At VG Charles & Co the use of social networking is recognised as a real benefit to the company; updates on the market, successes of the firm, new vacancies and even the publishing of a new blog can be tweeted to followers worldwide at the click of a button. LinkedIn can be used to cross-reference candidates against a CV or for confidential conversations; we were even instructed on a confidential partner hire via LinkedIn recently.
Whether you are a social networking guru, or if you don’t know your Bebo from your MySpace and tweeting is something you expect from budgies, there is no doubt that more and more firms are placing a greater emphasis on this medium to spread the message.
The legal press is also well-represented with Legal Week, Law Society Gazette, Roll On Friday and The Lawyer all regularly tweeting about breaking stories plus having groups or profiles on other sites such as LinkedIn. Combine this with the bloggers who regularly air their opinions online and you can easily spend your whole day staying up to date with the market from various viewpoints (including those of your favourite legal recruiter.)
So what size is the potential market? Well, there are around 50 million tweets every day, with Twitter’s website alone enjoying 6 million unique monthly users. According to a survey in August 2009 around 9% of tweets are to ‘pass-on value’, 6% are ‘self-promotional’ and 4% categorised as ‘news’. Assuming that news includes information about firms this means around 10 million daily tweets are marketing-related and instantly broadcast to a global audience.
Most firms now have a presence on LinkedIn and Facebook as well, again meaning that followers get the latest updates on news or movement within the practice as well as information on new starters or internal promotions.
There is also the opportunity to keep your followers updated whilst you are on the move. Either by text or using apps on a smartphone you can be tweeting whilst on the train, in an airport or even queuing at the coffee shop. Hook your sites together and Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can all be updated using one system.
As with most things in life there is always a flip side; without appropriate control systems in place you have the opportunity for hackers or disgruntled (usually ex!) employees to vent their frustrations on your public forum. However you can at least control your own Facebook page and delete inaccurate or unprofessional comments, unlike those sites which do not employ a moderator. Lawyersfromhell.com, anyone?
Social networking within the business community is far from saturation point, with few of the smaller firms seeming to embrace the opportunity to market for free. To some Twitter is still dismissed as not powerful enough a tool or is consigned to the world of the geek, but as we have seen before those who do not get on board early enough risk being left behind. Like it or loathe it, social networking cannot be ignored or discounted as a fad which will soon pass – remember how long some firms took to embrace email?
As the popularity of social networking continues to grow the opportunity to ‘get onboard’ early diminishes; Twitter users may stop following additional firms as they start to become inundated with tweets. If you want to avoid missing the boat it may be time to tweet the Twitter, link in on LinkedIn or.........use Facebook .....to, er....throw a sheep. If your followers stick with you after that then you have them for life!
Follow VG Charles & Co on LinkedIn, or on Twitter at VG_Charles. Alternatively for a one-to-one tweet-free conversation with one of our specialist recruiters call 0121 233 5000/020 7649 9094.
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