Socially awkward

Anyone that knows me will find it very amusing I have set up a blog. Until this year I had never been on facebook, twitter. In fact I would go as far to say that I hate them. I think I still probably do. A major bit of noise that gets in the way of life. It seems old fashioned nowadays, but if we were friends I would call you. I have always thought as social media as a way of keeping tabs on people you not really that bothered about. The same with business to a degree. If we are going to business I want to speak with you, meet you, get to know you and build a relationship. The less barriers, the more interaction, the more we learn and the more effective that business relationship becomes. Social Media is just one the things that has happened in the recruitment industry to prevent that from always being the norm. So that's been my mind-set but I realise it needs to change. The shot in the arm? Well I set up a recruitment business at the start of this year - Maddison Kane. Suddenly social media really matters to me. It forms a core part of how I want our business to engage with our clients and candidates. If we don't do it well, what does that say about our business. Although it personally does not do it for me, social media creates great opportunities for everyone in working life. I want our business to be at the cutting edge of it. Relevant, forward thinking, engaging at the forefront of social recruitment. The industry has changed a lot over the last few years. Its dramatically different to the one I joined 12 years ago. Technology has been the enabler of a lot of that change. Social media and in particular Linkedin have revolutionised how we look for work, find great candidates and engage with each other. 4 out of 5 UK professionals are now on Linkedin. Its not time to be sticking your head in the sand. That creates great opportunities for everyone in the industry to get ahead. That's what I am going to be trying to do with my business partner at Maddison Kane. That journey has already started for me. Maddison Kane and/or I are now on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ in addition to Linkedin. I am writing this blog hoping to really complete my online social transformation. I imagine there are loads of 30+ folks out there who know exactly where I am coming from. Over the next few blogs I will go through how I closed my knowledge gap, what I have started to do on social media, how I manage it and is it actually providing business benefits. I am making all the mistakes along the way. Hopefully you won't have to. If you are setting up your own business, or are behind the curve on this stuff generally hopefully it helps.