This is what everyone is talking about – increasing the reach of your organization by leveraging the power of people’s social networks.  Employer Branding becomes critical to your recruitment strategy because social media allows each person that interacts with your organization to act as a hub, engaging your potential candidates.

Knowing that over 51% of all job seekers use social media to look for their next opportunity, Jobvite, a leading recruiting platform for the social web, found that a large majority of companies are looking to increase their social recruiting budget.   Here are a few things to keep in mind as you look at your social recruiting strategy:

Employee Referrals

The first social media strategy to invest in is your internal referral program.

Before there was the Internet – there was word of mouth.  Your employees are still your best source for quality hires.  They already know what it takes to succeed at your company, and they probably also have an excellent idea of what skills-gaps exist.  If they are willing to refer friends or even family members in to the organization it’s a good indication of engagement and a good indication that your new hire retention will be strong.

*Jobvite 2014 Social Recruiting Survey

Invest in the Company’s Social Media Strategy

Work together with all the stakeholders to create an overall content management strategy and include the recruitment process in this larger strategy.

Ensure that your brand messaging is consistent and coordinated through a few, directed channels.  Having a collaborative strategy cuts down on the amount of individual time people spend creating and monitoring their own postings.  If your recruiting team or your hiring managers are all posting individual messages, you may also be missing the opportunity to create a stronger, more widespread candidate community.

Consider Personas every time you post

Based on an understanding of who your target audience is, a “candidate persona” is basically a fictional representation of your ideal hire for a specific role.   Recruiters may find these personas helpful in identifying the personalities that will work best with your organization.  They are based on as much real data as possible, along with educated guesses about your ideal candidate’s experience, their possible goals or motivations.

A persona can also be used like a filter – to be applied when creating or evaluating content for your talent pool.   These personas really help you understand the candidates as people, and help you create content that speaks to your target audience in a more genuine, personalized way.

Humanize the process as much as possible

You are proud of your Employer Brand.  You know what makes your organization different and you want your candidates to know it too.  There is nothing welcoming or attractive to candidates about going through a very long, very labour-intensive automatic application process with multiple mandatory fields and limited drop-down options.

Wherever it is possible for you to humanize your recruitment process, take advantage of the opportunity.  Include the recruiters’ name in your postings.

Candidates may have questions about opportunities they are not necessarily a fit for – or maybe they are an amazing fit – but they’re not sure about some of the details.  Provide an opportunity for candidates to ask questions without having to go through an application process.

Remember that your candidates are individuals that you want to feel good about your company and have a positive experience, they may not be your next hire – but they may be your next customer.

Always include a clear call to action

The purpose of posting an opportunity with your organization is so that individuals will apply for the position.  Don’t bury an email address near the bottom of a long job description and hope that people apply.  Including a very clear call to action helps encourage interested candidates to apply for a role.  Use a nice, simple “Apply Now” button – include the URL.  The more obvious the call to action is, the easier it is for the candidate to understand how to engage with you.

Consistently drive followers to your company content through customized links

When planning the content on your site that is directed towards your candidates, consider a mix of information and entertainment.  Don’t just include the job postings, but also include information on company culture, on what it takes to be hired at your company and some fun facts and industry information.

Keep the traffic to your company content high, by using different channels to help people discover your organization.  Leverage traditional media/news outlets when your company appears in the media.  Make use of social channels to direct members in your talent community to information posted on your careers site.  Keep your content refreshed and updated to give people a reason to keep coming back.  You can make use of bitly, a URL shortening service, which even offers the ability for companies to use their own, branded domains to generate shortened links to company content on social media posts.

In today’s world, networks like Facebook and LinkedIn are international channels for billions of users.  Understanding how your organization can use social media to speak to your candidates is a smart investment.  When done well, you can get your Brand message to more candidates at a lower cost, and improve your overall employee retention.