Today we are joined by iCIMS writer Vincent Michelino concerning the most important social media recruiting networking sites out there.
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Today’s recruiters are adapting to the changing jobseeker landscape by fortifying their social recruiting strategies and heavily targeting popular networking sites. Last year alone, 73% of candidates were successfully hired through the use of social media, with 29% citing it as their primary tool for job searches.
Below, we’ve identified the six you need to frame your recruiting strategy around, and the different methods that work for each.
The Big Three
When it comes to the talent battlefront, there’s no better place for recruiters to start than the big three dominant networking sites; Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, each with a different set of engagement rules.
Facebook. It’s the largest social networking platform in the world, with almost 2 billion monthly active users. Facebook has transcended the way in which job seekers interact with the brands they find interesting, and it spans every age group, gender, and ethnicity, so diverse exposure isn’t an issue. With such high user retention, it’s the perfect place to engage with job seekers, offer industry insights and post all of your open positions. In fact, Facebook offer companies a ‘Job Openings’ tab right from their profile, so candidates can visit one single depository and easily see what’s available.
Twitter. With nearly 310 million monthly active users, Twitter is a massive microblogging site with a twist. An imposed character count on all ‘tweets’ means you have to minimize the words you use without detracting from your message. It may not sound like it, but selling your corporate brand in 140 characters or less is a lot harder than you think. With your social recruiting tool, you can create ‘Twitter Cards’ to attach rich photos, videos, and media to your tweets and pack a bigger punch with a more expressive messaging beyond the limit.
LinkedIn. Considered the world’s largest professional network and most frequented social media platform for recruiting, LinkedIn is used as an important screening tool, and it’s where 62% of candidates expect to find their next job. With a vast network of valued connections, your company can easily maintain a high profile relationship with both active and passive candidates. You can even look to employees for a boost via social distribution, which automatically shares job postings on their profiles for greater exposure, promoting internal referral processes.
The Progressive Alternates
While the big three above may seem obvious, the following sites may not be a top-of-mind concern for recruiters, but progressive recruiting means finding candidates off the well-worn path.
YouTube. With its video-only format distinguishing itself amongst the other members of this list, YouTube allows you to literally broadcast your brand. Did you know that social video generates 1200% more social shares than text and images combined? That’s not a typo, and it exemplifies the value in producing employee and culture focused recruiting videos on a regular basis. With over a billion active users, there’s no better place to have real employees speak to company culture and shed details to what it’s like to work there.
Google+. One of the more under-utilized recruiting social sites, where jobs are shared 182% of the time, Google + has some stark advantages over competing platforms. For one, it offers a built-in talent pool feature, Circles, which allows recruiters to create private groups filled with candidates in relevant sectors and target specific content towards. It’s also great for SEO purposes and offers your business plenty of visibility associated with the keywords you identify by, not hard to figure since it’s backed by the world’s strongest search engine.
Instagram. A picture’s worth a thousand words, but they’re also invaluable to recruiters who feel that Instagram is the breeding ground for millennial “purple squirrels”. Boasting the second highest penetration rate in social media amongst this coveted generation, Instagram is a highly engaging way to promote your brand via pictures, videos, and text captions while appealing to the youthful generation of job seekers.
Winning the war for talent is no small feat, but when you’re equipped with the best recruiting tools, attracting your next great hire is just one status update away.
Vincent Michelino is a writer with iCIMS.