It’s important that you meet potential recruits where they are, which means creating active profiles on various social media platforms. Your social media recruitment strategies should contain tactics geared around approaching active and passive job candidates. For that reason, make sure your company pages on platforms like LinkedIn are fully optimized. Your social media pages should reflect the same branding and messaging used in your other digital and paid advertising to reinforce consistency.
Success Strategies for Social Media Recruitment
Tailor Your Messaging
There are various social media platforms available, each one designed to appeal to different types of people. Because so many people have a presence on at least one social media platform, they’ve become a popular recruitment tool for employers. In fact, 89% of recruiters hired individuals after coming across their profiles on LinkedIn. Younger people are particularly open to recruitment efforts via social media, with 73% of 18-34 year-olds reporting having found their last job position through social media.
You’ve got to learn the culture of the audiences who use different platforms and refine your messaging to suit that environment. For example, the kind of pitch you might employ on Facebook would be different than one used on Instagram. Facebook messages consist primarily of words, while you’d want to employ more imagery or even video in a company Instagram post.
A popular approach is to have employees appearing in the videos to help showcase the appeal of that organization’s company culture. However, don’t join certain platforms just because they’re currently popular. For example, the TikTok idea would be a better approach if you were seeking younger recruits. On the other hand, if you’re looking for more experienced career professionals, you may want to focus your efforts on LinkedIn.
Refine Your Content Approach
At the end of the day, it’s about knowing your ideal employee profile and understanding the kind of content that appeals to them on social media. For example, a younger crowd might be more comfortable receiving frequent messages from your company. At the same time, a more mature audience who spends less time on social media might view that approach as spamming them and get turned off.
The content you provide to older demographics should be more substantial so they don’t feel like you’re wasting their time. Either way, delivering quality content is key to finding success through social media recruiting. Even videos posted to Instagram should contain information that clarifies what someone would be signing up for if they apply to a job posting.
Boost Your Brand
Having a strong brand presence increases your value in the eyes of potential job recruits. That can be key to bringing in experienced professionals who aren’t keen on joining a company they don’t know much about. Make sure your company logo is present on all social media platforms utilized by your organization. It’s a good idea to audit all your existing social media accounts to make sure that you’re using the same kind of messaging on each.
Create and stick to a content posting schedule that outlines when you create new content. Using a content planning calendar ensures you’re providing fresh material to your social media accounts consistently. Job candidates may be put off if they check your Twitter feed and see that you haven’t sent anything out in months. The more content you put out tied to your industry, the more recruitment prospects will view your company as an authority in their field. In the end, that can make the idea of applying for a job with your organization more appealing.
Come up with Consistent Guidelines
Create written guides that spell out the approaches you take when it comes to social media recruiting. That includes making sure you outline the tone to take when crafting a tweet versus writing a LinkedIn post. Your guide should include the kind of imagery to use across different platforms. Your marketing team can rely on that guide whenever they create new content for your organization’s social media platform recruitment efforts.
Get Employees Involved
Your employees represent one of your best recruitment tools. Ask them to participate in the creation of content that highlights their positive experiences working for your company. Use them as brand ambassadors by encouraging them to like, engage with, and share company posts. That way, you can increase your brand’s organic reach and start building trust with job candidates who see your social media postings.
Use Facebook Retargeting
Facebook retargeting involves placing ads on the Facebook profiles of potential job candidates who previously visited your company website or engaged with you on other social media platforms. By employing retargeting, you’re making sure that your ads get seen by those already familiar with your company brand. Because they already have some awareness of your company, they may be more likely to perform an action like filling out a preliminary employment application.
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Tips for Crafting Recruitment Ads that Work
Make Your Job Offer Seem Like a Solution
Instead of jumping in right away with a long list of employment requirements, start with a pitch that helps job candidates understand why taking the position would provide long-term benefits. Show why it’s imperative that they take a chance on your employment opportunity versus others.
Keep Messaging Consistent
If you use a specific company logo and color scheme on your corporate website, use that same imagery in your digital and social media advertising. Branding is about consistency and consistency builds trust.
Tell Your Company Story
Your content should give potential recruits a sense of who your company is and provide a sense of how your culture operates. Establish a consistent tone that showcases your organization’s personality across all advertising channels.
Focus on One Job
Radio advertising is about telling your business' story - and building your job ad around a specific idea makes story-telling more effective. Resist with conviction the urge to include every detail in an ad. It's too much information. The goal of your ad is to entice people to visit a web page for more information and to apply. Emphasize what the listener can gain by applying for the job opening. Your ad should also discuss how joining your company would be the best decision for the listener. If you have more than one job opening you’re looking to fill, create an ad for each position. If your budget doesn’t allow for that, order your open job positions by importance and start with the top positions.
Make the Job Sound Appealing
Don’t make the mistake of using up valuable radio time to focus strictly on qualifications. You don’t want your radio ad to sound like you’re just reading from a listing you placed on a website. Instead, highlight the best aspects of the position and why it would be something a recruit would wish to pursue. Be creative in your description, so listeners are intrigued enough to follow up on the job opening.
Add a Clear Call to Action
Make it clear to your listeners what they can do if they want to apply for the job. Try to make it as simple as possible for a potential job recruit to reach your company. It can be hard for people to remember phone numbers or email addresses. Instead, you might want to provide them with a website link that leads to a specific landing page about the job. That also makes it easier to track visitors pulled in by your radio ad.
What to Know Before You Launch Your Recruitment Campaign
These tips are a few among many that will help you set your recruitment marketing campaign up for success before you launch the first ad.
Get SMART
The SMART acronym, which first emerged in the early 1980s, can help you set up the primary objectives you wish to achieve through your digital and paid job recruitment efforts. It is flexible enough to be used by everyone from senior executives to HR hiring managers to department supervisors. SMART stands for:
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Specific — Identifies the area in which you need improvement. In this instance, it would be the position your company needs to fill.
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Measurable — How you measure progress toward a goal. For example, how many applications you’d like to receive that fit your open position.
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Attainable — Make sure your goals are realistic. Setting wildly outrageous goals is fine to have a vision for, but you’ll quickly get discouraged and quit if you feel like you can’t ever make progress.
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Relevant — The important trick here is to make sure that the goals you set will ultimately get you to your long-term vision. They are specific steps in a predetermined direction. Make sure they line up.
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Time-related — Specifies the time in which you can achieve a result, i.e., how long it will take your company to fill the job position.
Involve All Relevant Parties
Try to get input from any department that will be affected by your hiring decision. Then, use that feedback to craft your digital ads in a way that increases the chances of attracting the kind of person who would work well within your company environment. That way, you can avoid a situation where you bring in someone who fits the criteria outlined in a digital ad, but the new hire ends up not being the right fit.
One way of doing that is by setting up an employee referral program. Getting input from current workers helps get everyone in relevant departments involved in recruiting. Many new companies hires start through a referral from a current employee. Having your workers push recruits toward your digital marketing efforts can shorten the recruitment process and increase your chances of finding the right person to fill an open role in your organization.
Define Your Online Persona
When potential recruits come across your digital marketing efforts, they should immediately understand what your company is about and the things you find important. In addition, you want them to immediately feel comfortable with the idea of working for your organization.
It’s vital that you find ways to distinguish your online brand from those of other companies in the same industry. You can do that through humor, by emphasizing your commitment to issues like the environment or highlighting your business’s contributions to the local community. Everything from your color palette to the images displayed in your ads should reflect your branding.
Pay attention to any online chatter about your company. The first thing most candidates will do, when they see your marketing, is to look you up on the internet. For that reason, you want to make sure there is consistency in your brand messaging through your digital ads or other online media.'
Define Your Audience
The one recurring theme that crops up in any marketing strategy, whether through traditional or digital media, is to understand the people you’re trying to reach. For that reason, you should come up with personas that define your ideal job applicant based on the position’s requirements. From there, work out the kind of content that might appeal to them if they saw it in a digital format.
By making an effort to understand your audience’s likes and dislikes, you increase the chances that your paid and digital media reaches the right people in the right places. By doing that, you can hopefully bring in applicants capable of bringing the right skills and attitude needed to fill your organization’s open job position.
Come Up with a Content Strategy 
Now that you’ve worked out what you want to see from job candidates, the personas of those you want to apply, and figured out what might appeal to them, it’s time to apply everything you’ve learned into your digital content.
Come up with a few foundational pieces of content marketing, like a digital ad placed in a Google search engine or having a page dedicated to current employees on your company website. You can also place optimized job listings on popular job board sites. That way, they come up at the top of search results when someone enters a search term like “software engineer tallahassee.”
Don’t be afraid to take a mix of approaches when it comes to creating digital content. Think about investing in videos, infographics, and other eye-catching media that make it easier for job applicants to get a sense of what your company represents and what it might be like to come work for your business.
Paperwork can be an aspect of the first day, but it should be kept to a minimum in order to give your new team member ample time to get accustomed to the team and workplace. If your employee is a local resident, try to schedule a time for them to come in and meet with human resources prior to their first day in order to complete any new hire paperwork. At Zimmer, we schedule a paperwork day in the week prior to an employee’s start date whenever possible. We utilize this time to also get our new team member’s laptop set up and formally introduce them to any leadership they haven’t met yet.
Keep Communication Open
Preparing for a new hire’s first day usually isn’t a one-person job. Oftentimes, the point of contact for a new team member is going to coordinate everything from paperwork to laptop setup and configuring email. This involves multiple departments and people who have their own responsibilities and commitments outside of onboarding. Communication is key in keeping every aspect of onboarding organized and efficient. There’s nothing worse than having something unexpected sprung on you last minute, so extend the same courtesy to every department by utilizing an email chain or flow chart so that everyone knows when their tasks need to be completed for the first day.
Another method for keeping communication consistent and responsive is to visit each department firsthand to talk briefly about the new hire. This is particularly relevant when there are unique aspects to a new hire, such as whether they have a PC or Mac, where they may be sitting or if they will be able to complete any steps prior to the first day. By taking the time to personally speak with someone in the departments where these aspects may differ from the standard process, you can avoid repetitive back and forth email communication while also finding the best solution.
Build Their First Week Calendar
Often times we get so caught up in the details of the first day for a new team member that we neglect the days that follow. In most cases, a new hire is in a state of transition during their first week as they go from training to applying what they have learned. A great method for organizing their first week is to build out their first-week calendar prior to the start date. Every item on the schedule may not involve you directly, so by scheduling things out for the week you can lessen the number of questions they may have and allow them to become self-sufficient more quickly. This ties back into our second solution where you can keep communication open: coordinate in-person meetings with every department prior to the first day so that they can have an agenda ready to discuss.
Another asset to having these meetings prescheduled that first week is the opportunity for introductions. Your new team member can familiarize themselves with the different functions of each department and who they may be working with depending on the task or project. This also builds an appreciation early on for each department’s contributions in making your business great!
Make Their First Day Count
This seems like a no-brainer, but a warm welcome is only a small part of what goes into making a first-day special. It’s the consistent contributions from everyone that add up to a spectacular first impression for your new hire. Little things, like leaving a welcome card on their desk with positive messages from leadership to giving them a quick tour of the office, can make all the difference between someone treating the role as just another job and fully committing for the long term.
At Zimmer, we like to always help our new team members feel comfortable as soon as they walk through the door. From a warm welcome and a cup of coffee to start their day to a tour of our office for department introductions, we want everyone to feel like they’ve joined the family. An afternoon lunch with the team serves as a chance to chat informally with their coworkers, and an individual end-of-the-day wrap-up with their team coach gives them a chance to end the day on a positive note. A simple question about how their day went and how they are feeling shows that you are equally invested in their success.
Send a Welcome Email
While we have already covered department meetings, there are likely other team members who may not interact with your new employee outside of the break room or in passing down the hallway. A few days prior to their start, an intra-office email that includes a picture of the new employee helps everyone put a face with a name. This also makes it more comfortable for employees in other departments to stop by the new hire’s desk and introduce themselves.
If you’d like to take this a step further, include some fun facts about your new team member in that email. It’s an easy way to build a connection and break the awkwardness of meeting someone new. Did your new hire relocate from a different state? Maybe they made a big career change when they joined your team, or they really love their dogs. Whatever it is, there’s sure to be common ground within your team and their new coworkers.
Start a Book Club
There are innumerable book topics available that will be beneficial for your employees, help reinforce better teamwork, and foster a more positive work environment. Select topics that fit your company culture goals and set an objective to read one book a quarter. Assign about a chapter a week, and set aside time during meetings for the group to discuss the chapter, share what they learned and ask any questions.
Here are a few suggestions that we've read over the last few years and found to be extremely valuable:
- Energy Bus by Jon Gordon
- Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard
- The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller
- Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves
- The Power of a Positive Team by Jon Gordon
Behavioral Assessments
Behavior assessments are also widely available. Some can be found online for free and others require a small fee. It's also helpful if you can find a certified trainer to teach your team about the profile results and get the initiative started off on the right foot. We have found these assessments to be invaluable in coaching employees and providing insights into their behavioral tendencies - information that helps them work together more cohesively. We've also found that they give us a better understanding of our client's needs in communication, service, and sales - and they have dramatically improved client relationships. A quick internet search will help you find available options or trainers in your area.
Popular options include:
- Meyers Briggs
- StrengthsFinder
- DISC
- True Colors
How do you ensure that your company culture is one that will attract and retain team members?
Check out our five keys to a positive company culture below:
Consistency
This is the biggest obstacle in developing a company culture. Culture is a long-term investment that needs to be fostered and maintained in order to truly be successful. Consistency in cultural events is essential to lead team members to invest in their company, but it’s also important to consider workday routines like morning huddles with the team as the building blocks for culture. These may be smaller scale but add up to the difference between a thriving company culture and one that is simply ordinary.
If you find it difficult to maintain consistent culture on your own, we suggest enlisting the help of leadership in other departments. By splitting up smaller events among several people, everyone can focus more on making the events they handle as engaging and successful as possible.
Communication
Communication goes hand in hand with planning when it comes to developing company culture. Ensuring everyone is aware of upcoming events and recurring workday activities is integral to reliable attendance and engagement while also giving team members something a little different to look forward to during their workday. This is also beneficial for planning out supplies for events such as team lunches or happy hours.
Depending on the size of your company, this communication can require some diligence. We suggest company-wide emails at the beginning of the month with friendly reminders about upcoming events, as well as follow-up emails as events approach. When fostering engagement with day-to-day workplace activities, you can also utilize visual cues in high-traffic parts of the building for nonintrusive reminders. Something as simple as a notice about weekly team building activities on a bulletin board in the break room can keep culture top of mind with your team members.
Inclusivity
It’s no secret that people are busy. It can be near impossible to try to coordinate a time for an event that works for everyone, so instead, we suggest planning events at different times of the day. Someone is far less prone to feeling left out if they can attend a separate event that may be a week later at a different time. This also gives leadership a chance to diversify the events: some people may not want to attend a happy hour, while a weekly out-of-office walk is more aligned with what they enjoy.
When looking for ways to include everyone in the company culture, we recommend encouraging team members to send suggestions for events or times on culture emails. Sometimes it just takes a new idea to spark the next great event or activity, and asking for employee input into their company culture is an effective way of bolstering engagement.
Recognition
While culture events are the best way to bring team members together for camaraderie, recognizing the employees who excel in their roles is a powerful means for positive reinforcement. This also establishes a clear expectation with those who may not be performing optimally: when leadership rewards achievement, this creates a standard for these team members to meet.
There are plenty of ways to recognize different individuals, but incorporating this into events or regularly scheduled meetings can inject some positivity and fun into everyday routines. At Zimmer, we award our employee of the month (lovingly titled our “Wowy” award) during our morning sales meeting. This gives everyone in the office time to come together and congratulate the winner while also serving as a nice surprise for the recipient.
Collaboration
As the old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. This is also true of company culture, except think of the village as your team of coworkers. Collaboration encourages team members in every department to get involved in event planning, and it can also create a more diverse range of events that are relevant to everyone. Whether it’s planning a lunch-and-learn with different departments or an icebreaker between coworkers who don’t always get to interact, collaboration keeps workplace culture fresh and exciting. You will also find those team members have hidden talents: it may be an old family recipe for the next potluck, or someone who works in human resources could be great at pool. Whatever these talents may be, team members are guaranteed to be more engaged and excited about company culture when they have a chance to do things they love.
If there’s one consistent fact about company culture, it’s that culture develops and exists whether intentionally or not. We like to define it as the personality of your company: is that personality one that attracts others, or is it cold and detached? Whether your company culture needs some serious nurturing or just a bit of attention, these five keys to a positive company culture will put you on the fast track to a culture that is thriving and engaging for your entire team.