It's all digital

Why you should care about social media

Attracting young talent, and talent in general, to your operation is becoming increasingly difficult. To reach potential employees, go where they hang out ... social media.

By Chris Mosby

There is a website dedicated solely to the tracking of internet-access related statistics. It is called www.internetlivestats.com and on its home page a running counter ticks off each new person that has gained internet access (most days the ticker counts at a rate of a roughly one person per second). It is oddly mesmerizing.

The website has found that roughly 40 percent (2.9 billion) of the global population has Internet access. In the United States that number is much, much higher. Of the United States’ 322,583,006 citizens almost 280,000,000 have internet (which equates to about 87 percent). Now consider this: Facebook has 1.2 billion active users.

That’s a little less than half of all people with internet access. And the numbers continue to climb: Facebook adds more users while internet use expands every second. By the end of 2014 more than 3 billion people will have computer access.

And social media as a whole has gradually become the most popular activity on the web. Check out these numbers from the International Association of Chiefs of Police: Facebook attracts almost 24 percent of all internet activity and Americans spend an average of 40 minutes a day on Facebook.

Why do you care?
According to the numbers we gathered for last month’s State of the Industry Report, hiring remains one of the horticultural industry’s most daunting tasks. More than 50 percent of survey respondents said they had an extremely difficult time finding high-quality hires. Another 22 percent said that on a scale of 1 to 5, finding high-quality hires was at least a 3 in terms of difficulty. In short: hiring quality workers, for any position, is challenging.

Yet, when asked what they were doing to attract young professionals (workers you can groom and develop within your company) less than a quarter of respondents said they were using social media. It’s a confusing dissonance. On one end, you have the ever-increasing importance of a digital presence, particularly on social media. On the other hand, you have companies in need of talent, who aren’t going directly to the talent.

One of the steps you can take to begin remedying your hiring woes is to develop a strong social media presence. The set up is free. Facebook, Twitter and almost all other platforms are free to use. The only cost you’ll have is labor and you don’t have to spend more than a few hours a week on your profiles. If you want to further develop your presence, consider utilizing platform-specific advertising. Facebook and Twitter both offer advertising options that will promote your page.
 

The more followers and “likes” you attract the more likely you are to develop relationships with both existing and potential customers. Clients will want to speak with you via social media to express gratitude or explain complications. Having social media will give them an outlet to do that.

Finally, you’ll be able to speak with potential employees. A good chunk of people belong to Facebook groups and a subset of that population belongs to job-seeking groups. Both will provide your company an avenue for speaking with prospective hires. Young professionals frequently follow companies they may be interested in working for.

 

Multimedia Minute

Social media hot water
Business coach Margaret Page discusses how to create a social media policy and a rule to live by when posting something.
Watch the video here: http://goo.gl/jbzvpC

Water management tips
NRCSCalifornia provides some tips for improving water management in greenhouses.
Watch the video here: http://goo.gl/Rvd0iw

From Twitter

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Proven Winners @Proven_Winners
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ASHS @ASHS_Hort
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PanAmerican Seed @PanAmericanSeed
Memories of #FlowerTrials - #Helenium Dakota Gold http://ow.ly/i/6AyUv

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Action shot of Team Sakata at the @FreshSummit 5K in Anaheim! Great time for a great cause!

BASFPlants_us @BASFPlants_us
Predatory mites can be an effective way to control harmful mites, and this Sultan IPM video shows you how: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNbbc1tecwo&feature=youtu.be …

Eberly & Collard PR @eberlycollardpr
The Top-10 Green Building Products list is out and will change the #design and #construction ‘business as usual.’ http://bit.ly/1ucvuoo

The Beck Group @BeckGroup
Explorers love the skywalk @DallasArboretum Children’s Garden. Learn how #steel was used to build it: http://ow.ly/D9YDi

UBC Botanical Garden @UBCgarden
Make your own holiday wreath with guidance from expert instructors in our wreath making course on Nov. 29 http://ht.ly/DLc9S

Update your Greenhouse Management app TODAY for a whole new interactive experience. To download the new app go to bit.ly/1fZx8hj