When it comes to maximizing your career center’s effectiveness, social media is a key tool for reaching job seekers and positioning your association as a leader in helping members. Posting a listing on social media helps members seeking new jobs, while also reaching passive job seekers.
Promoting relevant jobs to your membership base helps employers and recruiters reach highly qualified candidates who might not otherwise see the jobs if they were not members of your association.
Here are seven tips for using social media to market and grow your association’s career center:
1. Create a plan
While your association is likely already active on social media, create a plan to incorporate job listings into your social media strategy regularly. Members tend to use social media to engage with your association’s online community. Incorporating posts that showcase relevant job listings is helpful, but shouldn’t be overwhelming.
Consider using social media management tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to create a calendar of social media posts and ensure these new posts align with your association’s social media efforts.
2. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
Measuring the effectiveness of your posts is key. Make a list of goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Trackable or S.M.A.R.T. goals. An example of a SMART goal: Post new jobs on our social media channel twice per week with messaging and links that drive five new members to our career center within the next three months.
Build these goals around metrics tied to boosting member engagement with your career center. Whether by measuring views/clicks on the job listings post, or engagement with your association’s other posts, having clear, defined goals will ensure your social media strategy is working effectively.
3. Create your posts
Your association has some options when posting about job listings. Best practices include:
- A weekly round-up
- Bi-weekly job postings
- Automatic posting as they become available
For weekly or bi-weekly posts, rely on your social media scheduling tools to have these posts release on set dates. Tying the post to a day of the week drives engagement and builds a network of engaged members. If your members know to expect the post, they’ll be on the lookout for it, which increases engagement and drives visits to your career center.
Another option is to post listings as they are posted on your center. Set up an RSS feed for new job postings to automatically integrate your career center with Facebook and X. This feed can be set to promote new jobs at a set interval or be configured to distribute only featured jobs.
4. Join communities with #hashtags
Create a hashtag for your association’s career center and use it in relevant posts. Also, include more general hashtags, such as #job or #industryjob, to increase your post’s visibility to a broader audience.
5. Employers are key
Your association has a natural ally in its social media efforts: employers. Don’t be afraid to reach out to employers and ask them to repost your job listings and promotional posts, including a link to your career center in the post. When companies share your content, reach out with a personal thank you and further that relationship.
Include career center data, such as the number of job opportunities you currently list, number of résumés, number of registered job seekers, and/or number of employers registered to highlight engagement and show employers why they want their listing on your career center.
If your association aims to reach a larger number of employers, consider creating a coupon code for discounted job postings. Whether on a quarterly or as-needed basis, discount codes incentivize employers to post on the career center and can even be tied to holidays and other notable events.
6. Optimize content across your social media platforms
A simple way to drive engagement and highlight your association’s value is by providing member services. In addition to job listings, create posts that offer solutions to member problems, such as optimizing their résumés through a résumé review or encouraging members to set up job alerts to minimize the time needed to look for jobs.
Be thoughtful about the tone of your messages for each platform and engage your readers by linking to your career center or, if hosting a career event, to the registration page.
A note about LinkedIn: While LinkedIn is a powerful tool for promotion, you don’t want job seekers to bypass your career center. Turning off the jobs tab on LinkedIn and linking to your career center from your LinkedIn page lets your organization still effectively capture traffic from LinkedIn, while highlighting the value of your job center.
7. Advertise as appropriate
Advertising on social media is an effective way to reach prospective members, employers, and other key audiences. Consider boosting an event, such as a job fair, or sharing a few members’ stories about how you helped them land a job.
When advertising on social media, set a budget, determine demographics you want to target, define a strong call to action, and then measure the results.
When it comes to growing your association’s career center, these are some of the pillars of setting up a solid social media strategy, but not the only thing your association should target to grow its career center, read the Guide to Becoming the Ultimate Career Development Destination for Your Members for more tips and tricks to grow your association’s career center.
