talent that tends to retain for longer periods of time. 

As hiring demands increase and competition for high-value talent skyrockets, forward-thinking companies are wisely planning staffing and recruitment strategies. This is the moment to act by connecting with high-quality candidates via social media recruiting.  

For more information on how to develop a social media recruitment strategy, contact ProIQ today. 

Did you know that you are shaping potential candidates’ perceptions of you every single day? Every time you post, tweet, snap, like, or share, you tell your followers something about what it’s like to work for you. Whether it’s intentional or not, you are sending a message.

The question is: are you sending the right message?

Consider this: 70% of potential hires are passive candidates—they aren’t actively seeking a job. But they’re still absorbing information about your company, culture, and brand. And they’re open to a new position if the right opportunity presents itself.

Outsourced recruiting services and social media hiring can help you reach those people—but it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

START ON THE RIGHT FOOT: COMMIT TO THE PROCESS

You can’t just jump into social media recruiting with abandon and post whatever, whenever. You need a strategy designed to reach the right people with the right message at the right time. Here’s how to get started:

• Goals—What do you want to accomplish? Do you have specific roles you need to fill ASAP? Are you seeking to network with passive candidates for future opportunities? Showcase your culture? Make a list of the goals you want to accomplish with social media before you start posting.
• Great Culture—It’s not enough to make your culture look great. Your culture must be great if you want to recruit successfully. Social recruiting gives followers a sneak peek into what it’s like to work at your company. If you don’t have a great culture, work on that first.
• Time—Social media requires time and consistency. You have to invest in building your audience, creating a content calendar, analyzing results, and adjusting as needed.
• Experimentation—If what you’re doing isn’t working, try something else. There is no single best strategy that will work for every business, all the time. Be willing to experiment with different kinds of content, different posting days and times, and different engagement strategies. Find what works.

Hit the Ground Running: Plan Your Strategy

Thomas Jefferson famously said, “The harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” Companies that recruit effectively on social media aren’t just lucky—they’ve put in a lot of work to plan a strategy that gets results:

• Know whom you’re trying to reach. What does your ideal candidate look like? Develop candidate personas that include demographics, preferences, job skills, goals, interests, and even hobbies. These things will tell you what social channels they most likely use and what types of content they’re likely to engage with.
• Decide where you want to send traffic. Do you have separate landing pages for each open position? (Hint: you should.) Which posts will send visitors directly to those landing pages and which ones will go to your general careers page? Send candidates to a targeted landing page that will draw them in and invite further interaction.
• Build a posting strategy. Analyze the best times to post for each channel by looking at engagement metrics. When are people most likely to like, comment, and share? When are they most active online? What kinds of content do they interact with most frequently?
• Get current employees onboard. Current employees can be some of your best brand ambassadors. Recruit them to like and share your posts, interact with comments, and tag people who may be interested. If they love working for you, they’ll be glad to help promote your company to their network. And a little friendly competition never hurts either.
• Analyze and adjust. If your strategy isn’t working, find out why. Analyze metrics such as traffic to your landing pages, number of comments or mentions, number of new follows, frequency of likes, shares, and retweets, and number of paid advertising leads. Learn from the data and adjust your strategy as needed.

Stay In the Race: Learn and Grow Across Channels

Over time, you’ll find that you’ve hit a stride in one or more of your social channels as activity and engagement grow. Take what you’ve learned and tweak it across all of your social media venues to reach a wider audience. Remember, Twitter followers engage differently than Instagram fans do. LinkedIn has an entirely different purpose from Facebook. Discover what works best for each audience and tweak your strategy for better results.

And one final caveat: Use the information you find on social media carefully. Don’t open yourself up to discrimination lawsuits by allowing a candidate’s age, marital status, or other private information to affect a hiring decision.

Social media recruiting is a powerful tool that can help you reach otherwise unreachable candidates. Use it wisely to showcase your culture and build your employer brand intentionally—and have fun!

 Women We Admire recently announced their list of Top 50 Women Leaders of Utah for 2022

ProIQ is excited to announce that Sara West, Managing Director, has been named as one of the top 50 leaders in Utah by Women We Admire, a publication dedicated to recognizing the achievements of exceptional women across industries and circulates its content to over 32,000 individuals and businesses.  

 In 2021, West launched ProIQ, a digital marketing agency that helps organizations grow through integrated digital marketing and recruitment marketing solutions. As Managing Director, Sara West leads strategy, solution development, and client delivery from the greater Salt Lake City area. West and her team partner with organizations to implement innovative recruitment marketing strategies, including social media recruiting, programmatic job advertising, geofencing recruiting, employer branding, and digital marketing solutions that support business growth and hiring success. Previously, West was the Director of Strategic Development at Hire Velocity where she helped shape brand strategy to build market awareness, generate sales leads, and acquire new customers.  

All of the women honored on this year's list are recognized for their dedication and efforts in industries including education, healthcare, technology, financial services, and more. “In this state, women were enfranchised 50 years before most American women and were the first women in America to vote under an equal suffrage law. This year's awardees follow in the footsteps of those Utah women who came before them, leading fields that are often largely male-dominated. They continue to eliminate barriers before them and are setting an example for younger generations of women leaders,” states the publication’s website where the complete list of winners is available.  

Please join us in congratulating Sara West on this incredible accomplishment.  

____ 

About ProIQ 

ProIQ is a strategic partner for companies that want to build both great teams and great businesses. By taking the time to understand each client's unique goals, ProIQ develops integrated digital marketing and recruitment marketing strategies that deliver measurable business outcomes. ProIQ leverages digital marketing expertise to help clients build their employer brand, effectively market to and attract candidates, and identify new talent markets with recruitment marketing, employer branding, and location analysis.

 ### 

As organizations compete for younger talent, social media has become an essential recruitment marketing channel. Platforms like TikTok give employers the opportunity to showcase their culture, connect with candidates authentically, and build awareness with future employees where they already spend their time online.

How can you meet the challenge of recruiting a new generation? The future of job recruitment may lie in using social media and TikTok for recruiting. Social media platforms and apps can be key to attracting younger job seekers. Let us dive in with how you can use TikTok for recruiting. 

What Is Tik Tok? 

 TikTok is a short-form video platform that has evolved into one of the world's largest social media networks. In the United States alone, TikTok reaches an estimated 136 million adults through advertising, making it a valuable platform for brands looking to engage large audiences. 

 While TikTok initially gained popularity among Gen Z, its audience has expanded significantly. Today, 37% of U.S. adults use TikTok, including nearly two-thirds of adults under 30. 

What Are The Benefits Of Using TikTok for Recruiting? 

Companies of all sizes have flocked to TikTok for recruiting and seeking the right candidates for opportunities. Using TikTok offers these enormous benefits:  

• TikTok offers employers access to millions of active users, making it an effective platform for increasing employer brand awareness and reaching both active and passive job seekers.
• Short-form videos allow organizations to showcase company culture, employee stories, workplace events, and day-to-day experiences in a way that feels genuine and relatable.
• Paid TikTok campaigns can target users based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location, helping recruitment campaigns reach the right audience.

How To Find Talent on TikTok? 

TikTok recruiting can help you find job seekers in your industry. Let’s explore how your team can use TikTok to find professionals from a wide array of different talents and backgrounds.  

1. Run Recruitment Campaigns

TikTok Ads Manager allows organizations to build awareness campaigns, promote hiring events, and drive qualified candidates to career sites or landing pages. Paid campaigns can be optimized based on audience demographics, interests, geography, and campaign objectives.

2. Showcase Your Employer Brand

Candidates increasingly want to understand what it's like to work at a company before applying. Use TikTok to highlight your workplace culture, employee testimonials, career growth opportunities, community involvement, and behind-the-scenes content that helps candidates picture themselves on your team.

3. Use Relevant Hashtags

Use industry-specific and location-based hashtags to improve discoverability. Pair branded hiring hashtags with broader recruiting hashtags like #NowHiring, #Hiring, #Careers, or role-specific hashtags relevant to your industry. Consistency and authentic content typically perform better than relying on viral trends alone.  

Your Next Recruiting Strategy 

Tik Tok is a great way to find candidates for jobs. As TikTok continues to grow in popularity, we will definitely see recruitment teams expand how they engage with job seekers throughout the platform.  

TikTok is just one piece of an effective recruitment marketing strategy. At ProIQ, we help organizations attract qualified candidates throughsocial media recruiting, employer branding, programmatic job advertising, and integrated recruitment marketing campaigns. Learn how our Recruitment Marketing Solutions can help you reach the right candidates and strengthen your hiring results.

Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives. As of 2021, 82 percent of the United States population has a social networking profile, or around 223 million people. The growth of social media has also impacted how applicants find jobs, as 96% of job seekers report using social media to find job opportunities. A social media recruiting strategy is essential to attract the best candidates. So, how do you get started? Try these five best social media recruiting best practices to leverage social media to find top talent.  

1. Determine Your Social Media Goals

Before you can start a social media recruiting strategy, you need a plan. Develop clear goals and metrics that define success and plan what social media recruiting efforts will best achieve those results. Metrics can also track how your strategy affects the bottom line, such as showcasing where you get the best applicants, how long it takes to fill a position and the cost per hire.  

2. Be Seen On the Right Channels 

It can be overwhelming to decide which social media platform will best reach your target job seeker. First, determine what type of candidate you want to attract. Then, tailor your social media recruiting strategy to that group. Choose a platform that will best engage that type of candidate and grow your presence on it. The most popular social platforms include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, each with its strengths and weaknesses.  

3. Share Engaging Organic Content

Sharing and spreading organic content is one of the biggest advantages of social media recruiting. What is organic content? Organic content is a social media activity that does not require paid promotion, such as consistent posting of content to your company’s page. Regularly posting new content that showcases your company, its employees, and its culture can intrigue potential applicants. The power of engaging content is that it can expand your reach with minimal effort on your part beyond posting.  

4. Invest in Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram provides you with the opportunity to target your ideal job candidate with your job placement. You can hone in on details such as demographics, interests, location, job title, etc. With paid social media advertising, you can tailor your messaging to a specific audience and extends the reach of your online platform.  

5. Develop A Landing Page

Landing pages are an essential part of social media recruiting best practices. Landing pages have a single purpose, a single message, and a single call to action. Their intended purpose is to attract interested prospects engaged with your social media recruitment campaign and provide you with easily trackable metrics. When recruiting for a specific job opportunity, rather than sharing a more varied page, such as a career page, consider a landing page to increase the likelihood of the prospect applying.  

HOW TO GET HELP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITING BEST PRACTICES

Social media recruiting has become an essential strategy for recruiters today, as 92% of recruiters report using social media in their job recruitment efforts. In other words, if you have not started a social media recruiting strategy then, it’s time to get started, and we can help.  

At ProIQ, we combine a passion for data and a love for digital marketing to develop solutions for talent acquisition and marketing challenges. Our team of experienced social media experts partners with you to understand your goals and create highly targeted, cost-effective campaigns that attract high-quality candidates. Learn how we can help you today.  

If you want to catch a fish, you have to go where the fish are. Makes sense when you’re carrying a rod and reel, but when it comes to landing the big fish in terms of talent acquisition, many business professionals aren’t in the right pond.

Statistics show that the gap between consumer and professional usage of social media is widening. Businesses aren’t keeping up with social innovations and new networking opportunities, and that’s detrimental for the job force. The good news is that job candidates want to connect; they’re broadening their networks and polishing their online resumes. All you have to do is get them to bite.

Goals for Social Media Recruiting

Social media recruiting isn’t like posting a job on Career Builder. Job candidates expect a more personal, interactive approach when they’re on Facebook. Your social recruiting strategy should accomplish two goals:

• Sourcing—Obviously, your number one goal is finding the right applicants. Social media is a great place to do that because it’s where the largest pools of talent congregate.
• Transparency—Social media also helps job candidates get to know your company and establishes your identity as a desirable employer.

How to Attract the Right Candidates with Social Media

For most businesses, the question isn’t primarily whether they should engage in social media recruitment strategies. It’s how to create an effective strategy in the first place.

• Diversify—Establish a presence on multiple social media networks. Start with the Big Three (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) and then expand from there. The goal isn’t to have accounts at as many places as possible; rather, it’s to establish and maintain a presence on those networks that will bring the most benefit to your company.
• Use Social Referrals—Your job postings aren’t just appearing to your contact base. They’re also being shared with friends of friends, a process known as social referrals. Make the most of this opportunity by remaining in close contact with the movers and shakers at key companies.
• Engage—By interacting with your target audience, you not only present yourself as a transparent company but also gain insight into the identity and personality of potential job candidates.
• Marketing—Sell your company using the same marketing techniques you use to sell a product: brand promotion, target audience, strategy development, content creation, ad development, metrics, etc.
• Follow Up—Social media is becoming an essential tool for identifying desirable job candidates but don’t throw out the tried and true methods. Once you’ve narrowed down your pool of candidates, follow your normal protocol for interviews and follow-ups.

With more than 60% of adults maintaining a social media presence to some extent, social media recruiting places you in contact with the largest available pool of potential talent. It’s a trend you can’t afford to ignore.