It is safe to say that social media now pervades every aspect of our lives. For many, Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn have become daily information sources. In fact, according to the latest figures over 24 million people in the UK visit Facebook every day, that’s more than one third of the population. Twitter and LinkedIn are just behind with around 15 million users each.

It is the connections between users that make these networks such interesting places for businesses, and recruiters alike. More than half of Facebook users have over 200 friends and 69.5% of LinkedIn users have somewhere between 100 and 1000 first level connections. This means that there is a strong likelihood that the candidate you need is within the network of one of your employees or followers. And if not, they will be within the reach of targeted paid advertising.

However, your ability to search for and find people through social networks also means that potential candidates are able to search out your business. So ensuring your social presence is both highly professional and tightly aligned to your wider brand, recruitment and business strategy is vital.

Using your existing social networks to broadcast job opportunities is the most obvious way of leveraging social media to reach potential candidates.

While LinkedIn is arguably the most important and fastest growing social network for recruiters and HR professionals, Twitter and Facebook both have their benefits. Each requires different types of communication and knowledge of their specific functions, features, paid advertising and reach mechanisms.

For companies not using social media, you’re getting left behind in the race to find the best candidates and missing out on top talent. Embracing social media will help in recruiting, benefiting the wider business.

Keeping your account up to date with fresh new content can be time consuming. For companies struggling with resource, it may be worthwhile outsourcing this activity to an expert.

For information on how to recruit using social media, contact our team today.