The Advantages of Using Social Media to Recruit
Developement

As more and more candidates turn to social media for job research, companies are now taking advantage of these platforms to find their next hire.

Social recruiting is the practice of using social media channels to recruit top talent, and it is one of the top recruitment trends of 2024. In fact, 92% of companies use social media for recruitment, according to a report by Adweek.

There’s a reason why social recruiting has become increasingly popular in recent years. According to GlobalWebIndex, the average internet user has over five social media accounts. As of this year, Facebook has over 2.4 billion active users, Instagram has over 1 billion and Twitter has over 330 million, and those numbers only continue to grow. In 2024, social media is where people go to interact with friends, express their passions, shop the latest trends and, yes, find their next job.

It’s time to use these numbers to your advantage. By adding social media to your recruitment strategy, you can attract active and passive candidates, target your specific and ideal talent pool, boost your employer brand and company culture, and save on recruiting costs. 

Attract passive candidates

According to a survey, 73% of candidates are passive job seekers. This means that it is now your responsibility to source top talent and encourage them to join your company, rather than the other way around.

With social media, you are meeting your candidates, both active and passive, where they already spend most of their online time. Instead of posting a description on a job board and waiting for your ideal candidate to find you, social recruiting allows you to interact with talent naturally and organically by engaging with their social pages. This will give you the chance to start two-way conversations with candidates that may not have reached out on their own.

While passive candidates may not be actively seeking a new job, many still utilise their social media pages to keep up to date on industry trends & news and stay informed about companies they are interested in. According to a LinkedIn Talent Trends report, 4 in 10 professionals consistently network and research new jobs, but only 30% of them are active candidates.

Because of this, many passive candidates put professional details on their social profiles, so you can easily review their industry experience and reach out. Additionally, creating a positive social media presence for your company will inspire both active and passive candidates to follow your page and, hopefully, join your team.

Target specific talent pools

According to a survey, 49% of recruiting professionals who use social media for recruitment reported that these platforms brought in higher quality candidates. Part of this is thanks to social media’s diverse range of specific groups, filters and hashtags.

Facebook gives you the ability to set advanced search filters that align with your ideal candidate persona. You can set this criteria based on location, industry or specific keywords, and Facebook will immediately calculate how many of its members fit your search.

Similarly, Facebook ads can be designed to target candidates that are within your parameters, rather than all of the platform’s 2 million members. This helps you find the right talent pool and receive better applications. In fact, the average Facebook ad has a click through rate of 0.9% according to Adweek, which is higher than most other recruitment marketing techniques.

While Twitter and Instagram also offer targeted advertising, they have the additional benefit of hashtags, which can be used to narrow down your talent pool. A multitude of well thought-out hashtags for different industries and job sectors already exist, giving you access to communities with an established following.

These hashtags can be as specific as #secretarialjobDublin or as general as #hiring, depending on the criteria of your candidate persona. However, you can also create hashtags that are unique to your company, which will help you boost engagement and form your own talent community.

Boost your employer brand

An appealing employer brand is invaluable for attracting and retaining top talent, making it another of the top recruitment trends of 2024 alongside social recruiting. According to research by LinkedIn, 75% of candidates research a company’s reputation and brand before applying.

Creating an engaging presence on social media can notably boost your employer brand by promoting your visibility, credibility and company culture. By posting updates about your industry, as well as content about your individual company, you can begin to establish yourself as an authority in your field. Not only will this motivate candidates to follow and interact with you, but it will also help you make connections with other authorities in the industry, which will strengthen your brand exposure.

You should also consider enlisting your current employees as brand ambassadors for your company. According to Social Media Today, content shared by employees receives eight times more engagement than content shared by brand channels. This is because candidates trust current employees more than employers to give them accurate information about a company–three times more in fact, according to a LinkedIn Employer Brand Statistics report. Additionally, having current employees create their own posts will showcase your company culture while also giving candidates an open door to engage with someone at your company.

Promote an employer brand and company culture that candidates will want to be a part of immediately by creating posts about your:

  • Office and working environment
  • Employees
  • Well-being strategy
  • Perks and benefits
  • Unique, interesting or successful projects
  • Corporate and team events