It goes without saying that when it comes to recruitment, these days the majority of it is done online. Candidates find your vacancy on job boards or your careers web page, their CV then lands in your inbox, and if you like the sound of them you reply online inviting them for an interview.
Because of this – and the immense popularity of social media networking – it’s more important than ever to have a strong online employer brand and digital presence.
Think about it: when a potential candidate wants to get a job with a particular company, the first places they’ll go are their company career web pages and/or their social media channels.
But how can you make your company and job vacancies appealing to potential candidates, and how can you ensure the best candidates view and apply for your jobs?
There are a few ways you can build a really powerful employer brand online, but one of the best ways is to maximise the potential of social media. Depending on the size of your company and existing social media following, it might be a good idea to create separate “careers” social media profiles which are purely targeted at job seekers. However, if you’re a smaller business with a smaller following, using your existing profiles is fine.
Now, before you start posting your job vacancies on every social media platform, it’s important to research what works best on which platform. Each social networking site has its own benefits when it comes to brand building and recruitment, so it’s no good just posting the same content across all platforms and sitting back and hoping for the best.
Consider your audience on each platform and what sort of content appeals to them the most. This should give you a pretty good idea of what is going to make that segment of your online audience want to apply for your jobs.
For example, Facebook is the type of platform that candidates use for leisure, so use it to promote company culture and build a strong, relatable employer brand. Consider posting more light-hearted content to this platform such as videos and images from your office to spark interest in your brand from potential candidates.
Next up: LinkedIn. This is the big one when it comes to social media recruitment as it’s the world’s largest professional network dedicated to job seeking and business networking. It’s a great platform for companies to really sell themselves as employers and target specific sectors of candidates. Update your Company Page regularly with news about your business as well as things like existing employee testimonials and Q&As with senior bosses to give candidates a glimpse into life at the company.
Another great platform for employer branding is Twitter, and using it is a great way of engaging with potential candidates and sparking conversations with them. Invite your followers to ask you questions about vacancies and company culture to get them talking and ensure your business isn’t seen as a faceless brand.
When trying to build a popular employer brand online, the visual element is usually the most effective as it offers a real-life glimpse into day-to-day life in the office. Platforms like Pinterest and Instagram are the most effective when it comes to posting images, and Instagram’s integration with Facebook gives you even more reach when creating your posts.
When setting up your employer brand boards on Pinterest, think about what’s unique about your business and create boards around those topics. For example, do you have weekly competitions, celebrate employee birthdays or have an unusual office set-up? Create boards about these things and update them with vivid pictures that encourage engagement.
With 150 million monthly active users, Instagram is a great platform for employer branding and building a digital presence for your business. Posting photos of fun office events, introducing new employees or recognising existing ones, or showing off about your office location are just some of the things you can do on Instagram to position yourselves as a great company to work for.
In a similar vein, platforms like Vine allow you to create short stop-motion videos and post them online. This is particularly useful when building an online employer brand as it allows you to show the fun side of the business such as hi-jinks in the office, team building events or even a tour of your offices. These will allow the candidate to see if the company culture is something they can identify with and is one they’d like to be a part of.
All in all, social media is a great way to attract potential candidates to your business, but you need to make sure that you use each platform uniquely and to its full potential. Also make sure you don’t divert too far away from the business ethos just to make yourselves seem more interesting. Remember, you’re promoting the business to candidates who may be working there, so if you’ve misrepresented it, chances are they’ll end up leaving anyway!
With one in four people around the world having access to social media, having a digital presence is more important now than ever before, so maximising its potential is a key part of any recruitment process.
Lauren Riley is the Social Media & Marketing Manager for Bubble Jobs – a niche digital jobs board that specialises in advertising digital, ecommerce, online marketing and design jobs.
