Who actually uses Social Media?

Social Media - The “Stats”

Who actually uses Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter?

Are your potential candidates using these platforms?

 Whilst there are many social media platforms, below is an outline of the 3 most popular platforms: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. 

Linkedin is a highly successful recruitment platform used by networx. However in order to ensure we capitalised on the true benefits presented by Linkedin, networx engaged the services of the UK’s Only Certified Linkedin Trainer and currently operate several unique strategies throughout the business.

What is Linkedin?:

Linkedin was launched in May 2003 and has over 100 million users and continues to grow as 1 million members join every week. There are 6 million UK users in the UK alone (If we assume that all users are part of the working population this accounts for 17% of this audience).

Reports state that Linkedin is currently used by 69 of the Fortune 100 companies. (Jan 2010)

Recruitment on Linkedin: (Feb 2011)

“82,924 people list their industry as "Staffing and Recruiting".
“380,040 people have one of the following words as part of their past or current title: recruiter OR recruiting OR recruitment OR talent OR staffing OR placement OR sourcer OR "executive search".
"1,148,975 people have one or more of those keywords on their profiles.”

The value of LinkedIn as a recruitment tool can be illustrated through the extensive revenue generates through a number of tools which are available to businesses to help assist with their use of Linkedin as a recruitment tool.

However as expected these come with a cost and require significant resource in order to ensure you get the best possible ROI.

In addition LinkedIn also offers paid membership for Job hunters, which suggests that in addition to the initial intentions of LinkedIn being a networking tool, LinkedIn is also proving extremely popular as a source of finding jobs as well as recruiters searching for candidates.


Who Uses Linkedin? :

• Gender:
 Female: 41%
 Male: 59%

• Age:

18-24 = 20.9%,
25-34 = 35.8%,
35-54= 36.3%,
54+ = 6.9%

• Working for Size of company (no of employees):

1-1000 = 30%
1001-5000 =21%
5001 – 10,000 = 9%
10,000+ = 37%

• Industry breakdown:  (Across Europe)

High Tech – 16.8%              Media – 4%
Finance – 11.6%                 Non-Profit – 2.2%
Manufacturing – 10.3%        Construction – 4.2%
Medical – 6.9%                   Arts – 4.0%
Corporate – 10.1%              Transport – 2.9%
Education – 6.7%                Service 2.3%
Consumer Goods – 6.7%      Legal – 1.8%
Recreational – 5.4%            Agriculture – 0.4%
Government – 3.8%

• Job Function:

Sales – 12.1%                    Marketing – 4.7%
Admin – 10.5%                   PR – 5.1%
Academics – 9.3%               Human Resources – 3.8%
Operations – 8.0%              Creative – 3.6%
Engineering – 8.2%             Accounting - 2.4%
IT – 8.5%                          Legal – 2.0% 
Consultant – 7.8%              Business Dev – 2.2%
Finance - 4.8%                   Product – 1.3%
Support – 4.3%                   Buyer – 1.1%

Twitter is a broadcasting tool which restricts users to send messages of 140 characters or less. There are currently 106 million twitter users worldwide with 460,000 new accounts added daily and over 155 million tweets posted every day.




A bit about Twitter:

A year ago (in 2010) the average lifespan of a tweet was 12 minutes, now due to the vast levels of activity this has been reduced to just 22 seconds. However this does depend on the number of followers you have.

The average user has just 27 followers but big brands can attract millions.

Below are a few examples (April 2011):

• GHD – 3,500 followers
• Argos Online – 10,500 followers
• Play.com – 20,000 followers
• Katy Perry – 7,000,000 followers

According to the social demographics, Twitter users are “more educated than the general population” with 63% of users boasting a 4 year college degree or higher, compared to just 40% of the general population.


With 19% of twitter users being early adopters and an additional 25% buying products before others (although not 1st) Twitter, presents a great platform for those who wish to target this particular audience – especially when 41% of users rely on Twitter to learn about new products and services.

Twitter Demographics:

 • 87% of people are aware of Twitter
• 27% login everyday
• 37% login via a mobile device
• 25% follow a brand
• 67% of brand followers will purchase specific brands
• 52% of logins update status everyday
• 60% are located outside of the US.

Age:

• 55+   = 9%
• 45-54 =17%
• 35-44 = 27%
• 26-34 = 30%
• 18-25 = 13%
• 13–17% = 4%


Income:

• 150K = 4%
• 100-150K = 7%
• 76 – 100k = 15%
• 51-75k = 23%
• 26- 50K = 33%
• 0-25K = 17%

With over 500 million users worldwide, over 110 active users across Europe and 27 million users in the UK alone, Facebook is an extremely valuable social media platform.

A bit about Facebook:

“Facebook” was the 3rd most popular term behind YouTube and Google, and was the 2nd most popular website just behind Google. If Facebook was a country it would be the 5th largest in the world.

The average Facebook user has 130 friends and sends 8 friends requests a month!

Facebook Social Demographics:

Gender:
   
• Men = 46%
• Women = 54%

Education:

• College Grad – 29%
• In College – 28%
• High School – 21%

Income:

• 150k+ = 4%
• 100-150K = 7%
• 76 – 100K = 12%
• 51 – 75K= 30%
• 26 - 50K = 34%
• 0 - 25K = 13%

Facebook is a highly effective recruitment tool, which starts with the ability to engage with your audience. Remember: Tell not sell is the key.

In March 2011, networx developed our own Facebook App which allows potential candidates to not only search for vacancies in real time but also apply for a role without even leaving Facebook! The emerging I-Generation are pushing the remits of Facebook on a daily basis, from games to purchasing clothes or goods it appears that people want to be able to do everything through their preferred platform. Early indications show that this includes searching and applying for vacancies.

To find out more about our Facebook App please contact us or visit our Facebook Page Jobseeker Café and try it for yourself.