7 Social Media Recruitment Statistics to Help You Thrive

I’m not going to tell you that as a recruiter you should be on social media. I’d say that nearly everyone today is recruiting on social media, posting jobs, sharing team nights out and leveraging to enhance their own personal, employer and company brand. But actually finding the value from social media and determining how it translates into candidate registrations, client inquiries and potential recruitment consultants joining your team has been generally elusive to most recruiters. That’s because most don’t have a formal social media strategy or measurement programme that focuses on the networks that drive the greatest return on investment whilst leveraging the tools to not only engage but convert potential customers.

A lot of recruiters today are only leveraging social media to engage customers at the very top of the sales funnel – the awareness stage. They are engaging in a scattergun approach to social posting, sharing inconsistent and disjointed content and not considering how it can help nurture customer relationships through the interest, consideration and preference stages, through to conversion and retention. Whether a company profile or individual consultant feed, organic or paid, social media forms part of your channel marketing strategy which should be driving traffic to your website where you can further engage, nurture and convert customers.

In addition, there are a number of tactics that can help increase visibility and engagement on social media as well as measurement tools and considerations to help determine return on investment. To get started, consider some of these recruitment social media statistics:

1. 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn as part of their content strategy compared to Twitter (87%), Facebook (84%) and YouTube (74%) ( CMI )
   I think one of the most critical considerations in your social and content strategy is what channels to engage. As recruiters our time is finite and it’s challenging to be effective, everywhere and all the time. As such, it’s important to focus on those social channels that derive the best value and return on investment. While this may vary by sector and specialism, consider investing your time and effort in those channels where your audiences are hanging out.
2. Nearly half of all social media traffic to company websites comes from LinkedIn
   If you’re looking for a single channel where you can maximise return, it’s LinkedIn. But simply posting is not enough. You need to consider how you are enhancing yours and your company’s brand awareness, reputation and inbound marketing opportunities. You need to think about the messages you are sharing, considering your audience personas and pain points and how you can provide the right content to engage your target audiences.
3. 98% of LinkedIn posts with images receive more comments and posts with links have a 200% higher engagement rate ( Social Pilot )
   It’s important that you play to the algorithms. Rich content like images – and especially videos – perform better on LinkedIn meaning that more people are served up your content, allowing you to be ‘seen’. Next time you consider posting a job on LinkedIn, consider creating a video instead, using the subtitling function from YouTube and pointing people back to your website. Not only will more people see your content, you have a greater likelihood of them visiting your website where they may consider other jobs or content that may influence their decision to register with you.
4. The best times to post on LinkedIn are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 12 pm and peaks at lunchtime ( Falcon.io )
   There are loads of tools like Buffer or Hootsuite that allow you to schedule all of your content ahead of time. This allows you to maximise your efficiency and regularity in posting, plus determine the times of day that your posts receive the highest engagement. While the aforementioned peak times are true for LinkedIn on the whole, consider doing your own tests and see what time of day yields the best results. One consideration is peak commuter times if you are based in London or other major centre and know your audience base will be checking their social networks before and after work.
5. ‘Measuring ROI’ is cited as one of the most difficult social media marketing challenges ( LyfeMarketing )
   From social engagement through website traffic, measuring social media is not without its challenges. The important thing is to establish your KPIs and dashboards, measure frequently and make ongoing small adjustments based on your analysis to optimise your activities.
6. 58% of B2B brands fail to measure social well ( OurSocialTimes )
   Engagement, reach, leads and conversions – it’s not surprising that most companies don’t know where to start in measuring the effectiveness of their social media. While a lot of likes and shares may feel like progress is being made, they are all vanity metrics unless there are tangible business results to accompany.
7. 75% of B2B companies do not measure or quantify social media engagement ( Satmetrix )
   Social media engagement and its impact on your business needs to be a long-term strategy. Just as you’ve been developing your business networks over several years, so too must you consider your social media strategy as a long-term relationship. There are numerous metrics that you should track including clicks to your website, likes (as they impact reach and visibility), shares (to measure quality) and brand mentions (which drives overall awareness).

Are you looking to develop your social media programme? Thrive Marketing Communications can help you create a recruitment social media strategy to drive more traffic to your website and convert them into candidates and clients. Learn how Thrive can help you drive your recruitment marketing.