Real estate agent shaking hands with customer with house model and contract paper.
When it comes to finding top-performing real estate agents, recruiters and human resource professionals should learn how to maximize every available platform. Not every strategy will work for every channel, especially those with marked differences, such as with online job boards and networking events. If you need some ideas, you can check out some tips from the makers of real estate recruiting Brokerkit software.
That being said, one of the most effective and prolific recruitment platforms nowadays across all industries is social media. With its audience reach of literally hundreds of millions, social media sites and apps can help you reach more potential candidates. However, do note that adding social media to your recruitment process can be a double-edged sword. Yes, it can be beneficial but there can also be some downsides.
Here are some of the pros and cons of using social media for recruitment, so you can make the best decision for your brokerage:
PRO: Time and Cost Efficiency
One of the biggest advantages of using social media for recruitment is that it can save you a lot of time and money. With regard to sourcing alone, as long as you use the right search parameters, you can find and reach out to plenty of qualified candidates within hours. This can contribute to an overall shorter hiring process.
In a lot of aspects, it’s also more cost-efficient to recruit real estate agents through social media platforms. Considering the various audience-targeting features, advertising options, and potential for visibility, social media can easily drive down your brokerage’s cost-per-hire.
PRO: More Visibility for the Job AND Your Brokerage
In the USA, Facebook alone has more than 200 million users; meanwhile, Twitter and Instagram have an estimated 80 million and 100 million users each. Even if only 0.1% of these people see your job ads, you’ll still have reached 380,000 individuals. This is so much more than what you can expect from job sites and other recruitment platforms.
In addition and perhaps more importantly, using social media for recruitment can give your real estate brokerage more visibility. This helps strengthen your credibility, as well as boost awareness. With carefully curated posts, you can showcase your company culture and slowly establish yourself as “the” brokerage to work in amongst agents.
PRO and CON: You Get a Glimpse of a Candidate’s Personality Early On
When hiring a real estate agent, it’s important to look at two primary factors: their qualifications and how well they would potentially fit into your company. The latter used to be impossible to do until you met the candidate in person; now, with social media, you can easily catch a glimpse of their personality even before you even call them to schedule an interview. This can give you a better idea as to whether their personal values, qualities, priorities, and ambitions will complement those of the company and your existing employees. Ultimately, it can help ensure harmony within your ranks.
At the same time, knowing about a potential candidate’s personality beforehand can also be a bad thing. This is because you can develop biases that can make you favor one over another, which definitely counts as discrimination (even if you are unaware that you’re doing it). As such, you need to be more self-aware as a recruiter to prevent any preconceived notions from coloring your opinion of a candidate.
CON: People Sometimes Post Inaccurate Information Online
A big problem nowadays in social media—and, indeed, the entire internet—is the proliferation of false information. Some of them might be deemed harmless in the grand scheme of things, say when a person edits a photo of themselves visiting a place they’ve never been. On the other hand, there is plenty of fake news and other misleading information that is not as benign.
For example, a person may lie about their academic and work achievements on their social profile. They may then be hired under false pretenses, which can hurt your brokerage’s performance. It will also incur additional costs when you eventually replace the employee.
To avoid such a situation, make sure not to take anything at face value. Do some additional research about a candidate, whether that’s asking for references or getting in touch with the individual’s alma mater. It’s also a good idea to counter-check their pages. Have they made any recent updates? Do their posts line up with what their profiles say? If anything seems amiss, you can verify the matters during an interview.
PRO: Higher-Quality Candidates
There are social media sites, like Facebook, that allow you to hyper-target your posts. Aside from their age and gender, you may also use parameters such as location, interests, educational attainment, and whether they recently engaged with your competitors. With such detailed targeting, you can more or less guarantee that you’ll get high-quality candidates who more or less match what you’re looking for in a real estate agent.
Overall, social media provides more advantages than disadvantages when it comes to real estate recruitment. However, it’s still wise to consider the drawbacks. This way, you can make better hiring decisions for your brokerage.
