When social media networks first debuted, companies and recruiters viewed them as places where people posted cat pictures and looked up new recipes. But as time has gone by, social media has threatened to completely change the Internet. As 2016 approaches, recruiters need to respect the significantly increasing role that social media will play in finding qualified candidates.

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Social Media Is Becoming The New Internet Search Engine

Business Insider published an interesting graph that showed that more people are using social media to get information than they are search engines. That means that more people are turning to Facebook for information on a new company than they are Google.

This information is significant because it indicates that, at some point very soon, recruiters will have to put more of an emphasis on social media than they do on search engine optimization. Recruiters will have to reach out to passive candidates through social media, and the presentation of job opportunities will have to be optimized for social media instead of search engines.

Social Media Is How Companies Find Employees

According to a presentation done by LinkedIn, 44 percent of job referrals come from social media. This makes social media the most widely used source of candidate referrals in the corporate world. Social media has even outpaced employee referrals as a source of new candidates for companies, and that shows the power of social media.

The Tech Savvy Generations Are Taking Management Positions

Baby Boomers loved their newspapers, but Gen Xers and Millennials love social media. As the Baby Boomers continue to retire, there will be an even strong shift towards using social media to find qualified candidates. Companies are already experimenting with ways to use social media to create extremely comprehensive candidate profiles, and that process will only increase in 2016.

The Results

With 44 percent of all candidate referrals coming from social media, it is impossible to argue with the results the platform gets. With big data being used to qualify candidates before they are even contacted for a first interview, companies are streamlining the recruiting process, but getting extremely accurate results. It is a good bet that if social media can save companies money while getting companies better results, then the use of social media will only increase in 2016.

Technology and time cause just about everything to change. People like to use the toothbrush as an example of technology that has not changed in thousands of years, but we all know that the ancient Egyptians did not have electric toothbrushes. In 2016, recruiters will have to start finding even more ways to use social media to fill their clients’ vacancies. As 2015 comes to a close, it is impossible for recruiters to ignore the tremendous advances made through social media, and it is also impossible to ignore the temptation to make those advances even more efficient.

Will recruiters continue to use LinkedIn as their default social media platform when searching for candidates?

George N Root III is a professional freelance writer who has expertise in topics such as Internet marketing, business, advertising, and personal finance.