Looking to get more out of your social media job postings? Get more clicks, reach more candidates, and improve your brand awareness all at the same time?
For that, you need to do more than simply tell the world that you’re #hiring.
You need to give them a reason to care.
Not sure how to do that? That’s okay. We’ve got a social media caption guide for busy recruiters like yourself right here. And if you’d like something more visual, then check these examples of some killer social media job posts, each hand-selected to showcase a different job posting tactic.
First things first: what does a killer job post on social media even look like? As we explored over here, there are multiple types of job posts, but in general, you’re gonna wanna hit these key points:
And that’s it! That’s really all you need to turn a social media job post into a killer social media job post. But don’t worry—we’re not going to make you do all the work.
Here are some examples of what this looks like.
The best way to do more with your social media job posts? Stop considering them merely job posts. Each job post is an opportunity to showcase your employer brand to your prospective candidates—telling them who you are, showing them what they’ll gain from working for you, and creating a lingering brand impression in their minds.
This post from ULTA Beauty is an excellent example of such a post:
They accomplish so much with just one post. They tell candidates they’re hiring, show them what they have to gain by working for them, and do a little employer brand boosting, too.
It doesn’t just tell you that they’re hiring. It tells you about their work culture, their mission, and their values—in an emotional and humane way.
They could have started their post with, “We’re hiring.” But then it would have been all about them, and candidates, like all people, don’t care about what you’re getting out of it. They want to know what’s in it for them.
So instead, they started with, “Ready to change your life for the better?”
One small tweak. A world of difference.
Yes, you’re hiring. But how does that benefit your candidates (aside from offering them a job, obviously)? What do you have to offer that other places don’t?
Don’t wait ‘til the interview to address that. Show them right now, on social media.
There are so many ways to include benefits in your job posts, but of all the many examples I’ve seen, this one from Texas Roadhouse is my favorite.
The benefits are just there. You don’t even have to read the caption. The picture literally says it all. This is such a brilliant idea, I honestly don’t know why more companies aren’t doing it.
It’s really difficult to overstate the importance of employee spotlights. They have so many benefits, from increasing retention to reaching a wider audience to speaking volumes about who you are as an employer. They can even boost sales. But in terms of hiring, employee spotlights work because your employees are the customers of your employer brand, and their spotlights are your customer testimonials.
So using one to double as a job post is a great tactic.
Here’s a great example from Cellular Sales:
This one hits especially hard, because it’s an emotional spotlight as well.
As you’ve probably picked up by now, candidates these days want to know a lot about you before they’re ready to apply. Your benefits, your culture, your DEI initiatives, and so on. Anything you can do to include more of those points in your job posts helps.
Which is what makes this post from King’s Hawaiian so effective:
Through use of both their image and the way they worded their caption, they make clear that this is more than just a job. It’s an opportunity to be part of a family.
Here’s an easy way to boost the effectiveness of your social recruiting posts: don’t just post them to your company’s channels. Make sure they also get posted by your employee advocates and ambassadors—those employees who’ve agreed to advocate for you on social media. It’s practically effortless to manage (when automated with a tool like CareerArc; manually managing employee advocacy can be a real hassle), and the benefits keep building the more employee profiles you post to. For example:
Seems simple? It is. Though ideally you’ll want to adjust the tone of an employee advocacy post to make them more personal since they’re coming from personal accounts, the basic idea of employee advocacy is exactly what you see above: reposting to your personal accounts.
Oh, and in case you’re concerned that none of your employees are gonna want to advocate for you on social media, worry not: our Harris Poll survey results revealed that 50% of employees are open to being advocates if they were asked.
We all know how important DEI is to recruiting these days (as well as employee retention, building a company culture, and so on). Today’s candidates care deeply about DEI, and want to see how it plays a part in your employer brand. We’ve talked about how to craft dedicated DEI posts on social media to help boost your recruiting here, but the truth is that you can do more to show that you’re a diverse and inclusive company than simply posting the odd DEI post here and there.
Instead, subtly weave DEI messaging into posts that ostensibly don’t have anything to do with the topic, like job posts. Not sure what we mean? Here’s an example:
By using imaging or wording that reflects DEI priorities even when you’re not talking DEI, you show that yours is a culture that embraces inclusion and diversity in everything you do.
Many of your social media recruiting posts are going to be geared towards hitting general goals: getting more candidates, broadcasting your employer brand, etc. But sometimes you’re aiming for something specific, and in those situations, it helps to adapt your tone to match those goals.
This post is geared towards hiring employees laid off by the recent mass layoffs. For this type of recruiting, you’ll want to adopt a more sympathetic and empathetic tone. These candidates are going through something really hard, and empathizing with them about that can really help.
If you were trying to hire Gen Z employees, this post would be an excellent way to do so. Studies show that Gen Z candidates are looking for purpose and meaning in their work, so adopting a tone that reflects that helps get your message through.
Sometimes, all you have to do with a job post is make it fun. Like this post from United Pacific:
There’s no talk about benefits, or culture, or anything like that. But the caption is fun enough that it’s not needed.
Good copy is its own marketing tactic.
While social media job posts usually are for a specific job position, they don’t have to be. Sometimes you’ll want to create a post to share that you have multiple job openings available. Here’s an example of what that can look like:
You don’t have to start creating flashy graphics and complex designs to make better social media job posts. For example, take this awesome post from Velocity Partner:
