It seems like last week was HR and Recruiting awards week. Personnel Today Awards. The MARAs. In-house Recruiters Awards. It should have been a busy time on the old hashtag streams (that every award scheme under the sun naturally runs these days). But was it? Not particularly. #MARA2012 had some activity. #IHRA2012 had even less. But the grand-daddy of HR awards? Well judge for yourself:
Well, what do you think? Pretty poor, we’d say. As HR (and in-house recruiters) are becoming more enlightened to the benefits of social media, you’d think there’d be more usage to show off what the best of the industry is up to. No? With all the companies there who actually do embrace it, as well as a clutch of recruitment experts who go around the conference circuit expounding the values and benefits of using these channels effectively, wouldn’t you expect more than 160 tweets by the time the final award had been presented?
We know the challenges of ‘hosting’ an event on Social Media, it is, and it takes, hard work – maybe the #PTawards was let down by lacklustre hosting by @personneltoday?
It was interesting watching the stream crawl along on Wednesday night. Especially when running it alongside another awards stream at the same time.
That was for the Social Buzz Awards. Only in their second year, and with a penchant for events in Football Stadiums – Wembley first year, Emirates this time around. It’s a small event with a third or less of the attendees at the Grosvenor House. And it’s for social marketing agencies and clients. So yes, you’d expect it to be busier in the #Buzz_Awards stream, but this much more:
Yep, there was so much more engagement. More hosting by @Buzz_Awards. More banter. More Tweeters. And so much more… wait for the pun… buzz about. Looking in, which would appear to be the more interesting and switched on? Now, isn’t that how social media is supposed to help represent your company to the world too?
andsome blog 
welchwords Said:
on 12/04/2012 at 3:21 pm
Good point – and I think you’re right, HR people do need to embrace social media more.
But, in their defence – and having been to quite a few awards at the Grosvenor House – the wi-fi and general phone reception is abysmal in The Great Room. I know I’ve tried to tweet awards without success from there before. Unless you leave the building, in fact, it’s virtually impossible.
So, maybe they were trying, but not succeeding. Just a thought.
Jobs in the City of London Said:
on 12/24/2012 at 8:06 pm
No, it would seem that HR and social media just don’t mix. Otherwise, as you say, it should have been busy. Shame about that. Great post. Thanks.