Off-the-beaten-path options may be necessary to build your employer brand and find active and passive candidates.
Several years ago, HR professionals may have logged on to social media websites primarily to check for questionable content in applicants’ profiles — but today, they’re using social media in a much more in-depth way.
Eighty-two percent of organizations, for instance, currently tap into it to recruit passive candidates, according to Society for Human Resource Management research.
Nearly a third of staffing professionals say social media outlets have helped potential candidates easily contact them, according to a separate SHRM survey.
Seventy-seven percent of companies utilize the medium to increase employer brand recognition. Research from Jobvite indicates using social media to promote your brand may be an effective strategy; 59 percent of jobseekers utilize it to research the company culture of organizations they’re interested in.
On a global scale, Facebook is often considered to be the most popular social media outlet; in June, the company announced it had reached two billion users.
That doesn’t mean, however, that Facebook — or other social media websites with significant name recognition — are the only social venues you can use to reach active and passive candidates and emphasize your employer brand.
Find out why the following social media outlets may provide just-as-impressive results:
Google+
Use of Google+ for recruitment rose by four percent between 2013 and 2015, according to SHRM. While that increase may not seem overwhelmingly large, it’s worth noting the social network, which is several years younger than Facebook and many other social media websites, is gaining ground. In addition, recruiters ranked Google+ as the fourth most effective recruiting site. A May survey showed nearly a quarter of Google+ users were in the 25- to 34-year-old age group, making a potential way to connect with jobseekers who are in the early phases of their career.
YouTube
More than one billion users watch clips on the video-based site, according to YouTube analytics; and content is available in 76 languages. Recruiting-related YouTube use increased between 2013 and 2015, gaining ground faster than Pinterest or Instagram. Baby boomers, more than other age groups, feel the site can be a trusted information source, according to Business Insider data; they’re also more willing to share YouTube content. As a result, it may be an effective way to convey information about your organization to potential candidates in that demographic.
Social professional networks
More than 60 percent of recruiters ranked social professional networks as a high-quality referral source; 50 percent plan to invest in social and professional network recruiting activities in the coming year, according to Jobvite’s most recent report on recruiting behavior.
Some social professional networks, such as Vkontakte (VK), one of the largest networking platforms in Russia, may be best suited for regional use; others, such as LinkedIn, which, according to a recent Microsoft report, has more than 500 million members worldwide, might help you draw from a more spread out base of potential candidates. LinkedIn changed its format in recent years to allow users to post original content; that gives organizations an opportunity to expand their content marketing efforts — and possibly increase jobseekers’ awareness about the organization.
With 250 million users, Reddit is reportedly the fifth largest website in the U.S.; yet nearly half of its audience (46 percent) lives elsewhere, making it an option to reach jobseekers from across the globe. In addition, because 87 percent of its users are under 35, posting in employment-related threads or placing ads on the topic-based social media outlet may help employers connect with millennial and Generation Z candidates.
For more tips on ways you can use social media to strengthen your employer brand and connect with active and passive candidates, view our blog posts on smarter social media recruiting, the components that comprise your employer brand, our social media cheat sheet and our white paper on ways you can successfully improve your employment identity.