Stats point to more and more employees reaching out to social media in order to fill that next role in their company and it is not only because it is a cheaper route to market.

Social media has it all really for any business or person looking to get their message out to their markets – Simply every business sector is covered on social media, all age groups, professions and from those looking to find their first ever job role to company founders and CEO’s. With these massively popular and busy platforms then why should not all companies looking to employ candidates research social media first both for placing their adverts and head hunting?

I have been in the market for finding new employees both by local advertising via recruitment companies to head hunting for more specialised roles. I have also used social media and websites such as Indeed to find candidates and for me, each time, social media has proven the route that works best for me.

Yes, I agree that you should not put all your eggs in one basket and backing up your search on social media with say one of the big online recruitment companies (or say using LinkedIn’s paid for service) or taking on the services of a recruitment company is a goo idea. Many companies will no doubt find that their best source for finding new candidates is via internal candidates, but for smaller companies then other means will need to be put in to action. I believe that by using social media you increase the chances of the next candidate you find costing far less.

As the owner of a couple of major property news channels such as Estate Agent Networking, I can see how the industry sector is thinking and how many enquiries that come our way for recruitment to include posts that are shared on our social media channels. There are many recruitment companies in the UK property sector and not many I would say are cheap – You may pay the money to get the right candidate, but you must also think that the right candidate will also very likely be using social media, be a member of a group that you are in or maybe following your company already on Twitter / Facebook.

If you are thinking of using social media to help you find that next person to join your company then think about the following:

• Schedule in posts to release on social media that headlines you are searching for a new employee.
• Make sure your posts include a link through to a website that can capture the details of that potential candidate.
• Use the likes of free jobs boards in LinkedIn groups to both place adverts and search for potential candidates.
• Connect with news channels online such as Estate Agent Networking and use their audiences to help you with your recruitment needs – A simply request for a re-tweet can place you advert in front of 10,000’s and you will in fact be doing the same job as the recruitment company you could end up paying £1,000’s for.