Social Media Recruiting: Leveraging Social Platforms for Talent Acquisition

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<h2>Key Takeaways</h2>
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<li>Use social media alongside other channels to attract more applicants.</li>
<li>The main ways of harnessing social media are: placing links to job adverts on social media, getting referrals through employees’ social media accounts, paid advertising, posting adverts on social media groups and using social media to create a brand identity that attracts relevant applicants.</li>
<li>There are various pros and cons to using social media for recruitment, particularly financial cost versus time cost.</li>
<li>Don’t view applicants’ social media accounts, even if publicly available, without getting their permission first.</li>
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Social media can be a great way of finding new people. It’s generally something that you’ll use alongside other Applicant Attraction Channels (for more on these see our guide Fill Your Jobs Fast: Use Multiple Channels to Attract Great Performers). 

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Ways of Using Social Media to Recruit

• Promote jobs organically: One of the first things you’ll probably do when looking for new staff is to advertise your role on a job site or, if you have one, on your company careers page. At this point, put a free link to your job advert on your company Facebook, X (aka Twitter) or LinkedIn accounts. Hopefully your followers will see it and might even share it. Also, your post and link will show up in search results. 
• Employee referrals: Ask your staff to share a link to your job advert for free on their own social media accounts. This will cast your net much wider as you tap into your employees’ connections, potentially reaching passive applicants.
• Promote jobs in paid search results: Create a post advertising your job and then pay to promote it. You can target your advert to people who meet specific criteria, such as being of working age or located in a certain region. This can be a good way of reaching a particular segment of potential jobseekers.
• Allow jobseekers to apply through social media: You can set up adverts on some platforms so that users can hit an “apply” button to send their details to you without having to leave the site. This easy trick can dramatically increase the number of applications you receive.
• Promote an employer brand: Under this free organic approach, you share content about your company’s culture and values in order to build up a following of people who are attracted to your vision. Jobseekers who follow you will then see your job adverts as you post them. Creating a following around your brand takes consistent effort and so may be harder for SMEs to achieve.

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Key Platforms & Their Specific Uses

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X (aka Twitter)

• Create an account: Get the X app for free, and create a “profile” for your business. Find customers, clients and other relevant accounts to “follow”. 
• Tweet job advert links: Tweet a link to your job advert from your company X page. If you want to expand on your message without spamming followers with loads of tweets, you can use “Threads”.
• Tweet other relevant content: But keep within the 280 character limit. Maybe a quote from a colleague, or a link to an article on your website recruitment blog.
• Employees “retweet”: Encourage employees to share company posts.

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Facebook

• Create an account: Get the Facebook app for free, and create a “page” for your business. Find customers, clients and other relevant “friends” to follow.
• Careers pages: In addition to your company page, create a free dedicated company careers page to share insights about your company culture, employee experiences, and job openings.
• Paid advertisements: Use Facebook’s targeting features to broadcast job adverts to specific demographics, who do not necessarily “follow” you.
• Employee engagement: Encourage employees to “like” and “share” job adverts and company posts from their personal accounts.
• “Groups”: Seek out relevant Facebook groups and contribute by sharing your opinions, but do not repost jobs there as users generally don’t respond positively.

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Instagram

• Create an account: Get the Instagram app for free, and create a “profile” for your business. Find customers, clients and other relevant accounts to “follow”. 
• Visual content: Use Instagram to post authentic images and videos that highlight your company culture and work environment.
• Stories: Take advantage of Instagram Stories to post temporary, engaging content.
• Engagement: Regularly interact with followers through “likes”, comments and direct messages, to build a community.
• Employee engagement: Again, encourage employees to “like” and share job adverts and company posts on their personal page or in their stories.

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LinkedIn

• Company profiles: Maintain a business profile to share content and job postings. 
• Professional networking: Ideal for reaching professionals in white-collar and senior-level positions.
• CV database: Use the site like a CV database to search for passive candidates.
• Sponsored jobs: Increase visibility with paid job advertisements and proactive candidate searches.
• Read our guide: As LinkedIn is particularly utilised for white-collar specialist recruitment, please see our separate guide, LinkedIn Hiring Secrets: Proven Methods to Recruit the Best Talent.

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Advantages of Using Social Media in Recruitment

• Targeted advertising: Social media platforms offer sophisticated targeting options, allowing employers to reach specific groups based on demographics, interests, education, and more (provided you do not discriminate).
• Reaching passive jobseekers: Although not actively looking for a job, you may be able to interrupt them on social media.
• Enhanced employer branding: This can attract jobseekers who align with the organisation’s vision, leading to better cultural fit in the recruitment process.
• It really is “social”: Social recruiting can utilise the power of community engagement and word-of-mouth, especially when employees share job postings within their networks. 
• Quality connections: The people that you reach through your own and employees’ accounts are likely to be of higher ‘quality’; they’ll have a deeper connection with your company.
• Flexibility in content and interaction: Social media platforms offer various ways to present job opportunities, including written copy, photos, videos, and interactive content.
• Low financial cost: Social media is cheap in the sense that it costs nothing to create a profile, link to job adverts and share content. Even paid adverts can be good value as it can be useful to be able to target your advert at a particular audience.

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Disadvantages of Using Social Media in Recruitment

• Time-intensive effort: Effective social media recruitment often requires significant time investment to create regular content, engage with jobseekers, and maintain an active presence on multiple platforms.
• Potential for discrimination: Targeted advertising on social media can inadvertently lead to discrimination. It’s been claimed, for example, that job posts on Facebook tend to be viewed more by genders stereotypically associated with the particular kind of job being advertised.
• Risk of brand damage: Negative comments or feedback on social media can quickly spread and potentially harm an employer’s brand. Companies need to be prepared to manage their online reputation.
• Lack of control over platform changes: Social media platforms frequently update their algorithms and policies, affecting how job postings are displayed and who sees them. Businesses have limited control over these changes.
• Costs of paid advertising: While organic social media presence is free, reaching a wider audience often requires paid advertising.
• Limited applicant information: Unlike traditional CVs and job applications, social media profiles may not provide comprehensive information about a candidate’s qualifications and experience.
• Risk of misinformation: Candidates may present an idealised version of themselves on social media, which might not accurately reflect their qualifications or work ethic.
• Privacy and ethical concerns: Reviewing candidates’ social media profiles raises privacy and ethical considerations.‍

One final word of warning about this last point and the use of social media in recruitment. Once you’ve found some promising applicants, it can be really tempting to trawl through their social media to find out more about them as a way of screening, but you shouldn’t review applicants’ social media profiles without their permission.

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Additional Resources

• Talent Acquisition Book; The Secrets of Great Recruitment: How to Recruit Great Employees.
• Downloadable PDF guide; From Likes to Hires: Tips & Tricks for Social Media Recruitment.
• Article; Social Recruiting: Myths, Facts, and How to Do it Right.
• Article; Advantages & Disadvantages of Using Social Media for Recruitment.
• Article; LinkedIn Recruitment Secrets: What Every Employer Must Know!