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?

The 2013 Top Echelon Network National Convention is next week!  We’re going to St. Petersburg Beach!  A great time will be had by all!

And we’re going to take pictures . . . a LOT of pictures.

Want proof?  All you have to do is look through our photos from past Top Echelon Network conventions.  And where might those be, you ask?  Well, on our Facebook Fan Page, of course.

We recently posted photos from all of our networking events for recruiters . . . well, since we started taking photos at the National Convention.  While we didn’t post every single photo, we definitely posted the majority of them, with an emphasis on including recruiters who are currently Preferred Members of the Network (as opposed to former Members).

Now of course, we’ll be uploading photos to Facebook during and after the upcoming 2013 National Convention, and we encourage those recruiters who will be in attendance to do the same.  Let’s have a great convention, let’s have fun, and let’s share that fun.  In the meantime . . .

There’s less than a week left before the start of the National Convention.  So there’s still time to register.  So do it now—you won’t regret it!

Of course, not every recruiting firm in Top Echelon Network is attending next week’s National Convention.  (Although . . . they should be.)

And not every recruiting firm in Top Echelon Network is on Twitter.  (Although . . . they should be.)

However, if you’re NOT attending the convention and ARE on Twitter, then you SHOULD follow me on Twitter.

That’s because I’ll be posting updates and photos on Twitter throughout the duration of the National Convention—before, during, and after, as a matter of fact.

Twitter is currently the best way to find out what’s happening at the convention in real-time (without actually being in attendance, of course).  While there will be updates posted to Facebook, they will be fewer, farther between, and more “after the fact.”

The Facebook mobile app is just not as easy to use as the Twitter app.  Not only that, but Facebook is a better vehicle for posting a large number of photos, which I’ll do after the convention has concluded.

You can follow me on Twitter here: @MattDeutsch.

You can follow Top Echelon Network on Twitter here: @TENetwork.

One more thing to remember: the official hastag for the 2013 National Convention is #TENAT13.

Include this hashtag with every one of your tweets regarding the National Convention.  You can use the hashtag while tweeting from any place at any time about any aspect of the event—and you don’t even have to be there!

Later, if you conduct a search in Twitter using #TENAT13, Twitter will find and present all of the tweets that include that hashtag.

So if I don’t see you in Florida next week, I’d better see you on Twitter!