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Recruitment is an ever-changing process – and in this social media age, it’s no wonder influencers have the potential to play a significant role. More businesses than ever are turning to social media platforms to find and engage with potential candidates. Therefore, it stands to reason that influencers will play a part in the future of recruitment. Here, we look at why you should consider working with influencers and how you can use influencer marketing in your next recruitment strategy.
Influencers in the Recruiting Process and Their Benefits
The rise of influencer marketing and the popularity of social media is a winning combination – one that has led influencers to create a new way of doing business online.
Highly influential content creators have perfected the act of reaching their target audience through a mix of dedication, hard work, and an understanding of how social media works. So if influencer posts around topics relating to your business or shares your target audience, why not tap into their skills for recruitment?
As part of a robust hiring strategy, influencers can aid businesses and recruitment agencies in reaching a more broad and diverse pool of candidates than ever before. To facilitate this process, businesses and recruitment agencies can also utilize executive search software, which streamlines the recruitment process by identifying and reaching out to top-level candidates based on specific criteria.
Benefits of Working with an Influencer
When it comes to influencer content, engagement is the name of the game. So when considering your recruitment strategy, influencers can help increase brand awareness and attract more qualified candidates. By promoting job opportunities or sharing content around your business, they can reach and engage with a wider audience.
Influencers also provide valuable insights into the needs of younger workers, especially Gen Z. Generation Z is a term used to define anyone born between 1997 and 2012 and now makes up the population of new graduates. From new fashion trends to social ones, we learn a lot from the Gen Z demographic. Using influencers for recruitment will be particularly effective for businesses looking to hire creatives, such as graphic designers or people who require a solid social media presence.
Understanding your workforce will help your business to adapt current recruiting strategies, thus attracting and retaining the best employees. Remember that your recruitment strategy doesn’t stop once you’ve offered the best candidate the job. The onboarding experience is essential to ensuring a positive employee experience. Use tools like the Paylocity employee onboarding checklist to ensure you prioritize people over paperwork.
Utilizing Influencers in the Recruiting Process
Ready to get behind this new trend? Below is a step-by-step guide to help you get started in your influencer recruitment strategy.
1. Define your Target Market
Any influencer marketing or recruitment strategy must first define who you wish to target. This will make choosing which influencer to work with and what content to produce easier.
Consider aspects like experience level, skill set, and education when defining your audience.
2. Find the Best Influencer
Once you have defined your target audience, find a suitable influencer. Conduct ample research to discover influencers within your industry or niche, then check their engagement rates and followers.
A reasonable engagement rate for social media is between 1% and 5%. So if an influencer has 200,000 followers, you’d want to see a minimum of 2,000 likes or views on their posts. It’s also essential to collaborate with an influencer who aligns with your company values and strongly connects with your target audience.
3. Secure a Partnership
Start reaching out to influencers to develop a connection with them. Interact with their social media posts, follow their accounts, and strike up a conversation.
An influencer needs to see how partnering with your business will benefit them, you and their audience, so you need to bring value. Influencers will likely look through your website and social media posts, so ensure your marketing is in top form. After all, no influencer wants to work with a business that neglects its online image.
Remember, popular influencers can be inundated with partnership offers almost every day, so you need to stand out. Stay on top of your marketing strategies by monitoring the latest trends in social media and email marketing for small businesses. In this way, you can show potential partners that your brand is current and engaged with its audience. Once you’ve established an influencer partnership, discuss sponsored content that can be used to promote job openings and attract potential candidates.
4. Create Relevant and Engaging Content
Creating online content is one of the most challenging parts of this strategy. You and your chosen influencer must work together to create authentic content that works well with their social media algorithm while promoting your business and career. Content could include TikTok videos, Instagram posts, or Facebook stories, among other content. If you don’t have a social media executive for your business, it could be beneficial to work with a social media marketing agency during the process.
5. Promote Your Job Opening Elsewhere
Working with influencers is only one way to recruit – you still need a solid marketing strategy to find the best candidate for the role. Combining traditional marketing methods, such as paid job adverts, with influencer campaigns is the optimal way to increase the reach of your content and attract more candidates. You may want to use a hiring platform for streamlined talent acquisition and to make it quick and easy for candidates to apply for the role.
Encourage your influencer to mention the job opening in their posts and direct their followers to apply. You can also make use of hashtags relevant to the job position and industry, which will help job seekers find the post in their job search.
6. Measure Your Results
A good recruitment strategy can only be refined by tracking and measuring results. Look at application rates, job advert traffic, and the number of candidates that applied for interviews. Don’t forget to include social media analytics for any influencer posts during your recruitment campaign. Compare this to previous recruitment drives that didn’t incorporate influencer marketing to see how the results differ.
Use the data to examine which sections can be improved for future recruitment efforts. This step is essential in determining whether an influencer recruitment campaign is right for your business and how to secure more engaging and fruitful collaborations in the future.
Influencers: The Future of Recruitment
A strong influencer recruitment strategy requires thoughtful planning. But the results could be worth the effort. To be successful, it’s essential to choose an influencer who fits with your goals and audience and has built trust with their followers. Of course, a strategy is only as good as its content, so ensure you produce high-quality and relevant posts, no matter which platform you’re utilizing.
Influencer marketing may seem like a short-lived trend, but given the popularity of social media, it’s clear content creators are here to stay. With that in mind, embracing the role of influencers in recruiting could make all the difference in securing top talent.
Are you an influencer that wants to work with a reputable agency? Check out NeoReach and our new creator portal!
