5 Creative Ways to Use Social Media for Recruitment Marketing

Most companies simply aren’t making the most out of social media for recruitment marketing. These platforms offer us so many tools that go mostly unused. We’ve put together this short list of 5 ways to use social media creatively for your recruitment marketing strategy.

1. Start with your own employees.

Social media is all about creating a healthy network around your brand. If you’re trying to use social media for recruitment marketing, then the best place to start is by connecting with your employees first. 

Your employees are the perfect jumping-off point for recruitment marketing. Since they already work for you, it probably means they’re bringing something valuable to the table. Odds are that they have like-minded people in their own social media circles: people who share the same interests as them, work in the same industry, and have similar drives and goals. 

If you want access to these people, the easiest thing to do is to connect with them through your employees. Social networks are designed to show you what people you follow are engaging with. Your employees’ connections will, over time, see them interact with your social media activity, increasing your reach slowly over time. 

Obviously, if you can get your employees to engage with your social media activity, that’ll be even better than just linking up. Small things like a like or comment can go a long way over time!

2. Drive brand awareness.

Out of all the tools in your marketing toolkit, social media is probably the best one for driving brand awareness. The freedom with which you can express yourself on social media really lets your audience get a taste of what your brand stands for. 

Social media is one of the only platforms where you can freely share content about the day-to-day parts of your business: inside office buildings, employees enjoying themselves, or even highlights from events. The possibilities are endless when compared to other marketing tools. 

The content you share on social media should focus on rewarding and competitive moments in your company, as well as teamwork highlights. The point is to show potential candidates what kind of culture they should expect day today. 

Don’t forget to include CTAs. Even though it’s recruitment marketing, CTAs are just as important and just as effective as ever in social media posts.

3. Use memes!

Wendy’s pioneered a meme-based marketing strategy and it did wonders for their popularity. At this point, Wendy’s social media may be more popular than the restaurant itself, especially among younger generations. 

Following Wendy’s lead, using memes for your social media is just as effective for recruitment marketing. If your ideal candidates for a given position are generally younger, then this strategy is even more effective. It’s simple, you’re adapting your marketing language to one that is relatable for your target audience. If you speak their language, they’re way more likely to entertain the idea of working for you. 

On top of this, people who like memes are more likely to interact with memes than with other content. Social media is the birthplace and the home of memes, so posting one is the most natural thing an account can do. Users will feel much more comfortable liking or sharing a meme post than a serious, well-written, but obviously corporate tweet from the recruiting team. 

It’s good for branding, good for engagement, and it’ll be a lot of fun for your social media manager. A total no-brainer! 

4. Engage with people.

One of the biggest problems with recruitment is the lines of communication between companies and candidates. Communication is slow, and during the whole process, candidates are often left anxious and helpless. 

Social media is a place where you can address some of these fears. Social media platforms allow for streamlined communication to take place between anyone, in ways that email lists or career pages never could. So take advantage of this and interact with people online. If someone posts a question under your tweet, answer it! If someone shares your post with a fun joke, react to it! 

The point is to show users and potential candidates that you are open and available to communicate. Even if this level of communication isn’t going to carry over into job applications, it’ll still give a good impression of you to candidates and will make them more willing to apply. 

You can even go beyond mere communication and engage in more practical recruitment processes on social media. Companies have been directly contacting candidates on social media more and more often (and not just on LinkedIn!). It’s becoming quite common to see job offers or interviews being set up via social media. And it makes sense: these platforms give direct access to candidates and allow you to be proactive in your recruitment strategy.

5. Use live functionalities.

The biggest social media platforms are transitioning toward offering more and more live platforms. The most famous one is obviously Instagram Live, which has been a driving force in sales in e-commerce recently. 

But Instagram isn’t alone in offering live platforms. Youtube and Facebook have robust livestreaming service, which are better-suited for longer broadcasts (events, conferences, educational content, etc.). Most recently, Twitter has introduced their Spaces platform, which is an audio-based discussion hub, best used for medium length Q+A style discussions. 

Even though these services are mostly used for organic discussion or for sales marketing, they can also be used for recruitment marketing. 

Depending on your business, you should strongly consider making use of at least one of the variety of livestreaming services that are available to you. Especially with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, live streaming is a great way to connect in real-time with potential candidates and interact with them. 

One area that is ripe for experimentation is Twiter Spaces. Given the nature of Spaces, they seem to fit quite well with recruitment marketing objectives. We recommend setting up recruitment Q+A spaces to have casual conversations with potential candidates. The great thing about Spaces is that they are also connected to a specific search engine, which makes them quite discoverable for people outside of your network of followers. 

If there’s anything to learn from this post, it’s that there’s a lot of room for creativity when using social media for recruitment marketing. A lot of these platforms and strategies are still young, and features are constantly changing or being added. As you get used to social media recruitment marketing, keep in mind that there will always be room to innovate. So stay on your toes and when a platform introduces a new feature, think of how you can integrate it into your recruitment marketing strategy.