We've spoken of the popularity of the internet far too much.
With its introduction and the many technological advancements since, the way we live our lives is forever changed.
From ordering our weekly shopping through to buying books.
From hotel bookings to finding a recipe, there’s an endless list of things to use the internet for.
Since the 2000s social media has been on a steady rise.
It's already become a valuable resource not only for our personal lives, but also the way we conduct businesses.
With over 2.5 billion people on social media now, they can talk to businesses directly, they can contact friends and family or make new friends.
They could also follow companies of interest, make calls, send pictures and so much more.
Once businesses realised the value of social media they flocked to it.
It opened a new path to engage with customers, exchange information and reach a new range of audience.
Not only does it help to connect with your customers, you’ll also be able to increase brand awareness, business leads and sales.
The costs of running a marketing campaign can add up, but social media is affordable.
Regardless of size or budget of your business, you can grow your audience.
You can also use platforms like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to year your business objectives.
Social media and Recruitment
The value of social media has not been lost on the recruitment industry either.
Social media has now become an extremely valuable resource in the recruitment process.
It can help you reach a wider target audience directly.
According to a whitepaper by Robert Walters, up to 80% of job seekers are using social media to research potential job opportunities.
They’re also using the information from on an organisation’s social media page to prepare for interviews.
While the sole reason you hire an employee cannot be based completely on their social media presence, it can act as a conversation starter.
It could also act as an extension of an employee’s CV in the right circumstance.
There are a variety of ways that an HR team or a recruitment company can use social media to their advantage.
This post is going to explore some of the benefits of social media in the recruiting process.
We’ll also suggest some easy and effective methods of integrating social media to your recruitment process.
The benefits of social media for recruiting
Boost brand: It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway.
It’s extremely important to promote a positive image of your brand and company image on social media.
When looking for employment, candidates are likely to conduct their own research into the company they might work for.
With all that's available online, candidates have to information on your website and social media platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).
Based on what they find, they’ll be able to determine your company culture and see how you engage with your current employees.
The same whitepaper claimed that 90% of surveyed job seekers use social media to find information on an organisation.
They also use it for insights into your company culture, how you want your business to be perceived, career opportunities.
Some even go as far as using it to find the profiles of your existing employees.
Effectively managing your presence on social media presence allows you to control what people see about your company online.
You can use it as a platform to show off your employees and accolades, you can use it so show off your clients, projects, client reviews and more.
Advertising roles
Social media is a great platform for promoting your vacancies.
Not only will you be able to reach a wider audience, you’ll also be able to customise the advert for specific social platforms.
For example, on twitter, you can use hashtags to reach your target audience.
On Facebook, there's dedicated groups to post your job listing, groups can be divided according to location, experience or type of job.
Potential candidates will be able to either contact you directly or register their interest in the role via a comment on the post.
In some cases, they can follow the job listing to your website where they can find the other opportunities you have available.
If you have the budget, you could also invest in paid advertising.
Paid advertising simplifies the recruiting process. It allows you to target job advertisements to relevant candidates.
If you haven’t got the budget to run paid campaigns, job seekers can still come across your available vacancies by scrolling through their timeline.
The costs
Apart from the ability to reach a global audience via social media, another major advantage is the costs associated with it.
It’s completely free to sign up, link to your website and share job vacancies and other related resources.
But of course, there are also some costs associated with social media.
There’s options for paid advertising on every major social media platform like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat.
There are many advantages of investing in paid advertising with regards to the recruitment process.
Not only will you be able to amplify your reach, it is also a cost effective way to promote your vacancies as it can fit any budget.
Targeted recruiting
Using social media as a recruiting tool allows for a more targeted form of recruiting.
Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook have thousands of profession specific groups.
These groups contain members from various levels of their field. On platforms like Twitter and Instagram, you can use hashtags to target a group or location.
You can also target a higher calibre of candidates. Most candidates that you find on social media will be tech-savvy.
They'll also have some knowledge of the latest trends in their field which they’ll bring to your company.
Encouraging your employees to share vacancies can also contribute to attracting top talents.
They can give a first-hand account of the company culture, the work-life balance, employee perks and benefits and so much more.
Screening potential recruits
Finally, using social media to screen potential employees can save you time and money in the long-run.
While it’s not advisable to use social media as your only screening tool, you’ll still find some information about the candidates.
For example, screening via social media can showcase talents and skills and how they apply that to their personal lives.
It’ll show you how their traits can fit in with the business and company culture.
As well as showing you the positive values of a recruit, you can also find the negatives.
You can find reasons not to hire them or question you might want to develop on in the interview stage.
You should always be careful not to discriminate against candidates based on information you find online.
Screening on social media is also a cheaper way to perform a background check.
Platforms like Facebook make it easier to get an idea of a potential recruit’s day to day life.
While Twitter allows you to gain insights on their opinions or personal beliefs. And LinkedIn gives you a general idea of a candidate's professional experience.
While screening candidates via social media has its advantages, you should also be aware of its limitations.
The first is that some it could be considered an invasion of privacy.
For most people, social media is a personal tool used to interact with friends and family and does not reflect their personal beliefs.
Another limitation of relying solely on social media during the screening process is the lack of reliability.
The reality of it is you only have access to what the candidate wants other people to see and it may not accurately represent them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, social media is not just ‘for the young’.
From baby boomers to Millennials to gen X and Gen z, they all bring their unique perspective to your business and you can find them on social media.
You should incorporate social media platforms into your recruitment strategy.
Social media can provide you with an opportunity to connect, engage and network with potential employees.
Social media can come into play at any stage of the recruiting process. From the initial stages of researching for a role, to finding potential candidates to screening and everything in-between.
