How Can an ATS Improve Social Media Hiring?

Social media hiring is growing in importance.

Why?

1. You find more qualified candidates
2. It helps you strengthen your employer brand
3. You build your talent pipeline faster

Want to improve social media hiring?

Social media has changed recruitment significantly—in a relatively short period of time. Companies are struggling to catch up.

Many HR professionals don’t understand how an applicant tracking system supports social media recruiting. ATS were introduced before social media. Because of this, many users haven’t leveraged them to maximize the potential of social sites. Some regard social media as an afterthought.

This is a missed opportunity because ATS have tools that help with every aspect of social recruiting.

Let’s focus on 4 ways an ATS improves social media recruiting:

1. Create a social media recruiting workflow
2. Post jobs on social sites faster and more efficiently
3. Determine which social media sites are most effective
4. Collaborate with your hiring team to connect with candidates

1. How do you create a formal social media recruiting strategy?

Your social media strategy should address the following:

• How to articulate your employment value proposition (EVP)
• Identify which sites to use—LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, niche sites, etc.
• How to reach the right candidates for each job position
  • Tailor job descriptions for each social site
  • Identify keywords to include in job descriptions and searches for passive candidates
  • Include a call to action (CTA) in each job description
  • Determine which groups to join on social media platforms
  • Identify hashtags to use
  • Use paid job ads where appropriate
• Create a posting schedule
• Use videos to showcase your culture
• Assign tasks to members of your hiring team
• Monitor sites for comments and respond immediately
• Stay engaged with passive candidates

Enter your social posting plan as a custom workflow in  your ATS. More on this under number 4.

2. How does an ATS make social posting easier?

There are several ways an ATS helps with social recruiting. Posting to multiple sites with a single signon saves tons of time. You can manage multiple job descriptions—each tailored to a specific site. All applications flow into your ATS, regardless of the source.

ApplicantStack integrates with the top social media sites. But you can post to niche sites with the same efficiency. Just embed a link in your postings on niche sites. You don’t have to manage them separately.

3. How does an ATS help you choose which sites to use?

In your ATS, you can see where each applicant found your posting and applied. Measure the effectiveness of each site. Determine how social media sites perform compared to job boards. Go even deeper. Track how different job descriptions perform on different sites.

As you monitor your results, modify your strategy accordingly. That way, your efforts will improve throughout the year.

4. How does an ATS help you collaborate with your hiring team to manage your social hiring plan?

Remember the social media workflow mentioned previously? Sophisticated ATSs, like ApplicantStack, allow you to assign tasks and create checklists. Create as many checklists as you need to manage and execute your social hiring plan. Assign steps to members of your team. Program reminders so nobody drops the ball.

It’s especially important to nurture passive candidates who connect with you on your social sites. In ApplicantStack, you can move communication from the social media site to email or texting—whichever the applicant prefers. Then you can store and track all of your communication with the candidate. It’s impossible to nurture a large applicant pool without automation.

Shifting your mindset about social media

Successful job seekers use social media differently than the casual user. Talent acquisition specialists should see social media in a new light as well.

We help our clients take a closer look at social media as ‘professional media’ and treat it that way. All the companies and all who are behind these platforms represent billions in revenue for those associated. For all of our individual brands, we should primarily view each as a potential engagement place for career advancement. In other words, the days of using social media as social without regard to business should be over for most professionals. John M. O’Connor, Career coach

To improve your hiring process, check out our How to Hire Your Next Employee series.  It’s not difficult to create an ideal applicant journey for your social media-sourced candidates.