Social media is often seen as something only meant for leisurely activities and keeping up with old friends. In reality, however, this could not be further from the truth. Social media platforms have become intertwined with advertising, recruitment and many other facets of the business landscape. If you want to make your ability to attract top-tier candidates the best it can possibly be, then you need to understand how to use social media to boost your recruitment practices. Here are eight of the top advantages of seeking out talent using social media:

1. Greater Job Posting Visibility

Many employers are stuck in the past when it comes to the hiring process. While the old-school bigwigs will tell you that posting job opportunities on social media are unprofessional, this could not be further from the truth. One of the biggest opportunities that come with this strategy is the massively increased viewer pool you’ll gain. In a way, you can simply not afford to avoid posting opportunities within relevant online, social media spaces. There are even many amazing companies that use the power of social media to help employers with recruiting efforts.

2. More Socially-Refined Candidates

Candidates who are willing to link their social media to their application are much more likely to be professional, socially refined, and cool. Employees are not only a resource, after all, but a co-worker who is a human beings. The more happy, healthy, and respectful a person is, the more likely they are to actually fit into your work environment. Social media hires are less likely to become brief employees, due to this quality.

3. Ability to Implement Recruitment Technology

Recruitment technologies are one of the best new developments that intelligent employers can take advantage of. By implementing these on social media platforms you can boost your outreach in a hard to overstate fashion. There are many fantastic opportunities to spread your employment positions as far and wide as possible if you master the intricacies of recruitment technologies.

4. Less Hiring Costs

Social media campaigns are great for saving recruitment resources and saving costs during the hiring process. While it will take a little know-how to implement this type of outreach, you’ll do a great job of bringing in quality candidates for less cash once you’ve perfected the technique. After all, there are many companies that are too small and underfunded to hire full-on outsourced recruiting services to implement an ideal hiring process.

5. Boost Social Media Engagement for Your Brand

Using social media for job postings comes with a wonderful benefit: making the social media presence of your brand skyrocket. Even if the person seeing your posting is not the right fit, they might know someone who is, or simply realize that your business is a perfect fit for their needs. Engagement online is one of the most essential ways to succeed in business and will help you blow past competitors who are looking to attract similarly qualified, quality candidates to their team.

6. Highly Targeted Recruitment

Social media is labeled, broken up into interest groups, and all-around easy to navigate for those who are literate in those platforms. Targeting specific candidates on job boards can be difficult, but on social media, the job becomes much, much easier. If you can find a business group in your industry on a social media platform, you’ll find an ideal spot to find the exact candidate you’ve been searching for.

7. Easier Screening for Candidates

Beyond the fact that social media-based candidates are more likely to be socially intelligent, their profiles give you an excellent opportunity to check their backgrounds, attitude, and professionalism. If you see any major red flags on their profile, you’ll know they will almost certainly be a poor candidate. After all, background checks can be expensive, so having a way to look into a candidate with less cash put into the effort is something that will attract any savvy business folk.

8. Hire Quality Candidates Faster

Since you’re reaching out to candidates on social media, the wide net you’re casting will help you find the right employee much faster than you could expect otherwise. Time is money, after all, and social media-based recruitment is becoming one of the most common ways businesses build their teams. Sites like LinkedIn are social media platforms specifically revolving around networking, hiring and business awareness provide especially great platforms for you to tackle, so don’t waste your time with less innovative recruitment strategies.

Get Social

With social media, you’ll have a fantastic ability to find the perfect candidate for your open positions. If your brand does not have a social media presence, you’ll lose out on much more than just strong candidates, so rebrand your strategies and post openings online as soon as humanly possible.