When it comes to social recruiting, choosing the right platform is key to overall success. Although I would ultimately recommend an aggressive cross-platform campaign to maximize recruitment returns, sometimes budgetary concerns come into play, so you might need to focus on one or the other. With that in mind, here are some basic guidelines for using Facebook and Twitter for recruitment.
Facebook
-1.01 billion daily active users
Average daily data from Facebook.com for September 2015
Twitter
-320 million monthly users as of 12/10/15
Data from Twitter.com
As you can see, Facebook is a much larger community than Twitter, but it is also starting to trend towards the ages of 30-65, whereas Twitter is much more targeted to 18-29 year olds. Facebook and Twitter both reach women more actively than men (77% and 31% respectively), but Facebook’s overall population wealth is higher. In fact, 72% of those who make over 75k are on Facebook, whereas on Twitter, that number is only 27%.
Percentages of Age Groups on Facebook
• 18-29- 87%
• 30-49 - 73%
• 50-64 - 63%
• 65+ - 56%
Data from SproutSocial
Percentages of Age Groups on Twitter
• 18-29 - 37%
• 30-49 - 25%
• 50-64 - 12%
• 65+ - 10%
Data from SproutSocial
After seeing these statistics, let’s consider two different positions; an experienced physician and an entry level nurse. The doctor would probably be in the 35-60 range depending on their specialty and would typically earn more than 75K, therefore, at least at first assessment, Facebook may be a better choice for recruiting that candidate. For the newly minted nurse graduate though, perhaps they are 25 and making much less, so you can probably reach that candidate more easily through Twitter.
As platforms grow, they tend to adopt or purchase newer trends to stay relevant, so down the line a shift might occur (thus the recommendation of a cross-platform campaign). For instance, Facebook purchased Instagram while Twitter purchased Periscope. Both platforms understand the intrinsic value of sharing visual and video styles of content. A strong social strategy should include both platforms, but when it comes to recruitment, the easiest way to decide between them has to do with basic age (based on educational requirements) and income expectations.
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