The way companies hire and recruit top talent has evolved significantly, and it can be challenging for companies to find new ways to stand out from competitors. Apart from shifting cultural dynamics, changing values, and the residual effects of the pandemic, technology has contributed mightily to the rapid changes that are taking place in recruiting across every industry. Much of this involves the explosion in online resources available to job seekers, including social media.
With so much changing so drastically in the recruitment landscape, it’s essential for recruitment marketing professionals to continually look for new ways to recruit with social media. For example, 49% of HR professionals say their organizations plan to increase recruitment and candidate engagement methods, and 9 out of 10 brands now use social media to source, attract, and engage new recruits. Having solid social media recruitment strategies in place ensures that all content and materials target audiences that frequent specific platforms.
It is important to have solid social media recruitment strategies in place and to ensure that all content and materials target audiences that frequent specific platforms.
The above underscores the need for an omnichannel approach within the social recruitment paradigm. Creating an omnichannel approach for social media involves implementing strategies that ensure the correct targeting and messaging are employed.
As more people have adopted social media, its user base has grown more representative of the broader population. Young adults were among those who adopted the use of social media early on and they continue to engage these sites at high levels, while usage by older adults has increased in recent years.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of national job openings stood at 9.8 million as of May 31, 2023. Throughout the month, the number of hires changed slightly (at 6.2 million), and total separations decreased to 5.9 million. Currently, 71% of hiring managers say they are struggling to fill open positions. This means that there are quite a few jobs in the market, and hiring, although brisk, could stand improvement.
There are 302.35 million social media users in the U.S., which translates into 90% of the total U.S. population using social media actively. And based on research conducted by Glassdoor, nearly 80% of job applicants use social media in their job searches.
So, what is an omnichannel approach? An omnichannel approach entails refining the degree that content and messaging are appropriate to each platform and each segment of the talent pool is reached.
Each social channel has a unique offering that aligns with real business goals, and each should be considered when pulling together a holistic paid social strategy. After all, the audience doesn't just live on one social media platform, so hiring professionals shouldn't either.
The benefits of an omnichannel approach are numerous and include:
Creating an omnichannel approach is important for the same reason that a digital marketing strategy is important. Today’s online environment is dynamic, ever-changing, and highly-personalized, which necessitates a corresponding and appropriate response on the part of companies and recruiters.
With the abundance of available open positions, job seekers have a world of opportunities available to them. Thus, any vehicle through which companies are able to differentiate themselves from the competition is invaluable – and this directly relates to companies connecting with candidates. Diversifying across social platforms helps employers attract top candidates by exploiting this dynamic.
Recruitment marketers need to know that despite the overlap in some areas, the environment and the audiences on social media platforms differ. On each platform, recruitment marketing content should be different.
For instance, whoever is informing the social recruitment strategy is going to create content to appeal to and best serve the audience on that particular platform. A company’s posting on LinkedIn isn’t going to be the same as what they post on Instagram. This is not only because the messaging formats supported on the two platforms are different, but because the audience expectations also differ between the two platforms.
Knowing the platforms and their audiences is imperative because finding quality talent means tapping into the right platform and audience.
For example, short-form video dominates today and focuses on communication, interaction, content-sharing, and collaboration. Still, a savvy recruitment marketer wouldn’t feature the same video on LinkedIn that they produced for TikTok, as the environment and audiences tend to be vastly different. That said, one short video – with subtle differences to accommodate the differences in platforms – posted on Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts can expand a company’s reach much further than recurring posts on one platform.
It’s also important for recruiters to keep current on the latest features offered by social media platforms, as using these can help to grow the company’s audience and engagement. While this entails some homework, it allows these platforms to work for recruiters and maximizes their chances of success. For example, keeping an eye on emerging trends and platforms such as Threads, helps keep professionals ahead of the competition.
Social recruiting uses social media to find, attract, engage, and encourage candidates. This far surpasses traditional recruiting methods such as publishing job listings. An omnichannel approach involves companies and recruiters being more proactive in searching for top talent and building the brand as an employer candidates want to work for. Some basics should include:
As indicated above, familiarity with the platforms, content allowed, formats supported, etc. is essential. This will aid in determining the type of content and messaging that should be used (e.g., text, imagery vs. video).
While the content type and messaging may need to vary depending on the platform, it is important that this consistently features branding. Despite the differences across platforms, the content produced must be similar to what candidates see when scrolling on each platform and not too generic or corporate.
Tip: Speaking to candidates’ needs and desires and the company/position as the solution (Example: “Need more pay?” or “Signing bonus offered”) is a great way to grab a job seeker’s attention.
Tapping current employees to post about open jobs on their personal social media accounts can expose these positions to hundreds or thousands of potential candidates who otherwise may not see the company’s job advertisements.
This is critical to recruiters’ success. Today, 77% of job seekers use mobile apps to find work, thus understanding mobile job search behavior is essential in recruitment marketing. Understanding mobile job search behavior helps in creating optimal content for the audience at hand, as well as helping recruiters meet audiences where they are with the content they’re seeking.
Consistently engaging with the audience on social media helps a recruiter build a reputation and the employer brand. Companies should have someone monitoring engagement on the company’s social media channels and ensuring that parties who are interested in the organization are not being neglected.
This is a must in all recruitment marketing these days, and it goes double when looking at omnichannel approach strategies. According to Indeed, today’s job seekers want to see as much information as possible about a company’s culture to make sure it’s a place they’ll fit in. Sharing employee videos, photos of company events, team outings, conferences, and daily office life can help candidates determine whether or not they’d mesh with the company’s culture.
Yes, these are everywhere on social media outlets, but understanding what they mean and how they work can make them an indispensable tool for recruiters. When hashtags are used on a post, anyone who searches for that hashtag on the platform could discover the post. By adding relevant hashtags to posts, interested job seekers can find the company’s content far more easily. For example, a link to a job posting for a nurse position in New York might include the hashtags #nurse, #nursejobs, or #NYnursejobs.
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Tailoring content to social media platforms is imperative for recruitment marketing professionals and companies who want to attract quality talent effectively. Implementing an omnichannel approach helps create unique candidate experiences across these platforms, providing a distinct edge in this regard, and a well-designed diversification strategy that covers recruitment through retention is essential if companies want to build great teams and stay ahead of the competition.
If you’re interested in revamping your social media strategy, reach out to Recruitics! Our team of recruitment marketing specialists leverages the power of our technology and expertise to meet your challenges and exceed your goals.
