How social media can be optimised for better recruitment

It makes good businesses sense to harness the power of social media to find your new candidates

With the cost of recruitment increasing, it makes good businesses sense to harness the power of social media to find your new candidates. 92 per cent of the UK population has internet access, and 48 per cent actively engage with social media platforms.

While it could seem frivolous to spend work time on social media, this article shows how you can start to mobilise your recruitment drives on social media today.

Attracting Your Potential Workforce on Their Home Turf

We hear the term ‘Millennial’ bandied around a lot, but what that word should represent to you and your business is a significant percentage of your potential workforce. This cultural group are the biggest users of social media. They are the most likely to use social media for active job-seeking. They are the group most likely to be open to change and the most receptive to recruitment drives on social media, even if they themselves are not actively hunting.

Grow Your Social Media Presence

Use social media to promote the culture of your company, your values and your brand, and the daily working life of your existing employees. Encourage your employees to share their own experiences, successes and achievements on social media. By growing your online brand presence, your loyal followers who already know and like your brand, will have their interest piqued when you release recruitment opportunities via social media.

It’s Not All Facebook and Twitter

We all know the platforms with the biggest boots: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. While LinkedIn provides skill-set groups – engineers, HR staff, finance or sales professionals – there are some social media platforms that focus on more specific areas. Get over to the Warrior Forum or Moz for marketers; StackOverFlow and GitHub are bursting with developers; and consider Quora to find some of the best thinkers there are.

Social Media Is Ever Changing

Think you know Instagram? LinkedIn? Think again. These platforms and others change and develop continuously. The way that users interact with them changes too. We have already seen the rise of Instagram Stories leading to a decrease in users engaging with the usual Instagram posts. Stay on top of social media platforms and their evolution. Get your existing employees on board. Many of them will be social media users for both work and play. Talk to them. What is changing? What is the next big thing?

Track Your Progress

Once your business is on the social media train, keep track of what it is doing for you. How many followers do you have? What sort of social media content increases or decreases engagement with your business? With this in mind, you can expand what is working for you and improve what is not.

Social media has revolutionised the way people around the globe interact. Extend your recruitment strategy to include one of the most powerful tools there is to reach the perfect candidates for your business.

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The British Institute of Recruiters is the Professional Body operating The Recruitment Certification Scheme

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