Summary of Bullhorn Reach study on how recruiters use social media to locate prospects.

1. Social Media and
Recruiter Use:
Bullhorn Reach White Paper Summary
for Job Seekers
April 10, 2012
Robert Lawrence III
Mark Biersdorf

2. 2012 White Paper
• Bullhorn Reach – February 2012 report -
http://goo.gl/IiWns
• Study contacted 35,000 BR recruiters
• LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook use by recruiters
• Usage, trends, connections

3. Methodology
• Survey numbers not included
• Claims to be “objective”
• Poorly written – (i.e., postings to connections
vs. general postings)

4. Total 2012 Numbers
• LinkedIn – 135m active members, ½ in US
• Twitter – 140m active members worldwide
• Facebook – 845m active members, 152m in
the US

5. Recruiter Connections
Responding recruiters have a
median of:
• LinkedIn – 616 connections
• Twitter – 37 followers
• Facebook – 245 friends

6. Social Recruiting
• 21% are connected to all three social
networks
• 48% use LinkedIn exclusively
• 19% use both Twitter and LinkedIn
• 10% use Facebook in conjunction with
LinkedIn

7. LinkedIn
• Jobs posted on LinkedIn have 3x more views
than Twitter, 6x more than Facebook
• Jobs posted on LinkedIn have 3x more
applications than Twitter, 9x more than
Facebook
• For recruiters, LinkedIn remains the most
effective way to post a job

8. LinkedIn
• Bullhorn Reach - current trends suggest that
each recruiter could potentially add 1,000
connections in 2012
• LinkedIn is still considered to be in the early
stages of adoption by recruiters

9. Twitter
• “Twitter presents an opportunity to break
through the clutter more efficiently and
reach potentially high quality candidates
using its search functionality.”
• 19% of recruiters are connected to
LinkedIn and Twitter
• Twitter follower is 3x more likely to apply
to a job posting than a LinkedIn
connection

10. Twitter
• Bullhorn Reach predicts that recruiters could
increase their network four-fold in 2012
• Jobs may be reposted more frequently
through Twitter than LinkedIn or Facebook
• Despite smaller network size, a recruiter
doesn’t need a lot of followers to be effective

11. Facebook
• Least effective way for a recruiter to post a job
out of the three social networks
• Possible new strategy in 2012 – Friend
referrals to recruiters (i.e., BranchOut). This
would be driven by job seekers, not recruiters
• Corporate recruiters may be more active
leveraging friends for employee referrals

12. Bullhorn Conclusions
• Recruiters connected to all three social networks
• LinkedIn, Twitter are favorites
• Twitter followers are most likely to apply for a job
than LinkedIn or Facebook
• Twitter and Facebook “highly under-utilized”
• Expect further expansion of use in 2012