Whether a recruiter finds a potential hire on Facebook or uses LinkedIn to connect with clients, social media has become a critical part of the recruiting landscape. As social media participation continues to expand, new companies are appearing to take social media recruiting strategies from piecemeal to integrated so that executive recruiters and hiring managers can being to fully utilize the capacity of social media for finding the perfect hire.
Social Media is Essential to All Recruiting
According to a 2015 survey, 92% of recruiters use social media to find candidates. The biggest percentage of social recruitment, unsurprisingly, is done on LinkedIn, but respondents to this particular survey have also ventured into Facebook, Twitter, and even Snapchat to find the perfect candidates. This does not even include social employer branding efforts, which are another huge focus for hiring teams. The truth is that social media is unavoidable, whether you are an expert executive recruiter or a top notch candidate looking to fill the perfect role.
Social Media Recruiting Strategies
Social media recruiting strategies are not as simple as typing a few descriptors into a search box and hoping the right candidate shows up. One of the best social recruiting strategies is to use networks like LinkedIn to find passive job seekers. Since a LinkedIn profile acts as an online resume, it is easy to get a thorough overview of someone’s skills and strengths even if they are not ready to submit to your opening.
Find out more about how recruiters use social media today.
Recruiting Sites & Apps
Innovative companies are stepping up to help recruiters and companies better utilize social media. In one example, Israeli company Workey has created a site that is designed to tap into the “friend of a friend” nature of both social media and recruitment. Companies love to hire based on personal employee recommendation, but there are inherent problems to that process -- namely that just because you have a friend does not mean that you know their precise skillset or even if they are interested in a job. With Workey, interested applicants sign up for the site and connect with their social network friends before they are even made aware of a job. And the company only reaches out of they are connected and a good fit.
Workey is fairly new to the social recruiting picture, but other sites have been around longer and continue to make it possible to connect with candidates in their social spaces. For instance, Jobvite offers recruiters a plugin that allows employers to add a Jobs tab to their facebook page so that applicants can apply directly through the site.
Social media is here to stay, so it is important that those recruiters who want to be competitive to not only understand how it works, but to make it work to their advantage. But exploring new sites and applications that mine social data to help hiring managers, recruiters and employers can give themselves an edge with top candidates.