Every marketer has heard about the so-called sales funnel. It shows the steps that customers go through before they buy a product. In social recruiting, potential employees also go through a process before they become part of a company. This article explains the stages of a social recruiting funnel and shows what companies need to consider when implementing this form of recruiting.

Awareness

The first step in the social recruiting funnel is creating awareness. Before people can even have the wish to join your company, they need to know that you exist. More importantly, they need to know that you are looking for new employees. You can raise awareness for your company by posting engaging and relevant content on your social media accounts. If they are of interest to your audience, they will be shared and liked, which might lead new people to your page. In order to reach people who are not yet familiar with your business, you could also place ads. Don’t forget to include some posts about your job opening here and then, so the users will become aware that you are actively searching for employees.

Interest & Engagement

Once potential employees are aware that you are looking for new hires, it is necessary to convert this awareness into interest. For example, you could create posts about real employees that talk about a day in your company. Or you could share some pictures form your last company trip. In this way, users are able to learn more about your corporate culture. You are showing potential employees that you are a good employer who cares about his employees. At this stage interested users will start to follow you on social media and hopefully also like your posts.

Evaluation

Now that you have sparked some interest in potential employees, they will start evaluating if they should apply for a certain position. They will look for information about your company that goes beyond what is on your social media accounts. This is why it is also always important to have a well designed, structured and informative website.

Decision

After evaluating all the information that they have found, whether on your social media pages, your website or via word of mouth, the potential employees will make the decision if they want to apply to your company or not. If they have determined that your company could be a good fit, they will apply.

Action

The users who decided to contact you will do so via a social network. Here it is key to respond in a short period of time so that you do not lose the potential employee to other competitors. If you like their application, further steps such as an interview should be discussed as soon as possible.

Advocacy

Once the applicant becomes part of your company and likes working there, he should be turned into an advocate for you as an employer. He might share and like your posts on social media pages or defend your company online if someone said something bad about it.