1.
Social
Media
Recruitment
Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
Twitter:
@dakotta
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
50+
recommendations
from
former
clients
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DakottaAlex

2. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
Introduction
Social Media Recruitment has become the single most important tool in the hiring process.
Just reviewing the stats boggles the mind – no wonder most HR executives outsource such a
powerful, and such a complicated process to social media experts.
Even so, such an outsourcing strategy is fraught with risks. For example, is your social media expert
skilled in using Google analytics, do they know the latest Adobe Marketing Cloud rules, are email-
marketing tools their forte, and so on. You need to find out if they how know to do A/B testing to
increase conversions, if they can create images that make people want to share, etc.
Instead of reinventing the social media recruitment wheel, it always makes business sense to recruit
an expert who will do it for you efficiently, quickly, and cost-effectively. However, your expert needs
to be able to walk his talk and you need to be able to gauge their chops.
If you’re considering building your employment brand or rebuilding your hiring brand online, consider
contacting Dakotta. He has helped various organizations with building and maintaining their
recruitment image using metrics to show the effectiveness of social media recruiting. Check out his
organization FastHire.com or his LinkedIn profile for more details.

3. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
What is Social Media Recruitment (SMR)?
Hiring or recruiting job seekers by advertising on social media platforms or accessing its databases
is known as Social Media Recruitment, or SMR, or social media hiring / recruiting (Wikipedia).
Some popular social media recruitment sites or tools are LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Why
is
SMR
So
Important?
Love it or hate it, SMR is exploding and you just cannot afford to ignore it anymore. With more than
1.1 billion users on Facebook alone, SMR is an excellent way to build relationships, bring like-
minded people together, and most importantly, find ideal candidates for the right job.
Consider a few facts first:
● 30% of all Google searches, about 300 million searches per month, are employment related
(Capterra).
● 14.4 million job seekers in the US have used social media to search for a job. 29% of job
seekers use social media as their primary tool for job searching (staff.com).
● Social media for hiring purposes is at an all-time high: 92 percent of companies use
platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for recruitment, and 45 percent of
Fortune 500 firms include links to social media on their career page sections (Mediabistro).
● A astounding 94% of recruiters use, or plan to use social media sites for recruiting. This
number has increased steadily for the last 6 years (Jobvite).

4. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
● While 94% of recruiters use social media for their jobs, only 39% of all employers use social
media for recruiting and hiring. This is up from 37% the year before (Capterra).
● 73% of recruiters say that they have made successful hires through social media. A third of
employers rejected candidates because of something that they found in their social profiles
(Mediabistro).
Advantages of SMR
If you still find yourself in the minority 6% of recruiters who don’t use SMR tools, then now is the time
to wake up. The reason why social media is so popular is because it is free. Almost everyone uses it
and what’s more, it provides distinct advantages over traditional recruitment strategies.
Better
Candidates
For example, studies have shown that that you get a better fit when you recruit via social media
channels. Employers who used social media to hire found a 49% improvement in candidate quality
over candidates sourced only through traditional recruiting channels (Jobvite).

5. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
Other
Advantages
of
SMR
Social media also empowers employees to more easily refer high-quality candidates, with referrals
representing the highest quality source of candidates at 64% (Jobvite).
● 73% are hired successfully with social media (Mediabistro)
● 42% of companies say that candidate quality has improved (Recruiting Blogs)
● 20% says it takes less time to hire (Recruiting Blogs)
● 31% saw an increase in employee referrals (Recruiting Blogs)
Advantages
of
Social
Media
in
Other
Business
Functions
Social media doesn’t just help with recruitment. Across the board, you will find that several
executives find that social media helps their specific business functions.
Looking at the importance of social media by business function:
● 80% of business executives said social media is “important” or “somewhat important” in
marketing and branding
● 74% said the same for customer service
● 70% for innovation and new product/ service development and
● 63% for employee recruiting

6. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
Candidates best watch what they put on their social profiles, as an overwhelming majority of
recruiters form negative opinions from posts flaunting drugs, alcohol, and profanity—and 42% of
recruiters have apparently reconsidered an applicant (either positively or negatively) based on what
a social profile revealed (Jobvite).
Different Types of SMR Tools
By far, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the most popular social media tools or sites. Once you
get an understanding of how they are used you can tap into these valuable resources yourself. Or
better still, hire an expert who knows how to manipulate these new SMR tools to your best
advantage.
LinkedIn
No arguments, LinkedIn is by far the most popular SMR tool. An overwhelming 61% of social media
users primarily use LinkedIn for professional networking (Forbes).

7. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
89% of all recruiters report having hired someone through LinkedIn. Facebook and Twitter trailed by
a wide margin, reaching only 26% and 15% respectively (Capterra).
LinkedIn is favored by 93 percent of companies, ahead of Facebook (66 percent) and Twitter (54
percent) (Mediabistro).
In fact, there are more than 2.1 million LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn users performed over 5.7 billion
professionally-oriented searches on the network during 2012 (Capterra).
Every second, 2 members join LinkedIn (Business Insider), which has now become THE social
network for professionals. From groups to blogs to job listings, this platform is a rich source of
information and conversation for professionals who want to connect to others in their industry.
● 38% of job seekers use LinkedIn to help find work in 2012

8. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
● 19% of job seekers had a contact share a job on LinkedIn
Source: (Jobvite)
● 60% of LinkedIn-using job seekers are male
● 62% are under the age of 40
● 51% earn more than $75,000 and
● 50% are college graduates.
Source: (Jobvite)

9. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
Facebook
It is the second most popular site in the world, after Google. Forbes considers the recruitment pool
here to be a billion people!
● 52% of job seekers used Facebook to help find work in 2012
● 14% of job seekers searched for jobs on Facebook
● 1 in 5 job seekers had a contact share a job on Facebook
Source: (Jobvite)
● 70% of Facebook-using job seekers are male
● 63% are under the age of 40
● 40% earn more than $75,000 and
● 36% are college graduates.
Source: (Jobvite)

10. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
Twitter
● 34% of job seekers use Twitter to help find work; up from 26% in 2011
● 10% jobseekers searched for jobs on Twitter
Source: (Jobvite)
● 67% of Twitter-using job seekers are male
● 69% are under the age of 40
● 46% earn more than $75,000
● 44% are college graduates (source: jobvite).
Source: (Jobvite)

11. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
Comparative
Analysis
of
How
Job
Seekers
Use
SMR
Tools
Social Media Job Seeker Comparative Profiles

12. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
Millennials
and
SMR
Millennials are changing the recruiting industry. An Aberdeen study found that 73% of 18-34 year
olds found their last job through a social network.
Source: Aberdeen Group
56% of millennials won’t accept jobs from firms that prohibit the use of social media in the office, and
more than eight in ten say that user generated content on company websites at least somewhat
influences what they buy (AllTwitter).
Millennials are, in general, not loyal to employers (91% expect to stay in a job for less than three
years), but are loyal to brands (95% want brands to court them actively) (AllTwitter).

13. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
Conclusion
As you can determine, social media recruitment is a highly sophisticated and potent tool that can
become a forceful ally, if wielded knowledgeably. Experienced professionals are few and far
between. You need to select an expert based on knowledge and experience in the social media
realm.
Dakotta Alex with FastHire.com has this experience. On recent related projects, Dakotta worked
with Amazon.com organizing worldwide events for hiring developers, alumni mixers, and engaging
the tech blogosphere for providing viral marketing. At Mozilla, Dakotta helped revamp their
recruitment channels and jumpstarted Mozilla Careers on various social media networks. He’s also
helped Grindr, an app with over 8 million users build a tech employment brand around their
community and demographic using tech talks and a home grown tech blog.
Over the past 10 years, Dakotta has consulted with various organizations such as the Mozilla,
Grindr, Amazon, Los Angeles Times, Amgen, Disney, Microsoft and Compaq in the United States,
Europe, and China. He has written several articles in HR Journals, published four books with
number five on the way. He has earned accolades from employees of Yahoo, Intel, University of
Washington, Disney, Fox, and Google. Learn more about Dakotta on his website here.
Dakotta, a consultant for start-ups and helping them achieve their next level of growth. His passion is
in research, using social media to make an impact for organizations in recruitment and brand
awareness. Some of his research while traveling included visiting over 75 countries for cultural
awareness. He is well versed in analytics and campaign management using the instruments of
trends and research especially in the area of market research to come up with solutions. Learn more
about Dakotta on LinkedIn here.
Want to hire people fast with metric driven results? Contact Dakotta at FastHire.com today!

14. Dakotta
Alex
dakotta@fasthire.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dakotta
www.FastHire.com
Bibliography
Retrieved from Capterra: http://blog.capterra.com/top-15-recruiting-statistics-2014/
Retrieved from Mediabistro: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-recruiting_b50575
Retrieved from Jobvite:
http://web.jobvite.com/rs/jobvite/images/Jobvite_2013_SocialRecruitingSurveyResults.pdf
Retrieved from staff.com: http://www.staff.com/blog/social-media-for-recruitment-infographic/
Retrieved from Recruiting Blogs: http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/digital-recruitment-a-
new-era-of-job-seeking
Retrieved from Business 2 Community: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/103-
compelling-social-media-marketing-statistics-2013-2014-0679246
(n.d.). Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/08/09/study-
reveals-how-professionals-use-linkedin/
Retrieved from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-adding-two-members-per-
second-2012-11?IR=T