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Develop a Social Media Plan for HR

Put the social back in social media − build stakeholder partnerships to effectively reach talent.

  • Social media is typically owned by Marketing or Communications rather than HR, but without HR’s involvement content creation can become misaligned with the employee value proposition.
  • HR sometimes lacks the resources, competencies, or mandate to actively drive social media use.

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  • Get on-demand project support
  • Get advice, coaching, and insight at key project milestones
  • Go through a Guided Implementation to help you get through your project
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Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • HR shouldn’t go at it alone. Partnership with other stakeholders − Marketing, Communications, hiring managers, and employees − is key to success on social media.

Impact and Result

  • HR should focus on a social media strategy that allows them to promote and build the employer brand, plan to actively source potential candidates, and eventually leverage the power of employee ambassadors on social media.
  • To effectively do so, HR needs to identify and partner with current social media owners and learn the necessary competencies to harness this powerful tool.

Develop a Social Media Plan for HR Research & Tools

2. Optimize the employer brand on social media

Assess current social media usage to determine how HR should get involved and develop guidelines on content creation.

Editorial Calendar Template

3. Create a social media sourcing and direct outreach plan

Prioritize roles to fill and work with talent acquisition specialists to integrate social media into the sourcing process.

Sourcing Plan Template
Intake Meeting Template
Social Media Sourcing Guide
Social Media Boolean Search Tool

4. Evaluate metrics and refine your approach

Evaluate against identified metrics using each platform’s analytics tools and identify areas for future investment.

Employee Ambassador Program Guide
Employee Ambassador Program Details and Guidelines

Master Social Media

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How to complete this course:

Use these videos, along with the Project Blueprint deck above, to gain an understanding of the subject. Start with the Introduction, then move through each of the Course Modules. At the end of each Module, you will be required to complete a short test to demonstrate your understanding. You will complete this course when you have completed all of the course tests.

  • Number of Course Modules: 5
  • Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 hours

Learning Outcome

Identify short-, medium-, and long-term goals of a social media strategy, define HR’s role in social media for recruiting and employer branding, engage in social media content creation, and evaluate social media metrics to refine efforts.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

  • Identify short-, medium-, and long-term goals for HR’s social media efforts and determine metrics to assess these efforts.
  • Identify HR’s role in organizational social media.
  • Understand the competitor social media landscape.
  • Develop guidelines for how to create social media content.
  • Evaluate social media efforts against identified metrics.
  • Predict areas for future investment for long-term social media success.

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Course Modules

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Introduction

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Module 1

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Module 2

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Module 3

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Module 4

Develop a Social Media Plan for HR

Put the social back in social media − build stakeholder partnerships to effectively reach talent.

Executive Summary

McLean & Company Insight

HR shouldn’t go it alone. Partnership with other stakeholders − Marketing, Communications, hiring managers, and employees − is key to success on social media.

Situation

  • The world is on social media. Candidates are now highly informed consumers who use social media to learn about the organization and its culture.
  • HR needs to actively participate in social media to ensure the consistent communication of the employee value proposition (EVP) and employee-centric content.
  • Social media is a powerful tool that allows talent acquisition specialists (TASs) to target and reach hard-to-find candidates.

Complication

  • Social media is typically owned by Marketing or Communications rather than HR, but without HR’s involvement content creation can become misaligned with the EVP.
  • HR sometimes lacks the resources, competencies, or mandate to actively drive social media use.

Solution

  • HR should focus on a social media strategy that allows them to promote and build the employer brand, plan to actively source potential candidates, and eventually leverage the power of employee ambassadors on social media.
  • To effectively do so, HR needs to identify and partner with current social media owners and learn the necessary competencies to harness this powerful tool.

HR cannot afford to ignore social media

91% of employers use social media for recruitment and 99% of employers believe brand management on social media is crucial for attracting top talent (CareerArc, 2019).

Social media is different from other communication channels because conversations can be initiated and sustained completely in your absence – candidates are talking about your industry, your competitors, and your organization. That conversation will continue even if you’re not there to respond.

Choosing to ignore social media is not an option.

Social media has staying power, and it’s constantly evolving. Companies need to be refining and optimizing their social media strategies rather than waiting and seeing.

Social media conversations may not be under your direct control, but they can be under your influence:

  • If you want to know what people are saying about you, start listening.
  • If you want to guide what people are saying about you, start engaging.

Social media by the numbers:

  • On YouTube, people watch around 1 billion hours of video every day (YouTube, 2020).
  • LinkedIn has more than 700 million members worldwide and 14 million job postings (LinkedIn, 2020).
  • About 2.6 billion users visit Facebook each month (Clement, 2020).
  • Approximately 500 million tweets are posted on Twitter every day (Sayce, 2020).

“Of course social media is scary for companies. You know what else used to be scary?
Email. Fax. Telephone. Elevators. Witches.” (Tweet by @Jaybaer, Social Media Strategist)

Develop a Social Media Plan for HR preview picture

About McLean & Company

McLean & Company is an HR research and advisory firm providing practical solutions to human resources challenges via executable research, tools, diagnostics, and advisory services that have a clear and measurable impact on your business.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your HR problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 7 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Determine social media direction and set goals
  • Call 1: Identify and set social media goals and determine relevant SMART and social media metrics.

Guided Implementation 2: Optimize the employer brand on social media
  • Call 1: Review organizational social media efforts and determine how HR can get involved.
  • Call 2: Evaluate content suggestions and brainstorm additional content creation ideas.

Guided Implementation 3: Create a social media sourcing and direct outreach plan
  • Call 1: Identify critical and hard-to-fill roles that could be targeted with social media sourcing.
  • Call 2: Discuss organizational resources and limitations around social media and individual talent acquisition specialist usage.
  • Call 3: Review the Discover, Engage, Connect process and customize the Social Media Sourcing Guide.

Guided Implementation 4: Evaluate metrics and refine your approach
  • Call 1: Review social media and HR metrics to pinpoint social media program successes and identify areas for improvement or growth.

Contributors

  • Karen Azulai, Editor-in-Chief and Cofounder, HRTech Nation
  • Sabrina Baker, HR Consultant & Recruiter, Acacia HR Solutions
  • Kim Benedict, CEO & Cofounder, TalentMinded Inc.
  • Gurprit Bhambra, Global Talent Acquisition Director, Arvato Bertelsmann CRM
  • Amanda Blum, Senior HR Assistant, Capital Farm Credit
  • Angela Bortolussi, Partner, Recruiting Social
  • Sean Burkett, Manager, Product Development and Innovation, Info-Tech Research Group
  • Orlando Castillo, Organizational Effectiveness Manager, (Talent Development, L&D, OD, Compliance, and Employee Engagement), Capital Farm Credit
  • Eric Clemons, Senior Manager – Employment Brand Strategies, U.S. Cellular
  • Katrina Collier, The Searchologist, Social Recruiting Trainer & Keynote
  • Sarah Cortese, Director of Communications, Capital Farm Credit
  • Heather Coy-Robinson, HR Manager, CarProof
  • Ben Dickie, Senior Manager, Research, Info-Tech Research Group
  • Mark Diker, Senior Manager, Recruitment and Talent Planning, Woodbine Entertainment Group
  • Matthew Doucette, Global Talent Acquisition Leader, Mimecast
  • Ben Eubanks, HR Generalist, Pinnacle Solutions, Inc.
  • Whitney Headen, Managing Partner, 19th & Park Inc.
  • Chris Hodge, AVP Talent Acquisition, RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing
  • Leslie Hughes, LinkedIn Trainer, Profile Writer, Public Speaker, Social Media Marketing Strategist & CEP, PUNCH!media
  • Kristiana Hurley, Human Resources Manager, Inventa
  • Carmen Jeffery, Recruiter & Managing Director/Founder, i-identify
  • Larry Kihlstadius, Solutions Czar, KinetixHR
  • Carly Kleisinger, Manager of Corporate Strategic Communications, City of Lethbridge
  • Shell Lohmann, Director of Talent Programs & Employment Branding, U.S. Cellular
  • Michelle Lusen, Senior Corporate Recruiter, Slack
  • Gemma Matthews, Senior Internal Recruiter, Reward Gateway
  • Ashlyn Schneider, Talent Acquisition Specialist, Worthington Industries
  • Jacob Shriar, Director of Content, Officevibe
  • Lisa Smith-Strother, Senior Director, Global Head Employer Branding, Careers Channels and Diversity TA, Ericsson
  • Kathleen Teixeira, Manager, Talent Acquisition, OLG
  • Mamta Wadhwani, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition Strategy
  • Jeff Watson, Employer Relationship Developer, Western University
  • Anonymous Contributor, Social Media Community Manager, Telecommunications Industry

Related Content: Talent Attraction

Search Code: 82189
Last Revised: May 6, 2021

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