At Asset Resourcing, we like to think we have our collective finger on the pulse. We have a growing list of clients, an ever-increasing pool of talent and we have taken on more staff over the last 12 months but one phrase keeps cropping up when we’re taking to our tech-savvy friends.

How effective is your social media strategy?

Over the last few months, we’ve been reading some startling statistics that have made us sit up and listen –

• 90% of recruiters use social media to source, connect with and engage with talented candidates
• Over 80% have visited a prospective candidate’s social network profile as part of the screening process
• 69% have rejected candidates based on social network content
• 68% have hired a candidate based on their social network profiles
• Over 50% of UK jobseekers use social media to help them find a job

Swings and roundabouts, but the fact remains, social media is about to play an even bigger role in the recruitment process.

Facebook – Facebook as it stands right now is the big one.  It has over 900m members so it’s simple to fathom why it’s becoming a vital resource to recruiters.

On average, members spend 405 minutes a month on Facebook and your business page should give candidates a flavour of the culture of your company. Engage with them. Share tips, thoughts and prompt debate. That way, your company will be regularly fresh in the minds of your ‘fans’.

When we speak to candidates about potential roles, the vast majority will go straight to Facebook to do their ‘research’ before they go to your own corporate website. How are you engaging with the people you want working for you?

Go to Asset Resourcing’s Facebook page for the latest jobs, tips and advice.

Twitter – Twitter has close to half a billion accounts. To be fair, a lot of it is spam but the key to using Twitter as a recruitment tool is being able to target the people you’re looking for. Are you using the right #hashtags? Do you know what keywords your target candidates are searching for? What times of day are your prospects are online?

Once you have this information, you can almost guarantee your jobs are being seen by a community of followers who are already engaging with your industry and who are likely to be good prospects.

Follow Asset Resourcing on Twitter for regular updates and industry information.

LinkedIn – While Facebook and Twitter walk the fine line between social and professional, LinkedIn is purely used for business. There are 160m professional profiles and over 2m business pages and like Twitter, you should be developing a community of connections who are all engaging in discussion threads and sharing industry-specific content which will lead you organically to a relevant talent pool.

Connect with us on LinkedIn.

One example of how a brand engaged with fans on Facebook was the Hard Rock Café. They were opening a new restaurant in Florence and wanted to target fans of specific rock bands to find staff.

Thanks to the embedded features in their Facebook page, they accrued 6,100 ‘fans’ in four days and in the space of four weeks, they received 4,000 job applications!

Hard Rock Café is of course a global brand with a global reach but the same goes for your business. By using social media correctly, you can make lasting connections and facilitate on-going communication with those who you actively want to connect with. It becomes less of a crapshoot and much more targeted.

Asset Resourcing has earmarked dramatic improvements to our social media strategy over the next 12-18 months and once you connect, you’ll be able to engage with us and we’ll be able to engage with you on a more social level.

Have a productive month and we’ll see you in October.

Ben Sweeting & Michelle Scott – Directors, Asset Resourcing