Week 2, Part B: Business Research

1.       Robert Half Recruitment

www.roberthalf.com

Robert Half International, is a global recruitment firm based in Menlo Park, California founded in 1948. It is known as being the world's first and largest accounting and finance staffing firm, with over 345 locations worldwide. They are a public company with over 10,000 employees. 

Robert Half, use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The links to each of the social media accounts are in widgets at the bottom of every page of their website, making it easy to access any time you are on the website. Below is a list of their social media platforms, their followers, and their activity on each:

LinkedIn - 1,395,846 followers and they post around 5-6 times a week, with their latest post being the 1st of September. 

Facebook - 97,192 followers, and they post on here every couple of days with their latest post being the 1st of September. 

Twitter - 23,900 followers. They have 12,000 tweets and they post a couple of times a day, with their last post being the 1st of September. 

Instagram - 15,300 followers. They have posted 1,119 times and they post a few times a week with their latest post being 2nd September. 

YouTube - 2800 subscribers. They post a video once every few months, with their last video being posted 3 weeks ago. 

When looking at the different social media platforms that Robert Half use, it is clear they are consistent. They post the same posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. The only anomaly in their social media interaction is YouTube. This may be due to it being a different type of platform, or that it is the least used with the least number of followers by a long way. Overall, Robert Half are great communicators on social media. They are consistent, they are regular and they post relevant information to keep their followers interested.

2.       Boutique Recruiting

https://www.boutiquerecruiting.com/

Boutique Recruiting places financial, accounting, and administrative professionals throughout Southern California. They have one location in San Diego. They are a privately held company with around 20 employees.

Boutique recruiting uses Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. The links to their social media accounts are at the top of their website on every page in the form of a widget. This makes it very accessible for anyone visiting their website. Below is a list of their social media platforms, their followers, and their activity on each:

Twitter – 20 followers and they post on average around once a week, with their last post being on the 27^{th of} August.

Instagram – 114 followers. They post every few days with their latest post being on the 27^th of August.

LinkedIn – 22,381 followers. They post between 4-6 times a week, with their last post being on the 1^{st of} September.

When looking at Boutique recruiting’s social media platforms. It is interesting to me to see that even with such low numbers of followers on Twitter and Instagram, they continue to post regularly. I like that they do this and as they are a boutique recruitment company, they will never have the following that a global organization will have, yet their communicating efforts are still there and relevant to their audience.

3.       QualStaff Resources

https://qualstaffresources.com/

QualStaff Resources is an award-winning recruitment company for client and talent delivery, and they describe themselves as an established leader in exceptional service and talent identification. They are a privately held company that is located in Sorrento Valley, San Diego and currently they have around 90 employees.

QualStaff Resources uses LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The links to their social media accounts are at the top of every page on their website, again, making it easy for anyone to access. Below is a list of their social media platforms, their followers, and their activity on each:

LinkedIn – 1,646 followers. They post a few times a month on their LinkedIn, with the last post being on the 26^{th of} August.

Twitter – 173 followers, and they have posted 1631 tweets since they joined in 2010. They post once or twice a month with their last post being on the 23^rd of August.

Facebook – 371 followers. They post around twice a month, with their last post being on the 23^rd of August.

Instagram – 325 followers and have posted 326 times. They tend to post around twice a month to Instagram with their latest post being on the 10^th of August.

Qualstaff Resources, felt to me like they know how much of an influence social media can have on a business, however, due to the size of the company and their low number of followers, it feels like they are posting enough for clients to be able to research them, but they know they do not generate much business or attract many clients directly from social media, so this is not a priority for them.

 

4.       TriStaff Group of Companies

http://www.tristaff.com/

TriStaff Group of Companies is a premier Full Service Staffing and Executive Search firm headquartered in San Diego, California. They are privately held with two locations in California. They currently have around 100 employees.

TriStaff uses Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The links to their social media accounts are in the form of widgets at the top of their website. These widgets are accessible on any page of their website making it easy for any customer to view and use. Below is a list of their social media platforms, their followers, and their activity on each:

Facebook – 363 followers. They have a strange pattern of posting and it seems to be either every few days or months in between. Their latest post was on the 27^th of August.

Twitter – 1211 followers and 3254 tweets. They post randomly, sometimes a couple of times a month and some months apart. Their latest post was the 30^th of August.

LinkedIn – 10,372 followers. They typically post around 3-4 times a month, with their latest post being the 30^th of August.

When analyzing TriStaff’s social media communication style, it seemed to me that they typically post on Facebook or Twitter when there is a special event, such as 4^th of July, or Thanksgiving, there are not many posts relating to their business and what they do. LinkedIn is slightly different in that as well as all their holiday posts, they also advertise for roles they are looking to fill, meaning they are more geared towards their business. I think this makes sense as LinkedIn is aimed towards the working professionals.

5.       Randstad

https://www.randstadusa.com/

Randstad is the global leader in the HR services industry. They are a Dutch multinational human resource consulting firm headquartered in Diemen, Netherlands. They are a publicly traded company that operates in around 39 countries and have over 10,000 employees worldwide.

Randstad uses LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The links to their social media accounts are at the bottom of any page on their website. It is not as easy to find as some of the previous companies, but easily accessed, nevertheless. Below is a list of their social media platforms, their followers, and their activity on each:

LinkedIn – 1,438,627 followers. They post around 3 times a week with their latest post being on the 1^st of September.

Twitter – 8964 followers and have 1427 tweets. They post around 4 times a month with their latest post on the 30^th of August.

Facebook – 78,810 followers. They post 5 times a month with their latest post on the 30^th of August.

YouTube – 2200 subscribers. They post videos a couple of times a month with their latest video being posted 1 months ago.

When looking at Randstad’s social media accounts, I expected It to be very similar to Robert Half’s activities. Due to the size of the company, the global presence and claiming to also be a world leader in their domain. However, the posts were not as consistent as Robert half’s, and they also didn’t post the same thing to each social media platform. They are still communicating with their audience and reaching their clients, but I thought it would have been a larger presence, but either way they are clearly a very successful company.

After concluding all my research, I believe it was quite clear to me that the larger the company, the larger the online following. Now, this could be due to the fact they were large before social media came about, meaning that as soon as they joined a social media platform, they easily gained a following. Or it could be that as they are a larger company, they have more clients, they have more employees, and therefore easy to continue to build a following online.

Although this research confirmed for me what I already believed was the case, it did surprise me how much the smaller, more local companies still consistently posted on social media platforms, despite their low number of followers.

However, when concluding all my research, I can’t help but wonder if this is the case with every industry across the globe. I have clearly chosen an industry, Finance Recruitment, that has a much larger following on LinkedIn due to the nature of the platform, which may in turn mean that the other forms of social media are not as important to drum up followers, but rather just ‘exist and post a few times so seem active’.

But either way, I think we can agree that social media for any type of business, large or small, is important to spread awareness and to also gain credibility.