Clearly a Social Media novice...

An introduction to Social Media for Graduate Recruitment

We have all seen the various mind boggling statistics about the social media revolution…..955 million active users on Facebook and growing, 555m on Twitter and six in ten of all adult internet users having their own social networking profile. Clearly this is not a fad and there has been a fundamental shift in the way people are communicating. When communications channels change, recruitment has to change.

So, having come back yesterday from attending a highly insightful AGR event on social media, now to my task of bringing some of these learning’s to our clients at GTI Recruiting Solutions and adding value to their graduate recruitment campaigns. With this sea of complexity of social networking sites, blogs, podcasts, video sharing sites, virtual worlds and augmented reality, where to start first and simplify this to an action plan?

Some simple definitions have really helped me to break this complexity down. An interesting simple definition of social media is people communicating online. So the message is clear…..Start listening as this is the world’s biggest focus group.

At the outset, having a clear picture of what you are trying to achieve is key:

• Is it increasing applications or raising brand awareness?
• Is it decreasing the amount spent on Marketing?
• Is it increasing candidate acceptance rates? or
• Is it educating students on your company or industry sector?

Having in mind that in the digital world, we have now moved into a distinct phase of digital marketing from experimentation through to now a Relationship phase – this is about building and sustaining relationships with our target audience of potential graduate recruits.

Understanding and overcoming any potential hurdles is a must – These could involve Resources concerning time, people and cost, Knowledge, Corporate Policy and Technology.

Getting into the mindset of social media users is also key. Buying decisions for example choosing film, holidays and cars have changed so that we are now far more likely to believe someone else’s opinion than the company itself. Translating this into a graduate recruitment context. Whether getting your first job as a graduate or changing jobs later in your career, views and opinions of peer to peer networks are no doubt a key influence in career related decision making.

Community Management seems to be crucial. This is all about gaining a level of engagement through having “Community managers” posting content and users asking and getting answers to questions through to the nirvana whereby the end result is user to user interaction.

The concept for me that jumps out is around leveraging social media to transform employees into advocates. The word “Talent Beacons” has been used and is in essence having a group of employees posting interesting and relevant content with users sharing, liking or commenting so that awareness and interest grows amongst the huge reach of the social networks of those involved.

Exciting times ahead in this growth area and will be interesting to see as social media matures how trends change, but clearly a “must do” for graduate employers to be both creating and managing their social media communities and networks.

A novice maybe not, but a very keen enthusiast!

Why not connect with the GTI team to see how we recruit high potentials through social media. Please contact Vicky Weber on +44 (0)207 061 1905 or at vicky.weber@gtisolutions.co.uk