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Mobile Recruiting! The Future.
August 17th, 2009 by admin No comments »Mobile Recruiting 101: Basic Q&A
Ok, so I know what you are thinking: Mobile (SMS) is just for the youth market, right? Well, while that may have been the case a few years ago, we are now witnessing a growing trend that reveals otherwise. Today, of the 262 million total U.S. wireless subscribers, more than 138 million users now send and receive text messages. 72% of those between 25-49 use text messaging, and 53% of texters are 35 years-old and up.
While it is easy to get excited about the trends in mobile, it’s important to understand the basics before embarking on any mobile recruitment strategy. What follows is a quick primer that I have put together to hopefully addresses some of the fundamental questions.
Mobile Marketing: Basic Q&A
Q: What is SMS?
A: SMS is an acronym for short message service. SMS is often referred to as text messaging.
Q: What is MMS?
A: MMS is an acronym for multimedia messaging service. MMS messages are typically mobile messages that contain some combination of text, images, audio, or video.
Q: What is the standard length of an SMS (text message)?
A: SMS/text messages are usually limited to 160 characters, with spaces.
Q: What are the two questions that need to be asked prior to executing a mobile recruiting strategy?
A #1. What are the key goals and how can mobile help to achieve the objectives?
A #2. Who is my target audience and what is most important to that audience?
* Identifying the objectives and target audience are both critical to understand in order to craft the most effective marketing program to achieve the desired outcome.
Q: What is a Common Short Code (CSC)?
A: Common Short Codes are short numeric codes to which SMS or MMS can be sent from a mobile phone. Short codes are commonly 5-6 digits, and can be “vanity” codes (which no other company can use) or shared codes (used by many companies). The short codes facilitate an interactive mobile experience between the consumer and host company. See mobile marketing examples by Sprite and Coca-Cola. For more details, visit the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA).
Q: What are the five most common modes of communication available on a mobile device?
The five modes include:
1. Voice
2. SMS (A.K.A. – text messaging)
3. Web (WAP=Wireless Application Protocol, or Mobile Web)
4. Applications (think of any device (i.e., iPhone) that can leverage mobile apps)
5. Email (Not always available to all mobile users.)
* Of the five modes of mobile, SMS/text-messaging is the most widely used application on the planet.
Q: How popular is text messaging?
A: Consumers today are using text messaging more than ever. Worldwide, there are 4 billion mobile subscribers with 3 billion currently using text-messaging. In the U.S., there are over 262 million wireless subscribers and 138 million using text messaging. In Q2 of 2008, a Nielsen Mobile study revealed that in the U.S. there are now more text messages being sent and received vs. phone calls. See more stats here.
Q: What is a keyword and how is it used?
A: Keywords allow your consumers to interact with your mobile programs. For example: “Text “HEWITT2” to 88000“ allows potential candidates to “opt-in” and receive job alerts from Hewitt Associates. To start, users are prompted to send a text message with the keyword “HEWITT2″ to the short code 88000. In this example, the keyword ‘HEWITT2′ is tied to an auto-response that confirms the opt-in subscription, as well as a “call to action” message. See Hewitt Launches SMS Campaign for more details.
Q: Why would any company want to engage in recruiting through mobile marketing?
A: Let’s face it: Technology is changing the way we all communicate at all levels. Our target audience has become increasingly “mobile” and no longer simply sitting at a desk waiting for our call or email. The mobile device is personal and next to the wallet, purse, or keys, it is the one thing we each carry with us. As working professionals, we are often on-the-go, traveling, in meetings, attending conferences, training, out to lunch, vacation, and so on. With over 262 million U.S. wireless subscribers, we need to consider ways in which we can increase the odds of connecting with our target audience. As some would say, ‘fish where the fish are’… Click here to read: ‘Mobile Recruiting: Why Run SMS Campaigns?
Q: What is WAP?
A: WAP is an acronym for wireless application protocol and is commonly referred to as the mobile web. WAP sites are mobile versions of a websites, typically optimized for mobile devices.
Many mobile-optimized sites today are using the ‘.Mobi’ extension. More and more companies today are staking their claim in the dotMobi space, which is evident by the fact that dotMobi sites actually experienced a seven fold increase last year. As a standard practice, mobile-sites should not be a “web-version” of your site on a mobile device, but a “MOBILE-optimized” version made for mobile. It should also (ideally) automatically detect whenever someone is visiting a site through a mobile browser. You can get more information on dotMobi, as well as “best practice” development tips by visiting MobiThinking.com.
by: Michael Marlatt
Source: www.cloudrecruiting.net
What ‘NOT’ to Say in a Job Interview
August 17th, 2009 by admin No comments »Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of conducting scores of interviews, and for the most part they’re very enjoyable. However every couple of months I find myself sitting across the table from someone who challenges everything I thought I knew about the human psyche. I understand nervous Jim, shy Martha and over eager Ray and embrace the opportunity to make them feel at ease early on in the meeting. What I don’t get are the ones who self sabotage themselves through lack of preperation, trash talking about previous employers or by responding to emails on their mobiles while I’m trying to understand why I should hire them (just to name a few).
Here’s a fun clip (more for laughs) on what NOT to say in an interview. I got a kick out of it and hope you all do too. If you have an interview be sure to prepare days in advance or you’ll risk sounding like this guy.
How to Blow an Interview
Linkedin For Business – Tips to Get You Started
August 17th, 2009 by admin No comments »
We’ve all received those email invitations from past contacts inviting us to connect on LinkedIn. I remember receiving my first invitation back in 2003, shortly after it came onto the scene. At first I filed the email away under ’rainy day activities’, as I was doubtful such a tool could be of any benefit to me. After receiving several more invitations in the weeks that followed, I decided to register and see what all the fuss was about. In the beginning my relationship with LinkedIn was anything but ‘love at first site’. Trust had to be built, relationships needed to be forged and slowly we began to mature and work more closely together.
Jumping ahead 6 years to today, LinkedIn is now the World’s largest professional network with over 43 million members in over 200 countries …and I can’t imagine life without it! It has played a role in many of the hires, business deals and key contacts I have made over the years.
Whether you’re a LinkedIn novice or newbie, here are a few tips I’ve learnt over the years that will help you get the most out of this powerful networking launch pad!
Profile:
While at risk of stating the obvious, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of thoughtfully and thoroughly completing your profile. Remember that LinkedIn has over 43 million users and that your profile will be indexed on most of the major search engine. These users very well could be future clients, employers, employees and key contacts. Include as much information about your services or career experience as possible, but be careful not to get overly wordy. People want to be able to quickly look at your profile and understand who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. Rambling on will either put them to sleep, leave them confused or force them to hit ‘next profile’ link.
It’s great to show your passion for your work in LinkedIn, toot your horn and claim your accomplishments! Show off your sense of humour and whit; but always keep it on the professional level. Remember who your audience is and what you want to accomplish!
Networking and Growing your Network:
There are a number of different ways to connect with people and grow your network on LinkedIn. I could write a entire article on this topic alone. For the sake of this post I’ve provided a high-level look at some of these methods:
- Search, find and ask to connect with:
- classmates from your University, College, Association
- past and current colleagues
- past and current managers
- past and current clients
- LinkedIn has a built in tool that will search your email inbox for existing members. You can then choose who you’d like to send invitations to.
- Top Linked and LION – I recommend becoming a member of both of these groups. You can then search and invite like members from your industry to connect, knowing they’re committed to accepting your invitation.
- Join and/or Create Groups – LinkedIn has thousands of user created interest groups. Once you’ve joined a group you can participate in discussion, ask questions and network with its members.
Here’s a snapshot of network statistics. You can see how by only connecting with a few hundred people you have access to millions:
Finding People and Information:
The advanced search tool in LinkedIn allows you to search for people in your network (3 degrees away) by keyword, location, company name, title and industry. You can use the advanced search tool to:
- Find and connect with:
- People you know from your University or College
- Current and past colleagues
- Current and past managers
- Find and research vendors
- Find and research business prospects
- Find and research future job candidates
- Find and research your competition
TOP SECRET! How to find and view profiles of people who are not in your network.
I’m going to share with you one of my favourite Linkedin tricks. Searching for people with the Linkedin search tool is very powerful, however it does have its limitations. In my case I have access to over 13 million people in my Linkedin network as seen above. But what I’m about to teach you will show you how you can search and view any of the 43 million profiles on Linkedin using a boolean search string in Google.
The Super Powerful LinkedIn Hack!
This is a very powerful technique for Recruiters, however its application can be useful to anyone looking to find and connect with business prospects, decision makers and/ or vendors.
Here is what the basic boolean search string looks like for pulling profiles out of Linkedin:
site:linkedin.com keyword1 keyword2 keyword3 -inurl:static -inurl:redirect -inurl:jobid -inurl:dir
Replace the keyword1 keyword2 keyword3 with your own keywords to find the people you need. There are a few simple rules you’ll need to remember when building your own search string. 1) a space between keywords in Google means AND 2) the | symbol means OR 3) when searching for a phrase you need to put it in quotes such as “Software Designer”. Otherwise Google will search for Software and Designer anywhere in the profile rather than side by side.
So let’s try an example: Let’s say I’m a hiring manager at one of the major banks downtown Toronto and need to hire a Project Manager (PMP) with experience in implementing Business Intelligence solutions. In such a case my string might look like this:
site:linkedin.com (”project manager”|”program manager”) “business intelligence” Toronto bank PMP implement -inurl:static -inurl:redirect -inurl:jobid -inurl:dir
Once I’ve plugged that string into the Google search field and hit enter, I end up with 141 results. From here I click on the link and it takes me to each person’s full LinkedIn profile. Below is a picture of what the string and results would look like.
Use this handy trick to find and research job candidates, competition, potential vendors and more.
Closing thoughts…
Using LinkedIn properly and to its fullest potential can help take your business and/or career to new levels. If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to set up your Linkedin Profile today. Stay tuned for more LinkedIn Tips on Applications, Company Pages, Social Media Integration, Recommendations and more!
Written by: Trevor Rudd July 2009 www.jobquirk.com
Do you pass the Social Media Recruitment Test?
July 7th, 2009 by admin 4 comments »With the emergence of social media sites like LinkedIn
, Facebook, and Twitter
, and their user bases growing by the millions, one would think that a headhunter’s job just got much easier. I mean let’s face it; nowadays we can find anybody whether it’s on one of these social networking sites, on a blog, discussion board, alumni list or via true and tried headhunting techniques.
But it’s not that simple. In the golden days of recruiting we would hunt for days to find a candidate with a degree from a top university who worked for a top notch company who of course was considered priceless and absolutely worth contacting. Today however, we run a simple search on LinkedIn and find hundreds that match that exact profile. Or we run a quick search on Twitter for anybody discussing a specific keyword and we now have hundreds more to contact. But with only a set number of hours in a day, we just don’t have the bandwidth to contact everybody.
The problem of today completely flipped from the one of yesterday where we went from candidate scarcity and limited information to an overabundance of candidates and even more information available on each one.
So in today’s world of information overload where talent is literally available by the truckloads, I thought it would be relevant to write a post about how we evaluate a candidate’s social media footprint to determine (when all else is equal) which candidates we would contact and which ones get left by the wayside. I posed the following question to make it simple:
If all else were equal, like education, work history and general skill set, and I had to evaluate the social media footprints of two candidates to determine which one of them I would contact, which one would I contact and why? In my experience, I would contact the one who:
On LinkedIn
1. Has genuine recommendations from peers, managers and colleagues
2. Has the more complete profile
3. Is a member of more groups pertaining to their respective field
4. Has a picture
5. Lists interests, hobbies and other information related to their life outside of work
6. Participates and highlights their involvement in non-paid projects related to their field (open-source, community, volunteer, conference)
7. Updates their status more often
8. Asks and answers more questions
9. Links to their employer, blog and other projects of interest
10. Has the larger network
On their blog
1. Has interesting things to say about their respective profession and industry
2. Provides glimpses into their life outside of work – family, friends, hobbies, etc.
3. Does not bad-mouth their current or previous employer
4. Provides links to their other social networking profiles
5. Includes a link to their current resume
6. Updates with new posts regularly
7. Keeps it non-controversial – minimal discussion of sex, politics, religion and other such controversial topics.
8. Is more genuine and honest
9. Has a blogroll with link to other interesting blogs
On Facebook
1. Respects the overlap between their personal and professional lives
2. Updates often
3. Posts pictures of friends and family but keeps them pg-13
4. Keeps it non-controversial – doesn’t take extreme positions on sex, drugs, religion, politics or other topics that could cause an employer to be wary of hiring
5. Is a member of groups relevant to their profession
On Twitter
1. Tweets often (between 2-10 times per day is considered reasonable)
2. Has a healthy followers/following ratio
3. Has the biggest network
4. Keeps a healthy balance between personal and professional tweets
5. Doesn’t just update, but also responds to others and generally seems to get Twitter
When Googled
1. Does not lead to something controversial like arrests
2. Leads to profession-related discussions and commentary on other social media sites
3. Leads me to their online blog, webpage or social media profiles
4. Doesn’t come up blank
Why it matters
Now you might be asking yourself, if somebody has the skills that an employer requires, why are all of the above criteria important? The short answer is that nowadays employers rarely hire just skills and are looking for much more of a complete package – skills plus a well-rounded individual that fits well with their team and company. And a person’s social media footprint gives employers (and others) the best insight into your passions, interests, communication styles, work habits, work/life balance and all sorts of other valuable information.
Simply put, it helps an employer get to know you and get comfortable with you before a single word has even been exchanged. So think about it, if you had the choice to consider a cold bland resume or an actual person with common interests, passions and work/life style, wouldn’t the choice be obvious?
New to social media?
But what happens if you’re new to the world of Social Media and aren’t quite at the same pace as some of the veterans out there. Not to worry, just follow a few easy steps and you’ll be right into the thick of the game in absolutely no time.
1. Start ASAP!
2. Create fully completed LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles.
3. Shed your preconceived notions of keeping your work and home life separate. Companies want people, not resumes. Start portraying yourself as the well-rounded individual that you are.
4. Use social media to its fullest – update often, connect with others and stay active.
5. Don’t stop ever (even if you’re happily employed and aren’t looking for new work). Establishing and maintaining a social media footprint is not an act, it’s a process. Just like your career evolves, so should your Social Media Footprint.
Boris Epstein is the CEO and Founder of BINC, a Professional Search Firm that specializes in the Software Marketplace. As a professional recruiter Boris shares his thoughts about the recruitment industry, job hunting and career advice at AskBinc.com.
April 8th, 2009 | by Boris Epstein Article from Mashable.com
