Will 2016 be The Year of Social Recruitment?
By Chris Bogh
In 2015 recruiters up and down the country reported mixed success with social media as a recruitment channel.
Statista.com reported that the number of companies using social media to hire fell in 2015. Recruiting Daily also suggested social recruiting needs a rethink. One study even suggested that 60% of recruiters haven’t used social media to recruit in the last 12 months.
Now, there were also many stories where recruiters had some success in social recruiting. But it would seem that, despite the hype, 2015 was not the Year of Social Recruitment.
But 2016 could well be. Here’s why.
First, social media usage is still rising rapidly in the UK especially amongst the right demographics.
The 2015 Ofcom report notes that since 2007, social media usage amongst 35-44 year olds has risen from 12% to 80%, especially on Facebook. Furthermore, 81% of social media users use it at least once a day.
As this trend continues, it is likely that trust in social recruiting techniques will increase. Passive candidates will become increasingly open to contact by recruiters using social channels.
Second, in 2016 the UK is expected to get close to full employment. This means that there could be a job for every person that wants to work. With more people in work and fewer active candidates, this could trigger a period of extreme candidate drought.
Active candidates tend to use traditional online channels such as job boards and search engines. Recruiters may find that these channels no longer provide enough candidates. This will make attracting passive candidates more important than ever before.
How Recruitment Technology Can Improve Your Social Recruitment
If 2016 is going to be the ‘Year of Social Recruitment’, how can you ensure you are not left behind? Here are three recommendations on how recruitment technology can improve your social recruitment.
1. Social MetaTags
Use Social Meta Tags (such as Open Graph & Twitter Cards) on each of your job pages on your careers site. This will make sharing your jobs on social media easier, and ensure they appear in a consistent format. This can increase both click-throughs and application rates.
2. ‘Apply with Social’
Apply with Social could shift from a “nice-to-have” in 2015 to a “must-have” in 2016. This enables candidates to apply for jobs quickly using their social media profile.
3. Social Integration
Social integration - as well as using social networks as a candidate sourcing tool consider tracking profiles within your Recruitment CRM / ATS. After all, 93% of hiring managers will review a candidate’s social profile before making a hiring decision - social is not just for sourcing.
If you're looking to review your recruitment software in 2016, download our essential whitepaper- 6 Non-standard Questions to Ask When Buying Recruitment Software.
The kind of stuff that Social Hire do...
At Social Hire, we don't just do social media.
What the Social Hire gang loves is making a difference for our clients, and we don't want to waste your, or our resources on marketing for marketing's sake, if it doesn't get your organisation the impression you need - we take a different approach.
We're a company that helps our customers further their social media presence by providing social media marketing on a monthly basis.
You might like these blog posts How to Choose the Best Social Influencer Marketing Agency, Social Media Lead Generation, The Best Times To Post On #Socialmedia, and 5 Tips for Advertising on Facebook in 2017.
