Hiring has never been easy. The job market is hypercompetitive, and every recruiter is trying their best to hire top talent for their organisation. Sometimes, finding the right candidate and filling a job position takes months.
However, with time, new technology, processes, and mediums have been created that have somewhat eased the hiring process. Social media recruitment is one such way of hiring qualified candidates faster. Platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter can help you increase your brand’s visibility, expand your reach, and connect with diverse candidates.
But how powerful is social media recruitment? You can find out by looking at the key statistics about social media recruitment we’ve gathered for you.
Let’s begin:
79% of job seekers using social media for their job search is a big deal. If you play your cards right, more job seekers will apply for a role at your company than your competitors. Also, chances are that you can fill these job positions sooner than expected.
Here’s how you can create a positive first impression for job seekers using social media for job search:
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A careerarc survey of over 1000 professionals found that most job seekers find social media sites and professional networking platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter as more efficient job search resources than career sites, job listings, job posts, and other recruitment methods. It shows how effective social recruiting is and what impact it will soon have on the hiring industry.
According to an SHRM survey, social recruiting is rising because of its efficiency. Many organisations use it to find talent, expand their talent pool, and target job seekers they couldn’t target earlier through traditional recruitment methods.
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Lately, you might’ve seen many candidates flaunting “LinkedIn helped me get this job” on their LinkedIn profiles. It shows the power of social media recruitment.
According to a survey by Aberdeen Group, around 3 in 4 candidates in the millennial age group found their last job from social media sites. It has become an effective social recruiting method, and you can no longer ignore it.
Many organisations focus on recruiting passive candidates. Such people are difficult to recruit but a goldmine if you hire them. Such job candidates have a higher employability rate and a great chance of becoming successful hires. They may also become great referrals for potential hires in the future.
According to a survey by Betterteam, social recruiting helps businesses find and nurture passive job seekers. They can easily reach out to them on social media, strike up a conversation, forge a relationship, identify if they’re satisfied or dissatisfied at their present job, and make a move if there’s an open position in which they can be a good fit. Employers can also reduce hiring time this way.
There’s enough talk about social media recruitment being an effective hiring strategy. But does it work? According to a Betterteam survey, social media recruitment works efficiently, as 70% of recruiting managers say they’ve successfully hired candidates with social media. It’s great proof to start using social media for hiring, right?
According to HR Magazine, the average cost of a bad hire is three times the salary paid. But you can save your organisation from it by using social media to research potential job candidates. The kind of posts they put on social media and the comments they leave on others’ profiles can give you a lot of insight into whether or not they would be a great fit.
67% of hiring decision-makers use social media to research candidates, and 71% feel it can effectively screen unqualified candidates.
Among all social media recruitment platforms, LinkedIn is the most popular. 40 million people use it for a job search in one week. It’s a big number. If you can reach even 10% of these candidates, you can easily find high-quality candidates you’re looking to fill. Hence, LinkedIn can be a great place to start if you want to use social recruiting to fill positions quickly.
Not only do recruiters use social media for researching and screening candidates, but job seekers also use social media to screen job applicants. Only after learning that the company is trustworthy do they apply. Hence, ensure you have an active social presence and a positive brand reputation on social media.
Besides, 82% of employees also consider the employer's brand reputation before they apply for the role, and a negative reputation may prevent many employees from applying for the role.
Recruiters love LinkedIn because candidates love sharing everything related to their careers. Whether open to a new role or looking to climb the corporate ladder, they’re vocal about everything. Hence, LinkedIn can be a great way to monitor potential candidates and approach them at the right time.
Another reason social media recruiting is the best bet for you is that more than half the recruiters worldwide feel they can hire the best talent compared to other methods like job boards (only 37% of recruiters feel they can find the right talent through social media) or job advertising.
90% of recruiters use LinkedIn regularly to search and recruit talent, while only 55% use Facebook, 47% use Twitter, and 11% use Instagram. Hence, LinkedIn is a great place to start if you’re yet to dive into social media recruiting.
Looking to hire entry-level college graduates? LinkedIn is your best bet because most students and recent graduates are active on the platform instead of on job websites.
This is an alarming stat for anyone believing they can use job boards to attract and hire candidates instead of building a presence on a social media platform. Job websites cost you a fortune, yet it takes 46 applications to hire one person. As a result, most recruiters favour social media recruitment rather than posting a new job on job boards as they find them more efficient and affordable.
Passive candidates are difficult to target but make up a large percentage of job seekers. By not targeting them, you may miss out on many promising candidates. So, don’t just target active job seekers but also take measures to target candidates passively looking for jobs by forging long-term relationships.
Word-of-mouth marketing and employee advocacy are promising ways to utilise your employees to attract new talent. Here are some stats indicating how getting your employees involved can play a critical role in making your social media recruiting efforts successful:
According to these findings from a Monster survey, if you can get your team members to spread the positive word about your company that it’s a great place to work, they will show more interest in applying. Hence, empower employees to tweet and blog about the company’s work and office culture, share photos on social media, or engage on the company page.
According to the stats from CareerArc, candidates trust no one but the employees of a company to enquire about its culture and work environment. Now, if your current employees are not satisfied with your company culture, chances are they will not give a positive review, and the candidate may not consider the job opening. Hence, you must foster a positive work culture in your organisation.
According to this stat from Weber Shandwick, your employees are avid social media users, and there are chances that they are already talking about your brand on social media. Now, it’s time to track those conversations and take necessary measures if the employee posts and reviews are not in your favour.
This stat from Jobvite shows that employee referrals are far superior and more effective than other hiring methods. Employees who talk about you attract high-quality talent, which takes your organisation to a new level.
Also, 47% of candidates hired through employee referrals have greater job satisfaction and stay longer in your company. Hence, you must encourage employees to spread great things about your brand on social media so that they bring great talent.
Social media recruiting is an affordable and highly efficient way of talent acquisition. While most companies still use traditional methods to hire candidates, social recruiting can generate more reach while keeping hiring costs low. Hence, you must adapt social media recruiting to amp your hiring efforts.
Hopefully, the above social recruiting stats gave you enough idea why social media recruiting is still a big deal. Despite this, most organisations lack an effective social recruiting strategy. Only 39% of businesses target specific audiences, and only 39% involve employees sharing branded content.
However, you can stand out and take the necessary measures to hone your social media recruiting strategy. Here are a few tips to make the most out of social media recruiting: