Using Pinterest for business may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of this highly visual, crafts-heavy relative newcomer to the social media scene. But with explosive growth and the ability to drive traffic to your website, Pinterest is certainly a tool worth considering.
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“You can’t just make one board,” notes Strategic Recruiting Manager Kelly Dingee, who leads the research team at Staffing Advisors. “You need to make sure that you break up the information so that you’re sharing lots of different boards with people—lots of different information—so that it’s very, very easy for people to learn more about your organization in the bite-sized pieces they want.”
Doing it right takes time, and the interaction must run both ways. A company can’t just put information out there and expect others to just consume it without any further engagement from the organization. Follow, repin, and engage—don’t just post your own things.
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Another important tip is to be sure to link back to all your other social media sites. Give people as much opportunity as possible to connect with you in other ways. In other words, think about using the site as a marketer, and think of how it will be good for the brand. One such example is that Pinterest can drive traffic to your website.
“When I was learning about Pinterest when I was first starting to use it, I realized that part of the purpose was to drive traffic back to websites—and that Pinterest actually does a better job at driving traffic back to your website than Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media site—it kind of got my attention,” Dingee says.
While “there’s no business category … there’s no ‘get a job’ category, there’s no ‘jobseekers’ or ‘careers’ or anything like that,” on Pinterest, Dingee points out, employers can work within the existing parameters to be findable and appealing to potential new hires. There are two perspectives to consider: finding potential candidates and showcasing your organization for people to find.
Finding potential applicants on Pinterest. On Pinterest, you can use keywords to search and also to tag your own content so that it is found when others search. When doing so, think carefully about what keywords to use and where to put them.
Everything on Pinterest is a picture—so what you’re finding in search is what someone has typed about a picture, as a caption or summary. As such, when you add a picture, what you type about it will determine how easily someone can find it. Think about what others will be searching for when you want them to find you.
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If you are trying to recruit people with particular skills or experience, think about creating boards dedicated to that topic. This will allow you to be found by individuals who are interested in that topic. Soon you will have people following those boards who already have an interest in that topic and possibly experience—these people are potential job candidates.
Showcasing your organization on Pinterest. Separately, you can use Pinterest as a recruiting tool by showcasing what it’s like to work at your organization and even how to apply and open jobs. For example, you could create Pinterest boards about:
- Joining your team (how to apply)
- The perks of working for your company
- Job search tips, such as how to network or how to prepare for an interview
- Your company’s departments
- Your employees’ LinkedIn pages—complete with links to those pages (if you’re comfortable with that)
- The company blog
- Current events or news about your organization
- Job listings
In tomorrow’s Advisor, recruiting with Instagram, plus some social media caveats and an introduction to our guide, HR Playbook: HR’s Game Plan for the Future.