Ditch Job Boards: Your 2024 Guide to Social Media Recruitment for High-Volume Hiring

The recruitment landscape is evolving faster than ever before, raising an important question: Are traditional job boards becoming obsolete? This transformation urges us to double our efforts in all other sources, starting with social media campaigns. Remember the glory days of Monster and CareerBuilder? They ruled the job search world like Michael Jordan ruled the basketball court. But just like VHS tapes and MySpace, their time has passed. Studies show that only 25% of passive candidates visit job boards nowadays. These platforms have become the digital equivalent of a deserted mall—outdated interfaces, clunky search functions, and lackluster results.

Through Talkpush, millions of candidates apply to the largest global companies every year, and the trend is consistent worldwide: while job boards convert candidates at a reasonable rate, the volumes are steadily decreasing. The candidate pool is almost the same across every job board, leading to a duplication nightmare where a single candidate creates profiles on multiple job boards in their country. This results in companies paying three times for the same resume.

Social media is the best source of recruitment in 2024

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Today, job seekers are engaging with opportunities on their favorite social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram are now the MVPs in recruitment. Did you know that 79% of job seekers use social media in their job hunt? 

This shift calls for tools that allow you to sift through thousands of applicants quickly, workflows of automated recruiting and leveraging the power of instant messaging company channels.

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Engaging passive candidates

Social media is your ticket to engaging candidates who aren’t actively looking, but could be tempted by the right opportunity. By sharing content that highlights your company culture, employee testimonials, and career growth opportunities, you can start tempting those candidates and creating a positive image for your company in their minds. Top talent is picky, you must put your best foot forward.

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The power of paid Social Media campaigns

Where to advertise? Depends on your target demographic. It’s likely your average Customer Service representative under 30 will spend the majority of their time on TikTok, unless they live in the Philippines, where you will find them on Facebook still. The next cashier for your retail store is likely spending the majority of their time on Instagram.

Advanced targeting options allow you to reach potential candidates based on job titles, industries, and interests. Sponsored content that promotes your company’s unique culture and values can attract candidates who vibe with your brand. And don’t forget retargeting campaigns to reconnect with users who have previously engaged with your content or visited your career site. It's like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs right back to you.

Now that you found your pool, the next step is even more important than the first: make sure your ad spend is well invested by nurturing those leads in the best way possible. If you make those candidates wait for your call or send a CV to an email taking them out of their social media comfort zone, you will never hear from them again. Ask them to create a profile on an ATS and spend 30 minutes answering questions and uploading CVs and you will never hear from them again. You need to plan for the passive job seeker’s behavior.  

The key to high conversion rates is simple: use paid ads, strategic targeting, and a compelling call to action that is effortless and engaging for job seekers. 

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Reduce your Drop-Off rates with Click-to-Chat Ads

Click-to-chat ads, also known as Click-to-Message ads, are essentially your gateway to engaging directly with your audience on social media. They serve as a bridge between you and potential applicants, enabling a conversation with just a click. These ads open a messaging window in WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or Instagram DM, and just like that—you’ve got a new prescreened candidate, and the conversation can keep flowing. Combine this with a customized conversational AI or chatbot, and your drop-off rates will become a thing of the past. This is the most effective way to hire for volume today.

Read more: Recruiting via WhatsApp

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Measuring success in social media recruitment

Engagement rates, conversion rates, and cost per acquisition (CPA) are your new best friends. Engagement rates track likes, comments, shares, and clicks, giving you a clear picture of how effective your content is. Conversion rates measure how many candidates are applying through your social media efforts, giving you insight into the effectiveness of your recruitment strategies. And CPA calculates the cost of acquiring each candidate via paid ads, helping you assess your return on investment (ROI).

The most important metric to focus on is Cost-Per-Qualified Lead. This metric tells you if your targeting is accurate and allows you to predict the investment needed to meet your hiring quota. 

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The future of recruitment: Social media and beyond

While traditional job boards aren't entirely dead, their influence is fading faster than an Instagram story. The future of recruitment lies in embracing social media for targeted, paid recruitment campaigns. By focusing on social media advertising to obtain new candidates, engaging passive candidates, and leveraging paid campaigns, you can attract both active and passive candidates with ease. This shift not only aligns with the digital habits of today’s job seekers but also offers a more efficient and effective way to connect with top talent.

Ready to elevate your recruitment strategy? Talkpush is a leading high-volume recruitment automation platform. Using technologies like chatbots, conversational AI, and automated workflows, Talkpush ensures a seamless, efficient recruitment experience for candidates and recruiters. Book a demo

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