Over the last two decades, technology has transformed the way people leverage social media across all aspects of their life – including business and their professional careers.
With over half of the world’s population now very comfortable with online networking, job advertising and hiring on social media have also exponentially grown. Given this increasing trend of digital recruitment, you now often see well-known brands posting job adverts and incorporating the use of online platforms into their recruitment strategy.
While this may sound great, numerous challenges also arise when it comes to hiring via social media.
In this article, we’ll discuss what social media recruitment is and why you should reconsider hiring through today’s mainstream social media platforms.
What is social media recruitment?
Also known as social hiring and social recruitment, the method of social media recruiting involves businesses finding potential candidates through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Around 21.45 million Australians are active users of social media, which is a whopping 89% of Australia’s total population! Of this, 62% of employers in the country use social media to attract and recruit potential candidates.
With the growing popularity and consistent usage of social media, hiring talent through these channels has been gaining traction amongst hiring managers and other business professionals.
But is it right?
Why businesses use social media in recruiting new employees
Employers use social media recruiting to reach a wider pool of candidates that are more difficult to achieve with traditional recruitment efforts, and at the same time, target a range of individuals more effectively.
Other advantages of social media recruitment include:
- Fast, efficient and easy to use.
- Slightly more cost-effective when compared to other more traditional job search mediums.
- Hiring through social media has a compounding effect. This means your posts can be shared repeatedly which expands your reach beyond your own personal and professional networks.
So, what’s the problem with social media recruiting methods? Let’s discuss this.
Why you should NOT hire through social media
While social media recruitment offers a few advantages, here are 7 important reasons why you should avoid advertising your job vacancies on traditional social media platforms.
1. Social media recruitment can be costly.
Depending on the online platform you use, you may have to pay a subscription fee or other costs to post your vacancies. Some sites require a membership fee or charge for extra services like application tracking or analytics to manage your job advert.
If you’re trying to reduce your business’s recruitment expenses, you may consider utilising a more innovative and cost-effective digital recruitment platform like MPLOI which offers packages from $2 a day.
2. Social media is similar to other traditional “post and wait” recruitment forms
Posting job adverts on social media also means you have to wait and hope potential candidates will stumble across your job posting. This means that despite social media being a more modern format, it still works the same way as regular job boards.
To attract the best talent, businesses need to adopt a more proactive recruitment approach, which you can read about here.
3. Recruitment reports are difficult to measure.
Not all online recruitment services and social media platforms offer an in-depth analysis of your posting. So, it can be hard to figure out what is and isn’t working and how to optimise your job ads.
4. Reach can sometimes be limited unless you use a paid advertising option.
One of the main downsides of following social media trends is that everybody else is doing the same thing. As a result, your post quickly becomes buried under a mountain of other job offers, forcing you to either pay more for extra exposure or risk not being seen.
When it comes to social media, using algorithms to your advantage is everything. A smart and intuitive platform like MPLOI uses talent algorithms that make finding and connecting with possible candidates far easier.
5. Posting job vacancies on social media can tarnish your business image.
With social media allowing everyone to stay connected, people who see your job postings on social media may get the impression that you are struggling to retain your staff – from clients and customers to potential applicants.
6. Negative comments
Social media platforms often make it hard or impossible to turn off comments and reactions, some of which can mock the job or taunt the post. Then, after receiving job applications via social media, you may receive further negative comments and feedback from rejected candidates, turning off other applicants in the process.
7. Social media is a mass platform that can attract a surge of irrelevant applications
Digital hiring methods like social recruitment have made it easier for many people to apply for jobs online – even if they’re not the right fit.
This means you may find yourself sifting for hours through candidates who have “mass applied” to jobs and have no relevance to the role you’ve posted. This dilutes the quality of your talent pool and may potentially lead to an unfit candidate getting onboard.
However, having a smarter recruitment platform enables you to have a private chat with your potential candidate and get to know them better on both of your terms, which can eliminate the risk of bad hires and form a proactive bond.
Don’t worry – there’s a better way to recruit using digital technology that doesn’t involve the problems with social media: that’s MPOLI.
How MPLOI can help business owners like you
Social media is good for recruitment, but MPLOI is better.
Harnessing the power of digital recruitment through a smart recruitment platform can significantly transform the way you employ new team members while empowering you to make better choices and achieve overarching business success.
By having the ideal digital hiring tool like MPLOI, you’ll save significant amounts of time and money, while attracting the right talent – yes, it’s very possible and right at your fingertips.
What is MPLOI?
MPLOI is an interactive and innovative employment App that matches like-minded employers and potential employees based on similar values, qualities and skills through a career alignment algorithm.
With MPLOI’s modern approach to proactive recruitment, we empower hiring managers and business owners to attract the right talent by simply swiping to start a career conversation.
This highly affordable recruitment platform ensures you get instant access to plenty of potential talent, offering the ultimate stress-free recruiting solution for small businesses.
Simply reach out to us to find out how we can help you attract your next employee or find your next job on your terms.
Register your interest below and get notified of our upcoming launch! HERE MPLOI
