Folks apply to firms, not jobs. Utilizing social media for hiring — a.ok.a. social recruiting — reaches extra certified candidates and builds your employer repute.
Specialists say 2023 will proceed to be a job seekers’ market with 90% of hiring managers at the moment struggling to fill open positions.
So the place are the most effective candidates? Scrollin’ social: 63% of lively job hunters have utilized to jobs they discovered on social media, together with virtually half (48%) of Gen Zers and Millennials.
Right here’s how one can create an efficient social recruiting technique to develop an viewers of prime expertise who can’t wait to give you the results you want.

Social recruiting is the observe of utilizing social media to seek out, entice, interact, and encourage candidates to use at your organization. In style social recruiting platforms embrace LinkedIn, Fb, Twitter, and Glassdoor.
Social recruiting goes past conventional recruiting strategies like distributing job listings. True social recruiting is all about proactively looking for prime expertise and constructing your model as an employer individuals wish to work for.
1. Be lively on the proper social networks
You don’t want to make use of a selected social platform to succeed. The important thing — as with common social media advertising — is realizing the place your preferrred candidates spend their time, and being there.
That stated, the hottest social media platforms individuals use to seek out jobs are LinkedIn (60%), Glassdoor (51%), and Fb (37%), although many different platforms even have sizable market share.
Supply: Statista
LinkedIn is by far the most well-liked social recruiting platform for each job seekers and firms.
In accordance with LinkedIn:
- 61 million LinkedIn customers search job listings on the platform each week.
- 117 individuals apply to LinkedIn job listings each second.
- 8 individuals get employed each minute from LinkedIn.
Fb
Fb was once a prime spot to seek out and put up jobs, however Meta eliminated the Jobs part in February 2023. Earlier than then, you could possibly put up a free job itemizing to your Fb Web page and Fb’s international job database.
Nevertheless, since Fb is the world’s hottest social platform, there are nonetheless methods to make use of it efficiently for social recruiting, particularly as a part of a paid adverts marketing campaign.
Twitter tends to go well with skilled, media, or inventive jobs greater than others, however once more, all of it will depend on in case your goal candidates use Twitter.
A part of Twitter’s recruiting attraction is how straightforward it’s to seek out content material with key phrases or hashtags like #NowHiring. (Extra on how one can use job and industry-specific hashtags later.)
Be a part of the SeaWorld San Diego group! See our newest job opening right here: https://t.co/G2YrekVeGe #NowHiring
— SeaWorld CA Jobs (@SeaWorldCAJobs) Could 24, 2023
Being a visual-first platform, Instagram is the right place to “present not inform” how your organization lives its values. It’s a strong device for growing an viewers keen to use in your subsequent opening.
Some firms incorporate this content material into their principal account whereas others create separate recruiting-focused accounts, like @LifeAtGoogle.
Supply: @LifeAtGoogle on Instagram
TikTok
Whereas TikTok isn’t on the record above, it ought to be in your radar for those who’re seeking to fill roles in social media, advertising, and different inventive fields. The platform launched #TikTokResumes in 2021 (extra on that later), however you may as well seek for hashtags like #CareerTok, or ones particular to your {industry} or location, like #TorontoJobs.
If your organization is lively on TikTok, create and share movies for every job itemizing. Sum up the function and who you’re in search of, add a number of related hashtags, and share.
@canadaswonderland Now hiring for the 2023 season! Park opens Could 5 🎉 #hiring #jobs #summerjobs #studentjobs
Different platforms
Discover different platforms in the event that they suit your model and viewers. Produce lots of visible content material, particularly about working at your organization? Begin a YouTube channel. Have already got an engaged Reddit neighborhood? Share job listings and attain out to your prime contributors as potential candidates. In any case, they’re already your largest followers.
2. Construct a pretty employer model
Social recruiting works for model constructing together with the remainder of your advertising efforts. The best approach to encourage candidates is to point out what life is like at your organization. Embrace the common around-the-office happenings, not simply massive splashy occasions.
Share the advantages you supply, interviews with present staff, and the rest that communicates your distinctive firm tradition. Examine the examples on the finish of this text for concepts.
Your social recruiting objective ought to be to construct up an viewers of loyal followers who suppose working for you is their dream job. Someplace, somebody on the market can’t wait to use to your subsequent open place.
3. Arrange an worker advocacy program
Worker advocacy is all about getting your staff to put up and share firm content material (or their very own unique content material in regards to the firm) on social media. That is nice for each normal model consciousness and social recruiting.
Contemplating solely 38% of individuals belief promoting, however a large 93% belief firm info shared by family and friends, worker advocacy is your quick observe to constructing belief — with clients and job seekers alike. Our personal program at Hootsuite has a 64% share charge and brings in over 4.1 million natural impressions per quarter.
Sounds nice, however uncertain how one can set all of it up?
Hootsuite Amplify is your prompt worker advocacy program in a (digital) field. Add it to your current Hootsuite plan to create an employee-only library of pre-approved content material, able to share. Plus, onboarding instruments and detailed analytics to measure ROI — all throughout the Hootsuite dashboard you already know and love.
Watch how Amplify works in below 2 minutes, or learn our full information to establishing an worker advocacy program.
Bonus: Obtain a free worker advocacy toolkit that reveals you how one can plan, launch, and develop a profitable worker advocacy program in your group.
4. Encourage worker referrals
Your finest recruiters are your staff. They’re primarily a human model of Glassdoor: Speaking up all the nice issues they love about working for you and answering their buddies’ questions.
Make referral rewards a part of your worker advocacy program. Give monetary incentives for referring profitable hires, in-kind items, or different perks. Why? 69% of hiring managers say referral applications yield “excessive” or “very excessive” high quality candidates, and referrals tie with LinkedIn as recruiters’ only lead supply.
Supply: Statista
5. Goal passive job seekers
You realize who the most effective candidates normally are? Individuals who have already got a job.
Beginning in 2021, hundreds of thousands of individuals started quitting their jobs in what’s come to be often known as The Nice Resignation. Causes fluctuate from unsatisfactory pay (63%), lack of development alternatives (63%), feeling disrespected (57%), and extra.
Supply: Pew Analysis
Current stories present this development is constant: stop charges had been nonetheless 25% increased all through 2022 in comparison with pre-2021 ranges. A world common 40% of staff are contemplating quitting their jobs throughout the subsequent 6 months.
Supply: McKinsey
Now take into account these figures with this: Folks spend a median of 2 hours and 28 minutes a day on social media — greater than studying, listening to music, or gaming, and second solely to tv. For much more perspective, we solely spend a median 34 minutes per day socializing with different human beings.
That is why social media is your key for reaching these employed-but-unhappy individuals and luring them over to your group.
How? Apart from sharing job listings and brand-building content material, take into account lively methods to get in entrance of passive job seekers, similar to with Fb adverts. (Extra on how one can use adverts later.)
6. Optimize your social profiles
First, determine for those who’ll use your principal profiles for social recruiting, or for those who’ll create separate ones, like Starbucks, ADP, and lots of others.
Supply: @StarbucksPartners on Instagram
To extend the possibilities of candidates discovering you:
- Share each new job itemizing (a number of instances!).
- Embrace hiring key phrases and hashtags, like #NowHiring, in your bio/about part and inside put up captions. These will rely in your {industry} and fluctuate per platform, however standard ones embrace metropolis + jobs (e.g. #ClevelandJobs) or {industry} + jobs (e.g. #TechJobs).
- Think about creating your personal branded hiring hashtag for individuals to observe, like H&M’s #HMxCareers.
Supply: H&M Careers on Instagram
7. Make making use of straightforward
There’s a cause 92% of candidates don’t full on-line job functions: Too many pointless steps.
Do you want me to create an account? Do you want me to manually sort out all my resume information box-by-box? For the love of PDF, let me connect my resume and be performed.
Sure, you solely need critical, dedicated candidates. You possibly can argue that those that received’t fill out a long-ish type aren’t that dedicated. However effort doesn’t at all times correlate with intention. For instance, 97% of People say dental care is necessary to their well being, however solely 19% observe present brushing and flossing tips.
Make your functions straightforward to finish by:
- Utilizing platform-specific instruments, like LinkedIn’s Straightforward Apply button.
- Limiting type fields to essential info solely.
- Permitting file attachments for resume and canopy letter uploads.
- Not requiring customers to create an account to use.
Fb adverts
Create Fb adverts for job listings and goal them to individuals in particular cities and both working in, or inquisitive about, your {industry}.
For a spicy social media recruiting technique, goal individuals with particular job titles and even particular employers with the Demographics -> Work -> Employers choice.
Supply: Fb Advertisements Supervisor
New to social promoting? Examine this information to Fb adverts for learners.
TikTok Resumes
Whereas TikTok’s unique Resumes experiment from 2021 doesn’t exist anymore, individuals nonetheless use #TikTokResumes and #HireMe hashtags to share quick movies detailing their expertise and expertise. As with every thing on TikTok, persona is on the forefront:
@jayybeech
Would you watch a video resume? Hiring knowledgeable J. T. O’Donnell doesn’t suppose so: “[Recruiters] aren’t going to take a seat by a minute-long video if they’ll collect sufficient details about you in seconds as an alternative.”
TikTok is probably not your principal social recruiting supply, nevertheless it’s price having a presence on, particularly for those who’re seeking to fill social media, advertising, or inventive roles.
LinkedIn Recruiter
Everybody ought to be utilizing LinkedIn for expertise acquisition. Smaller or budget-conscious firms can place particular person job listings free of charge, however LinkedIn Recruiter gives the most effective worth for full-featured expertise administration.
Apart from job listings, Recruiter lets you message any LinkedIn consumer, entry superior search parameters, and connect with your HR platform. Utilizing Recruiter can increase message response charges by 66% and velocity up the recruiting course of to lower than a number of days.
For finest outcomes, mix LinkedIn Recruiter with a robust natural LinkedIn advertising technique.
Glassdoor firm profile
Glassdoor is a specialised job board turned social platform for hiring. Apart from the fundamentals like internet hosting job listings, it helps staff analysis potential employers. Present and former staff have anonymously shared over 150 million evaluations about issues like wage ranges, advantages, and their normal expertise working at firms.
Claiming your Glassdoor firm profile lets you actively monitor and reply to evaluations, and handle your employer model.
Supply: Hootsuite on Glassdoor
Crucially for Glassdoor’s credibility, employers can’t take away detrimental evaluations however you possibly can reply to them. In the event you get one, thank the individual for his or her suggestions, and if essential, tactfully clear up any inaccuracies which will deter candidates from making use of.
Twitter hashtags
Utilizing the proper hashtags can develop the attain of your job listings and entice new candidates. True for any social platform, however particularly the birthplace of the hashtag: Twitter.
There are many Twitter hashtags to focus on particular job titles, like #GameDevJobs:
We’re hiring!
We’re in search of a Senior Author/Narrative Content material Designer to work on an unannounced challenge in a brand new setting!
(Full job put up follows in thread.)#indiedev#gamedev#gamedevjobs pic.twitter.com/MFAIr7Ga0W
— Failbetter Video games | Masks of the Rose is out now! (@failbettergames) January 17, 2022
Or for focusing on places, like #LAJobs (or every other metropolis):
On the lookout for a brand new function within the style {industry}? Our group is engaged on these, and lots of different, roles for our purchasers. Let’s join to debate your subsequent function within the style {industry}. #fashionjobs #NYC #LAjobs pic.twitter.com/g2NJDj4DSW
— Pyramid Consulting Group, LLC (@PCGStaffing) Could 23, 2023
Additionally attempt including descriptors, like #Freelance, #GraduateJobs, #SummerInternship, or the rest associated to the function. These hashtags shortly let individuals know key information in regards to the job so unqualified or uninterested individuals received’t apply, leaving you with the very best high quality candidates.
Hootsuite Streams
Hootsuite Streams makes discovering and interesting with prime candidates straightforward.
It’s principally a customizable, multi-tab, “saved search” part the place you possibly can monitor key phrases, subjects, or particular customers and interact with the most recent or hottest content material matching your queries. Reply to feedback, share content material, or message individuals proper out of your Streams dashboard.
Comply with industry-specific hashtags or key phrases to seek out new locations to share job listings, or determine potential candidates to interact with. Streams saves a ton of time versus manually looking out on social media.
Plus, arrange Streams in your personal content material to average feedback at lightning velocity.
The chances are countless with Streams and it’s included in each Hootsuite plan.
Connect a GIF or video
The tone of a GIF (and for those who even use them) or video will depend on your model, however the level is to cease the scroll and get eyeballs in your put up.
Come work with us! We’re hiring an element time 2D artist!
🐱8-10 hrs every week
🐱6 month contract
🐱Paid artwork check (if relevant)Particulars to use within the hyperlink: https://t.co/YxhiY9Hghb pic.twitter.com/MiVshqWZKJ
— Mineko’s Night time Market (@MinekosMarket) January 25, 2022
Why it really works:
- Movement — GIF or video — catches consideration higher than a graphic.
- Speaks to your organization tradition, which may encourage like-minded individuals to use.
Use Instagram Story highlights
Create Instagram Story highlights to record present open roles, describe what working there may be like, and different FAQs individuals might wish to learn about your organization.
Oracle has sensible software suggestions, profession recommendation, and extra. In addition they characteristic highlights on pupil applications and neighborhood initiatives.
Supply: @OracleCareers on Instagram
Why it really works:
- Retains older content material related and straightforward to seek out.
- Folks see your organization values in motion (e.g. volunteer or neighborhood occasions).
Share group interviews
Who higher to inform candidates about your organization than their soon-to-be friends? Ask staff to sum up their favourite elements of their jobs.
This may be so simple as a photograph put up with a caption, however Spotify takes this to the max with their devoted Life at Spotify podcast.
Why it really works:
- Listening to in regards to the firm from actual staff comes throughout as extra genuine than “simply advertising content material.”
- Showcases your group’s various backgrounds and expertise.
Share a day within the life
Go additional than a fundamental interview by having an worker create a “day within the life” of their job and use that to advertise open roles.
@clipchamp Come to work with me! #cometoworkwithme #dayinmylife #clipchamp #techtok
Why it really works:
- Just like the expression “actions communicate louder than phrases,” video speaks louder than textual content to speak your organization tradition.
- Supreme for TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts, and simply repurposed for different platforms.
Use daring graphics
This daring crimson background stands out within the feed. That eye-catching second could possibly be sufficient for somebody to cease, learn it, and click on to use.
We’re hiring! Click on to use: Senior Challenge Supervisor – Design & Building – https://t.co/dg81L4Nup6 #TorontoJobs #FueltheFun
— Woodbine Careers (@WoodbineCareers) Could 23, 2023
Why it really works:
- Captures consideration.
- Straightforward to create templates forward of time, then shortly customise per put up.
Speak about your advantages
Apart from fundamentals like pay and firm match, candidates care about the advantages you supply. Generally this info isn’t clear till effectively into the interview course of.
Be upfront: Speak about your medical health insurance, go away insurance policies, tuition reimbursements, or the rest you supply staff.
Counting down the times till our annual Wellness Week – and that is simply one of many methods we assist dad and mom thrive 🥰https://t.co/QQpDTteFoF#HootsuiteLife
— Hootsuite Careers (@HootsuiteLife) August 6, 2022
Why it really works:
- Brings in additional candidates. Particular advantages may be dealbreakers for many individuals, they usually’ll apply in the event that they know you supply it.
- Reinforces your model as an employer who cares about staff.
Create a welcoming setting
You don’t should win an award to be inclusive. Speak about your range and inclusion insurance policies, or create content material round causes or applications you help.
Why it really works:
- Alerts to everybody that you simply foster a respectful setting.
- For individuals with marginalized identities, these alerts imply much more: security and entry to employment.
Develop your employer model and social media audiences along with Hootsuite. Discover and interact new candidates, schedule content material, and measure the outcomes of all of your advertising and recruiting efforts in a single place.
Do it higher with Hootsuite, the all-in-one social media device. Keep up to the mark, develop, and beat the competitors.