The fundamentals of staff recruiting aren’t exactly on their way out, but HR departments should take note: Social media is gaining ground as a talent prospecting tool.

In a new report, the B2B services firm Clutch says that 14 percent of about 500 recent hires it surveyed found their jobs through social media rather than more traditional means like person-to-person networking or online job boards. And they did it using a wide range of platforms.

“Social media ranges from career-focused sites such as LinkedIn to creative platforms such as Instagram,” Clutch’s Michelle Delgado wrote in a summary of the survey.

Even so, the old standbys are still strong. Job boards remained the most prominent source of new jobs, at 41 percent, with networking not far behind at 25 percent. Less popular were job-specific email newsletters, which just 5 percent of respondents had success with.

Job boards are maintaining their value even as the recruiting model shifts, noted Human Capital Institute Head of Research Jenna Filipkowski, who spoke to Clutch. “Going to a general job board may be the first step,” she said. “If they find what they’re looking for there, they don’t need to take the deeper dive.”

While general job boards, like Indeed, remain the most popular, specialized job boards focused on a specific industry make up around 20 percent of jobs landed via online listings. In the current tight job market, candidates face better odds than usual of finding a gig, the report notes.

Another noteworthy finding: The survey identified a gender gap on the job-discovery front. Women were significantly more likely to find new job opportunities via an online job board than men (44 percent versus 33 percent). This may point to inequities in other forms of recruitment, Clutch suggests.

“Companies that rely on networking to hire new employees can inadvertently limit diversity at their organizations,” the report states. “For example, some companies that prioritize hiring candidates who attended Ivy League universities may miss out on talented candidates who attended other schools.”

And on the tactical front, the survey suggests that organizations that post job listings should consider using automated job alerts based on user searches. More than 60 percent of users called such alerts useful.

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