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12 Days of Recruiting

Posted by Samara Parker
December 16th, 2013

If you're not changing, then you're probably dead. That’s morbid, yes, true nonetheless!

To keep your recruiting going strong you’ll need to grow and innovate. I'm not saying that you have to make your HR team bigger, add more networks to your social strategy, or overhaul your branding, but you must be consistently growing your reach in order to connect with new candidates.

We all know the perils of trying to get too big too fast, and this is why small innovations are one of the best ways to keep adding to your talent pool.

What follows are 12 days of simple steps that you can implement to keep your social recruiting alive and well.

Day 1

Re-evaluate your job descriptions

Job descriptions are the most important part of your content strategy. When recruiting with social media, you have fewer words at your disposal to hook candidates, so make them count. Go over your job ads, and make sure they are all short, accurate, and that they include a call to action.

(Here are more tips on writing job descriptions for social recruiting)

Day 2

Share a pretty picture

Image-based content receives the most shares, Likes, and overall engagement. This is true for both Facebook and Twitter. Post a great photo of your team, with a fun description, and tag every staff member you can, so that their connections see your post.

Day 3

Leverage your connections

Reach out to your peers and your current team. Explain what you're trying to do with your social recruiting strategy, and ask for their help.

People actually love helping — it makes them feel really great and useful. Just don't send out some generic plea to all of your Facebook connections and Twitter followers. This doesn't make anyone feel good! Ask in person, with individualized emails, or at the end of staff meetings, and try to do so in a way that conveys genuine appreciation, and excitement.

Day 4

Create employee profiles

Employee profiles are great because they are image-based, they introduce potential candidates to your current team, and they act as social proof.

(This tutorial explains how to create employee profiles to boost engagement)


Day 5

Mix it up

Get yourself a content aggregation tool, and use it to find a mix of great content that you can share. This will help you stay connected with potential hires, even when you have no job openings to post, so that you can better reach them when you do. Basically, consistent posting is a huge part of building a social talent pool.

(This article shares some awesome content aggregation tools for employers)

Day 6

Stock up

Now that you have a tool for finding content, you need a way to save and organize the gems you find. You can use Pinterest, or Delicious... My favorite is Pocket App — it's probably my most used app. Tools like this allow you to save, and tag awesome stuff that you find on the internet. That way you’ll always have a nice little stash of shareable content at your fingertips.

Day 7

Say it with video

You don't have to invest in a flashy recruiting video, heck, we made one using Vine, and it got tons of engagement. Much like photos, video is much more likely to be shared than text-based content or links. Also, candidates are almost twice as likely to apply for a job if they've viewed a recruiting video.

(Here's how to use video to recruit, and here's our Vine recruiting video)

Day 8

Re-share it

Employee profiles, staff party photos, recruiting videos, positive reviews of your company, good press, and posts from your company blog are premium content. As such, you’ll want to leverage them as best you can. It is totally acceptable to re-share this content, so long as it is still relevant. On Twitter you can re-share regularly because of the volume of tweets people receive on the daily. On Facebook and LinkedIn, I recommend waiting at least a couple of weeks before re-sharing.

Day 9

Ask questions

Use your social networks to ask potential candidates questions. This is a great way of getting feedback about how your social strategy is perceived by others, and about who is engaging with your talent pool. Use questions that are open ended, but that still give a lot of guidance. For example "What's your favorite recent tech innovation?" (if you are looking to recruit for tech.) Remember to use hashtags!

Day 10

Post a Facebook Ad

Facebook Ads are awesome for recruiting. They can help you grow your employer brand, get your job posts seen, and reach more passive candidates. They also have killer ROI (and by this I mean that they are cheap, and effective!)

(Check out this post for a tutorial on how to use Facebook Ads for recruiting)

Day 11


Schedule your content

Posting to your various networks consistently is so important. It keeps you on your potential hires’ radar, which is a must when you’re trying to foster an active talent community. There are tons and tons of great apps to keep the content flowing on your Facebook Page, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. Check these posts for a list of scheduling apps, and how to set up a social media time schedule.

Day 12

Check your metrics

Go over your Facebook Insights, and any other information you have on hand. This will give you a better idea of what’s working for you, and what isn’t. Maybe posting questions is the best way to engage your talent pool, or maybe it’s video. You'll never know unless you check!


Tune in on Wednesday for our brand new white paper, which details how to improve your Facebook recruiting. It’s full of awesome tips to improve your strategy!