Healthcare workers often work demanding hours with unpredictable schedules and may not have time to research corporate culture or fill out lengthy applications. If anything, they’re more likely to spend their free time scrolling through their phones. It’s no surprise, therefore, that savvy HR professionals are becoming more and more comfortable using social media for recruitment.
Your organization can narrow the communication gap by reaching out to candidates on the digital channels they’re most active on. Social media’s ease of use and engagement opportunities makes it the perfect platform to showcase your organization as a potential employer and directly support your recruiting efforts.
What Is Social Media Recruiting?
Social media recruiting or social recruiting uses social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more to support and enhance the hiring process. By using social media for recruitment, hiring managers can connect with top talent, promote positions, and showcase company culture.
Social media recruiting strategies generally fall into two categories, organic and paid:
- Organic social media recruiting. Sharing job posts or content on social media that highlights your company’s culture and driving traffic to your Careers page. It can also include “social listening,” or tracking and monitoring hashtags and keywords to understand and seek out ideal candidates.
- Paid social media recruiting. Social media advertising campaigns, paying for social recruiting services, and promoting posts on social media platform job boards like Facebook Jobs.
According to a recent survey, 86% of job seekers use social media to view, search for, and apply to jobs or engage with recruiters. 61% said they increased their social media usage in the past year.
Why Healthcare Organizations Need to Use Social Media For Recruiting
A continued nursing shortage during COVID-19 and a highly competitive market has put healthcare hiring in a difficult spot.
Healthcare workers lost approximately 1.5 million jobs last spring and the industry is still over 540,000 jobs short of pre-pandemic numbers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). COVID-19 prompted many professionals to retire early, adding to the shortage. A further one million jobs are expected to open by 2030 as Baby Boomer nurses leave the field, allowing Millennials and Generation Z to take over the majority of new roles.
As the healthcare workforce changes, organizations will need to reevaluate digital recruitment marketing efforts to keep up with more digitally-connected workers. Building out your social media presence on multiple social networks is a great place to start updating your recruitment process.
Social media makes an excellent recruitment marketing strategy tool, thanks to its popularity and ease of use. Some of the many advantages to social hiring include:
- Accessibility. Healthcare professionals with limited downtime might see a tweet, update, or text before an email. Social media recruitment also gives you access to people who may promote your jobs by sharing them with their networks, even if they aren’t currently on the market themselves.
- Reach. Social media opens organizations up to a much wider audience, allowing them to tap into the spaces healthcare workers are most likely to spend time in. The more channels you become active on, the better chance you have of connecting with applicants—including passive candidates.
- Speed. Social media recruiting can get you in front of talent quickly and make your job posts and applications easily accessible to anyone with a smartphone. By speeding up the hiring process, you increase your chances of making an offer ahead of the competition and getting the best candidates in the door.
How Do I Get Started?
Social media recruiting involves a combination of brand strategy, passive marketing, and active research and experimentation. To be successful, you have to approach it from a number of angles while keeping your target audience, potential employees, in mind at all times. Here are some of the best practices to make the most of your social media use and recruitment strategy.
Develop a Voice and Start Talking
Tone of voice communicates a brand’s personality and values. This is great for humanizing your organization, so you can connect more effectively with your target audience of potential recruits. When it comes to using social media for recruitment, tone of voice can also include the social media sites you choose and the information you share. A strong voice can indicate your company culture, and therefore help you connect with potential job candidates who would actually be a good fit in your organization’s work environment.
Here are a few ways to develop voice on your social media pages:
Choose your channels wisely
Each platform has its own unique voice and tone, from LinkedIn’s professionalism to Twitter’s quick-fire updates. Choose a platform (or several) that fit your employer brand and are popular with healthcare talent.
Capture your audience with interactive content
Social media is meant to be interactive. Create and share a variety of educational and entertaining multimedia posts. Visual content like images, videos, and infographics make a big impact and are easy to share.
Build a reputation for responsiveness
You want your organization to be seen as an approachable, communicative employer. Have someone on your HR or marketing team monitor social media channels and respond to questions and comments promptly.
Show Off Your Culture
Got cutting-edge tech, great employee benefits, or career development opportunities? Your candidates will want to know! Showcasing company culture is a great way to promote your organization as a desirable employer.
Offer inside glimpses of what it’s like to work for you by:
- Posting about company events and activities
- Asking current employees to provide testimonials and quotes of their experiences with your organizational culture
- Adding team photos to your social media channels
- Appreciating your staff by acknowledging them and their work
Although you don’t need to post about employee benefits directly, make sure your perks are clear in job descriptions. If you provide certification training programs or help your nurses continue their education, mention that as well. Prospective employees will appreciate knowing if you take career development and employee advocacy seriously.
Be Proactive Online
Get ahead of competition with a proactive strategy for social recruiting that leverages tools built to help you hire successfully.
Track relevant healthcare job or industry keywords and hashtags across social media channels so you can gain insights on how competitors hire and what job seekers look for. Test different types of posts, formats, keywords, and multimedia with your audience to see how potential candidates respond.
If you don’t have that kind of time, solutions like Apploi’s can optimize your job post distribution for you and simplify the hiring process for your applicants.
Consider investing in some paid social media campaign experiments on different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Make use of social media reporting tools to track your progress so you can determine where to concentrate your efforts.
Tips for Hiring on TikTok
Understand your audience. TikTok primarily appeals to a younger demographic, so it’s important to tailor your content to this audience. Be aware of the trends and interests that resonate with TikTok users.
Create engaging content. Use TikTok’s short-form video format to showcase your company culture, values, and job openings in a creative and engaging way. Use music, effects, and trends to make your content stand out.
Use hashtags. Hashtags are crucial for discoverability on TikTok . Use relevant industry-specific and job-related hashtags to ensure your job openings reach the right audience.
Tips for Hiring on Instagram
Optimize your profile. Ensure your company’s Instagram profile is complete with a clear and appealing profile picture, a compelling bio, and relevant contact information. Use a recognizable and professional profile picture, such as your company logo.
Share engaging visual content. Post visually appealing content that showcases your company culture, values, and work environment. Highlight employees, team activities, and behind-the-scenes moments to give potential candidates a glimpse into your workplace.
Use Instagram stories. Utilize Instagram Stories to share short-term job openings, company news, and updates. Use interactive features like polls, questions, and quizzes to engage with your audience and gather feedback.
Tips for Hiring on Facebook
Create a company page. Establish a dedicated Facebook page for your company if you don’t already have one. Make sure it’s complete with a professional profile picture, a compelling cover photo, and a detailed “About” section.
Use Facebook groups. Join and participate in relevant Facebook groups related to your industry or job market. Share your job postings in these groups, but ensure you follow group rules and guidelines.
Interested in learning more about how you can recruit, hire, and onboard healthcare staff quickly? Contact us today for a free demo of our end-to-end solution.
