The goal of every staffing firm is to recruit highly qualified candidates and attract clients with open requirements in order to create a great match. Brand Matters!Along the way, it is important to build your brand in order to establish a solid reputation within the staffing industry and impel satisfied clients and candidates to recommend your services to others. Of course, the immediate goal is to bring these professionals into your organization and match them up with great new opportunities, but the harder piece of the puzzle is how do you build confidence in your staffing firm brand and promote long-term relationships with clients? It is important for organizations to constantly evaluate and redesign their social sourcing and staffing firm marketing strategies in order to ensure that they are carrying out effective brand sourcing through social media.

Focus Your Efforts
Social media platforms and networks are great resources for recruiting both passive and active candidates. Of course, the primary goal is to pull in these job seekers and make the right match with great new job openings; however, it is important to remember that social media also presents opportunities for staffing firms to market their services and build brand recognition within their target audience. Comprehensive social media sourcing and staffing firm marketing strategies clarify team expectations and allow organizations to reduce the amount of money spent on job boards. Use social media platforms in a strategic way to focus your efforts and work toward your goals. Assign narrow job areas to each recruiter so they are able to refine their searches and specialize in one particular niche of the staffing industry.

Get Engaged
In order to effectively build your staffing firm brand, it is imperative that your top social media marketing goal is to increase user engagement. Instead of simply posting random, non-targeted content, focus your staffing firm marketing strategies on building relationships and encouraging engagement through your social media profiles. The best brands elicit a very emotional response from people, so be sure to make use of fun, interactive content when brand sourcing through social media. Video clips, short surveys, question and answer forums, contests and giveaways are all great ways to engage users and build relationships with your target audience. Create a positive, welcoming environment and make certain that concerns posted online are promptly responded to and praises are graciously acknowledged. Recognize that negative comments or reviews are great opportunities to improve upon your service delivery model and build trust in your brand.

Top Social Sourcing Platforms
Social sourcing, or social recruiting, is a form of e-recruitment wherein recruiters post openings on social media websites and search for candidates by using social media sites. Most recruiters agree that LinkedIn is the best site for social sourcing, due to the fact that you are able to define your target audience; however, don’t discount sites such as Facebook and Twitter which are great for driving users back to your website and building your brand. By using social networking sites like LinkedIn, staffing firms are not only recruiting for today’s open requisitions; recruiters are keeping passive candidates engaged over time for a potential opportunity down the road. Social sourcing platforms help staffing firms be proactive in both their recruiting and brand-building efforts.

Great Social Sourcing Leads to a Better Brand
Building a great brand requires a lot of hard work and competent, knowledgeable staff who are willing to go the extra mile to match the best candidate with the best open position. Turn your team into brand ambassadors and encourage them to actively promote your staffing firm online. Boost your brand by using social media to promote your placement metrics. Use candidate and client testimonials in your social media posts to demonstrate your experience and the satisfaction level of your current clients and candidates. Develop your online social sourcing networks and funnel those candidates into your lead generation pipeline.

Create a Positive Candidate Experience
Once you are able to attract the attention of a potential client or candidate through social media, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that you need to guarantee a positive candidate experience once they are directed back to your website. Be sure to test out all landing pages and make sure that your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is easy to use and does not require candidates to submit an overwhelming amount of information. Bolster your staffing firm brand by using social media posts to draw people to your company blog. Stick to your editorial calendar and make sure to post around the same time of day. People who follow your blog are going to be looking for your next article, so don’t disappoint them by frequently changing your schedule or not posting on weeks when you don’t feel like writing. Ensure great brand sourcing through social media by constantly re-evaluating and improving the candidate experience.

Key Takeaways for Brand Sourcing Through Social Media:S.J.Hemley Marketing

  1. Create comprehensive strategies that allow recruiters to focus their social media efforts
  2. Make engagement your number one priority in order to build brand awareness
  3. Choose the social media platforms that allow your staffing firm to best reach your target audience and build your brand
  4. Adopt great social recruiting practices as a way to drive brand loyalty
  5. Guarantee a positive candidate experience to encourage future word-of-mouth referrals

About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.