Social media has the capability to work as a lifeline for new businesses without a large marketing budget. Just think about how easy it is to advertise your new product, service, shop or company...for free! You can build up a healthy following on Facebook very quickly (if you don't mind most of them being your friends) and you could even trend your grand opening on Twitter with a simple hash tag.
My advice to you; don't get carried away!
I've found that social media is a bit like marmite; you either love it, or hate it. CV-Library was built from scratch with a very small loan and without any access to a single social media platform. Of course, this is because social media didn't actually exist in 2000 but it does highlight that social media isn't the be all and end all.
Everywhere you look recruiters are talking about social media. Will it be the death of the job board? Is a LinkedIn profile the new CV? Will employers research potential candidates on Facebook? There doesn't appear to be any right or wrong answers and there certainly isn't a full proof method for incorporating social media into marketing plans...yet.
My opinion of social media is changing everyday and I'm certainly no expert but I've drawn together my three top pieces of advice for new businesses thinking of recruiting through social media:
Choose your audience carefully
First and foremost is working out the audience you're trying to engage with. I don't expect to make money from social media but I do understand the importance of having a presence. CV-Library presents itself very differently on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. And through some trial and error you will quickly pick up on the sorts of people following you on each social network. You want to send out the right message and engage with the right people rather than putting your stamp on every single social media platform and forgetting there are actual people behind the screens.
Remember why you're there
I'm strongly against my employees spending hours and hours sifting through unrelated LinkedIn group discussions and following trails of tweets but I know (from experience) how easy it is to get caught up in the world of ‘liking', ‘tagging' and ‘following'. It's very hard to balance how you incorporate social media into your every day recruitment plan, especially as a general, nationwide job board.
Just remember why you logged in in the first place. Whether you're answering questions, promoting a product or checking what the competition are up to, don't get carried away. Build some connections and make sure you engage with your followers but remember you still have that in tray to work through and Facebook won't make that go away!
Take a time trial
You can easily get swept up in social media and find the working day is over and you haven't even checked your emails. This is clearly the wrong way to use this new marketing tool but with over 30 million Facebook users in the UK alone how on earth do we keep up with everything?
Set yourself a time trial and see how quickly you can complete your social media task. At the same time remember why you're there and keep your audience in mind.
LinkedIn may seem like a great place to start headhunting and contacting potential candidates for free but you will find yourself spending hours building connections and sending messages to people who aren't even looking for a job. CV-Library holds a database of over 4.2 million CVs for candidates actually looking for a job. Take a free trial of the CV-Library database today: http://www.cv-library.co.uk/link/TIF7 [1]
If you're interested in recruiting online and would like some more information please do not hesitate to email our sales team on sales@cv-library.co.uk [2] or call 01252 810995.