5 Essential Social Media Recruiting Tools

Social recruiting — the practice of using social media to recruit new hires — has become a core component of many companies’ growth strategies. Over 95% of companies today are using social media for recruiting. Likewise, more than 70% of 18-34 year-olds found their last job through social media. 

Social media recruiting tools, accordingly, have become more sophisticated over time. LinkedIn, Facebook, and even TikTok offer hiring-specific features that encourage candidates and employers to connect. Social media recruitment tools can help hiring teams boost their employer brand, expand their pool of potential candidates, and reduce recruiting costs — here’s how.

Top social media recruiting tools

Many social media platforms have native recruiting tools that your team can use to identify candidates, share job descriptions, and solicit resumes. Here are just a few of the top social media recruiting tools for the most popular social media apps. 

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is likely the first social media site that comes to mind when you think of social recruiting tools. The company was literally founded to promote hiring and professional networking. As such, there are dozens of recruiting features that your company can take advantage of, such as: 

• LinkedIn Talent Solutions 

LinkedIn Talent Solutions is a suite of tools that can help you take your recruiting to the next level. These tools include access to a larger pool of candidates, advanced search filters, and personalized coaching from LinkedIn experts.

• Recommended Matches 

LinkedIn's Recommended Matches feature uses machine learning to suggest candidates who are a good fit for your open positions. This feature can help you save time and find candidates that you may not have otherwise found.

• InMail 

LinkedIn's InMail is a premium (read: paid) feature that allows you to send personalized messages to potential candidates, even if they are not in your network. This feature is a great way to reach out to passive candidates who may not be actively looking for a new job.

• Talent Pools

LinkedIn's Talent Pools, part of Talent Insights, lets you save groups of candidates that you are interested in reaching out to. This feature can be helpful for keeping track of candidates who you may want to hire for future openings.

• Recruiter Reporting

LinkedIn's Recruiter Reporting is the platform’s analytics tool that can give you insight into your recruiting performance, including areas for improvement.

LinkedIn also offers many opportunities for employer branding on your company profile. Consistently share company news and events to showcase your company culture.

[Read more: How to Use LinkedIn for Recruiting: 5 Ways to Build a Strong Employer Brand]  

2. Facebook

While Facebook may have started as a way to connect on college campuses, the platform has since launched many tools to connect job seekers and employers. Companies can post open positions on their Facebook Business page to reach a wide audience of potential candidates. Likewise, candidates can search for jobs by location, company, and keyword and filter their search by experience level and industry. 

Facebook is also a great place to build your employer brand. Tools like Clearview Social make it easy to create posts, share articles, and expand your reach to potential applicants on Facebook. PeakTime™ uses artificial intelligence (AI) to find the best times for your Facebook posts to get the most attention. And our AI caption generator, Social Shuffle AI, can semi-automate the creative process of determining what to write on your Facebook page. 

3. Instagram

On Instagram, visual content is king. This is a great space for showcasing your company culture and employee experience. Use high-quality images and videos that showcase your company culture, work environment, and team members. Instagram Stories are a great way to share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your company, highlight employee achievements, and promote open positions. 

It’s also worth creating a hashtag strategy for Instagram. Research industry-specific hashtags, location-based hashtags, and company-specific hashtags to attract potential candidates who are interested in your company and industry.

4. YouTube and TikTok

Like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are very visual channels. The best way to use them is by creating content that engages potential job seekers and tells a story about your brand. Create a company channel on YouTube and TikTok to showcase your culture, values, and mission. Share videos of your employees, company events, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of your workplace.

Employee testimonials are powerful recruiting assets. Letting your employees share their experiences directly creates a more authentic connection than a company spokesperson, for example. Clearview Social makes it easy to share employee testimonials far and wide. Team members can upload shared media assets to a library that can be accessed by the whole team. 

YouTube and TikTok both offer advertising options that can help you target an audience based on factors such as location, demographics, interests, and behaviors. If you’re opening a new location, seeking to improve the diversity of your hiring pool, or looking for a specific skill set, these advertising options could boost your profile.

5. X (formerly known as Twitter)

While many marketing teams are abandoning Twitter, there are still opportunities to connect with potential candidates on this platform. Twitter's conversational nature fosters engagement and interaction with potential candidates. You can respond to comments, answer questions, and participate in industry discussions, building relationships and establishing your company as a thought leader.

Likewise, Twitter Live can be used to host virtual job fairs, company tours, or employee interviews. This feature allows you to connect with a wider audience in real-time, showcasing your company's culture authentically. 

Social media recruitment tools: why are they effective?

Social recruiting tools offer channels beyond traditional hiring avenues for companies to target their ideal candidates, share engaging content, and communicate with potential new hires. 

Virtually everyone uses one or more social media platforms; if you want to make sure your job is seen, posting it on social media can help. Boosting your job post with a paid social media campaign or employee advocacy effort can increase the diversity and number of people who apply. 

Social media is also cost-effective compared to job boards and other ways of advertising an open role. For instance, posting on a job board can cost hundreds of dollars per post, depending on how effective you want the ad to be. While there may be some costs associated with using social media for recruiting, these costs are often significantly lower than the costs associated with traditional methods.

Social media recruiting can also harness the power of employee referrals. Employee referrals are considered the holy grail of recruiting: referral candidates are often  cheaper and faster, stay at the company for longer, and have higher work satisfaction than traditional candidates. Employee advocacy platforms like Clearview Social can help turn your employees’ social media profiles into referral engines. 

[WATCH: Transforming Employees into Social Media Champions: Building a Strong Advocacy Program]  

Leverage Clearview Social to boost your social media recruiting

By leveraging the networks and influence of your existing employees, you are able to promote your organization as an attractive employer. Clearview Social puts the power of employee advocacy to work for your social media recruiting. Our platform makes it easy to share authentic content from your employees on your business pages, as well as for your employees to boost company-specific information on their personal profiles. 

How does this work in practice? Start by gathering content — videos, blog posts, even short quotes — from your employees about life at your company. Upload these assets to Clearview Social to create a queue of content you can share with the entire company. Employees can choose what they want to share on their personal channels in just a few clicks. Use features like Social Shuffle and PeakTime™ AI to let Clearview Social optimize the copy and distribution of your posts on your company’s social media profiles. 

Clearview Social’s analytics can also show you what’s working and help you adjust where needed. We give you stats on which content is generating the highest engagement from your team and your team's networks. This can help you to repeat the top-performing posts to improve your strategy over time.

Learn more about Clearview Social’s powerful platform. Request a free demo today.