Everyone is incorporating social media into their recruiting practices, but every recruiter has had that moment — the moment when you feel like the kid in class, raising your hand to ask a question that you feel like everyone knows the answer to already.
This should help:
Where is everyone getting all of their images?
Ninety percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. That is exactly why on Facebook, videos are shared 12 times more than links and text posts combined, and photos are liked 2x more than text updates. Images are plentiful online, but using most of them without rights or credits can get you into trouble (plus that’s just not cool). Here are a few ways to get tons-o-images:
- Create a Haiku Deck and use the images produced.
- Photopin is a great, free site with a wide variety of pictures. Don’t forget to include the credits!
- ECards are another free and popular way to generate fun images.
- BigStock isn’t free, but their picture quality is pretty awesome and they have packages at different costs.
- Take your own pictures of the office, or ask employees to share pictures on a hashtag so they are all searchable.
When is the most effective time of day for me to be posting?
When in doubt, Google it! Media Bistro has pulled together optimal posting time for each given social network. Here are the best times to post, but you can also check out worst times and helpful tidbits.
- Facebook: Weekdays 6-8 a.m. and 2-5 p.m.
- Twitter: Weekends 1-3 p.m.
- Google+: 9-11 a.m.
- LinkedIn: 7-8:30 a.m. and 5-6 p.m.
- Pinterest: Saturday 2-4 p.m. and 8-11 p.m.
- Blog posts: Mon, Fri, Sat 11 a.m.
How in Sam Hell is everyone posting so frequently? I have a life …
Those “best times to post” slots were all over the map, right? It seems impossible to keep up with, and without the right tools, it is. Try out something like Sprout Social, HootSuite, or any number of social publishing tools out there. These allow you to fill up a queue of posts all at once and schedule their publishing times. Bam! You can knock out your posts for the week in one sitting.
How frequently should I be posting?
Amy Porterfield, social media strategist and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies, advises posting on all of your social networks two to five times a day. Because of those staggered “best times to post,” “One post a day simply isn’t enough because most of your fans won’t see it due to timing,” she says. This shouldn’t be considered the minimum; this is the standard. Over-posting is annoying to your audience and can get you unfollowed or unliked instantly.
What networks should I be a part of?
The answer here is, all of them. Obviously that is not possible, so the three standard in recruitment marketing according to a Staff.com infographic are:
- LinkedIn is the No. 1 site for social recruiting, with 93 percent of companies using it in their recruiting efforts in 2012.
- Facebook comes in second with 66 percent
- Twitter is a close third at 54 percent
- Google+ for good measure …
How do I get more likes and followers?
The answer: Like and Follow. It is a very give-and-take relationship in the social world. Everyone is trying to grow their network, and get clicks and retweets. They want the same thing you do, so when you engage, they will too. Several more helpful follower-grabbing tips for Twitter come from social media expert Luke Chitwood:
- Create valuable content.
- Comment on relevant news/tweets.
- Create countdowns.
- Offer exclusive content.
- Participate in the dialogue.
How do you get people to share your stuff?
Once you’ve gone through the content checklist: interesting, relevant, timely, informative, and engaging, you still have to give your audience a reason to share your content. A call to action is always helpful. Simply asking people to retweet, comment, or share can actually increase the likelihood that they will do so. Science of Social Media data reveals that that tweets including either “Please ReTweet” or “Please RT” are more likely to get retweeted than tweets without those phrases. In fact, “Please ReTweet” gets a 51 percent likelihood of getting retweeted.
Social recruiting is here to stay, so recruiters should ask questions, and try out new things in the social media world. Again, when in doubt, Google it. “I’ll figure it out later” will only ensure that your untimely efforts will get lost in the shuffle. Do you have any social tips or tricks to share? We would love to hear them below.