Digital bytes: Why you should care about social media

There is a website dedicated solely to the tracking of Internet-access related statistics. It is called www.internetlivestats.com and on its home page a running counter ticks off each new person that has gained internet access (most days the ticker counts at a rate of a roughly one person per second). It is oddly mesmerizing.

The website has found that roughly 40 percent (2.9 billion) of the global population has Internet access. In the United States that number is much, much higher. Of the United States’ 322,583,006 citizens almost 280,000,000 have the Internet (which equates to about 87 percent).

Now consider this: Facebook has 1.2 billion active users. That’s a little less than half of all people with Internet access. And the numbers continue to climb: Facebook adds more users (and more globe-spanning apps like WhatsApp) while Internet use expands every second. By the end of 2014 more than 3 billion people will have the ability to boot up their computer and search the web.

Other social media platforms boast faster growth rates than Facebook, but they lack the existing clientele base. However, social media as a whole has gradually become the most popular activity on the web. Check out these numbers from the International Association of Chiefs of Police: As of June 2014, Facebook attracts almost 24 percent of all Internet activity; Americans spend an average of 40 minutes a day on Facebook.
 

Why do you care?

According to the numbers gathered for Greenhouse Management’s State of the Industry report, hiring remains one of the horticultural industries most daunting tasks. More than 50 percent of GM’s survey respondents said they had an extremely difficult time finding high-quality hires. Another 22 percent said that on a scale of 1-5, finding high-quality hires was at least a 3 in terms of difficulty. In short: hiring quality workers, for any position, is challenging. Yet, when asked what they were doing to attract young professionals (workers you can groom and develop within your company) less than a quarter of respondents said they were using social media. It’s a confusing dissonance. On one end, you have the ever-increasing importance of a digital presence, particularly on social media. On the other, companies in need of talent aren’t going directly to the talent.

One of the steps you can take to begin remedying your hiring woes is to develop a strong social media presence. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and almost all other platforms are free to use. You don’t have to spend more than a few hours a week on your social profiles. Ask your existing customer base to follow or like your pages. Ask friends to do the same. If you want to further develop your presence, consider utilizing platform-specific advertising. Facebook and Twitter both offer advertising options that will promote your page or account to other Facebook and Twitter users. We’ll break down the pros and cons of social media marketing in an upcoming issue.

Once you have a presence in place, the question shifts to utilization. How can you leverage your strong digital presence to attract talent and help your bottom line? The more followers and likes you attract the more likely you are to develop relationships with both existing and potential customers. Interactivity and dialogue are important cogs in the 21st century purchasing model. You’ll also be able to penetrate new markets. Most social networking sites allow you to develop targeted advertisements that you can send to specific regions of the country, or people with certain interests (they’ve indicated that they’re a horticultural student, for example).

Finally, you’ll be able to speak directly with potential employees. A goodly chunk of people belong to Facebook groups and a subset of that population belongs to job-seeking groups. Both communities will provide your company an avenue for speaking with prospective hires.

Young professionals frequently follow or like companies they may be interested in working for. And there’s no cost for developing these platforms outside of a few labor hours.

Chris Mosby is the assistant editor for Greenhouse Management, our sister publication.