In-house recruiters have a major role to play, along with HR and corporate communications teams, in helping organisations monitor what is being said about them on the internet. Organisations which don’t “listen in” risk leaving the state of their brands in the hands of others, an audience of 100 in-house recruiters heard recently.

Monitoring relevant social media discussion can also alert recruiters to potential talent pools as well as protect the brand, said Paul Harrison, managing director of social media marketing consultancy Carve Consulting.

“Listening is really important,” Harrison told The Forum for In-house Recruitment Managers (The FIRM) in London. “You need to know where conversations are happening and where your audience is living.” Conducting “a social audit” will sharpen recruiters’ understanding of their organisations’ market positioning, reputation, extend its reach, help them to touch passive candidates, improve their dialogue with the market and reduce both cost and time to hire, Harrison said.

Social audits also can help recruiters grasp critical market information about competitors such as when they are looking to hire certain kinds of people, he said.

Organisations must also develop policies about how they will respond to online criticism, Harrison warned. Taking a “stifling Big Brother approach” will not help an organisation’s image; instead, an effort should be made to engage the audience, he said. “Our view is, you want to encourage dialogue and debate.”

Harrison’s presentation was part of an overall look at social media, hosted by recruitment and employee communications ThirtyThree. Gary Franklin, co-founder of The FIRM, told Recruiter that social media is a key area of interest for corporate recruiters. “It became clear that with so many social media platform options available, one size won’t fit all - for example, the fashion industry will employ the tools differently from how the financial services community will use them - it has to. I believe that many of the members left the meeting with…a better understanding of the challenges as well as the potential benefits.”