TARGETjobs Social Media Survey - What It Means For Employers...

In our last post we covered off the key takeaways from our recent TARGETjobs student social media survey! The survey covered students’ attitudes to graduate employers using social media to recruit and attract talent.  

With privacy issues, choice of networks and lack of interaction on Facebook being top of the agenda, we thought we’d make a few recommendations as to what this might mean for your social media recruitment strategy. 

Are your websites and emails as good as they could be? 

One surprise result of the survey is that students still prefer email contact over anything else. Before looking at changing any social media plans, do your website or mail shots need reviewing... 

• If you’re driving candidates to sign up for mailing lists or visit your website, are they providing the best user experience possible? 
• Do they provide the most current and necessary information in the most accessible way? 

What Network Should You Use and How? 

Think about why your target audience uses a platform and then why and how you are using that network – do you clash or complement each other? How can you differentiate your organisation?

• Do the individual tools within a network eg: pages/groups/ events/adverts help you achieve specific aims for your different campaigns and activities? 
• Why not initially use Facebook to provide information without expecting too much engagement, and let the students come to you in time. 
• The students in our survey felt that LinkedIn was more appropriate for recruitment and attraction, therefore you may like to consider optimising your company profile and setting up appropriate groups or events? 

Are You Using the Right Content? 

YouTube was the second most popular social network after Facebook in our survey. Content that is image/video based is often much more successful than just text. 

• Can you be more effective with the multimedia content you already have – do you have a corporate channel on YouTube? 
• When planning campaigns can you earmark events or specific activities that might lend themselves more easily to visual representation? 

Can You Make the Most of Your Relationships? 

According to our survey, the majority of organisations followed by students are careers services/university societies – rather than employers.

• Are you making the most of your relationships with careers services – and your own personal networks with them? 
• If you are already working with societies, could you partner up on their social media? 

What examples of social media recruitment best practice in this sector have you seen? Feel free to share these and any other feedback in the comment section below.

Thanks,

The GTI Recruiting Solutions Blog Team