Job seekers rely on Facebook, but recruiters prefer LinkedIn

As more social networks carve a significant niche for themselves as vital tools in the recruitment industry, LinkedIn has emerged as a favourite among recruiters worldwide.

That was the key finding of Jobvite’s annual Social Recruiting Survey, which canvassed responses from more than 1,800 recruiters and human resources professionals across various industries and regions.

More than nine out of 10 (94%) of recruiters stated they rely on LinkedIn for their recruitment, followed by Facebook (66%) and Twitter (54%).

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In accordance with the findings, 79% of recruiters highlighted they had successfully hired someone using LinkedIn. Again, this was the highest figure in the category, followed by Facebook at 26%, and Twitter at 14%.

Job seekers, however, had a slightly different preference when it came to using social media tools for getting employed, with the majority (83%) relying on Facebook to get the best jobs.

The disconnect implied the need for recruiters to leverage on all forms of social media better. In fact, the survey found 82% of recruiters believe their social recruiting skills to be only "proficient" or less.

“Social media enables recruiters to find quality hires by targeting talent, engaging candidates, evaluating applicants and showcasing employer brand,” the report stated.

The survey continuously stressed on the growing popularity and trend of relying on social media profiles to hunt and attract candidates.

It found that not only do 73% of recruiters plan to increase their investment in social recruiting in 2014, 55% of job-hunters have reconsidered a candidate based on their social media profile.

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“Social recruiting is now the norm — 93% of recruiters use or plan to use social to support their recruiting efforts,” the report stated.

Such increasing reliance on using social media profiles to hunt candidates was attributed mainly due to the fact that both the quality and quantity of candidates improved (44%) after companies implemented social recruiting.

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