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Jinfo Blog

By Tim Buckley Owen

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Bosses and new recruits seem to be of one mind when it comes to social media according to one recent survey, while another highlights some of the qualities these newcomers will need. There’s going to be no shortage of touted solutions for them to assess – or advice either.

Two thirds of decision makers in small- and medium-sized enterprises say that a graduate’s experience in social media and tools is important to them, says a new survey by One Poll for Salesforce.com. And the enthusiasm cuts both ways, Salesforce continues; over three quarters of graduates would be more attracted to an employer who was an active social network user.

The findings are backed up by another survey about a month earlier by EPiServer. This showed that well over two thirds of United Kingdom businesses either already have a social media or community manager in place or expect to appoint one within the next 12 months.

Enthusiasm, writing ability, experience and – significantly – patience topped the list of qualities that the EPiServer study indicated such newcomers would need. Meanwhile the Salesforce survey found a growing number of experienced managers in SME companies looking to new graduates to educate them about social networks and how best to utilise them to grow business.

Neither Salesforce nor EPiServer are disinterested parties of course; EPiServer supplies platforms to enable web engagement with customers, and Salesforce has its Chatter private social network and Radian6 social media monitoring and engagement product. They’re also both operating in a field where new products seem to turn up as regularly as buses.

Technology information specialist Ziff Davis Enterprise, for example, has just announced the launch of Smart Social, a solution designed to leverage industry expertise and existing professional networks to engage group members in high level discussions and deep engagements. And about a month earlier, technology consulting and outsourcing specialist CapGemini launched Social Media Management, a solution offering real-time web listening, analysis and customer outreach.

Bosses don’t lack advice on how to deploy all these tools either; writing in the Independent newspaper recently, for example, Allan Biggar shared some advice from Fresh Business Thinking (an online resource for business owners, directors and entrepreneurs). It actually offers bushels of advice to would-be social media exploiters, but one piece that Biggar singled out was that bosses don’t necessarily have to use social media, but do have to understand why they matter and identify what level of engagement is appropriate for their business.

So headaches not only for bosses as they struggle to understand what they need social media for, but also for providers as they operate in an increasingly crowded market. For savvy business rookies, though – nice work if you can get it.

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