Bullhorn Reach Social Recruiting Report: LinkedIn is the Clear Leader

BOSTON, Feb. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Armed with definitive data from the online activities of 35,000 recruiters, Bullhorn, Inc., which recently launched theFIT, an uncensored career site for company insiders and job seekers alike, released "The Bullhorn Reach Social Recruiting Activity Report." The report offers insight into the usage of social media in recruiting, and finds that LinkedIn leads in all facets among the "big three" social networks: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. It measured the networks' frequency of usage by recruiters and their effectiveness for sourcing candidates.

Despite all of the industry buzz and data around the proliferation of job hunting on Facebook, Bullhorn's data demonstrates that recruiters' LinkedIn networks still drive more views than their Twitter and Facebook networks combined. For job applications, LinkedIn also wins driving almost nine times more applications than Facebook and three times more than Twitter. Interestingly, however, a Twitter follower is almost three times more likely to apply to a job than a LinkedIn connection, and more than eight times more likely to apply than a Facebook follower, indicating that Twitter might be a highly underutilized social recruiting channel.  A further comparison between the effectiveness of Twitter and Facebook reveals that recruiters' Twitter followings drive almost twice as many job views per job as their Facebook fan bases.

"If you are serious about finding a job, Facebook should not be your first stop. There is a huge disconnect between where people are looking for jobs and where they will actually find one – job seekers are focusing on Facebook, while recruiters are on LinkedIn," said Art Papas, President and CEO of Bullhorn. "There is no question that social recruiting works. Our goal is to help recruiters and job seekers develop new strategies for connecting the right employees with jobs and companies that fit."

According to the report, 48 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn exclusively. These recruiters have an average of 661 connections, and don't leverage the other two networks for social recruiting. From there, recruiters use Twitter more than Facebook. Despite the fact that recruiters have fewer connections on Twitter (37 followers on average), 19 percent are connected to both LinkedIn and Twitter, while only 10 percent are connected to both LinkedIn and Facebook (245 friends on average).

Key findings:

• LinkedIn adoption growing the fastest. Despite earlier adoption among recruiters, LinkedIn continues to grow at the fastest pace. The average recruiter adds 18.5 LinkedIn connections each week, compared to 3.3 Twitter followers, 1.4 Facebook friends.
• LinkedIn leads job views. LinkedIn drives more views per job than Twitter and Facebook, generating three times the amount of views of Twitter and six times the amount of Facebook.
• For job applications – LinkedIn gets it done. Recruiters who post jobs on social networks are likely to receive more applications from LinkedIn, with the social network driving almost nine times more applications than Facebook and three times more than Twitter.
• Twitterers are more likely to apply, though. Looking at the relative number of applications per contact, a Twitter follower is almost three times more likely to apply for a job than a LinkedIn connection.

Links for More Information:

• Download the full report: http://www.bullhornreach.com/content/resources/reports
• View the infographic: http://www.bullhornreach.com/cmsites/default/files/RecruitersSocialNetworking-Bullhorn-final.png

About Bullhorn
Bullhorn® creates software and services that improve the way employees and employers come together. For over ten years our innovations have powered the recruiting and staffing operations of fast-growing start-ups up through the world's largest employment brands. But don't take our carefully crafted, boiler-plated word for it. See what employees are saying on the newly launched theFIT at http://www.thefit.com/company?company=Bullhorn.

SOURCE Bullhorn, Inc.