According to research, it takes about six months for startups to fill a vacant position. Even worse, the latest data shows that the cost per hire has skyrocketed to $4100 globally. One of the best ways to overcome this challenge is through social media job boards. With more job seekers turning to social media job ads — social media job boards account for 79% of current job seekers — it’s no surprise most companies are hiring through this medium.
Get inspired by these top-performing job posting examples on social media platforms!
That said, social media job boards only work if you can write a perfect startup job ad. Even better, creating high-quality job ads increases your chances of landing the right candidate while reducing the time and cost.
So how do you craft an attention-grabbing social media job post that will leave nothing to chance? This article takes you through the basics of social media job posts, what to include in your social media job description, and tips to make your content authentic, professional, and attractive.
What is Different About Job Posting on Social Media?
Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram have become the latest hiring trends. Today, nearly 50% of professionals follow companies they wish to work for on social media. Well, this means these people are the first to receive ads for any job openings at your startup.
Social media job advertising is not only simple and highly effective but also free in most cases. But statistics aside, can social media job posts help your recruitment efforts? Here’s why job posting on social media is best suited for startups:
- Reaching a broader spectrum of professional job seekers
- Grabbing the attention of job seekers
- Growing awareness of your brand.
According to research by the Society for Human Resource Management, employers recruit through social media to attract potential candidates who may not be looking for new employment yet. Therefore, social media does more than just find and engage potential candidates.
When promoting your brand as an employer is done effectively, you’ll be able to convert your potential candidates into job applicants.
Elements of Great Social Media Job Posts
Having understood how social media can boost your recruitment efforts, you also need to understand the elements of a good social media job post. This will ensure you get the most out of these social media networks whenever you need to fill a vacant position.
There are many elements to include in your job post for social media ads, but first let’s go over the basics.
- Ensure you state that the post is about a job promotion.
- Provide sufficient information in the job description, including job title, location, required qualifications and working hours.
- Let the potential candidates know how to apply for the job, such as through email or an online portal.
- Add visual branding to the post.
- Keep the post brief and clear.
- Let applicants know the deadline for submitting their applications.
Your social media job post should never lack these basic elements. That said, you can go a step further and make your post even more impressive by adding the following detailed content ideas when posting a job position on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.
List the job responsibilities in your post
A successful job post must include the responsibilities for that particular position. Every candidate wants to know the employer’s expectations and what a normal day at work will entail. Ensure you list these responsibilities in the media visual or the caption. Besides, carousel functions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn will help you use different pictures to grab applicants’ attention and outline job responsibilities without making your post look clumsy.
Highlight the job benefits
Who doesn’t love the perks that come with a job promotion? If your company offers great benefits, whether it’s health insurance cover, paid leave, or a company car, include them in your job post.
Displaying the job benefits will increase interest in your company, and before long, you will attract the most suitable candidates.
Add the job requirements to your post
For employers looking for candidates with a specific skill set, it is recommended to include the requirements for the vacancy in your social media job post. This will help you filter applicants and increase the number of relevant applications, thus making your hiring process effective.
Key job requirements can be included in the visual or the caption.
Show your team in your vacancy post
Encourage potential applicants to join your team by showing the faces of your company’s staff members in your media visual. A personal social media post showing people in the background of your job posting is not only relatable but also increases engagement.
At the same time, ensure you do not go overboard since too many pictures or stock photos of smiley faces tend to put people off. Instead, you should use good-quality pictures of your employees, especially selfies showing emotions.
End your hiring post with a CTA
Any job post should always end with a call to action (CTA) such as Apply Now or Join Our Team. To prevent any challenges when applicants try to apply for the vacant position, always provide clear instructions on how one can submit their application.
Tell an engaging recruitment story
You can also increase your chances of attracting and hiring the right candidates by tapping into their emotional quotient by telling engaging recruitment stories. A hiring post can be just as simple as a story without having to sound too formal or cliche.
Expose job seekers to your company’s culture by showing behind-the-scenes recruitment processes of existing staff. This will allow your potential candidates to feel what it is like to be interviewed by your company beforehand.
Disclose the job salary upfront
Whether recruiters should state the salary when advertising for a new position is a topic of the ages. Some people believe that a job seeker should be motivated to apply by sheer passion for the job. However, we believe that knowing the salary upfront can motivate even the most talented professionals not looking for a job to apply. Research by LinkedIn reveals that about 61% of professionals consider compensation the most important aspect of a job description.
Disclosing the salary in the job ad also adds credibility to the job position — it makes the company look transparent. This goes a long way towards ensuring candidates spend their time applying for the vacancy.
Promote multiple job vacancies in one post
If you have several positions that need to be filled, you can use social media to promote multiple openings in one post. A video or carousel can help you achieve this perfectly. Try to keep the post concise and less cluttered.
"Sell” your company in your hiring post
Social media job posts can also be an effective way to promote your company’s values, mission, and vision. Let potential applicants know what it is like to work for your organization. This shines a positive light on your company and grows your brand. It could go a long way towards attracting candidates with a mindset that fits your team’s culture.
Use your employee spotlights in job posts
It is quite difficult to overstate the significance of employee spotlights to a brand’s image. Employee spotlights have many benefits, including increasing retention, reaching a wider audience, boosting sales and amplifying your image as an employer.
Above all, employee spotlights help your hiring efforts because your employees work as your brand ambassadors, and their spotlights work as customer testimonials.
Having underscored the significance of employee spotlights, using them in your social media job posts is a great strategy.
10 Best Job Posting Examples Using Social Media
Here are some of the most inspiring job posting examples to help you draft your startup social media ad:
1. Zappos detailed Facebook ad
Zappos.com is an online shoe and clothing company. They excelled at social recruiting with this amazing job post when they advertised for summer internships.
Their Facebook ad was exceptional because it captured the company’s profile, created strong brand awareness and convinced potential candidates with perks. As a job applicant, you could clearly note that nothing was left to chance in this job ad.
This Instagram job post by Custodia is simply perfect because it keeps things simple and follows up with a detailed caption. In the caption, they clearly state that this will be a part-time job.
3. Grizzly Wood bar and restaurant job ad for a dishwasher
See how this social media job post uses the company’s staff image in a humorous manner that clearly catches the attention of anyone who comes across it. Although this is a job ad for a dishwasher, anyone applying for this post will feel excited about joining this happy family.
4. IBM provides full details
Notice what stands out in this job post? I bet the first thing you noticed was how thorough the details in the job description are. The company highlights everything with regards to culture, job title, responsibilities, and benefits.
5. Hubspot shows why they're the best to work for
In this job ad by Hubspot, the company highlights their award as the best workplace in technology, and in the caption, they provide further details about the company and a CTA. Any potential job seeker will be motivated to join Hubspot.
6. Disney's employee spotlight job post
Disney often shares videos and photos of its employees going through their daily activities at work. However, the company went one step further and utilized their employee’s testimonials in a social media job ad.
What makes it effective is that it’s a form of storytelling that taps into people’s emotions, making them want to become part of the narrative. Disney does it simply and effortlessly and provides a call to action.
7. Ulta Beauty entices beauty advisors with perks
Who doesn’t want something extra? If you were told there’s more than just a decent salary, wouldn’t it motivate you to apply? Ulta Beauty knows this and captures it in their social media job ad.
They clearly state their employees enjoy discounts on some of their products among other benefits. The post also boosts the company brand in the process.
8. LAPD job post disclosing salary
This job post is effective in two ways. Notice how the post includes uniformed police — a man and woman — hence appealing to both genders. It then goes further and discloses the salary scale for those who make it onto the force.
This is a fantastic way to capture the attention of potential candidates.
9. Think.crea keeps the visuals simple and clear in this ad
Think.crea created an Instagram job post advertising a role for a comms manager. The impressive part about this post is that the image is simple while relaying the necessary information such as job title, location and call to action. Simplicity at its finest.
10. Crawn Trust twitter job ad
A twitter job post by Crawn Trust advertising a position for finance assistance uses an image to supplement the text. In this post, the recruiter takes advantage of hashtags #Hiring and #Recruiting to leverage on the trending tweets. A call to action redirecting the target audience is also clearly presented.
The above job post contains all the elements of great social media posts. Get inspired and start leveraging social recruiting to find the right candidate with little hassle.
Tips on Using Social Media for Job Posting and Recruiting
Using social media for job posting can help you reduce the time and money that goes into hiring. But how do you take advantage of the different social media channels to advertise your job openings?
The tips below can guide you in the right direction:
Use LinkedIn job posting template
LinkedIn is one of the favorite platforms for connecting employers and job seekers. You can advertise your vacancies or share them with your network on this platform.
Even better, LinkedIn’s paid job posts can help you promote your open positions, reach out to the desired audience and target potentially highly skilled candidates. There’s even an option to allow candidates to apply directly from their profiles. This speeds up the application process.
One of the best ways to use LinkedIn is by posting a status update on your page, then including a short link to your company’s career page. Your company’s followers will be able to see the job opening and follow the link to the career page to learn more about it.
As a bonus tip, ask your colleagues and other hiring managers to share a status update on the open role to reach a wider audience.
Using LinkedIn InMail template for recruiters
When you have a job opening, don’t always wait for the candidates to come your way. LinkedIn provides access to strong candidate profiles and other people with hard-to-find skills. Nothing should stop you from reaching out to them and introducing yourself.
With this feature, you can even contact your potential candidates without necessarily having a vacancy. By taking time to build a relationship and getting to know your candidates upfront, it becomes easier to invite them to apply whenever a position opens up in your company.
When using LinkedIn’s Inmail template to contact potential employees, include a call to action and ask them if they wish to discuss filling the job opening.
Use Facebook post 'We're Hiring' template
Facebook can help you spread the word about any job openings in your organization fast due to its readily available target audience. Just like LinkedIn, Facebook allows you to share any vacancies on your status update.
To reach the right audience and attract a skilled pool of potential candidates, edit your Facebook job hiring template to include the job title, location, responsibilities, benefits and the CTA.
Using Twitter job posting templates
Twitter is also a great place to post job openings if you’re focused on tapping into the potential of social media as a recruiting tool. However, note that Twitter has a character limit of 280, which means you can’t provide a lot of details.
To get around this problem, we recommend you only mention the most important details, such as job title, location and CTA, then link to the full job description on your career page or any other application portal.
As a bonus tip, make sure your job post goes viral by taking advantage of high-performing hashtags such as #jobs, #hiring, #QAjobs and #JobsAbroad.
Conclusion
Social media is a great networking tool, but above all, it’s a nice way to put word out about available job openings at your company. Your organization can use these simple and inexpensive social media job ads to reach a broader audience of highly skilled potential candidates.
Whether you’re opting for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, the above elements and job posting examples can help you take full advantage of these social media networks to boost your recruiting efforts.
If you’re looking to get an edge over your competitors and grab the attention of top talent, employ social media as one of your recruitment strategies.
