Expanding Your Talent Search With Social Media

Our recent Employer of Choice survey notes that 17.9 per cent of jobseekers trawl through social media for open positions. It is thus worthwhile for companies to develop a good social media presence so that candidates can pay close attention to job opportunities in your organisation.

Social media has become a norm in our digitally connected world, and precisely because of this, organisations should be including social media platforms in their talent acquisition efforts. According to statics portal Statista, it is estimated that social network users worldwide will reach the 2.13 billion mark in 2016. In Singapore alone, the social media penetration rate stands at a whopping 91%, topping the list for Asian countries.
 
Furthermore, CareerBuilder’s recent Employer of Choice Survey notes that 17.9% of jobseekers here trawl through social media for open positions. A further 13.1% of jobseekers also “follow” companies online to get a sense of their culture. These figures prove that social media presence is a formidable force, and that candidates are actively paying attention to organisations and their job opportunities.  
 
So Why Use Social Media For Recruitment?
 
Having an online presence increases brand awareness while facilitating engagement with both active and passive jobseekers. This allows individuals to familiarise themselves with your organisation, its values and culture. Once companies have formed this foundation, they can then share corporate information, job openings and even light-hearted content to attract a following of jobseekers, end-users and even working PMETs.
 
Social media features like “sharing” and “liking” enable content to be shared within your network of followers. As a result, this increases the chance of potential candidates being referred to your organisation.
 
Social media is also a true testament of “six degrees of separation”. For example: when candidates curate, create and share information with their inner circles on social communities (e.g.: LinkedIn and Culturepush), they are indirectly connected to likeminded people who are interested in similar topics. This means organisations can now be connected to a larger and more diverse pool of candidates, including those in niche audiences such as the performing arts. Organisations can also leverage this network to build their reputation as an employer of choice by ensuring an updated social media presence and active engagement with this pool of candidates.
 
What Kind Of Data Does An Employer Need?
 
The multi-faceted aspect and user-friendliness of social media platforms appeal to a new generation of web users who are focused on collaboration and idea-sharing. This leads to social media users uploading personal information online in order to form a credible online profile and attract prospective collaborators. This includes education levels, job titles, work experience and even cultural backgrounds.
 
Furthermore, social media platforms and websites track the browsing habits, preferences and content generated by their users, allowing passive data to be captured in real time. Through these mediums, organisations can assess the suitability of an individual candidate based on pre-approved metrics like social media posts, interests and work experience, among others.
 
How Can Organisations Amplify Their Social Recruitment Tactics?
 
Once organisations understand the benefits of social media and the type of data needed, they can then set out to empower their recruitment campaigns with HR Service as a Solution (SaaS) technology.
 
Apart from mining candidate data, a good SaaS platform also supports hiring campaigns with market insights. These include current unemployment levels, the qualifications required for specific positions, which platforms their target candidates are using and how long it takes for certain positions to be filled.
 
An example of such a solution is CareerBuilder’s Big Data Analytics Suite (BDAS). This system pulls and analyses information from job boards, social media platforms, talent networks, and applicant tracking systems. The information is then distilled into a single pane, allowing employers to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
 
Once organisations have drawn up a recruitment campaign based on insights derived from analytics, they can then amplify and monitor their social media reach with a social recruitment tool like BroadBean Social.
 
Broadbean Social allows employers to expand their social media reach and branding by distributing job ads and content out to multiple social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter from a single platform.  
 
Social media is an extremely valuable tool for employers. The increasing number of people using social media is also an indication that this method of recruitment is likely to stay around for some time.
 
For organisations to succeed in this arena, they will need to understand how to capitalise on their strengths and suss out the right social media platforms for their company. This, together with the right mix of branding, recruitment technology and market insights, will enable them to sustain their human capital.