Many of the top firms are now shaping their recruitment strategies and extending their online presence. A research conducted by Jobvite concludes that more and more companies rely on social recruitment to meet the human capital goals of their businesses. They heavily use social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to boost their recruitment efforts. Besides, according to Jobvite, 93% of the recruiters are likely to look at a candidate’s social profile before making an assessment.

In order to reach to a bigger pool of candidates and get to the best talents, the companies try to focus their online activities and to be more active with various social media tools.

But what is social recruiting?

According to Melanie Benwell, Managing Director of PathWorks Personnel, «Social recruiting is using social media and its many platforms to buttress existing recruiting methodologies. Social recruiting is a lot more fun than direct sourcing or mining job boards, so one has to be careful not to spend too much time on social media, as its returns are still being evaluated.

Yet, many recruiters claim that social recruiting has helped them improve not only the candidates’ quantity, but also the candidates’ quality and the time spent on social media has paid off. On the flip side, it has provided benefits to job hunters too. Tony Restell, CEO of Social–Hire, believes that social recruiting offers a «good basis for progressing hiring discussions further» as it encourages a free and willing dialogue between candidates and recruiters. The social platforms provide many tools for searching for a job.

4 in 10 job seekers find their «favorite or best job» via social networks.

Most of the candidates learn about a career opportunity through Facebook, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter.

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The Bulgarian market is experiencing the same trends: with more than 2500 HR professionals registered on LinkedIn, the competition for candidates has definitely moved to another level – the social media world. Social networking has become a convenient and widespread way of finding employment.

So if you are currently in search of a new job or planning a change of your position during the upcoming months, carefully consider the information that you are sharing on Internet.

Polish your Facebook profile, establish some new professional connections on LinkedIn, post industry related messages on Twitter, share your skills and passions on a blog, maintain your personal brand.

By following some proper social media strategies, you can stand out from the pool of candidates and attract the attention of a hiring manager. A good social media presence can successfully influence your chances of receiving a positive evaluation from a recruiter and a great job offer.

So what do you think, can you manage a few social media profiles with the aim of getting the job of your dreams?