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Stories Inc.’s Head of Marketing shares tips from traditional marketing that give social media recruiting content an advantage. This is the second piece in our series on ways recruitment marketers pros can create exceptional content that breaks through the noise.

Recruitment marketing on social media is not the sharing of “We’re hiring!” messages. 

Dude, everyone’s hiring. 

Social content is fast, so you need to get right to the point. And, the point is what makes your culture different from all the others out there. If your social media recruiting content looks the same as every other company’s, you’re going to have no engagement, click throughs or conversions… and you’ll leave no lasting impression. 

Great social media recruiting posts…

1. Appear in the feed of your target candidate
2. Stop them mid-scroll 
3. Keep their attention 
4. Compel them to take the next step 

… all in a matter of seconds. 

To accomplish these four fast steps, your social media recruiting content needs to reflect your unique employer brand. 

Social content that tells your culture story 

Candidates, employees and consumers look to company social media channels to learn about your company culture and brand. They want to learn about what you stand for and how your employee experience is different from other workplaces. 

The best way to simultaneously communicate your differences and capture attention is with employee stories.Employee stories are real insights that immediately build a connection between your company and the social media user. These stories become engaging video, photo, graphic and written content. In fact, Stories Inc. clients often see four times the engagement on their stories-focused LinkedIn posts vs. non-story updates. 

Stories-fueled posts are more likely to receive comments, “likes”, shares, video views and click-throughs than posts featuring corporate, vague or generic language. And, stories invite and compel employees to participate in your social content, and that’s social validation of your employer brand!  

Tip 1: Optimize stories for social channels

Social media optimization (SMO) is the sibling of search engine optimization (SEO). SMO means that one size does not fit all when it comes to creating social content, and each channel requires adjustments for its platforms and audiences. Stories from throughout your company are ideal content for all social channels! However, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest and Snapchat all have unique perimeters. Be mindful of the content length and styles for each video, image and text story shared on each channel. 

At Stories, we optimize each story for the channel where it will be shared. We’re mindful of technical elements for each social platform, such as video resolutions, orientations, length, and captions. All supporting text is customized so the viewer can most easily take the next step, as each channel has different ways of supplying calls to action and links. Most importantly, we take advantage of and maximize every channel’s unique nuance to best serve the story.  

SMO essentials: 

• Turn off all auto-sharing between social channels. 
• Customize each employee story and CTA per channel.
• Always upload video stories natively to social channels — don’t share YouTube or Vimeo links. Social channels algorithms prefer native video, therefore, these stories are more likely to appear in candidates’ feeds. 

Learn more: Social recruiting content 

Tip 2: Repurpose stories for social 

Every employee story in your talent marketing content can be repurposed for multiple social media posts! Give content new life on your social channels. 

Take longer-form content and mine them for short social stories. Create shorter video clips, tailored per social channel. Develop graphics featuring employees’ most impactful quotes. By extracting social stories from all areas of your content, you’re building a content library that keeps original social content at the ready. 

Repurposing essentials: 

• Post links to stories on your careers blog to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (optimized per channel).
• Share great photos of team members to Instagram.
• Go beyond posting just a job opening link — share a story from a member of that team that brings that job description and team culture to life. 

Learn more: Repurposing content for social media 

Tip 3: Engage employees and candidates 

Employees and candidates are already active on their personal social media channels for hours each day. Tap into that by inviting them to follow and engage with your official channels. Each time your channel admins interact with a follower, it is a recruitment opportunity. And every employee who follows and participates with company social presents a chance for re-recruitment, and provides your brand with access to their networks. Plus, employees who share content to their channels identify themselves as natural storytellers for your recruitment marketing content. 

Employee engagement ideas:

• Develop “LifeAt” social channels. 
• Add stories to your corporate marketing department’s social calendars — employee stories generally perform better here than other content, too. 
• Establish and promote a designated hashtag. 
• Ask employees for permission to reshare their posts to official channels. This interaction is a way to show respect and appreciation, and get buy-in for their role as an ambassador. 

Candidate engagement tips: 

• Reply to users who publicly tag your channels.
• Follow back.
• Comment on, “like” and ask to re-share their positive posts. 

Learn more: Employer branding hashtags that are #killingit at social recruiting and employee engagement

Get more social recruiting content tips in our guide

Inside our guide we further break down how to develop social content that reflects your core values, mission and employee experience. Plus, we’ve included the most current specs for optimal image sizes, hashtag use, video lengths, and more — channel by channel!