Since the inception of social media, this online resource has proved to be invaluable in more ways than one – from initially establishing itself as a means of advanced digital communication to a form of promotion that can elevate the reputation of a brand to celebrity-like status overnight.

So it’s no surprise that social media is now being used by businesses for recruitment purposes – with more and more people spending their time on social networking sites looking for vacancies as opposed to visiting dedicated job sites. The instant gratification of immediately being able to apply for jobs plus having direct contact with brands plays in the favour of social media, and despite the process of applying for jobs being a professional experience, the age-old mantra rings true: business is personal.

Social sharing

Earlier this year, business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn celebrated a milestone – reporting 300 million worldwide members, with 67 per cent based outside the US. With so many people putting their professional profiles out in public, this has attracted the interest of recruiters – viewing these accounts which in turn, leads them to search for the prospective candidate’s Facebook and Twitter profiles accordingly.

With many job applicants aware of this process, individuals are cleaning up their social networking profiles in a bid to be headhunted for the right reasons; highlighting just one of the many benefits social media provides in the employment sector. A great example of a business leveraging social media is Adobe, who since 2011, has used LinkedIn to locate more than half of its new recruits – using the traditional job sites for only five per cent of its new employees.

Face the facts

Did you know that there are more devices connected to the Internet than there are people? And did you also know that 40 per cent of people socialise more through digital in contrast to face-to-face? With statistics like these, it’s hard to ignore the capabilities social media offers – and with social media designed to increase outreach and improve engagement, what better way for companies to tap into undiscovered audiences than using these statistics to their advantage?

• With many employers having to pay for job adverts, reaching candidates through social media is more cost-effective – as all that’s required is access to the internet, essentially rendering the service free
• Specific tools developed for social media can help filter searches for potential candidates, easily determining suitability for the recruiter
• Referrals present better chances of the potential candidate fitting into a workplace (basically serving as online ‘word-of-mouth’
• Especially in the case of LinkedIn, jobseekers can be targeted via connections of the recruiter.

Additionally, with people trying to increase engagement by commenting on company blogs or responding to trending topics, social media takes the hard work out of recruitment – by letting users come to the recruiter, instead of the other way round. What other ways has social media proved fruitful for business recruitment? As an employer or job candidate, what did you find to be the best approach in recruitment?

Share your suggestions with us today.

This post has been supplied by www.businessadvantage.ihg.com