Posted in Latest News on 15 Jan 2014
We recently took a step back from our online and social media marketing whilst we evaluated the results of our first 6 months within this space and planned our future activity. We never fully left the social sphere per se, but we did pause to reflect and make sure we were doing things the right way.
Some of our learnings were insular, relating specifically to our online efforts and how we as a company deal with this medium of online and social marketing. But we also learnt plenty about a recruitment consultancy's role in the evolving online space. We feel it would be useful to share some of these insights as we return.
1. You have an impact on your audience outside of just recruitment activity
One of the central tenets of our online strategy was and will remain the generation of content that shares our knowledge about legal recruitment with our audience. But as we paused to evaluate the reaction to the content we had written in the past, we realised that even though that content may not generate specific conversations, when it wasn't being generated it was missed.
We learnt that even if you aren't getting comments on your blog, or mentions/responses to your tweets, people are still reading them. And notice when they go missing.
2. Social Media is important in keeping you front of mind of your clients and candidates.
Our reduction in activity was picked up on when we met people at events and conferences who were following us. These were not necessarily current clients or candidates we were dealing with but potential future candidates and clients.
We realised that by not having our name in front of clients and candidates in non-recruitment contexts, we were losing our place in their consciousness. That would have impacted on us when they did begin to recruit.
3. Information on social media augments your knowledge.
By not participating actively with other industry members online, we were not necessarily missing out on the broad, overarching stories but did on a lot of opinion and comment around those stories. Traditional news and media is perfect for giving you the big picture, but it's in the comment and conversation we used to monitor and participate in around those stories where we got real added value.
4. Offline events are driven by online activity.
We attend and host a number of events throughout the year. Our work with the JCI, JLD and Pro Manchester has given us great opportunities to network with great people. Recently we have started to host social media surgeries for our clients in house as well.
Yet in spite of this, we noticed a number of events passed us by. Awareness of a lot of these events was spread online. And by not being part of those conversations as actively as we had been, we missed out on some great local events that we could have added value to, and that could have added value to us.
5. We missed out on some great Friday hashtags
And finally when you're winding down towards the weekend, twitter is a great place for some fun with Friday hashtags. Be they #legalfilmnames, #typefacesongs or any of the other multitude of hashtags that fly about on a Friday afternoon, we realised we missed out on some great humour with some great people.
But we're back. And we're ready to talk.
So say hello again!