We talked about LinkedIn on the blog last week, so it made sense this week to look into Social Media a little more. Each social network differs, in how it’s utilised and the main demographics. Twitter and Facebook are the more mainstream mediums.
Twitter was launched in 2006 and by 2012 had a massive 500 million registered users, it first gained popularity in business circles and often takes precedence over Facebook for many business users, but is more than equally used now by corporates, SME’s and private users. Twitter has historically been text based with its 140 character “Tweet” limit but the facility to add images was added in 2011 and images are increasingly prevalent now in a Twitter timeline.
Facebook was founded in 2004 and initially used by Harvard University students, by 2009 it was the most popular social networking service and the use of business pages grew from 2007. Facebook has always been about photographs as much as text and without a limit on post length allows for much more detailed broadcasts. Boasting a billion users at the end of 2012, Facebook has a new focus – offering advertising to its business users.
Both networks are important to any business but for a recruitment agency whose products are people too social media is key in both portraying a brand and recruiting both client and candidate through networking, self-promotion and advertising.
It’s important to factor in to your recruitment website design prominent links to your social networks, and consider the facility for a visitor to share a news story direct from your page to their followers, something that can also be used internally in conjunction with broadcasting vacancies.
It doesn’t stop there, social media is not just for finding those elusive candidates, Facebook and Twitter offer a huge opportunity to share news, campaigns, successes, topical stories, tips, and much more to attract, engage and gain followers and in turn gain website visitors.
Greater competition within the industry and the mobility of candidates means that recruitment agencies must demonstrate their niche knowledge to attract the best talent. What better way to do this than the first place many look for a real time impression of a company – their social media presence and online reputation.
Both Facebook and Twitter landing pages can easily be designed to match your recruitment website design and in line with your brand to give the best possible impact to social media users and there are now numerous training opportunities and conferences to learn more about maximising the use of social media for your recruitment business.
Strategies can tell you more about the best way of incorporating your preferred social mediums into your recruitment website design and online brand development.
