Inside the Social Media Strategies of Top Recruitment Marketing Teams

Social media is a critical component of modern Recruitment Marketing — not as a standalone tactic, but as a strategic engine for awareness, engagement and conversion. When executed well, organic and paid social media help build trust with passive talent, reinforce employer brand and support hiring outcomes long before a candidate ever clicks “apply.”

That’s why the 2025 Rally® Awards™ recognize excellence in both Best Use of Organic Social Media and Best Use of Paid Social Media. These categories celebrate teams that move beyond posting and promotion to demonstrate clear strategy, audience insight and measurable Recruitment Marketing impact.

This year, our panel of peer judges recognized four standout Rally Awards winners in social recruiting whose work set new best practices in Recruitment Marketing:

• First Place – Best Use of Organic Social Media: UBS, for their employee-led “We See Your Abilities” campaign using authentic storytelling to build trust and advance disability inclusion.
  
• Second Place – Best Use of Organic Social Media: Baylor Scott & White Health, for a consistent, employee-driven organic social strategy grounded in culture, purpose and community connection.
  
• First Place – Best Use of Paid Social Media: BAT (British American Tobacco), for transforming paid social into a global, multi-phase storytelling engine through their Battle of Minds campaign.
  
• Second Place – Best Use of Paid Social Media: Baylor Scott & White Health, for a platform-specific, data-driven paid social strategy optimized continuously to drive recruitment results.
  

In this post, we’ll explore what set these winning social media strategies apart and share practical lessons you can apply to strengthen your own Recruitment Marketing approach.

2025 Rally Award Winners: Best Use of Organic Social Media in Recruitment Marketing

Organic social media success requires clarity of voice, discipline in execution and a deep understanding of what resonates with talent — all without the safety net of paid spend. The 2025 winners proved that thoughtful storytelling and authenticity can deliver real results.

First Place: UBS — “We See Your Abilities”

For a global organization like UBS, inclusion isn’t a slogan — and telling that story in a credible way matters. For candidates with disabilities or neurodivergence, what they see (or don’t see) in employer content can influence whether they feel comfortable engaging at all.

UBS chose to be intentional.

Rather than creating a polished, campaign-heavy message about inclusion, the team stepped back and let employees lead the story. The challenge wasn’t just awareness — it was trust. How do you signal, publicly and credibly, that candidates with disabilities will be respected, supported and heard before they ever apply?

The answer was storytelling, grounded in lived experience.

From March through December 2024, UBS launched “We See Your Abilities,” a series of organic LinkedIn and Instagram posts centered on employee voices. These weren’t messages about programs or policies. They were human stories — professionals sharing how they work, contribute and thrive, sometimes while navigating barriers others rarely talk about.

The campaign drew from UBS’s Employer Value Proposition, “More than ourselves,” and made it tangible: belonging means being seen for your abilities, not defined by assumptions. Global Ability Employee Networks played a critical role, amplifying the stories and helping them travel organically through trusted communities.

Every detail reinforced that intent — inclusive language, accessible formats and creative choices that spotlighted individuals rather than initiatives. And because this was sustained over time, not a single moment, UBS didn’t just raise awareness — they created space for connection and confidence to engage.

Key highlights include:

• Centered employee storytelling to normalize disability and neurodiversity at work
  
• Used inclusive language and accessibility-friendly formats across content
  
• Partnered with internal networks to organically amplify reach through shares
  
• Linked social posts to UBS Backstage, providing deeper career and inclusion content
  
• Tested multiple content formats, including video, photo galleries and quote-based visuals
  

Why UBS Won

Judges praised UBS for tackling a topic rarely addressed so directly in employer social content — and for doing so with authenticity, respect and measurable impact.

• Quality: Thoughtful storytelling, strong visuals and accessible formats created emotional resonance and credibility
  
• Innovation: Leveraged real employee voices to address disability inclusion without over-branding or corporate framing
  
• Results:
  
  • 1.3M+ impressions and 170K+ engagements across 18 organic posts
    
  • 7.4% engagement rate, well above industry benchmarks
    
  • 20% increase in candidate accommodation-related inquiries, signaling increased trust
    

Judges’ Comments:

“Wow, what a brilliant strategy! Neurodivergence impacts so many people, and it’s amazing to see a company brave enough to normalize it. The authenticity extended far beyond recruitment and created a real community moment.”

Second Place: Baylor Scott & White Health — Organic Social Recruiting Strategy

In a highly competitive healthcare labor market, Baylor Scott & White Health faced a familiar challenge: how to attract experienced, mission-driven talent without relying solely on paid reach — and how to do it in a way that felt human, credible and local.

Their answer wasn’t a single campaign or viral moment. It was consistency.

Baylor Scott & White Health built an organic social strategy rooted in employee advocacy, community connection and platform-specific storytelling. Instead of treating social as a broadcast channel, the team focused on conversation — empowering employees to share their experiences and engaging directly with audiences through comments, messages and ongoing interaction.

Employee stories became the foundation. Through spotlights, cultural observances, career growth content and recruiter-led insights, the organization brought its brand promise, The Power to Live Better, to life in everyday moments. LinkedIn content leaned into professional storytelling for healthcare talent, while Facebook and Instagram highlighted culture, purpose and community impact — all while driving interested candidates back to the careers site.

A key enabler was making it easy for team members to share approved content with their own networks. By doing this, Baylor Scott & White Health extended reach through trusted voices — allowing the employer brand to travel organically through personal connections rather than corporate channels.

What makes this strategy stand out is its discipline. The content wasn’t flashy or trend-driven — it was steady, relevant and aligned to what healthcare professionals actually care about: purpose, belonging and growth. Over time, that consistency paid off, strengthening both reach and engagement within a highly specific talent audience.

Key highlights include:

• Employee advocacy powered by Hootsuite Amplify
  
• Platform-specific content strategies across LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram
  
• Diverse content calendar spanning employee spotlights, cultural observances and career growth
  
• Active engagement with followers to build community and trust
  

Why Baylor Scott & White Health Won

Judges recognized the team’s ability to achieve strong organic reach and engagement within a niche, competitive talent market by deeply understanding audience motivation.

• Quality: Consistent, employee-led storytelling aligned tightly with brand and mission
  
• Innovation: Turned employees into a scalable distribution engine through advocacy tools
  
• Results:
  
  • Facebook reach up 12.9% and followers up 14%
    
  • 800+ employee shares generating potential reach of over 2 million accounts
    
  • Estimated ad value of $32,042 through organic social amplification
    

Judges’ Comments:

“The videos were some of the best I’ve seen — polished but still authentic. This is a strong example of content that truly aligns with the motivations of the talent audience.”

2025 Rally Award Winners: Best Use of Paid Social Media in Recruitment Marketing

Paid social can easily become expensive or inefficient without a clear strategy. The winners in this category demonstrated how data, creativity and disciplined optimization can turn paid media into a powerful Recruitment Marketing investment.

First Place: BAT — Fueling Innovation: Battle of Minds 2024

BAT (British American Tobacco) wasn’t trying to fill a set of roles. They were trying to earn the attention of a generation that expects more from employers — more purpose, more challenge and more opportunity to shape the future.

The Battle of Minds competition has long been part of BAT’s early-career strategy, but 2024 raised the stakes. The team set out to reposition BAT clearly and credibly as an innovation-led employer — one focused on well-being, sustainability and AI — while engaging early-career talent across 25 markets with vastly different cultural contexts.

Paid social became the engine to make that ambition real.

Rather than relying on a single platform or message, BAT designed a multi-phase, multi-channel Recruitment Marketing campaign strategy that treated paid social as a storytelling system. The campaign unfolded in deliberate stages — building anticipation, introducing the challenge, driving applications and finally spotlighting winning teams. Each phase was supported by platform-specific creative across Meta, LinkedIn and Google, shaped and refined through continuous testing and optimization.

The creative idea, “The Next Big Disruptor,” framed participation as an invitation — not to apply for a job, but to solve real-world problems tied to AI and well-being. Video played a central role, showcasing innovation, scale and momentum while positioning BAT as a place where bold ideas are encouraged and rewarded.

What sets this work apart is how tightly creativity and performance were connected. Media strategies evolved based on audience behavior. Content formats and messages were adjusted mid-campaign. Localization allowed BAT to activate globally without losing coherence. Paid social wasn’t used to amplify a message after the fact — it shaped the experience from start to finish.

Key highlights include:

• Clear creative concept: “The Next Big Disruptor”
• Platform-specific execution across Meta, LinkedIn, Google and email
  
• Multi-phase campaign structure from teaser to application to winner storytelling
  
• Continuous A/B testing and data-driven optimization
  

Why BAT Won

Judges cited BAT’s ability to balance bold creativity with precise performance measurement at global scale.

• Quality: Cohesive storytelling across platforms with strong video creative
  
• Innovation: Gamified recruitment experience aligned with EVP and early-career motivations
  
• Results:
  
  • 5,500+ registrations across 25 countries (+18% YoY)
    
  • Meta CTRs up to 2.59%
    
  • Google Display CTR of 3.58%
    

Judges’ Comments:

“This was one of the most impressive entries in the category. Strategic, creative and transparent — a best-in-class example of paid social for recruitment marketing.”

Second Place: Baylor Scott & White Health — Leveraging Paid Social to Attract Top Talent

Baylor Scott & White Health’s paid social strategy focused on reaching the right healthcare professionals, on the right platforms, with content that felt relevant, authentic and worth engaging with. So rather than forcing a single message everywhere, the team designed a paid social strategy that let each channel do what it does best while elevating the company’s employer brand.

Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok each played a distinct role. Meta was used for efficient reach and conversion, including geofencing and third-party data to support hard-to-fill roles. LinkedIn delivered highly targeted, professional storytelling through job-specific and conversational ad formats. TikTok focused on visual storytelling — leaning into culture, employee perspectives and creative experimentation to reach emerging talent.

What made the strategy effective was its responsiveness. Performance data guided decisions throughout the year, not just at the end. When TikTok’s initial lead-generation approach underperformed, the team pivoted to website applications — a shift that dramatically changed outcomes. Content was continuously refreshed, refined and tested in partnership with Recruitics, keeping campaigns aligned with both audience behavior and hiring goals.

Behind the numbers was a consistent creative thread: real employee stories, career growth narratives and content that reflected the lived experience of working in healthcare. Paid media didn’t replace authenticity — it amplified it.

By treating paid social as an adaptive system rather than a fixed plan, Baylor Scott & White Health demonstrated how analytics, creativity and platform fluency can work together to drive meaningful recruitment results.

Key highlights include:

• Platform-specific targeting (including geofencing and third-party data)
  
• Creative mix of employee testimonials, career growth stories and video content
  
• Ongoing optimization of each channel
  
• Strategic pivot on TikTok from lead gen to website applications
  

Why Baylor Scott & White Health Won

Judges were impressed by the sophistication of the analytics and the team’s willingness to adapt strategy based on real data.

• Quality: Clear alignment between creative, platform intent and audience behavior
  
• Innovation: Smart use of TikTok and mid-campaign optimization
  
• Results:
  
  • LinkedIn applications up 128%
    
  • Meta applications up 66% with improved CPC efficiency
    
  • TikTok applications up 103% following strategy pivot
    

Judges’ Comments:

“A decrease in clicks combined with an increase in applications? That’s the dream scenario. This team clearly understands how to optimize for the outcomes that matter.”

Lessons in Creating an Award-Winning Social Media Strategy in Recruitment Marketing 

Across the 2025 winners, the difference wasn’t access to better tools or bigger budgets — it was how intentionally social media was used within a broader Recruitment Marketing system.

A few strategic patterns stand out:

Design for trust before scale.
Organic strategies that worked weren’t optimized for reach first — they were optimized for credibility. Authentic employee advocacy voices, lived experience and sustained storytelling lowered hesitation and created permission for talent to engage. Paid social performed best when it amplified that trust, not replaced it.

Let platforms earn distinct roles.
High-performing teams resisted the urge to standardize creative across channels. Organic social prioritized conversation, community and consistency. Paid social focused on precision, sequencing and performance. The clearer the role of each platform, the more effective the system became.

Sequence the story, not just the spend.
The strongest paid strategies treated campaigns as narratives with phases — awareness, engagement, conversion and reinforcement — rather than a single burst of ads. This made creative easier to evolve and performance easier to diagnose.

Use data to guide creative decisions, not just report outcomes.
Measurement wasn’t an endpoint. Teams used their Recruitment Marketing analytics to adjust content formats, messaging and even conversion goals based on what audiences actually did — including pivoting mid-campaign when signals changed.

Build distribution into the strategy.
Employee advocacy, network amplification and shareable formats weren’t afterthoughts. They were designed into the content itself, extending reach through people rather than relying solely on paid delivery.

Best Social Recruiting Strategies: Key Takeaways for 2026

The 2025 Rally Award winners for Best Use of Organic and Paid Social Media show that social isn’t just a distribution channel — it’s a strategic layer of modern Recruitment Marketing that shapes how talent perceives, trusts and chooses an employer. 

Congratulations once again to UBS, BAT and Baylor Scott & White Health! They demonstrated that strong social recruiting strategies aren’t built on trends or tactics alone. They’re built on understanding people, designing systems that evolve over time and measuring what truly matters — not just reach or clicks, but confidence to engage and take the next step.

Entries for the 2026 Rally® Awards™ are now open, and if your social strategy pushed boundaries, tested new ideas or delivered meaningful Recruitment Marketing impact this year, we encourage you to share your story and help shape the future of the discipline.