Do You Use Social In Your Recruitment Process?

This time we’re talking about using Social Media in the recruitment process and there are a number of aspects in the search for new staff that your digital channels can help with.

Let’s start with the use of Social platforms as a way to research background information on applicants, in my opinion a perfectly legitimate tactic. I have spoken to young people about how their digital footprint may affect employment opportunities in the future and in some instances find they feel it an imposition and an unfair practice. I think this is a modern mindset of a generation who deem it normal to publish their life online without the thought for protecting their privacy yet feel somehow hard done by when told that some aspects of their content could be detrimental to future prospects.

Using digital platforms to garner extra info on applicants is no different to what used to happen when businesses I’ve worked for discovered that a member of staff knew or had worked with an applicant for a current vacancy. You would ask their opinion of the person in question and would take that assessment of their positives and negatives into account.

Why wouldn’t you?

It should be noted however that employers be aware of context and time when carrying out checks on a candidate’s Social channels as both are important aspects to take into account. There is also the responsibility to follow legal guidelines on discriminating unfairly against a candidate after discovering information about them online.

It is worth noting the success that international infrastructure group Balfour Beatty has achieved using their Social channels, primarily LinkedIn, for recruitment. This is despite not setting up a LinkedIn channel until 2014. The company reported that their first recruitment ad on that platform saved them £10,000 in recruitment fees followed by a further £200,000 saving over the next 6 months.

They saw a 400% increase in followers over the same time and now use LinkedIn as their primary recruitment channel. This the reward for focussing on a site where they knew the talent of the future was looking to make contacts for future reference and employment.

Research carried out last year by Recruitment Box found that in 2010, 78% of recruiters were using LinkedIn to find candidates. 5 years later that percentage had risen to 95%. Similarly, 2010 saw just 14% of recruiters posting jobs on Twitter, it has also climbed to 95%. The potential for employee referrals on Twitter has also risen from 16% in 2010, to 93% in 2015.

This is an area that recruiters clearly see as very beneficial to finding the right candidate for their vacancies with 70% of them saying that they plan to increase their investment in social recruiting.

As with every aspect of Social interaction the base of it all is communication, a two way process. While you may be using your Social channels to advertise for and vet future employees, those people are also looking at your business and how your digital platforms represent you.

A company’s “talent brand” is being spoken of more and more of late. This is how their mission statement, vision and corporate culture are perceived on the social web. This plays a significant part in reducing a business’ hire costs and its ability to attract quality candidates. You can keep on top of this by ensuring that your Social channels portray a consistent business message in words, pictures or both.

You should make an effort to foster a workforce of “Brand Ambassadors”. Encourage your staff to talk about their positive experience of life at work on their own social channels, while also sharing the business’ content and success stories. According to a 2014 survey from Monster, 65% of respondents would consider an opportunity for a new job if they learned about it from a personal connection.

It has never been easier for businesses and organisations to build an exciting, vibrant image for themselves in the digital world and the more ways you can find to keep your Social platforms full of interesting, positive content the better when you are searching for new talent.

SOCIAL LISTENING – Sometimes it’s good to stop talking and start listening

Communication is as much about listening as it is talking and Social is no exception. The amount of content being created and published on a daily basis is huge, take a look a snapshot of daily life on the Social web.

Each minute there are:-

600,000 logins on Facebook

67,000 photos uploaded to Instagram

433,000 tweets posted

And that’s just a large tip of an enormous iceberg.

In 2015 the Content Marketing Institute reported that B2B marketers were publishing 70% more content than in the previous year and this is a trend that is only going in one direction.

US Marketing expert Mark Schaefer calls this phenomenon “Content Shock” and it can be overwhelming when you’re trying to be a part of the Social conversation.

This is why I say that:-

SOMETIMES IT’S GOOD TO STOP TALKING AND START LISTENING.

Social listening can be hugely beneficial when you take a step back and focus on making sense of the content that is relevant to your business rather than constantly creating more content to throw into the pot. It is about searching the web and the social space to see what’s being said about your company, your competitors and other topics relevant and important to you and your business.

GENERATE NEW LEADS

Social listening enables you to monitor keywords associated with your business to find users who having problems and asking questions or perhaps experiencing difficulties with a competitor. You can make contact with them and ask how you can help. This also gives you the chance to pitch your business’ benefits and expertise.

FIND NEW CUSTOMERS

You can do this by setting up keyword searches that will constantly track across any Social channels or forums you are part of. Be careful to select the keywords that will give you the most beneficial search returns. You can then join the discussion and find out more information.

Hootsuite’s excellent geo-searching gives you the option to track not only on keywords but on location. If you only do business within a 25 mile radius of your base then you can use these parameters so there is no wastage in your results.

FIND WHERE YOUR COMMUNITY SPENDS THEIR SOCIAL TIME

Social listening enables you to find out where your potential and current customers and influencers are on the Social web. The number of businesses I talk to who don’t have the first idea where to find these people is very high indeed. Follow the conversation and join in when relevant and necessary.  It is also worth highlighting the need for being personal and genuine in the interactions and not see them as purely business pitches.

IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

This is one area in which Social listening is essential, enabling you to identify feedback of all descriptions. You can monitor your brand in a variety of different ways to get a complete picture of where you stand.

For example, monitor Twitter with and without the @ symbol, also track mis-spelling of your company or organisation’s name. This gives you the opportunity to show appreciation for positive comments or to find and respond to disappointed customers, turning potentially negative experiences into positive ones.

There are number of tools available to help you to carry out your Social listening. Click on the names to go their sites:-

HOOTSUITE – As a UK Ambassador for Hootsuite I can recommend their business dashboard highly.

HOWSOCIABLE – HowSociable is a handy tool for measuring yours and your competitors’ social media presence. It breaks down scores for different social media platforms, allowing you to see which social media platforms work best for you and which ones need further development.

SIMPLY MEASURED – Simply Measured makes it easy to analyse your paid, owned and earned activity. They provide insights such as Facebook content, competitor and fan page analysis, key customer service metrics measurement on Twitter, Instagram engagement, content and trends analysis and many others.

GOOGLE ALERTS – A little forgotten these days in my opinion and underused. You can monitor the web for interesting new content, mentions of your brand or even yourself, your competitors, industry leaders and so on. As they’re extremely easy to set up, this is probably a good place to start for beginners.

 

 

 

 

Are You Content With Your Content?

You may have a number of social channels on the go, they may be picking up some decent traction but are you satisfied with how they are performing for your business?

Are you content with your content?

It’s a question worth asking yourself, maybe as part of your main Social Media strategy sessions or perhaps as a regular housekeeping function.

Whatever you are publishing, whether it’s mostly text based, photos, videos, other visuals, a mixture of everything, it is all content. Every single thing you create and send out into the social arena.

I’ve put together a small checklist that may help you to assess your current content.

1) IS YOUR CONTENT SUITABLE FOR THE PLATFORM IT’S ON

You may have a handful of social outlets for your business, each one will require a different approach. Twitter gives you the chance to create short to the point tweets which grab attention or point your follower to another location (your website, other social channel or link to content you want to share). Facebook helps you to go into more depth with the opportunity to add a visual to your status and to start conversation threads with your fans and customers. Pinterest is an excellent way of curating quality visuals as well as being able to provide links to other sites and content. Instagram is more “in the moment” and may suit your business perfectly.

2) DON’T BE AFRAID TO TRY SOMETHING NEW

You may have settled on a few platforms which you are happy with but something new will come along all the time. If you think a new platform that one of your staff or your Consultant suggests might work, try it. You have nothing to lose. If it takes off add it to your social portfolio to strengthen your digital toolkit. If it doesn’t, delete the account and move on.

3) THINK FOR A MINUTE

When you’ve created some content, stop for a moment and listen for the voice in your head. Sometimes it will ask you a question.

“Do you think that’s suitable content?”

In my experience if you have to stop and think about publishing content you probably shouldn’t. That little voice in your head is nearly always right.

4) BE HUMAN

It’s okay to use your social platforms to give your business a human face and personality; in fact that’s what they’re great for. Of course you have to strike the right tone but you should know what that is. It may take a little practice at first but it will pay dividends. People expect their social interaction to personable and human; the businesses who are using social most effectively understand this.

5) KNOW WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

If you are on top of your social analysis and metrics then you will know the types of content which give you the best engagement. You will be able to discover the times and days when your content ignites and this information will help you plan your content creation and publication each week. Of    course the beauty of social is being spontaneous but having a catalogue of detailed analysis will be the backbone to your function.

6) IS YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE GOLD STANDARD?

Your social platforms will now be the first port of call for many of your customers or clients if they have a problem. It is so much easier to call into a Facebook page and post a comment than searching out a website for a contact number or e-mail address.

I’ve always maintained that “Gold Standard” customer service shouldn’t be a target, it should be the norm. It is so easy to use your Social Media outlets to provide excellent customer service and that doesn’t mean waiting for something to go wrong before you engage and interact.

Just saying “thank you” when you get a positive comment will mean more to your customer than you think.

7) IS YOUR AUDIENCE CONTENT WITH YOUR CONTENT?

If your followers, fans and customers are not getting enough from your content to engage with it then that’s all you need to know that your content strategy is not working.  Social is sometimes hit and miss and it takes time to find your voice. The big advantage about social broadcasting is that if a piece of content doesn’t work for you, take note, understand the reasons why and try something else.

8) BE TOPICAL

If your Social strategy includes a content calendar then you won’t miss opportunities to tie in topical issues or events to your business. I feel that businesses and organisations whose social content shows their followers that they are tapping into relevant issues and stories stand out from the crowd. Of course that same approach also increases the amount of content you can create for your platforms.

Oh finally, if your Social strategy doesn’t include content calendar, it really should.

10 Social Media Myths De-bunked

This week I thought I would talk about Social Media “myths”. Words of wisdom in social communication that have been repeated so many times they become what people believe. However, they are also the same words that make you stop and question them.

When I worked in radio there were similar myths, mantras that had been trotted out by more experienced people for so long that as a newcomer you just accepted them, even though none of them had any basis in fact.

For example:-

• Female listeners don’t like female presenters
• Never play more than three female voices in a row
• Always put in an hour’s prep for each hour on air.
• Mentioning another radio station will make your listener immediately tune to it.

I could go on – as a young presenter I heard all these and just accepted them. As you gain confidence and experience in your profession you start to question these “myths”.

The same is true of Social Media; here are 10 Myths of the social age to question.

1) I SHOULD BE ON EVERY PLATFORM

Do you know how many social platforms there are? No me neither. One of the basic pitfalls of using Social Media is to try and maintain a presence on lots of platforms, see nothing happen and give up. The first step for every business or organisation is to identify the platforms that will work best for them and concentrate your efforts there.

2) I’LL JUST USE ONE PLATFORM

Just as spreading yourself too thin is not good, the opposite is equally as bad. By all means note the platform that gives you the most traction and make that your primary outlet, but remember that other sites can be complementary. Using a handful of social platforms also gives you the opportunity to cross-promote and link them together.

3) I CAN’T LINK TO MY OTHER SOCIAL PLATFORMS

You have a Facebook account, it’s doing fine, lots of engagement for your excellent content. So you set up a Twitter account as a complementary outlet and because your business is visual you think a Pinterest board would be good too. All excellent ideas. The problem is, you’ve read a few “experts” say you can’t link to them from your Facebook wall because………..well I don’t know why really.

It makes no sense to me. Just do it. The great thing about social is that you can tie up your social channels, your company website, your YouTube channel in a lovely chain of gorgeous digital content.

4) WALL-TO-WALL CONTENT

It’s quality not quantity, less is more etc. etc. Think about what you have to offer and the best way of saying it. What are your keywords, your important messages, how can you encourage your followers to share your content. Of course sell yourself and your services but do it strategically amongst your other posts. Make your channels ones your followers can rely on to be informed and entertained.

5) RE-POSTING

This is one of my bugbears. Someone once said you should never re-post content and it was taken as read. I still see some practitioners espouse this point of view.

I use the analogy of your wife or girlfriend who won’t wear a dress she’s worn before, even though there’ll be no-one at the event who will have seen it the first time.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with re-posting content. We would love all of our content to be seen by all of our social communities, but in the real world that’s never gonna happen.

Do it sensibly and creatively, choose carefully the content you recycle, make sure it’s still relevant when you re-post.

6) DON’T BE PERSONAL

Hang on, isn’t this what being “social” is all about. Of course keep your audience and your customers in mind but don’t be afraid to show off your business/brand’s personality. If it didn’t have one before your social channels give you the chance to create one. It’s 1-2-1 communication, it’s personal, it’s dialogue between you and the person looking at their screen.

7) IT’S A NUMBERS GAME

People still get hung up on numbers; obsess about how many likes, followers and friends they’re notching up. You’ll see people following you then unfollow a few days later when you haven’t reciprocated. You don’t want them anyway.

The sorts of fans and followers you need are ones who will find your content interesting, informative or entertaining enough to share with their own tribes. They could be your flag-wavers and brand ambassadors. 500 people who engage with your posts on a regular basis are far more important to your business than 10,000 people who clicked the “like” button once.

8) IF IT’S NEGATIVE FEEDBACK, IGNORE IT

No-one likes seeing negative stuff written about their business or organisation but the worst thing you can do is ignore or delete it. It’s important to have a plan in place when the situation arises so your response is timely and constructive. Remember anyone who sees the negative comment will also see your way in which you have handed it.

9) SOCIAL IS TOO INFORMAL FOR BUSINESS

I heard this at a networking event just the other week, what the comment says to me is that the person saying it doesn’t know what social media is all about. Social communication is for everyone, irrespective of business type, it can change perceptions of your business in a post or a tweet. When the CIA fired up their Twitter account they got it absolutely right with their first tweet.

10) EVERY POST NEEDS A HASHTAG

#Saving #the #best #for #last. #Dear #Lord #above, #save #us from #Hashtag #Hell.

Hashtags are great, they tie up events, topics, opinions and conversations beautifully but they are the source of more social evil than almost anything else (with serial re-tweeters a close second). They are not however, compulsory and will not guarantee you a trending topic but used carefully and creatively will help those following the hashtag to find your content.

I hope that if you’ve comes across any of those Social Media myths this blog has given you the confidence to take my advice and ignore them.

There a more of them of course, I have a feeling there may be a part 2 coming soon.

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Are We Still Engaged?

One of my favourite podcasts is the always excellent “Marketing Companion” by Mark Schaefer and Tom Webster, a weekly broadcast about the worlds of marketing and social media. On the most recent edition they talked about the subject of engagement and how there seems to be less and less taking place in the social space.

Social media usage is ever-increasing, social platforms and mobile applications are seemingly appearing on a daily basis, we are becoming more and more reliant on social sources for information and entertainment yet, Mark and Tom argued, the engagement factor is on the decline.

They argued that though streaming video, infographics and podcasts are rising in popularity the engagement is not there as it once was. Top bloggers have eliminated their comment sections and Mark claimed that it was now hard to start a conversation on Twitter.

This may be a little exaggerated to encourage discussion but there may be solid reasons for these claims. It is plain to see that Social Media is becoming more and more visual, hence the increasing popularity of Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr. Podcasting is becoming an easy way to share content and build a listener base of your own and in the last few weeks streaming video has received a boost with the arrival of Meerkat and Periscope.

Although it’s the latter which appears to have captured the imagination of the masses.

Maybe there is now an acceptance of content being delivered to our various devices merely for our own reference and interest, without the need to engage with it by way of comment and opinion. We may be happy some of the time to be entertained by someone or something.

I have enjoyed spending time with Periscope in the last couple of weeks, watching some behind the scenes feeds from radio stations (once a radio geek, always a radio geek) including some from the legendary Tony Blackburn, I took a car ride from the Swalec Stadium to a Cardiff hotel with Kevin Pietersen and Kumar Sangakarra, rode the monorail at Disney World in Orlando and watched some guy try and eat 8 MacDonald’s’ cheeseburgers in an hour. Not a vigorous challenge I’ll grant you, but it made me stay with it because the guy was really engaging. He was re-enacting an initiation from a firm of London share traders (I thought they were more creative than that). I watched for a couple of minutes and really liked him, so much so I went back late to see if he’d managed to complete the challenge. He had of course but he probably suffered for it later on.

However, during all the time spent with my Periscope chums I never felt the urge to comment once, I just enjoyed what I was watching. Maybe that gives Mark and Tom’s argument some weight.

We always talk about how you can increase the engagement your social content receives by using visuals and moving images and in my opinion that still is very much the case.

I think we will always have opinions and thoughts that we want to share with our communities, it may be the case that we are becoming more selective in the amount of participation we carry out.

Will there be a time when we will have to develop new ways of measuring how our Social Media activity is working for us?

Maybe – but one of the fascinating parts of thinking about Mark and Tom’s podcast is the way in which social communication is ever changing. While the main roads of digital interaction stay the same, the side roads are developing new twists and turns and on occasions the inevitable road works (usually on a Bank Holiday weekend).

A Social Media – motoring analogy. Come on, that’s worth a comment in itself, isn’t it?

It’s All In The Profile

Usually when we talk about profiles it relates to our best side, most people will have their preferences, some left, some right. There are also those of us who start from such a low base that it makes no difference.

In Social Media parlance, your profile is the way in which you portray yourself to potential followers and contacts. You have complete control over how you look and what you say about you and what you do.

It is a very important part of setting up Social Media channels but one which many people still get badly wrong. I think a few tips may help you to make the most of your social profiles and in turn give you a more solid, consistent social brand.

Yes I know the word “brand” gets bandied around like no-one’s business, sometimes right, sometimes wrongly. However, if we look at Social profiles from a business and marketing perspective then it is exactly the right word to use. Your social persona is your brand and there are some simple ways in which you can give off the right message and keep it consistent across your digital platforms.

1. NAME

We are looking at this subject from a business angle so it goes without saying that you want the name you choose for your account to be your business name or as close as possible. As time goes on and more and more accounts are set-up there is sometimes a problem with other accounts having the name you need. This doesn’t apply across the board of course but if one of the social channels you have identified as being right for your business cannot give you the name you want it can affect the consistency in your social branding.

If you are starting a new business as I was not so long ago it’s worth testing the name you want to make sure it is available, and if it is GRAB IT.

2. PICTURE

In my opinion there is no excuse for not including a profile picture on all of your platforms. The nature of your services will determine the sort of picture you use. I am a one man operation in the field of digital communication so I use a photo of my stupid face across my platforms. This is the option for the majority of Social Media services providers and that’s exactly right. Our brand is not only one of expertise and consultancy but also personality and 1-2-1 communication.

If you’re using a business or company logo make sure you are aware of the sizing limitations as they differ from platform to platform. Here’s a handy size guide from those nice people at Constant Contact. Just click here

There is something suspicious about social accounts with no profile picture. I never accept a request from someone or follow another user if they don’t have a picture attached to their account.

Don’t be a Twitter Egg or a Facebook Silhouette; it will do you no favours whatsoever.

3. YOUR LINK

Most Social Media platforms will give you the option to include a link to another site of your choice as part of your profile. Some allow you to link your other social sites too. It’s important not to ignore this option. Why would you? It’s another opportunity to advertise your other channels to your friends and followers. Twitter’s bio is quite limited so choose the link that will benefit you most; like yours or your company’s website. If you feel that a link to another social channel is more beneficial use that. Some Social Media “experts” are quite sniffy about cross promoting alternative social channels, I have no idea why. This could just be another one of those Social Media “myths” that have come about across time. It supposes that the person engaging with your account can’t handle the notion of being taken to an alternative platform.

It’s nonsense, and after all you make two follows for the price of one.

4. YOUR BIO

If you want your social persona to be taken seriously from a business standpoint, please make sure your bio is as good as it can be. The scope you have will vary from platform to platform but being concise and to the point is never a bad discipline.

Here’s my Twitter bio:-

Nice picture (well as good as it gets), my bio says what I do, advertises my Hootsuite speciality, shows I’m open for business and there’s something light and humorous at the end. I also flag up my other Twitter account and of course my business website.

The forms of words I use there is very similar to the bios on my other Social channels. Consistency in branding is important to get the company message across in an easy to understand way.

5. UP TO DATE

I see so many profiles, and I’ll include LinkedIn here, that I know are out of date. An accurate profile will give you a better chance in searches when people are looking for you, it also says something about you and the way you do business. Once a profile is in good order, it only needs occasional auditing and editing.

6. PRIVACY SETTINGS

Your profile is now in good shape so it’s wise to take a look at your privacy settings. Not all platforms have them of course but on Facebook and LinkedIn you can control what your followers and contacts see. You want to be sure that the information you have compiled is visible and beneficial.

7. PROMOTION

Once your profile is spick and span it’s time to tell everyone about it. Social Media gives you numerous ways to promote and advertise you and your platforms, but it’s not just about the social. You can also include your platforms on your business cards like I do.

Put links from your website to your Social channels, include them in your e-mail signature and insert one or two when you post to online forums.

Your profile is very often the first impression someone gets of you, make sure it’s a good one.