In two previous post I discussed whether LinkedIn will Replace Monster & Careerbuilderand shared 5 Ways Staffing Professionals Can Leverage LinkedIn.  Here I want to give you even more hard evidence to consider LinkedIn and other social networking sites in your day to day activities as a recruiter.

Survey results from Jobvite’s 2010 recruiting survey found that 83% of respondents (over 600 human resources and recruitment professionals completed Jobvite’s online survey) use or plan to use social networking for recruiting in 2011.

The big sites used: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Regarding candidate quality, respondents’ rates job boards worst, referrals best, and social networks somewhere in the middle

Some more interesting numbers from the survey:

• 46% of respondents plan to spend more on social recruiting in the coming year
• 36% will spend less on job boards and 38% will spend less on third party recruiters and search firms
• 71% of survey respondents are hiring
• 92% of those actively hiring currently use or plan to recruit via social networks

What does this all mean? I don’t know if the days of Monster and careerbuilder are numbered – they still have significant databases, and careerbuilder, at least, has enough money to advertise during the Super Bowl – but the enormous potential of the “big three” social networking sites for recruiting is definitely untapped.

These numbers also mean that job seekers should definitely incorporate social media into their job hunting toolbox.

If you’re not sure how to use social media in recruiting, stay “linked in” to this blog post by subscribing. I’ll be passing on tips for using social networking for recruiting. If you have some of your own, please share them below.

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