9 Reasons Why to Participate in Social Media Recruiting

In 8 Items to Consider with Social Media Recruiting and How to Make the Most of 5 Social Media Platforms, we discussed what social media recruiting involves, and how to do it, including specific tips for six different platforms. Today is the exciting part – how does your commitment to social media recruiting pay off? What are the benefits? Here’s a list of nine winners.

1. Build Your Brand Awareness-

Active participation on social media sites increases your brand awareness and build trust with industry talent. It’s an opportunity for you to reveal who your company really is on a daily basis. It provides candidates with a clear picture of who your company is, what you do, your culture, and whether you are the solution to their career goals. Showing your company’s personality and values through your posts and participation will capture the interest of the talent you need. In fact, according to Talent Works, nearly 60% of candidates use social media to research companies. This is your opportunity to showcase your company culture and brand.

2. Increase Visibility-

When taking into account the number of social media users – see the Hootsuite chart below – it only makes sense that sharing your vacancies on your social media pages will increase visibility.

Platform – Active Monthly Users
· LinkedIn – 260,000,000
· Facebook – 2,190,000,000
· Pinterest – 200,000,000
· Snapchat 187,000,000
· YouTube – 2,500,000,000

Social Networks create a platform for identifying and targeting the specific group of talent that you need, enabling you to put your position in front of the caliber of talent you’re seeking.

3. Trigger Engagement-

The more that candidates check out your job postings, the more engagement you experience on your social media networks. The more activity, the more people will share your post among their connections. These conversations not only keep your page alive, but they also open the door for you to engage with talent. This includes talent that would never have heard of your job opening if you hadn’t posted it on your social media.

4. Engage Passive Candidates-

According to a 2017 Jobvite survey, 82% of satisfied employees are still open to new opportunities. Recruiting via social media presents an opportunity to engage with these passive candidates. If a professional’s social media profile stands out, find your connection and take that first step – especially when recruiting for niche roles. After all, isn’t recruitment the sourcing of specific talent for specific positions? Social media recruiting opens the door for connection with the right talent.  And having a social media presence allows candidates to look for your company and your jobs.

5. Engage Higher Quality Candidates-

Professionals who are actively involved in social media posts, forums, and discussions tend to be a step ahead in tech savviness, business trends, market knowledge, etc. They know the skills in demand and often pursue them. If they have niche skills, they tend to participate in niche groups. For example, Developers hang out at Stack Overflow or GitHub, while Marketers love Moz or Warrior. Posting your jobs within specific circles opens the door to a higher level, specialized talent.

6. Boost Your Referral Success-

It’s the “friend of a friend” avenue. Social media is where “sharing” happens. It’s a great place to maximize your referral program. People connect within their industry – which means your employees know who is out there with the right skills. When they share job posts, it will be in the right talent pool. This personal element makes social media a fantastic way to expand your recruiting pool.

7. Screen Candidates Effectively-

Social media platforms give you a more in-depth view of the whole candidate – more than the face they bring to an interview. It provides an inside picture of how well a prospective candidate will fit into the company’s culture. It also provides insight into personality, lifestyle, and values. Take caution, however, to stay within the legal realm. Most professional candidates willingly include links to their social media networks in their resume and cv, but don’t step over privacy boundaries.

8. Shorten the time of each recruiting journey-

Social networking sites not only make it easy and fast to communicate with candidates, it also allows them to respond faster. As a result, excellent work relationships often emerge. Furthermore, when talent shares with talent, ties based on shared values, interest and work styles are strengthened and often accelerates the speed with which you will find that best-fit professional for the position.

9. Reduce Hiring Costs-

Last, but certainly not least. We all understand the high cost of the search – recruit – hire process. Recruiting via social media reduces the cost and broadens the talent pool at the same time. Of course, there are costs for some social media features, such as FB ads, LinkedIn Job Posts, Recruiters license, etc. but, the totals are lower than most other methods. Better yet, sharing a job post on FB, LinkedIn, or via Twitter is absolutely free as well as increasing your visibility – which is the next benefit.

Today’s social media users have an average of 8 social media accounts. Social recruiting is no longer a new trend that recruiters need to try. It has become a mainstream strategy that offers positive results. It pays to tap into this incredible source for high-quality talent while gaining multiple benefits. Award Staffing taps into social media every day. We use this and many other avenues to bring the best talent to your doorstep. Contact us today.