Recruiting top talent has become increasingly competitive in today’s tight market. While traditional channels like job boards still have their place, many HR professionals are tapping into social media platforms to source passive and active candidates strategically. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook offer unique opportunities when used correctly. Here are 5 tips for HR professionals to utilize these networks and find their next great hire.
Develop Your Company’s LinkedIn Presence
Having a strong LinkedIn company page makes your brand visible to professionals seeking their next opportunity. Optimize your page with a compelling about section highlighting your culture and values. Share relevant industry updates and thought leadership content to build authority.
Encourage employees to follow your page and engage with posts by sharing company updates and events. Consider running contests or giveaways through LinkedIn targeting specific roles or skills to expand your reach. Interact regularly with candidates, clients, and competitors by commenting on their updates as well.
Connect and Engage on LinkedIn
Proactively connect with individuals in your target candidate pools by viewing their profiles and sending personalized connection requests mentioning a shared acquaintance or experience. Once connected, search for 3rd connections in common to introduce yourself and start building rapport.
Follow thought leaders and candidates from relevant schools, companies, and industries. Engage by reacting, commenting, and sharing their posts whenever applicable to your organization. Consistently monitoring discussions keeps you top of mind for passive candidates or referrals from your extended network.
Leverage Twitter for Sourcing Talent
Monitor industry hashtags and follow experts, associations, schools, and companies within your target space—retweet, comment, and like relevant tweets to cultivate relationships.
Run tailored recruitment campaigns by drafting a job description, tagging relevant skills and locations, using specific hashtags, and scheduling tweets at optimum times. Reply to candidates’ job search tweets with your opportunity. Track engagement and follow up promising leads.
Advertise Jobs Strategically on LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s paid job postings feature roles prominently in search and member homepages. Target your ads based on skills, titles, schools, past employers, or industries to pinpoint qualified candidates rather than a spray-and-pray approach.
Analyze performance metrics like applications, video views, and clicks to optimize targeting or messaging over time. Follow up by reaching out to passive candidates who engage with your ads but don’t apply. Contests or thought leadership integrated into your ads keep your employer brand top of mind as well.
Leverage Employee Referral Networks
Incentivize referrals by offering employees referral bonuses for qualified hires. Encourage ambassadors to share openings with their networks on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Provide social sharing templates and collateral to arm employees with consistent brand messaging. Consider hosting virtual referral events to facilitate employee connections with their networks. Promptly following up on all leads demonstrates appreciation for employees’ role in sourcing top talent.
While traditional boards remain useful, regularly engaging on major platforms keeps you discoverable by active and passive candidates anywhere. With dedicated monitoring, interactive content, and creative recruitment campaigns, HR professionals enhance their access to new talent pools beyond existing networks. Social strategically and reap the rewards of faster, higher quality hires.