Part 1: Why you should use social media to grow your workforce

This is part one of a two-part series on using social media to gain new hires. Read part two here.

Leverage your company’s social media accounts to attract and find new hires. (Photo: iStock.com/anyaberkut)

A staggering 79 percent of job seekers are likely to use social media in their job search, according to Glassdoor.

As the aggregate industry deals with labor shortages, this is an opportunity that can’t be missed, and for a number of reasons.

1. Social media is fast and affordable. Social media is an inexpensive way to get the word out about a job opening at your aggregate operation. It’s also fast: At the click of a button, you can have a job opening posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn within seconds.

Social media also offers the opportunity to share job postings as ads to target segmented groups of individuals. For instance, Facebook and Instagram allow users to create ads tailored to custom audiences, defined by age, location, interests and behaviors.

2. You can gain insights into potential hires. Social media is also an excellent way to learn more about your candidates. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram offer insights about the type of person the potential hire is, including his or her interests, while LinkedIn offers insights into the individual from a business perspective.

“Segmenting potential employees not only by their expertise but also by their personality traits is very important when recruiting creative roles,” says Carlos Machicao, co-founder of Wild Pixel Media and a member of the Forbes Agency Council, in a Forbes article. “Having contrasting characters and opinions is key to develop an innovative team that can produce integral and original concepts.”

3. It gives candidates an idea of who you are. More and more often, potential candidates are turning to company social media pages to gauge what a company is like, what kind of culture it embodies and the type of people it employs.

More importantly, 59 percent of employees say a company’s social media presence was part of the reason they chose their workplace, according to Betterteam, a job posting platform for small and medium businesses.

Fortunately, social media offers an easy way to paint a picture of your company and let potential hires know why they should want to work for you – whether it be through photos of a company outing, volunteer projects or milestone celebrations. Social media is not only an opportunity to find a new hire but also a way to sell yourself to the best potential candidates.