It’s tempting and surprisingly common to see big companies who think of social media as something of a noticeboard; a place to pin adverts and interesting news and leave it there for anyone who chooses to take a look at it. Pinterest excluded, this sort of passivity really doesn’t make the most of the corporate web capital you’ve developed and it certainly won’t impress the active talent out there who are used to tweeting, posting and liking tens if not hundreds of times a day.
Turning your social media presence into something active isn’t just about responding to comments and retweeting the odd bit of brilliance, it’s about developing a relationship between you and your followers that instills trust in your brand and keeps them interested and when the time comes to apply for that job, they’ll know exactly where to go first
Keep an Eye on the Date
Nothing is more disheartening to a potential applicant than seeing a page that hasn’t been updated in six months or a twitter feed that’s weeks behind. Half of the work of job applications for graduates is finding out which positions are current, which are filled and which are just out of date. This is both dependent on what you post, but on what those who interact with you post. It’s not necessary to be overloading your feeds, but you shouldn’t let your web capital go stale for more than a few days or it might just be discarded by graduates!
Visible Replies and Active Retweets
There are times to use the personal message and times when you shouldn’t; anything confidential or, perhaps, negative should be done via the inbox, but if you restrict all your Twitter activity to personal messages it will just appear unused! Reply to as many mentions (when someone tweets ‘@yourcompany’) with public replies as you can, and don’t be afraid to hit retweet liberally; just remember you will be seen to be endorsing everything you do retweet.
Playing the Numbers Game
In the social media world it’s quite common to measure someone’s success in terms of likes, followers or connections and, as such, plenty of your followers – potential candidates – will keep tabs on how active you are in establishing new links. Providing they’re not spam, it’s good policy to follow those who follow you in return and it’s good to seek out connections yourself. This can seem menial sometimes, but quality and high profile connections do bolster your presence as well as actively increasing your own network.
In the world of social media, it’s really a case of if you’re not moving forward you must be offline. Two-way interaction is essential to making the most of your social media presence and there’s certainly an image penalty if you’re not keeping things ticking over. Always keep it professional but don’t be afraid to be sociable just for the sake of it – it’s evidence to any potential applicant you’re not only online but you’re active and on the ball.
Tom started his career early; taking on an associate role at Deloitte just a few days after his eighteenth birthday, working in a technical role but with a focus on identifying and recruiting talented undergraduates. He is now entering his final year at Exeter University and he continues to work with the recruitment side of the firm and remains an active brand ambassador on campus.
Over the last few years, Tom has spent time building up a reputation as a freelance writer and has developed both a strong client base and good knowledge of social media along the way. Though there’s still plenty to learn, experience working in both the smallest and the largest of businesses has served him well and given him a feel for balancing strong corporate ideas with a personal tone.
As a student, Tom is able to offer a valuable insight into the way graduate recruitment works from the other side and how students and interns react to particular styles of marketing and recruitment. Eventually he hopes to take off his copywriting business before embarking on an MA in philosophy.
