Social Media as a Recruiting Tool

Talent Report+THRIVE

Description: Explore the role of social media in modern recruitment on this episode of 30-minute THRIVE. Discover how leading companies harness LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram and more to attract top talent. Learn about effective job postings, employer branding, and hear from an experienced recruiter about current trends and best practices. Whether you're a hiring manager, recruiter, in HR, or job seeker, tune in to elevate your recruitment strategy and find the best talent for success.

Resources:

How Technology Can Help - The Recruiter's Role

MRA Membership

About MRA

Let's Connect:

Guest Bio - Kathy Seidel

Guest LinkedIn Profile - Kathy Seidel

Host Bio - Sophie Boler

Host LinkedIn Profile - Sophie Boler

Transcript:

Transcripts are computer generated -- not 100% accurate word-for-word.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:03
Unknown
Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minute Thrive, your go to podcast for anything and everything HR, powered by MRA, the Management Association looking to stay on top of the ever changing world of HR? MRA has got you covered. We'll be the first to tell you what's hot and what's not. I'm your host, Sophie Boler, and we are so glad you're here.

00:00:21:05 - 00:00:41:23
Unknown
Now it's time to thrive. Hello, everybody, and welcome to this episode of 30 Minute Thrive. And welcome back, Kathy. Thanks for having me. Kathy is our manager of recruiting services here at Emory. For those of you who haven't got Kathy yet. And today will be looking at the fascinating world of social media and how that AIDS as a recruitment tool.

00:00:42:00 - 00:01:09:12
Unknown
So we'll really be checking out all of the innovative ways that top companies are leveraging platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram to find and attract the best talent out there. So, Kathy, let's start out with talking about how social media has really changed the way companies recruit talent nowadays. So what are your thoughts on this? Yeah, so, you know, I think like everything else in our lives, social media has really changed the way that we work and the way that we live.

00:01:09:14 - 00:01:38:24
Unknown
There's so many different ways that you can find people, find information, get their contact information, communicate with them. And, you know, that's the same thing on the company side for interested candidates. There's so many ways they can see things about you learn about different opportunities within your organization and then also get in touch with you. And so you've really got to be prepared for, you know, what different ways people can look at you or talk to you and make sure that you're kind of leveraging all the tools that you can.

00:01:39:03 - 00:02:03:03
Unknown
Great point. Kind of piggybacking off of that, what are some some of the benefits that social media has to really find and attract these this talent? Yeah. Yeah. So social media, you know, can be really useful for getting a lot of information out there, but you have to be careful how you do that. And you don't want to flood a feed every day with, you know, here's all the reasons to work for us.

00:02:03:03 - 00:02:29:06
Unknown
Here's all of our jobs that are posted, anything like that. You want to really make sure that you're focused and doing careful efforts, much like marketing. I really see recruitment marketing as its own special kind of subsection of recruitment. So how are you making sure that you're getting the word out there and saying all the right things? Again, a great benefit is the fact that you don't have to go out and find people cruising with the way algorithms are.

00:02:29:07 - 00:02:53:19
Unknown
You can put content out there and it can get in front of people who might not be connected to your brand and get them excited about it in a way that they haven't been before. But let's be real. No one knows how algorithms work for us. So there is definitely times where you're like shooting in the dark and just like, let's see if it works, but it's working with, you know, your marketing team to figure out how you can kind of make that best shot.

00:02:53:19 - 00:03:20:23
Unknown
Maybe put a little bit of a flashlight on and see where you're going. Oh, absolutely. Kind of looking at the other side of this now, what are some common mistakes that companies make? One, using social media for recruiting? Yeah, So a couple of things. Number one is, you know, posting too much online once it's really easy to just go, I'm going to post, check out our jobs and a link every day or, you know, every Monday or whatever.

00:03:21:03 - 00:03:44:05
Unknown
And that is not good for the algorithms. It recognizes that that's the same content over and over and over. And so you want to kind of make sure that you're putting some variety in there. It's also really important to take a look at what your following is before you get started, because if your company Facebook page is all current employees, right, they're not going to care about jobs that are currently posted.

00:03:44:07 - 00:04:05:01
Unknown
You know, they might want to hear more about referral opportunities or growth opportunities if you want to try to grow that following, you know, you have to do different things to engage different people. Same thing. If you're following our customers, you don't necessarily want to only be posting jobs that you have open to your customers because you might get accused poaching their employee.

00:04:05:03 - 00:04:24:07
Unknown
So, you know, it's really making sure that you're tailoring that content to your existing following and then separately focusing on how we can grow that following with different things. Yeah. You know, you see a lot of companies that will try to do things to grow that following that ends up being kind of inauthentic or not aligned with their brand.

00:04:24:09 - 00:04:44:13
Unknown
You and I were talking the other day about we've seen some companies on TikTok that start these like one off like segment things that aren't related to their company at all. And they continue on because they end up getting, you know, a following for it, but it doesn't have anything to do with their company. And so that it becomes like, do we continue this because it costs money to continue it?

00:04:44:15 - 00:05:06:16
Unknown
High, whatever it might be, but it doesn't align with what we do. And then when you stop doing it, you get huge pushback. You lose a bunch followers, and then there's that negative kind of impact. So you have to make sure what you're doing, alliance to what your company does or what your followers want, because otherwise it's just going to end up kind of failing on you.

00:05:06:19 - 00:05:37:03
Unknown
Yeah, And going off of that point, what social media platforms are really the most effective for recruiting and why are they the most effective? Yeah, so I would definitely say LinkedIn is one of the most effective. Obviously it's more of a professional focused website anyways, but they've also got some really interesting tools as part of it. Number one, there are different tools that you can use to kind of schedule those posts, though it doesn't have to be that you take an hour out of your day to make a post to get it live.

00:05:37:03 - 00:06:02:13
Unknown
Am I doing it at the right time or not? You can use those tools to schedule it. Sometimes those tools you can pay that they'll post it at the perfect time, so to speak. But LinkedIn also has a newer feature where talent can indicate that they're interested in your brand right on your company page. And then if you have a LinkedIn recruiter or if you're using LinkedIn job slots, they'll highlight that this person is interested in your brand.

00:06:02:15 - 00:06:22:24
Unknown
So that's really awesome because I love your talent. Yeah, we were looking at some of those stats and it's it's crazy, You know, how easy it is for people to then say maybe there's not a job out there right now for them, but hey, in the future there might be one on the candidate side. They then get a notification anytime you post a new job on LinkedIn.

00:06:23:01 - 00:06:44:01
Unknown
So like I said, if there's not a job that's open for them right now, they'll get pushes from LinkedIn to say, Hey, this company now has this job open, does this, and you let's talk about it. LinkedIn is also great for that reach out. You know, it's kind of easy to find people who work in that organization. You can kind of put together who would be the right person to reach out to for this.

00:06:44:01 - 00:07:10:22
Unknown
And then they have the messaging platform. So that's always really great. You know, Facebook, I do think, is helpful. It is an interesting site, you know, in terms of who uses it and who doesn't. But it is still helpful to have that information out there. Again, it's about looking at what your following already is online. Is it all employees or is it all, you know, people who might be interested kind of taking a look at that?

00:07:10:24 - 00:07:37:03
Unknown
I will say Instagram Tik tok. You know those I don't see as much success with. You can do ads and that's great. But if it's not something that's authentic to your brand, it's really easy for people to spot. And you know, and that's the case in marketing too. If it's not something that makes sense. The only time it works is if your scrub daddy, because they do, you know, that they're just trying to make viral videos and it works.

00:07:37:05 - 00:08:02:04
Unknown
But they're also not using it for recruiting. They're using it to sell sponges, great sponges. Yeah. I would I would kind of also echo that and just say it. It just depends where your target audience is. So where are you most likely to find a candidate for the position you're posting? And also like Tic TAC, like you said, are you going to find prospective candidates on TikTok?

00:08:02:04 - 00:08:26:05
Unknown
Maybe. But should you rely on just TikTok or the smaller platforms? Instagram? Probably not. But yeah, those are all good points that you said. Yeah. Yeah. So would it be enough to just post on like Facebook jobs or just posts on LinkedIn or just kind of put all your eggs in one basket? I always say try and spread it out.

00:08:26:07 - 00:08:55:11
Unknown
You know, it's important to think about where people that you're targeting might be looking and also where there might be opportunities for growth. So there is no harm in asking your employees, Hey, when you found us, where were you looking? You know, how did you spot us? What information do you see about us? But I think it's important to kind of spread things around in terms of posting jobs to so many different job boards you post in one place, but it can feed to a few different others.

00:08:55:12 - 00:09:14:06
Unknown
Yeah. And so making sure that the word is out there and that you're getting in front of as many people as possible is really what's important. I think it's also really important to make sure that those posts that you're making give a good amount of information. Oh, love, love, love. Those postings that are the job description copied over.

00:09:14:08 - 00:09:34:22
Unknown
And I especially love when it has like employee signature at the bottom of where it's literally copied over. You know, you really want to make sure that what you're putting out there is tailored to that person is exciting for them, makes them want to read more. Making sure that you're not just putting we have benefits or we have health insurance.

00:09:34:24 - 00:10:04:01
Unknown
One of the speakers at the conference recently talked about that, that she was like, I want companies that have that health insurance dentist vision like who care what else and what else. So, you know, highlighting those things that make you unique or are good offerings to your employees and that's where sometimes posting on social media when you do have a heavily employee following is really nice reminders for them to you know making a post.

00:10:04:03 - 00:10:23:16
Unknown
You know if you're in May and it's Mental Health Awareness month that you have the offerings and what that all includes making a post about different employee resource groups that you might have, those things are attractive to people who are looking at your company but might also be really good reminders for people who are already there. Absolutely. Yeah.

00:10:23:17 - 00:10:51:21
Unknown
I would also encourage to post on multiple platforms if you can, just because of what social media algorithms to all of your followers aren't seeing that post, there's actually only about 5% who are seeing your post. So it is good to kind of space it out and do multiple different posts on multiple different platforms. So how can companies really measure the success of the social media posts and recruiting posts?

00:10:52:01 - 00:11:12:12
Unknown
Yeah, so it's all about getting a baseline for what a good post looks like. So that might be taking a look at some of your historical posts and saying, okay, for what we typically do, we have this many views, this many interactions, those things that you can track, you know, you can't necessarily say, okay, did this post lead to a candidate because you don't really know that.

00:11:12:14 - 00:11:36:22
Unknown
Like, you know, no one says, I saw the LinkedIn post you made on January 1st and it inspired me. No one says that someone in May and I love them. But yeah, you never know when one specific post leads to a candidate. So looking at are we getting views, are we getting interactions, are people sharing it? Yeah, those are the important things that you can do to measure long term.

00:11:36:23 - 00:12:03:19
Unknown
Yes, you can look at what do our applicant numbers look like? Have we seen an increase between quarter one and quarter two when we started posting more heavily in quarter two? But it's all about really kind of making sure that those views and those reactions that you're getting are aligned with what you're looking for. But if you don't know where to start and you know, there's not a lot of companies who are willing to share like we have great views and great, you know, metrics and we're willing to share.

00:12:03:19 - 00:12:32:03
Unknown
So you can be a baseline. You have to start with creating your own. And yeah, I totally agree. I think engagement is a huge measure of success with recruiting and social media posts in general, because if you aren't getting the engaged churn you like likes common shares, then maybe now's the time to kind of reevaluate the content that you're posting in, make sure you're speaking to your following, and are you making your posts interactive?

00:12:32:03 - 00:12:55:15
Unknown
Also maybe include a poll or include a call to action or something like that? Yeah, exactly. And don't be afraid to respond to some of those comments that you get, even though they might be a little on the negative side, you know, it's better to respond and show that you are engaging with your brand and with what you're posting than to just let those comments get out there and float in.

00:12:55:17 - 00:13:24:01
Unknown
And, you know, but there's a fine line. If you start to see a conversation building, there's no need to shake it off, flood in and say, you know, hey, I think this is great too, or there is a way you can say, Hey, let's take this offline. Yes. You know, depending on how that conversation is going. So but it is you know, we've seen that post perform better when you do, you know, interact with people in the comments, when you do respond, you know, it can get a little cheesy if you're saying great thought on every single comment.

00:13:24:03 - 00:13:41:24
Unknown
So have a little variety to it. This is a great example of how you can engage your marketing team. Yes. And say, Hey, marketing, I have this idea for a post. What do you think? And hey, or Hey, marketing, we got this comment and I want to make sure we respond to it. How can we craft something that aligns with our standards?

00:13:42:01 - 00:14:06:10
Unknown
Things like that are really important to keep that marketing team, you know, engaged in that conversation and make sure that you're aligning to kind of your whole brand. Yeah, I love that. So how can companies and use social media to build up their brand overall and attract these candidates? Yeah. So one of the things that you can definitely do and actually something we haven't touched on yet is Glassdoor and Google reviews.

00:14:06:12 - 00:14:28:06
Unknown
So there are so a number of people who are looking at reviews of companies and what their current and former employees are saying they might not be looking before they apply. They might wait until after they apply. But it is really important to make sure that, you know, what you have out there is engaging and is exciting or that you're addressing the ones that might not be as nice.

00:14:28:08 - 00:14:51:02
Unknown
I've talked to a number of companies that actually have kind of a schedule, so every two weeks they randomly select, you know, a certain amount of people to say, Hey, we want to hear how things are going at ABC Company. Here's the link to Glassdoor. Could you please, you know, leave us a review? And it's a great way to kind of continue to build the reviews that you have on that platform.

00:14:51:04 - 00:15:08:09
Unknown
A lot of times you see really positive and really negative, but that helps get kind of that in between. And it's the same thing when you're looking at reviews, when you're buying something. I just bought an air fryer this weekend and I looked at the five star and I looked at the one star and I said, okay, now let's get the real story.

00:15:08:09 - 00:15:37:04
Unknown
And I looked at the two, three and four star reviews and said, okay, some of these one stars appear to be user error and appear to be that specific person. So these five stars seem like they were paid to get them. And that's always not good. And it's the same thing in employee readiness. So starting with something like that of just saying, Hey, we'd love to hear your thoughts and get a review, here's the link or Here's a QR code to go fill that out and don't be afraid of Google reviews.

00:15:37:04 - 00:15:59:07
Unknown
You know, everyone kind of thinks of Glassdoor right away and Glassdoor and indeed are now combined. And so anything they fill out on Glassdoor also shows and indeed, but so many candidates, when they're searching for jobs, they'll just search project management job and in Google. And then when they're looking in Google jobs, it's showing those Google reviews to that candidate as well.

00:15:59:08 - 00:16:33:11
Unknown
And Google reviews are even easier than Glassdoor because Glassdoor wants you to fill out so much information before you make a room. But also, you know, talking with people like that and then getting though, the true feedback of what's going on is super helpful and in addition, when you look at that, your existing following, you know, maybe you see, okay, we've got a lot of employees, what can we do to help build it so we get potential candidates to and maybe it's talking with your employees and saying, Hey, we've got this post coming out, I'd love for you to share it, you know, so that your friends can see maybe they follow us.

00:16:33:11 - 00:16:58:23
Unknown
Maybe it's about their referral program or a sign on bonus or anything of that nature. And that can really help because it's way more common for people to follow something or engage in something when someone that they know has shared it versus it being a paid ad. Of course, paid ads are successful. But, you know, that is also a great kind of free way to do it, too.

00:16:59:00 - 00:17:22:08
Unknown
And I would say that if a candidate is applying for jobs on LinkedIn or other social media, chances are they're also going to be checking out that company's LinkedIn page or that company's other social media pages. So if you're a company that doesn't really have a strong LinkedIn page or presence, maybe now's the time to do a little makeover.

00:17:22:10 - 00:17:46:04
Unknown
And if you don't know what to post, I would just encourage you to do company culture Post. So who are your employees look like? What is your office or place of work look like? Posts about your company vision and mission and LinkedIn is good for a thought leadership post. So what can you put out on LinkedIn that your competitors can't put on LinkedIn?

00:17:46:04 - 00:18:09:14
Unknown
So when a candidate is going to your LinkedIn page, they see all of that great stuff and it's kind of a reminder to them that, hey, this would be a great place to work, something like that. Yeah, exactly. So what role does content play in social media recruitment and how can companies create really engaging content? Yeah, so again, it kind of plays to what do you want to target?

00:18:09:14 - 00:18:41:20
Unknown
So if your content is really focused on opportunities that you have, benefits that you have, it can really help kind of lead to potential candidates if you're able to get that word out. But you know, it's really all about making sure you have enough of a presence that it's clear that you're engaged. It's clear that, you know, you are posting often you're doing things, your website is updated because that can even be something you get so focused on social media and then you have different information on what you post versus what's on your website.

00:18:41:20 - 00:19:01:09
Unknown
That's a good point. And so, you know, making sure that content is aligned with everything that you're doing is super important. And, you know, I think when it's really authentic content, when it's stuff that is true to your company and true to what people are saying, it really helps to make people believe it and again, make people want to learn more.

00:19:01:11 - 00:19:24:06
Unknown
So what kind of moving into a different zone here? What ethical considerations should companies keep in mind when using social media for recruiting? Yeah, so you really want to make sure that you're not, you know, crossing any lines. You know, you mention it's great to have pictures of people from your company in there. It's also great to make sure they're okay with it first.

00:19:24:08 - 00:19:42:21
Unknown
And if they leave, it's great to get that update too. So if you're in a big company and you know, it's do you don't see a ton of faces as often and you're using someone's picture who left you years ago that someone in your company may not realize that they left two years ago and they're like, well, they've been on the website the whole time.

00:19:42:21 - 00:20:11:14
Unknown
I thought it was like, well, so, you know, it's things like that you definitely want to take care to know. It's also really important to make sure that you're not, you know, using a brand that isn't necessarily a great trend to tie your business to. Right? There's been some examples recently of businesses that are, you know, jumping on the bandwagon and not really realize what their job began to or using a sound and not really realizing what that sound says.

00:20:11:16 - 00:20:32:18
Unknown
So, you know, you want to make sure that you're careful as you're considering content to post and that, you know, if someone were to call somebody and a question that, you know, you can stand by it and not just say, oh, it was a trend. So I thought it was okay. So definitely it can definitely be a little tricky sometimes, too, to navigate that.

00:20:32:18 - 00:20:54:22
Unknown
And there are some large companies who say, you know, we won't use any copyrighted media because we are too worried about running into issues with that, which is totally okay and totally understandable. You know, the the social media world we live in is kind of interesting sometimes with some high content. So, you know, just going hard and fast, but that can definitely keep you protected.

00:20:54:24 - 00:21:21:23
Unknown
It obviously also really limits you. I will say some of my favorite content, though, is some of those larger companies that are like, we can't use copyrighted social or copyrighted songs. So this is our intern singing the song for you. Look up stories. No one wants to hear that. Yeah, I think it'd be great. So what advice would you give to companies and to use social media as a recruiting tool for the very first time?

00:21:22:04 - 00:21:46:07
Unknown
Yeah. So for the first time, number one, get your marketing team involved. They are the ones who typically own that website anyways. And so you really need to make sure that you're talking through with them and that you are, you know, getting everything through them. Again. Take a look at that following you already have and try to align that content to what makes sense.

00:21:46:09 - 00:22:07:00
Unknown
It's also really important to know that social media is so weird with how things do and don't take offs. There are things that you know, you're like no brainer, this is going to hit and it just gets lost, you know? And so, you know, it's okay to try some different things, do some AB testing, you know, try things out a couple of times On social media.

00:22:07:05 - 00:22:27:23
Unknown
Again, nobody knows how the algorithms work. So they're always changing. They're always changing. Yeah. So it's okay to you know, kind of play around with things and but most of all has fun with it. I think people can tell when you're just posting, like, I just got to get this done, posting a poll, how to do it, and so make sure that you're having fun with it.

00:22:28:00 - 00:22:47:11
Unknown
Also, don't be afraid to ask people who might not be like kind of that first person you think of social media is a tool that really almost everyone uses, and so it might be a fun learning opportunity for somebody else or like a fun challenge for someone who you typically wouldn't think would want to, you know, to know about recruiting or things like that.

00:22:47:12 - 00:23:22:18
Unknown
Oh, no, There's a lot of different ways you can go about it. There's no right or wrong way other than engage marketing. Good advice. So one is social media not work then one trying to recruit. I again, I'd say if you're just trying to be viral or trying to like, you know, get one thing to really take off, it's probably not going to work if you're just trying to get the word out about your jobs, You know, unless you have a way to make it engaging, to have conversations around it, there probably it probably isn't going to take off.

00:23:22:20 - 00:23:41:24
Unknown
So and then if you're starting from like absolute square one, don't assume that your postings are going to get, you know, thousands of views in a day. It's got to be a long term effort. It's got to be something that you're willing to, you know, have put some effort into it. You can't just assume. All right, boom, posted, done.

00:23:41:24 - 00:24:07:19
Unknown
I can walk away and it's all fine because that's where you're not going to see success. Yeah, and not all companies need to be on all social media platforms. It's quality over quantity. Yes. Yes, absolutely. So kind of wrapping up here, do you have any your real life success stories with social media and recruiting? I got a couple of interesting ones, so I like inside.

00:24:07:21 - 00:24:30:04
Unknown
I've worked with one company before that asks for those routine reviews from their employees and they've actually seen, I think it was a full star increase over the course of a year, their first year of doing it. And so they gave it that time and, you know, really let it kind of grow and comfort. Employees really appreciate it.

00:24:30:06 - 00:24:53:22
Unknown
Again, part of that is that they are following up on some of those things. They're also keeping it completely anonymous. So the person who kind of pulls the names and decides who to reach out to and then deletes the emails that they send and does not keep a record of who they've already reached out to. So there's no way that they can say, Oh, well, we know we reach out to these five, here's this one bad one that we got.

00:24:53:22 - 00:25:23:05
Unknown
So it must be one of these five and I'll start to investigate. You got to kind of forget those names and let them go right after. But they've seen great success from it and they saw really interesting things that the employees were saying were pros that they never really thought of as pros. And so it's really great that they were able to kind of like take that step back and see things that people are saying, like, I can't remember the specific, but like, you know, as an example, oh, I love that we have, you know, coffee in the cafe.

00:25:23:07 - 00:25:39:17
Unknown
And they were like, Oh, we do have coffee. And like, that's just a standard. I never in that. But like, that was something in that industry was in, you know, a standard. And so, you know, that can help you to kind of get things that you can highlight in your content or things that you can highlight in your postings.

00:25:39:19 - 00:26:12:12
Unknown
Again, really, really great success with that consistency across her postings too. So I've seen, you know, not so success stories of companies that have one thing on their website and then one things on their postings. But when you have that consistent messaging, that consistent language, if you're linking the posting back to your careers page for more information instead of trying to fit everything that you have in your posting, you know, that really helps you to be successful without kind of blurting everything out there and, you know, getting it all in No.

00:26:12:12 - 00:26:36:12
Unknown
One post because, you know, posting wise, they do see that there's a certain character limit that you want to stay between and sometimes getting everything about your culture and your values and all of that. It needs to take kind of that second seat, right. And is just on your careers page. So the companies that really focus on, you know, building those postings, building that brand, that's where we've seen some great success.

00:26:36:12 - 00:26:59:08
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's all the time we have today. So thank you again for being here and all the great info you you gave us on social media as a recruiting tool. So listeners, I would just encourage you to like come in and share this podcast and posts and if you enjoyed it or learn something that's great. And also take a look at the resources in the show notes below.

00:26:59:08 - 00:27:17:11
Unknown
On becoming an MRA member We also have Kathy's bio and LinkedIn profile in there too, so if you want to get in touch with her, have any questions, she's there for you. The rise will see you next week and thanks for coming on the podcast again. Kathy Thanks again for having me. And that wraps up our content for this episode.

00:27:17:13 - 00:27:35:20
Unknown
Be sure to reference the show notes where you can sign them to connect For more podcast updates, check out other MRA episodes on your favorite podcast platform. And as always, make sure to follow MRA’s 30 minute Thrive so you don't miss out. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next Wednesday to carry on the conversation.