Written by Leigh Foster

Social recruitment/social hiring is the process of recruiting candidates through social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Job boards can also be considered as social recruitment along with online forums and blogs.

Social recruitment is now the most popular way for a candidate to find a job, but also for a hirer/recruiter to find candidates.  It’s estimated that 75% of workers between 18-34 found their last job via social media and nearly 90% of recruiters are said to have found a successful candidate via LinkedIn.  Social recruitment is a fantastic, easy way to find and reach out to passive candidates, gather referrals, target specific candidates, grow your organisation's brand and save money!

Some good social recruiting practices include, but are not limited to:

• Identifying potential candidates and growing your network on LinkedIn
• Setting up campaigns and targeting groups on Facebook
• Post pictures and videos of the working environment and current employees from a positive angle that could encourage candidates to apply or approach the role
• An opportunity to post about your organisation's culture

Choosing the right social media platform

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all present useful tools for social recruiting.

• Facebook’s Graph Search allows you to search numerous variables of a user’s profile, including location, interests, areas of study, etc. As an example you can search for something as specific as “people interested in Project Management and live in Reading.”
• Twitter’s advanced search has more limitations than Facebook, but still allows you to search for people using specific phrases, hashtags, and keywords.
• The most effective social media tool for social recruiting is LinkedIn because it is solely built for job seekers, employers and professional networking. The entire site utilises a wide range of functions to help highlight your company culture and recruit potential candidates.
• LinkedIn also offers advanced search and candidate engagement tools which can be purchased on an annual basis, such as LinkedIn Premium and Recruiter licences.

At Pertemps Managed Solutions we have access to all of the social media platforms, advanced licences and a large number of job boards.  Not only do we post jobs and actively look for candidates, but we can also help to grow and promote your brand.