Social Media, new business gold or a waste of time?

For recruiters in the UK Financial services industry its a turbulent time to be doing business. Companies are downsizing, there are less actual vacancies, organisations are a lot more specific than they were a year ago as to what they want, candidates are more likely than ever to be dealing with another agency and its more difficult to find advisers and finance professionals of the right quality. So, in my mind, anything we can use to our advantage in terms of both sourcing new business and new candidates is more than welcome. In any case, the value of social networking, if used correctly can be immense as indicated by the number of people now using social networking sites.

The strength of your brand and therefore your business is influenced heavily by the web and other media's and of course, word of mouth is still one of the best ways to build a reputation. Everyone has access to a computer and the FS recruitment industry is now recognising the value of social networking, 'word of mouth' for the electronic age, in building a brand and finding new business. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, they are all valuable tools in getting your name and your reputation out there and most, if not all offer company profile pages.


There are obviously things to do and things not to do when raising your profile on these sites and I suppose it won't hurt to list one or two:

• Use your real name and not just a faceless brand ie; Jim@ XL-Recruitment rather than just XL-Recruitment - it builds a more user friendly image


• Use recommendations - a powerful tool!


• Be careful about the content placed on your profile - it has to come across as human and not just an organisation


• Target the audience you want and focus on those particularly
  

Just a couple of things that should be looked at when building your brand on social networking sites.

Most of these sites have job boards now, which are again a hugely valuable resource, and some of the networking groups can be real sources of value. If anything though, the key to it is getting the right people. The same as sourcing in any particular way, its about finding the right calibre of individual or the right opportunity.

Web based marketing is here to stay and over a difficult period, the more widely you are known and the better your brand recognition, the more value will come from what you are doing. I think in the UK we are perhaps a little behind our friends across the pond in recognising the value of the web to the UK Financial Services recruitment industry but we are catching on and the more time spent building your brand, the better the rewards. Social Networking? S Where do I sign up?