I recently read an article pondering whether social media for recruiters actually works. (Full disclosure: the author is an NPAworldwide member.) The premise is that perhaps the “social” aspect of social media has been lost, with many people focused more on “likes” than on meaningful personal interactions. I don’t disagree with that, but I do feel strongly that social media is an important tool for recruiters. A long time ago, I recall a webinar about social media that said simple/low-cost transactions are much easier to convert online than complex/expensive transactions. The example used was that it’s fairly easy to sell movie tickets via social media, and measure the results. If you’re selling insurance, though, or recruitment services, you’re almost certainly ONLY going to make those conversions offline. This can make it seem like “social media doesn’t work.” Collecting likes and followers on your social media channel is helpful in terms of expanding your reach, but isn’t really the desired outcome. Instead, I believe the following items are the primary benefits of social media for recruiters.
- Increase Brand Awareness – One of the easiest things you can do via social media is increase brand awareness for your recruitment firm. Whether you are sharing blogs, videos, infographics, images, or other content, you are making it easier for your audience to learn more about you. It can be tricky to measure brand awareness, and measuring it socially adds an extra layer of complexity. The best advice I can offer is to make sure whatever you are sharing lives on your own website. So for example, blog on your own site. Share a snippet of your blog on a social platform, with a link back to your site to view the whole article. You can do the same with videos, images, and other content as well. Pay attention to the social channels you are using, as some have better options for clickable links than others. Brand awareness is important to initial marketing efforts, and also leads to my next point below.
- Drive Traffic to Your Website – One of the best reasons for using social media is to drive traffic to your website. Ostensibly, your website is *the* place online that tells your clients (both existing and potential) everything they want to know about your business. It may also include information about the hiring landscape, resume advice, interview prep, working with recruiters, salary data, and more. Your website should be the foundation of your company’s digital footprint, with everything you do online pointing back to that asset. Social media posts, when done correctly, will lead people back to your website. This sets up a third benefit of social media for recruiters.
- Build Your Email Marketing List – Once you’ve created content that brings visitors to your website, it’s important to capture those visitors as leads. A simple opt-in mechanism, such as “subscribe to our blog” form, is an easy way to build an email marketing list. Many site visitors are willing to provide an email address for access to 1 or 2 blog posts per week, particular if the subject matter is germane to their needs or interests. For more in-depth pieces such as white papers or reports, your lead capture form can collect more data. This will help you target your list with content that is specifically tailored to them.
Once you’ve created some brand awareness that leads to a good marketing list, you can hone your efforts on building live relationships with the people on your list. You can use email, telephone or other marketing tools to reach them directly and convert them to customers. If you’re providing a great service, those customers can provide testimonials and word-of-mouth referrals that can fill your pipeline. That’s a desirable outcome. Social media for recruiters is effective when you focus on the right activities.
