Is it an understatement? The reason is that social media is a great recruiting tool that should not be ignored.
Social media is a valuable recruiting tool
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Social media can be more than just a means of communication, promotion or marketing between a company and its potential customers. Social media can be (and is already being used by companies across a range of industries) a powerful recruiting tool to help current HR or talent managers attract the top talent they need to help companies grow and succeed.
Just five years ago, hiring managers might have frowned upon using social media as an effective means of sourcing talent. Privacy, compliance, and candidate quality were all worth considering when using Facebook or Instagram to engage with job seekers. But in today’s talent acquisition landscape, where companies value authenticity, transparency, and innovative thinking from their employers, hiring managers can no longer ignore the power of social media as an essential part of their overall recruiting strategy.
Let's look at a few reasons why social media is a valuable tool in today's hiring processes .
Profitability
Depending on your industry, traditional candidate sourcing methods range from a few hundred dollars for a job board or professional organization ad to $10,000-$15,000 for a professional search firm. And as any recruiter will tell you, it often takes more than one job board or professional organization ad, which means the costs add up quickly. Using social media as a recruiting tool can dramatically reduce your recruiting costs, as your company likely already has a following on the major social platforms, meaning you have an established audience to amplify your call for candidates. Plus, paid social media campaigns allow you to set detailed candidate and demographic criteria to ensure your job posting is reaching the right people.
Another element of profitability comes down to the content you post. Let’s say you’re willing to think outside the box and produce specialized content for a particular position (a professional photo related to the position, a 150-word text as part of the post). In that case, you significantly increase the chances of your followers engaging with your content. The more engagement there is, the more people will see your job posting, which increases your chances of getting hired.
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Connecting with the passive job seeker
Ask any hiring manager and they’ll tell you that the real hurdle to finding top talent isn’t focusing on the person who’s actively looking for a new role, but rather the passive job seeker who may not be explicitly looking to make a career change until they know more about what your company has to offer, how they can fit into your culture and organization, and what you cellphone number philippines format brand personality is like . Essentially, the uphill battle is to consistently stay at the forefront of candidates’ minds, so that they immediately think of you when they’re looking for their next opportunity. Filling their Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn feeds with hiring-focused content is perhaps the easiest and most cost-effective way to do this.
Additionally, giving the passive job seeker ongoing opportunities to engage with your company on social media also helps build your employer brand and tell your story to a wider audience than you might otherwise be able to.
Build your company's brand.
Today’s job seeker wants to connect with their company. They want to feel like their company is forward-thinking and they crave a sense of authenticity and honesty regarding the company’s ethics. Social media is the perfect platform for companies to build and expand their employer brand in a way that allows for real-time communication and engagement with the job seeker. Photos, videos, testimonials, animations, and other content opportunities via social media can help hiring managers pull back the curtain and demonstrate what their company is all about and how job seekers can fit into the company culture.
Giving job seekers a behind-the-scenes look at who you are as an employer through their phone or mobile device is a no-brainer, especially as the percentage of applications completed via phone or other devices continues to rise.
Reduce time to hire.
This is a common scenario when using social media as a recruiting tool: A candidate sees a social media post promoting a job, is intrigued enough to click on a link to a job posting, and then submits a resume in response to the job posting within minutes. Then, as a recruiter, you receive a notification and can view their resume essentially in real time or even message the candidate directly with follow-up questions or interview availability. Social media has reduced a process that used to take days to the time it takes to eat a meal. Any tool that helps recruiters reduce time to hire, increase the efficiency of the interview or selection process, and promote more effective and timely communication with the candidate is a critical value proposition, especially in today’s market where competition for quality candidates is at its highest.
Improved reporting and data
Whether you’re using a reporting feature built into a particular social platform, such as Facebook’s Campaign Manager, or opting for a platform like HootSuite to manage your social media presence, being able to access detailed reporting and data in terms of views, link clicks, shares, and other types of engagement will help you better determine your return on investment and tell a more accurate story of how you’re positioning your job postings to potential candidates. Recruiting budgets are indisputably tied to reporting and data, and using social media as a recruiting tool provides far more detailed analytics (as well as more meaningful insights into who your candidates are, how they find you, and what they’re looking for in an employer) than any of the more traditional methods of recruitment advertising , such as radio, television, or job board ads.
If, at its core, social media gives companies a voice to communicate and engage with a captive audience in real-time, then using this voice to shout loud and proud about your career opportunities and the elements of your company culture that make you unique should be the number one priority for hiring managers looking to emerge as true thought leaders in the talent acquisition game.