Canadians are among the highest users of social media, but they're using it for personal networking and appear to be largely missing out on its usefulness as another job hunting tool, according to new research from Randstad Canada.

While 77 per cent of Canadians have social media accounts, only 27 per cent report using it for business or work-related purposes, according to the study. That compares to higher numbers of Indian workers (78 per cent) and China (63 per cent) who use it for professional purposes.

"Our (social media recruitment) market is still quite new, whereas there are many more recruitment organizations in the U.S. and U.K., so the adoption rates have become larger there," says Stacy Parker, executive vice-president of staffing and recruitment firm Randstad. "With the increased usage of Twitter for recruitment purposes, I think we'll see that more in coming years."

What's most surprising, says Parker, is that Canada actually leads in the use of social media, but it's mostly just for personal and family reasons. "We drive more traffic to sites like YouTube . . . than any other country (but) it's not all work-related," she says.

Sixty-one per cent of Canadians said they know social media can help them find a job, but that's considerably less than the 83 per cent and 82 per cent that recognize that in China and India, respectively.

However, the trend is catching on with Canadian workers. Fifty-one per cent say they use social media to prepare for job interviews, 53 per cent would use it to research a company's culture and 51 per cent say they would not apply to an employer that has a lot of negative comments said about the company on social media sites.

While social media is rapidly emerging as a useful tool in the job hunting war chest, other experts warn not to rely on it because it's just one way of reaching out in a culture that still values face-to-face contact more than anything.

"In a lot of cases, (social media) works really well (and) in some cases it just takes up a lot of energy and gets no results," says Nagui Bihelek, a business coach with ActionCOACH in Calgary. "People still prefer to look each other in the eye when they do business."

Parker says that even if job hunters aren't using social media to connect with potential employers, they still need to be aware that recruiters are increasingly using it -and not just large organizations. Smaller companies are also now incorporating social media into their recruitment policies and inquiring about how to do that most effectively.

When social media was still emerging, a lot of companies implemented policies to limit its usage in the workplace, but those policies are largely ineffective, she says.

"In general, there's a loosening up of (policies)," says Parker. "If an organization thinks they have prevented their employees from using social media because they have a policy against it, what are they doing to control their employees' cellphones?"

Employers are also missing opportunities to engage potential new recruits and their customers by ignoring the increasing use of social media around the world, she adds.

"There's a great employer branding opportunity when you do allow access to those sorts of things," she says. "Historically, we've thought of our employees in one bucket and our consumers in another bucket, but now we're realizing it is all one community."

The average user of Facebook, for example, ranges between 32 to 40 years of age, which is a prime recruiting age range for people with mid-level experience.

"It is a very good age bracket for recruitment, but not as well tapped yet," says Parker. "It's just a matter of time."

When it comes to taking full advantage of social media, Bihelek reminds job hunters not to become overly reliant on it as a single strategy. "It can be one of your marketing strategies to get people talking about you . . . then you still have to do business face to face," says Bihelek. "Social media is one of those abdication of responsibilities."

LinkedIn has emerged as the primary professional networking social media site and Parker says that if you're going to use it, take full advantage of the tools on the site, fully complete your profile and try to get at least a few referrals by people who endorse your work.

derek.sankey@telus.net