Although Howe died in 1937 his words still ring true, something which was highlighted at the LinkedIn conference I attended in London last week.
Entitled ‘Social RecruitIn’, the event centred on three key areas that recruiters and business leaders should focus on if they want to maximise the potential of social media.
The first part looked at building your brand and your followers.
Having a strong, consistent brand can make the difference between engaging 10 people and 1,000.
AUDI was used as a good example, having consistently built its image to be synonymous with high technology and luxury so that a consumer would know what to expect even before clicking through to their LinkedIn page.
Similarly, in recruitment, you need to know your brand strengths and what makes you unique in the market.
For Procurement Heads it’s about offering procurement recruitment solutions in a bespoke, personal way to our network.
We add value through high-quality, industry-specific events and provide thought leadership crafted from years of experience in the procurement sector.
The second part was all about engaging and nurturing your growing network, something that can be achieved by taking the time to create regular, interesting and relevant content.
It’s not enough just to post new job opportunities and call them status updates.
You want people to start following you because you have something that sparks their interest and which differs from your competition.
You can then measure whether your efforts are working by looking at your responses.
Is your number of followers increasing?
Are people engaging with your posts?
If the answer is yes to the above then it’s likely you’re heading in the right direction.
The final and perhaps most important part of the day looked at the importance of converting your efforts into tangible business opportunities.
It’s fantastic to see your number of followers growing daily, but if the impact on your business is zero then it’s time to take things to the next level and start converting your contacts into bona fide business associates.
So, all in all, it was a really insightful and interesting day and it proved to me that even with a strong brand and an extensive network you can always do more with your social media presence.
Statistics show that 89% of employers now use social media to recruit and that socially engaged companies are 58% more likely to attract top talent.
With numbers like this, no business should continue to wink in the dark.