How to Effectively Measure Your Social Recruiting Campaigns – Part 2

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

In part one this series on how to effectively measure your social recruiting campaigns, I discussed the need for a new kind of metrics and how the first step in measuring is identifying your strategy so you’ll know what type of metrics to use. In case you haven’t had a chance to read part one yet, I mentioned that your social strategy likely included one or more of several different campaign tactics, including culture and brand play, RSS feeds and more.

The great thing about the campaigns I talked about in part one is that they can work together or separately depending on how in-depth you choose to go with your social strategy. When used together, these tactics play off each other and help you build momentum and engagement across many platforms. However, you may find it more appropriate to focus on one of two strategies that make sense for your business. There’s no right or wrong.

Your next step
Once you know what it is you’re trying to achieve in your social recruiting campaigns, developing metrics is the obvious next step. In the corporate environment, when you’re developing metrics, you also have to think about what your leadership will want to know. Creating buy-in from senior business leaders often occurs only after they see the value. However, sometimes it’s hard for those who only use social media for personal reasons to understand that value, even when you share your methods, metrics and results. They may not automatically connect the dots, and that’s where you come in. It’s not only your job to develop metrics and create targets but also to educate executives and leaders on what it all means for your business.

To help business leaders in your company make sense of the results you share, use these five metrics that make it easy to go from seeing numbers to understanding value:

Source of hire
It often takes multiple touches to entice the candidate to make the ultimate job-search-buying decision, which is applying for a position. It’s valuable to know where the candidate engaged (many times this question will have multiple answers) and where they ultimately made the decision to apply. This helps leadership, and you, understand which social channels are most effective.

Retention/turnover
I like to use this metric to measure which sources were most effective in yielding candidates that are a good fit. Measure in terms of turnover at 90 days, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and 24 months.

Applications per source
If you are using cookies to track candidates who visit and engage with your online properties, you can measure applications from each source. Don’t focus on the quantity, though. Focus on candidate quality instead.

Interviews per hire
If you are building an employment branding campaign, evaluate your interviews per hire for each source. It can help you see where to engage and what to post. For instance, I personally have found that in general, the more information a candidate can access in a job posting, the better quality of candidates you get.

Online review scores
Review sites like Glassdoor, as well as your own candidate survey, give insights into the recruitment and hiring process. Use these scores to understand how your online activities and internal efforts are aligning together to improve the company culture and online reputation.

Metrics don’t have to be a jumble of numbers. In fact, the most useful metrics help you see real life connections, and equally valuable, it helps you show others real life value. Watch for the final part of “How to Effectively Measure Your Social Recruiting Campaigns” to see how qualitative measurement of your social campaigns show how they fit in your overall social recruitment strategy.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell.