How To Develop a Social Media Recruitment Strategy

Social media recruitment strategy: It's more than just a few tweets.

Everyone uses social media these days, and businesses can use that growing trend to their advantage. Social media is a great way to increase brand awareness, build customer loyalty and networks, and even assist in the recruitment process. Businesses that use social media for recruitment may find more engaged candidates, while also cutting down on hiring time and cost.

Developing a successful recruitment strategy can help your business stand out in this exceptionally tight labor market, and all it takes is a few steps in the right direction.

1. Identify your resources and networks

A comprehensive social media recruitment strategy is impossible if you don't know two essential pieces of information:

Plus, you must also use social media for marketing and customer service platforms. Consider the following:

• Besides recruitment, why does your company use social media? Where do the natural overlaps between these efforts and recruitment occur?

• What social media platforms do your customers and potential talent use? Whether on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or another, your company can use this knowledge to effectively create high-quality content that advances your business goals.

• Do you have a marketing budget for paid ads and other campaigns? If not, you will need to develop one that also provides for recruitment purposes.

2. Build an active presence on social media

Can you create social media advertisements on various platforms that you don't use regularly and hope that you find the right talent? Sure. But that method isn’t nearly as effective as creating a comprehensive presence first, and then advertising job openings.

The tight talent market isn't just about the need for increased pay. It's also about finding employees who believe their values are aligned with the values of your company. As many surveys are showing, employees want more than just good pay: They want to work for a company that respects their work-life balance, has a positive corporate culture, offers flexibility in the workplace, and hires a diverse and inclusive workforce.

You can use social media for advertising these values within your organization. Check out the following tips:

3. Broaden your voice

Every company needs to develop a coherent voice and presence on social media. However, it's not enough to use corporate-speak and hope for the best. Your company needs to fulfill your business goals, but it also needs to reflect the voice of your employees if you are going to use social media for recruitment successfully. So, what does that mean?

• Consider "turning over" your social media to an employee once a week and get their perspective on what they do for your organization. This can provide greater insight into company values and behind-the-scenes work.

• Seek input and concrete suggestions on content and social media platforms from employees across your entire organization. By finding out which platforms your employees use and what benefits they expect to gain from social media, you can start crafting your strategy with a sound foundation.

Implement your social media recruitment strategy

As you can see, a social media recruitment strategy requires an aggressive and concerted effort to develop. These steps can help your company use social media to find larger pools of skilled talent and streamline your entire recruitment process.