Finance pros most active on Facebook with family; use LinkedIn to job search
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Nearly three-quarters of finance professionals revealed that they have a social media account, which primarily is being used to connect with friends and family via Facebook, according to a recent Mergis Group Social Status survey. When using social media to job search, however, LinkedIn was the definitive favorite.
"The Mergis Group Social Status Survey has certainly offered some unique insight into the mindsets of financial professionals," said Brendan Courtney, president of The Mergis Group [1], a professional placement firm specializing in recruiting for positions in finance and accounting, engineering and manufacturing, sales and marketing, legal, and human resources.
"Many professionals have adapted social media into not only their personal lives, but their daily business interactions as well. However, one common thread remains," Courtney said. "Social media is clearly making a migration into the job search and the workplace. It is important for job seekers to be aware of what information they are sharing with prospective employers and colleagues within these networks and to understand just how far-reaching one’s digital footprint can be."
The social status of finance professionals:
- Seventy-two percent of finance professionals have a social media account(s), with the most popular sites being Facebook (88 percent) and LinkedIn (58 percent).
- Roughly a quarter of those surveyed belong to MySpace (26 percent), Twitter (24 percent), YouTube (20 percent), and Classmates.com (20 percent).
- Facebook was the dominant social media site utilized among finance professionals, with nearly three-fourths (74 percent) listing it as their primary social site.
How social are finance professionals?
- When asked how they conduct the majority of their networking, 45 percent of financial professionals revealed that they do so in written communications, such as e-mail and letters. More than a quarter (28 percent) primarily network face-to-face, while 15 percent do so through social media.
- Forty-six percent of finance professionals use social sites to network with personal contacts, such as friends and relatives, and with business contacts, such as coworkers, colleagues, and managers/bosses.
Social media in the job search, workplace:
- Up to 47 percent of finance workers say they might or would modify and/or delete content if they knew a prospective employer was going to review their page as part of the interview process.
- Of those financial professionals who have used social media in their job search (37 percent), LinkedIn is the predominant social media site used to look for jobs, with 73 percent indicating usage. Facebook came in a distant second (32 percent).
- When asked if their company had a formal policy regarding the usage of social media sites for work, 43 percent of finance workers said their company did not. On the contrary, 34 percent indicated that their company does have a formal policy, while 23 percent did not know.
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Illinois [9]