Social Media And Marketing Critical Essay

Abstract
The growth of social media has brought about numerous changes in the way companies perform their responsibilities. With modern changes in the way people communicate, there is a need for businesses to embrace modern technology in undertaking their activities which were traditionally performed by other means. A company’s marketing requirements are necessary if a company has to achieve the required market share or target sales. For a company to be successful, its marketing must be performed correctly by qualified employees who understand their responsibilities as well as the goal of the company.
Introduction

The belief by RasGas that the company has good employees, and that its performance is tied to the ability to retain and attract qualified workforce, has allowed the company to implement and develop the most effective and up to date recruitment strategies. These are based on appropriate methods that suit the company’s staffing needs (RasGas 2012).
The recruitment team has taken a strategic role of supplying talent. The team has contributed to a highly attractive employment as well as compensation scheme development. The impact of this is that RasGas has been put in a competitive position where the labour market is challenging. Qualified employees with talent are likely to join the company because of the good reputation it has. An employee development project is being developed steered by the managing director with the aim of carrying out the following tasks. Succession planning, personal career development plans, an approach to appraise performance and develop careers. The philosophy aims to set the pace program for employee development (RasGas 20122012).
Use of Social Media in Recruitment
The use of social media for recruiting has become a powerful tool in recent years with recruiters searching for employees using social media sites while employees are searching such sites to check for new job postings. Employers are using Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter to attract qualified employees because there is a belief that social media can exceed the key factors that makes the difference between an average recruiting tool and a dominant tool. Though social media is a complicated tool for hiring, it has unrivalled capabilities. The cost implications of using social media are far lower than other forms of media tools used for recruiting purposes. Since the visitors of social media have not intentionally visited the sites in search of job postings, it is possible to get paramount employees (“Social Media” 2012).
The following are the main factors that make a social media suitable for recruitment; a huge and varied audience of ideal users with a large number of qualified prospects, all of the social media audience will be dominated by working, working and not necessarily searching for a job as well as the unemployed and that RasGas can make use of this to search for the best talent in potential employees before deciding on a given employee (Headworth 2012).
It enables the shifting of workloads to others and the employees of an organisation would be useful in selecting and relationship building. Social media can help in relationship building through the development of trust and social interest. Messages through social media are mostly authentic in nature compared to other forms of media such as emails that may contain spam. Within the social media, accessibility is easier because there is widespread of mobile phones and personal computers, all with access to social media sites. Messages favoured by the target audience can be sent in the form of multimedia messaging. Quality recruitment can be achieved while using social media at low costs compared with other forms of recruiting media. It is therefore possible for RasGas to acquire the best, whilst facilitating the lowest capital thus saving on the company cost structure to increase profits (“Social Media” 2012).
Marketing and Social Media
Marketing can use social media to capture the most talented and brightest people in order to achieve high sales for RasGas liquefied natural gas. By using social media the company can select and recruit sales people all over the world reducing costs associated with such activities if the company decided to use other media. RasGas, with its international operation, requires that employees with varied cultures are employed. They must have the required skill to increase the performance of the company in different countries where RasGas sells its products. To increase the market share of RasGas qualified, as well as talented, employees must be engaged in line with the company’s goal of recruiting trained employees. By applying the best recruiting policies, the company is in a position of retaining the employees by employing candidates who are self motivated and ambitious towards increasing their sales (“Social Media” 2012).
Types of Social Media that can Be Used by RasGas
RasGas can use the following social media in its objectives of recruiting and retaining the best. Referral hiring has been enhanced by social media where recruiters have access to a wide range of talent through referrals by employees on social media. Employers pay bonuses to employees who refer suitable candidates to them (Liska 2012).
Recruitment marketing through social media has enabled employers regardless of their size to access a large pool of data. The investments by prospective employers are lower alongside a reduction in time and other resources. Employers are able to access social media for attractive career pages with a rich and dynamic content. Recruiters can attach blog articles, photos or even embedding videos top create an engaging career content. Facebook delivers the widest talent pool compared to other social media. With a large number of subscribers, throughout the world, RasGas can make use of this platform to recruit the best employees possible. Facebook has a very large engagement of users who are both potential and non-potential employees making it possible for RasGas companies to identify talent more easily. RasGas can utilise the Facebook timeline that displays personal information as well as up to date professional qualifications to hire potential employees (Liska 2012).
RasGas has an option of using Google + which is growing at a very fast pace. Google + enables users to maintain professional and personal lives, all in one place. Like other social media, Google + has a large following of professionals whom RasGas can find valuable in their recruitment. Google + is actively competing with Facebook with its unique hangouts feature that taps into video interviewing making it possible for RasGas to interview potential employees who are based in other countries. Google + also has circles that allow recruiters to message candidates and influencers (Liska 2012).
Another form of social media that can be used by RasGas is Twitter which has grown in terms of features revenues and users. Having a following on Twitter, RasGas can grow its Twitter followers and get potential employees from this following. Employment officials from RasGas can be directed into other recruiter accounts making it possible for the company to recruit the best. LinkedIn is another form of social media that RasGas can facilitate in search of talent, however it is experiencing immense competition from other social networks like Facebook and Twitter and it offers a platform for more talent within a company (Liska 2012).
Conclusion
RasGas, being an international company, is required to adopt modern cost effective means of achieving its goals on maintaining the best employees in the company. Marketing play an important role in ensuring that the company’s products reach the market while at the same time making sure that customer expectations are met by the company through continued improvement. This can only be achieved through a potentially good workforce that is correctly trained and maintained. The global economic conditions of the world are changing fast and companies need to maintain a competitive advantage over their contenders if they want to survive.
Bibliography
Headworth, Andy, 2012. Smart Social Media Recruitment Strategies, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 8 May, 2012].
Liska Jindrich, 2012. Social Recruiting Trends in 2012, [Online] Available at : [Accessed 8 May, 2012].
“Social Media: the Most Powerful Recruiting Tool Since the Telephone,” 2012. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 8 May, 2012].
“RasGas Careers” 2012. [Online] Available at: http://www.rasgas.com/rg/L_2.cfm?L2_id=3 [Accessed 8 May, 2012].