The Internet uprising has brought in strong changes in the way people communicate with each other. Social media, consisting of web-based and mobile technologies, have altered communication into a social interface for generating value for their users. With millions of potential candidates connected to friends, classmates and competitors through networking sites, companies in chase of this talent pool are now looking to have an edge over their competitors in the online jungle. Innovative methods are now coming in use for a better understanding and simplicity that have influenced the digital medium in recognising the talent across the world.

This highly interactive medium has now become an important part of human life. From its initial intentions of interlinking personal networks, social media now controls diverse fields such as business networking, marketing and recruiting. With the extensive reach and influence, organisations from all sectors have now started looking at the potential of social networks in the recruitment process.

This helps companies in a cost-efficient and convenient way in recruitment compared with the conventional approaches such as job boards, newspaper advertisements and posting vacancies on websites. Most surveys show that many people now get hired from online referrals and company career pages than from job boards.

Nowadays, social media connects people in a better way than any other media platform. Statistics say about 2 billion people around the world are active in social media, with over 135 million users on LinkedIn, 175 million on Twitter and 500 million lively members on Facebook. This large user base covers an attractive platform for recruiters to select the proficient candidates through apparent enrolling procedures.

Small to large organisations are considering social media as a valuable tool for selecting the right candidates for their job openings. This assists the recruitment industry in a superior way along with the conventional means of accessing employees like campus staffing, reference, job portals, and in-house transfers. Social media isn't just a tool or a vehicle for appealing talent. It has evolved into a critical employee value suggestion.

Small organisations also get huge benefit from social networks as frequent advertising on job portals and print media has become relatively expensive. Social networks present employers opportunities to advertise their vacant positions free of cost. Employers can easily legalise and select their preferred candidates from a particular group matching their job requirement.

Students and young professionals are the dynamic strength of social media. They can keep themselves aware of the industry’s happening; sustain an online professional identity and network with people having the same area of concern.

A well-maintained online professional personality, along with a good set of connections, can help users in discovering a desirable jobs according to their interest. Professional networking probabilities in social media offer dynamic recommendation engagements for the users.

Social media can be regarded as a promising means of recruiting, but not the silver bullet clarification. Extensive efforts should be taken to optimise social media for using it as a critical tool in enrolling. Job questers should keep a proper eye on the positive outcomes of social media for their professional as well as personal networking.

Communication uprising and internet mutiny have considerably changed the way people correspond with each other and do business.

The changing utilisation of social media is an example of this. The revolution in recruitment industry has just started. We have to wait for the future to examine the huge potential or the perils with social media.

(The writer is the Chief Executive of US based flatparty.com, a social networking site)

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