94% Of Recruiters Use Social Media In Recruitment Efforts

In the past, there was always a question of the value of social media in recruiting, but based on this year’s report, it is clear hiring managers believe social recruiting is worthwhile. In fact, 60 percent of employers estimate the value of their social media hires as greater than $20,000 per year, and 20 percent estimate the value as greater than $90,000 per year.

With nine out of 10 companies using social media for recruiting, now the bigger question is how do employers use social media in their hiring methods?

What social media outlets are they using?

For starters, according to the survey, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter continue to be the social media outlets recruiters use most.

  • They use LinkedIn 93 percent of the time to search, contact, and keep tabs on candidates in the hiring process.
  • Facebook and Twitter are the main outlets used to showcase employer brands. In fact, 65 percent of recruiters use Facebook and 47 percent use Twitter to post about company culture.
  • Even after contacting candidates, employers continue to use social media to dig further. After the interview process, 18 percent use Twitter and 25 percent use Facebook to look into candidates.

Social media attracts the best candidates.

Social media allows recruiters to find more job candidates than ever before. As a result, one in three employers say social media recruiting improved both the quantity and quality of candidates.

  • Referrals represent the highest quality source of candidates (64 percent); social networks and corporate career sites have also jumped in significance (59 percent).
  • These candidates also last longer. More than 40 percent of employees from referrals and company career pages stay longer than three years, while only 14 percent of job board hires stay this long.
  • It’s so much easier to share jobs through social networks because employees can refer jobs to their own networks. Because of this, 73 percent of recruiters plan to increase their investment in social networks in 2013.