Skip to content
Posted by emagine on January 9, 2023
using social media for healthcare recruiting - hands using smart phone

Social recruiting is the use of social media to attract and convert talent and has been one of the biggest trends in recruiting over the past few years. Companies in the healthcare, life sciences, biotech, and biopharma sectors are investing in their social recruiting like never before.

The use of social media for healthcare recruiting ranges from employee advocacy videos to promoting specific job openings, and creative campaigns demonstrating your “why” as compared to competing employers. On top of all that, reporting and analytics are key for providing data and insights to constantly modify and improve recruitment performance and strategy.

 %
of companies use social media to recruit talent
 %
of job applicants use social media in their job search
 %
of millennials found their last position through a social media platform

Benefits of Social Media Recruitment In Healthcare

Using social media to recruit healthcare talent gives your company the opportunity to increase its visibility, expand its reach, and connect with qualified candidates.

Social recruiting allows you to:

  1. Reach passive candidates who may not be actively job-searching. You can stay top-of-mind if your social media followers regularly and consistently see content from you each time they browse social media. In fact, 80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates.
  2. Get more referrals through the shareability of social media job posts. Ask followers to suggest people and tag you via social posts to significantly expand the number of eyes on your listing.
  3. Target your ideal candidates using search filters. LinkedIn is especially effective at reaching healthcare professionals by specialty because it offers unique targeting capabilities using first party data including job titles, industry degrees, and fields of study.
  4. Showcase your company culture through content that will attract candidates to your company’s mission and your “why.” “What” your organization does must be well-defined, synthesized and understood by your audiences, but companies tend to have an even harder time with their “why.” Effective messaging demonstrates who you are, what you do, and (most importantly) why you matter. Why do your employees show up to work every day and how are they changing the world? Define your why and then bring it to life – social media lets you do that. Survey after survey shows that meaningful work is paramount to employees in the wake of the Great Resignation.
  5. Establish a more personal connection with potential candidates. Social media lets you tell your story, really interact with your audience, and connect with them on a personal level. Using social media to build relationships is an invaluable component of social recruiting.
  6. Save money – sourcing for candidates via social media platforms is very cost-effective compared to traditional methods of recruitment. You don’t need a huge budget to successfully recruit on social media. It is possible to succeed by simply being consistent and posting interesting and relevant content for your audience.
using social media for healthcare recruiting - doctor interviewing woman

Finding Medical Job Candidates On Social Sites

Here are a few key steps to follow when looking for qualified candidates for healthcare positions on social media:

  • Browse Profiles: Browse a potential candidate’s posts to find out what type of experience they have, what they like, and what they have done in previous positions. People often share their work accomplishments, promotions, or links to their digital portfolios that can help you get to know them and may help in determining their qualifications for the position.
  • Update Your Profile: When someone receives a message from a recruiter, they’ll likely look at the company’s social media profile before responding to determine the legitimacy of the offer and to gauge the company’s culture and messaging.
  • Search by Hashtags: Hashtags help to foster connections by connecting companies with people who may not have a considerable following but could still have the expertise to make them the best candidate for the job.
  • Start the Conversation: When someone follows a recruiter or company, the team can reach out to them through the site’s messaging system. Start a conversation by noting the person’s experience or interests.
  • Establish a Presence: To enhance the trustworthiness of your recruiting efforts, make sure that your social media profiles are up-to-date and professional. Posting consistently, keeping your topics on-trend, and targeting the best candidates with your content are just a few ways to improve your virtual presence and find more job candidates using social media.
 %
of hiring managers say they’ve successfully hired with social media.
 %
of employers use social media to research candidates
 million
people look for jobs on LinkedIn weekly

Optimizing Your Social Media Pages For Healthcare Recruiting

For your social media recruitment efforts to succeed, having a solid strategy in place is key. Begin by doing a social media audit. If you’re already using social media, take stock of your current recruitment efforts there, assess your progress, and think about ways to improve.

Your analytics and engagement rates indicate the type of content that is the most and least popular to your audience, what time of day your posts do best, what frequency of posting is most successful, and more. Make sure to really use this available data to your advantage and learn from it.  

An audit of current platforms can involve questions like:

  • What’s working, and what’s not?
  • Who is engaging with you?
  • Which networks do your ideal candidates use?
  • How does your social media presence compare to the competition?

As you decide which social networks to focus on, you will also need to define your strategy for each. Become really familiar with each platform, its primary audience, its ideal content format, and then determine which platforms to invest your time and focus on based on the recruitment goals you’ve outlined.

It is not necessary to have a social media presence on every single platform. It is better to focus on doing a great job on fewer accounts than to use all of them with less effort.

To optimize your social media profiles, make sure to: 

  • Fill out all profile fields.
  • Include keywords people would use to search for your business.
  • Use consistent branding (logos, colors, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable.
  • Use high-quality images that follow the recommended dimensions for each network (a quick Google search will tell you recommended dimensions by site).

Let’s Shape Your Social Recruiting Strategy

Social media has become the most influential, powerful, and important virtual space in the 21st century, and an invaluable tool for recruiting talent in the healthcare, life sciences, biotech, and biopharma sectors. Using social media to recruit healthcare talent gives your company the opportunity to increase its visibility, expand its reach, share its culture, and connect with qualified candidates like never before.

For a proven strategy to optimally use social media recruitment to attract and retain the employees you want and need, reach out now. Let’s get started.

Recruitment Marketing for Healthcare & Life Sciences

In this brand new ebook, emagineHealth outlines the critical steps you can take now to attract and retain the employees you want and need in the midst of this talent crisis.