Master Thesis, School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, 4FE03E, Spring2011

Authors:

Carleke, Jonatan and Kristiansson, Lars

Tutor:

Philipson, Sarah

Examiner:

Zineldin, Mosad

Title:

How Social Are We? – A study of how social media and personal branding influence today’s e—recruitment processes.

Purpose:

The purpose of the master thesis is to investigate how a personal brand can be managed through social media to facilitate the matching between the workforce and recruiter.

Furthermore, it investigates whether the usage of social media is beneficial for companies in the e--‐recruiting process, and in that case why is it so?

Delimitations:

Swedish companies and their use of social media in their recruitment process.

Theory:

This thesis uses theory regarding branding, personal brand, social media and e--‐ recruitment.

Methodology:

This thesis makes has a deductive quantitative approach. The investigation consists of an e- ‐mail survey performed on Swedish companies. 1000 companies were contacted and 212 answered which gives a response rate of 21.2 percent.

Results:

19.3 percent of the Swedish companies use social media as a tool in their recruitment process today and many more are considering implementing it in the future. Social media is used to attract, find and evaluate applicants for a job. Social networking sites were the most

commonly used, followed by blogs which were also found to be useful.

Implications:

The thesis is useful for people searching for a job as it shows what companies are looking for on social media and what they are looking for. The thesis also shows companies benefits and disadvantages of social media usage in e--‐recruitment processes.