I do recommend you to read the article in today's FT entitled "Talent Hunt in the Virtual World". To read Click here. It includes how the UK's PA Consulting has setup virtual office in Second Life to help its recruitment. It goes on to report that E&Y has created a Facebook group for anyone interested in a job. More than 8000 people have signed up for the group.
In the last few months, I have spoken to lots of people about "Social networking". There really does seem to be a huge divide between those who still think it is something for teenagers (which, of course it also is) and those who have realised that this is a vital marketing and communication tool for all ages. OK, right now, as the figures I have reported before show, it's the sub 40 year olds that have really embraced it. Given that many companies are controlled by those that are over 40, but rely on both the purchasing power and the jobs of sub 40 year olds, it seems very dangerous for them to write off the medium so flippantly.
If you are involved in any graduate recruitment, your presence and resulting reputation on the social networking sites is going to have a huge effect on your success. Graduates, or any "younger" recruits, would first turn to such sites to see what current employees thought about working there. Indeed, they will then interact with them and get some pretty forthright answers. The same will apply to people contemplating large purchases (like cars) or holiday destinations. Indeed, this viral networking could make careers (just see what Myspace did for Lilly Allen!) or break them.
Sorry to repeat the "Ignore this at your peril" warning. But I just did.
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
New respectability for Social Networking
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1 comment:
I think a lot of people are trying to work out if there is long term commercial advantage. I have discovered for exampple that pending new undergraduates set up groups on Facebook so they can pre-bond (or something) & I would expect that grad intakes at large firms would be doing this as standard.
I am working with several online retailers to understand how social media can benefit them. Their key metrics would be visitors & sales. Topshop gets 5% of its traffic from Myspace - but does it convert?
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