Social media 'keeping employees engaged'

Social media is being used more than email to keep employees engaged, according to a new survey.

The study found that while 75 per cent of those polled use email to engage with their employees, the figure for social media was a surprising 79 per cent.

Nearly 1,500 people took part in the employee engagement survey, carried out by Buck Consultants and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

Julie Freeman, president of IABC, said that social media can generate two-way discussions between employers and staff, while Robin McCasland of Buck Consultants pointed out that good engagement is especially important in times of economic uncertainty.

Other recent surveys looked at the impact of new media on business.

One poll by the Houston Business Journal found the most popular social networking website for customer engagement was Linkedln followed by Facebook.

A reader pointed out that social media allows benefits such as instant feedback and crowd-sourcing ideas.

On July 16th at the British Library the UK will host its first conference for social media in recruitment.

Recruitment Training and performance management expert Bill Boorman, who has built marketing strategy around the social media arena, will be addressing the conference.

He told Onrec.com: "You don't need to be a techy to realise the potential of all these networking tools - the trick is to make sure that you are targeting the right people."