We've discussed the value and importance of using social media as a significant component of your overall recruitment strategy and how to plan or strategize content consistently to reach and engage your audience.
But as with almost any pillar element of social media or content marketing, executing these tasks doesn't necessarily equal success.
There is significant competition for top candidates because of the sheer volume of mid to large-size companies across industries that use social media as a main driver of their talent acquisition process. This means the white noise in social media recruitment content is much greater than it was just 2 or 3 years ago. Making sure your content is unique, speaks to the right audience with the right message, and is presented in a way that is easily digestible is perhaps more important than ever.
From deploying automated solutions to understanding the value and power of your employees' stories and insights, let's examine how to make your social media recruitment content stand out and the actionable steps you can take to ensure your content moves the needle in terms of sourcing the right candidates to help your company grow.
Automate processes where possible
Even though you want your social media recruitment content to have a personal touch and ring with authenticity and transparency relative to your employer brand, it’s important to embrace the advantages today's marketing technologies provide and automate as many processes as possible to allow more time to focus on content creation and strategy.
Whether you deploy a social media management platform like HootSuite to schedule, publish, and review post-performance, or whether you use a content management system like HubSpot where you can share blog posts, email campaigns, or other pieces of recruitment content with the click of a mouse, automating the processes whereby you release content better equips you to think about content strategy in a holistic manner.
Utilizing some kind of marketing or social media automation solution will also provide the ability to edit, revise, or even compose new social content via mobile devices while on the go. This level of agility and the capability to work remotely will provide the flexibility necessary to remain one step ahead of the competition.
Create a monthly content calendar.
Speaking of thinking about social recruitment content holistically, creating a monthly content calendar provides a clear, coherent strategy of not only how your content fits together or conveys a narrative or reinforces your employer branding and brand personality, but it also makes it easier to identify areas where you need to create content, curate content from existing sources, or engage in collaboration with other departments or members of your team.
This may sound basic, but hiring managers that operate their social media recruiting on an ad-hoc basis often overlook opportunities for engagement with their potential candidates or simply don't see how pieces of content can connect to drive a specified narrative or tell an effective story.
Remember: Just because you're using social media as a recruitment tool means you must consider what social media was designed to do or does well. Social media is a means of communication, but it's also a means of connection via narrative or storytelling. Using social media as a recruitment resource means hiring managers must think like marketers to some degree and constantly weigh the question: Who am I speaking to, and what do I want them to take from this message?
Focus on the people
Speaking of narrative and storytelling, what's the greatest asset a hiring manager has when demonstrating or highlighting a company's culture or branding? The people who comprise that company whose efforts, ethos, and vision help create or add to overall architectural culture.
Too often, hiring managers simply use social media to share a company's mission, vision, values, or position within its industry or field of endeavor. And while these certainly are worthy of sharing with your social audience and can be important pieces of your overall digital recruitment strategy, relying too much on this type of informational content and ignoring the human/personal touch element via highlighting the individuals or positions within your organization that allow your company to operate makes for an impersonal relationship with the potential job seeker.
To boil this down: job seekers want to know why current employees love what they do, how companies put their employees in positions to succeed, and what's in it for the team member to give 110 percent daily. This is where carefully curating photos, videos, short testimonials, audio clips, and other like-minded content gives your employees a voice and allows them to demonstrate to potential employees what makes the company an exciting, rewarding place to launch, develop, and grow a career.
Keep an ear to the ground.
Part of what makes social media such a powerful mechanism in today's global world is the ability to comment or join in on a discussion in real-time and engage with others as things unfold or moments are happening. For example, if you see that a topic you're passionate about is trending on Twitter or Facebook, odds are you're more likely to Tweet or post something about that topic to chime in on the conversation.
The same goes for recruitment social media content. Keeping an ear to the ground for online conversations or discussions on topics in your industry and making sure you're commenting on them or adding your company's perspective, vision, values, or commentary on said topic not only positions you as something of a thought leader, but also demonstrates you're engaged with more extensive discussions relative to your field, which is something today's job seeker is looking for when evaluating their next career move.
This level of vigilance also can pay dividends in direct communication with potential candidates via comments, replies, or direct messages. Why would this matter to potential candidates? Because job seekers want to know their employers are mindful of the state of their industry and are willing to communicate with those who express interest in them.
Let data drive the bus.
One of the greatest tools you have at your disposal with social media or digital marketing (recruitment-centric efforts included) is the reporting and analytics available to understand better how your content performs, who your audience is, where they spend their time, and how you can best engage them and maintain consistent interaction. Important metrics like click-through rates, reach, impressions, bounce rates, and other measures of success are right at a hiring manager's fingertips but are often underexplored.
If data tells a story, then it's important to let the data drive the content you create, when you release it, and the audience for this content. Reviewing the data consistently, embracing it, making the necessary adjustments to your content strategy, and then evaluating these corrections for further enhancement needs to be a regular part of your workflow.
It’s easy to fall in love with a post you created or a series of content pieces you feel tell an interesting story or will connect with your audience; however, if the data does not support this belief, you need to have the strength and belief in the reporting to head back to the drawing board or reassess the audience and message of the content.
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