How Social Media Can Assist You Discover and Rent the Proper Individuals for Your Enterprise

When you hear that social media can be valuable for hiring employees, you might think, “Sure, I’ve already scoured LinkedIn for potential employees.”

But I’m talking so much bigger than that. If you don’t consider all of your social media channels as potential candidate pools, you’re probably missing out on some incredible hires.

Think of it this way: even if your social channels are customer-centric, a good percentage of your audience is likely to be professionals. When their skills match your needs, and they already do like what your company does enough to follow you then it might be the perfect match.

Read on to learn how businesses both small and growing can develop a strategy for hiring the best talent through social media.

1. Think about where your ideal candidates depend

Smart social recruiting isn’t about blowing up all of your social channels with your job offers until you’ve filled them. Instead, think as carefully as possible about where you might find your ideal candidate for a particular position.

First, pay attention to the demographics and makeup of specific social media networks and how they align with the types of candidates you are looking for. At Buffer, we found more marketers on Twitter than on LinkedIn because that’s where they usually hang out. If you’re looking for a social media professional or content creator, Instagram or TikTok might be a better place to look.

Finding ways to connect with niche communities on broader social networks can also be valuable. For example, we’ve found a lot of attraction in promoting job postings on Facebook groups aimed at people in specific industries (like DevelopHer, Technical inclusion, or Techqueria). On Twitter or Instagram, you can search for hashtags to add or accounts that you can tag to reach the kind of people you want to hire (ex @WritersofColor).

2. Go beyond posting the role

To get the most out of social media recruiting, you’ll want to do more than just post the job posting and hope for the best. Instead, take advantage of all the opportunities these platforms offer to present your corporate culture, answer questions about your company and generally attract potential candidates – all of which can help them click “Apply”.

In one of the funniest tactics I’ve seen lately, a hiring manager at Buffer offered 15-minute “coffee chats” to his network on Twitter, where potentially interested candidates could learn more about the role and the company. You could use the questions feature in Instagram Stories for a similar AMA style strategy.

Thanks to the conversation and the culture of authenticity, social media also offer you a platform to showcase your corporate culture. According to a study by CareerArc, Facebook is the number one website that candidates use to research employer brand and reputation, even more so than review sites like Glassdoor.

Get creative with content that shows what it’s like to work in your company, such as:

Asheville, NC-based East Fork Pottery not only publishes a job description, but shares its values ​​with potential new hires.

3. Make it easy for yourself to learn and share more

Social media has taught us to expect a seamless and simple user experience, so candidates who come across your job openings on these platforms will expect just as much from you. If you make it difficult for them to learn more about the job, they will likely give up quickly.

And yet, I can’t tell you how many companies I see share roles on social media and then link to a clunky job page (or worse, don’t share a link at all).

Make sure people can easily find more details about the role, be it with a link in the bio (maybe on your brand’s Home page) or a link directly in the post or in the story. Make sure these details are easy to search on the phone as as much as 83% of all social media browsing happens on our phones.

As a bonus, creating a seamless experience makes it easy for your followers to share these roles with their network, thus increasing your reach. At Buffer, we’ve also seen success in encouraging our hiring managers and teammates to share our open roles on their own channels.

We’re hiring at Buffer, and we’ve made it easy to apply and share with fun posts like this.

4. Build relationships for the future

In conclusion, remember that social media is at its core a relationship building tool. Even your social channels won’t help you instantly find the right candidate for a position, keep sharing information about your culture and mission, connect with new people, and be remembered so you can build a network of followers who not only love your product or service, but also love your business.

After all, the next person to follow your company might be perfect for the next position you’re hiring for – you just have to show them why.