Tapping into Social and Digital Media for Recruitment

On August 19th 2011, Burberry brought a fragrance sampling campaign to Facebook. Eight million fans have “liked” the Burberry page and are now being engaged by the Burberry brand through receiving free samples ahead of its September product release. To date, it is the highest number of fans for any luxury fashion brand’s Facebook page.

This is a good example of a digital marketing success, which companies such as Deloitte, Google and Bank of America are already using to reach out to talent through social media.

Social and digital media represent an opportunity for companies to harness a higher success measurable and increasingly cost effective platform. Better results and stronger employer branding will develop - leading to smarter, faster, and cheaper recruiting.

Social Recruitment

From a talent sourcing perspective social media allows access to more networks - therefore more active job seekers and passive job seekers than ever before. Companies can use a social medium to engage users and to source from an endless pool of connections. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have a billion users combined and represent a vast network of experienced professionals from all over the world and spanning every age and salary. Companies have learned that talent can be found in a cost-effective and efficient way. 10 years ago, it was job boards that underpinned recruiting. Today, it is social networking. Some recruiters have all but stopped spending on job boards, preferring to tap into the user base of social networks. Companies also post jobs and videos on these pages as well as encourage employees and recruiters to join user groups and engage in discussions. Many have hired full-time recruiters specialised in social platforms. Even traditional job boards have learnt to delve into social solutions, launching Facebook applications that allow candidates to make use of their social networks (take a look at Monster’s BeKnown app on Facebook or BraveNewTalent by Lucian Tarnowski).

Mobile Recruitment

People have their mobile device with them nearly every minute of their day and night. This represents endless possibilities to access existing and potential candidates 24/7, instead of only when they are in front of a PC or seeing an ad on a job board. In developing markets, the trend seems to be to bypass PCs and go straight to mobile (in India, 59% of mobile Web users rarely use a desktop PC). There are 875 million mobile phones in China with users spending 50% more time on mobile internet than the rest of Asia Pacific. This trend seems to be catching worldwide as mobile phones are predicted to outsell PCs by 2013. With 3G licenses now being issued, enhanced mobile internet usage has altered how people interact with their mobile devices, allowing mobile-based applications to connect with users in interactive and engaging ways. Mobile recruitment is wholly different from that of fixed PC browsing, where users are engaged in a comfortable, sit-down setting. Information is delivered in minutes or seconds and offers its own unique ability to capture its targeted candidate market (take a look at Pepsico’s or Unisys’s mobile recruitment campaigns).

With social media, companies can target candidates and, large or small, companies can use social and digital media to establish or polish their employer brand, making themselves stand out from the crowd. Ultimately, with social and digital media, engaging and attracting the top talent is being revolutionized, allowing companies to hire in a timely and cost effective manner that can directly impact bottom line in a positive way.

(Sources: Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Inc., AB Phone)

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