Using Social Networks to Research Candidates

From newspapers and cold calls to technology, job seekers are now looking to social networking as a job-search tool, connecting job seekers with employers, recruiters and job leads.

The number of Americans belonging to social networking sites has grown exponentially in the last five years, reports global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. And it is estimated that 51% of online U.S. adults utilize social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn, according to a recent survey by Forrester Research, up from the 25% of users reporting the use of social networking sites in 2007.

Employers are also jumping on the social networking bandwagon. Jobvite recently found that 80% of companies use or are planning to use social networking sites to fill vacant positions. While LinkedIn is still the most popular site used by employers, with 95% of companies using it, Facebook and Twitter are gaining ground. The use of Facebook has grown from 36% of recruiters in 2008 to 59% in 2009, while Twitter is currently being used by 42% of recruiters.

Posted by RecruitingTrends.com on November 23, 2009. Filed under Human Resources, Recruiting, Sourcing, Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry