Social media has been part of everyday life, and it makes sense that recruitment has adapted to these platforms. Millennials still make up the largest part of the workforce, with Gen Z workers entering the job market in times of shifting priorities- remote work, work-life balance, and so on. It is not a secret that most people from 12 to 45-year-old use social media platforms regularly, making social media recruitment crucial in attracting talents.
While an existing digital presence will help your latest job openings get attention, fortunately, you don’t need a CEO with the marketing power of Elon Musk to use social media in an onboarding strategy successfully. To help you best recruit candidates through social networks, Talentify asked experienced recruiters and social media managers for their best recommendations. From Polywork to TikTok to Instagram, there are several social media platforms that may serve as the best space to find, engage and hire top talent for your organization.
What is one of the best social networks for recruiting and why?
Here are 11 best social platforms for recruiting:
- LinkedIn for Locating Specific Groups
- YouTube is Great for Visual Content
- Twitch Gets Candidates to Know You
- Medium.com is a Great Starting Point and Research Base
- Quora Helps Identify Experts
- Twitter for Insights into The Creativity and Thoughts of Potential Candidates
- Reddit is The Platform for Job Hunters
- TikTok for Finding Young Talents
- About.me is a Space to Find Candidates from Your Audience
- Instagram is Great for Recruiting Brand Fans
Aaron Gray, Agency 101 agrees that recruitment is all about meeting candidates where they are. Though LinkedIn might seem like the network of choice during rounds of hiring, the nature of the role has a massive part to play. For example, Stack OverFlow is a great option if you're looking to fill an IT or engineering position. The community consists of those with a genuine passion and interest for computer programming, so this is the natural choice for finding a tech specialist. However, things are different for a design or creative lead position.
With a clear need to browse through projects and portfolios, Behance becomes the clear winner instead. Context is key, and the biggest option isn't always the best one. The bottom line is this: the best social network for recruiting depends on who you're hiring, how they choose to network, and where they spend the bulk of their time on the internet. Make yourself known on a range of different platforms, and watch closely for which ones attract the highest caliber of talent.
LinkedIn for Locating Specific Groups
For Richard Morgan, Cyclone Computers LinkedIn is still the best social network to use in recruiting because it allows you to filter down to the specific groups of people that you would like to target in your search. You can filter down by the company, location, job title, and industry. You are able to find people that are connected to individuals that you know, people with the same interests, college alumni, and just about anyone. You are able to locate people who share similar interests with you, as well as people that already know people that you know, thereby creating an online network that can take you to that next step in your job search.
YouTube is Great for Visual Content
Compelling visual content can bolster your hiring campaign, and that's exactly why YouTube is among the best recruitment outlets to explore, says Adam Garcia, The Stock Dork . With this social network, you can share clips of your company practices and indulge potential candidates in your culture. Your recruitment videos on YouTube don't have to be lengthy, and the storyline doesn't have to be deep. You are good to go as long as you can incorporate your company's core values and work environment.
Furthermore, through YouTube, you can post visual instructions on how the candidates can fill out the application form. You can also include animations and add sound effects to make them more fun and engaging to follow, which can ultimately boost your exposure to the public and increase application submission.
Twitch Gets Candidates to Know You
Twitch is a live streaming platform, commonly used by gamers, so what does that have to do with recruiting? Hireproof Co-founder and Head of Product started streaming his work out of personal interest. He has a great sense of humor and is good at what he does, so naturally, other software developers started flocking to his stream. Before he realized it, he had over 1000 followers, and started seeing some surprising benefits in recruiting, said Max Korpinen, Hireproof
He told that his company started getting applications from developers who had seen the stream, and what's amazing is that these applicants have already "worked" with them in a way. The applicants also know their culture and day-to-day, understand the product, and in the interview, it's like they already know each other.
Medium.com is a Great Starting Point and Research Base
According to Arkadiusz Terpilowski, Primetric, until recently, they were utilizing only proven networks, like Linkedin. The situation changed when they discovered how big the talent pool is on less conventional networks. One of them is Medium. It concentrates professionals who already share their knowledge and experience on the platform. You can gauge their qualifications by simply shifting through their works without having to look into their CVs or contacting them. He treats Medium as a great starting point and research base.
Quora Helps Identify Experts
Scott Lieberman, Touchdown Money states that Quora, the social question-and-answer website, is a terrific place to recruit people with expert knowledge who are excellent communicators. In addition to discovering folks with expertise in the field, you will discover how well the person conveys their ideas once Quora allows the audience to upvote the best answers. People who express their ideas in well-written long-form articles are often more organized and thoughtful. Quora is a great social network to recruit these workers.
Twitter for Insights into The Creativity and Thoughts of Potential Candidates
One of the best reasons why Twitter is a great social network for recruiting is that it gets to show you so many insights about a user as well as their creative ability with an obstacle such as expressing themselves in 140 characters, said Nicole Thelin, Low Income Relief.
According to her, by scrolling through their profile, you can gain insights into their thoughts, perspectives, and interests based on who they follow, are re-tweeting and their responses to their tweets, but also their creativity and thought process by how they approach tweeting for each topic. This can help give you an idea of the skills and interests they have to see if they're eligible for the job criteria you have.
Reddit is The Platform for Job Hunters
Michael Garrico, Total Shape mentions Reddit. He said It all depends on the network preferences of your target candidates. In this situation, Reddit might be a perfect option because it's one of the best platforms for concentrating on job hunters specifically. Reddit is divided into numerous smaller communities, referred to as "subreddits," which are organized according to topics and allow users to post links, posts, and comments about those topics.
Any recruiter can take advantage of this by putting up a post on the /r/programming subreddit. With the help of this, you will be able to find those who might be suitable candidates for that position.
TikTok for Finding Young Talents
TikTok can be a great recruitment platform. Rachel Reid, Subtl Beauty commented that although it's not thought of as a hiring space, She thinks the best way to find great young talent is to go where they are. By announcing job openings on atypical social media platforms, you can greatly increase the number of people who see that listing. Advertising open roles on TikTok also allows you to target them toward people who already follow your brand. This increases the chance that you get enthusiastic applicants who are fans of what you do.
About.me is a Space to Find Candidates from Your Audience
For Natalia Morozova, Cohen, Tucker & Ades P.C., About.me is one of the best social media tools to grow an audience and meet potential employees. You can use this platform to sell your core values and let your audience know what you’re all about. Additionally, recruitment is a quick and easy process since you only get to contact candidates after reviewing their profiles and understanding what they are capable of.
Instagram is Great for Recruiting Brand Fans
'Instagram can be an extremely valuable platform for recruiting!' That’s what Vimla Black Gupta, Ourself believes. Posting job openings on Instagram stories helps get the word out about the role to people who follow the company. This increases the chance of people who have an existing, strong interest in your brand seeing the listing. Additionally, with hundreds of millions of daily active users, Instagram is an incredibly effective platform for outreach to a wide audience.
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