As 2016 eases into the station on its end journey, it is time to take a look at your social recruiting strategies for 2017. Whether last year’s methods worked well or not, improving your social recruiting strategy is always a good idea.

So, what can you do to supercharge your recruiting efforts this year? Here are some strategies sure to make your talent management system hum with activity in the New Year.

1) Embrace social recruiting wholeheartedly.

Research indicates that 84 percent of organizations are using social media for recruitment, and an additional 9 percent are planning to do so. Do not allow your organization to be left behind. Talent Culture reports that utilizing social media in your recruiting efforts can bring in 30-50 percent more applicants. So, if you have not already done so, jump on the social recruiting bandwagon as soon as possible.

2) Leverage employee social referral programs.

By implementing and emphasizing an employee social referral program, you accomplish a number of very good things. First, you broaden the scope of your social recruiting to include the networks of your employees, which are presumably made up of people who are in some way similar to employees you already have.

Next, you get to piggyback on the good will of your employees to solicit passive candidates. After all, isn’t a candidate more likely to respond to an invitation to apply from a trusted friend than from your company?

Third, involving current employees as active employer brand advocates appeals to both candidates and employees, leading to better employee retention and a stronger company culture.

eBook: How to Attract Top Talent Using Inbound Recruiting – Find out how to harness the power of an inbound recruiting strategy in order to attract, hire, and retain top talent.

3) Use platform-specific social media analytics to inform your recruiting strategy.

Make use of all analytic tools at your disposal to better understand your candidate pool. For instance, if you are using Facebook as a recruiting source, use the built-in tools there to ascertain which of your posts receive the most views, clicks, and so on. Look for patterns to discern the interests of your audience more clearly.

Similarly, using LinkedIn advanced search tools will help you zero in on potential candidates more clearly. Save your searches, and set up weekly or monthly updates within the LinkedIn platform.

4) Use images in your social media posts.

Images prompt an emotional response. Help your content to jump off the screen and into the minds and hearts of your candidate pool by including high quality pictures and videos. After all, what would you rather see if you were a candidate: a dry wall of text, or a well-crafted short video?

5) Remember that on social media, timing is everything.

Pay attention to posting times for your social media content. If you have limited time to handle your postings, consider using an app to help. After a short time, look at your social media analytics to determine what posting times are most desirable for your particular candidates.

6) Use the right talent management system.

A robust talent management system will help you track and manage both your active and passive candidates. It will parse information from social media platforms like LinkedIn to save your recruiting team time and effort once spent on manual entries to your applicant tracking system.

In conjunction with your social recruiting strategies, a good talent management system will help you collaborate with others in the hiring process as well as with candidates via their preferred method of communication.

Thrive TRM is just such a talent management system. It offers all the benefits listed above, and many more. Why not start out the new year with cutting edge talent management technology? Schedule a demo today to explore all that Thrive TRM can do to support your recruiting strategies this year.