5 Benefits of Social Media to the Recruitment System

There are billions of people on social media right now. As recruiters, you should take advantage of this opportunity and implement sound strategies to improve your entire recruitment system.

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Social Media Statistics 2021

Before anything else, let’s take a look at social media statistics and the approximate number of users of major applications.

• Facebook - 2.8 billion
• Instagram - 1.1 billion
• LinkedIn - 740 million
• Tiktok - 689 million
• Twitter - 192 million

The role of social media has evolved. From what started as a means of communication, it now branched out to a platform used for self-expression, business, and even recruitment.

5 Benefits of Social Media to the Recruitment System

With that in mind, it gives plenty of reasons why it’s beneficial to your company.

Faster Recruitment

As intended with its initial purpose, everything is instantaneous in social media. You don’t need to send a snail mail just to get your message across. Now, you can deliver information in a matter of milliseconds. And faster communication can equate to faster recruitment, as well.

Recruitment is easier to do now thanks to social media. You just create a job ad, post them on various channels, and wait for the applications to come rushing in. Traditional methods demand a much slower pace. You post on actual job boards, wait for applicants to walk-in your door to apply-- you get the picture! It’s a slow process for both recruiters and candidates.

(RELATED: Learn how to optimize where you post your job ads)

On the flip side, you can also do the searching yourself. Social media makes it easy to search for prospects with just a few clicks. In fact, according to a survey conducted by Adweek, 92% of recruiters use this as a tactic to gather top talents.

Additionally, social media recruiting also is financially favorable for the organization, too. Recruiters will be able to mitigate the cost of hire when they get rid of expenses such as job board fees or even travel fees.

Plus, it provides a higher ROI because recruiters can be much more productive with saved time and effort. They can focus on other important tasks without spending too much time filling positions as usual.

Improves employer branding

Employer branding is how the market perceives your company and how likely they are to join your team. Social media can help improve this by increasing brand visibility.

By doing so, you perpetuate a higher brand awareness online. This is helpful because of two reasons: brand recall and company credibility.

Seeing your brand frequently can increase awareness and eventually lead them to be intrigued by what you offer. And, when they cross-check information about your company online, it will establish credibility that can greatly influence their perception of you.

Read more about employer branding here.

Attracts passive candidates

This supplements point #2. What’s nice about building a presence on social media is that you post details about your company for everyone to see, and it doesn’t go away.

Especially if it’s SEO-friendly, your content can be easily found on the web and possibly pique the interests of passive candidates. These individuals are not searching for a new job, but they are open to the idea of it.

If they become interested in working for you, the chances of them applying will be above the odds.

Why bother with such candidates? Because they are 120% likely to bring a positive and significant impact to the business. That’s worth contemplating on!

Targets different types of talent pool

Social media users are not “one size fits all”. Forbes mentions that people have various faces or personas depending on platforms. Individuals on Instagram, for example, care more about the visuals than anything else. If it’s appealing to them, they then read captions. On the other hand, people on Twitter are more vocal in general. They make use of character limits to fully comprehend and deliver messages on topics they care about.

The age groups and experience level is vastly different, too. LinkedIn users are specifically professionals looking to connect with fellow professionals. Facebook demographics are broad, which can be good and bad. One, you can reach more people. Two, it’s going to be hard to target specific groups if needed.

Using ads can help in this regard. You can pay a minimal fee to cater your job ads to precise groups. You can set the reach range (i.e. 5km around your current location), age range (i.e. only 20-30 years old), etc.

If you’re a headhunter, LinkedIn is a blessing. You can simply search keywords, and it will show results that match your query. Are you looking for a content writer? Just type it down, and check available individuals from there. Best part? This is free! You can opt to pay more if you want advanced features.

Source of more information for candidates

As a recruiter, conducting background checks should be imperative. You can use social media to do this. We recommend that you use tools, so you can conduct this step professionally.

Some recruitment software like Manatal offers superb functionalities that can allow you to get to know a candidate better through their social media accounts. The social media enrichment tool is a great way to do so. It takes relevant information from those platforms and gives recruiters more information about the applicant.

Click here to read more about it!

Social Media Strategies to Implement to the Recruitment System

There are some ways where you can implement strategies to your recruitment system based on these social media facts. It highly depends on your type of company, your target market, and your branding. Here are some examples:

Post content

Whether it’s a job ad, article, or simply a website copy, it will help you recruit faster and better. Do take your branding in mind when you post your content. Is the tonality of your product lively? Serious? Once this is defined, post accordingly.

This will help your company in several aspects. It can improve your employer branding, attract more candidates, and more.

Be sure to leverage your platform by posting valuable content, too. In every post or article, it should be something that people would want to read. This can leave a lasting impression on website visitors.

Be creative

Don’t just do posts point-blank. Be as creative as you can. Social media, whether we like it or not, has been a playground for creatives and a fierce arena for businesses. It’s all a matter of executing fascinating content to lure people in.

A good example would be Apple’s subtle way of recruitment. A man shared his discovery when he stumbled upon a “secret link” that led to a post stating that the tech giant is looking for a new engineer.

(Source: BBC)

This is very innovative and, at the same time, ensures that those who manage to find this “secret link” are already experienced enough to land on this treasure chest.

Another way to be creative is to ride the bandwagon. Tiktok is a big trend right now. Your company can create an account and showcase your products with fresh eyes. It can be from “employee takeovers”, mesmerizing product videos, and more.

The possibilities are endless.

In conclusion, it’s safe to say that the rise of social media has helped millions of people in their endeavors. Even in recruitment, it provides so many perks that can boost a company’s overall success in more ways than one.

Take advantage of this modern approach and improve your recruitment system. It’s going to be a challenge keeping up with the constant changes, but if the reward is higher ROI, quality hires, and sky-rocketing sales, then it’s worth catching up with, right?

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