Social media have never been such a big part of the recruiting process as today. A study reported that nearly a quarter of potential candidates use social media to find their next career opportunity. In Canada, 86% of applicants use at least one social media. Because it has become so prominent, it is now one of the important tools for recruiting today.
We use several platforms ourselves to recruit via social media. Follow us on LinkedIn so you don't miss out on the articles and job postings we share.
Benefits of using social media for a recruiter
Now that baby boomers are starting to leave the job market, employers have to find new ways to make their brand stand out to the next generations of employees.
Social medias are one of the best resources to successfully put your message out there and attract new talents.Social media also gives you the potential to reach a larger variety of candidates, passive applicants who don’t really visit, if at all, job boards. Indeed, if they follow you on Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin, the chances of them seeing your posting increases, driving them to take a good look at the opportunities you are offering.
How to use Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to attract new talent
So far Facebook has taken the trophy for most used social media. Around 78% of the population in Canada use their website, making being present on the platform even more critical. Most organizations have set a page on Facebook, but few actually take the time to update it. A big mistake as your Facebook page can showcase your brand and values as an employer to potential candidates.
For example, you could publish activities the employees take part in, in order to showcase how much they enjoy working for your company. This simple step maintains the desirability to work at your company for potential candidates following your page on top of standing out from other companies who don’t share their culture, work environment and success on the platform.
The idea is not only to post your employment opportunities but also to grow the interest of potential candidates for your company.
Cost: Publications are free. If you would like for your publication to be sponsored to a targeted audience, there is a fee for a number of clicks.
X (previously Twitter)
X can also be an interesting tool for recruiting, even if it presents a smaller impact. Twitter works like a news feed, so you can directly broadcast your job posting in the feed of your subscribers.
It is important to understand the specific language Twitter uses and to use hashtags to promote your postings. For example, for an engineering position you could use: « We are currently looking for a #civil #engineer for our #Drummondville office! #jobs .» Including those key words means you will reach your subscribers but also any users who use the hashtags mentioned in your post.
Cost: Just like Facebook, tweeting is free. But you will have to pay extra if you would like Twitter to send your post to a targeted audience.
Linkedin is a professional social media counting 774 million members in the world.
A Company’s Page gives you the opportunity to promote your expertise, success, products, services and events. You’ll be able to publish articles from your company’s blog or links to pages on your website, improving your organic reach as well as maintaining an important presence in the news feed of your followers where you’ll most likely find some great candidates for your future career opportunities!
Linkedin is particularly useful for recruiters, providing an easy way to find candidates based on their skills, experiences, expertise and education. With simple key words, Linkedin will give you profiles specifically related to your job offer, giving you the opportunity to approach the candidates directly.
However, if the candidate you’re interested in hiring is currently employed at another company, it can be tricky approaching them with a new career opportunity, especially if they’re working for a direct competitor. In that case, hiring a headhunter can be a great solution, as he’ll be able to approach the targeted candidate or present other candidates already in his network.
Cost: Publication on your Company’s Page are free. You can publish links to your job postings on your website or any job boards. If you would like to use the job boards services on Linkedin, you will have to pay between 200$ and 300$ for each post.
TikTok
Although it is a social media platform that is still not widely used by Canadian companies, it is also possible to recruit on TikTok. The platform has the reputation of attracting mainly the gen Z, but 29.7 million users of all ages login every day.
Moreover, the keywords related "recruitment" have 15.6 million views on TikTok. But since the social network reaches a wider audience, it is mostly suited for recruiting generalist positions.
Similar to Facebook, the best strategy on TikTok is to create content that will promote your employer brand and give your company visibility. For example, Retraite Quebec creates informative content and videos to show that it is fun to work in their organization. Simons, on the other hand, creates mostly fashion content, but will talk about the benefits of working for them here and there.
Being a short video content platform, the time investment might be greater. If possible, involve several employees in the creation of content, to develop ambassadors for your company and facilitate the production of videos in the future.
Cost: Free for publications. If you want to promote sponsored posts to a specific audience, you will have to pay a certain amount per click.
