Social media has revolutionized how today's employers attract and recruit top talent. Today, 95% of Swedish internet users aged 16-65 use social media on a weekly basis (Internet Foundation, "Svenskarna och internet 2022").

What's more, according to CareerArc's 2021 future of recruiting study, a whopping 86% of jobseekers use social media to find relevant jobs, apply directly from their mobile phones and engage with job-related content from attractive employers. By being visible where your target audience is - on social media - you can increase awareness of you as an employer and build a strong employer brand among potential top candidates.

1. identify your target audience

The first step before you start advertising your job vacancies on social media is to identify your target audience - who are the candidates you want to reach? And where are they online? Gather as much information as you can about your chosen target audience to help you decide where to advertise and with what message.

Start by researching:

• Which candidate target group do we want to reach?
• Where is our target audience on social media?
• Which channels do people in our candidate target group use most?
• What does our target audience consider important when choosing an employer?
• What attracts our target audience?

2. Choose a combination of social media

Once you know where your target audience is, it's time to choose which social media channels you want to reach. Your choice can be based on a number of factors, such as:

• Age of the target group
• Interests or skills
• The size of the platform
• How strong the daily use is
• Opportunities & constraints in terms of advertising
• Your presence on the platform
• Internal expertise on campaign creation

"I always advise our clients to choose a combination of social media when advertising their vacancy. LinkedIn with its professional network is an incredibly strong channel for job seekers, try to combine this with advertising on Meta where the daily use is very high. In this way, you can both target correctly and widely, which means that you get the maximum effect of your advertising and ensure that you are visible in several places at the same time - where your top candidates can be located." - Edvin Häggström, Specialist in job advertising in social media at We Select.

3. Create engaging content

To generate interest and ensure that top candidates in your target group apply for your vacancy, there is an effective way to stand out - great advertising material. On a daily basis, our social media feeds are bombarded with ads, and the fast scrolling means that we only choose to stop at content that really engages us.

According to Facebook, the average user spends about 2 seconds watching a video, making the first few seconds of your content incredibly important.

Our top tips for creating engaging content on social media:

• Use a combination of video, images and graphics: by creating visually compelling ads that engage the recipient from the start, they are more likely to watch more of your video or click through from an image ad to read more.
• Tell them who you are and what you want to achieve: By communicating your vision and mission to potential top candidates, you can create a stronger connection with you as a company and find candidates who also want to be part of your growth journey.
• Highlight your employees: your employees are great ambassadors for conveying in a genuine and recognizable way what it's really like to work for you.
• Always use a call-to-action: by clearly inviting the recipient to take action by reading more or applying for your vacancy, you increase your interaction.
• Adapt your ads to the platform: The format and restrictions differ between the different channels - always adapt your ads to the latest guidelines to ensure your content is perceived as well as possible.

4. Target the campaigns correctly

An incredibly valuable aspect of using social media in your recruitment process is the ability to reach the right candidates. By identifying who you want to reach and how they use social media in their everyday lives, you can use this to create targeted campaigns on channels such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik Tok, Snapchat or Reddit.

By advertising with We Select during your recruitment, you get access to data and insights from 100,000+ social media ads, 10,000,000+ visitors and 600,000+ applications. This, combined with our extensive experience in recruitment and digital advertising, allows us to recommend the right channels and messages to attract and recruit the right candidates for your vacancy.

5. Evaluate the results

When you use social media as part of your recruitment process, you gain valuable insights into your target audience and the perception of your employer brand. By analyzing these insights and evaluating the performance of your advertising, you can adjust your strategy and test new messages to continue improving your results.

To succeed with social media recruitment, it is important to continuously analyze, adapt and improve your strategy and ads - be open to trying new ideas and let your audience show you what they are interested in.‍‍

Recruiting smarter with social media

By recruiting on social media, you reach out to passive top candidates who are not actively looking for new jobs on job boards. Targeted advertising on social media ensures that your vacancy appears in the candidates' own social media feeds instead. This helps to ensure that your vacancy reaches a wider audience and also that it reaches the right audience.

By using data-driven advertising, you create a strong presence on social media, which contributes to an increased inflow of relevant candidates and shorter recruitment processes. With the right strategy in place, knowledge of where your target audience is online and what they are attracted to, you can utilize the great potential of social media as a recruitment channel.

Want to know more about how to succeed with social media recruitment? Book a free consultation with one of our job advertising specialists!