Sirona Says

If Social Recruiting Is Still Confusing You, Then Read This.

 

What is it with the phrase 'social recruiting' that is difficult to understand? It isn't hard to figure out that it is using social media in recruitment - or is it? Too many people are still getting confused (seemingly daily) with what social recruiting actually is, and to be honest with the myriad of 'so-called' social recruiting tools/platforms/solutions being launched weekly, I can see why social recruiting apathy can set in!! 

So for those of you that are still struggling to grasp the concept, here is my short and simplified explanation of what social media really is:

1. Social Media is not a replacement for your existing recruiting processes, it should be an integrated extension to what you already do. 
2. Don't believe all the stats you see saying the majority of companies are hiring people via social channels like Facebook and LinkedIn. In my opinion they give a distorted view on reality. The big surveys people keep quoting (on social media of course) are carried out on companies based in North America only - they ARE NOT REFLECTIVE of the rest of the world, in my experience. 
3. Not all social media networks are equal. One social network will not have all your candidates on, contrary to what LinkedIn will tell you! Take some time and do some searching on the mainstream and less mainstream sites for the types of candidates you typically recruit for. Don't assume for one second that all the best candidates are on just on LinkedIn - they are not. Top IT candidates with skills such as UX/UI and many oils and gas professionals, are now stripping their LinkedIn profiles of the essential keywords to avoid recruiter contact. They are going elsewhere.
   Try some of these networks.........
   
   
    ..........don't assume your target candidates are not on them, they just may be :)
4. Social recruiting is about jobs, finding candidates and placing them in roles (eventually) BUT IT IS NOT ABOUT just broadcasting jobs - use job boards and your website/careersite for that.
5. All the social network sites are very much about search and discovery. For this reason you MUST HAVE a full profile or bio page, WITH ALL YOUR RELEVANT KEYWORDS on it. These are what people will find you by (most of the time). Don't get all fancy with descriptions, make sure you tell people what you do - if you are a recruiter, what you recruit for, where and for whom - make it easy. And don't forget your contact details!!
6. Watch and learn first. Don't panic and feel you have to have a LinkedIn Page, Facebook Page, Google+ Page, Twitter, YouTube Channel etc all in one go - you don't. Start with the relevant platforms, follow others, watch what they do, what they post, how they use the different networks. Take the time to read a lot about different ways people use networks. Remember there are no rules in the world of social media - you make your own. Yes they are proven methods, but there is nothing to stop you trying your own!
7. Mobile is no longer an option for you - so stop ignoring it - it isn't going away. You MUST HAVE some form of mobile site as part of your strategy.
8. Don't ever think this is a quick or free process. It takes time and resources to build networks, create and share content and to identify and engage with relevant people. 
9. Social recruiting is a brilliant addition to the recruiting process if done properly. It allows you to find, reach out and engage with unlimited amounts of people in your industry. Whether you are doing new business, sourcing or researching, networks like Twitter are just fantastic. The quicker you embrace them, the quicker you will start benefitting from them.
10. Don't spend loads of money on new social media candidate acquisition to start with, when you are (likely) already sitting on a large database rich with candidates. And many of these candidates are already on the social networks. This is a HUGE asset that the majority of companies seem to conveniently forget. What a great start in terms of building a social media following! Just out of interest, when was the last time you segmented the database and sent regular targeted emails to it? Didn't think so - you better read this then! 

There is so much more I could go through, but I will have to save that for another day. 

Social media is a superb addition to your recruitment strategy, and something you need to start using immediately. Remember, these social networks are now fully mainstream, and are certainly not going away anytime soon! Don't be afraid of them, instead embrace the power of social media in your recruitment today.

If you want to try our new very cost effective on-demand service for advice, help or guidance in your social recruiting, then you can get it here.

 

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

What should I (as a recruiter) Tweet on Twitter?

 

Even though Twitter has been around for years now (and has gone mainstream), it still provides me with the 'most asked social network question' when I am doing social media training with recruiters. For some reason Twitter, more than others, evokes brain freeze when it comes to posting tweets. The question is always is >> What should I (as a recruiter) Tweet on Twitter?

Ironically for many, it is the fear of saying 'the wrong thing' coupled with the fact that this 'wrong thing' they say, could be shared widely and quickly. Of course the reality is that unless they have some super-hot news, or have done something outrageous or have had a bird sh*t on their head (seriously!!), then they are unlikely to be the unlikely victims of a viral tweet! Seriously amongst a trillion tweets an hour (OK, that maybe a little high, but it feels like it sometimes!) your one or two tweets become insignificant to the populous - sorry!!

Now, just to demonstrate that it doesn't take much to make your Twitter stream look thoughtless, self-centred and unappealing take a look at this stream:

It takes all of about one second to click away, doesn't it? Totally uninteresting and it probably does give the wrong impression of what the company are really like. And yes the rest of their stream is exactly the same!!

So what do you tweet then?

The first thing to do is not think about you, and think of your audience (Followers in Twitter parlance) you are trying to cultivate. You need to post content that you believe (through your experience) your audience will find interesting to read. AND ALSO you want to post content that your audience will happily Re-Tweet (share for the Twitter uninitiated) with their own audience. <No pressure then!>

You do know what your audience is, don't you? 

 Strangely a difficult question for may people! This is the easy part to be honest.

• What types of people (roles) do you recruit for? 
• What are the aligned industries and sectors of who you recruit for? 
• What type of people do you interact with every day? 
• Who do you sell your products/services to? 
• Who are the people who influence decisions on what you sell/promote?
• Who do you network with to gain access to your markets?

THESE are your audience. These are the Followers you want to cultivate. These are the people you need to interest with your content (and not just on Twitter by the way), but whichever social network they are on.

Let's move onto what content to Tweet. Here are three easy places that you can find content to share on Twitter. (You can of course post your own blogs, news and information, if you have it, but you will need to mix that up as well so it isn't all about you!)

1. Your audience itself. Who better to have content that may be of interest is the people you want to be reacjing out to. Find them on Twitter using tools like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Followerwonk using the keywords, job titles and industry buzz words you already know, and then Follow Them. They will be sharing relevant content for you to use (and share via RT's).
2. Industry blogs. These are always excellent sources of material to share, because they are advice based (like this post) or voice industry opinions - and who doesn't want to read either of them? Go to Technorati (a global blog directory) and Google Blog search ( go to More underneath the top search box on Google and there is a drop down for Blogs (below). Search for your industry blogs.
   
   
    Then when you find the blogs, subscribe to them by email and create a folder in your inbox for them (setting a rule) or use an RSS subscription tool like Feedly to collate them.
3. LinkedIn Today. People forget this resource, but simply click on the words LinkedIn Today on the left just above the main image section on LinkedIn. Then go to the top right of the LinkedIn Today page and click the cog (customise your settings).
   
   
   Follow your industry sectors and suddenly you have a wealth of content in your industry you can share on Twitter and LinkedIn.
   
   
4. LinkedIn Signal. Many of you will not even know about this awesome (and underused) part of LinkedIn! Simply go to LinkedIn.com/signal or click the dropdown box by the top search bar (updates) shown below This is all the updates that get posted on LinkedIn via the status updates and on LinkedIn. LinkedIn Signal is an absolute gold mine of great information. 
   You simply search for the content you want (using those same keywords, industry buzzwords etc as before) and you will see loads of great content. You can also filter the results down the left hand side, as normal on LinkedIn, and the best bit is you can save the search and return to real-life results whenever you want to!

So now you have loads of content to share with the audience you want to be cultivating, now, how to you go about posting this wealth of great information?

There are many Twitter posting tools, from Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Twitter (itself) BufferApp, Mobile apps etc and that is for another day and another post, but they are all good - it just depends on how you are going to use Twitter. Personally mine is a mix of Hootsuite, BufferApp and Twitter (desktop and mobile for all three).

As I have shown above, you need to avoid the Twitter ME, ME, ME syndrome, so you need to vary the content you share on Twitter. You need to be interesting, you need to show that you value other people's content by sharing it (RT or ReTweet) and you should be engaging in conversation with people (Replies and @username). And you also want to be sharing YOUR OWN content - whether that be your blog, news or a latest job (nothing wrong with posting jobs as long as there are other tweets wrapped around it to add value to your audience.)
If you work on a 7:1 ratio as a minimum (7 pieces of content not your own including RT's, @username replies/conversation and  other good content - to one piece of your own content), you won't be boring people and you should be adding value to their Twitter stream and encourage them to follow you.

Hopefully you now have an idea of how you can start to use Twitter more effectively within a recruitment context. And of course if you want to find more content like this then> Follow @andyheadworth

And if you are also considering all your other social media channels as well, here is where I share my content on the social networks that I use.

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

NEW for 2013 - Social Media Content For Recruiter Workshops - using the power of social media content to help reduce your advertising costs, build your digital brand and create new methods of candidate attraction. For more information go to the booking page here.

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.

Social Recruiting Doesn't Have To Be Complicated

 

Talking with clients over the last few weeks about social recruiting and trying to help them understand what it really means for their recruitment, I have created this simple image to help. Let me explain.......

1. EVERYBODY still reads email – many opening them on their mobiles. SO MAKE SURE that you take advantage of your candidate database and create an email marketing strategy. Segment your database, create the content strategy and send out regular targeted emails. 
   [Just make sure that is a mobile friendly email marketing platform, and that all links take you back to mobile optimised web pages - many of them will be read on a mobile after all!]
    
2. Share your content via social media. Create, curate and share interesting and relevant content via the social media networks where your target audience is (and they are not all on LinkedIn by the way!) Also put all the social media sharing links on your emails so that they can be shared easily. Make it easy for people to share - the social media geeks call this 'frictionless sharing'  - I just think your are totally stupid if you don't do it!
   
   
3. Don't underestimate the power of SMS. Just because many people have got smart phones, they still use SMS every day. MORE IMPORTANTLY when a SMS message appears on your phone, it pops up right on your home screen - you can't fail to notice it, and subsequently you react/reply to it.
   
   
4. When was the last time you contacted a candidate on a land line? Exactly!! They are all on mobiles. And you still haven't got a mobile enable website/career site? Are you mad?

Of course I am not saying that everything in recruiting is going to be only consumed on a mobile. BUT what I am saying is that you need to ensure that all your content CAN BE consumed on a mobile if that is the choice of the person reading it.

Now take another look at the image above - now does it make sense?

 

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

NEW for 2013 - Social Media Content For Recruiter Workshops - using the power of social media content to help reduce your advertising costs, build your digital brand and create new methods of candidate attraction. For more information go to the booking page here.

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.

Is it really LinkedIn we are seeing or a Facebook/GooglePlus/Twitter Mashup?

This week there has been two much improved (at last!) updates to the mobile sites of LinkedIn and Facebook. And we have seen some significant changes with LinkedIn over the last few weeks (I got the new @ Mentions yesterday!). This was a question I posed at a recent workshop, and one that I wanted to get your thoughts on.

Are we seeing the merging of functionality and services across now across the primary (and mainstream) social networks?

At least with all the similarities, it makes them all easier to understand and use for social recruiting!

 

 

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

NEW for 2013 - Social Media Content For Recruiter Workshops - using the power of social media content to help reduce your advertising costs, build your digital brand and create new methods of candidate attraction. For more information go to the booking page here.

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.

Gratuitous Job Posting In LinkedIn Updates Is Damaging Your Brand

 

Over the last few weeks my attention has been drawn to some excessive - and quite frankly dumb -  behaviours on LinkedIn that unfortunately seem to be increasing again! Maybe you have spotted them as well?

More about that in a moment. First I want to ask you a question:

What actually is LinkedIn in your opinion?

Professional social network? ; Social media? ; Real-time people database? ; Job board? ; 'CV' (OK, personal profiles)  Database? ; Business Network? ; Contact Database? ; Marketing Tool? ; Personal Brand Builder? ; Corporate Marketing Tool? ; Corporate Branding? ; Promotional Platform? ; Content Marketing Platform? ; News & Insight Provider? <-- Have I missed anything?

How many have you picked? Three? Five? 

You should have gone for all of them - LinkedIn is is many, many things to all the 220 million members on it's platform. Then you factor in that 79% of the LinkedIn members are not actually actively looking for a job (LinkedIn's stat not mine), it then astounds me when so many recruiters insist on using LinkedIn like a post and pray 'cheap as chips' job board!!

[Before I go off on my merry little rant - I just want to say there is nothing wrong with posting jobs in status updates, groups and company status updates - it is the frequency and lack of thought I have an issue with!]

If you haven't already noticed, LinkedIn is fast becoming a content publishing/sharing social platform. They are actively encouraging people to post, share, comment on and like interesting articles, blogs and industry news updates. They want you post loads of content and in different places > personal status updates, company status updates and LinkedIn groups. They want you to post jobs on their platform (for a fee of course) and they even allow you to post jobs (for free at the moment) in groups. 
Let's be fair here - it is a pretty damn good platform for anyone in recruitment! 

YET......... there are many (recruiters) who don't seem to understand what LinkedIn is, the power of the word 'good content' and seemingly don't care!  All they want to do is to post jobs, jobs and more jobs in every place that can host them..... for free! You have seen them:

• They post all their jobs in their status updates
• They post all their jobs in all the groups they are in (and many recruiters are in between 20-50 groups)
• Many have now monopolised the company status updates and are posting the same jobs there as well
• And the important thing here is they they post nothing else at all!

In other words - OK, in my words...... this is just job spam!!

I just want to point out some reasons why this habit is poor practice, stupid and can have serious implications for you using LinkedIn in the future:

1. Who are your connections? Are they all in the same sector (well the majority anyway)? are they even in the same industry that you are posting jobs for? This is the biggest fail for me - recruiters posting jobs in their updates when they don't even mention that industry in their profile! e.g. I saw an IT recruiter yesterday post a job for a Marketing role. Who the hell is that aimed at? You have to actually understand who you have connected to in the first place! 
2. Not everyone on LinkedIn is looking for a job - in fact it is the the minority of people. Just posting jobs all the time is creating unwanted 'noise' in people's LinkedIn update stream. So what do people do? They HIDE all your updates with the click of a mouse - FOR EVER! (Just click the word 'HIDE' on the right hand side of the update to do this). So in the future when you want to share something interesting and useful with your connections, they simply won't see it! 
3. The same applies to company status updates. If someone follows your company on LinkedIn, then that is great news from a future marketing perspective. However, if you then fill their status updates up with job after job, then they will quickly unfollow your company. I am not sure your company owners or marketers will be not too pleased with you then! Again they have been lost for any future communications.
4. Groups. This is recruitment spam heaven! What many recruiters don't realise that LinkedIn have now started to do something about this. HOORAY! If there is a jobs page in a group - use it. That is where the group owner/moderator want you to post jobs (if at all). But of course that is too easy  - why not just post every jobs as a discussion - it doesn't matter if the job has no bearing on the actual group, does it?! 
   *Take note group owners and  moderators* - if people are just continually posting jobs or content you don't think is relevant or suitable for your group, and you put the 'discussion update' back into moderation, this will then put all their updates into moderation for all the groups they are in. And the thing is the poster them-self has no idea that their 'discussion updates' are stuck in moderation!! This is LinkedIn's way of taking a heavy hand with group spam. No, it isn't ideal for honest posters who get pinged by a group owner, but LinkedIn have had to do something.

Obviously I have had many conversations with recruiters that do these practices - and many genuinely just don't give a sh*t about it - all they are focused on is making placements and money. Some defend the practice by saying that people in their networks actually refer the jobs they see to others in their own networks. REALLY? This is so easy to disprove....... When they say that to me, I get them to login to their LinkedIn profile and click on the flag at the top toolbar. The drop down box shows me all the interactions on their profile - and surprise surprise there are very few (if any) shares, likes, comments on their jobs. 

Taking this a stage further I then ask how many placements they have made through jobs they have placed on LinkedIn updates, groups etc. Great question as the majority don't even track their jobs back to their careersite/ website. So then it is on to guesswork....... 

Let me just re-iterate what I said earlier...

"I just want to say there is nothing wrong with posting jobs in status updates, groups and company status updates - it is the frequency and lack of thought I have an issue with!'

So what are you supposed to do then?

Candidates want to interact with recruiters that understand them, their market and their industry. They want to know that the recruiters actually have a clue what the important content to them - their CV - is understood for a start! Recruiters who just post jobs are not necessarily going to get the so-called passive candidates reaching out to them, if all they do is post jobs. However if they regularly share industry content, give insights (via blogs) on different aspects of the relevant industry, comment and share other updates from their networks then they are going along way to position themselves as go-to recruiters and experts in their sectors. These are the types of recruiters that the good and great candidates will search out and make contact with.

So carry on posting some jobs - but more importantly give your LinkedIn audience a variety of content at the same time. Give them the social proof that actually you know your sector, your industry and that you aren't just another of those LinkedIn job spamming recruiters!

 

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If your company has this problem above with Linked - you know I can help you! If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

 

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.

You decide: Is this RPO recruitment video the best or worst you have ever seen?

 

Now let's be fair, recruitment video's are not normally known for being too different are they? You know the stuff - here's our company, here's our people, here's what we can do for you - you have all seen them, so you know what I mean!

I discovered this video a while ago and recently started showing it again during some recent workshops I have been running. I use it to demonstrate different types of suitable content to use in social media content strategies (next course is on the 1st May and filling up, so book quickly - use SIR133 for some discount love!).
It has been really interesting watching the response as it polarizes people into two camps - 'love it and think it is clever' or 'think it is stupid'. But one thing people do is laugh!!

BUT, does it make you think of recruitment process outsourcing (RPO)? Does it even matter? Accolo obviously thought it would work for them!

You decide >> clever, genius, stupid or sad? I guarantee it will make you smile though!!

 

If for any reason the embed doesn't work here is the link

So. come on then, did you  'love it and think it is clever' or 'think it is stupid'? But it did make you smile, right?

Now here's a thought .......... maybe the RPO companies actually should adopt some more creative and different advertising strategies after all? Then again........

 

 

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

NEW for 2013 - Social Media Content For Recruiter Workshops - using the power of social media content to help reduce your advertising costs, build your digital brand and create new methods of candidate attraction. For more information go to the booking page here.

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.

Ten Years On - Consulting, Bungees, Social Recruiting and a Crocodile

Wow! It really doesn't seem like ten years ago that Sara and I sat down trying to decide on a name for our new company.........

Now after ten years of recruiting, recruiting consulting projects, developing social recruiting strategies, delivering LinkedIn training and training many recruiters in the 'dark arts' of social media recruitment, we have taken some time out, supped a glass of wine and considered what the future will hold. 

But first, a little journey through time...

We have had the pleasure of meeting and working with some great people and companies, and have learnt much along the ten years. For those of you who don't know Sirona Consulting was originally started off as a niche recruitment company - focusing on sales and marketing roles in the Credit Card and Payments industry (on the back of 13 years recruiting for others!). Six years ago, it 'morphed' into a consulting business. Three things happened that changed the direction of the business:

1. I refused to recruit another replacement salesperson for one of my clients. Instead I ended up advising them how to recruit properly.
2. Social media started to roll into town! And as an early adopter I was all over it trying to learn how to use it to find people for recruiting purposes.
3. I started blogging. [ You can 'blame' a certain Peter Gold for that. Thanks Peter] Now six years later I have written over 1000 blogs on recruitment and  social recruiting!

After a year of consulting across different candidate attraction projects as well as busily blogging ( I was writing 3-4 posts a week at that stage) I was approached by a large high street retailer to help them 'sort out' their recruitment systems, processes and strategy. This turned out being system review, recruitment process and ATS re-design, social media use, employer branding and finished with a European rollout. A full end-to-end project that resulted in huge recruitment efficiencies, including big cost and time savings. 
And for those of you who doubt the power of blogs - that project came directly from a blog post I had written on online recruitment and technology.

The last few years of consulting with companies about recruitment has been really interesting /challenging - primarily because of social media. While many other markets embraced social media quickly, the recruitment sector were, shall we say, a little reserved!! HRD's, 'Heads of" and Recruitment Business Owners wanted full justification, ROI's, proof and guarantees of success before they would even start to listen.
I can't remember how many conversations I had at that stage trying to get them to remove the ban on Facebook, Twitter and (unbelievably) LinkedIn in workplaces. I even 'frog marched' one HRD out into his floor of recruiters one lunchtime, to show them it was a useless ban as their consultants were all accessing the social networks on their iPhones and Blackberries anyway!

Over the last couple of years the conversations around social recruiting have moved on from the 'why' to the 'how' (well mostly anyway!), as the recruitment industry has accepted that social media is not just a fantastic addition to the recruitment armoury, but more importantly, it is here to stay!

The 'how' has led to many training sessions, strategy workshops and in-house training for corporates and recruitment companies large and small - and this still continues with the demand for social recruiting training and knowledge higher than ever. Earlier this year we took it a stage further, helping recruiters understand and use the power of social media content within recruitment. (The next one is on the 1st May)

This nearly broke me but it was worth it in the end>> In 2011 I was approached by ARK Publishing to write them a business book about social media recruitment strategies. It was really hard work, and took tremendous dedication (just ask my wife, Sara!) but with a big grin on my face my first book was published in the summer of 2011 - Smart Social Media Recruitment Strategies. A New York bestseller it isn't, but is has sold well - in many different countries as well! 

We actually turned to social media in 2009 and 2010 as The Worthing Crocman was born (well me actually!) to raise money for charity. I sadly lost my brother to leukaemia in 2007 and so I decided to raise money by doing some crazy jumps dresses as a crocodile!

First it was a mere 36 feet off Worthing Pier into the sea......(click image for video courtesy of the BBC - and yes that is me dreassed as Worthing Crocman)

then the year later it was followed by an 800 feet bungee off the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland, which my daughter did at the same time, watched by a very nervous Sara I might add!!! (click image for video)

Using the power of social media we raised over £1700 for leukaemia research. Watch this space for our next Worthing Crocman adventure - he will be returning sometime soon!

During the last few years, I have had the pleasure of speaking at different events, and consulting in many different countries including many European countries and the Middle East. I have also delivered projects remotely in the US. I am hoping that this trend continues in the future!

The final point I want to mention is that earlier this year, Sirona Consulting - was approached by asked by LinkedIn to join their new partner programme as an Official LinkedIn® EMEA Talent Solutions Partner. This doesn't mean I sell their products, it simply means as recognised experts in social recruiting we are able to offer independant support and advice to LinkedIn clients, as and when required.

So, there is a whistle stop tour of the last ten years - there has been loads more to talk about, and way too many people to mention. But the one thing that has made it great has been all the people we have met and interacted with literally all over the world.

So, now I am back to the question I posed at the start of the post, what will the future hold?

Over the last 10 years I have delivered projects, social media recruitiment training, recruitment strategies, social media content strategies, written and created content across all the social media channels, spoken at many conferences and of course recruited many people along the way!

It's funny what a 10 year anniversary does to you. It makes you take stock and think about what the future could hold.
I have done just that and looked at some areas where there may well be some slightly different ways that Sirona Consulting can add more value to companies in the future. Maybe some will come to fruition one day, maybe they won't. But one thing is for sure, sitting back and thinking about it has done me no harm at all!!
So with my thinking cap on and crystal ball in hand, here are some ways we could add more value for recruitment companies and/or corporates in the future:

• Consulting is good, but it would be great to be involved in an end to end recruitment project (usually in consulting we get involved in segments) - influencing decision making at the right stages, and managing projects to a conclusion. This would mean changing direction a little and taking a role on full-time or on an interim basis. Worth thinking about.
• Social recruiting strategies are still not as widely adopted as (I think) they should be. Short term training is good, but working within a company more closely either part-time or full-time, to full develop capability longer term experienced talent would be interesting.
• Social media content creation and strategies in recruitment is a problem area for many recruitment companies and departments - especially getting the consultants/recruiters to adopt the new ways of working. Again to make this effective, a period of time working directly with a company is the only way to really make this work. 
• Recruitment technologies are changing and with fast moving social media (just look at the speed of change in LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and Facebook), recruitment processes need to change (IMO) to reflect the changes and embrace these new technologies. There could be options on the other side of the fence working with recruitment software providers to help position and embed their technologies better within recruitment.
• With the continued growth of RPO, will the existing models that are mainly based on cost savings be sustainable, with the need for more and more recruiters to deliver the numbers of quality candidates to clients. I know many clients are reluctantly accepting RPO as a necessary evil to drive cost down, but what about sourcing techniques, relationship management, delivery and client communications of the actual recruiters? Do they even care about candidate experience? What about employer brand extension? 

As I said above it's funny what a 10 year anniversary does to you! Will any of the above happen? Maybe, maybe not, but it certainly got the thinking juices going again!

Thanks to everyone for the support during the last decade.

Here's to the next 10 years :-)

Andy & Sara

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

NEW for 2013 - Social Media Content For Recruiter Workshops - using the power of social media content to help reduce your advertising costs, build your digital brand and create new methods of candidate attraction. For more information go to the booking page here.

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.

Forget Google Alerts, Mention is a much better free social media monitoring tool

 

For the last month I have been testing a new social media monitoring tool called Mention. I had been using Google Alerts and SocialMention (as well as Traackr and Topsy) but have found them to be a little unreliable and not as accurate or fast as I would like. Then I found Mention - Wow! what a difference!! This is a 'must have' addition to your social recruiting toolbox!

Before I go on to explain why you have to sign up for Mention, I just want to check - you do monitor your name, website address (URL), blog name, brand name your specific keywords or your social media profile names don't you?

For those of you that are doing this then this gold star is for you. Why not take it to the next stage now and look at monitoring your competitors, industry keywords, buzzwords etc.

 

For those of you that don't monitor anything >>> KAPOW<<< Why the hell not? Why wouldn't you want to know what is being said about you online  - good or bad.

Just to give you an example; yesterday Mention picked up that one of my blog posts had been completely copied onto a job board website in Asia without my permission. It has now been resolved very amicably, but I would never have known otherwise. 

So onto Mention.

As I said I have been using Mention for the month's free trial and have to say it is brilliant. You can use Mention’s web app on a PC, MAC and across mobile devices (the iOS version is brilliant), and it allows users to share and react to their mentions. The iPhone app with the push notifications and the email alerts that come through in real time have been very fast and accurate so far. 

It is really easy to use and then subsequently adjust when the mentions start coming through.

Like other social media monitoring tools Mention tracks a number of sources: Web, Facebook, Twitter, News, Blogs, Videos, Forums and Images. You can turn off these as you choose - I have Twitter turned off as I have already said.

And if you are wondering what these alerts look like:

They have a free version with 3 alerts and up to 500 mentions a month - more than enough for most people (especially if you turn off the Twitter monitoring - you do that on Hootsuite or Tweetdeck anyway, don't you?) And the next price is just $19.99 a month for unlimited alerts and 50,000 mentions. Very reasonably priced.

This ia MUST HAVE social recruiting tool. Off you go and sign up to Mention now and start finding out what people are saying about you!

[Just for reference, I have no affiliation to this product or any other I choose to share here on SironaSays. I share them with you because they are great products!]

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

NEW for 2013 - Social Media Content For Recruiter Workshops - using the power of social media content to help reduce your advertising costs, build your digital brand and create new methods of candidate attraction. For more information go to the booking page here.

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.

The 30 Sales Interview Questions [Infographic]

 

This is one of my most popular blog posts that I have now turned into an infographic. It is applicable to anyone in sales - especially recruiters (who sometimes forget they are in a sales role!). Can you answer all 30?

Share it on Pinterest by clicking here >>   or on Twitter by clicking here

 

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

NEW for 2013 - Social Media Content For Recruiter Workshops - using the power of social media content to help reduce your advertising costs, build your digital brand and create new methods of candidate attraction. For more information go to the booking page here.

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.

You Reap What You Sow With Social Recruiting

I would love to share a conversation I had last week with you to really highlight this post, but confidentiality precludes me from embarrassing the (incredibly) shortsighted recruiter, who should actually be appearing on The Muppet Show instead!

But I will explain that I was talking to this company about social recruiting and the <frustrating> conversation was spattered with phrases from Kermit like these; "social media is just for posting jobs", "social sourcing is a waste of time"; "LinkedIn is for my 30 Inmails KPI a day" ( I jest not!!); "Twitter is for girls";  [He saved the best for last] "Facebook is just about cats and dogs - what's that got to do with recruitment"

What was really interesting at this recruitment company was that this person had some influence! The Director in charge actually said to me afterwards, that they 'valued' this recruitment consultant's opinion about social media and recruitment!! This is when I used the phrase in the title of this post - You Reap What You Sow With Social Recruiting. **Voosh** >> straight over the Directors head that went!! 
[While I like a challenge - this was one time that I chose to report to the MD that I wouldn't be helping them with their social recruiting strategy!]

On the train on the way back, I liked the phrase that I spontaneously used, so I have elaborated further here. So here are five reasons why some recruiters will always reap what they sow:

1. Lack of understanding will kill your social recruiting from the start. >> Just doing social recruiting for doing it's sake, or because you are told to is a car crash waiting to happen. Take the time to understand the social networks and the audience relevant to your market. Become a voyeur first, practitioner second!
2. Being generic is boring. >> Social media is all about interactions, engagement and communication. If you don't personalise your content, you will fail to differentiate yourself from all the others doing the same (and there are plenty!). Great content makes you stand out.
3. You get what you post. >> If you post crap, all you are only going to get in return is crap. You have to make sure the content you post is interesting, appealing and above all relevant to the audience you want to reach. If it isn't no-one will even bother reading it.
4. Give people a reason to respond. >> Why should someone respond to your Inmail, Tweet, or Message? What is their motivation to do it? Do you even think about that? It certainly isn't just because you are a recruiter and you assume they will want to talk to you!
5. Treating social media like a job board is doomed to failure from the start. >> There is a reason why social networks are called social networks and not job boards because that is what they are! There are many good job boards out there - you know, you use them! Don't then confuse the two. Sharing jobs on social networks is good, but not every one - just be a little selective! 

I am still amazed at how many people in recruitment turn their noses up and snigger when you mention social recruiting.
Using social media for recruitment as an integrated part of your strategy is the way forward in recruitment. It is no longer the new kid on the block, it isn't a fad and it certainly isn't going away. If done properly social recruiting can help transform your recruitment processes (please note I didn't say 'replace' - I said 'help transform'!)

All that being said, I wonder how long it will be before I have another conversation with more of Kermit's friends out there in the market? 

 

We work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them integrate social media into their existing recruitment strategy and recruitment processes. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.

NEW for 2013 - Social Media Content For Recruiter Workshops - using the power of social media content to help reduce your advertising costs, build your digital brand and create new methods of candidate attraction. For more information go to the booking page here.

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.