Infographic: Social Media Used Extensively by Employers and Job Seekers

Social media use in the HR field has skyrocketed over the past few years. Not only are more employers using the technology, but many job seekers look to social networking sites when sending out resumes and applications. I applied for numerous positions as a senior in college and, to my surprise, the majority of companies had an “apply with LinkedIn” feature. I saw this so much I began moving away from common job boards, such as Indeed and CareerBuilder, to social media sites like LinkedIn. According to a social distribution infographic by iCIMS, leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) recruiting and hiring software, I was not alone.

According to the infographic,more than 14 million people used social media to find their job last year. And why wouldn’t they? The report also showed that more than half (55 percent) of jobs are posted to two or more social networks. Most people use social media multiple times per day. It only makes sense that more and more employers are utilizing the tools most people regularly use each day.

Other key points included:

• 73 percent of employers successfully hired candidates through social media
• 49 percent of employers saw an increase in their candidate pools after implementing social recruiting
• 33 percent of companies saw an increase in employee referrals
• 20 percent of companies said social recruiting reduces time-to-hire

Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook were the top three most-used social media for job ads, recruiters and employers. LinkedIn came in at no. 1 with 77 percent of job ads posted on the site, 98 percent of recruiters using it and 80 percent of companies also using LinkedIn. Facebook had the least amount of job ads posted with 25 percent, but more companies use Facebook (50 percent) than Twitter.