Employers Embrace Web 2.0

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of putting forth a professional – or at least discreet – image on Facebook and how employers are paying attention to your online reputation. But as it turns out, employers aren’t the only ones forming opinions based on social media profiles.

According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, workers and job seekers are paying pretty close attention to the social media profiles of employers as well, and based on the survey results, it seems they have formed some fairly strong opinions about what they like — and don’t like — to see.

Among the information respondents said they’d most like to see on a company’s social media page:

• Job listings — 35 percent
• Q&A or fast facts about the organization — 26 percent
• Information about career paths within the organization — 23 percent
• Evidence that working at the company is fun — 16 percent
• Employee testimonials — 16 percent
• Pictures of company events — 12 percent
• Video of new products/services — 10 percent
• Company awards — 9 percent
• Research or studies that the company has conducted — 9 percent
• Videos of a day on the job — 8 percent

On the other hand, top social media turn-offs were:

• Company communication that reads like an ad — 38 percent
• Failure to reply to questions — 30 percent
• Failure to regularly post information — 22 percent
• Removing or filtering public comments — 22 percent

Regardless of whether employers have gotten the hang of it yet, they are catching on fast to the power of social media, whether promoting their company on Twitter or searching for potential employees on LinkedIn.  Thirty-five percent of employers reported using some form of social media to promote their organization, while 21 percent said they use social media to recruit and research job candidates.

“As communication via social media becomes increasingly pervasive, organizations are harnessing these sites to help achieve a variety of business goals,” said Jason Ferrara, vice president of corporate marketing for CareerBuilder. “Social media allows organizations to communicate in ways that didn’t exist 10 years ago, promoting their services and brands while also supplementing their recruitment strategy.”

Yet employers still have a leg up on job seekers when it comes to managing their online reputation. Forty-three percent of employers reported that their social media outreach was handled by the marketing department, while 26 percent said it was handled by the public relations team.

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