Social media is an integral part of everyday life and has become a powerful tool for organisations in marketing their products, promoting their brand, connecting with their customers, and generating new leads.

With 83% of candidates active on Facebook, 40% on Twitter, and 36% on LinkedIn, it makes sense that social media is also being used as a means of recruiting new staff members in both teaching and faculty positions.

As each social network is free to set up and easy to use, schools can easily take advantage and spread their school’s employer brand to entice potential candidates to come and work for their institution.

Here are five ways schools can take advantage of social media to showcase their employer brand and attract potential candidates.

Sharing content

Distributing content on social media, such as school events, special announcements and information on school successes and achievements is a great way of communicating that your school is invested in both its staff and pupils.

This will enable you to grow your audience and gets you in front of potential candidates. The more you post, the more engagement you will get. Your audience might not necessarily be looking for a job in an educational institution but they are still getting exposure to your school brand, or they might know someone with the right skills and expertise that is looking for a job in the education sector.

Showcase your school culture

Candidates want to make sure that the school they are applying for is the right place for them, and are using platforms such as Facebook to gather information on what the school values and culture is.

Through social posts and videos, you can offer insights into what it’s like to work at your school. By showcasing what is like in and outside the classroom, social media can be a great window into your school culture and can entice like-minded people to be a part of your school family.

School advocates and ambassadors

No one knows what your school is like to work for as much as your current staff members. By utilising blogs and social media accounts, you can give your staff a platform to share their personal experiences of being at the school to a larger audience; their reach alone could spread wider than your school’s careers page.

Candidates would rather watch a video or read a blog from a passionate teacher or an enthusiastic student going through the fantastic experiences they’ve had while being at your school over a slideshow of generic statements and photos.

Targeting the right people

One of the best advantages of social media is that you can use it to target the right audiences. When starting a social media strategy, it is beneficial to research what social platforms your target audience is using to get an understanding of the most effective ways of reaching your candidates. Each platform can also be used in different ways, so it is useful to know which platforms can be used to do what.

One of the best tools for targeting the right audience is through Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ads gives your school the tools to get your content in front of your desired demographic. From occupation to education levels, you can make sure your content is being viewed by the right audience. With Facebook, you can also target people who have looked at your school careers pages but not applied for a position, they might be interested in working for your school but, unfortunately, found no relevant job roles, but by retargeting them with Facebook, you can keep your interested candidates warm until a relevant job at your school comes their way.

With in-depth analytical tools, social media can also help you track which posts are working and which posts are not, giving you a better understanding of where to target recruitment campaigns in the future.

Building relationships

The majority of candidates today are passive and are not necessarily looking for work and will probably not be interested in any of your school’s opportunities. They might not be interested right now, but they might be interested in another opportunity in the future. By building up relationships and connecting with an interested audience over social media, you can keep reinforcing to these people how rewarding it will be working for your school, so when they do decide to look at what other options are out there, an opportunity at your school will be in the picture.

Having a strong social media presence as a part of your recruitment strategy is key to maximising your chances of finding the best talent as it is an essential way of getting across to quality candidates that working for your school is a fantastic opportunity.

With a strong social media presence, not only will you have a cost-effective way of attracting the best talent, but you will have access to a talent pool of quality candidates wanting a rewarding career at your school in the future.

To find out more about you can promote your employer brand at your school click here