Social Media Users Name LinkedIn as Most Useful Social Network

By Mitchell Schmale

A recent survey of nearly 3,000 active social media users found that LinkedIn was named as the most important social networking site over Facebook and Twitter. The survey by Performics polled 2,997 active social media networkers with 59% of the respondents saying it was more important to have a LinkedIn account than any other social network.

Despite tapping the business-oriented network as the most valuable to users over Facebook and Twitter, only 50% of users with active LinkedIn accounts said they visited the site at least weekly with 20% visiting daily. Experts attribute LinkedIn’s growing popularity with the continued dragging economy and sluggish job market. LinkedIn provides business professionals with the platform to raise their public professional profile by sharing their accomplishments and experience to help grow awareness among other industry professionals.

In 2010, a similar survey found that 41% of respondents believed that LinkedIn was the most important social networking site in relation to its competitors. As the economy continues to slow, LinkedIn continues to grow as an important tool for its users. In the future as the economy and job market (hopefully) recovers, it will be interesting to see if LinkedIn remains an important resource for business professionals. Or perhaps Facebook, Twitter or the next soon-to-be-launched social media tool around the corner will be able to offer effective one-stop shopping to connect users to their friends, family and their next job.

Mitchell Schmale is Vice President of Maroon PR. Contact him at Mitchell@MaroonPR.com.

Blogging from the #140Conf (Part 2)

By Abby Draper

The lineup for Day 2 of the 140 Character Conference (#140conf) is just as exciting as it was for Day 1. One of the early panels today was a group of four social media professionals all under the age of 23, speaking about “growing up with real time internet.”

During their discussion, Sarah Cooley, Communications Manager for Postling.com, had strong opinions on securing the perfect job or employee through your social media platforms. As a current undergrad, she explains that her friends ask questions of her like “What if your future employer sees the pictures of you on Facebook?” Or “Remember when you tweeted after a few glasses of wine? What if they read that?”

During my last years of college, I had the same reservations, and restructured my personal pages with hopes that doing so would help me in my job search. I deleted my hobbies, interests and favorite movies and replaced them with professional organizations I am a part of and links to my LinkedIn account, Twitter handle and my blog.

Sutton went on to explain that as it becomes more instinctual for companies to rely on social media platforms as resumes, you should be conscious of how you present yourself online. Adding photos of yourself during a long night out on the town or tweeting about how much you hate a certain brand could hurt your chances of being hired at some companies.

I also came across a great article from CNNMoney.com that explains how big groups like Accenture will be approaching their hiring in the future.


[Accenture Head of Global Recruiting Joe] Campagnino plans to make as many as 40% of his hires in the next few years through social media. Says he: "This is the future of recruiting for our company."


As Maroon PR continues to add clients, we will continue to grow our team as well. With so many great clients having such a strong presence online, I look forward to adding to their social media team. I am certain that through this process, we will rely heavily on social media personalities in making our final decisions.

Accenture and other companies are continuing to prove that social media is not only growing in popularity, but becoming essential for professionals.

Abby Draper is the Manager of Social Media. Contact her at abby@maroonpr.com.

The Intern Finally Sees the Value in Social Media

By Chris Grant

The other day my 86-year-old grandfather talked to my cousin in Rome via Skype. This is a man who was born before television became popular. For all I know he could have a Twitter and LinkedIn account, and who knows, maybe even get hired over me for my first “real” job after college. I have never used Skype, or Twitter, or LinkedIn. I always knew I was behind my generation when it came to new technology and social media. But my grandfather?

As I get ready to enter the real world, I know I need to come fully equipped with all the social media necessities. I have never been the biggest advocate of social media. It has always taken the pressure of others to force me into it. My Facebook account was actually created for me by my friends. I’m still not on Twitter or have a LinkedIn profile, but I can say that my opinion of social media has changed over the past couple of months from my time at Maroon PR as an intern.

While at my internship, I have been able to see the benefits of social media firsthand and how important it is to a company. Companies constantly look for ways to enhance brand awareness and are starting to come to the realization that social media is an extremely effective way to achieve this. It allows for there to be direct contact between company and buyers, without a middle man such as the media, to have control of a message.

According to a recent article in CNN, social sites, such as LinkedIn, are more important now than ever before:


“If you don't have a profile on LinkedIn, you're nowhere…. If you're serious about managing your career, the only social site that really matters is LinkedIn. In today's job market an invitation to "join my professional network" has become more obligatory -- and more useful -- than swapping business cards and churning out résumés.”


As my internship comes to an end and I begin to look for jobs, I am going to need to start buying into this social media craze if I want any chance at succeeding. But most of you probably knew that months ago.

Apparently, my grandfather did.

Chris Grant is the Maroon PR Intern. He can be reached at chrisg@maroonpr.com