LinkedIn Is Still King, But Twitter is Up and Coming Among Recruiters

I did something in 2012 that I had been resistant to for quite some time: I started a Twitter account. Apparently I am not alone. According to a new report released by Bullhorn Reach (The 2012 Social Activity Report- The Definitive Look at Social Media Usage in Recruiting) that surveyed over 35,000 recruiters, an increase of activity on Twitter is expected among all in 2012. Part of this can be attributed to recent launch of the new Twitter business pages, but more of it can be ascribed to the fact that Twitter has not been tapped into fully yet by this group. My belief is that this is about to change.

The report findings conclude that recruiters are connected on all three networks, but are using LinkedIn and Twitter much more than Facebook to recruit talent. It is interesting to note that while LinkedIn is driving the most views and applications per job posted on the “big three” social networks, analysis showed that Twitter followers are much more likely to apply for a job than connections on LinkedIn or friends on Facebook. Why? I believe this is due in part to much larger networks on LinkedIn, where the intent is to continually increase connections in order to tap into more talent. At least for me, Twitter is a more targeted audience. In any case, it is important to understand how each of these social networks are being utilized by recruiters so that you can correctly set your strategy.

Some other findings of note from the research:

• While 21% of recruiters are connected to all three social networks, the data shows that 48% of recruiters are using LinkedIn exclusively and are not leveraging the other two networks for social recruiting
• LinkedIn is the most widely used social network for social recruiting, followed by Twitter and then Facebook
• Recruiters are rapidly ramping up their usage of Twitter (with over 100 million active users), and the site has become the second most adopted network among recruiters with 19% using it in combination with LinkedIn for recruiting
• Twitter followers are most likely to apply via a social network, with recruiters receiving almost 3 times more applications per contact from Twitter than from LinkedIn and 8 times more than Facebook
• Agency recruiters receive 11 times more Twitter applications and 3 times more LinkedIn applications than corporate recruiters using the same channels

Although LinkedIn still receives more applications and garners more views than the other two networks, Twitter is expected to narrow that gap this year. I personally did not fully realize the potential on Twitter, but am definitely beginning to understand it now. It would be several years, if ever, before Twitter catches up to LinkedIn. But job seekers cannot ignore these findings, especially when social networks play such a huge role in recruiting and job searching. And if you are a job seeker that has been resistant to joining the social media revolution, you are missing out on capturing a significant opportunity that could literally reduce your job search time to a fraction.