As a recruitment consultant it’s almost certain that you use a number of different social media platforms for work, but are you getting the best out of them? In this article we’ll look at how you can improve your social media game.
Decide what you want to achieve
If you let it, social media can take up a lot of your time and most recruiters are extremely busy, so it’s important that you have a clearly defined goal. At different times you might want to use social media to help you achieve a range of different things – and the best approach will differ depending on what you want to get out of it. You’ll also want to measure the success of your activity, so you can repeat successful strategies and adjust when things don’t work as well as you hoped.
Maybe you want to grow your professional network, get your job adverts in front of more candidates, promote an event or just tell your story.
Before you start to plan your social media activity, decide what you want to achieve, what success looks like, and how you will measure it.
Engage your audience where they are
Most recruiters are active to some extent on LinkedIn, and this makes sense because it’s designed for business and a wide range of professionals reach for it when looking for work. It’s possible that LinkedIn will be the only social platform you need as a recruiter.
However, depending on your goals and your sector, it could be a mistake to “default” to focusing on LinkedIn just because that’s what recruiters do, unless of course it’s recruiters that you’re trying to reach. If your clients and candidates use a different platform, you might want to focus your efforts there instead.
This means you need to find out which social platforms your intended audience tend to use, which could involve doing some research.
Tailor your activity
What works on LinkedIn may not fly on Instagram, and you’ll need a different tone on Facebook and Twitter. Your activity should be tailored to the platform you’re using, the audience you want to reach, and the specific goals you started with.
These factors will affect the tone and type of content you choose, as well as how often you post, and how you interact with you audience, and with other people’s posts.
Things recruiters might want to post
If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some examples of content that recruiters might want to post.
Jobs and opportunities – this is possibly the most obvious category of post for a recruiter to use. Some careful hashtag research can help your post land in the right newsfeed, and depending on the platform you might want to boost by investing in pay per click. Try not to let your feed turn into a list of job ads, though – it’s important to share a range of content to keep your audience engaged.
Showcase your team – this kind of posts highlights the key members of your team. Share a little about what they do, and include some fun personal details that they want to share with your audience. This is a really good way to humanise your company in the eyes of your audience, and let them see your internal culture in a positive light.
Industry news – share relevant information that your audience will find useful or interesting. This could be content that you or your company created, or you could be sharing a post from someone else. Focus on stories that will interest your clients and candidates, rather than “recruitment news” – unless your goal is to engage with recruiters.
Tell your story – Experiences that your audience can learn from or that they might find inspiring, uplifting or illuminating are great targets for a social media post. You might also consider telling the story of your agency as an opportunity to help your audience understand what you’re all about.
Promote events – If you’re organising an event, social media can be a powerful tool to promote it. Again, hashtag research and pay per click can be used to make sure your posy reaches the right people. If you’re attending an event, share posts using the relevant hashtag to highlight that you’re there – this can be a great way to extend your network, and showcase your knowledge of and interest in your sector.
Positive thoughts and quotes – Your social media feeds should be about what your audience needs, and sometimes that means spreading a bit of inspiration or positivity. This kind of post can be a little cheesy, so it’s best not to over do them, but a well-chosen message at the right time can really resonate with your audience.
Be useful to your audience
The main thing to remember is that your posts need to have value for your intended audience. This could mean giving them useful information that will make their work life easier, or it could be as simple as making them smile at an industry joke. The point is to make sure each post is something your audience want to see, and not just something you want them to read.
Measure, evaluate, adjust
It’s important to make sure your social media activity is helping you to reach your goals, which means you’ll need to measure your performance against the goals you started with. This will allow you to repeat strategies that worked, and adjust those that didn’t, so you can improve your performance in future.
If you have questions or if we can help in any way, please call our expert team on 01296 468483 or email info@orangegenie.com.