Tod Maffin, a social-media expert from Vancouver, spoke to 150 professionals in Medicine Hat about reaching the 18-to-32 demographic. He warned that blocking social sites signals distrust and urged businesses to post regularly on Facebook and Twitter. The City of Medicine Hat already uses these platforms to reach younger residents who ignore traditional media.
Chapters
The City of Medicine Hat is no stranger to social networking, with more than 900 fans on Facebook and almost 300 followers on Twitter.
It's a way to communicate with the younger generations, and they're the ones that aren't getting— we aren't getting to through normal media, so we're using different things.
Brandy Calvert with Corporate Communications says the City is using the power of the internet to send information and recruit.
We want to get the best possible people working for the City of Medicine Hat. The more that you have to choose from, The mathematics say the better you're going to get the results.
Calvert joined about 150 Hatters from all business sectors Thursday for a workshop on how to manage, inspire, and retain the so-called Facebook generation.
It's not just that they don't like to work there, they actively want to dismantle it.
Social media expert Tod Maffin says companies need to get on the social networking bandwagon to attract this group of 18- to 32-year-olds to keep up with the competition.
They see a job listing that's available, they post it to their profile, now all of their friends can see it. Affinity marketing is very powerful. So you don't want to have the image of a company that's stagnant and being left behind.
Maffin says employers can't treat employees of this generation like those in the past.
They have to have respect in the workplace, so much more than a lot of organizations. Some organizations will block Facebook, for instance, and I always say, no, what does that say? It says we don't respect you.
Maffin recommends if your company does start a Facebook or Twitter account, keep up by making posts regularly. The Vancouver resident also says he's brought brought his talk to Medicine Hat to encourage small and family-run businesses to not miss out on a great opportunity to promote themselves online.
You look at any sort of business that has their most qualified leads, they come from word of mouth. That's really the engine that is the undercurrent to, the underpinning to Facebook.
Whether it's a company that employs 1 or almost 1,000 like the city, it's all about adapting to the times.
As social media in and of itself grows, that we will grow with it. And there are things a year down the road we have no idea what they're going to be, but we want to be ready for it.
