Using social media for recruiting is no longer just nice to have, but it is a necessity for attracting qualified candidates. Some companies have caught on to the fact that using social media in the recruitment process to source candidates is one of the best ways to go. A study by Jobvite has found that 73% of candidates are sourced and hired this way through social recruiting. Using social media for recruiting can no longer be ignored, But how do you get it right?
As a quick summary, here are the five social recruiting examples of companies that have totally nailed it:
- McDonald’s
- Salesforce
- Zappos
- UPS
- L’Oréal
Let’s dive in to see how these companies manage to use social media for recruiting the right way:
McDonald’s social recruiting example
It has been reported that more than 300 million people use Snapchat every month. Out of this number,78% are millennials. McDonald’s is one of the first companies in Canada to combine Snapchat social media and employee recruiting. Their campaign has been named Snaplications, and it allowed people who want to work for McDonald’s to upload a 30-second video resume that can be shared on the company’s hiring portal.
Stephanie Hardman, theChief People Officer at McDonald’s Canada, states:
“We wanted to offer a convenient and flexible application process to attract more young people to our one-day virtual hiring event. The company has chosen Snapchat because in Canada, where Snapchat enjoys 12 million people who use it on a daily basis, more than 80% of those users are millennials.”
Their system fits nicely with McDonald’s workforce demographic. The fast food industry is finding it harder and harder to source candidates. Attracting and recruiting quality candidates is becoming more of an issue for most industries given the low unemployment rate, which gives job seekers more choices over who they work with.
What can you learn from their social recruiting example?
There are lessons to be learned from McDonald’s social recruiting example. The main one is to “go where your ideal employees are”. McDonald’s demographic is millennials, so they decided to use Snapchat social media for employee recruiting. If you are hiring mid-level or senior managers, you might want to stay off Snapchat and use a platform like LinkedIn, which is more geared towards professionals.
Salesforce social recruiting example
Salesforce uses the word, ‘Ohana’, which is Hawaiian for family. They use this family motto when sharing social media updates about employees. They treat employees like a proud parent showing off their kids’ latest achievements. Salesforce’s social recruiting examples, including Instagram, is all about what a cool and fun place it is to work. Employees are Salesforce’s brand ambassadors, showing their mission to make the workforce a better place.
Employees use #SalesforceOhana to show how great the company is and to encourage new people to join. Posts on Salesforce’s Instagram account is full of inspirational stories about how working there enhances lives.
What can you learn from this social recruiting example?
Lessons learned from Salesforce include using social media for recruiting by letting your employees as your biggest cheerleaders. Brand ambassadors show that your company is authentic and serious about looking after its employees. This will help people who are thinking of applying to your company; they will see that your values are real and not just something on paper. So, encourage your employees to share their experiences on social media to get big results from social media recruiting campaigns.
However, this method of using social media in the recruitment process works best when your employees are fully engaged and truly happy. It all starts with a great employee experience. And when your employees are having a good time working on new initiatives or socializing as a team, be sure to use it as a social recruiting campaign.
You can use incentives to encourage your employees to share on social media. For example, have contests and give a small prize for those who have shared the most or the best social recruiting posts.
Salesforce’s social media recruiting, has an equal distribution of new content as well as retweeted or shared posts from their employees.
Or, you can also follow their lead and have a separate hashtag for jobs. (Salesforce has #salesforcejobsdedicated to job seekers.)
Zappos social recruiting example
Zappos, based in Las Vegas, sells clothing and footwear in their online store. They have coined a term for their employees – Zapponians. Zappos’s website and career page show a fun, vibrant company that targets mostly millennials. At first, they started using social media for recruiting through Twitter to hire staff with Twitter chat, to engage with and respond to potential candidates.
Because there has been a shift from most millennials using Twitter, Zappos has now moved its focus to Instagram for social media recruiting. They implemented @zinternships to show what it is like to work at Zappos and to demonstrate the company culture, while providing important updates, such as closing dates for internship applications.
On @zinternships, Zappos features one intern’s experience for social media and employee recruitment. The post not only shows what it’s like to be an intern at Zappos, but it also encourages others to apply, making this an effective social recruiting example. To ensure that the brand is shown on different social media platforms, Zappos uses YouTube,Pinterest as well as Facebook. All these social media platforms tie into the brand, making it a cool organization with lots of things going on.
Zappos makes use of social media for recruitment processes across all these platforms. However, they have not focused on LinkedIn. Maybe they believe their demographic will not be found there, so they have left it out of their social media mix.
What can you learn from this social recruiting example?
The lesson learned from Zappos is that you need to find out where your ideal potential employees hangout and target that social media platform. They started off on Twitter but switched to other social recruiting platforms when their demographic’s preferences changed. They excel at spotlighting different aspects of their company, like their internships. If you have an on-going recruitment drive for a particular department, you can try an Instagram story of a day in the life of an employee to help potential employees get a feel for what it would be like working in that particular role.
UPS social recruiting example
UPS prides itself on its diverse workforce and has used social media for recruiting all types of candidates.They have a strong brand worldwide and have even created their own holiday with the #UPSNationalHiringDay.
They also highlight their volunteer efforts with #TogetherWeAreUPS.This shines a light on their unique tuition reimbursement program for employees. UPS also uses videos, as a social media recruiting tool. According to research, there are more than 8 billion views of videos on Facebook every single day on average. This fact has not been lost on UPS; it uses videos for employees to talk about why they love working at UPS.
Matt Levy, UPS’s company Director of Talent acquisition, says,
“Social media is more than just job postings and our social media includes LinkedIn, Facebook,Twitter, YouTube and Google+. It’s a way to tell our story using videos and text. You don’t just advertise your openings on social media.”
What can you learn from this social recruiting example?
The lesson you can learn from UPS’ is to use video to boost engagement when using social media in the recruitment process. Because so many people have access to mobile devices, why not use video to tell your employees’ stories?Going further, candidates should not have to switch between their handheld device and their desktop to make an application. Make the process easy with a one-click application by using modern recruitment software, like Fountain, to enhance the mobile-first experience of your candidates. It makes sense to make your application process easy with no barriers, so the best applicants will apply.
If you want to find out how to get the most out of your application process, download our Five Ways to Improve Your Application Process E-book now.
L’Oreal social recruiting example
L’Oreal mixes its social media and employee recruiting with its brand. It has a strong brand worldwide and is using this to its advantage when recruiting on social media. It has a Facebook page for employment, showing off the company culture rather than just listing standalone jobs.
The focus on the company culture helps people to see beyond the PR spin and shows what it’s really like to work at L’Oreal. Because of course, every company will claim they are the best place to work. The proof comes when employees actually speak about how great the place is. This shifts attention from the employer to a real worker boasting about their experience. L’Oreal’s focuses on the workplace is important since potential employees trust their peers as opposed to what is being said by officials.
The company uses #LifeatLoreal to showcase in images how employees feel about working there. They also have #LorealCommunity to tag pictures of colleagues doing activities that encourage bonding while having a good time at work.
What can you learn from this social recruiting example?
Lessons learned at L’Oréal include encourage your employees to post to social media responsibly. If your employees are having fun on a project or participating in some communal event, encourage them to post it to give an accurate picture of what it’s like to work at your business. Giving your employees the freedom to use social media appropriately will help boost any claims you have made about your great company culture. You are more likely to find candidates who are genuinely excited by working with you, as they want to be part of the action.
Key takeaways: Using social media for recruiting
All of the companies above using social media for recruiting do it unique ways to target their ideal candidates. A major aspect of attracting the right people to work for your company is to showcase your culture. Showing potential employees that their peers are enjoying their work is more valuable than spending millions of dollars on P.R.
Your current employees are your most valuable asset in terms of using social media for recruiting. Firstly, by creating stories about life at your company and secondly by sharing vacancies with their network.
The bottom line is that using social media in the recruiting process should be an important part of your strategy. You can’t afford to ignore it if you want to attract the right candidates. You also need the most effective processes and tools to manage these candidates.
What happens when someone clicks your recruiting call to action from your social media channel?
Do you have the most accurate and straightforward job description to encourage them to make an application?
Fountain has provided ready-made job description templates that’s pre-populated with the description, duties and responsibilities and preferred qualifications for a number of different jobs.
You simply copy and paste the job description and use as-is or tweak according to your company’s needs.
Click here to learn about and to access a list of job description samples.
After you have crafted your perfect job description using our templates, it is time to put them to work.
This is where Fountain comes in. Use our modern hiring software to post your job vacancies to more than 80 free job boards.
Our modern, mobile-first hiring software continues to provide your company and the candidate with the best hiring experience. Our software facilitates fast and effective communication, interview scheduling, the automation of manual tasks, and integration with other services for a complete full cycle recruitment process.
