Social HR is the practice of using social media to perform HR functions. HR professionals can use social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to perform these functions. They can also use social tools developed within the company to organize HR initiatives.

Overall, HR departments should adopt social HR in their strategies for two reasons:

• It is a cost-effective way to connect with job candidates and fill new positions.
• HR professionals can easily connect with their existing employees and encourage participation in company-wide events.

HR professionals can use social media as a tool in almost every HR function, whether recruiting new candidates or working with existing employees.

Recruit new employees

It is very easy to build a company's brand using social media. You can create branded pages and share messages with both your audience and potential candidates. This   allows you to attract passive job candidates and improve your brand image with your followers.

 It's also easy to  check the background of potential candidates on social media. For example, on LinkedIn you can look at their previous jobs, read recommendations from their peers and ask for referrals from your mutual contacts.

Meanwhile, other social media platforms give you the opportunity to better understand an employee’s personality and learn if they’d be a good fit for your company.

Encourage employee participation

Posting something shareable on social media or creating a challenge to participate in are great ways to see more engagement from your employees. You can also ask a question on social media that anyone, including your employees, can answer.

Boost employee morale

HR professionals can use social media platforms to help their employees stay connected with each other. This is especially useful for companies that have many different departments or a large number of remote employees.

For example, some companies choose to highlight a particular employee in a social media post. This lets the employee know that their contribution is valued, and it can encourage other employees to give their best too.

HR professionals who implement social media platforms into their hiring processes will likely reap the following benefits:

• Lower recruitment costs  : Previously, job recruiters had to pay for ad space to inform potential candidates about their job openings. Social media recruiting cuts costs significantly. Most social media accounts are free to set up, meaning recruiters can reach their pool of candidates for little or no money. And if they use LinkedIn's premium membership, recruiters can get even more detailed information about candidates for a nominal monthly price.
• Hiring in less time:  HR professionals can directly interact with candidate profiles to get more information about those who apply in less time. They will also find it easier to maintain regular and consistent communication with key candidates, helping them set up interviews in less time.
• Increased number of recruiters:  LinkedIn estimates that  40 million people  use their site to search for jobs every week. Meanwhile,  67 percent of  job seekers use Facebook. With this in mind, recruiters have a larger pool of candidates for all their jobs.
• Better candidates:  Most job recruiters  reported that the candidates they hired through social media were of higher quality. This is partly because job recruiters are able to better match candidate profiles with their current needs. Additionally, job candidates who search for jobs on social media tend to be more tech-savvy, a trait that is becoming imperative in today's job market.

More and more companies are showing greater interest in social HR as they recognize these platforms as a means to easily connect with employees and candidates. There are currently  231.47 million people using social media in the United States  , which means that HR professionals can potentially reach over 70% of the population through social HR.

Additionally, HR professionals have noticed how easy it is to use social media in all aspects of their work, especially when compared to old and obsolete practices.