Social Media Snafus of 2011: A Study in HR Best Practices (Condensed)

This month I am fortunate to be able to share the condensed version of a great article from fellow blogger and HR Guy Kyle Lagunas from Software Advice… he takes a look at the social media snafus from 2011 from the HR perspective…  He has the full version and other equally great articles on his site, so I encourage you to check it out!

Social Media Snafus of 2011: A Study in HR Best Practices

The blogosphere was happy to report some epic failures in large organizations’ use of social media in 2011. As I read through these lists (there were many), I thought, Wow, I’m glad I’m not managing HR there. You see, when something goes wrong in the office, HR inevitably gets called in for damage control. This applies when an organization’s use of social media goes wrong, too. Digging a little deeper into the top social media blunders, I realized that these mishaps offer some great insights into social media best practices.

As organizations begin crafting formal social medial policies, there are certain situations and mishaps for which they should be prepared. Here are the three snafus that stood out to me as having some serious lessons to learn from an HR perspective:

 

1. Communications Disconnect at Qantas. When launching a Twitter campaign in November, Qantas–the premiere airline in Australia–had a serious breakdown in communications. Amid widespread disruptions in service (the entire fleet had been grounded in October) they attempted to create some positive energy by asking followers to describe their “dream luxury in-flight experience” using the hashtag #QantasLuxury. The problem? The campaign launched the day after Qantas and its unions stopped contract talks. Customers hijacked the campaign’s untimely campaign and used the hashtag to voice serious complaints.

 

When managing your social media presence, these kinds of breakdowns in communication can have serious consequences. As such, establishing clear channels for disimmenating need-to-know information to key players in your management team is a must. Qantas’ mishap is a case in point on the importance of making it easy to quickly distribute key communications, not to mention the value in maintaining a degree of transparency in less-than-ideal times.

2. Kutcher’s Quickfire Backfire. As many organizations are learning, not everyone is equipped to keep small blunders from turning into social media firestorms–even if your “organization” is the brand behind a celebrity figure. There needs to be a process for managing your online presence. CBS’ new “Two and a Half Men” star, Ashton Kutcher, sent out a particularly nightmarish tweet to 8.5 million followers in November  which seemingly supported Joe Paterno: “How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #no class as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste.”

Kutcher pleaded ignorance, claiming that he wasn’t up on the alleged Penn State child abuse scandal. He offered an apology via Twitter but the damage was done. When building a social media strategy–be it for sourcing and recruiting talent or for branding and advertising–your plan should ensure your people have a course of action outlined for cleaning up small mishaps before they become big messes. In the end, Kutcher got the message and turned over management of his Twitter account to his PR team.

3. American Red Cross Turns it Around. Some debacles have a happy ending. An employee of The American Red Cross sent out an inappropriate tweet via the @RedCross account indicating that employees were getting “slizzered” on Dogfish Head beer. To the surprise of many (and the joy of a vested few), Wendy Harman, Social Media Director for the Red Cross, was able to turn this around with grace and good humor. The rogue tweet was down within the hour, and Harman responded with a tweet assuring that the Red Cross was sober, adding, “we’ve confiscated the keys.” Meanwhile, they retained the (very embarrassed) employee, and Dogfish Head took the opportunity to launch a fundraising campaign for the Red Cross.

Because of their quick and classy response, the Red Cross turned a PR nightmare into a lesson in humility, and has been earning kudos since. This indicates a strong sense of teamwork and unity in the organization. “We are an organization that deals with life-changing disasters and this wasn’t one of them,” Harman told Mashable. “It was just a little mistake.”

 

Last Year’s Blunders: A Boon for HR in 2012?

While it’s easy to look back on social media snafus and share a laugh, HR professionals have their work cut out for them in the next year. The blunders of 2011 present a great opportunity for HR to step up to the plate and spearhead the design, implementation and oversight of formal social media policies for their organizations.

About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice, a company that reviews HR systems. On the surface, it’s his job to contribute to the ongoing conversation on all things HR. Beyond that, he makes sure his audience is keeping up with important trends and hot topics in the industry. Focused on offering a fresh take on points of interest in his market, he’s not your typical HR guy. If you’re interested in reading this article in full, you can find it on his blog.

End of Year Report Card: Mike’s Predictions for 2011

End of Year Report Card: Mike’s Predictions for 2011

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: All

This January I continued the tradition of trying to predict what was to be in the New Year.   Now it is time to take a look to see how I did.

Some aspects of my predictions that looked uncertain at the midyear report card have come to fruition, but the context in which they came about wasn’t what was expected.  Others did well and others not as much…

Recovery, recovery, recovery

Grade- C+

Prediction- This year, especially the latter half, we will be fully focused on the economic recovery that will finally become wide spread.

That is not to say that we will see strong growth in the employment sector and I would be surprised to see the national unemployment rate drop to anything below 8% or even 8.5%, but all of us will hopefully see that things have started to turn around.

Commentary- Recovery is the talk, but not in a good way as it is often used in along with “slow” and “uncertain” or unsteady.”  I was very close to the mark with the unemployment rate at 8.6%.  Since the main prediction was that recovery would be well underway I can’t give myself a great grade.

Mobile will become the hot thing in Recruiting

Grade- A+

Prediction-   People are going from the mobile experience being something of a novelty to an expectation.  Someone will be using their phone in their living room just feet from their PC, but will expect to be able to search jobs without waiting for the PC to boot up, update, etc.

Commentary- Mobile is so pervasive that some vendors are trying to fake their way into it (see last month’s blog post about Mobile Site Posers).

Geo-Targeted recruitment advertising will grow, but not be wide-spread

Grade- B

Prediction- Products like FourSquare, Google and Facebook equivalents as well as others will find their way onto the media/social media plans for a small number of companies. Many other companies will watch to see what can be done with this platform.

Commentary- My midyear prediction that it would probably not take hold more until the war for talent resumes seems to be holding true, while I can’t say that the number of companies that are really using this met even my modest expectations I didn’t think I was entirely off the mark either.

Social media will flatten out

Grade- A

Prediction- This is the year that we will see social media start to flatten out.  But that’s not to say it won’t continue to grow, it will just do so at a more modest pace.

Commentary- This seems to continue to be the case, with social media IPOs being more of the news than their traffic growth.  I found it very interesting to see the role social media has played in some critical events around the world.  While Google+ looked interesting at the midyear update, I am not sure how much impact it will have without Facebook really dropping the ball or a major innovative shift coming from Google.

Next month will be my predictions for 2012, which do not involve the end of the world!

If you have any questions, comments or anything you would like to add, feel free to send them my way!  All the best to you until next month!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

Beware of the posers- mobile site deceptions

Beware of the posers- mobile site deceptions

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: Your Organizations Ability to Attract Candidates

Many of us know that the way we are interacting with the internet is changing rapidly, moving away from the time when we had a PC, tethered to a desk on a slow dial up connection to a fast means of accessing almost anything in the palm of our hands from almost anywhere.  People are changing the way they find jobs in the same way they are changing how they shop and how they post content to their social media platforms

Although I have been and continue to be an advocate for companies moving to mobile career sites and apps, I come to you this month with a warning that should not be a surprise.

Beware of the posers
Just like in the early days of job boards and social media, there are a number of companies that are out there trying to convince you that what they have is what you seek- a mobile career site.

Last year I wondered why ATS providers were not jumping into this to gain competitive advantage.

Through my networking and collaborations with some of you, I have become aware of some interesting developments and this year we saw some of the first ATS providers coming out with mobile sites and unfortunately a couple that are outright posers.

Sadly, these companies are not small start ups or fly by night companies, they are sizeable and well known and it’s a shame that at least some of the in their organizations are pitching something that is not the truth until pressed.  This month I will give you the basic questions to ask and the unfortunate half-truths that I am aware of…

The question
The first version of the question is actually quite simple and that is probably why it can be easy for a sales team to try to pull a quick one over on people.  The question is:

“Does your product provide a mobile career site?”

This is where the problem lies… in its simplicity.  I will take you through three instances where a potential customer could have come away with entirely the wrong impression and would have made the wrong decision, at least in regards to mobile recruiting, as a result.

Problem answer #1: Yes we have a mobile site
You may be thinking what is the problem?  Well in this case, I actually don’t think the vendor was being purposely misleading, but here is a synopsis of the rest of the answer:

“Recruiters can log in review candidates, post jobs, schedule interviews, etc.”

Notice there is no mention of candidates?  When asked a slightly different question, the vendor had a different answer:

“Does your product provide a mobile career site for job seekers…”

The answer? “No”

It’s nice that Recruiters can do stuff, but it’s far more important that job seekers be able to do stuff.  Plus, I don’t know about you, but as a Recruiter there is only so much I am willing to do from a smartphone.

Problem answer #2: Yes we have a mobile site
Again all seems well, and the vendor happily showed the potential customer his iPhone with a cool looking app.  The problem didn’t arise until one of the review team members said “Where do I look for a job?” and another asked “Why is there the ability to run payroll?”

The first problem answer was forgivable, this one is not.  There was not only no ability to search jobs, there was nothing to do with recruiting on the app either… this was an HR/Payroll app shame, shame, shame.

Problem answer #3: Yes we have a mobile site
So you get it by now and are wondering what happened.  Similar to the previous example, someone was proud to show off their iPhone and the team looked at it and seemed impressed until someone noticed that this was just the full website of the a client company.  When pressed, the vendor maintained that they had a mobile site and it looks great.  Continued pressing from the review team finally got the vendor to admit that they didn’t have a mobile site, but that “the site renders beautifully on an iPhone.”

That’s all great, but since the screen, even an iPhone is tiny, and 0.5 pitch is difficult for anyone to read I would say this vendor is a total poser… the sad thing was the person being pressed was the company’s President, not an over-eager sales person trying to get commission.

Conclusion
So beware when you meet with vendors about this new platform we all have to manage.

The key question is not whether or not they can provide a mobile site, but is actually a series or slightly more complicated questions.  Here are some of the questions I recommend asking:

Does your current product provide a mobile careers site that enables job seekers to have a mobile experience similar to those visiting our full version website, including searching for and viewing jobs?

What mobile platforms do you support?  iPhone, Android, iPad, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile?

Note: If they support iPhone and Android you are well covered, many iPhone apps work on an iPad; Windows Mobile market share is too small and BlackBerry is declining rapidly.  If you did want to add a third platform, add iPad since an iPad app can be much more robust than an iPhone app.

Do you support mobile websites or downloadable apps, or both?

What types of content can you support?  Is the site simply a job search interface or can we have text content, pictures and video to create a rich user experience?

How refined can the job search be?  Do users have only a couple options or several that deliver targeted results?

Does the mobile site at any time send the user to the full version site? If the answer is yes, then it is not a mobile site!

The important thing is to not go into this blind… just like anything else!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them my way!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

Midyear Report Card: Mike’s Predictions for 2011

Midyear Report Card: Mike’s Predictions for 2011

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: All

This January I continued the tradition of trying to predict what was to be in the new year.   As I did last year, I thought this would be a good moment to take pause and see how those predictions are coming along.

I think I did a little better with this year’s midyear report card than last, but some things remain uncertain.

Recovery, recovery, recovery

Grade- Who knows at this point!

Prediction- This year, especially the latter half, we will be fully focused on the economic recovery that will finally become wide spread.

That is not to say that we will see strong growth in the employment sector and I would be surprised to see the national unemployment rate drop to anything below 8% or even 8.5%, but all of us will hopefully see that things have started to turn around.

Commentary- Well, we are all talking about the recovery, but more in the way people waiting for a late bus talk about what happened.  So we have some pockets of recovery, but it’s really questionable if this is going to take hold throughout the nation anytime soon.   Just a month ago, I thought this would be a very different entry, but this economy is struggling to get to its feet more than any other post recession economy.  I still think we will have a national unemployment rate that is somewhere between 8.5% and 9% later this year, which is still better than it was.

Mobile will become the hot thing in Recruiting

Grade- A

Prediction-   People are going from the mobile experience being something of a novelty to an expectation.  Someone will be using their phone in their living room just feet from their PC, but will expect to be able to search jobs without waiting for the PC to boot up, update, etc.

Commentary- I think this was one prediction that has really started to take hold.  Talking about mobile is wide spread, more and more companies have mobile sites (including mine) and the first ATS/TMS to provide a mobile experience for candidates (not just Recruiters like many) is available on the market.

Geo-Targeted recruitment advertising will grow, but not be wide-spread

Grade- C

Prediction- Products like FourSquare, Google and Facebook equivalents as well as others will find their way onto the media/social media plans for a small number of companies. Many other companies will watch to see what can be done with this platform.

Commentary- The part about it not being wide spread is definitely true, and there are some companies that are using this, but not many.  This is something that may catch on next year for some, and many will likely table this until the war for talent fully returns.

Social media will flatten out

Grade- A

Prediction- This is the year that we will see social media start to flatten out.  But that’s not to say it won’t continue to grow, it will just do so at a more modest pace.

Commentary- We’ve seen the demise of MySpace (although I would have never predicted Timberlake buying it) and other platforms are starting to or continuing to flatten out.  LinkedIn showed some increases in traffic because of new services, but according to Quantcast, Facebook is growing, but  slowing and Twitter seems to be possibly starting a decline.  This does not spell the beginning of the end by any means, rather that it has reached a new level.  It will be interesting to see how Google+ impacts all of this.

If you have any questions, comments or anything you would like to add, feel free to send them my way!  All the best to you until next month!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

ATS v2.0 is more than just changing the name to TMS

ATS v2.0 is more than just changing the name to TMS

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: All of segment two with the exception of Universal Variables

I remember the days when there were only really two ATS systems, Resumix and Res Track and how I was amazed that something could search through thousands of resumes and deliver ones with keywords you input in a matter of minutes.

That was before the internet and long before Google allowed us to search billions of sites to find information that we need, no matter how obscure.

Since those early days of the ATS we have seen it change somewhat, but perhaps not as much as one would have expected given that my experience was more than 15 years ago.

Many argue that the ATS really serves as an electronic file cabinet and that it hasn’t changed significantly.  Since their inception, the only substantial change has been that it “integrates” with other products like background checking systems, HRIS, etc. and is much simpler to configure by a user.

I believe that “integration” is merely a fancy way of saying “file transfer” or electronic paper shuffling.   As we all know, administrative tasks are far from the most important thing about recruiting… it’s about the relationship, the brand, the marketing plan and so many other things before merely retrieving information and sending it off somewhere else.

We are already seeing headhunters starting to move away from the ATS/TMS in favor of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool because with some modification they can handle the electronic paper shuffling, but are far more effective at helping manage a relationship with a candidate, which is vital to a good headhunter.

I believe that we are not far from seeing small corporate environments make the shift to CRM if some haven’t already done so and quite probably a CRM vendor making a serious run at the ATS/TMS market.

But a CRM is only part of the solution.

So ATS/TMS vendors, here are my thoughts on what I think v2.0 of your space should be:

Use your current product as a baseline to launch into entirely new areas

While I do think that information retrieval and integration is far from meeting all our needs, it remains an important base component, so continue to develop and refine this.

Create real CRM capability so we can engage candidates over the long term

I know an ATS/TMS cannot include all the elements that a sales CRM can; but there are many elements that it could.  Some ATS vendors say their product can be used for CRM but I am willing to bet at best it allows someone to do some mass e-mails to semi targeted groups, enables people to be notified about jobs and track notes of conversations that a Recruiter inputs.  It may even integrate with Outlook to let a Recruiter create tasks and calendar items, but that is clunky and not enough.  But systems need to support Recrutments shift from being about how quickly one can fill the job most cheaply to building relationships with strong candidates over a period of months to perhaps years.   We need to be able to engage candidates using a variety of tools that works seamlessly by helping us set up an engagement plan ahead of time for each critical candidate group and executing the plan with little manual effort.

Help Recruiters create and execute maketing plans for each specific position

I would like to see an ATS allow a Recruiter or Recruiting leadership to sit down and think about how to promote a position ahead of time and with some input and guidance have the system execute that plan with only conformational input from the Recruiter.  For example, A Recruiter is about to open a tough to fill position.  They input some information and not only does the system present back some recommendations of where to promote the position (some systems do this already) but will allow the Recruiter to either follow a predefined plan that Recruiting leadership has input or create a new plan to be approved by leadership.  Thirty days after the position has opened, the system will prompt the Recruiter to post the position to a particular Twitter feed or send a message out to specific employees to solicit employee referrals, pushes the position out to company alumni that fit a relevant set of criteria and sends the information out to specific user groups.

Real integration with social media

I have seen systems that allow people to share information off the careers site and may support a Twitter and Facebook feed, which is a great first step, but I would like to see a system that not only integrates with multiple Twitter feeds, but helps manage a marketing plan that includes social media, and also searches social media sites for potential candidates by matching requirements of critical jobs with profiles on social media platforms.  Some systems do some of this, but it is not a robust and reliable as it should be. In addition, a system that would allow a Recruiter to manage conversations with multiple people across multiple platforms is also critical. Conversations with leads generated via social media interactions would have to be kept separate from notes about interactions with candidates, but many systems already allow leads and candidates to be kept separately.

A mobile site

There are some great vendors out there with very good modestly priced mobile website products, but I why can’t an ATS that can power a corporate career site also provide a mobile site that facilitates a seamless experience for the candidate.

Robust real time metrics and analytics

This is perhaps the thing that has disappointed all of us most about the ATS. There are some that are more successful than others, but even the best ones seem to fall a little short at times.  So I cannot write this entry without asking for something more about metrics.  We need more than marginally reliable sourcing information.  I need to see website analytics that I can slice and dice information by source, by time, region, yield ratio, etc.  I need to be able to take any two variables and associate them to see if there is a relationship.  At the most basic level, I need to be able to measure not just the pedestrian measurements of cost per hire and time to fill, but more important things like quality of hire throughout an employee’s tenure and the Recruiter Efficiency Ratio developed by Dr. John Sullivan and Staffing.org, etc.

Conclusion

So I have shared my thoughts, but what are yours? Feel free to let us know what you would like to see in an ATS/TMS.

Until next month…

© 2010 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

Social Media Demystified? Part III- Twitter and YouTube

Social Media Demystified? Part III- Twitter and YouTube

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: Segment two-Branding and Candidate Awareness, Your organizations ability to source candidates, Your organizations ability to sell open positions, Your organizations ability to close candidates

Today I will wrap up this series on Social Media by looking at Twitter and YouTube.

While both of these products are very different, there is a place for both of them within a strong Social Media strategy because they can support each other.  A simple example of the products interacting would be, YouTube providing content to engage people via Twitter and Twitter providing traffic to content like YouTube.

Twitter

What is Twitter?

Twitter has been called a “microblog.”  It allows people to post very short messages (140 characters or less) to a network of people called “followers.”  These followers can then resend the message to their own networks, or communicate either privately and directly to you or publically and semi-directly to you.  You can also include links that bring people back to a web page to get more information.

As you can see, Twitter is really not all that complicated in concept and that holds true in reality.

Now, I can’t tell you how many times I heard someone say “… someone sent out a message that they were eating a ham sandwich… why should I care?” and some people this stop them from learning about the true potential of Twitter for their organization.

This is unfortunate, if we judged every product by the dumbest thing it was ever used for, the world would be devoid of almost everything made by humans.

In reality, you probably shouldn’t care what some random stranger is having for lunch.  Just like the e-mail messages that all of us occasional get with bad jokes and urban legends, we should not let misuse by some diminish the true value add that Twitter can bring.

What can Twitter be used for?

Twitter is a great communication vehicle that can be used by companies to engage a large number of people fairly quickly and easily.

Many organizations have both a consumer oriented Twitter account that engages potential customers and a recruitment oriented Twitter account that engages potential new employees.  Among the companies that have both consumer and recruitment Twitter accounts are Starbucks, Mayo Clinic, Sodexho, Banner Health, AT&T and Verizon.

For Recruitment, Twitter can be used to send out job announcements, information about upcoming events like job fairs and open houses,  other important news and information, etc.

Having separate consumer and recruitment accounts allow followers to have more control over the content that they are receiving since Twitter by nature is an all or nothing concept.  You either get all the communication sent out by someone over Twitter or you get nothing.  Separate accounts also allow individuals to more easily find the information that they are looking for.  People interested in consumer products don’t need to wade through information about jobs and people interested in jobs don’t need to sort through information about consumer products.

What should I consider before using Twitter?

I believe the most critical thing to consider is whether or not you are committed to providing content to this product on a regular basis.  An organization has to commit to sending regular updates through Twitter at least once every couple of weeks.

Information that you could send would be anything that people may find engaging.  Open jobs are an obvious one, but links back to recruitment videos, employee testimonials, news articles, occasional new products, holiday type greetings, general well wishes, awards given or received, and charitable activities by your organization are all things that can be used to drive content.

If your objective is to start modestly, with the minimum I recommended above, that’s roughly 24 times a year.  If you decide to spotlight just one job per month, you only need to come up with 12 other things to talk about during an entire year.  So the content may not be as much of a challenge as you initially think and I actually recommend not only sending out job openings.  To keep people interested, and to give them a better perspective into your organization, it is best to have a variety of different things to provide.

The next thing to consider is whether or not you are ready to take responsibility for monitoring the account.  People will respond to you in some way.  Someone may post a question to you publically.  Someone may say something negative.  If you are not ready to check the site daily for these types of messages, you may not be ready.  Certainly the size and popularity of your organization will determine how much effort you will be putting into this.  But for many organizations, the time commitment to checking on messages and responding to them aren’t too much of a burden.

A natural consequence of monitoring the account is that you need to be prepared to respond to people.  A quick, well thought out response is critical with quick and well thought out being of almost equal weight.  Do you need to respond in minutes to something?  No, but taking more than a day or two to respond would not be good either.  So it is best to think of the top 10 things that one could post on Twitter and draft at least the framework of a response.  Some examples that come to mind are negative press for your company, someone not hearing back from a Recruiter or hiring manager, someone that is not happy because they were not selected for a position, etc.

What are the benefits of using Twitter?

Twitter can serve as a great way to engage potential new employees, take advantage of the viral capabilities of Social Media and be a little more available and “authentic” with a large group of people.

Being available and “authentic”, means that people will have what seems like, more ready access to you and will be able to interact with you in a way that is perceived as more personal and goes beyond what is on your company’s collateral material and website (so called corporate speak).  This is especially critical to Twitter’s younger core demographic, because many studies have indicated that the Millennial Generation is skeptical of or outright distrusts overly polished responses that skirt issues or sound like a press release.  They respond well to honest dialog, and isn’t that what we all want?

Having a more engaged group of people that “follow” you allows you extend your relationship with the person beyond the initial transaction which then gives you more opportunities to hire them.  Instead of hoping that this is the right opportunity for this person this one time, they can more easily see other opportunities are available in the future quickly and easily.

Demographics: rapid changes

Twitter’s demographics are very dynamic because of its simplicity and because it is still being adopted within the population.  As new uses are developed, the demographics shift.  If Twitter moves forward with a corporate product, which is being tested now, then we will see even more changes!

Education level is something that we have seen vary between Social Media platforms.  As of 2/15/2010, 54% of Twitter users report having a Bachelors degree or higher*, which is similar to Facebook.

Coincidentally, 54% also report a household income of $60K or more*.  Among users, 87% report that they are 18 or older, with about half of that group (or 44% total) being classified in the 18 to 34 year old age group*.  So as you can see, the perception that Twitter is just something used by high school and college students isn’t necessarily true although it is a large group of users.

YouTube

What is YouTube?

Compared to some other Social Media, YouTube is pretty simple.  It is a site where you can upload videos that other people can search for and view.  You are also able to set up “channels” so people can more easily find all the official videos about your organization all organized in one place.

Some people have the perception that YouTube is just a collection of people’s home videos and clever little shorts about their cat playing piano, etc.  There is some truth to that, however, just like with Twitter, don’t mistake what some people do with it for what you can do with it.  Many major corporations have some sort of presence on YouTube to get their message out and to engage people.

What can YouTube be used for?

While YouTube’s basic purpose is to host videos, it is what you do with that ability that matters.  As mentioned, many organizations have a “channel” on YouTube” that makes it easy for people to find the “official” videos for the company.

Depending on your business, you may have videos for consumer purposes and some for recruitment purposes.  Either use is a great one and if it makes sense both are preferred.

By placing your videos on YouTube, you make them easier to find and available to people not familiar with your organization.  You can drive people from your website to YouTube and more importantly drive people from YouTube to your website.  This gives you the opportunity to not only add a new dimension to your brand and make it more engaging, but is also allows for you to easily get videos out to a huge number of people.

What should I consider before using YouTube?

Just like any Social Media, making the commitment to providing content is critical.  YouTube is probably the least demanding as far as frequency of new content because it seems users don’t have the same expectations for YouTube content as they do other platforms.  For example, I mentioned sending out messages via Twitter twice a month which is not necessary on YouTube.

You should also have an idea of the types of content you want to have.  Do you want both consumer and recruitment messages?  Should they be serious or funny or a mix?  Should videos shot by the employees be available?  Should the videos primarily target current employees as a means of engagement (always knowing the public would be a secondary audience)?  The only other guidance I have is that the video truly reflect the company’s culture.  If your company is serious, then it should be a little more on the serious side, if your company is more “laid back” then make sure that is reflected in your content.  Just like any other media, the content needs to be congruent with what the candidate and new employee will experience.

What are the benefits of using YouTube?

The benefits of using YouTube are similar in many ways to using any other Social Media.  First it’s another opportunity to engage people, to extend the life of your relationship with potential candidates.

Second, video adds another dimension to what people can learn about you.  When someone reads a testimonial, they may not have the same reaction to seeing the employee in video actually telling their story.  Most communication is done non-verbally and YouTube video is one of the few means where potential candidates can get that level of interaction on demand.

The third and last benefit I will review is unique to YouTube, which is quick, easy and inexpensive exposure.  How many times do we put together recruitment videos only to have them languish on our own site with barely anyone clicking on them?  That’s a little like a store only playing a commercial inside their store?  Once someone is on your site, they already know something about you, so while the video can still serve a purpose by further engaging candidates, it does not live up to its full potential!  The key benefit to placing video on YouTube is that it becomes available to people where they are congregating on line!  So your video becomes searchable and public and has the potential to reach many more people than it would on your website alone!

Demographics: A surprise or two?

Perhaps surprisingly, YouTube is the site that most people unfamiliar with Social Media have a better understanding of (after all, it’s just videos on the web, not too complicated at its most basic level), but the demographics may be a little different than they would think!

According to Quantcast, 54% reported having a Bachelors degree or higher, similar to Twitter*.

Among YouTube’s users, 60% report a household income of $60K or higher, with half of that (or 30% total) report a household income higher than $100K*.  Classifying the users by age, we find that 79% are 18 or older with 46% of all users being 35+.

What I find surprising is that from a household income perspective, YouTube compares more closely to LinkedIn, while still comparing educationally more closely to Facebook.

Conclusion

Both Twitter and YouTube are useful tools that meet very different needs.  Social Media strategies that do not include both are missing critical elements.

I hope that I was able to make things a little clearer in what has become a rapidly evolving new media which holds more promise than anything we have seen since the advent of job boards.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them my way!  All the best to you until next month and I wish all of you the most joyous of holiday seasons!

* Source Quantcast 2/15/2010

© 2010 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

Social Media Demystified? Part II- LinkedIn

Social Media Demystified? Part II- LinkedIn

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: Segment two-Branding and Candidate Awareness, Your organizations ability to source candidates, Your organizations ability to sell open positions, Your organizations ability to close candidates

So as I mentioned in part I of this series, I was really surprised by the range of perceptions about Social Media within the Human Resources and Recruiting communities.

Today I continue our look at Social Media with perhaps the least controversial of the sites: LinkedIn.

What is LinkedIn and how is it different than Facebook and MySpace?

LinkedIn is a site where professionals can connect with other professionals.  Similar to Facebook and MySpace, each user has a profile and they control the content of that profile.  Some people may call the profile an enhanced resume.

Individuals can also see connections of connections and can request to be introduced to “3^rd level” connections as well.

Questions can be posted and answered.  Individuals that ask questions are asked to pick the “best answer” and the “good answers” before closing the question.  If someone answered a question you posed and you rated it the “best answer” that person would then have that displayed on their profile as “expertise.”

Individuals can also join groups to more readily share information as well and connect with people of similar interests.  There are alumni groups, company groups, professional association groups, geographic groups, personal interest groups, etc.

Organizations also have profiles on LinkedIn that provide a lot of information for someone researching your company.  This includes frequently viewed profiles, recent hires and promotions, companies’ people work for before and after your organization, colleges that people attended that work for you, etc.  All this information is based on the profiles of people that indicated they work for you, so it is a good view of the company, but not an exact one.

The organization profile can have two tabs on it.  One is an overview that displays the information that I mentioned above.  The other is reserved for companies that have purchased a corporate product.

This second tab is a careers tab that has job seeker specific information.  This includes a different summary than the main tab, testimonials from employees, featured recruiters, jobs and a video.  This gives you the opportunity to provide a richer experience with job seeker oriented content to those that are interested.

LinkedIn is different from Facebook and MySpace in a few key ways.

First, LinkedIn is intended to be professional in nature.  All of the content is intended to be used to promote oneself or ones organization in a way that is focused on business and career information.

Secondly, LinkedIn does not have the same capability to interact with people in the same way as the other platforms.  The product does allow people to add custom applications but they are significantly more limited than what is available on Facebook and MySpace.  Modules about blogs, reading lists, upcoming trips, etc. are available, but nothing like on line interactive games that are purely for entertainment on the other platforms.

These differences make LinkedIn a product that most organizations are more comfortable with.   It also makes it a good way to introduce Social Media your company.

Demographics: the biggest difference

While the differences I outlined above are key, I think the difference in demographics are the most critical.  This does not mean the difference would necessarily drive you to LinkedIn, depending on your target audience; it may, and in some cases should, actually drive you away from LinkedIn.

One key difference is education level.   According to Quantcast 55% of Facebook users have a Bachelor’s degree or higher and 64% of MySpace users report having no college degree*.

Given the nature of Facebook (originating as a site for college students) and MySpace (targeting high school students) neither is a real surprise.

LinkedIn should also not be a real surprise, catering to a more educated audience.  According to Quantcast, 81% of LinkedIn users report having a Bachelor’s degree or higher, with 30% holding at least a Masters*.

Going along with education, average household income is also different.  Among Facebook users, 58% report a household income of $60K or higher (with 29% reporting household income over $100K)*.  Among MySpace users 73% report an income of less than $60K*.  As mentioned in the other article, I suspect that the income reported by MySpace users may be, in some cases, the income of their parents, not their own.

While LinkedIn is different, it may not be as different as you may suspect from Facebook.  Among LinkedIn users, 69% report an income over $60K, with 38% being over $100K*.  This is a significant difference vs. Facebook’s 29% with a $100K+ household income, I believe that many people thought there would be a bigger difference in the $100K+ demographic.

Since LinkedIn is about the professional as an individual, I wonder if the income reported on LinkedIn is actually often times the individual’s income, which may be very different than household income.

Uses for LinkedIn

While LinkedIn was designed for individual professionals to network, it works incredibly well for Recruiters to find people by networking and/or searching profiles, for Sales Professionals to find contacts in target companies, and for job seekers to find information and people that could help them.

LinkedIn has also enabled something I call personal branding.

Branding used to be something that only organizations or well known experts could do.  Now nearly anyone, if they work hard and are reasonably smart about Social Media can create a brand that people start to identify.  For individuals that are solid professionals, this is a great thing.  For someone that is reckless or perhaps makes an honest mistake, the consequences can be severe.  Like everything else, with great potential benefit comes some risk.

What personal branding means to you as a Recruiter is that you can create a list of people that you consider to be potential candidates for your company or clients!

While LinkedIn is a bit more limiting in the way you interact with people than the other Social Media platforms I mentioned, the interactions can be more meaningful.  You can view questions and answers that individuals ask or answer to get to know their true level of expertise.  You can see what they are reading to determine what their interests are, you could see their presentations to see what they are capable of, you can see their blog(s) to find out what is on their mind, etc.

All of these things allow you to get a much richer, clearer picture of the individual than you have ever been able to through a resume posted on a job board.

Of course all of this is dependent on the individual having content to share and actually sharing it.  For professionals that see the potential in developing their own personal brand, this platform will bring many opportunities.  For Recruiters that learn how to use this platform there is a huge opportunity to access a very large pool of talent in a way never seen before!

Conclusion

While Facebook and MySpace have their uses for some organizations, LinkedIn is a platform with tremendous potential to find and develop relationships with mid to senior level professionals in a very meaningful way.  As such, there are very few organizations that should not integrate LinkedIn into their recruitment strategy.

If Social Media is not part of your strategy, LinkedIn could be the means to start developing one.

Next month, I will talk about Twitter and YouTube, which are very different products from the ones I have already discussed as well as from each other.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them my way!  All the best to you until next month and I wish all of you the most joyous of holiday seasons!

* Source Quantcast 2/1/2010

© 2009 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

What I think job boards need to do to survive

What I think job boards need to do to survive

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: Segment two- Branding and Candidate Awareness and Your Organizations Ability to Source Candidates

For some time many of us have been discussing the direction that job boards are heading.  With declining traffic across all the big traditional boards (except a big jump for Monster according to Quantcast in 6/2009 that has since resumed it’s decline) many felt this was the beginning of the end; that job boards were starting to head the way of the Sunday classified ad.

With data showing declining traffic and the obvious assault of improving corporate career sites, social media, job search aggregators, search engine marketing, shrinking corporate budgets and the job board’s reluctance to change in reaction to these rapidly changing dynamics, many felt it was a rerun of what started to happen to the newspapers 10-15 years ago.

Job boards have tried to make some meager concessions, positioning their boards to take advantage of search engine marketing and the job search aggregators, as well as offering add on services that make it easier for all of us to stick our toe into the social media pool.

But will there be job boards in 5-10 years?  If so, what will they look like?

I believe there still will be job boards, but what they look like will depend on how, and if, they react to the changes that have been taking place in the market.  I believe there are many possible futures, but here are two that make sense to me.

Smaller More Specialized Boards

The first possibility develops if there is little to no reaction or a reaction that comes too late.

In this job board future, the big boards have largely disappeared or are mere shells of what they used to be.  Instead, the job board market is comprised of mostly small boards with a focus.  They serve a niche market or a specific geography or both.  Companies positioned well for this future include Jobing and HealthECareers among others.  The big boards also have networks that power various association job sites that would do equally well, but realistically the big boards could not survive as they are now with the significantly reduced revenue stream that would result.

A Different Pricing Model

The second possibility is one that I think may hold the key to the survival of the big job boards.  Like newspapers, job boards have enjoyed being only marginally tethered to effectiveness.  If I post a position, the job board gets paid for the posting, hire or no hire, candidates or no candidates.

Those of us that use pay per click advertising love the fact that we are only paying for what we get.  Does that mean I only pay if I get a hire?  Of course not, but it does mean that I only pay when someone has at least expressed enough interest in my ad to click on it to learn more.  Perfect?  Not even close, but it’s a major step in the right direction.

So I am proposing that the job boards do the same thing some of their competition is doing- switch to a pay for performance model.  Create a pricing structure where employers only pay for the clicks that their postings receive.  If they really wanted to prove their value, they could leap past their competition and cerate a model where employers only pay for hires from that come from their site.

What would this do?  Either model would be a huge step in building confidence with employers who are all starting to question the role that big boards should play, if any, in their media mix.  It would borrow from some of their competitors “play books” making the pricing issue less relevant.  It would also bring together the best of both worlds for those that still see value in posting to big boards, possibly getting out ahead of any thoughts of scaling back their presence.

I know that some of you, especially the ones that work for major job boards are probably coming up with a million reasons why this model wouldn’t work.  I remind you that nothing great ever came from a group of people saying “we can’t” or “it won’t work” and a lot of disastrous things have happened to organizations that ignored the changes around them.

Conclusion

The choice is really up to the job boards.  In order to survive, especially once the job market turns back around, they need to change.  Unfortunately the near monopoly they have enjoyed has evaporated.  We now have more options for an on line presence than ever and many of those options are cheaper and more effective.  Without real change, the job boards really will go the way of the Sunday classifieds.

The irony is that 15 years ago I remember the newspapers saying how job boards were a fad and they won’t work…  I guess they may have been right, maybe their timing was just off…

© 2009 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved