Are you taking full advantage of your company’s social media platforms in your recruitment marketing activities?

By sharing vacancies and employment related content on your social media accounts, you will help to develop a buzz around your company as an employer and increase the reach of your latest roles.

Here are five ways Webrecruit recommends using social media recruiting to increase your talent attraction efforts:

1. Provide real insight into your company culture

You can describe your company’s vision and values in your job adverts but words can only say so much; potential new employees want to be able to visualise what life is like at your company. It’s much easier for candidates to do this if you can show what it’s like to work for your business.

Use your social media platforms to share photographs of your team, whether it’s your employees hard at work, your modern office facilities or even your team bonding at a company social event. Even better, share videos; if you have attractive offices, try filming an office tour!

This allows candidates to assess whether they can see themselves fitting into your team and working environment.

2. Share all vacancies on your social media platforms

It’s important to include your company social media platforms within your recruitment advertising strategy. It costs nothing to share these posts and your followers on social media are likely to be advocates of your company – what better people to come and work for you? You can also encourage your colleagues to share your posts as part of a wider employee referral scheme.

If you’re currently using an ATS or an alternative type of recruitment software, you can use this technology to quickly share your roles on social media without having to pester your marketing team; you will be in control of what gets shared and when.

3. Target desired candidates directly

For a more direct approach, you can run sponsored advertising campaigns on social media platforms to target individuals who possess the essential requirements for your vacancies. You will need to allocate a budget to these campaigns but they are a great way of reaching candidates for hard-to-fill roles.

For example, LinkedIn allows you to target your advertising campaigns at individuals who hold specific job titles or who have worked for particular companies. By advertising your vacancy on Facebook, users are likely to tag friends as well who might possess the skills and experience you’re looking for.

Make sure you create eye-catching visuals to accompany your advert so it jumps out to users when they’re scrolling through their newsfeed.

4. Encourage your employees to share their experiences

Nothing sells a job opportunity more than your employees telling their stories. Hearing first-hand accounts of what it’s like to work for your business brings a level of authenticity to your company and its talent attraction efforts.

Consider how you will share these stories; will they simply be quotes on your social media pages or can you create short videos, focusing on each employee and their story? Think about what will resonate the most with your audience.

5. Recruit proactively

Don’t just wait until your company has an influx of vacancies to fill; keep your social media recruiting efforts ongoing throughout the year, even during periods where you’re not hiring.

Consistency is important so work with your Marketing team to map out a content calendar to share employer branding content. Work closely together as your Marketing team are likely to have insight of when’s best to share your content to maximise engagement.