Reviving Your Social Strategy to Recruit Tech Talent

Let’s talk about social. Since becoming all the rage just a few years back, social recruiting is now known as an everyday part of a comprehensive recruiting strategy, especially when targeting tech candidates. As a result, the tech hiring market is oversaturating social media and creating a whole lot of noise, making it difficult for a single recruiter to stand out from the pack. Since those old social recruiting strategies aren’t going to cut it anymore, here are seven ways to refresh and revive your approach:

Plan Accordingly

Like most things in life, retooling your tech recruiting social strategy will require sitting down and sketching out a plan. This could take the form of a slick deck, complete with forecasts and predictions; or, as is more likely the case, a file that includes your mission statement, plus some goals and milestones you hope to achieve. In either event, having a centralized document to work from will help guide the way and provide a point of reference throughout the year. 

Pick Your Platform

Don’t try and be everything to everyone on every platform (that’s how things got so noisy in the first place). Rather, focus on the fact that tech professionals tend to gravitate toward certain channels of interest. Once you identify one or two of these to concentrate on, you can further tailor your approach by accounting for other demographic and psychographic factors. Once you’re researched and ready, move on to crafting messages specific to the channels you’re targeting.

Personalize the Process

Personalization means more than including the potential candidate’s name. Sure, that doesn’t hurt. But what’s more important is personalizing your entire social presence to your ideal audience. What do you think your target tech candidate wants to see on social? What topics are relevant to the industry right now? Well, post that. For added effectiveness, start profiling new and existing employees whenever and wherever possible. Entering the minds of those top performers will help you better understand what makes them tick, and tailor your social content accordingly.

Promote a Positive Culture

As a complement to the previous step, be sure to share information that gives job seekers a feel for what it’s like to work at your organization. Maybe that means a video from your most recent coding challenge or updates to your benefits package. Just make sure that what you provide is substantial and not surface-level (such as outtakes from the holiday potluck featuring all those ugly sweaters).

Propose a Next Step

Once you set your sights on an individual candidate or even talent pool that you’re eager to engage, give them a reason to follow up by moving the conversation to another location. Take it from a public stream to a one-on-one over text, messenger or phone call, invite them to a designated group for like-minded tech professionals, or host an online event that allows you to converse freely and without character count limitations.

Pursue, Pursue, Pursue

When it comes to tech talent, no matter what you do, you’re going to get ignored, brushed off and even flat-out rejected. So, when those low moments hit (and it will happen) keep in mind that it isn’t personal. Tech talent is in demand, and they know it. Those are just the rules of the game we’re playing in 2019, so dust your shoulders off, give your original planning document a re-read and get back out there.

Pause and Measure Outcomes

Not to harp on the numbers, but in today’s world, data matters. So, whether it’s weekly, monthly or quarterly, carve out the time and dig into the metrics. Look at automated reports from your platforms, as well as how many messages you sent. Review the money you spent, campaigns you ran, conversions from conversations to candidates and of course, any successful hires made through social. From there, you’ll know where to concentrate your efforts going forward and how to get a return on future investments. Reaching tech talent requires skill, know-how and plain old persistence. Social media affords tech recruiters all that and more… when used correctly. To make an impact and cut through the chatter, take the time to be strategic, thoughtful and ultimately, effective with every message you send. Ryan Leary helps create the processes, ideas and innovation that drive RecruitingDaily. He’s RecruitingDaily’s in-house expert for anything related to sourcing, tools or technology. A lead generation and brand buzz building machine, he has built superior funnel systems for some of the industry’s top HR Tech and Recruitment brands. He is a veteran of the online community and a partner at RecruitingDaily.