Making the Most of the Internet

1. Finding People and Businesses

The internet can help you forge useful new contacts with individuals and businesses.

1.1 Your business can use social networking media.

• Social media creates connections between people.
• You can search for people you know and 'add' them as your friends.
• Your network can include current and former colleagues, friends and clients. It all depends on who you want to communicate with and who is using that social media platform.
• The most well-known business-focused social network is LinkedIn. However, Facebook and Twitter (www.twitter.com) are widely used by small businesses to engage with customers.

1.2 Social media makes it easy to connect with new people.

• They can help with recruitment by providing word-of-mouth recommendations.
• For instance, you can send a message to your contacts explaining that you are recruiting for a particular role. Your contacts can pass your request on to their networks in order to try and find someone suitable.
• You can also create a network of customers or employees. For example, Facebook allows you to set up a page for your business which people can 'Like' to stay in touch with your company.
• Avoid the temptation to use your network to openly advertise your business. This is often frowned upon.

1.3 There are many ways to recruit new staff online.

• Major recruitment sites like Monster , Jobsite, and TotalJobs allow you to post job advertisements.
• These sites allow you to automatically filter applicants based on qualifications and experience, so you can streamline the selection process.
• There are many industry-specific recruitment sites which can help you target jobseekers with relevant experience. Search online (see 6) or ask an industry association to find yours.
• You can also advertise vacancies on your company website.