Snapchat is the best recruiting tool you’re not using

It’s one of the hottest social media apps out there; 10 billion video views per day, 100 million+ users between the ages of 18–34, and 63 percent of them are creating content everyday. Snapchat is a behemoth with a user base that is already overtaking Twitter and Pinterest. It has 2 billion more video views a day than Facebook, and its ads are seen anywhere from 500k — 1M times per day.

So why are many recruiters hesitant to adopt and utilize the platform?

In a given week I advise over 20 clients on the most cutting-edge recruitment methods and technologies. I’ve been a Snapchat user since 2013 and have championed the use case for Snapchat in recruiting since 2014. However, none of my clients are using the platform for recruitment. There’s an adoption hesitancy with Snapchat that hasn’t been seen in the social media space before; Facebook and Twitter are mandatory to be on, Instagram is a plus, but Snapchat has been slow to gain traction in the recruitment industry despite it being the platform with the most engagement upside. Outside of Facebook, it’s where your 18–34 year old jobseeker and employee community lives throughout the day.

And that community is your product.

Just like with any other industry, the product changes over time. It adapts to new trends and new ways. The shift to a mobile, user-friendly recruiting process happened the moment we were no longer tethered to a desktop. Companies are still slow to adapt to the modern applicant and how they engage in this new hiring process. I’ve seen a majority of businesses settle for 2012 recruitment strategies instead of continually investing in the 2016 and beyond platforms. The recruitment market has changed and mobile is king. Now is the time to invest in Snapchat.

Thinking about recruiting on Snapchat, but don’t know where to start? Here are a few quick tips to engage with jobseekers or your current employees.

Career Fairs, Conferences, and Events

Snapchat has introduced on-demand geofilters for businesses and individuals to create and share over a location. You can pick a time and set a geofence for your geofilter.

This works great when encouraging followers at an event to “snap and share” the geofilter with their friends. Increase engagement by adding contests or other value propositions.

A Day in the Life

Jobseekers want to see what it’s like to work at your company. Let an employee “takeover” the company Snapchat for a day to show what it’s like to do their job. This takeover should consist of a mix of pictures and videos, utilize filters, and be no more than 20 snaps.

Behind the Scenes and New Content

Similar to employee takeovers, use Snapchat in a way that lets jobseekers see behind the scenes and everyday life at your company. Have an all hands meeting or company BBQ coming up? Show these events on Snapchat to give jobseekers a glimpse into the company culture. In addition to this, be bold and make big company announcements on the platform. Direct your other social media audiences to Snapchat for new content.

Actual Recruiting!

Snapchat is excellent for 1 to 1 interaction. Encourage jobseekers to reach out for more information on career fairs, interviews, and applying to specific job postings. Have a hard to fill job? Promote it on Snapchat. Do “micro-interviews” for easy to fill, high volume jobs. Encourage employee onboarding and questions via Snapchat. There are endless ways to push out mass content to followers and also engage jobseekers in a 1 to 1 format. Try new strategies to see what works best for your recruiting team.

Like any emerging media platform there are shortcomings. As of now, Snapchat has limited analytics on stories and snaps. Engagement is measured in “views” and “screenshots”. It may be hard to show concrete ROI based on these limited metrics, but the analytics piece will eventually be built out as more and more businesses and brands join the platform. With the rollout of the Snapchat Ads API coming in the future, now is the time to begin experimenting and building an audience on the platform. Don’t wait until the Snapchat market is crowded two years from now. Recruit for the future and in 2018 you’ll be glad you started early.

And in this case it’s better to be too early than too late.

Have a question regarding Snapchat for recruiting? Email me at justing@bayardad.com or follow me on Snapchat at j_gabes