Social media has now been around for some time with just about everyone on a combination of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

So are you making the most of this incredible resource in your advertising strategy or is it all too much trouble?

Why you should be using social media to assist with your recruitment advertising and what benefits can it deliver:

You can reach those sought-after passive candidates.

Whilst an established job board is a solid first option in advertising your vacancies you are limiting your reach to those actively searching for new roles.

Social media is a great tool for expanding your exposure and tapping into that sought-after pool of potential candidates – those who aren’t actively seeking but would be open to change if the right opportunity came along.

It allows you to target your vacancies

An effective social media strategy involves building networks and interacting within groups so with a little direction vacancies can be floated across the consciousness of passive candidates within targeted areas based on profession or location.

Other social media tools to target your vacancies, such as Twitter hashtags or asking those who currently work in a sector to share adverts to their connections, can help generate quality exposure.

It’s a great way of showcasing your company culture

Social media is just a click away from your company website, bringing potential candidates into contact with your career opportunities and values as an employer. Long standing connections can be made that will benefit your recruitment process over the mid-to-long term.

So why don’t more fully invest? The key difficulties in using social media to support recruitment advertising:

It takes so much time

It takes time, commitment, and creativity to build networks and grow a dynamic presence within social media – do you have that time?

It can slow you down

That time and commitment will come at the expense of other important tasks costing productivity.

We tried social media but didn’t get much return

Although social promotion will not attract the number of applications as an established job board it will nevertheless create an important extra layer of coverage that will bring awareness.

of your adverts and agency to passive candidates for present and future roles. It should not be seen as a replacement but an augment to your strategy of attracting the best candidates.

How can you acquire the benefits without the complications?

Most job boards focus inwards so look for a job board that offers a clear outward focus and strategy in social media promotion. A job board that proactively shares your advert through social networks will bring exposure to the active and passive job seeker – helping you secure the quality candidates you’re looking for.

Philip Hughes writes for Yorkshire Jobsboard a dedicated job board specialising in the soft promotion of Yorkshire based vacancies via social media.