Super Bowl ad commercials are notorious for a few things, one is that they attract a lot of television viewers and two is that they are expensive. In 2019, the American footbal event was watched by 98.2 million people. Also in 2019, CBS was selling a 30-second Super Bowl ad for around $5.1 to $5.3 million according to Bloomberg. The problem with Super Bowl ads is that while you remember you saw something funny, you may not remember the brand that was associated with it. There is instantaneous call to action, whereas online, you can click right away to visit a website.

Compare this now to social media. 93.7 percent of businesses are actively on Facebook according to the State of Social Media 2019 Report. In the same report, 84.4% of businesses stated using Twitter and 80.9% stated using Instagram. Further, only 70% use LinkedIn.

What makes social media such a great option for businesses? It is typically less expensive.  In fact, it's free to post content and you can easily add a call to action or link to follow immediately when you want the reader to learn more. There is no need to write something down or memorize it. Plus, the viewer or connection can always save information if he or she can’t watch or read it right away.

In 2018, Buffer reported the official top 5 Facebook posts of last year.  Here's the reaction they received.

1. “Before You Feel Pressure Watch This” by Jay Shetty received 2.5 million likes and 228,000 comments.
2. “7 Super easy ways to keep your food fresher, longer!” by So Yummy received 1.1 million likes and 96,000 comments.
3. “Scalloped Potato Roll” – by BuzzFeed Tasty received 2.3 million likes and 226,000 comments.
4. “Before You Take Someone For Granted Watch This” by Jay Shetty received 797,000 likes and 115,000 comments.
5. “Wow” by Penoy Rap Radio received 1.8 million and 92,000 comments.

What is it that all these posts have in common? They are interesting and inspiring. They are topics that people care about. They are genuine and they include a video.

Social Media for Recruitment

While you can pay to post a job ad on a job board or have your job requisitions scraped by an aggregator, but it won’t be as genuine as if it were posted on social media. Social media is posted and shared by real people, i.e. brand advocates, who are choosing to share information. It is real and offers authenticity. It acts very much like a referral source.

This is the biggest reason social media attracts passive job seekers. The potential candidate may not be necessarily searching for a job, but something about your opportunity peaked their interest on their social media feed, so they clicked to learn more.

Further, with the appropriate message, such as funny, inspiring, or interesting phrases, it can spread across networks like wildfire with 'likes' and 'comments.' Taking your message viral, and having viewers choose to share your content, is key for reducing recruitment advertising costs.

Video Attracts Candidates on Social Media

If you’re ready to get started and really drive in applications for top talent, you need to be sharing video content about your job opportunities and company culture. Video is much easier to digest on a mobile device than a long string of text. Candidates are looking at their social feeds on mobile devices, so when your job opening is in a video format, viola! You’ve got your job seeker on the hook.

Large social platforms love video. According to HubSpot, social media posts with video have 48% more views and G2 Crowd says social video generates 1,200% more shares than image and text content combined. Facebook has over 8 billion video views each day according to TechCrunch and Mashable says that Snapchatters watch 10 billion video every day.

Video content is perfect for social media. It draws more attention, clicks, shares and engagement. This is certainly no different when it comes to recruiting top talent.

Digi-Me, a company that transforms text job ads into video job ad solutions, reports that 70% of candidate / viewer traffic of their video job ads are from social sharing, which is free of charge. Further, 60% of Digi-Me clients’ applicant flow comes from social platforms.

Video conveys a message about your client’s job positions and their company culture in a way that text alone cannot achieve. It shows and tells a story about the people behind the job, processes, philosophies, awards, etc. in under one minute. In the digital age, attention spans seem to be shortening as we are all bombarded with media and ads. Video is short, simple and effective.

Sharing is Caring: Let Your Brand Advocates do the Work

Who do you want to share your opportunities? How about your brand advocates; your employees?

According to a recent blog by Clear Company, “statistics show 1 out of every 5 referrals gets hired.” The blog also stated referrals have longer tenure and are happier at the companies they are recruited to, being that “46% stay over 1 year, 45% over 2 years and 47% over 3 years.” 67 percent of recruiters and employers reported the overall recruiting process took less time. 51 percent of recruiters and employers reported that it was more cost effective / less expensive to recruit a referral.

Needless to say, referrals are a great source for your recruitment efforts and they can be easily attracted by digital video on social media when shared out to your company’s network.

Relevant Hashtags are Key to Effectively Recruiting Social Media

Recruiting is like advertising. You have a candidate that you are looking for and you are trying to find a way to reach him or her. Hashtags will help you target and hone in on the type of attention you want. For instance, if it is a sales role, you’ll want sales hashtags. If it is for customer service, you’ll want to include hashtags like #customerservice or #customerexperience. Software and technology jobs should include hashtags such as #developer, #IT, #technology, #Linux, and any buzz word associated with the job description.

Any and all jobs can include general job search hashtags such as #hiring, #jobs, #jobsearch, #career and #apply. Twitter now has a 280-character limit, so make the most of those characters and include as many relevant hashtags as possible. Be sure to do your hashtag research too. Websites like RiteTag help you get ideas on the right hashtags to add.

If you are looking to attract better quality candidates and effectively reduce cost per hire in today’s digital economy, think socially. Recruiting socially with video job ads and relevant hashtags can help your talent acquisition team achieve the results you’ve been searching for.