Trying to recruit on social media can be like opening the floodgates to the Hoover Dam. Or, sometimes, it can be like opening the floodgates to the Sahara Desert. Social media recruiting tools can help you control the flow and encourage qualified candidates to apply when done right.

This article will help recruiters and hiring managers know how to leverage social media platforms to source and attract top talent. At the end of this piece, you’ll be able to identify the helpful features and functionality of some popular social media recruiting tools.

Bonus: Our free social media manager career toolkit includes resume, cover letter, and portfolio templates, along with a complete guide to social media job descriptions and frequently asked interview questions. You got this!

What are social media recruiting tools?

Social media recruiting tools are software, platforms, or channels that aid and assist in recruitment efforts.

Social media recruiting refers to the process of finding and attracting potential job candidates using social media platforms. The tools that support these efforts include the platforms themselves and software designed to make your life as a recruiter a little bit easier.

Benefits of using social media recruiting tools

With so many resumes flooding in for a single position, recruiters need all the help they can get.

Social media recruiting tools give recruiters an extra leg-up on finding qualified candidates. Not only do they streamline the process, but they also allow companies to meet potential candidates where they already are: Scrolling through Instagram, pretending to work.

The detailed targeting options can help you find your ideal candidate, one that’s both a culture fit and qualified for the position.

And using social media for recruitment can stretch beyond simply filling positions. With a great social media strategy behind you, you can also shape your brand’s reputation online, attracting quality candidates.

The top 7 social media recruiting tools

Social media has become an indispensable part of recruitment strategies in recent years. It provides an easy and cost-effective way to reach out to millions of potential candidates.

Below, we’re looking at the ways you can use seven of the most popular platforms as social media recruiting tools.

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a powerful tool that allows recruiters to search for and connect with potential candidates. With LinkedIn Recruiter, recruiters can search for candidates based on their job title, industry, and location. They can also send personalized messages to candidates and track their responses.

LinkedIn is traditionally a place for people to network and search for jobs, so recruiters meet people when they’re in the right professional headspace. This can help with gaining qualified candidates for the role you’re trying to fill.

Source: Mylene Kanert on LinkedIn

LinkedIn boasts some pretty impressive stats, with 875 million members who all share a professional lens. That’s a pretty wide talent pool! Be sure to use the platform’s search-narrowing capabilities to find proper candidates.

2. Facebook

Facebook allows recruiters, employers, and anyone, really, to post job openings to your feed. But you can also use Facebook as more than a job posting message board. Build your brand’s reputation and express your company culture by posting content.

You can also encourage existing employees to get involved in the process by sharing and engaging with your content. See Amplify below for a great tool that can help with this!

Facebook’s paid advertising capabilities can reach a wide berth of candidates, too. So, if you don’t feel like you’re getting enough eyes on your postings, consider running a paid advertising campaign.

If you’re looking for a specific skill set in candidates, you should consider posting your job opportunity in Facebook groups that cater to the niche interests of your candidates.

UI/UX Designers & Developers Facebook group job posting

Source: UI/UX Designers & Developers on Facebook

3. Twitter

Twitter’s the OG of hashtags, and their use on the platform hasn’t waned. If you want to utilize the app for recruiting practices, get your hashtags down.

Some popular hashtags for Twitter recruiters include:

  • #hiringalert
  • #nowhiring
  • #jobposting
  • #jobhunt
  • #jobopening
  • #hiring or #nowhiring

You can also get hyper-specific according to the industry or role, like #techcopywritingjobs.

Niching down with your hashtags will allow you to reach a community of skilled applicants instead of capturing a broad, more general sample. This can help you to pull in qualified candidates instead of a big mass of so-so applicants.

The sheer volume of social users can make it tough to find people with specific skill sets. Hashtags can help!

4. Instagram

Much like Facebook, you can use Instagram to show off both your job postings and aspects of your company culture and brand.

Instagram Stories is a great place for more casual content, like work events, a tour of your headquarters, or highlighting the individual members of your team. Be sure to save your Stories in your Highlights so that prospective employees can still see them after they disappear!

Instagram’s also a great place to connect with potential candidates, especially if you’re looking to hire Gen Z, who apparently prefer Instagram. Encourage them to ask questions in your Stories or to comment on your posts. Developing two-way communication can inspire trust and lay the foundation for a relationship.

5. YouTube

People love video content. By 2028, YouTube is predicted to reach 1.1 billion users. It’s a great platform to show off longer-form videos that can both grow your brand and promote your company.

Pro tip: Give your audience value through your videos. Don’t simply brag about how great it is to work at your company, but rather, show the kind of people that work there, what the work life is all about, or tell stories that express your brand.

Take Hootsuite Labs, for example.

Hootsuite’s quirky educational channel, Hootsuite Labs grows its audience by creating videos with substance.

The channel also shows off Hootsuite’s funnier side. The hosts all pretend to be scientists in white lab coats and goggles, the jokes straddle the line between campy and hilarious, and the editors always hit their mark with added gifs and memes.

You’ll notice that Hootsuite Labs skews more helpful than promotional, but still, it reaches more than 15,000 subscribers. At least some of those people might want to work here. (Right? It can’t only be us. Right?!)

6. Social advocacy tools

Employee advocacy tools like Hootsuite’s Amplify allow employers to leverage their employees’ social networks to attract potential candidates.

Encourage your employees to help spread the word about your great company culture by sharing job openings and company content on their personal social media accounts. When employee advocacy is done right, it can help employers reach a wider audience of potentially qualified candidates.

an illustrated graphic of an employee checking their phone and discovering 5 new organization-approved articles to share via Hootsuite Amplify

Amplify allows staff to share pre-created social content on their own networks. They simply download the app, connect their accounts, and share the content you created in two clicks.

A well-thought-out employee advocacy program can be your golden ticket when it comes to successfully recruiting on social media.

Book a free Hootsuite Amplify demo

7. Hootsuite

You may have come this far and are calculating the hours of labor needed to plan, execute, organize, and publish all of the content suggested above. Don’t get it twisted; we would never try to make your work-life harder.

If you want to execute your social media recruiting on cheat code, use Hootsuite.

You can do all of your social recruiting in one place using Hootsuite. It’s designed for social media marketers to streamline their efforts and increase efficiency; social media recruiters will find most of the benefits niche down nicely into recruiting.

For example, auto-publishing your posts using the Best Time to Post feature will take publishing completely off your plate while reaching the most candidates. And you can also use OwlyWriter AI to generate captions for you, saving you time and mental load.

Plus, Hootsuite Inbox has all of your messages in one place. You can sort through candidates’ replies and questions here, responding to everything in one go. And Saved Replies will make your inbox management a breeze.

Hootsuite Inbox DMs

Book a free Hootsuite demo today

Of course, we’re a little (a lot) biased. We love Hootsuite, but we love it for a good reason. Do yourself a favor: Sign up for a free trial and see if we’re right.

Frequently asked questions about social media recruiting tools

How can social media be used as a recruiting tool?

Social media is a powerful tool for recruiting because it allows you to reach a large audience of potential candidates where they already are.

By creating job postings on social media platforms, employers can attract job seekers who are already active on those sites. Recruiters can use social media to search for potential candidates based on their skills, experience, and interests using hashtags or searching through social groups.

Recruiters can also use social media to engage with candidates and build relationships with them over time. And companies can use social media to build up a positive brand image and reputation, attracting aligned applicants.

What is the best recruiting strategy on social media?

The best recruiting strategy on social media is one specific to your goals and your candidate’s interests. Are people in your industry looking for remote positions? Or perhaps a competitive salary and benefits package is most important to them. Once you know what they want, you can tailor your posts to attract them.

Which technique is best for social recruiting?

There are a variety of techniques that can be effective for social recruiting, including creating engaging job postings, using targeted advertising, leveraging employee referrals and employee advocacy programs, and engaging with potential candidates on social media.

The best technique will depend on your organization’s needs and the types of candidates you are trying to attract. For example, suppose you are looking to attract younger, tech-savvy designer candidates. In that case, you should focus on creating visually appealing job postings and using social media platforms like Instagram.

On the other hand, if you are looking to attract more experienced professionals, you should focus on using LinkedIn and leveraging employee referrals.

Which social media site is most commonly used for recruitment?

LinkedIn is the most commonly used social media site for recruitment, as it is specifically designed for professional networking and job searching. That’s why its demographics skew professional.

That being said, other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can also be effective for recruiting. The best social media platforms for recruitment depend on your organization’s needs and the types of candidates you are trying to attract.

For example, Facebook can be a good platform for recruiting hourly workers or candidates in the hospitality or retail industries. Instagram may be more effective for recruiting creative professionals or candidates in the fashion or beauty industries.

Save time managing your social media presence with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can publish and schedule posts, find relevant conversions, engage the audience, measure results, and more. Try it free today.

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