In view of the current volatile business environment, companies are reimagining their sourcing strategies for better hires. The need to have access to a broader talent pool combined with today’s social media hype gives recruiters a tool to enhance their recruitment strategies.

Social media sourcing, also known as social media recruiting, is a strategy gaining increasing traction rapidly. It helps recruiters source and hire qualified candidates through social media platforms.

Even though social media sourcing has been gaining popularity for quite some time, organizations have still not gotten the hang of it. Social media is a powerful and valuable resource available for recruiters to hire the best candidates, and companies that invest in leveraging its power enjoy its multiple benefits.

Why Social Media Sourcing?

Social media platforms hold an excessively diverse talent pool with low recruitment traffic and untapped potential, unlike several online recruitment platforms. It can allow more personalized recruitment experiences, establish genuine connections, and a cost-effective way of supporting other recruitment approaches. Additionally, it can diversify your workforce, thus creating an opportunity to develop inclusive work culture.

Carefully evaluating your presence on different social media platforms and aligning it with your target audience can help you tap talent from demographics you haven’t approached before. Several noteworthy benefits justify why social media sourcing must be a critical component in today’s sourcing strategies:

  • Wider Talent Pool – Several social media platforms offer an ‘ads’ feature to boost your targeted reach. It opens up new demographics and communities, many of which may have been previously inaccessible to you due to lack of resources, insufficient knowledge, or communication complexities.
  • Cost-Effective Recruitment – Hiring costs are high, and social media sourcing allows firms to approach recruitment cost-effectively. Given that most social media profiles are free to set up and ads or outreach features are available at economical rates, recruiters can source candidates in a cost-friendly manner. 
  •  Better Sourcing of Passive Candidates – Although not actively seeking a job, passive candidates often use their social media presence to keep up with industry trends, happenings around them, and new opportunities. With social media sourcing, organizations can attract passive candidates effectively. 
  •  Enhanced Candidate Screening – Social media is a great tool to screen candidates. Even if recruiters don’t source a candidate through social media platforms, quick background checks are often done by going through their social media accounts. When sourcing candidates through social media, recruiters have the opportunity to do a thorough background check and screen candidates to evaluate their suitability.  
  • Establish a Better Brand Reputation – Today’s scenarios require companies to maintain an excellent social media presence. Just like recruiters screen candidates, the latter also evaluates a company’s social media profile before applying for or accepting an opportunity. Social media sourcing gives business leaders a chance to establish a reputed brand image while highlighting the best features to attract top talent. 

Although social media sourcing is exceptionally beneficial, it can prove to be disadvantageous if teams don’t know how to leverage its best opportunities. Several best practices can be implemented to avoid this challenge and enjoy the best of social media sourcing.

Social Media Sourcing Best Practices

Create a solid social media presence that conveys the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Today’s talent relates immensely with an ambitious vision, and places a great deal of importance on the alignment of values. Having a solid social media presence can help source top talent with similar values.

  • Ensure industry-specific networking. Social media opens up a vast pool of talent, so finding relevant talent can be tricky. You can take an intentional and individualized approach instead of a generic one by ensuring industry-specific networking, thus recruiting fitting talent. 
  •  Use paid social media advertising when you’re actively hiring. It can give your job ads the required boost and help you connect with desirable candidates quickly. Also, using it when you’re hiring actively won’t cause trouble to your budget, as these ads are usually available for all sorts of budgets.
  • Plan your content and make it engaging. Your social media profile must be the best representation of your brand, so it must include relevant posts about work culture, employee perks, unique & successful projects, team events, etc.
  • Showcase visibility. Your content should be engaging enough to provide candidates with an insight into your brand’s values, ethics, and vision. It will increase your credibility and attract top talent.
  • Consider holding regular Q&A sessions. You can also pair it with live streaming if possible. Such initiatives help you boost engagement with passive candidates and peers in the industry. It might even trigger word-of-mouth recruitment, leading to faster hires.
  • Leverage the power of unique hashtags. In social media sourcing, hashtags matter. Unique, meaningful, and relevant hashtags can attract the attention of suitable candidates.
  • Don’t limit yourself to one social media platform. Use different social media platforms and leverage the power of each of them to boost your job ads. Use LinkedIn groups as well as Facebook or Instagram posts to reach a truly diverse audience. There are several social media platforms used by millions, so limiting yourself to just one of them won’t help optimize your social media sourcing strategies.

CONCLUSION

Social media sourcing is a modern recruitment approach with true potential if used aptly. It has several benefits and is exceptionally advantageous in reaching out to suitable candidates in today’s Gen Z-oriented workforce.

However, it is essential to understand that no recruitment strategy pays off as soon as it’s implemented. Social media sourcing, although exceptionally beneficial, requires strategic planning to ensure no wastage of time and monetary resources. Optimizing social media sourcing with the best practices can help you tap into its immense power effectively.