Table of Contents
- LinkedIn for Social Recruiting: Tap Into the Largest Professional Network
- Sanka: The All-in-One Social Recruiting Tool
- Facebook Jobs: Reach Candidates Where They Spend the Most Time
- Twitter: Short and Sweet for Employer Branding
- Instagram: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
- YouTube for Video Recruiting: Engage Candidates With Rich Media
- Snapchat: Engage With Gen Z and Millennial Candidates
- Benefits of social media recruiting
79% of job seekers have used social media in their job search in the last year - Job Description Library
As a recruiter, social media should be an essential part of your talent acquisition strategy.
With over 3 billion people using various social networks, these channels provide an enormous opportunity to connect with top candidates around the world.
While there are many tools available, the key is focusing on the platforms where your target candidates are active and engaged.
In this article, we’ll share social media recruiting tools, along with real examples of how innovative organizations have leveraged them to find and hire amazing candidates.
By the end, you’ll have actionable tips to start boosting your hiring success through social media.
LinkedIn for Social Recruiting: Tap Into the Largest Professional Network
According to Linkedin’s own data 46 million students are active on LinkedIn
With over 600 million users, LinkedIn is the largest professional network and an invaluable tool for recruiting top talent.
As a recruiting tool, LinkedIn allows you to connect with qualified candidates in your industry and geographic region.
Search for Qualified Candidates
LinkedIn Recruiter allows you to search LinkedIn profiles to find suitable candidates based on criteria like location, education, experience, skills, and more.
Save search criteria to get notifications when new matching profiles are added.
Review profiles, see candidates’ connections and recommendations from previous employers, and reach out to promising candidates.
Post Job Listings
You can advertise job openings on LinkedIn to reach qualified candidates.
Include details like job responsibilities, required skills and experience, salary range, and company culture.
Candidates can easily apply through LinkedIn. Sponsor your job post to increase visibility.
Build Connections and Network
Connect with people you know professionally to build your network. Also, search for and connect with others in your industry or related roles.
Comment on their updates, invite them to connect in person at industry events, and develop mentorship relationships.
A strong professional network leads to new opportunities, partnerships, and talent recruitment.
Sanka: The All-in-One Social Recruiting Tool
Sanka is an all-in-one social recruiting tool that helps you find top talent on networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and GitHub. With Sanka, you can:
Post jobs to multiple social networks at once
Simply enter the details of your job listing, select the networks you want to post to, and Sanka will automatically format and schedule your posts.
Build a talent community
Engage with potential candidates by following them on social media, liking and commenting on their posts, and inviting them to follow your company page.
People will be more likely to apply to your jobs if they're already familiar with your brand.
Source passive candidates
Sanka lets you search social networks for people with skills and experience that match what you're looking for.
You can then reach out to these candidates directly to gage their interest in new opportunities.
Track applications and engage applicants
See which candidates have applied to your jobs, view their social profiles, and reach out to move strong applicants through the hiring process.
Applicant tracking helps ensure you don't miss out on top talent.
Analyze the performance of your social recruiting efforts
Sanka provides analytics on things like impressions, clicks, and applications for your social job posts so you can see what's working and make changes to improve your results.
Sanka integrates with many other platforms to enhance your social recruiting.
With powerful tools and time-saving integrations, Sanka makes social media recruiting efficient and effective.
Give it a try—your next great hire could be just a few clicks away.
Facebook Jobs: Reach Candidates Where They Spend the Most Time
For recruiters, Facebook represents a huge opportunity to connect with qualified candidates where they already spend much of their time socializing and networking.
Build a Recruiter Profile
The first step is to create a Facebook page for your recruiting firm or HR department.
Add details about your company culture and values, share photos of your office space and team, and post updates on new job openings to help build your brand and give candidates a glimpse into what it's like to work for your organization.
Join Industry Groups
Search for Facebook groups related to your industry or job functions.
For example, join groups for software engineers, nurses, teachers, etc. Post in these groups when you have new roles to fill.
You can also connect with group members directly to source candidates. However, be respectful of the group's rules around recruiting to avoid being seen as spam.
Run Targeted Ads
Facebook's advertising platform allows you to promote your jobs in front of qualified candidates.
You can target ads by location, job title, company, school, skills, and more.
When candidates click your ad, send them to the job listing on your website or the application page.
Track the performance of your ads to optimize them and improve results over time.
Engage with Candidates
Don't just post and run. Monitor comments and questions on your posts and in groups.
Reply promptly and professionally to candidates expressing interest in your roles.
Start a genuine conversation to learn more about their experience and see if there might be a good match with an open position.
Twitter: Short and Sweet for Employer Branding
Twitter is an ideal platform for promoting your employer brand and recruiting top talent.
Its fast-paced, real-time nature allows you to raise brand awareness, build relationships, and connect with potential candidates.
Expand Your Reach
With 330 million monthly active users, Twitter provides a huge potential audience for your messaging.
Share updates, news, photos, and links about your company culture, employee spotlights, new job openings, and industry trends.
Engaging and relevant content will increase your visibility and help establish your brand as an employer of choice.
Start Meaningful Conversations
Twitter's conversational format makes it easy to directly interact with followers and influencers in your industry.
Reply to tweets, retweet others, use hashtags to join larger discussions, and tag influential users to start dialogs.
Building authentic connections and relationships leads to new opportunities, partnerships, and even high-quality candidate referrals.
Promote Your Open Roles
When you have new jobs to fill, Twitter is an effective way to spread the word.
Tweet about the openings, including a link to the listing on your website or other job sites.
Highlight any incentives or perks to attract top talent. Your followers may share the tweets with their own networks, increasing the visibility of your listings.
Stay on the Cutting Edge
The fast pace of change on Twitter means employers must keep up with the latest trends to maximize impact.
Follow influencers, hashtags, and lists related to HR, recruiting, and your industry.
See what types of content and strategies are driving the most engagement.
Continually refine and improve your own tweets and profile to keep your messaging fresh, authentic, and compelling.
Instagram: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
Instagram is a powerful social media platform for recruiting top talent.
For recruiters, Instagram offers a glimpse into candidates’ creativity and communication abilities.
The images and captions they share provide insight into their priorities, values, and personality.
Recruiters can identify candidates who would be a great cultural fit for the organization.
Find Candidates
To find strong candidates on Instagram, search industry hashtags like #UXdesign or #softwareengineering to discover people in your field.
Check their profiles and see if they would be a good fit for any open roles. Engage with their posts by liking and commenting to start building a connection.
Mention your company and current opportunities to gage their interest.
Build Your Brand
Use your company’s Instagram profile to promote your employer brand.
Share photos and short videos highlighting your company culture, team, and work environment.
This gives candidates a realistic preview of what it would be like to work for your organization.
Advertise Job Openings
Once you have built up your followers, use Instagram to advertise new job openings.
Create visually engaging posts promoting the opportunity and outlining key details and requirements.
Drive interested candidates to the job listing on your website.
Use relevant hashtags so your posts appear in searches by prospective applicants.
YouTube for Video Recruiting: Engage Candidates With Rich Media
YouTube is the world's second-largest search engine and a prime spot for video recruiting.
Creating a company YouTube channel allows you to share video content to engage with potential candidates.
Build Your Audience
Start by uploading videos that share what it's like to work at your company.
Showcase your company culture, share employee success stories, and highlight popular job openings.
This helps candidates get excited about your brand and see if they're a good fit.
Promote Your Open Roles
When you have new jobs to fill, upload a short video with the details.
Mention the job title, responsibilities, requirements, and why it's an exciting position.
This is a compelling way to spread the word about your openings to qualified candidates.
Convey Your Employer Brand
Use YouTube to strengthen your employer brand by highlighting what makes you a great place to work.
Share videos on company benefits, career growth opportunities, community outreach programs, or a day in the life of various positions.
Build your credibility as an attractive employer.
Optimize for Search
Choose video titles, tags, and descriptions that include relevant keywords to help candidates find your content.
Mention your company name, location, and industry. Engaging titles with numbers or questions tend to get the most views. Keep descriptions concise but compelling.
With authentic, engaging, and optimized video content, it can help forge meaningful connections that turn viewers into applicants.
Snapchat: Engage With Gen Z and Millennial Candidates
Snapchat is among the best social media tools for recruiting younger generations like Generation Z and Millennials.
Over 75% of Snapchat’s users are under 34 years old, so it’s a prime channel for connecting with recent grads and those just entering the workforce.
Build Your Company Profile
To leverage Snapchat for recruiting, start by creating an account for your company and building out your profile.
Add visual elements like photos of your office space, employee events, and product images.
Post frequently to your story and share behind-the-scenes glimpses of company culture and work life.
This authentic look into your organization will resonate with Snapchat’s user base.
Expand Your Visibility
Identify relevant Snapchat influencers, like industry experts, thought leaders, or Snapchat personalities with a large Gen Z or Millennial following.
Reach out and explore partnership or sponsorship opportunities where they mention your company or job openings to their audience.
Their endorsement will carry more weight than a traditional ad.
Invest on Ads
You can also run social media ad campaigns on Snapchat to promote your employer brand and available positions.
Snapchat’s self-serve ad platform makes it easy to create visually engaging 5-second video ads or longer Snap Ads with a link to your company’s career site or job listing.
Target the ads to your ideal candidate personas based on attributes like age, location, interests, and behaviors.
Keep It Simple and Swift
To engage candidates who come to you from Snapchat, have a strong application and onboarding process optimized for mobile.
Your career site and application should be short, simple to complete on the phone and convey your fun, forward-thinking culture.
Move fast to contact, interview, and hire top applicants sourced through Snapchat before they’re scooped up by another company.
What are the benefits of social media recruiting?
Social media recruiting provides several benefits:
- Wide network reach
- Build employer brand
- Attract passive candidates
- Target-specific talent pools
- Reduce time to hire
Conclusion
That’s it, the complete list of the top social media recruiting tools to help you find and connect with the best talent.
Social media has transformed the hiring landscape, giving recruiters a direct line of communication with active and passive candidates.
The tools and platforms on this list have been proven to help companies of all sizes source, engage, and hire amazing people.
What are you waiting for? Start posting those job openings, building your company brand, and connecting with candidates today.
The next Rockstar on your team could be just a tweet, snap, or swipe away. Happy hunting!
