Social recruiting, and employer branding have become mainstream.

Finally!

Most companies now use multiple social networks to share their job openings, engage with candidates, and grow their employer brand.

Sadly, what most companies still fail to do is embrace the element of fun that makes these social networks so popular.

Thankfully, there are some daring employers out there, willing to try new, quirky, and occasionally just plain weird social recruiting strategies.

Here are a few good examples:

Hubspot

Not only is the Hubspot blog a wealth of fantastic information, the company knows how to have fun with their social recruiting.

Take their “Inbound Gangnam Style” video for example:

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Taco Bell

Taco Bell has fantastic employer branding on Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest.

They consistently post updates about staff events, give shout-outs to their top performing employees, and share tons of colorful images that showcase their fun-loving employer brand.

For example:

Also, they have tacos, possibly the perfect food.

Marriott

Not only does Marriott connect with candidates using live chats, and webinars, they also gamify their posts by encouraging candidates to create hilarious captions for staff pics.

Marriott famously created a Facebook game to woo candidates, and sadly it seems the game is no more, but Marriott continues to set trends when it comes to their recruitment strategy.

Denny’s

Denny’s social media brand is just plain weird. But it is also wonderful.

The company uses Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for their branding and recruitment.

Here’s an example of one of their wacky tweets that went viral:

They balance the straight up silliness of their Tweets by making a heartfelt message of inclusiveness the focus of their Facebook Career Page.

This way the brand can both engage their potential candidates with the fun stuff, and then convert those candidates into applicants with their promise of a diverse and respectful company culture.

Oh, and I take back what I said about tacos. Pancakes are THE perfect food.