Using Social Media To Recruit Drivers

Using Social Media to Recruit Drivers

Social media is everywhere. Specifically, just about everyone is on social media nowadays.

People use social media for nearly everything in life. From connecting with family to finding the news, social media has become a major part of our daily lives.

Even truck driver recruiting has been pulled in by social media. When used effectively, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can redefine how you attract, screen, and hire over-the-road truckers.  To succeed, it takes time, commitment, and a clear strategy.

Is Social Media a Serious Tool for Driver Recruitment?

The question has to be asked: is social media actually useful for finding drivers? Is it possible that sites loaded with short comments and humorous puppy videos are actually useful in the serious pursuit of talented truckers? All signs point to yes.

Even though there is not much information connecting social media to the trucking industry specifically, there is a good deal of information on using social media for general recruitment. One of the most authoritative studies comes from the Society for Human Resource Management. A survey of human resource professionals found that 84 percent of organizations are using social media for recruitment. This is because “passive” job candidates use social media. This is important, because these are people who are not actively seeking work but may be open to new opportunities. The survey also found that 71 percent said social media helped reduce the time it took to fill a “non-management, salaried” position.

So while we can’t claim that social media is a guaranty for trucker recruitment, there is reasonable evidence that this can be an effective tool. After all, 84 percent of organizations would not intentionally use a worthless tool.

However, the way you use social media needs to make sense for what you need it to do.

Social Media is About Pulling in the Audience, Not Pushing Out a Message

When using social media as a recruiting tool, you need to think about your approach to ensure the highest levels of success. Instead of pushing your message, social media involves pulling in potential candidates with engaging and interesting posts.

Old Recruiting: The Push

In traditional recruiting, much like traditional advertising, you would make an effort to push your message to the masses. You might post your job opening in a newspaper. If you have multiple openings, you might purchase a “help wanted” billboard. Everyone who drives past your billboard will know that you need drivers. You could also run television or radio commercials to push your message further.

New Recruiting: The Pull

With social media, the focus should be on pulling people to your site or job opening with interesting and engaging posts and interactions. Social media is, after all, social. You can’t just create a profile and start carpeting the site with help-wanted posts. You need to interact, build relationships, and give people reasons to interact. You need to focus on the pull.

On social media, people can decide whether or not they want to listen to your message, or block it completely. It is very important that your approach to each social media site is the right one. As you will see, each site needs a different strategy.

The Major Social Media Sites for Recruiting Truckers

Facebook

This is the largest and arguably the most versatile social media site, and it can be a highly-effective tool for bringing in recruits. Use this site to make connections and communicate with people in the business, and remember to contribute to the conversations in a way that builds your brand and makes people want to add you as a friend. Once you have a solid reputation, you can start posting information about available opportunities within your company.

Twitter

This site is very share-friendly. It’s easy to post a message or re-post something that was created (shared) by another user. Start by building your profile and following people in the industry. Like Facebook, once your profile is built up you can begin posting job opportunities and other business-specific information.

LinkedIn

This is one social media site that is strictly dedicated to business professionals. While most of the site is made up of white-collar professionals, (such as marketing or accounting experts) you can still connect with people in the trucking industry, including over-the-road truckers.

YouTube

While it’s not generally thought of as a social media site when compared to something like Facebook, YouTube has millions of users and allows you to interact with a community. If you have the resources, create an informative video on trucks, the industry, or trucking life in general. If your video does well, it can build your brand and bring in plenty of job candidates.

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