Employers were urged to ensure they used the right tone and remain authentic when creating content for social media, at a conference held in London yesterday.

Rob Allen, talent acquisition industry team lead, Accenture, told a meeting of the Forum for In-House Recruitment Managers (The FIRM) about social media that it was vital that “before cracking on” with social media, employers decided on their “tone of voice” when using it.

Katie McNab, talent acquisition change lead for Western Europe at PepsiCo, added: “The tone of voice has to be authentic, it has to be your voice.”

However, McNab said tone of voice also depends on the social media you used, saying: “With Twitter you can be more informal and you can be much cheekier.” McNab adds that if you used the same approach as that used by corporate communications teams you would “crash and burn”.

In-house recruiters at the meeting gave other tips for using social media successfully.

“Experiment,” advised Helene Williamson, group head of resourcing at BMI Healthcare. “Social media is just another source. If you are sourcing often enough, it is just another piece of kit in you arsenal.”

McNab said that sourcing candidates through monitoring events was ’gold dust’ for recruiters. “We can track people who attend events, find out their interests and what they speak about.”

Peter Hetherington, head of recruitment, EMEA at Corporate Executive Board, advised that recruiters evaluate their social media options before deciding which one to pursue. “It builds credibility with stakeholders. People want to know that you have thought things through.”

Katrina Collier, founder of Winning Impression, advised companies to ask clients to endorse their services on their LinkedIn page.

“Analyse every month what you have achieved and shout about it,” said Allen.