Social media recruitment strategies: how to attract top talent online

Content marketing and social media are two powerful and effective ways to attract potential talent. You can think of these tools as your company’s CV, with digitally connected job seekers now more likely than ever to find organisations they want to work for this way. Using sponsored ads, blogs or Instagram posts as part of a comprehensive social media recruitment strategy is becoming just as effective as using job sites alone.

With the number of people using social media on a daily basis, it comes as no surprise that workplaces, talent acquisition professionals and Hiring Managers need to alter the way they are attracting talent to mirror these developments.

In the modern recruitment marketplace, your organisation's social media platforms are an ideal way for you to showcase your employer brand and the strength of your company's reputation. In doing so, you will be able to highlight job opportunities to both active and passive candidates more easily, giving your organisation a wider pool of potential candidates to connect with and speak to.

Below, we outline a number of ways you can use content marketing and social media platforms, including paid and organic content, to develop a social media recruitment strategy that offers tangible benefits compared to traditional recruiting methods alone.

What are the benefits of a social media recruitment strategy?

In the last few years, making use of social media channels has become an essential and central element of any company's hiring process. Most employers now use social and professional networks as part of their recruitment efforts, making them the most commonly used recruitment tools among today's employers, ahead of more conventional methods like job boards and traditional advertising.

There are a number of reasons why a social media recruitment strategy has become so essential for modern businesses:

Finding active job seekers more easily than traditional channels

It is estimated that 86% of today's job seekers utilise social media platforms as part of their job search - whether that's browsing openings, researching companies or applying directly via platforms like LinkedIn or Instagram.

Reaching passive job seekers

Social media gives you access to passive candidates - those who aren't actively job-hunting but could be tempted by the right opportunity. These individuals won’t be visiting your careers page, but they will be scrolling LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok - making visibility crucial.

Reducing time and cost per hire

Social media allows companies to post job ads, connect with candidates and promote their employer brand - all at a lower cost per hire than traditional methods. Sponsored posts and targeting ads can also help you reach highly relevant audiences quickly. 

This means you can fill vacancies quickly and at a lower overall cost, while also ensuring that any skills gaps in your organisation are addressed as soon as possible.

Showcasing your employer brand

Candidates will often review your social media presence before they apply, looking for insight into your company culture, values and team dynamic. That makes consistent, authentic and engaging content across all platforms a critical part of your recruitment toolkit. 

How to use social media for recruitment 

To turn your social platforms into a powerful recruitment tool, consider the strategies below:

Narrow down the social media platforms your ideal candidates are using

Before getting started with social media recruitment, it’s worth taking a step back to evaluate your plan. Who is it you're targeting? What roles are you trying to fill? Which of the multiple social media platforms will suit these objectives best?

Each social platform attracts different audiences. Here’s a brief breakdown:

• LinkedIn: perfect for recruiting all roles within most - if not all - industries, but ideally targeting professionals. This platform is hugely relevant when it comes to attracting talent, but has changed massively since the pandemic and is being used much more ‘socially’.
• Facebook: ideal for local positions, entry-level jobs and upwards.
• X: follow and engage with industry hashtags to boost your presence.
• Instagram: this is a highly engaging channel to boost your company profile via images and videos. You can also share and save content that will be relevant for showcasing company news such as bonuses, benefits, promotions and teambuilding activities.
• TikTok: this audience is primarily focused on entertainment. The channel gives businesses the ability to connect by creating shared experiences; for example, you can use audio from a viral clip and create your own video, which can be used to generate engagement around your employer brand. Use hashtags relevant to your company or industry to get some inspiration.
• Reddit: this community allows you to tap into specific industries and spark relevant industry conversations to engage potential employees.

Before launching any campaign, build a candidate persona and decide which channels, tone and content will best reach your audience.

Highlight your company culture through content and share it

Use blogs, videos and podcasts to share what it’s really like to work for your business. Include content such as:

• Behind-the-scenes office footage

• Team outings or social events

• Employee achievements

• Community or charity work

Develop a consistent online presence

Employer branding and messaging can affect your recruitment strategy immensely, so it is important to make sure this is consistent across all of your channels. This means developing a coherent strategy for your social media recruitment content, making sure that any information you are promoting externally shares the same messages. Inconsistencies and mixed messages can often put job seekers off and harm your chances of securing the best talent.

Make sure everything is up-to-date

Ensuring your social network profiles are regularly updated is possibly the most important aspect when it comes to drawing social media users in and showing them all about the company. If candidates are regularly searching online to view your social media content across different channels, you will want to ensure they are regularly seeing the latest information that reflects where your company is currently at.

As such, your social media advertising strategy should focus on creating and posting new content and messages on a regular basis, without leaving large gaps. Modern social media tools can help you set up an automated schedule for posting out content, meaning you can target your posts around the times of day when users are most likely to see them.

Use visuals to make your social media content more engaging

People engage with content that looks good. Use:

• Employee spotlight videos

• Day-in-the-life reels

• Infographics about your recruitment process

• Team celebration photos

Use sponsored advertising where possible

Paid ads allow you to target specific job titles, skills and interests - putting your employer brand in front of the right audience at the right time.

LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X all offer great ad targeting tools. Allocate part of your recruitment budget to boosting employer brand content and job posts.

Conclusion

Social media is no longer optional when it comes to recruitment. It plays a central role in how companies attract, engage and convert talent - especially digital-first professionals. Before starting, make sure you understand what your target candidates are looking for, and then identify what it is about your company that sets you apart.

You also need to take the time to define what makes your company stand out, and use that to build content that resonates with your target audience. The more authentic and consistent your presence, the more likely you are to attract aligned, high-quality candidates. 

For more information on how you can attract and retain top talent to your business, you can contact us today. Alternatively, you can view our employer resources section.