Some social media channels are down to preference but when it comes to recruiting, there are a few which are better than others. There is so much choice and being on more doesn’t always mean it’s better.
Although, some would argue that the more online presence you have, the better. Well if there’s anyone who knows which social media channels you should be on and which ones you should definitely avoid – it will be our panel of hand-picked experts. Tell us if you agree with them or maybe you have your own suggestions?
Ariel Jolo
It always depends on who you are trying to attract and how related you are to them. If you are looking for designers, Behance or DeviantArt might be a great source of talent but if you are not an artist yourself you’ll find it difficult to engage with people there. The same goes for Engineering. GitHub and Stack Overflow are excellent places to source Engineers but many of them use these platforms for work or community building. Try browsing through profiles to tell apart people who use them as portfolios vs people who don’t.
Ariel Jolo, Global Employer Brand Manager, at Medallia.
Adrian Cernat
There’s no recipe for success here, honestly. What makes all the difference is the industry you’re recruiting for and your geography. So if you’re recruiting for tech professionals in US, Reddit will be you first pick, or if you go for blue collars in Russia, you’ll head straight to VK.
Adrian Daniel Cernat, CEO & co-founder SmartDreamers
Sarang Brahme
There is no one answer. It all depends on the types of roles, target talent demographics, industry, regions, candidate personas and business needs. Although LinkedIn is the most popular choice among recruiters as it is the professional channel, the other channels like Facebook/Instagram are more oriented towards young professionals and help recruiters to connect. Some of the niche talent communities like StackOverFlow, Github are great for IT roles.
Sarang Brahme, Global Social Recruiting & Talent Brand Manager, Capgemini.
Carmen Collins
That depends – where do your candidates live in social media? If you’re hiring interns, take a long look at Instagram. Early in career don’t tend to be on LinkedIn. As a matter of fact, our interns looked at us like we had three heads when we suggested LinkedIn training to them last summer. That said, LinkedIn is a pretty good bet as a priority based on the nature of the platform. But go beyond text posts – look at video messages, etc.
Carmen Collins, Social Media & Talent Brand Lead, Cisco.
Cameron Brain
Who are you trying to hire and where do they hang out? Answering those questions will help you figure out what networks to spend the most time on. Within the US Linkedin generally reigns supreme when it comes to white-collar professional talent. Twitter can be a great channel for technical talent and senior leadership. Facebook can be useful in all categories, but especially when it comes to front-line/retail candidates.
Cameron Brain, CEO & Co-Founder, EveryoneSocial.com.
Mark Cavanagh
LinkedIn is the obvious choice – with millions of potential candidates logging in every day and access to multiple levels of talent insight across skills, employer history and organisational structure – you wouldn’t be mistaken for heading there first. Candidates can be both passive and active, so as a recruiter you must position yourself with both integrity and flexibility. Be there for those actively looking for a new role and be willing to take a step back from those who are not. You must also consider the roles you are recruiting for – LinkedIn isn’t for everyone – 45% of users were cited as being in upper management (Hootsuite – LinkedIn statistics business). If you are searching for mid or especially low skilled talent – you may want to consider elsewhere.
Mark Cavanagh, Marketing Manager at The One Group.
Victoria Sorensen
The best social networks are the one’s you will use! You should be hanging out where your target audience hang out, you need to go them and not rely on them finding you.
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Victoria Sorenson , Senior Talent Advisor, Oracle.
Othamar Gama Filho
Depends on what type of candidate you are trying to recruit. Everyone immediately thinks of Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, but there are niche social networks that are better alternatives to the mainstream ones. Like Doximity for healthcare, Behance for designers, and RallyPoint for military. And, let’s not forget Pinterest which is very good to target Nurses and Snapchat for college recruiting.
Othamar Gama Filho, CEO at Talentify.
Stephanie Scher
The best social network depends upon your target talent pool and which social channel shares a similar audience demographic. You can evaluate a channel’s baseline demographic alignment by the platform-wide user demographics, however it’s important to evaluate your own company handle’s followers and posting strategy periodically, through a test and learn approach. Establish key measures of success relevant to your purpose of maintaining a social handle and see if the resulting followership and engagement metrics align with your goals.
Stephanie Scher, Talent Brand|Social Media, Vanguard.
Eva Baluchova
Sharing open jobs on LinkedIn is already social recruiting. But there’s a lot more to it. Before you go online, ask yourself: “Where are my target candidates and what network do they use most?” You have to adapt to your audience’s behaviour. It’s all about them, not about you! As a rule of thumb, I would start with the four musketeers: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Depending on your target audience, I would also consider media like Reddit, Youtube, Glassdoor, Pinterest, Medium, Snapchat, Meetup, Google+ WeChat, Telegram, Vkontakte, Quora, Spotify etc. Attracting the right talent is not easy, but your online presence can be a game changer. Try different approaches and see where you get the best engagement.
Eva Baluchova, Talent Lead, Levelup Ventures.
