3 Examples of Employers Using Social Media for Hiring

The best employers using social media for hiring know they need to stand out. Here’s what they’re doing.

Before you post your next “Help Wanted” ad, go look for a job on your favorite networking and social media sites. What do you find? As an example, if you want a career as a human resources manager in Santa Fe, New Mexico, one site seems to think you could also work as an assistant principal at a virtual public school, or as a general manager for a donut shop. Another job listing site doesn’t seem to know the difference between a human resource manager, a recruiter, and an office assistant. Another has over 600 listings, some of which are for a bilingual healthcare insurance agent. Wow! Good luck getting your job posting to stand out.

It’s easy to understand why a job seeker could look right past your perfectly-worded ad, your great benefits, your competitive pay, and your family-friendly policies. After all, you’re squished among completely unrelated listings.

There are, however, some savvy employers using social media for hiring dedicated, competent employees. You can find their ads on most job sites, too, as there’s no harm in posting there, but you’re more likely to see their personality and company culture on display in their help wanted listings on corporate social media pages. Here are three companies doing it right.

Start building your social wall today. Post announcements—manually or on a schedule you define—and keep your followers up to date on everything happening at your company.

3 Savvy employers using social media for hiring the right employees

1. UPS

UPS has long been a fan favorite when it comes to, well, everything. Those brown trucks carry packages, but they also bring the excitement of what’s in those packages. UPS may be masters of the streets, but they’re also masters of social media.

Along with the expected social media pages, they also have one Twitter profile dedicated exclusively to job listings at @UPSjobs, where they have more than 38,000 followers. By contrast, one well-known job listing company has just under 12,000 Twitter followers, while another has 222,000. That may not put UPS at the top, but it’s certainly a contender. More importantly, however, is that those 38,000 followers are a self-selected audience looking specifically at UPS.

UPS is a worldwide company, and one would guess that they get plenty of applications and resumes. Even so, they make an effort to attract people who want to work for them. Potential employees who follow @UPS or @UPSjobs already show some initiative and investment in the company. And, of course, invested employees are generally better employees.

If they wanted to attract even more job seekers, they could also use Everwall to embed their @UPSjobs Twitter feed right on the front page of their website. Not that we’re biased or anything.

The lesson: Look for people who are looking for you.

2. Zappos

If you follow @InsideZappos on Twitter, you might not even realize they’re recruiting and hiring people. Their timeline is generously peppered with Tweets about festivals, company values, Ted Talks, and plenty of humor. That’s all part of the plan, though.

Zappos prides itself on a robust and inclusive company culture. Their social media platforms share that culture, and as a result, attract the type of employee who could thrive in that environment. In some respects, this is an expansion of the UPS social media philosophy. Hire people who “get” what you do, and they’ll be more likely to integrate into the company and contribute to company culture.

The lesson: Share your culture to help it grow

3. Starbucks

You could be forgiven if you didn’t notice that, like Zappos, @StarbucksJobs is a hiring and recruiting social media profile. The most noticeable difference between the two is that the Starbucks feed is a little more subdued. That could be, in part, because Starbucks is hiring in locations across the U.S., and across the globe, whereas Zappos is confined to a small number of locations. Still, @StarbucksJobs manages to celebrate all things Starbucks related, from coffee to compostable cups to the people working in the stores and the corporate office.

When they do mention jobs, it’s usually accompanied by a short profile of one of their employees who just graduated college (highlighting their tuition reimbursement benefit) or their commitment to hiring veterans.

The lesson: You can do more with your recruiting than talk about the jobs you have open. Mention benefits, your company initiatives, and your corporate celebrations.

What not to do in using social media for hiring

Search #hiring on Twitter, click over to “Latest” (rather than “Top”) and try to find a job. Good luck. As we write this, there are Tweets posted 7 seconds ago, 13 seconds ago, 26 seconds ago, 29 seconds ago… you get the idea. That might seem like the right place for employees and employers using social media for hiring and job searches. Except for the fact that those postings are for jobs in Asia, England, South Carolina, and some aren’t even job postings; they’re articles about hiring. In other words, it’s an overwhelming list for job seekers. Never mind the fact that your Tweet is going to sink down the page quickly, never to be seen again.

That’s not to say there aren’t some great ways to use Twitter. In fact, given the right approach, it can be one of the best routes for employers using social media for hiring. You just need to be strategic and focused. Remember, you don’t need to reach everyone looking for a job or career. You just need to reach the right people.

And if you really want to take it to the next level, make sure you have a social wall at your next job fair or even the next conference or trade show you attend. It’s an easy way to share your company culture with anyone who walks by.