What Place Do Social Networks (Really) Occupy?

82% of job seekers use social networks to find a job today. On the recruiter side, 64% use at least two social networks, led by LinkedIn (94%), Facebook (66%) and Twitter (52%). The “social networks” variable is becoming increasingly crucial in recruitment methods.

Why such an interest? How do they make life easier for recruiters? Above all, are they effective? Deciphering their critical roles in new recruitment strategies. An essential part of our free audit focuses on your social networks to help you optimize them!

Table of Contents

Employer Brand: A Unique Channel Of Expression!

Remember, the employer brand cuts across three axes: the identity of the company, its internal image, and its external reputation. It has become an essential lever for attracting talents much more sensitive to the “Employee Value Proposition,” namely what you have to offer as an employer: working conditions, corporate mission and projects, CSR, HR packages, benefits, training, etc.… But to differentiate yourself, you must disseminate and relay the right messages to your “targets”!

Social networks are, therefore, an ideal channel to position yourself. Indeed, depending on your candidate target (sector, age, region, etc.), it involves identifying relevant networks (Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook) and regularly communicating content on the DNA of your business. The recruitment process is a long-term but profitable approach because you raise awareness among so-called “passive” candidates.

According to LinkedIn, 70% of talent is not actively looking for a job but is open to new opportunities. More particularly, the younger generations are both more volatile and accustomed to social networks in their daily uses. As a reminder, 79% of candidates under 35 use them in their job search. Two best practices for promoting your employer brand on social networks:

Create a page dedicated to recruitment and employer questions. Then, imagine pages in line with your culture and the profiles you are looking for on each targeted network. Some examples to follow: Michelin is recruiting and SNCF.
Share applicable HR content: jobs and behind-the-scenes of the company, the stages of your recruitment process, employee testimonials, etc.

According to a study carried out in 2018 by the HR start-up Path Motion and Immersion Neuroscience, employee testimonials can increase spontaneous applications by 20%.

Sourcing: A Talent Pool At Your Fingertips!

Amid the war for talent, direct recruitment or “hunting” (call, direct contact, etc.) no longer works. To convince candidates, you must create a connection and address their professional questions. Through its community aspect, the social network is an ideal way to build a privileged relationship between employers and candidates.

The HR community manager plays a crucial role in facilitating discussions: he launches discussions, runs pages or groups, and responds to questions or comments with responsiveness. Thanks to these discussion spaces, you can naturally build up a “pool” of potential candidates. Best practices for leading your talent community:

Some companies offer “chats” (instant discussions) between operational staff and candidates on their Facebook page to introduce them to the professions.
Initiate a challenge around a community of professions: you will thus bring together a pool of talent around an innovative project.
It is interesting to organize events to encourage meetings (non-virtual) and to bring your community together around a theme that interests them (professions of the future, issues in the sector, etc.).

The strategy firm Boston Consulting Group recently launched an event on LinkedIn targeting students. Consultants were present to discuss their daily work.

Recruitment Campaign: More Impact For Your Job Offers!

One of the significant advantages of social networks? They allow you to relay your job offers to many candidates. Some tips for creating high-impact offers:

Form: use different formats such as images, video, photos, stories, etc. Visuals are essential to stand out and establish a visual identity.
The tone: on social networks, you can (finally must) move away from the formalism of classic offers seen and reviewed on job sites… Dare to offer a slightly more offbeat approach that makes you want to apply. Your challenge: encourage the sharing rate to go viral.

Some inspiring examples:

Present target positions differently thanks to job battles …
At Poussin Communication, the HR team presented personalities before the position itself.
More offbeat… Michel and Augustin use video to communicate the profiles they are looking for: the call from HR in the metro created a buzz on social networks.
Targeting: in France, Facebook has 27 million users, Instagram almost 500 million, and LinkedIn has more than 17 million. To increase the effectiveness of a job posting, use the tools that allow you to segment your campaigns according to different criteria available depending on the network used (city, diploma, etc.).

Employee Advocacy: Your Employees, New Recruiter-Influencers?

According to a Nielsen study, 83% of Internet users would trust their peers more than communication produced by the company. Therefore, the best ambassadors for your employer brand are your employees themselves! Companies increasingly opt for an Employee Advocacy strategy to involve them in their HR campaigns. This approach encourages employees to share anecdotes or information about their professional life on their page or profile to boost the company’s employer e-reputation.

To recruit tech profiles, for example, who better than your tech colleagues’ network to distribute the ad and appropriate content (tech monitoring, internal Hackathon, internal innovations, etc.)? Another advantage is cost/impact. The average number of contacts an employee has on social networks reaches 304, according to the Socially Map website. Imagine the impact on the network of all your employees.

To optimize this influence strategy, there are also tools to manage your campaigns: choice and animation of ambassadors, content to be distributed, planning, monitoring, etc. Interesting example: PWC France has just launched its new employer campaign, “We are not going to lie to each other,” widely distributed on social networks under the hashtag #pwcSpirit. This mainly relies on their employee ambassadors, to whom candidates can directly ask questions.

Inbound Recruiting: Content To Generate Traffic To Your Career Site

Your social networks are also a way to attract talent to your career space to increase the number of applications for open or spontaneous positions. To do this, you must create attractive content and highlight it on your professional pages. 49% of companies that adopted a content strategy saw a reduction in talent acquisition time and recruitment costs of 50%. What does this imply?

Share articles on your activity sector, expertise, company life, and internal initiatives (CSR, sporting successes, etc.). There are two rules: the content must be qualitative (SEO) and meet your “target candidates” interests.
Build and respect an editorial line to ensure consistency between social networks and your personas (targets).
Be regular to create “appointments” and increase your SEO. Remember to relay them several times on your social networks in different forms: story, excerpt, quote, key figure, etc.

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