With so many online channels out there, it’s tricky to determine which will actually be helpful for your recruitment strategy. The popularity of social media platforms can rise and fall unexpectedly, making it a challenge to figure out which are worth the time on top of investing in your website’s Careers page.
Finding smart digital platforms is important, given we’re so far into social distancing and most recruitment is still taking place online. Now is a good time to take stock of your social media recruitment strategy. Based on current data about how Gen Z consumes various media, here’s our breakdown on which platforms to invest in building up your employer brand and which ones you shouldn’t bother with.
Use: Instagram
You’ll want to market your employer brand on platforms where Gen Z spends their time, which makes Instagram a high priority for recruitment. In fact, roughly three-quarters of Gen Z’ers use Instagram – and they use it a lot. Research from Business Insider found that almost two-thirds of Gen Z’ers check Instagram every day.
Given the platform’s popularity, it might be a good idea to invest in creating a company culture/university recruitment specific Instagram. By sharing info about recruitment events, application due dates, insights into the culture at the company, and even advice about the process, you can provide a channel to students without investing in a standalone blog. In today’s virtual work environment, you can also share information about remote internships and how employee team-building happens via remote work. Another strategy on Instagram is to use geofilters in your posts and stories, since these could help you stand out during campus recruiting season and even help to promote certain events. If you want to merge your event strategy with your social media strategy, consider hosting a Q&A through Instagram Live.
Instagram is also highly visual, so you can follow that old storytelling adage of “show, don’t tell.” For example, you can use Instagram Stories to do “intern takeovers” or “employee takeovers” to show a day-in-the-life. If you really want to invest in this platform as a mode of distribution, promote your Instagram through other channels like on LinkedIn, at your recruitment events, and even in your email signature to help build an audience.
Use: LinkedIn
Today’s college students are professionally savvy and understand the value of LinkedIn, and consider it a great place to build rapport with potential future employees.
The first step is to fill out all the information on your company page and make sure you’re posting frequently about goings-on at the company, upcoming deadlines and opportunities, and career events or webinars that might be on the calendar. We generally don’t recommend creating multiple company pages (such as an individual page for an internship program or a leadership development program), so tailored brand-building can come from university recruiters interacting with potential candidates, as well sharing updates about the company and entry-level opportunities. You might also consider looking into paid LinkedIn ads to drive students to your opportunities, or to your company page to learn more about your programs for interns or entry-level employees.
In addition, LinkedIn has become a very engaging platform, especially when people interact with posts, so your LinkedIn strategy should reflect all of that engagement. One way to do this is to empower your current employees to share about their experiences at your company. Consider creating a series that highlights different employees across the company, or create a singular hashtag for employees and interns to use.
Use: TikTok
Over the past few years, TikTok has exploded in popularity. TikTok is a social media platform where users share short mobile videos, often with artistic filters and comedic content. The TikTok crowd skews younger, but you are still likely to find the college-aged Gen Z’ers you’re working to connect with. According to HubSpot, 60% of TikTok’s U.S. audience is between the ages of 16 and 24. Given how much TikTok is dominated by Gen Z, recruiters should at the very least get familiar with the platform and how its users are consuming and sharing content.
As for actually creating content, recruiters could benefit from asking campus reps or interns to create TikToks on behalf of the company. TikTok can be a fun way to repackage messaging, and can also be shared on Instagram and other social media channels.
However, TikTok might not be right for every brand. On top of that, the platform is changing so often that you’ll want to make sure you stay abreast of its evolving trends (and maybe practice a few dances!) if you decide to use it.
Use: YouTube
Gen Z loves video and YouTube. In fact, YouTube is one of the most-used platform for this generation, and 80% of teens say they turn to YouTube with the goal of learning something. This can be a good place if you already have a lot of video content or if you’re willing to invest in more. Content like intern vlogs, testimonials, and office tours can be a good way to build your brand with Gen Z. However, YouTube is definitely a bigger undertaking than Instagram and creating short videos to post to your Instagram Story. You will likely want a higher production value for YouTube videos, and these will take more time and money to create. However, unlike other social media profiles such as Instagram, you will not need to post content nearly as frequently.
Furthermore, if you upload high-quality videos to YouTube, you can also leverage cross-posting and use these videos on your career page profiles or on other social channels. Investing in YouTube would be a good way to invest in high quality content that can be repurposed elsewhere.
Use: RippleMatch
With an active candidate profile of more than 4 million internship and entry-level job seekers, RippleMatch is a great place to establish your company as a brand invested in nurturing the next generation of talent. That’s because recruiting software RippleMatch will help your organization spread brand awareness with the right audiences effortlessly, and control your narrative with branded careers pages. Plus, RippleMatch will help you provide a standout candidate experience for applicants that will only further strengthen your image as a great place to work for students and new grads. Candidates also love to use RippleMatch to find their next role, giving the platform a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +36, compared to +21 for LinkedIn and -8 for Handshake.
Use for Specific Cases: Facebook
Despite the headlines saying Facebook is not the platform of choice for Gen Z, the sheer volume of Facebook users makes this a good place to build your employer brand if you’re willing to pay, or invest time in experimenting with different strategies. Facebook ads allow you to target by location, which can be useful if you want to target events to certain cities and universities. You can also target people who have interests that align with what your company stands for, making this a powerful tool for promoting your company’s values and broader mission.
Facebook groups are also an untapped resource. With so many groups created by campus or national organizations and affinity groups in certain industries, these can be a great channel for getting the word out about an event or job opportunity. You could also consider investing in your own Facebook group to facilitate conversation about your industry or company, though this would require investing a significant amount of time to build up and engage with an audience.
Because of the dismal organic (non-paid) reach of Facebook Company pages, don’t expect to see much traction through consistent posting – if you want to see results from Facebook, you’re better off investing more time in one of the methods or channels listed above.
Avoid: Twitter
Twitter is one of the less frequently used platforms for Gen Z. According to Pew Research, only 44% of 18-to-24-year-olds use Twitter. By contrast, about two-thirds of people in this age group use Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, while 90% use YouTube. Another survey by the Talent Board found that only 4% of job seekers use Twitter to look for employment opportunities. Given how relatively few Gen Z users are on Twitter, and how rarely the platform is used for job searching, it might be hard to organically connect with prospective candidates for internships and entry-level positions. It’s better to spend your time and resources on platforms where your target audience has a larger presence.
Avoid: Snapchat
Even though 73% of 18-to-24-year-olds use Snapchat, it’s very difficult for companies to build an organic audience on the platform. Snapchat is a social media channel that enables you to communicate by sharing temporary messages, images, and videos. However, the content only lasts for 24 hours, which is challenging for establishing a brand, and content cannot be easily shared to other social media platforms. Another drawback is that unlike most other social media platforms, users cannot share your content on their own profiles. While Snapchat works well for personal connections and even for paid advertising, it is not ideal for recruitment.
Regardless of which platforms you use to recruit Gen Z and market your employer brand to Gen Z, the most important thing to remember is to be authentic. Visitors to these online channels are not only trying to get factual information about your company, but also to get a sense of the company culture. They want to envision themselves working for you, so use your best combination of written and visual content on these platforms to make prospective job candidates feel welcome, interested, and eager to apply.
