Originally posted on the SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Blog.

Mobile Recruiting is becoming a hot topic and fairly so. With over 50% of the world’s population expected to have access to the Internet through a mobile device in 1 year, there is a wealth of talent that can be sourced through this technology.

In addition, SMS (commonly known as text message) is becoming increasingly popular among the mobile community among all age groups. Mobile recruiting, most importantly SMS, can be a great tool to use in your recruiting efforts and will only be more important going forward. Here are some great statistics about SMS and what they can mean for your recruitment marketing strategy:

Stat # 1: Two thirds of mobile phone users are subscribers of SMS text messaging. What does that translate to? Approximately 1.8 billion people are actively text messaging today

Takeaway: As finding top talent is growing globally, mobile recruiting through SMS enables you to reach qualified candidates across the world quickly and effectively.

Stat # 2: There are two times as many active SMS users as are active users of email

Takeaway: While email is an important channel for reaching qualified talent, SMS provides a new and innovative way to quickly and easily communicate with qualified candidates and acts as another point of contact with these candidates.

Stat # 3: Among 18-29 year old cell phone owners: * 95% send or receive text messages

Takeaway: As you are recruiting the next generation of talent, mobile recruiting will become more important. This is because younger cell phone users are more comfortable with cell phone technology and sometimes prefer to be contacted via text. This will only grow with time.

Stat #4: On Average text messages are read within 4 minutes compared to 48 hours with email.

Takeaway: Because everyone has their cell phone on them 24-7, text messages offer the ability to reach candidates in real-time about new opportunities at your company. This enables you to quickly gauge interest in the position in your Talent Network and determine other channels you will need to utilize in your recruiting.

The immediacy of the mobile phone also enables your company to easily add qualified candidates to your Talent Network via career fairs, networking events, etc through a dedicated mobile number and database.

Stat #5: More people now have a mobile phone than an Internet-connected PC in the United States and globally.

Takeaway: Mobile technology is becoming a necessity for everyone to have. Not only is the technology guaranteed to get better but user adoption is continually improving as well. As people get more comfortable with the technology,it provides a unique opportunity to companies that are looking to recruit top talent in a real-time context.

Stats taken from here and here.

About the Author: Chris is the Marketing Analyst for SmashFly Technologies. SmashFly is the provider of the first recruitment marketing platform called WildFire that provides companies and staffing firms with the best real time recruitment metrics for all their recruiting efforts online.