Share, Post, and Snap Your Way to Recruiting Success
The digital age has done wonders for recruiting, with the world wide web giving recruiters access to candidates from all over the country, and even all over the world. Linkedin, in particular, has become a hotspot, and for good reason. It’s a bazaar of professionalism where employers go to showcase their business and candidates go to put their most professional foot forward.
There is no denying that Linkedin is still a great place for recruiting but social media diversification is an opportunity to access new talent in a more engaging way. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are excellent platforms for encountering excited candidates, and today we will be taking a look at how you can use them to maximize your recruiting potential.
Why Diversify?
Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have very active memberships. Facebook, in particular, has more users than any other social media platform in existence. Moreover, said users typically are more engaged with Facebook than with any other social media site. They update their profiles and check their timelines far more often than the members of competing platforms.
To put it simply, if potential job candidates aren’t seeing your organization pop up on their feed as they get their scroll on, you are missing out a golden opportunity. Being active on Facebook, as well as on similar prominent social media sites can make your organization pop. People trust an online presence, so visibility is very important. You can use Facebook to make regular updates about your company, post the occasional photo, attract loads of new “friends,” to your business and even give potential candidates the option to apply directly through the site.
When it comes to Facebook, remember to keep your posts concise and professional. There are other sites, like Snapchat and Instagram that will allow you to get a little bit more casual, but since Facebook is potentially a place where applications will be sent, it’s best to maintain a professional tone.
Facebook also offers a variety of analytic software that will allow you to track how effective your posts are to better inform the way that you boost your traffic. Of course, if you are a little bit tech savvy, you will be able to figure out how well you are doing by the amount of “likes” that your posts earn. Smiley faces are also always a step in the right direction.
It is ok to be skeptical about the effectiveness of a social media presence, especially if you have been in the recruiting business for a long time, but give it a try, and enjoy the increased visibility that is sure to follow.
Getting Casual.
One of the other pluses of social media is that it allows you to display the casual, fun side of your organization. Snapchat and Instagram, both sites that focus on photography, allow you to provide potential candidates with brief glances of day to day life at your company.
Here’s another way to look at it: every single day a number of people proportionate to the population of the United States (300 million) log into Instagram. Though you will need to compete against Justin Bieber and Kesha for attention and “likes,” (a rewards system that in the instance of this application is denoted by heart icons) that’s still a pretty sizable market to tap into.
With Instagram, you can take high-quality, well thought out photos to make your work place look interesting and appealing. The site places something of a premium on quality photographs, but the tone is still fairly casual.
Then there is Snapchat. If you are looking for young talent, Snapchat is a great place to find it. If you have never used, or heard of Snapchat before, it is a unique platform in which images are sent to, or shared with friends in a file that is displayed for several seconds before disappearing forever.
A snap is not a carefully crafted marketing message. It is raw, it is silly, and then, it is gone. That’s the point. Why should you use it for recruiting? The average Snapchat user is between the ages of 18-24 (an ideal demographic around which you can draft a candidate pool) and they are probably looking to see that their potential place of employment has a fun side.
You can use Snapchat to send out funny snaps relating to the sillier day to day aspect of your operation, and then you can even string those snaps together to create a “snap story,” that can be viewed from your profile.
The beautiful part? As of right now Snapchat and Instagram are being vastly under-utilized by recruiters, so if you decide to move forward with them you will be entering platforms that aren’t super saturated with competition.
Conclusion:
The digital age is changing everything, and that includes recruiting. Social media is a great way to expand your reach in a significant capacity, and attract the most qualified candidates from all over the world.
Just remember to stay active: an account that doesn’t post is as good as non-existent. Establish a web presence, post regularly, and be creative! Social media will expand your reach, and give you access to an unprecedentedly large and talented candidate pool.