One of the biggest challenges that we face as recruitment marketers is content creation for our social recruiting strategy. We know by now that employee-centric testimonials, video clips and authentic storytelling perform best, but we’re still taking a reactionary approach as opposed to a proactive one when it comes to posting across social media. As we market our employer brands and job descriptions through social media, we capitalize upon a trending hashtag, we share photos from an on-campus event and before long we’re scrambling to get something else published.
While that reactionary tactic works for some, the most successful social media recruiting strategies I’ve seen start with the creation and updating of a social recruiting calendar. I’d like to share a few tips on how to get started and encourage you to utilize this Social Recruiting Editorial Calendar Template (click to download) that has helped guide my personal approach to content planning.
Getting Started
Start by listing out the main social media platforms you’ll use: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Glassdoor, etc. Set a goal pertaining to frequency while being realistic about bandwidth. How often are you able to post? I aim to push out material at least once a day to maintain momentum.
Once you’ve determined your planned frequency, start filling in your social recruiting calendar with content you can expect. Take a look at the upcoming holidays (here’s a 2017 list from SproutSocial that’s still a great reference), trending hashtags, hiring events and positions that will need social media amplification. I suggest that you think long and hard about the hashtags, holidays and notable days that will resonate with your audience and, most importantly, align to your brand. Don’t jump on a bandwagon just because it’s trending. If you don’t have cool imagery to back it up and it simply doesn’t coincide with your broader content picture, don’t scramble to come up with something. I’d personally prefer to keep quiet on #SunglassesDay and instead wow audiences during #NurseAppreciationWeek.
Planning Month One
Most Marketing teams plan their content calendars months in advance. They have a pretty informed understanding of what and when they’ll be posting during the next fiscal quarter. While that should absolutely be your long-term goal, if you’re just getting started, I’d recommend that you begin with the month ahead.
Start gathering material and take a look at the assets that already exist. If you notice a few gaps, fill them with evergreen content such as promotions around your careers website or an article from The Muse about interview advice. Did you notice that a certain recruiter is consistently faced with hard to fills? Reach out and ask them if their hiring team would be interested in taking part in a feature article for your blog. Does a certain office location struggle to place the right talent? How about a #TravelTuesday campaign highlighting the interesting facets to that particular city? There are four days right there that you can develop an actual plan around. You may have to do some lifting when it comes to gathering imagery but that’s okay — you’ve given yourself an entire month to do exactly that.
Once you have a library of content, make sure to maximize each piece across all your recruiting channels. For inspiration, check out the Rally Recruitment Marketing Ideabook: 18 Ways to Share Employee Stories.
Using a Template
This basic social recruiting editorial calendar template has worked really well for me, and I hope it helps you. Be sure to customize it to your brand. Figure out during which time slots your social channels experience the highest level of engagement by tapping into insights and reporting tools like Sprinklr or Hootsuite. Keep up with popular hashtags by tying in sites like Tagboard to your strategy and remember, the best content typically comes from within. Don’t rush to be a part of the trend — create your own!
Click to download the social recruiting editorial calendar template>
