Speaking at the Social Media in Recruitment conference in London last week, Peter Gold, founder of social media consultancy Hire Strategies, said there was still work to be done to prove the link between the use of social media and hiring success.

“There is nothing that operates independently of applicant tracking systems (ATSs) that can through application to hiring,” said Gold. However, earlier Elkie Holland, director of Prospectus IT Recruitment, told the audience how using social networking site YouTube had boosted business.

Holland decided to make a YouTube video to explain an IT industry to her clients. After emailing clients to tell them of the video, she received six vacancy instructions.

Holland, who also uses Twitter and Facebook, as well as blogs, told Recruiter that for niche recruiters like herself social media is “gold dust”. “It’s a lot more effective because recruiters can keep in touch with their market, and show easily that they care [about their market].”

However, Holland said that while social media was about providing candidates and clients with help and information, recruiters should always link this activity back to their commercial goals. “I want to pull people back to our website, so they can apply for jobs if they like. At the end of the day, I am a recruiter,” she said.

For niche recruiters like myself, social media is gold dust.  I want to pull people back to our website, so they can apply for jobs if they like.  At eh end of the day, I am a recruiter

ELKIE HOLLAND, PROSPECTUS IT RECRUITMENT

Jonathan Hart-Smith, managing director of CKJ: Clinical, told the audience that the danger with social media was that it took up so much time that you couldn’t run the business as well.

As a result, he said last year he hired a social media manager. Despite the expense, however, he said the investment had paid off, citing the placing of a medical director who had been sent a YouTube video.

Hart-Smith said that the use of social media had helped increase awareness of his company. Candidate registrations were up 83% since July 2009, and traffic to the company’s website had more than doubled, he said.