It’s no secret that top businesses who want top graduates invest seriously in careers events. Fairs, presentations and promotions are one of the most direct ways to get the right candidates thinking about the positions you have to offer. However much investment these events receive, though, you’re never guaranteed an audience, and even the best names in the business have trouble getting a hundred undergraduates in the same room at the same time.
In the past a flyer or marketing posters might have sufficed, but now the smart recruiters are getting stuck in to social media as a way of promoting an event. There’s no perfect combination of the tools, and finding a way of interacting with candidates that suits your marketing model of course requires a bit of experimentation, but below are a few ideas to get you thinking:
- Most students will open their laptop before even opening their eyes in the morning: so make your event easily visible on Facebook as soon as it’s organised. A flyer is easily forgotten, but a Facebook feed will be seen a hundred times a day.
- The beauty of using social media is that it’s open: you don’t need to restrict your audience to a single school or university. Even smaller cities in the UK tend to have more than one university, so why not use a Facebook event to broaden up your audience?
- Use social media as a tool to measure expected attendance at the same time as promoting it. Ask applicants to confirm their attendance with a retweet for maximum exposure on Twitter.
- It’s possible to give an air of exclusivity via social media and you can be creative with how you use details. Using secret locations and limited availability can make events seem more desirable, particularly if you’re looking for candidates with a little bit of flair.
- Social media also works two ways: by advertising online either exclusively or in tandem with printed material you ensure you get the applicants who are competent and regular users of social media.
It’s important to remember that your social media campaign has to compliment your campaign, but you’re almost certain to attract sustained interest solely online. Experiment with the combination of tools you want to use and don’t forget to keep them updated with the latest information: the first port of call for an interested applicant is your social media platform.
Tom started his career early; taking on an associate role at Deloitte just a few days after his eighteenth birthday, working in a technical role but with a focus on identifying and recruiting talented undergraduates. He is now entering his final year at Exeter University and he continues to work with the recruitment side of the firm and remains an active brand ambassador on campus.
Over the last few years, Tom has spent time building up a reputation as a freelance writer and has developed both a strong client base and good knowledge of social media along the way. Though there’s still plenty to learn, experience working in both the smallest and the largest of businesses has served him well and given him a feel for balancing strong corporate ideas with a personal tone.
As a student, Tom is able to offer a valuable insight into the way graduate recruitment works from the other side and how students and interns react to particular styles of marketing and recruitment. Eventually he hopes to take off his copywriting business before embarking on an MA in philosophy.
