Recently, IBM polled 1,700 CEOs from 64 countries around the world about their thoughts on social media.  The study garnered many viewpoints from CEOs across various industries, with topics ranging from customer engagement to brand monitoring, and using social media outlets as a knowledge platform.  Here are some of their thoughts: 

“Social networking has and will continue to significantly change how we do business. The way we collaborate with our customers will be transformed.” 

“To connect with the new generation of employees, we will need to change communication methods. We are the email generation; they are the social network generation.” 

“Social media has grown faster than industry knowledge on how to use it.”

“Whether you are using social media to promote and monitor your brand or not, your customers are. It's not your choice. You can't opt-out of social.”

Although these CEOs have a solid grasp on the importance of social media and its influence, blogger Nate Goodman raises an interesting point in a recent article. According to Goodman, there is a major factor that the study did not address, the ROI. He claims that poll participants should have been asked “What social media platform is the most effective in driving revenue?”   Despite all of the praise that social media gets within the corporate world, Goodman says: “social media’s impact on actual revenue sucks compared to email marketing.”  While email marketing may still reign as king revenue generator, social media is real, is growing, and is becoming the new form of preferred communication.  It will take over email, the only question is when.  

If you’re in the staffing industry like we are then you know that successful recruiting stems from building a network of strong relationships.  To source great talent you must network and be constantly building relationships to reach candidates that match your clients’ needs.  You’re not always going to have access to a prospect's email, but you can find them on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  Different social media platfoms allow you to engage your network in different ways, and it is beneficial to tailor posts to the individual network. On platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, your voice and word choice can be a little bit casual, fun, and enthusiastic.  If you want to share content with your connections within the LinkedIn community, it should be tailored to be more professional and refined.  By tailoring your messaging by network, you are able to give people a sense of your personality and professionalism, thus giving you an edge when seeking talent.

They feel they know you, understand what you are about, and that you are capable of helping them succeed. These personal social interactions will strengthen your relationships, making candidates more apt to give you that highly desired referral, or to contact you when they are looking for the next step in the career. 

What do you think? Does social media affect the bottom line more than email marketing? We’d love to hear from you.

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Originally posted by erecruit