It’s no secret that recruiter usage of the most popular social media channels – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter – continues to climb. In fact, new Roundtable data confirms that 78% of recruiters have increased their usage of social media over the last year. What we find fascinating is that despite the widespread usage, a full 40% of recruiters have not seen a performance boost from using these channels. So, if we’re using social media more, where is the impact we were promised?
Two broader trends may shed light on this:
1) The channels themselves have yet to reach maturity: Of the eight channels we asked recruiters to consider, only LinkedIn was rated as more effective in 2010 than it was in 2009. Less than 25% of recruiters rate the other most prominent channels – including Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace – as effective. That includes activities across sourcing, conversion, and branding.
2) Organizations haven’t figured out how to quantify the impact of these social media channels: When we ask recruiters to tell us if their organization measures the ROI of social media channels, only a quarter of respondents agree – a full third strongly disagree. To underscore this trend, only 44% of organizations are even tracking candidate utilization at this point.
To help nudge your organization’s Web 2.0 and social media strategy in the right direction, visit the Web 2.0 Technologies for Recruiting topic center. You can also contribute and share your social media experience by taking the Social Networking Survey through the end of March (Roundtable members only for both links).
Posts
