How do you capture the mindset of passive candidates who are quietly sitting in the background? What do you do to maintain your competitive edge? Have you ever considered using video to recruit?
As the third most visited website in the world, the second largest search engine in the world, and the largest video sharing platform in the world, YouTube has the potential to play a significant part in companies hiring efforts.
Just look at some of these impressive stats:
– YouTube has over 800 million unique users
– YouTube receives over 4 billion video views per day
– In 2011, YouTube had over one trillion video views (imagine how big that number will be by the end of this year)
And how does it compare to other social media platforms? Well, in just sixty seconds:
100 new accounts are created on LinkedIn
277,000 logins are on Facebook
100,000 tweets are sent out on Twitter
2.8 million videos are viewed on YouTube
But if this isn’t enough to convince you, here are some other reasons why YouTube is a great way to attract and identify talent to your business:
1. The talent is already there
Just look at some of the statistics we’ve already discussed – these are too hard to ignore.
The potential for YouTube to play a part in your hiring strategy increases as more and more people access the site each day.
2. Amplify your hiring message
According to Dr James McQuivey of Forrester Research, watching a minute of video is the equivalent of reading 1.8 million words.
Not only that, but by 30 seconds into an online video, only 33% of viewers have moved on. At one minute; 44% have left (regardless of clips length), and after the two-minute mark, almost 60% have abandoned the video.
This increased engagement is a fun and effective way to reach your target audience whilst sharing a powerful recruitment message.
3. Show off the personality of your company
A prospective candidate can learn a lot about what it will be like to work at your company if you upload a video showing off the culture of your workplace.
Take Microsoft as an example. They took 30-second videos of their employees discussing why they liked working for the company. This is a great way to build your brand, bring your job descriptions to life and enable candidates to see the company before applying for positions.
If you’re looking for inspiration, check out Twitter’s recruitment video – The future is you.
4. Passive sourcing
YouTube offers some great functions that are ideal for sourcing passive talent.
For example, you could search for people who make tutorial videos relevant to your business. These individuals clearly have the skills to perform the tasks as seen in the video and are obvious experts.
You can also search for comments to find people discussing keywords related to your job requirements.
Then, similarly to LinkedIn’s InMail function, YouTube also allows you to send direct messages to YouTube account holders. ‘Dear Peter Jones, I noticed you were discussing Java languages on YouTube. I currently have a vacancy for a Java Developer…’ and so on.
5. Measure your ROI
YouTube offers some insightful statistics to help you monitor your video efforts. You can find out how many times your videos have been viewed, your audience demographics and how engaged they were.
In some instances, if you see a red arrow next to a video, you also have the ability to monitor competitor activity. By clicking the arrow, you get to view the outcome and engagement of their videos.
So, if your company isn’t leveraging video, and in particular YouTube, as part of their social recruitment efforts, it’s certainly something worth considering.
Have you used YouTube or other video platforms as part of your hiring efforts? If not, is it something you’d consider? Why not share your ideas below.
