At the end of 2018 Inspire Selection was recognised by LinkedIn as the 4th Most Socially Engaged in EMEA, as we welcome our 100,000th follower we look back at why this is important to us in this interview with Zoe Clapp – Operations Manager of Inspire Selection.

• What does winning the MSE Staffing agency in MENA title mean to you?

It’s always good to be recognised and to celebrate winning an award, however, amongst the awards we have been nominated for and won in the past – we are most proud of this one. Linked In is such a global major player – and for us, a small boutique, independently owned agency operating out of Dubai – to come in 4th place against agencies across the whole of EMEA makes us feel very proud.

• What were the key factors that contributed to your win?

Our consultants are extremely active on LinkedIn and very well networked, in fact Louise Vine the MD of Inspire Selection has reached the personal limit of 30,000 contacts plus over 64,000 followers,

Because of our longevity in the market, we understand what the market wants to read, our social media followers trust that we will only share relevant and useful content written by our marketing expert who regularly sits with experienced consultants and takes feedback on current issues, these insights are shared on our corporate page with over 100,000 followers as well as shared by each of the consultants creating an audience of nearly 200,000.

We find that the UAE is generally very open to social media and its users less guarded, with a young, well networked, digitally confident population Linked In is the ideal media for our message.

• What are some of the best practices you can share on being social as a staffing agency?

It may be a cliché but ‘content is key’. It is very easy to share and create posts, social media is full of information, but we believe that it is important to be relevant. People are information rich and time poor; to be heard and trusted content needs to be insightful, targeted and above all relevant.

• How does Social Media fit into your business strategy?

Social Media is an integral part of our day to day business, Linked In has allowed job seekers to be more dormant, people often rely on being headhunted for their next role. 

Social Media gives us access to a huge global database of well networked, engaged professionals, be those potential candidates to potential clients. Social Media allows us to headhunt people globally, which we would not be able to do as efficiently if it wasn’t in place.

• What challenges has Social Media helped you solve?

Social Media has definitely helped with our brand awareness, it enables us to reach global candidates through executive search. In the Middle East we know that posting a job on a careers site will ultimately result in huge application numbers, many of whom will be unsuitable, we rely on sites such as LinkedIn for a more targeted approach

• What advice would you give other agencies that are thinking of going social?

Social Media should be part of every agency’s marketing mix and like any media you need to project a consistent brand message. Content should be relevant and engaging and above all build your network – be open to connections and invest time and resources in it.