Social Media for Employers
Social media is the newest tool to use for recruiting and hiring. It is inexpensive, widely available, and easy to access. Job seekers are using social media more often to network and find employment opportunities. Overall, it's a great platform to use for everyone.
Getting Started
Start by creating a company profile on one or more social media sites. Having a company profile on many of these sites, in addition to your company website, provides a solid online presence when customers are seeking your services or products. Here is a quick overview of the most popular social media platforms:
Anyone with a Facebook account can create a Page. Pages are public and can be about anything from businesses to organizations, products to public figures. All you have to do is signup for a personal account, then create a Page for your business.
Since LinkedIn is built for professionals, it has a great system for creating business pages. Giving your business a presence on LinkedIn should be a major priority for you. It's the number one platform for online job searching. Possible future employees will be looking there for opportunities.
You can also use LinkedIn to establish your thought leadership, furthering your brand. Besides ordinary status updates and other content, LinkedIn has a feature allowing users to write and publish articles. These will appear in your connections' feeds like any other post, but they're longer and more formal in nature. While you can't publish articles in your company's name, LinkedIn recommends using your personal account to "tell your organization's story." Once you've published an article, share it on your company page.
Twitter allows you to easily share updates about your products and services, reach out to customers and potential employees, and stay up-to-date in your industry. Twitter provides several features for business users. Also, use hashtags that tie into your products, services, and brand, and "Like" and "Retweet" other updates related to your industry.
YouTube
Because YouTube is a Google product, you'll need a Google account before you start using it. Create a Google Brand Account, then create a YouTube account (or channel). A channel created in this way can have more than one manager or owner. For more information about using YouTube as a business, see the official YouTube for Business channel.
Pinterest is a great place to introduce the public to products and services. In fact, 67% of users discovered a new product because of a post they saw on the site. And on top of that, 50% have bought something after seeing a "Promoted Pin"1. To start using Pinterest as a business, set up a business account.
Overall
No matter which social media sites you use, be sure to use the same profile picture and header image across all of them. This will help maintain your brand. Most social media sites let you put information into an "About" section on your profile. Fill in this section with information that demonstrates your corporate values and culture as well as products or services.
Sharing Updates
Once you have set up your social media profiles, it's time to start sharing! Follow these tips:
- Share posts about your company that demonstrate your corporate culture and values.
- Provide information about your company. This should include products and service information for potential customers and employees.
- Share job postings you have created on your company website.
- Create discussion groups. Pay attention to participants who join in frequently and provide valuable input.
- If someone responds to one of your social media posts, reply in a timely manner.
- Use the search feature to find posts by job seekers and posts worth sharing.
All social media platforms have a search feature. Use this feature to enter keywords for job postings as you may find potential candidates this way. LinkedIn profiles are generally more suited to this. However, you can find potential candidates on other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.
When you enter your search terms, use up to 7 keywords to get more manageable results. Send recruiting messages to those who end up in the results.
Getting Candidates
Social media platforms are a great way to complete an additional level of reference check. You will want to make sure candidates' social media profiles reflect their applications. When checking their profile, make sure the application and resume are similar.
Sources
Social Media Policy