We have talked previously on the Strategies blog about using LinkedIn to search for and find suitable candidates and how full social media integration from Strategies can help your recruitment website but it’s also important to look beyond LinkedIn searching, advertising, integrating your social platforms and distributing vacancies across your social media.

Here are a few extra tips on how to generate candidates and traffic for your website via your social media.

Optimise your profile

Make sure your “bio” for each site is as optimised as your website to allow candidates to find you by searching. Social profiles can sometimes rank higher in search engines than websites for certain topics.

Build your brand

Make sure the content you post is not just vacancies but also promotes the USP’s of your recruitment business – why candidates should choose you over other agencies – sell yourself!

Build your authority

If you recruit within a niche or sector, show and share your knowledge of that sector so that others look to you as experts.

Engage

Make sure your posts not only cover your vacancies and your services but engage your followers too – talk to them, interact with them and allow them to interact with you. Build rapport with potential candidates and encourage referrals from your followers.

Recruiting for specific vacancies

If you have jobs to fill look to interact with those who have influence over the candidates you are looking to recruit, are there industry websites with social media profiles who may well interact with you about your jobs, allow you to share them or even broadcast the information themselves.

Use #hashtags to reach candidates who may be looking for news on their industry e.g. #engineering or #accountancy.

Search Facebook, Twitter and Google+

There is more potential than ever before in searching Facebook and Twitter for potential candidates, although not as exact or as high yielding as LinkedIn they may well deliver previously untapped candidates and give you the extra boost to a campaign you need

Encourage your existing candidates to connect and refer

You still can’t beat a good referral, or a returning candidate (for the right reasons), so encourage every candidate you can to stay in touch via social media, they can be informed of new vacancies while they are waiting for a placement and keep in touch for years after. They may well share your posts or tweets to their own network giving you access to more valuable candidates.

Our UK experts at Strategies can advise on all aspects of digital marketing including getting the most out of your social media.