Using online job boards to advertise your vacancies is a highly effective method; however, more and more companies are utilising social media platforms in order to target passive jobseekers.
What is a passive jobseeker?
A passive jobseeker is someone who isn’t actively looking for a new role; they likely already have a job that they’re not necessarily unhappy in. However, while they might not be searching for roles on job boards, they are open to hearing about new opportunities should the right one arise. This is where social media comes in to play as an effective form of recruitment advertising.
The popularity of social media platforms has exploded over the past two decades; Facebook now has 2.2 billion users worldwide and professional social networking site LinkedIn has over 630 million users. With such vast potential reach, it’s no wonder that these platforms are appealing to businesses as a way of gaining mass exposure for their vacancies.
However, it takes a certain skill to make sure your social media recruitment campaigns are reaching your desired audience and catching their attention.
Webrecruit has managed hundreds of social media campaigns for its customers, reaching millions of potential candidates. Here are our top tips for a successful social media recruitment campaign:
1. Make sure you stand out
Social media platforms can offer a lot of flexibility in how you advertise your vacancies. Whereas most job boards will only accept text-based adverts, social media platforms allow you to get creative by showcasing company videos and engaging images alongside your advert text to capture the attention of your target audience.
Users are bombarded with adverts every day when scrolling through their feeds, so it’s important that your advert sets you apart from the competition.
When creating your social media recruitment advert, think about your USP as a company and the USP of the opportunity itself. What is it about the role that’s going to make someone potentially want to quit their existing job to come and work for you? This needs to be clearly communicated within your advert in order to generate interest in the opportunity.
2. Use the right platforms for your role
LinkedIn allows you to target adverts more based on job titles and qualifications, whereas Facebook is better at targeting users by interest.
As such, if you’re looking at targeting users with specific experience, LinkedIn will be the best route for your advert. On the other hand, if your company is having a large volume recruitment drive and needs mass exposure, Facebook or Instagram advertising would be a better option.
3. Target the right audience
Selecting the right targeting criteria is important when advertising your roles on social media. You should aim to strike an appropriate balance so you’re reaching the right audience without excluding anyone who could be suitable.
For example, it’s common on Facebook for users to tag their friends in the comments of adverts if they feel it would be an appropriate opportunity for someone they know.
Be careful when selecting your targeting criteria to ensure that you’re not using discriminatory targeting. Social media platforms will reject any campaign that’s seen to be discriminating against a particular gender, race or religion. As with all other recruitment advertising methods, you should aim to be as inclusive as possible.
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4. Make tweaks mid-campaign if it’s not working
If you’re a few days into your campaign and not getting much traction, it’s time to take action! Luckily, social media platforms allow you to make changes to your campaigns at any point so you should monitor the results closely in the early stages of your campaign.
If your role isn’t reaching the number of people you initially anticipated, it might be that you’ve made your targeting criteria too niche. Alternatively, if you find that your advert is getting a lot of impressions but not many clickthroughs, there might be something in the text or visual you’ve used that is putting people off.
Don’t be afraid to A/B test when creating your campaign. This will allow you to create multiple versions of one advert and test them against each other so you can see which is the most effective. Try experimenting with different wording and visual elements to develop an idea of what really works.
5. Analyse your results at the end of your campaign
As with any kind of PPC activity, sponsored social media recruitment advertising campaigns can quickly burn through your budget if you’re not sure what works.
This is why it’s so important to track the success of each advert and log how many applications you’ve received from it. If it’s been a success, you can use this insight to replicate the target criteria for similar roles that you hire for in the future. On the other hand, if your campaign hasn’t gone quite as well as you planned, take the time to reflect and explore any potential improvements you can make for your next advertising campaign.
