How to Use Social Media to Attract Top Talent

When you’re a human resources manager or a business owner, you want to have access to the best, talented candidates possible for the success of your business. Talented individuals don’t stay on the market long, so it’s important to be accessible and engaged with the candidates where they spend most time.

Social media is a fantastic way to connect with an audience, and that audience is likely full of candidates who would make great employees. Almost all professional recruiters network, so why not attract talent using social media.

The Benefits of Social Media Recruiting

To create an ideal recruitment system that will give you access to high quality candidates, you need to utilise multiple avenues of access. Social media networks are perfect for reaching candidates who aren’t actively looking for a job.

When garnering candidates from social media, you’re often getting the most tech-savvy and innovative individuals out there. You’re also able to screen them using their profiles and feeds as a source of information.

Using social media is also one of the most cost effective methods for finding the right talent. Creating an account and uploading a profile is free, and posting an ad is quick and easy. With printed ads or those added to online job portals, it could take time to wait for the advertisement to be accessible to candidates. With social media, candidates can have instant access. This gives you dozens of resumes within a few hours of posting online.

Consider the following suggestions on how to use social media to attract top talent and boost your recruiting efforts.

Use LinkedIn for Sourcing

There’s no other platform that makes more sense for professionals than LinkedIn. Adding a company profile to this popular social media platform will let followers stay informed of job openings and allow you to add content that potential candidates might find useful.

There are thousands of discussion groups, and when you join the ones related to your industry, you’ll be able to see who is contributing relevant content as well as providing real value to the groups. This is also where you can let people know there’s a job opening in the company.

While you might not want to limit yourself to those who are seeking new opportunities, one of the best ways to look for those seeking employment is to search using those keywords. You want someone that is “seeking” a new job opportunity. You can narrow down the choices from there.

Showcase Company Culture on Facebook

Potential employees want to know if a company’s culture is right for them. They want to know it fits with their work ethic as well as if it provides a healthy environment where their work will be valued.

To showcase your company culture, your current employees should like and share on the company page freely. It’ll give the potential candidates a chance to check out the people who work for your company.

Share relevant posts with employees and others who have liked the Facebook company page. Once candidates see your company’s pictures and interactions, they’ll be able to tell how they’ll fit with the company culture.

You can also use Facebook ads to focus on ideal targets for the position. Ads can be narrowed down to certain demographics like age and location.

Use Instagram to Build Your Employer Brand

Another social network that allows you to showcase the inner workings of the company is Instagram. If you know how to use it the right way, Instagram can be a great tool for recruiting. Companies that use Instagram to show behind-the-scenes pictures of the company have followers who are very appreciative of the glimpse.

Companies like GE and Marriott Hotels are popular brands on Instagram. It’s easy to see how they are using this social network the right way. For example, The Marriott has pictures of employees smiling and talking about how long they’ve been with the company.

By posting pictures from hiring events, job ads in form of branded images or short videos, etc., Instagram offers you a unique opportunity to build your employer brand.

Following others in the industry will help you see what they’re doing for employee and customer engagement. It’ll help your company get more followers and increase your audience for finding qualified candidates.

Use Twitter for Connecting with Potential Candidates

Using recruiting hashtags on Twitter is a great way to work on word-of-mouth advertising for positions you have available in the company. You might use a hashtag like #jobs, #hiring or #employment to get the attention of your target audience. You’ll have to find one that speaks to your industry. Pick one that’s popular in your field for your recruitment efforts.

It’s amazing how conversations can happen with an audience when you’re limited to 140 characters. It leads to creative engagement. Make sure that whatever you’re adding to the conversation has value.

Final Thoughts

Almost all professional recruiters will network and attract talent using social media. You should have profiles already set up on these platforms, so when you need to start recruiting, you’ll have laid the foundation. If that’s not the case, you have some work to do. The great thing about social media is that you can use hashtags and follow others to get a toehold to finding great candidates. It’s still faster than print advertisements or online job portals.