Maintaining an online professional presence is key for job seekers – but it's also a valuable tool for recruiters when seeking and communicating with potential candidates. Establishing your own personal brand as a recruiter sets the tone for how you and your organization are viewed by a job seeker. Your online presence is one of the first touchpoints encountered and it should be built to inspire credibility and leadership.
Perception is everything
Recruiters may have a vast network of digital tools to use when attracting and vetting talent, but so do candidates. That’s why it’s important to know your own online reputation and make sure it aligns with the goals and messaging of your organization’s brand.
All it takes for a job seeker is to conduct a quick web search and they’ll find information on you, your organization’s brand reputation, reviews from current and former employees, and salaries of similar positions being advertised. So, it is extremely important to understand how you and your organization are perceived.
The importance of social media in recruiting
The online search for both candidates and recruiters has become vital. According to Zippia, 84% of organizations use social media for recruiting and 79% of applicants use it for their job search. In addition, organizations can have a talent pool that’s 10x bigger by recruiting through their employees’ social networks.
Which social media platform should you use?
Social media plays a large role in recruitment and it’s essential to know who your audience is and where to best engage job seekers. According to a 2021 Jobvite report, the most used social media channels for recruiting are Facebook at 68%, LinkedIn at 65%, Twitter at 48%, and Instagram at 46%. However, when it comes to finding the highest quality candidates, the statics change to where LinkedIn is first at 53% followed by Facebook 33%. TikTok and Snapchat are also gaining momentum for sourcing candidates.
Things to consider when choosing a platform(s):
LinkedIn is considered to be the world’s largest professional network and is ideal for filling any role ranging from recent graduates to highly skilled specialists. LinkedIn features a filter for refining searches by location, experience, skills, and group pages. Recruiters can access a premium subscription for sending InMail messages, videos, and finding leads.
Facebook is the most used social media platform with roughly 2.9 billion users worldwide and 108 million in the United States, according to DataReportal. That alone provides more chances to find candidates. In addition, Facebook allows recruiters to review profiles, interests, locations, education, and liked pages to have a better understanding of personality traits. It also has the flexibility to target ads for any specific audience you are seeking to reach.
Twitter is the third largest social network. It is ideal for searching for candidates by topics and keywords. As your brand builds, tweets and retweets from followers provide a unique way for your open positions to spread to users.
Instagram provides a highly engaging visual experience with images, videos, and text. It allows recruiters to tell their brand’s story post about company culture and events and reach Generation Z candidates.
Generally, all these platforms use hashtags when posting and are used in searches by job seekers and recruiters. Researching a hashtag that relates to your postings will increase engagement and attract talent.
Social Media Tone
Depending on which social site you use, you’ll want to approach them differently with your messaging, but stay on brand. It is important to know each site and think about the emotions you want to convey, the words you use and how you want your personality to be seen.
The voice you may want to consider for these sites:
LinkedIn is a network filled with talent at every level of expertise. Your tone should be clear, professional, and have a more direct tone.
Facebook is about building personal relationships. Your tone should be jargon-free, friendly, informal, and provide some entertainment value.
Twitter is a space where you can add personality to your posts, but they should be informative. Your tone should be fun, encouraging, and adaptable to the climate of the day.
Instagram is a place where visuals are heavily used and just like Twitter, personality is important. Your tone should be empowering, thoughtful, and positive.
Helpful steps to build your online presence
Establish a detailed profile
Your professional profile is the best way to begin your online presence. This would include having a professional image of yourself, detailed descriptions of your qualifications and experiences, recommendations from those within your industry, and links to professional social networks. This is also a fantastic opportunity to make sure your information aligns with your organization.
Make the brand connection
Become a brand ambassador through social media and encourage current employees to do the same. Promote work culture with consistent postings of business accomplishments, events, and industry-related information. By doing this, your organization will be found faster by potential candidates during their job search and make the brand connection needed to pique their interest.
Build relationships
With an ever-increasing number of candidates using social media to find jobs, creating a good rapport and generating confidence is essential when searching for job seekers. Especially if you believe that everyone is a potential candidate.
You can build potential candidate relationships by:
Posting well-defined job descriptions
Clearly communicating and responding in a timely manner
Relying on your own people network and asking them to share your open roles
Want to be my friend?
Recruiting candidates online can bring up a lot of moral questions including whether or not you should friend request or follow them on their social accounts. The same goes for a potential candidate when they friend request or want to follow you.
When it comes to LinkedIn, it's more appropriate to send or receive a request since it’s a professional network. However, when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, which are more personal accounts, you may want to hold off unless the accounts are business-related. No matter how you proceed, you should always protect your reputation and that of your organizations.
Become a thought leader
Active participation is an ideal step that will put you on the road to expertise and serve as a source for attracting potential candidates and inspiring employees. It takes time to become a thought leader, but much of it begins with understanding the challenges that impact those within your industry and providing helpful information to get through those pain points.
You can learn from mentors and go to networking events to gain experience. Creating original content online through regular postings on blogs, social media sites, and being engaged in industry-related community pages will help build your audience and following and establish you as a leader in your space.
Advantages of an online presence
Leveraging your online recruiting presence has several benefits for both you and your organization. You’ll be able to reach a broader candidate pool, have more access to qualified candidates, and seek passive candidates who may not be looking for new job opportunities but are open to hearing about them – making it easier and faster for you to hire.
Your online efforts will also:
Reduce cost-per-hire and time-to-hire
Increase job ad visibility
Save time on candidate screenings
Encourage candidate engagement
Try multiple approaches
Being a dynamic, online recruiter can help you influence the right candidates for the positions you’re trying to fill. But it can also be overwhelming when it comes to figuring out which platforms you should be on. So, make sure you align with your organization and pick the right platforms to focus on.
Having a good online presence is about partnering with candidates past and present, current and former employees, and building a trusted brand that has a good reputation during each step of the recruiting process.
