Survey: 40% of Recruiters Think Social Media ‘Not Important’

SURVEY QUESTION:

If there’s one thing that’s been drummed incessantly into the heads of small business owners by the media, it’s the fact that they must embrace social media marketing.

However, does that pertain to executive recruiters, as well?

After all, while recruiters use LinkedIn to source for candidates, and they also advertise their jobs through Twitter and Facebook, how integral is social media to their overall marketing strategy?

Well, we decided to ask them!

We recently conducted a survey of Top Echelon Network recruiters by posting a question in the Members’ Area.

That question was as follows:

When it comes to marketing your firm’s services, how important is social media?

SURVEY RESULTS:

The choice of answers that were provided is listed below, along with the percentage of recruiters who selected each answer:

• Extremely important — 16.4%
• Somewhat important — 43.3%
• Not that important — 31.3%
• Social media is largely a waste of time — 9.0%

SURVEY ANALYSIS:

The results might be considered a little surprising, starting with the fact that only 16.4% of survey participants consider social media to be “extremely important.”  Another 43.3% did indicate that social media is “somewhat important” to their marketing efforts.

However, that’s a combined total of just 59.7%.  That means nearly 40% of recruiters are of the opinion that social media is “not that important” (31.3%) or “largely a waste of time” (9.0%).

These results would seem to indicate that recruiters are successfully marketing themselves without the help of social media.  Could they market themselves even more effectively WITH social media?  Maybe . . . but they don’t seem to think so.

FEEDBACK:

If you’re an executive recruiter, how important is social media to your marketing efforts?  With which of the answers listed above do you most closely associate?  Is social media overhyped . . . or is it an important tool with many benefits?