Crystal Umbrella

There have been concerns that the opportunities for skilled IT contractors will continue to decrease over the coming months as a result of the cuts in public sector spending which will lead to the saturation of IT consultants all vying for any available positions within the private sector. However, the doom and gloom does not take into account the new positions which are created as a result of such social networking phenomenons as Twitter.

Looking at recruitment website, PeoplePerHour.com, you will find that there has been a 300% increase in the number of ‘Twitter Consultants’ who are being sought. Businesses are buying into the value of using social networking sites and are looking to employ individuals with the know-how to allow them to tap into this marketing opportunity.

Founder of PeoplePerHour.com, Xenios Thrasyvoulou, spoke to Shout 99, stating: “We’re seeing increasing demand for social media experts to oversee the Twitter feeds and Facebook pages of a very wide variety of companies. It’s a profession that’s likely to continue to grow. The feedback we’re getting from the small business sector suggests that if companies aren’t paying attention to social medias, they’re missing significant marketing and sales opportunities.”

The recognition of social networking as a marketing tool has already taken off in the States. Social media consultant, Tony Wood, commented: “We’re six to 12 months behind American companies. In the US, around 90 percent of the top companies are really serious about social media and have invested in the infrastructure to make things happen. Here, it’s improving rapidly, but only around half of the FTSE 100 companies are proactively harnessing social media outlets. And when you get down to SMEs, it drops down to around a quarter.”

As British society embraces the digital era and all that it encompasses, it would seem the employers are now set to follow suit by using social networking sites as a recruitment tool. Stephanie Lee from Intel disclosed her use of social networking sites to look for job candidates during a recent event hosted by the Association of Recruitment Consultancies. Lee actually stated that while there would still be a necessity for face to face interviews, money could be saved through recruiting on popular sites such as Twitter instead of the traditional job boards.

This approach is already being piloted by some organisations. Head of RBS recruitment, Mark Bainbridge said that they are set to launch a social media hub aimed at addressing their recruiting needs while this approach is already used by the Army and Microsoft for the majority of their recruitment.

However, while this may sound like an appealing alternative to the traditional recruitment process, the chairman of ARC, Adrian Marlowe, had some words of warning. He believes that the apparent advantages of social networking recruitment must be balanced against the legal and practical issues.

Mr Marlowe concluded: “While there is a rush to use social media, only time will tell if the advantages of instant communication and information that it offers really bring something to the table. Employer branding is different from recruitment, and agencies have developed sophisticated methods of assessing candidates which might not be apparent in hirings made purely on the basis of social networking. The new technology should be embraced but only with the knowledge of the potential dangers and costs involved.”