5 Tips For Recruiting College Students Via Social Media

By Victoria Robertson on May 22, 2015

Social media is a growing industry that’s becoming more and more prominent, especially when it comes to job recruitment. Whether it be for internships or for careers contingent upon graduation, recruiting college students via social media is something companies are starting to look into, and that’s working.

It’s important for recruiters to understand college students’ social media habits in order to find a good fit for the company, so to help you out a bit, here are some tips for recruiters to consider when using social media to reach out to college students.

1. Be Informative

College students are typically looking for a job that meets specific qualifications. When scrolling through their social media sites, they’re looking for triggers that spark their own interests, and the best way to come across to these students is to provide the most information you can on the position in your posts.

On top of that, this group of students is also working at a much faster pace, looking to get the most information they can in a short amount of time. So don’t withhold information once engaged with a student, as the less information they’re given, the less engaged they are while you’re speaking with them.

2. Don’t Be Wordy

On this same note, being informative isn’t to say being wordy. In fact, wordiness is a major turnoff to students, especially on social media. The key to recruitment on social media is in precision: be short, sweet and to the point.

Of course, don’t hold back from explaining the position to the best of your abilities, but doing so in a smaller span (say, I don’t know, 140 characters) is something that is most likely to draw a potential candidate’s eye over a description that takes more than 30 seconds to read through.

3. Be Eye Catching

Catching a college student’s eye on social media can be difficult, especially when the content of a post is more informative in nature than it is entertaining. However, battling this obstacle is relatively easy, so long as you’re appealing to your target demographic.

To catch a college students’ eye, try to make your post stand out from others. Use pictures, video, bright colors, anything that would grab the average person’s eye. In other words, don’t let your post become just another thing to scroll past: make your social media presence count by speaking to your audience more than through text.

4. Text Counts Too

While you need to be eye catching, your post isn’t meant to fall flat in terms of content. But at the same time, it isn’t meant to bore your students once you’ve grabbed their attention.

Tone is extremely important when it comes to keeping a student’s attention. Mundane, drawn out lists of qualifications and roles of a position are tiresome and downright boring. Get creative with it. Use humor. Be conversational. Talking to a student at their level rather than talking down to them as if you’re above them will be beneficial in the long run, especially in terms of not only recruiting them, but also having a productive relationship with them.

5. Be Open

Students looking to obtain jobs or internships are looking for recruiters that are willing to work with them, not someone to give them orders and give them someone to complain about to their friends and family later on.

Make it clear this isn’t you when recruiting through social media. As said above: be conversational. Let them know you are there to talk through any questions or concerns they may have. Be willing to reach out to them as well as to let them know they can always contact you. Work relationships are a two-way street, and more often than not that’s forgotten on the recruiters’ end.

There are countless ways to make your social media presence more appealing to college students, but these are just a few to hopefully help you get started. Don’t forget that recruitment takes quite a bit of effort, and even with the ease of social media in modern times, this effort still shouldn’t be forgotten, especially when you’re looking for an employee to respect and enjoy working for the company.

It’s worth what you put into it, so make it count, even if it is through social media.

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