Many companies fail to leverage the full potential of social media for recruitment, missing out on numerous unused tools. To help you avoid the same mistake, we've curated a concise list of five innovative ways to creatively utilize social media for your recruitment marketing strategy, regardless of whether you're an established healthcare provider or a startup.
1. Start with your employees.
Social media is all about creating a healthy network around your brand. If you're trying to use social media as a recruitment tool, 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, they're probably bringing something valuable. The odds are that they have like-minded people in their social media circles who share their interests, 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 and engage with. Over time, your employees' connections will see them interact with your social media activity, increasing your reach slowly.
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.
Of all the tools in your marketing toolkit, social media is probably the best for driving brand awareness. The freedom to express yourself on social media lets your audience understand 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.
Your social media content should focus on rewarding and competitive moments in your company and teamwork highlights. The point is to show potential candidates what culture they should expect today.
Don't forget to include CTAs. Even though it's recruitment marketing, CTAs are just as important and effective as ever in social media posts.
3. Use memes!
Wendy's pioneered a meme-based marketing strategy and 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. This strategy is even more effective if your ideal candidates for a given position are generally younger. It's simple; you're adapting your marketing language to one 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, corporate tweet from the recruiting team.
It's good for branding and engagement and will be 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 candidates are often left anxious and helpless during the process.
Social media is a place where you can address some of these fears. Social media platforms allow for streamlined communication 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 you are open and available to communicate. Even if this level of communication isn't carried over into job applications, it'll still give a good impression of you to candidates. It will make them more willing to apply.
You can even go beyond communication and engage in more practical recruitment processes on social media. Companies have directly contacted candidates on social media more often (and not just on LinkedIn!). It's becoming common to see job offers or interviews 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 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 live-streaming services better suited for longer broadcasts (events, conferences, educational content, etc.). Twitter had introduced its Spaces platform, 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 sales marketing, they can also be used for recruitment marketing.
Depending on your business, you should strongly consider using at least one of the variety of live-streaming services 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 Twitter Spaces. Given the nature of Spaces, they seem to fit quite well with recruitment marketing objectives. We recommend setting up recruitment Q+A spaces for casual conversations with potential candidates. The great thing about Spaces is that they are also connected to a specific search engine, making them quite discoverable for people outside your network of followers.
There's a lot of room for creativity when using social media for recruitment marketing. Many 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, remember there will always be room to innovate. So stay on your toes, and when a platform introduces a new feature, think of how to integrate it into your recruitment marketing strategy.
