Jul 2024

Master Social Media Recruitment for the Modern Workforce: HR World Webinar Questions Answered

Last week, Joe and John joined The HR World to discuss the impact of social media on your recruitment strategy. We’ve put together the questions asked and our answers so you can revisit this valuable insight. 

It feels like there’s a lot of noise around using AI for social. We’re a bit hesitant, what do you think?

Social is more concentrated than ever, cutting through the noise isn’t an easy job, and certainly not one you can rely solely on AI to navigate. AI will help you do some volume tasks quickly and easily and we are already using AI downstream at DNA for copy checking and other tasks to free up time and resource elsewhere. Upstream, however, is a different matter. You need a clear plan, clear Employer Brand themes and a messaging matrix to ensure relevance. The strategy and creative rationale are essential for that robust foundation. It’s very easy to do a disservice to your brand, or to miss the mark with your messaging. Everyone is doing social – don’t mess it up cheaply. AI is a complementary tool, not a substitution.
 
Read more about AI and your Employer Branding strategy in our blog.

Which channels will give free or reduced trials so we can test and learn?

Apart from paid campaigns, all channels are free to use. A test and learn strategy will help you evaluate effectiveness in real time – and adjust your media mix and spend accordingly. 

To invest, I must show clear metrics to my manager. How do I do that? 

It can be challenging to show metrics for something you haven’t started yet. Start by looking at your industry and competitors, what following have they built, what is their engagement like etc. This can act as a clear benchmark for what can be achieved on social. 
 
Be sure to produce a clear plan that outlines everything you will do and how you will measure it, this will help instil confidence and show that you’ve thought it through as a feasible opportunity for your business.

How do you measure ROI on social?

There are two parts to this. On a generic basis, we can show the growth in both followers and applications from the various subsets of your talent audience, effectively building the right talent communities. Over time as your social media plan matures and integrates effectively with the recruiters and/or your ATS, we can show the source, cost and outcome of every candidate or successful hire. It requires careful planning and diligent execution but it’s a very worthwhile investment. 

At the moment, our marketing department control all brand, social strategy and posting. How do we convince them to let us do our own thing or work alongside them / collaboratively?

The marketing teams are right to be very protective, but everything we do in the talent space will reinforce the corporate brand, not dilute it or compromise it. Your agency partner should be the bridge between you and marketing, building trust and reassuring them that they know how to fully understand, build and protect brands.
 
In circumstances where marketing can’t give you access or time on their social channels, then your next option is to start your own recruitment focused channels using the Employer Brand.

Content – what’s the right type of content, who will create the content, where will it come from?

The ‘right type of content’ goes back to the objectives. What are we trying to achieve? Who are we trying to reach? What do we want them to feel/know/do as a result of our social strategy? Within that we’d use the employees stories’ as much as possible and a mix of video, photographic and static posts. To curate the right content is someone’s job, not a responsibility dropped on an already busy person. It requires effective and proactive planning and diligent execution. And it needs input from creative experts, copywriters and project managers.

Channels – do we need to be on all channels, which channels works best for talent attraction in your experience?

No, start with one or two and build out. Which one or two will depend on the objectives and the target audience. 

As a business, the senior team are often scared of how people will react and getting negative comments and reactions to posts. How can we reassure them?

Our experience is that with the right plan and the right stance (i.e. consistent, professional, courteous, moral high ground at all times), then your reputation will be enhanced, not adversely affected whether that is on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Facebook or anywhere else. 

Social media isn’t a typical activity HR have budgeted for. We’d like to invest but can’t get a budget or ‘new money’ for initiatives like this. Help!

The key thing here is that you don’t need ‘new money’, you’re probably already spending money ineffectively elsewhere. This could be in ineffective media, poor candidate efficiencies (i.e. number turning up for interview, declining offers, not turning up on day one etc), high early attrition or using too many agencies. As your partner, it’s our job to highlight where the change needs to happen. Our experience is that we can increase the quality of what you do, decrease the overall cost and ensure a better way of working going forwards. 

How do you target particular demographics? How would you target an older demographic?

Social media is wide reaching and you can’t always guarantee you’re speaking solely to a particular demographic. However, by choosing the right mix of appropriate channels and producing content aimed at those demographics, you should be able maximise your exposure to them. For an older demographic you should look at channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook. 

If you share channels with corporate, how many of the weekly posts should be Employer Brand/Talent Acquisition related and is this enough to give us the cut through we need to make it an effective part of our strategy/toolkit?

In an ideal world, you should be looking to post at least 3-5 times per week where possible to achieve strong cut-through, but any increase on current activity will provide better results if you’re producing the right kind of content for your audience. 
 
When sharing channels with corporate or marketing teams, look to try and tie your messaging together with theirs. This will make it easier for them to give you more space on the channels and feel like your content is complementary to their planned activity.

Starting from scratch with zero followers feels scary, how do we ensure growth of the right sort of followers (aligned to our talent requirements) and what sort of timescales are realistic? 

Starting from scratch always feels daunting but the sooner you start, the more time you have to grow. Don’t tie yourself to a follower target in the first six months, use this time to measure your monthly and quarterly growth and use that as a base-line figure for the following six months. This will give you a realistic growth target that is achievable. Activities like regular posting, proper use of hashtags and paid campaigns can help boost your channel growth.
 
If your content is right for your ideal audience, then it will attract those people to your pages. Remember to continually track your audience data and review your content plan to keep it aligned to your goals.

We like the idea of the employee advocacy/ambassadors. Can you tell us more on that?

Employee advocacy is an equally important part of your social strategy. Start by forming a cohesive content plan that mixes a core messaging matrix with a strategy that prioritises role type. If you’re planning on hiring heavily for a particular role or department in the next 12 months, then this could be the place to start. 

Ensure your advocates are chosen from across the business, try including a mix of genders, roles, seniority and backgrounds, to maximise your relatability and potential reach.

Find out more about employee advocacy here.

You can also watch the webinar in full here.