We have great social media tools at our disposal, but do you know how to use them effectively for your business? According to our latest research report, recruiters and HR professionals need to make sure they use the right digital channels for recruitment.

We recently carried out a survey of over 700 UK job hunters and found that, whilst social media is increasingly being used by job hunters and businesses, there is a need to make sure it is being used for the right reason and in the right way. For example, we found that 44% of respondents follow company activity on Facebook but, when it came to finding the perfect job, only 3% found Facebook useful.

This suggests that we need to think again when it comes to social media and which channels we use. It’s important that HR reviews which are effective engagement tools before investing time in them. Always ask yourself how valuable the network is, and remember that, just because you have a huge presence on Twitter, it doesn’t mean it is the right platform to recruit on. The popularity of social media is clear, with more than half (73%) of people surveyed recognising the positive impact it has had in their job search, but you need to understand which networks your potential candidates are using.

LinkedIn in particular is really important in attracting talent, and is the main platform used by job hunters. Findings from the survey showed that the LinkedIn jobs section came top for job searching, which was expected. However, the runners up suggest a move towards more engaging tools as LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn Company Pages and Google+ came in second, third and fourth respectively.

The full results of the survey are available in our free report Turning connections into candidates: The HR managers guide to using social media