Initially social media platforms acted as broad content hubs to share and express a business or personal online profile through creative snippets of photos, videos, gifs etc. This meant for agencies it was a bold new way to advertise their brand, and another opportunity to express their company’s personality to their online presence. It was a way of attracting and knowing their customer, and therefore helped to develop products further and understand the market. 

 

However, agencies are now also turning to social media for head hunting on top of brand building uses. This is unsurprising when there are many skill shortages within markets such as Healthcare, Construction and Education. Social recruiting is a new and refined use of social channels, aimed at bridging talent gaps. In an ever-changing world with many unknowns, the digital world has become a backbone for businesses, a stability and foundation that allows them to continue growing, with instant exposure to market insight and direct selling. The immediacy and scalability of social media increases efficiencies and opens so many more opportunities to grow and control the recruitment process. Traditional mediums such as newspapers and events aren’t manageable and consistent enough to rely on and use high effort with a very hands-on, 1-2-1 approach with candidates. Social media not only expands the reach and filters the target audience, but you can save time and money by tracking your recruiting efforts and get instant insights into the interests of your candidates, where to find them and how best to communicate with them. With the average Gen Z individual maintaining seven social profiles, it’s a no-brainer that agencies are turning to social media for head hunting. 

 

  • 73% of millennials found their previous role via a social network

 

What is social media recruitment?

Social media recruitment, also referred to as social recruiting and social hiring, is a way of working that utilises social platforms to proactively source candidates and extend the reach of job vacancies. It’s a strategy that exists as a combination of recruitment marketing and company branding to attract and connect with passive and active candidates across multiple digital platforms. These are platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, job boards and websites. Recruiters must constantly adapt and change styles, hence the multitude of platforms and channels. In order to hunt for the best talent, you can’t just post the ad to a job board or website and sit and wait for the best, you must go where your candidates go – nowadays that means social media. 

 

 

Why use social media for recruitment?

Recruiters use many sources and methods to advertise their services, roles and head hunt for candidates, but overall, this can generally mean a result of high effort with small reward. Social media is a great, reliable medium to keep business flowing whilst continuing other recruiting methods. Not only are you able to specify your search with a myriad of filters, but you’re able to suddenly reach millions of candidates dotted all around the world with the exact skillset you’re searching for. By condensing the candidate pool quickly and earlier on in the recruitment process, not only are you being more cost-effective but also efficient. You can focus more time on selecting the best candidates and pay attention to the quality rather than quantity. 

 

While social media may just seem like another temporary fix for recruiting, its popularity continues to grow with new platforms constantly being created for all different uses. Almost 90% of recruiters have stated that they’ve hired someone from LinkedIn. However, there are also many other channels to source candidates outside of the obvious LinkedIn. Ultimately, when done properly, social media recruitment is a huge advantage when it comes to head hunting as it enables companies to target desired candidates, showcase company culture, save money, and reach passive candidates. Social recruiting inserts your business into the world of workers, where they spend a large majority of their time. 

 

What are the benefits of social recruiting? 

Engage with young talent to build a new pool of emerging talent, of which most companies are always hiring, especially industries experiencing skill shortages. And with 500,000 young people unemployed and 99% of 16-24 years old’s on social media there’s bound to be an abundance of placement opportunities waiting.

Increase your reach to as many candidates as possible. The higher pool of candidates you are connecting with, the higher quality you will gradually collect and greater your chances at making a placement. 

Attract passive candidates because even though they aren’t actively looking, they may still be open to new opportunities and merely waiting for the right role to be put in front of them. This helps expose your job role and company to so many other good potential candidates that you would never have been able to reach, especially if the market is sparse. Did you know, 70% of today’s workforce are passive candidates?!

Say hello to social selling because cold calling is a thing of the past. Traditionally cold calling was enough but required high effort and volume in order to succeed. Nowadays, most people don’t want to pick up their phones but instead intrude on others via their social profiles. A split of methods is always a good balance to suit all target audiences, but a study by LinkedIn and Sales Benchmark Index highlights cold calling to have a success rate of 1-3%, whereas social selling has around 15%. 

Target niche skill sets with a multitude of search filters and paid advertising opportunities across all platforms. Instantly access the most important information required to engage with the right candidates. This will allow you to alter your pitch to different audiences and have a more tactful approach to take the right pitch to the right candidate at the right time. 

(Here are five other ways social media can help with recruiting efforts.)

 

For you to successfully utilise the platform and take advantage of its capabilities, just ensure you decide on a strategy with a clear goal in mind to begin with. In an increasing digital market, it’s important for your recruitment agency to constantly learn and adapt to your market behaviours and trends in order to thrive and increase your chance of success.