SOCIAL MEDIA


GETTING ENGAGED


A recent survey by graduate-jobs.com asked current students and recent graduates a series of questions about how they apply for graduate schemes and how they interact with recruiters. There were over 650 respondents and some of the results were quite unexpected – not least the fact that less than half of respondents actively ‘like’ company pages on Facebook. Ross Whistler, marketing executive at graduatejobs.com looks at the findings and offers some words of wisdom to employers looking to achieve greater social engagement…


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espondents were initially asked which social media they use to follow and interact with employers.


Considering that we can safely assume a vast majority of this age group are using Facebook, only 48% said they used it to ‘Like’ company pages. This was followed by 40% stating they used LinkedIn and 27% followed businesses on Twitter. These figures are perhaps less than a recruiter may expect and stress how important it is to access the ‘inactive talent’ i.e those graduates who aren’t engaging with your business on any level. How can they be reached? The first piece of advice is a common one; share


good content. The algorithm on which Facebook works, Edgerank, means that if one of your posts gets a lot of Likes, Shares or Comments then it will appear on more peoples news feeds and tickers. This is word of mouth Facebook style which means creating or sharing good, interesting content will result in more people becoming aware of your Facebook presence. I often hear from social media moguls that your social


media content should always be 80% social and 20% sales; this is not necessarily true for recruiters. A graduate will Like, Follow or Connect with an employer for two main reasons, to learn about and apply for jobs. They may wish to learn more about the company’s ethos, they might want to see some funny pictures but at the end of the day they want to learn about when to apply, how to do it and any tips that will help them in their application. Don’t be scared to advertise your roles regularly and go in to a fair amount of detail about them, it may not get you as many Likes as a picture of Boris Johnson dancing, but it will give your followers what they want.


Ross Whistler


Marketing Executive, graduatejobs.com


Social isn’t the only area in which recruiters may be


missing the mark. Another stand out statistic in the graduate-jobs.com survey was that only 11% of graduates were using their mobile to apply for graduate roles. In fact, applications by post (15%) were more popular than those by mobile. In what is fast becoming the mobile era this statistic is nowhere near what it could be and as graduate recruiters you have to ask ‘Why is that?’. Firstly, make sure your site is fully optimised for mobile


access. The last thing a candidate wants is to be confronted with a desktop site on a three inch screen; this will result in an instant exit. It will take some serious planning and development to create a fully functional and aesthetically pleasing mobile site but the benefits will make it worthwhile. Secondly, you may want to consider what data (if any)


you might want from a candidate accessing your site from a mobile. You can’t realistically expect them to fill out page after page of extensive information nor can you expect them to have access to their CV, in which case you may want to get some basic information such as email, name, degree subject and university. Once this data is captured you can subsequently contact the candidate and direct them to the application information on a desktop device. The message here is that although there is no argument


that social media and technology have become a pillar in any recruitment campaign, it is important to not get carried away and recognise that there is still much more work to be done.


See the full survey results in our new infographic at: www.graduate-jobs.com/graduate-schemes www. graduate-jobs. com


I often hear from social media moguls that your social media content should always be 80% social and 20% sales; this is not necessarily true for recruiters.


GRADUATE RECRUITER 13


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