With Facebook reaching over 1 billion active users, and the internet becoming an ever busier and more congested place, reaching the right candidate with the right information can seem near impossible.
But there are plenty of options and strategies that you can use to reach relevant candidates with information that matters to them.
In this article we’ll cover:
- SEO
- Tone of Voice
- Branding
- Social Media and Hashtags
It’s important to consider all of the above as a holistic marketing strategy, an updated handbook for social and digital recruitment. Getting job adverts in front of the right person isn’t impossible – it just requires joined up thinking, placing yourself in your candidates' shoes, and anticipating their movements.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is an approach that makes even seasoned content creators and digital marketers pause. SEO is a diverse and complex digital strategy, but there are some entry level ideas and concepts that can help recruiters get started.
Firstly, make sure that your job advert is clear. Think about what candidates will type into search engines, and then put that exact phrase into your copy. Make sure to include it in the title. The more relevant and tailored you make the job advert, the better your chances of excellent candidates finding it and hitting apply.
Secondly, do some research and look at other job adverts for similar positions. Consider what keywords they use, and then see if you can do better. Be as specific as possible, and again, think like your candidate. Advertising for a writer? Make sure to specify what type. Are you looking for a journalist? A copywriter? A content creator or curator? Get that in the first paragraph of your copy, get it in the header, and make sure it appears as a hashtag when the job ad is shared across social channels.
Tone of Voice
As a content creator and as a writer, I know just how important tone of voice is. It reflects a brand, it establishes an immediate idea of what a company is about, and it serves as a form of gatekeeping. If you use relevant and considered language, you’ll attract the right candidates.
The way you speak says a lot about who you are, where you come from, and your personality. The same is true of branded communications. Try and inject the brand's identity into any job adverts you write.
What you say, and how you say it, matters. Download our free whitepaper on tone of voice and discover how to speak clearly to clients and candidates.
Branding
Tone of voice leads on nicely to branding. The job ad that you write should reflect the company that it’s for, but the branding will determine how it's advertised. This includes the language used, but it also extends to how the job ad is designed.
The brand and the company culture should sparkle, it should resonate, and it should be difficult to ignore. Candidates have the entire internet at their fingertips, and there are plenty more job ads in the digital sea. You have to make sure that this copy stands out, attracting relevant candidates with excellent and well thought out writing.
Social Channels and Relevant Hashtags
For big brands, simply placing a job ad on their website will pull in candidates, but for smaller companies a more strategic approach should be considered. Think about where your ideal candidates hang out, and then share the job ad there.
Social media is a great place to start. Recruiters should investigate LinkedIn groups, Twitter lists, and Facebook groups. These pre-existing and already segmented audiences are ripe and ready for targeting. You can also use a sponsored social media post to reach a tailor made audience, and you can use localised advertising to attrat people in your area.
At every point you should use well researched words and phrases (keywords, hashtags) to narrow down your reach. The end goal? An excellent collection of potential candidates, each one relevant, each one engaged, and each one inspired by your job ad – all aspiring to work at your client's workplace.
The Right Audience, The Right Job Ad
Reaching the right audience with the right job advert is no small task. Some of the leg work is trial and error, other parts of the process are more data driven, but each stage requires a good deal of thought. A scatter shot approach simply doesn’t work in this brave new world with thousands of potential candidates searching for jobs on smartphones, tablets, and laptops, in newspapers, via word of mouth, through recruitment agencies, and on social networks... the list goes on and on.
Use some of the above advice to better tailor your job ads. It might seem like more work to begin with, but it pays off in the long run. Better placements, happier clients, contented and satisfied candidates in relevant jobs – what more could a recruiter ask for?
Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
