Recruiting Through Social Media: A Q&A with Rebecca Barnes-Hogg of YOLO Insights

Are you using social media to recruit top talent? If not, you may want to jump on the hiring bandwagon. After all, 21st-century candidates live online. Anyone with access to the internet can post a job opening online, but there’s so much more out there that can help you build a deep candidate pool that is sure to be successful time and time again.

Aside from Boolean strings and job postings, recruiters must learn to “be social” and communicate company culture and employment brand through various social media channels. Posting rich, informative content related to your company or the industry and responding quickly to questions can entice more interaction with possible candidates.

Join us on March 27 for an in-depth webinar led by Rebecca Barnes-Hogg, author of “The YOLO Principle: The Ultimate Hiring Guide for Small Business,” where you’ll learn the best way to interact with potential candidates and the latest and greatest online tools to help you seal the deal. As a preview, Rebecca Barnes-Hogg has supplied some frequently asked questions—and answers—to this hot topic.

Q: What are some effective ways to engage with candidates on social media?

A: I think the easiest way is to tell stories. You’ll want to have stories for multiple job families. For example, if you are hiring hourly workers, understand what is important to them and create content that addresses their questions and fulfills their needs. Your career site, social media posts, and your targeted job postings must have stories that help candidates see themselves as part of your company. Be transparent and talk about your hiring process. This educates and informs your candidates.

Another way to engage candidates is to simply tell your applicants what to expect, when to expect it, and share the information they need to be prepared. Intel’s jobs page is a great example of this. You can easily adapt what they’ve done to your organization.

Q: How do we provide value and get our brand in front of candidates?

A: Your goal is to attract qualified candidates who will be engaged and passionate about the work you do. When you think about this from the jobseeker perspective, you can create an experience that resonates with them.

Marketing creates a customer journey. Recruiters must create a candidate journey to help jobseekers find a career with your organization. Marriott’s career page provides a good example of a well-defined candidate journey. Jobseekers can find their path, learn the requirements to apply, receive help if they need it, and sign up for a monthly newsletter. These are some easily adaptable ideas that can be scaled for any size organization.

Q: How can we attract qualified candidates to our social media channels?

A: You can create a career-dedicated presence where your content is candidate focused instead of using company social media channels. Use hashtags to help candidates easily find your career channels. Post links to your social media channels on your career page and add social share buttons to all your job openings. These help candidates quickly share an opportunity with their friends.

Like we discussed earlier, use real employee stories and cross pollinate that content across social media platforms.

ThermoFisher does a great job of this. The key is to research which platforms your prospective candidates prefer and then use those platforms to engage with them. Another way is to leverage your Glassdoor company profile. If you have positive reviews, provide a link on your job postings and career website. This gives candidates an insider view of your organization.

Join Rebecca Barnes-Hogg for the live webinar, “Social Networks for Building Candidate Pools: All-Star Strategies for using Online Networking Tools,” on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Register today!