Social media in recruitment - a Twitter virgin's guide...

With the second Social Media in Recruitment Conference booked for April and boasting speakers from both Google and LinkedIn, it is only a matter of time before recruiters who don't become involved with this newfangled idea will start to miss out. Who would have thought that networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook would provide such great opportunities for recruitmenting, whether it is collecting candidates or getting in touch with past and potential clients? LinkedIn has always been the professional face of social networking, as has Ecademy, but now recruiters - both agency-side and internal - are starting to reap the real benefits of getting their backsides in gear and jumping on the more social side of the social media bandwagon.

I bravely volunteered to become the Mobilus social media guru, ignoring the fact that I have only ever used Facebook before to spy on people I went to school with, and make myself feel
a) superior because I have a better life/ job/ pair of children than them, or b) envious because they have a better life/car/ looking partner than me. That's what it's for. But it is also for the serious business of developing candidate pools, and promoting your consultancy to clients. In order to get MY backside into gear, firstly I had to start my blog. What to write about, how to write it, would anyone want to read it? - these kept me awake at night. Then I decided just to jump straight in, see what was going on in the high falutin' world of recruitment. But that would be a bit one-dimensional, so I decided to try and write about the markets that we recruit IN, namely marketing and I.T. Ignoring the fact that I am no expert in either, I realised to my surprise - though not to anyone
else's - that I could manage to find an opinion on anything. So the blog you read now was born.

My next step was to discover Twitter, then work out how to use it. Luckily, I have a 12-year-old, so he showed me. Then I had to figure out how to follow people, and who to follow. I didn't want to follow friends, or bands, or anything that would Tweet unsuitable content to me (marriage problems, binge drinking, swear words etc). Keeping in touch with the industry we work in as well as for is an obvious, as is following publications and professional groups. Amazingly, I have collected some followers, and fingers crossed, will continue to do so. It might be my fascinating Tweets, or my lovely picture, or even this blog, or just that people will follow anyone. I haven't quite got the hang of working it all out yet. Where's my son?

(For more information on social media and recruitment from actual, proper, qualified people, check out Peter Gold at Hire Strategies http://www.hirestrategies.co.uk/ or the training course from Recruitment Matters http://www.recruitmentmatters.com/)

UK ahead in Digital Marketing

A report by Ofcom (16/12/09) reveals that the UK is "officially one of the world’s most advanced countries when it comes to digital communications", according to Marketing Week. Good news for digital marketers - they can continue to take advantage of the already existing array of digital media. The marketing industry has recognised that interaction between online and offline needs to be stepped up to keep in control of communications in this ever-changing technological world. ITV's hugely successful online monetisation of the ever-popular (if contentious, and possibly responsible for most Saturday and Sunday night rows in the UK over the past few months) X Factor is proof of the massive impact of digital media. A record 19m people tuned into the final, and ITV have reported that their X Factor page saw an average increase of hits, unique users, and video views - the latter up 61% from last year. Securing online sponsorship from TalkTalk and Kleenex, ITV also managed to keep up the growing interest in the weekend TV shows. It's all about the brand. And best of all, an ITV Player Facebook App is due out any time now, to bring the digital domination full circle. It won't be on MY Christmas wishlist, but what do I know? It's obviously the way to go, and it won't be long before other organisations jump on the bandwagon - it works!

Want to know the top digital marketing strategies for 2010? Look no further. Last Exit (a Digital Strategy, Marketing and Design agency) have told UTalk Marketing theirs, which include: Facebook replacing personal email, mobile commerce really starting to kick off, services like Facebook Connect and OpenID enabling us to have one log-in for every site, self-efficiency through networking, crowd sourcing and info-art (capturing and visualising information in an artistic fashion). It's sounding good! Social network sites will of course continue to be a massive source of information, sharing knowledge and promoting your brand, as well as enabling marketers to keep an eye on what's on trend out there. The people have perhaps never had so much consumer power - with the ability to instantly send a message out to potentially thousands of people around the globe, each of us can have some influence on what, and how, we buy.

If digital marketing is going to continue to grow in 2010, then it seems that the marketers will need to up their game and deliver even more in terms of reaching, persuading and retaining their target markets. But the means are out there, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Rachel Lawrence