Over 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates. Although LinkedIn is still one of the best ways to build a brand and network as a recruitment specialist, there’s much more to social recruiting and knowing how to build an effective social media recruitment strategy can help with filling jobs faster. Read this article to learn how implementing social media recruiting on various platforms can help you maximise the potential of your recruitment efforts.

What is social recruiting?

Social recruiting, or social media recruiting, is a marketing strategy which recruiters and recruitment agencies use to source candidates and build their brand awareness. According to Apollo Technical’s 2024 report, close to 90% of organisations use social media in recruiting and 79% of jobseekers use these platforms to discover open positions. To be even more industry-specific, 91% of recruiters are active on social media because it helps them hire people, Glassdoor reports. If you’re not using social media to share job listings or career tips, you may be missing out on connecting with highly qualified candidates, regardless of the industry in which you operate as a recruiter.

The term ‘social media recruiting’ also refers to the entire process through which recruitment agencies go to plan, produce, post and manage the content they post. This type of marketing may refer to establishing brand identity on any social media platform. As a recruiter, you can use these platforms not only to reach new audiences and attract potential candidates for jobs you’re advertising. Social media can also help you build a personal brand and increase your chances of attracting more employers who’d want to pay for your services and let you take care of their recruitment processes.

Why it’s important to use social media as a recruiter

‘Is being competitive the only reason for using social media as a recruiter?’, you may ask. And the answer is: no. There are tons of benefits you can experience once you start implementing social media into your recruitment strategy. Here are some of these advantages:

• • Wider candidate pool: Posting on social media helps you reach people who rarely visit job boards. In addition, it presents you with the opportunity to attract people who currently have jobs, but might consider transferring to a different company after seeing the content you shared.
  • Targeting your advertising efforts: Social media platforms have advanced targeting options, thanks to which you can reach people with specific demographic and/or psychographic characteristics. You can also source candidates based on their job title and history to make sure the right people see your job ads and career tips.

• • Building brand awareness: Crafting and regularly posting useful advice and content is a great strategy for building your brand awareness. Regardless if you represent an agency or work as a freelance recruiter, you can use social media to present yourself to both candidates and employers as a recruitment and career expert.

• • Networking opportunities: Social media allows you to connect with other recruiters. It’s an organic form of digital networking, thanks to which you can exchange experiences and ideas with those who clearly understand your professional challenges and plans.

• • Cost-efficient approach: Unless you’re using paid ads, social media recruiting is a highly cost-efficient way to present your expertise and reach new people. For example, you can optimise your posts on Instagram or Linkedin by using specific keywords for which your target audience is likely to search when browsing social media.

• • Competitive advantage: Although the majority of employers and recruiters use social media to recruit, you can still use those platforms to create a competitive advantage for yourself. To achieve that, make sure that the content you share is not only attractive visually, but also provides true value to the candidates, for example, by sharing job search advice with them.

How to decide which platforms to use

Deciding which social media platforms to use as a recruiter helps you create a more effective strategy to market yourself and open positions for which you recruit. Here’s how you can decide:

1. 1. List job types and industries for which you recruit

If you already have a niche which you target as a recruiter, this step will be super easy for you. If not, analyse the types of jobs and industries for which you regularly recruit. For example, you may find that in the past, your focus was construction, but recently, you recruit more within the IT industry. Based on that information, you can decide to start posting more on X, formerly known as Twitter, since that’s where many IT specialists look for information and post their thoughts.

2. 2. Create a few ideal candidate profiles

Once you analyse the types of jobs you usually advertise, use that information to create ideal candidate profiles. Also known as candidate personas, these are descriptions of people you usually want your job ads to reach. It’s a fictional summary of an ideal candidate for particular roles. When you’re starting to develop a social media strategy, limit this exercise to two or three candidate profiles, as this makes the strategy creation more straightforward. You can always add more personas after you successfully implement your initial social media recruiting strategy.

3. 3. Match candidate profiles with social media platforms

After analysing your job offers and business needs, as well as determining what type of people you want to reach on social media, match the candidate personas you’ve created with specific platforms you wish to use. Here are common platforms that recruiting agencies use and what types of candidates you can expect to attract there:

• • LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking website, which works great if you recruit senior and executive-level specialists. Business specialists and millennials are examples of two target groups which LinkedIn unites.
  • Facebook: According to Hootsuite, Facebook is still one of the top apps that people download and it’s especially popular in the United States (visits from the US make up around 50% of all traffic). It’s also becoming less and less popular among Gen Z and Millennials, as these audiences prefer platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
  • Instagram: If you want to reach candidates aged between 18 and 34, Instagram can be the right platform for you. To keep Instagram audiences engaged, make sure to include some added value to your profile, for example, by hosting live Q&As during which you can show people how to optimise their CVs or improve their job interview skills.

• • Pinterest: Pinterest is rarely anyone’s first thought when it comes to social media recruiting, but it can become a valuable tool if you’re looking for candidates to fill roles in the creative industries, like arts and crafts. Pinterest is also the go-to platform for many Millennials and most of its users are women.
    

FAQ about using social media as a recruiter

Marketing recruitment is still a new concept, but year by year it’s becoming more popular. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions you may have about social recruiting and marketing recruitment:

1. 1. How effective is social media recruiting?

Just like with any other marketing strategy, the effectiveness of social recruiting depends on the planning and execution of campaigns. When you know how to prepare and decide what type of people you want to reach, your chances of attracting top talent on social media increases. Social media platforms also have an added benefit, advanced analytics, which you can use to see what type of information and content works for you and month-by-month refine your strategy.

2. 2. Is social media recruiting and marketing recruitment the same thing?

Social recruiting is a way of presenting your skills and services as an expert in recruitment, which also helps you reach a wider pool of candidates. Marketing recruitment is a comprehensive marketing strategy, which tells you which approaches and tools, both free and paid, to use to successfully reach audiences and advertise job offers. So it’s safe to say social recruiting is one of the key elements that make up marketing recruitment.

3. 3. What does a recruitment marketing specialist do?

A marketing specialist who specialises in the recruitment industry can help you develop a strategy for your marketing channels, like your social media, website or newsletter. Outsourcing this to a recruitment marketing specialist has various advantages, for example, it’s highly time-efficient. Instead of spending time learning about what resolution to make your Instagram post, you can focus on recruiting while someone else handles your social media planning and content.