Video: Surprising Social Media Recruiting Statistics

Think social media recruiting is only hype? Jason Ginsburg explains just how popular - and effective -  it really is.

No headcount for social recruiting? How to get the funds you need.

It appears that Social Recruiting is here to stay. The social recruiting site options are growing in number (I pity the person managing a global social recruiting campaign) and the expectations for a great candidate experience are mounting.

From Life on Demand ROI Research

While most of the, surveys, statistics and comments I’ve read from Jobvite, CareerXroads and ERE  (there are already 18 articles this year with the tag social recruiting) seem to indicate that the jury is still out on its effectiveness, one thing’s for sure. To do it well takes a passion, a strategy and a lot of time. And time is a commodity.

There are many lucky companies who have dedicated support people to manage the process, but most of the corporate recruiters in my network either squeeze it in among other tasks, or assign it to their latest intern. In either of those two cases, strategy may fall to the wayside.

As you plan budgets and headcounts, here are two very compelling arguments that you might be able to present to your CFO to get some dollars to support your social efforts.

1. Reputation Management.

 Employee referrals are hotter than ever from the traditional internal programs, to the latest social integration apps and options. Last month Glassdoor published a report on the highest rated CEO’s for 2013. Show your CEO and tell her (him) that next year you want her (him) to be on it. Do a Twitter search for “my boss is a jerk” and let them know that the conversations are happening and you want in. Is it really a good idea to leave it to an intern?

2. A New Way to Figure out SR-ROI.

There’s a new site called The Social Recruitment Monitor that will keep track of your share of social voice through the SRM Index. It comes from a company called Maximum, a recruitment marketing agency doing great things around the globe.

Though the site is still in beta, it uses advanced digital technologies to track data for the major social networks, and refreshes it weekly to keep figures up to date.

The SRM Index is formulated from a mix of 3 measurable parameters : popularity (number of subscribers) , activity (frequency of content) and interactivity (social engagement.) Once you sign up (it’s free), it will allow you to benchmark your performance against other employers in a number of specific areas, and to compare employers with one other.

The SRM Index will allow you to measure your SRM Index over time, and against your competition for talent, and provide real proof of the impact of your new social recruitment star.

So good luck and let me know how you did.

Recruit on Social -- Because That's Where The Job-Seekers Are

Jobvite just released their annual Social Job-Seeker Survey, which tracks social media use by people looking for work. The changes from last year’s survey are eye-opening. They show that social media is now a major part of talent acquisition -- and will only keep growing.

Jobvite talked to more than 2,000 adults. 60% were currently employed and 86% had at least one social media profile. One item that grabbed my attention was that only 318 of the 1,266 workers were not open to a new job; that means more than 60% of employees are willing to leave their current workplace.

Let’s get to the numbers:

16% of respondents said an online social network directly led to their current or most recent job. In fact, 15% said they found their favorite or best job on Facebook.

Social media is becoming a search engine for job-seekers. 34% of respondents say they’ve used Twitter to find work. 38% have used LinkedIn, while 52% have used Facebook. I’ve heard people joke that they only visit LinkedIn when they’re looking for a job, but apparently half the country isn’t going even that often.

Speaking of Facebook, 14% of respondents said they specifically “searched for jobs” on the network. 20% said a contact shared a job opportunity on Facebook. 9% used it to research an employer before or during the application process; how does your organization’s Facebook Page look to job-seekers?

In fact, we can look at Facebook from the recruiter’s point of view. Jobvite recently asked recruiters about content they found on candidates’ Facebook profiles. Their answers may affect job-seekers everywhere.

78% of recruiters had negative reactions to content involving drug use. 66% didn’t like sexual content and 61% didn’t like profanity. Even if you’re a sober, chaste, polite employee, you should proofread your posts – 54% of recruiters had negative reactions to poor spelling and grammar.

Content that generated the most positive reactions? Anything involving volunteer work or donating (66%) and membership in a professional organization (80%).

It’s clear that job-seekers are using social media to connect with recruiters, employers, and each other. They’re researching companies before they apply and updating their profiles with professional information. They’re even starting to search for jobs directly on social sites, which should give Monster and CareerBuilder something to think about.

If you’re interested in joining this exciting trend and recruiting on social media, Brandemix has plenty of experience. We’d love to hear from you.

Are You Truly Socializing Your Talent Strategy? You May Be One of the Few.

Last week, Bullhorn Reach published the results of a survey of more than 35,000 recruiters in its user network, tracking their use of social media. The survey focused on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

The findings are surprising. Only 21% of Bullhorn recruiters are using all three social networks. In fact, 48% are using only LinkedIn! Apparently these recruiters haven’t seen the study from Jobvite that showed that, in 2011, 50% of job-seekers used Facebook to find a job. 25% used Twitter, while only 26% used LinkedIn. Why aren’t recruiters fishing where the fish are?

Of course, use of social media, by either recruiters or job-seekers, doesn’t necessarily mean success. But in case after case, I’ve found that it does.

For example, in 2010, UPS announced that it received applications from 680 people who arrived via Twitter – and hired 45 of them. Almost 4,000 people applied via Facebook, 226 of whom were hired. Heck, UPS even received 1,000 applications from candidates applicants communicating via text messages, but I bet few recruiters have created a strategy for texting. Though it's the world's second-largest search engine (second to its parent, Google) you'd be amazed at how few people actually have a YouTube recruitment strategy in place. The Jobvite study goes on to state that 18.4 million Americans “say Facebook got them their current job.” Only 10.2 million Americans give LinkedIn that credit, which isn’t much more than the 8 million jobs that were the result of Twitter. Bullhorn’s survey states that “a Twitter follower is almost three times more likely to apply to a job posting than a LinkedIn connection.” So why are less than half of its recruiters using Twitter?

I think I know why. As I told ERE’s editor-in-chief, Todd Raphael, Twitter can be intimidating to recruiters because of the sheer volume of information. It takes a focused professional, not just a summer intern, to monitor your chosen keywords and engage job-seekers. Twitter can also be a time suck and presents the daunting opportunity to have public conversations with applicants. But I’ve found that conversations can begin on Twitter and then become private, via direct message, email, or even a phone call.

Whatever the reason, recruiters who aren’t using all three major social networks are missing out on millions of applicants. As applications like BranchOut and BeKnown bring more professional searches to Facebook, recruiters who remain exclusively on LinkedIn will be losing the competition for top talent.

If you missed the Brandemix webinar on Socializing Your Talent Strategy, contact us and we’ll share all our knowledge with you – from important studies of the past to the emerging trends for the future.