A modern approach to recruiting with social media Begin by making sure you are fully taking advantage of the available tools offered on each of the social media platforms. It is important to check back regularly to see if new tools have been added or old ones upgraded. Here are a few tools you may find particularly helpful:

LinkedIn Talent Solutions provides tools to enable recruiters to post jobs, source talent and build a brand, all in one place. Hashtag searches on Twitter can help you find passive candidates using keywords, such as a job title, with the hashtag symbol in front of it. TweetDeck will enable you to do the same thing but with real-time tweets, rather than just searching past tweets. Facebook works similarly with its search function. The advanced search feature on Twitter will let you search using more filters, such as geography and key phrases.

Use the search bar on Facebook to find its recruiting tools by simply using the keyword "recruiting." Examples include creating an event on Facebook to promote a job fair and using the Invite Friends feature to connect with employees, which then helps your company connect with their friends. Consider using the Facebook Live feature to make videos to attract prospects. You can host live Q&A sessions and broadcast company events on Periscope. Other social media platforms, ranging from Facebook to Reddit, also offer similar tools. It's important to note that you shouldn't just set the messaging and leave it. You'll need to make sure you are actively monitoring all social media and responding to messages and inquiries promptly.

"Social listening tools, like HootSuite, Iconosquare and Sprout Social, allow employers to narrow in on what people are saying about their brand," WayUp's Berg said. These tools also provide insight into the kinds of people who follow specific employer accounts and their social media uses, including time of day and which type of device they use, she added.

"Tools like Iconosquare even tell you if users are tapping through or exiting your Instagram Stories, providing valuable insight into what kinds of content is or is not engaging your audience," she said.

Another key tip to successful social media recruiting is to make sure that you determine content is on message for the candidates you seek and that the messaging is consistent across all of the social media. You'll also want to carefully check everything for compliance with all new and old regulations.

"It is essential that the images and stories companies share on Instagram align with polls, articles and other content shared on Facebook and LinkedIn," said Joanna Tropp-Bluestone, founder of Negotiation Geek, an advisory firm for enterprise clients on communication and change management and for individuals on developing their career path. "One way to ensure this consistency is to create key messages to be conveyed to ideal candidates across platforms once you have a strong understanding of the things that truly matter to your ideal candidates."

The current social media recruiting landscape Companies are using a growing mix of social media platforms to recruit job candidates, according to a survey by The Creative Group, a creative staffing services firm. Currently, the surveyed enterprises say these are the mediums they use specifically for recruiting:

LinkedIn: 55% Facebook: 39% Pinterest: 21% Instagram: 16% Twitter: 14% YouTube: 14% Snapchat: 4%

The companies were also asked the primary purpose of recruiting with social media:

Post jobs: 42% Promote the company: 21% Illustrate how the company is a great place to work: 21% Review publicly available social media profiles of job applicants: 16% LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook remain the sweet spots for advertising job openings, according to Will Musto, director of technology and marketing at The Roman Healthcare Group, a recruiting firm specializing in infection prevention and quality services. Periscope, he said, is "mostly dead," and Snapchat is "truly a nonentity in this conversation and probably a dying platform, given Instagram Stories are usurping [its] user base."

For most companies, advertising on social media still cannot entirely replace traditional methods of recruitment, not even with the aid of advanced algorithms.

Industry watchers might get excited at the thought that machine learning can help identify top candidates through, or partly through, social media analysis, but Musto said, "Machine learning isn't there yet, although there are certain products that are getting closer and I think we will see machine learning actually be a successful method for recruitment in the near-future."

While recruiting with social media spans the gamut of purposes and venues, vetting candidates is still primarily done on one social media outlet -- LinkedIn. Indeed, 87% of recruiters vet candidates on LinkedIn, according to the Jobvite Recruiter Nation Report 2016, which looks at recruiting practices across a number of industries.