In today’s ever-changing recruiting world, employers are ditching old school methods of talent acquisition (e.g., cold calling) and turning to the innovative and evolving world of social media. In fact, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 77% of all organizations are now utilizing social media as an integral part of their talent acquisition strategies—compared to just 34% in 2008 and 56% in 2011.
Although LinkedIn is at the forefront of nearly all social recruiting discussions, many organizations are discovering that—to find the best candidates—they need to go far beyond advertising jobs via social media. They need to focus on strategies such as building brand awareness, engaging with consumers and candidates alike, and being transparent, accessible and relevant—ultimately to draw top talent to their organization.
This week’s edition of Talent Acquisition Fast Facts delves into social recruiting trends—looking beyond everybody’s favorite professional network, LinkedIn:
According to iCIMS, which researched and analyzed more than 60,000 jobs posted on social media in 2013, Facebook has a conversation-to-apply rate of 47%—the highest of all social media networks, 17% higher than LinkedIn and a full 25% higher than Twitter.
- Conversion-to-apply rate: Social media metric defined as the conversion from a candidate viewing a job ad on a particular social network to fully completing the application process.
Why do you think this is? In looking at the following metrics, could it have to do with Facebook's ease of defining and promoting your brand, transparency and accesibility in comparison to other engines? Interestingly, in a survey of 3,379 corporate HR leaders across the globe, 83% believe employer brand has a significant impact on ability to hire great talent; the same leaders believe competitors investing in employer brand is their organizations’ top competitive threat.
For many organizations, creating and defining their brand via Facebook is a major part of integrating brand awareness both internally and externally, as well as reaching the best talent.
- In fact, according to content management system Hubspot, 80% of all U.S. social media users prefer to connect to brands through Facebook over any other social network.
- Further, 15% of social media users currently looking for new positions (according to Jobvite) have recently modified Facebook privacy settings to ensure transparency and availability during the job-hunting process.
According to an infographic published by Social Talent, leveraging social media to enhance recruiting has provided surveyed organizations the following benefits:
- 42% of companies say that candidate and talent quality have improved.
- 20% of companies say social media has reduced their overall time-to-hire.
- 31% of companies have witnessed an increase in employee referrals as a result of their social media and social recruiting efforts.
- 76% of companies have “successfully” hired high-quality talent via social media.
Pinterest is an often-overlooked social recruiting tool. However, with more than 12 million users (according to research conducted by RJMetrics), Pinterest is retaining and engaging users as much as 2 to 3 times more efficiently than Twitter.
- Beyond simply finding talent, Mashable claims Pinterest can become a one-stop shop for branding, building external company awareness, adding a visual element to recruiting initiatives, and creating boards for open positions.
Although LinkedIn continues to be a behemoth with regard to recruiting via social media, alternative social networks are indeed catching up. From Facebook to Pinterest, reaching and engaging millions of users online will continue to grow as a way to find the best and brightest talent. Do you think Facebook and/or Pinterest can become actual players in the recruiting space?
We’d love to hear your thoughts on Twitter and the Cielo Facebook page!
This week’s Talent Acquisition Fast Facts post was contributed by Abby Thompson, Cielo Social Media Specialist. Connect with Abby on LinkedIn.