Social media is a tremendous opportunity for recruitment but “very quickly this opportunity could turn into a threat”. For the first time the audience [candidates] is ahead of recruitment in the use of social media, said Matt Alder, director of business consultancy firm Metashift.

Paul Harrison, managing director at Carve Consulting, explained that being a ’social company’ simply meant “being in tune” with your stakeholders. “The social company means having a two-way dialogue and creating a personal experience when a candidate engages with your business,” he said.

He said the aim should be to inspire then convert people - potential employees - to your employer brand by monitoring news influences, for example through blogging, the opinions of strangers (those who have had contact with your business, either good or bad) and employees talking about the company.

But social media doesn’t stand alone, Alder argued, it should be within a company’s digital marketing strategy. He suggested delegates look into whether their career websites were linked to a mobile platform, as more and more people were viewing job opportunities away from the PC. “What does your career site look like on a mobile phone?” he asked.

Katharine Robinson, who won the title Grand Master Sourcer 2010 through her smart sourcing on the web, put a personal face on sourcing talent through the internet maze. “I don’t really like CVs - I don’t like searching for them on the internet,” she told the conference.

Apollo PhotographersShe uses social media tools to find the person and she explained this can be done through targeting competitors, looking at industry associations and events, and can be as simple as looking at a company’s website to find employee biographies.

Through sites such as EventElephant, amiando and eventbrite, “networking means you can take the offline online”, she said, by finding events lists with contact details. “If you can’t make it to an event, with Twitter you can still take part even though you’re not there,” she explained.

However, there are so many social media networking sites, so many new apps for smart phones that many recruiters feel overwhelmed as to how to make the best use of this new technology. Harrison cautioned on trying to do it all at once. “What works for one company works differently for another,” he said.