Social media sites have great potential to expose a company to large audiences, making it easier to find the best employees while influencing your brand in a positive manner. Some planning, however, will make sure your efforts are utilized in their greatest capacity for the best outcomes.
Social media profiles should be built after determining the goals a company is seeking to achieve. Whether the aim is to inform the general public about great things happening in the company, or a desire to recruit the best job candidates, a specific goal will determine how to best use social media.
The reputation of the company is reliant on its interaction with customers and job candidates. Social media allows people to share their opinions about your company to a massive audience. One bad candidate experience could deter job seekers from considering your company. A business that turns a blind eye to complaints or is unresponsive to questions and comments is not going to attract the strongest potential employees.
Be sure that the company has the resources to maintain all social media profiles. Employees who are tasked with social media monitoring should seek to go beyond the bare minimum. To truly benefit from social media, it is important to be active in the community. Interact across other company profiles, ask engaging questions and try to learn new things about your industry. Problems can often be solved through social media communications, and learning from others could help inspire new ideas.
So how do you know if all your efforts are working? There are tools that can help you track your progress and see how your goals are progressing. Archivist and Adictomatic are good free tools, while Radian 6 and Sysomos offer more in-depth analysis for a charge.
While social media may seem intimidating to fully understand, common sense will take you quite far. Don’t get into arguments, as the company will always look bad. Have fun with your audience, but don’t be crude or embarrass customers. React to problems professionally and aim to fix the bad while promoting the good things happening within the company. You’ll soon find that the company is generating good buzz, which could lead to more quality job candidates knocking down your door trying to get in to your company.
Today’s guest post was provided by University Alliance on behalf of Villanova University’s online programs. Villanova offers online human resources certification courses in addition to a human resources degree program. For more information please visit www.villanovau.com.