Recruiting with social media is the new normal.

For years we’ve written (and read) about how social recruitment is the next big trend in HR, how it’s just about to take off, and we’ve worked pretty hard to show employers and recruiters the effectiveness of using social media to hire…

Despite the positive statistics and encouraging research, social recruitment remained just a trend. Something people talked about but didn’t necessarily practice.

I’m not sure exactly when that changed, but it has.

According to Jobvite’s latest research, 94% of recruiters are using social media to hire. – Click to Tweet

Here are 7 reasons we think that social recruiting is here to stay:

1) Increases Job Visibility

Facebook has over 1.35 billion active users, Twitter hosts job search chats, and Gen Zers are using LinkedIn.

Your potential candidates are social!

Using social media to broadcast your job posts makes them more visible and increases your odds of reaching top talent.

2) Improves Quality of Hire

59% of recruiters rated candidates sourced from social networks as “highest quality." – Click to Tweet

This stat makes a ton of sense to me because of just how targeted social media allows recruiters to get with their job posts.

With Facebook you can target by demographic, interests, skills, and even by peer group. LinkedIn is awesome for targeting based on work history, and Twitter’s search is perfect for sourcing candidates based on interest.

3) Better Employer Brand Awareness

Not only does social recruiting increase the visibility of employer brand, it strengthens it.

Candidates want to work for employers that they trust. Establishing a strong social presence for your employer brand is and essential part of building this trust.

4) More Referrals

Referrals are the number one source of hire. – Click to Tweet

According to Guidant Group, employee referrals also lead to better quality hires, and improved retention rates.

Encouraging your staff to reach out to their peers via social and share links to the jobs you post on line will simplify the referral process for employees and lead to in increase in referrals made overall.

5) Engages Employees

Posting jobs to your company’s social media platforms and encouraging employees to spread the word makes them active participants in your hiring strategy.

The same goes for encouraging them to interact and comment on your social career page.

6) Reduces Cost to Hire

I’m not going to tell you social recruiting is free.

It’s not.

But recruiting-related transactional costs of social recruiting are almost always lower in comparison to other hiring sources.

Running a Facebook Ads recruitment campaign will cost you less to reach a larger audience than many traditional newspaper ads and popular job boards.

7) Opens the Door to Engagement

Social media allows you to connect, chat, and engage with people you might never come into contact with in “real life.”

Many old school recruiters fear that social recruiting means less phone and face-to-face interaction with candidates. But, when used right, social networking is just another way to facilitate more personal interactions.

Conversations that start on Facebook lead to phone calls, then interviews, then hopefully, your next winning hire!

You’ve probably already begun using social to recruit, but keeps these benefits in mind when your planning your strategy to make sure you’re capitalizing on all social has to offer.

If you want to simplify your social media efforts, then try the Jobcast social recruiting app. Jobcast automates the social recruitment process for you to save you time and stress.