What’s the difference between Google Voice and Google Talk? Not much. To quote Pablo Valerio from his article on Technorati.com:

Google Voice allows you to get a unique phone number for all your communications. It can be a local number in any area code in the US, and you can forward the number to all your phones (home, office, cell, etc.). Setting up some rules allow you to block certain calls, divert the call to only a phone depending on the caller, etc.. Also

allows to send and receive text messages (SMS) to any US cell phone number for free.

Google Talk has been available on Gmail for a while, but only as a way of communication with other Gmail users. Now a call button is incorporated in Gmail for the users of Google Talk: You can call from your computer

(a microphone and speakers are required), to anyone in the US and Canada for free. Google also offers cheap calls to foreign countries, and believes the revenue from those calls will offset the cost of the free US calls.

You don’t need to setup Google Voice to use the free Google Talk calls, but if you have a Google Voice number it will show up as your CallerID when you make a phone call. If you import your contacts to Gmail you can just type the name on the call box and the number will be selected.

One advantage is the possibility to call the US from another country for free if you use Gmail.

So, what does this mean? Well, if you use Skype (like many in the business world do…to video conference, share documents and work collaboratively) it means Google might be introducing a competitive product in the marketplace of  Unified Communications. However, Skype won’t be outplayed in this UC market – they launched their own newest business product Skype Connect.

According to Mashable’s  Christina Warren, “With Skype Connect, businesses can now integrate the service into their existing PBX systems. In addition to making outgoing calls at Skype rates from desktop phones, Skype Connect also lets businesses receive phone calls from other Skype users, landline or mobile phones, or from other phones on the corporate PBX. Also, Skype Connect can be configured to route calls to mobile numbers.” Read more on Skype Connect by clicking here.

So, my biggest question is: Are you using video conferencing within your own recruiting world? If not…why not? Imagine being able to work with remote team members quickly, easily and at no cost (Human Resource folks love to hear ‘free!’).

Turn your desktop into a video interview portal. Meet and greet with remote candidates for a first-round ‘phone screen’ – you can tell a lot about a candidate through a video conference that you can’t tell just from a voice on the other end of the line. Many (if not all) computers these days are built with video and microphone capabilities. Use the technology that’s there!

Have you ever video-interviewed a candidate? If so, how did you find the process? Pros vs. cons? Let us know! Post your comments or tweet me @JenHitchens

So, I did what all bloggers do…I started out on a fact-finding mission and poked around to monitor ‘tone and feedback’ on what people were saying about this proposed tax:

• Three common words: Business privilege license.
• It’s a ‘one time payment’ that also affects freelance writers. (One time too many if you ask me.)
• No more Tax Amnesty Program to help answer citizens’ question. (I guess the city realized this program was counter-intuitive to their goals to squeeze every penny out of its citizens.)
• There could be a solution (of sorts) on the horizon in September.

Background facts:

According to the City Paper article Pay Up. Got a blog that makes no money? The city wants $300, thank you very much. by Valerie Rubinsky she highlights, “The city requires privilege licenses for any business engaged in any “activity for profit,” says tax attorney Michael Mandale of Center City law firm Mandale Kaufmann. This applies “whether or not they earned a profit during the preceding year,” he adds.”

The article continues to state:
According to Andrea Mannino of the Philadelphia Department of Revenue, in fact, simply choosing the option to make money from ads — regardless of how much or little money is actually generated — qualifies a blog as a business. The same rules apply to freelance writers. As former City Paper news editor Doron Taussig once lamented [Slant, "Taxed Out," April 28, 2005], the city considers freelancers — which both Bess and Barry are, in addition to their blog work — “businesses,” and requires them to pay for a license and pay taxes on their profits, on top of their state and federal taxes.

City Council members Bill Green and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez are planning on pitching a bill in September to reform the city’s business privilege tax “in an effort to make Philly a more attractive place for small businesses.” If it passes, bloggers will “still have to get a privilege license if their sites are designed to make money, but they would no longer have to pay taxes on their first $100,000 in profit. (If bloggers don’t want to fork over $300 for a lifetime license, Green suggests they take the city’s $50-a-year plan.)”

Tone and Feedback:

Well, you can imagine what some are saying on blogs and twitter…I’ll just insert a screen capture and you can go search “Philly Blog Tax” on twitter yourself…some of the expletives I can’t repeat here…

So, if you decided to be honest and report any income from AdSense or other ad revenues on your little (or big) blog—you’ve probably already received the letter everyone is talking about. Sit tight, I’m sure City Council will duke it out in September when they all get back from their month-long vacations (must be nice, huh?) Maybe if they spent a little more time doing the job they are paid to do (with Philly tax dollars, no less) they might be able to figure out better ways to generate revenue than taxing soda and bloggers. The politics that goes on within City Hall is insane.

That’s my two cents (which I’m sure I’ll be taxed on next year.)

So what could a geo-location offering on Facebook provide to users, advertisers and more importantly (for you) job seekers and employers? Well for one it enables small business owners (aka employers) the ability to market directly to people who potentially have ‘checked in’ on their location. Translation: you can market directly to people who reside or are employed directly within a mile radius of your location…a huge bonus for retailers, restaurant, hospitals and more.

Sites such as Gowalla and Foursquare already provide employers this opportunity but what they don’t do is promote their advertising (and targeting) capabilities to employers for recruitment advertising. Facebook has cornered the market to promoting their site as a potential recruitment vehicle. So, time will tell with these capabilities which will be announced tomorrow. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, a few articles I’ve found interesting in the past few days regarding  location-based API world:

Why Location-Based Social Media Needs to Get “Passive” Aggressive
Sites such as Gowalla and Foursquare need to embrace passive check-in systems in much the same way that marketers have embraced permission marketing, he argues. “Stopping whatever you’re doing to check in when you arrive at a location is just lame,” Thomas complains.

Beyond Foursquare: 5 Location-Based Apps for Small Businesses
Foursquare is teaming up with megabrands like Starbucks and Jimmy Choo, but smaller businesses can find a niche with smaller location-based services, as well.

And, stay tuned for Annette DeHaven’s post on Wednesday about Foursquare.

wibiya sharing toolbar

Notice the ever-increasing ‘sharing toolbars’ at the bottom of web pages you are browsing? Some are powered by Wibiya, others powered by Meebo. But, they all have the same common purpose: to integrate with your website and provide visitors sharing tools without ever having to leave your website therefore increasing the time a visitor spends on your website.

Readers can tweet, write on your Facebook page and share your content on Facebook. Readers can also search your latest tweets and view ‘tweeted’ content about the page they are reading. Add ons such as “Latest Post” or “Real Time Users” or a custom menu help to increase page views and traffic to your web content. Some tool bars enable you to communicate back to your website visitors through broadcast messages, notifications and alerts (all in real time) as well as participate in live chat rooms.

Now the $1,000,000 question: Do people click on these tool bar functions? Or, do visitors/readers view them as an annoyance because they slow down the page load and are distracting?

TechCrunch.com states  “According to Quantcast, Wibiya is seeing 151 million monthly visitors to its toolbars. In contrast, Quantcast also reports that Meebo is currently seeing 143 million monthly visitors. Currently, Wibiya has more than 70,000 active websites using its toolbar, including TheStreet, TheOnion, Playboy, Philly.com, JellyBelly.com and more. Wibiya says that nearly 1000 new websites are adding the toolbar per day.”

Well, no offense to Quantcast, I decided to perform my own research study. (well, ok my sample study isn’t going to get me in the research publications) on Twitter regarding the use of toolbars didn’t result in a huge backlash of ‘hate tweets.’ A good sign. I asked around my friends and family…some didn’t even notice the tool bar on the site – not a ringing endorsement but not altogether negative. And, the average feedback, I was given, was “seems pretty cool.”

So…as a person who is always looking for new tools to use and recommend for the recruiting world of human resources…when will these sharing toolbars become popular (and even available) within applicant tracking systems and/or on the career sections of web sites? As a human resources professional, wouldn’t you like it if a visitor to your career site had the ability to ‘share’ via a plethora of social media tools your job postings to their network of tweeps, friends and followers? Wouldn’t it be great if you could dedicate 1 hour to ‘live chat’ with people visiting your microsite or other website? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to connect with your Twitter followers and your Facebook fans directly through a toolbar on your career site?

The possibilities of morphing what predominantly was creating as a marketing tool are endless within the recruitment world as well. Do you have any ‘toolbar’ sharing tips or tales? What is your opinion? Would you implement a ‘sharing toolbar’ yesterday if it meant you could increase your visibility with targeted skill sets? Share your comments!

Facebook hit 500 million users on July 22^nd, their OpenGraph platform enables businesses to market themselves to their audience in ways never before imagined, they continue to give Google a run for their money (quite literally), and the Facebook community continues to expand with newer capabilities (such as the Facebook Questions feature).

Just a quick summary of the event you’re not going to want to miss:

Facebook Success Summit 2010 is a live online conference designed to help you master Facebook marketing, empowering you to quickly connect with customers (and prospects) using the #1 social network in the world, Facebook. The industry’s leading Facebook pros will show you how. Join 22 experts, including Brian Solis (author, Engage!), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day), Justin Smith (Inside Facebook), Jesse Stay (author, FBML Essentials), Paul Dunay (author, Facebook Marketing for Dummies); experts from Intel, Microsoft Xbox, Cisco, the Washington Redskins and SAP; Darren Rowse (Author, Problogger), Jay Baer (Author, The Now Revolution), and Michael Stelzner (Social Media Examiner)—just to mention a few (scroll down to see full list)! Event runs October 5th to October 26th (fully online).

So read more about the event and get connected to the leaders in the Facebook marketing world! I hope to ‘see’ you there!

Why do we do this? Because there is an exponential strength in being able to connect to your visitors, viewers and fans within the social media channel of their preference. And, it enhances your ability to expand your viral marketing reach. But, I often wonder with all of this syncing and automation, am I missing the true point of authentic engagement within each channel?

Sure, I monitor the blog comments, facebook status likes and feedback and oversee Twitter tweets and RTs in HootSuite. And, I’m also sending out interesting articles I’ve reviewed in my Google Reader and tidbits I’ve discovered and replying back to the feedback I read and sometimes the volume is just enough to feel overwhelming and exhilarating at the same time.

So, while trying to maximize efficiencies with automation the trick is to find the balance between making certain tasks automated while still enabling for personal engagement.

One tip I find very useful in sharing an RSS feed that I always seem to come back to time and time again for quality content is to set this feed up in my HootSuite desktop and tweet out every 3 hours the latest news article. I automatically insert “Interesting News:” before each auto-tweet to alert my followers and others to the content of my tweet. I check out the tweets and topics in my Sent column of HootSuite daily just to be sure I’m not “spamming” out there. So far I’ve found this is a great way to share news and gain followers and start the conversation.

So, my Google Reader continues to be an integral component to my social media marketing strategy. If you have any tips for automation or strong feelings on this issue, please comment! Or tweet to me @JenHitchens.

So, when a discussion thread popped up on my radar from my group, Recruiting in Social Media,  that highlighted “6 Social Media Mistakes Your Company Should Avoid” caught my eye.

Just prior to reading the article, I was feeling like my brain was on information overload…over tired, overbooked and overwhelmed. So the word “avoid” popped out in my eyes. Sarah Hartshorn had some great ideas in this article.

One idea popped out to me (and my current mental state), “Tailor your strategy to each platform before you implement.”

This is a key component not many HR (or anyone else for that matter) understand. It’s not about adding hundreds of fans in an hour using a PPC campaign or thousands of followers in two days through services like TweetAdder (although, these type of automation software does have it’s place in any campaign…just not the driver’s seat). You must be genuine. You must be authentic. If anything I’ve learned from the hundreds of webinars I’ve viewed or conferences I’ve attended, this concept of a ‘platform specific campaign’ is essential. What works on Facebook to your unique audience might not work as well on Twitter or Digg.

So, what’s an HR person to do in this social media craze for recuitment exposure? Look to experience. Look to seasoned professionals (ahem, like Alstin). Watch, observe and learn and THEN plan your strategy. Social media takes time. And, yes, it can be overwhelming at first but stay the course and the results will follow.

Connect with me on Twitter @JenHitchens if you’d like to chat about this topic or post your comments below on some areas that are a challenge to you within social media recruiting!

So, when I saw on the news last night that the iPhone 4 has flaws, it made me pause. Had I invested too much energy and enthusiasm into Apple ? Was the new iPhone really as bad as I had seen on YouTube?

“Argh,” I thought. Here I spent years defending a company, their vision and passion to rebuke people who said, “Stupid iPhone!” And, look at where my loyalty has led me…down the road where Consumer Reports “can’t recommend the iPhone4.”

So, Steve Jobs, “Watcha gonna do?” Because holding the phone another way isn’t going to cut it. And some crazy ‘Bumper’ at $29.00 is just as ridiculous a solution as inserting golf balls and shredded tires into the BP oil debacle.

I also thought it was interesting that Apple was reportedly posting antenna engineer job opportunities (Hmmmm. One person’s tragedy is another person’s treasure?)

So, while I continue to battle with my own aging Macbook…which is taking longer and longer to manage multiple tasks simultaneously (and also  sounds like it’s going to take flight due to the whirling noise of the ‘soon-to-be’ broken fan), I’ll continue to support Apple.

Perhaps there is at least a small silver lining to this issue?Maybe a few out-of-work engineers will get an opportunity to work for a visionary employer (who occasionally takes a stumble).

Call me an optimist. Enjoy your Tuesday!

Oh, and if you’re looking for some great social media events coming up this summer, click here!

And if you want to view the Consumer Reports video…here ya go:

The reason I’ve had this article, “How we got to 40,310 Facebook Fans in 4 days”, open for so long is the inherent value I found in their numbers, details and visuals. It’s not often someone reveals their “social media” hand and provides statistical analysis and a step-by-step tutorial on their marketing methods.

I also recently read an article by Amy Porterfield posted on the SocialMediaExaminer.com site on July 2nd and she made a really good point…

The formula for Facebook page success:

Vision + Branding + Inbound Marketing + Engagement = A Rock-Solid Facebook Page

I ‘like’ it. It makes sense and it’s a formula that would work for any line of business. You don’t have to sell t-shirts or be a big chain discount store to build up a big ‘fan’ base on Facebook, you just need to create your own enthusiasm and passion around your mission.

This sounds great for b2b or b2c companies. But, how does an employer do that?

Well, (after you develop a Social Media policy – see my other blog post) you can:

1. Engage the people who are your biggest cheerleaders and get them involved in participating in your social media activities.
2. Engage people who are already in the social media space. Send around an email to all employees asking them if they enjoy blogging, tweeting or are avid ‘facebookers.’ If you craft your social media questions in the best manner (ie. ‘We’re not asking this to spy on you…only to see if you’d like to use your great social media skills to spread the word about how great your employer is…’) you’d be surprised the number of people already doing things in this space for their hobbies and/or interests.
3. Work with your ad agency (hint, hint – Alstin!) to craft a design that is engaging and honest (another hint: use static FBML everywhere on your page! If you don’t know what I’m talking about – click here for a great tutorial. Or, view the FB app here).
4. Think outside the box. Create specific Facebook “tabs” for hard-to-fill positions or frequently open positions – insert into these pages well-designed content that entices people to not only become a ‘fan’ but also to search for a job opportunity or post a comment or question. Transparency is your friend in social media. Trust me.
5. Promote your Facebook page on your corporate site. I know, I know the Marketing folks and/or your Web or IT team is going to have a bird over this, but push for it…Amy Porterfield’s section on inbound marketing proves the point on building your fan base is most efficient and inexpensive way to build a following.
6. Update frequently…and that means everyday. Whether you’re featuring a specific job, announcing a new contest or poll, uploading new photos of a specific event or party or posing a question to your audience…it’s integral to keep your Facebook page content fresh and focused on your fans not so much on you.

Well, that’s all for today. Tuesday is already proving to be a hot one for us in Philly (and much of the east coast from what I hear). Apparently the ‘heat index’ will be 107…I guess we’ll be ‘sweating back to work today.’ Hope your holiday weekend was great!

There are more applicants per open position than ever before and HR teams are overwhelmed and often understaffed to handle this huge volume with delicacy and poise to not ‘offend’ job applicants who don’t make it to the first, second or third round.

Job seekers on the other hand are so fed up with putting forth effort, energy and their enthusiasm into submitting (sometimes through a painfully long applicant tracking software process) only to receive…nothing. Nada. Zilch. Maybe they receive an automatic “Thank you for your application. Don’t call us. We’ll call you.” Job seekers walk away from the process disgruntled.

So, what’s the solution? Well, I was doing some reading last night and discovered this recent article “Human Resources and Branding. Treating Job Applicants Like Customers.” Frank Marafiote offers some excellent (and often easy-to-implement) tips on how HR can create a better ‘user’ experience:

The contacts we have with job applicants represent a golden opportunity to sell our organizations. Just because they have applied for a job doesn’t mean they really understand your company, its mission, goals, or its contributions to the community and other stakeholders. Through the use of links to appropriate sections of your corporate web site or a small but well-designed brochure, you can educate applicants, create goodwill and — yes — possibly win a new customer.

The concept of treating applicants like potential customers isn’t anything new. But, I wonder how many HR departments have taken the time to really invest energy (ok, and a little money) into drafting a policy and/or program and actually stick to it?

If I were to tackle this problem today, I’d take the following steps:

1. Search and apply to a job on my career site using a real resume and see how satisfied I feel at the end of the process.
2. Based upon my personal experience applying to my own company (which probably will receive a failing grade), I’m anticipating the following steps are necessary:
   • Meet with my ATS/TAS vendor to ensure I’m using all automated components available to me (for free) and that I’m using all of the ‘personalization’ options that come along with those components as well. (ie. Instead of taking the easy path of just sending an automated email “Dear Applicant” set it up so that it begins with “Hi First Name”).
   • Review the content of all automated emails that my ATS/TAS is sending out to applicants. Determine how I can make these emails sound, read and look better (Add graphics? Add links to external newsletters? Add links to special awards or announcements?) I know Alstin has a number of excellent services in these areas.
   • Review the percentage of applicants entering my application process and how many exit. You’d be surprised to find out the ratio. Determine (if possible) where applicants are dropping of and work closely with your ATS/TAS team (yes, they do usually know what they are talking about when it comes to an applicant experience) and streamline (read: remove lots of stupid steps and questions) your application process.
3. Perform a “Mystery Shopper/Mystery Job Applicant” follow up call. Call in and/or attempt to email a recruiter on the team to get follow up information on your resume/application. What response did you receive? Did you get to talk with a human being? Was your experience positive? If not, consider (based on your volume) a designated person/people within your recruiting team to field follow up emails and phone calls. Provide them with the tools necessary to do a good job:
   • Draft various email responses for people you are not considering – make them as personal and as polite as possible.
   • Draft various phone scripts/pointers for talking with job applicants on the phone. If the message is clear, concise and genuine, they will walk away with a greater level of satisfaction.
   • Check with your Marketing or PR department about external eNewsletters or some other follow up material that is available to the public that you could offer as a method of we’d like to “keep in touch.” By reaching out your hand, you’d be surprised to see the positive results.
4. Use Social Media tools. If you aren’t sure how, contact Alstin about the best ways to promote and use your Facebook Page, your Twitter Job Channel or how to set up an employee blog…all of these tools job applicants are searching or and are great ways to increase the level of engagement to your audience and make it a truly positive experience.

Well, that’s all for now. Happy Tuesday! (btw: I did finish the Philly Sprint Triathlon, one minute less than the year before. And, I can’t help but think about the family of the man who didn’t make it out of the Schuylkill River. That was a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.)

Today’s blog post is going to be a bit off the normal social media and recruiting topic. Why? Well, honestly, I’ve been a bit distracted recently. And that’s a good thing. I remember this time last year, prepping for my first triathlon—butterflies in my stomach a week before the event. This year? Anxiety…not so much. So, what’s changed? I guess my attitude. I’ve been running longer, swimming each week all winter and my biking legs have been fine-tuned through many spinning classes (thanks Russell!). So, I guess I’m a (tiny bit) more confident in my capabilities…hopefully that attitude of ‘life is an adventure’ will get me through this year’s race (sticking to a training program hasn’t really been my focus).

Which brings me to my point for today: Stay positive by focusing on what you CAN do. And, showing those people who say ‘you can’t—that you certainly CAN is one of life’s sweetest rewards.

So, yeah I’ll be out there—bright and early on Saturday morning with my bike, running shoes and wet suit and probably lots of butterflies in my stomach—thinking my positive thoughts and relying on my great friends and family coming down to cheer me on. My mantra will be focused on being grateful for the all the wonderful people in my life and optimistic about all the great things and adventures that have yet to come.

So, amidst today’s turmoil, controversies, not-so-natural disasters, conflicts, and negativity…focus on the things you can control and stay positive. Who knows, maybe I’ll even beat last year’s time! Lol! Feel free to comment or tweet me your trial and tribulations and how you’ve managed or overcome them! I’m at @JenHitchens.

Pop quiz folks:

All Things D reported yesterday:

“Advertisers will be able to insert their own terms into the list of trends Twitter displays on users’ homepages and on its login page. Clicking on a term would call up a Twitter search results page, which would feature the associated advertiser’s “promoted tweet” at the top of the results.”

Peter Kafka also went on to discuss that Twitter plans to price Promoted Trends at “tens of thousands of dollars” for exclusive placement each day. (Hmmmm…not exactly within an average Human Resource Dept’s annual budget, but moving on…)

If implemented, a single advertiser could create a term to be  displayed along with “organic/natural” trends to (significantly) increase their reach, exposure, clicks, followers, etc. (see below image) The tricky part is to offer these exclusive premium positions to the Twitter user that a) isn’t annoying and provides a ‘value proposition’ that makes sense and doesn’t appear as “fake” b) it doesn’t compromise the real value of trends displaying on Twitter. I’m guessing the whole “share your location” concept/info within Twitter will be factored into the roll out of this new ad product as well.

If you’d like to learn more about what’s currently trending on Twitter, check out Mashable’s weekly post, always an interesting read for me. And, it gives you perspective of how big this “Twitter thing” really is.

So, what does this mean for the recruiting world? Well, not much right now since the possible price tag of $10K is more than some annual budgets. But (as all good things in life) the price tag will eventually fall so that the average mom-and-pop (aka. Your HR Dept) can tap into this as a recruiting resource.

I’m already thinking of possible uses:

1. Target Twitter profiles within a 100 mile radius of 19107 with the following Trend: #RewardingPTCareers.”
2. Link ‘fake trends’ to tweets directing traffic to a custom microsite focused on how incredible the Physical Therapy careers are at ABC Health System.
3. Provide the Twitter visitor the ability to directly tweet to recruiters within the HR Department about open positions, qualifications, key questions & answers.
4. Or, enable engagement via Twitter with actual PTs who are current employees within a therapy specialty of interest.
5. Upload/link to videos of the landscape & environment.
6. Provide a ‘quick form’ to capture email addresses for those Twitterers who don’t choose to ‘follow’
7. And on and on…

Or…maybe start a ‘trend’ campaign on #Gr8PhillySalesJobs #GreatCareerHere…kinda goes back to the good ‘ole days of making headlines within in-column newspaper ads, doesn’t it? (Now, anyone who knows what ‘fat agate’ is a true dinosaur like me.)

Tweet to me your guess (or answer) – I’m now @JenHitchens

As the largest Human Resources conference of the year, the shrm.org site offers registrants the ability to customize your itinerary to ensure you won’t miss out on any key topics.

And, this year – a new twist in the blogersphere. SHRM Public Affairs Team put out a contest for HR bloggers to join their “Official Blog Squad.”  Check out the video they produced (which I think is great, by the way!).

The SHRM Public Affairs Team is looking for the best and the brightest HR bloggers to be a part of our OFFICIAL BLOG SQUAD for the 2010 Annual Conference. Our starting lineup of bloggers will cover the people, places and events at this year’s Annual Conference in San Diego for our online blog. We are looking for FIVE (5) individuals who have a passion for all things HR, a knowledge of social media and a willingness to wear outrageous apparel (ok … not that outrageous).

In addition to the blog contest, SHRM is promoting the SHRM 2010 event with the #SHRM10 tag. Registrants, and those who wish they were registrants, are tweeting away already about the event, booths to check out, promotions offers, and so much more. So, join in the conversation, tweet out using #SHRM10 and monitor the SHRM ‘buzz.’

Andy’s article highlighted some of the key points the Navy’s Director of Emerging Media Integration, Scott McIlnay, had highlighted in his BlogWell San Diego case study presentation, “Social Media Integration & Strategy.”

Some of Andy Sernovitz’s favorite takeaways:

• Decentralized organizations need help collaborating on social media. Like many big brands, lots of individuals and teams within the Navy use social media to the benefit of the larger organization. Scott and his team use weekly e-mails and collaborative wikis to keep stakeholders up-to-date on relevant social-media developments.
• Social media isn’t just for brand-to-consumer conversations. Through their NavyForMoms network, the Navy is fostering conversations between mothers of kids in the Navy and moms who have questions about Navy life for their kids.
• Basic guidelines are helpful while you’re building your formal policy. While they’re finalizing their training program, they’re guiding everyone to be safe and smart with social media through the simple reminder “Loose tweets sink fleets.”

U.S. Navy: Social Media Integration & Strategy, presented by Scott McIlnay from GasPedal on Vimeo.

So, even if you’re not a 300,000 personnel operating nearly 300 ships and more than 3,500 aircraft…you should still create a Social Media Policy to avert potential problems down the road.

A few great articles I discovered include:

4 Things Your Social Media Policy Needs by Sarah Hartshorn

Is Your Social Media Policy Helping or Hurting Your Business? by Rod Low

Social Media Policy Examples

So enjoy the articles and samples, emulate those you think will work for your organization and discard those you think clash with your culture. Keep it simple above all else. (And for all our U.S. readers—speaking of the Navy—I hope you all had a terrific Memorial Day weekend remembering those who served our country [and enjoy the "short" week].)

The line up for the Social Media Plus day includes:

The Future of Recruiting is Social – Leveraging Social Media for Recruiting by Brian Cavoli

How Organizations are handling social media in the workplace by Kathy O’Reilly

Social Media in Recruitment and Branding by Nadine Hogan and Jim Kerr

Legal Risks (and how to avoid them) of social media by Margaret DiBianca

HR Panel: What’s next for Social HR with Sue Marks, Lance Haun, Frank Roche, Kevin Regan and Brian Cavioli

So, join me in the discussion and dialogue by using #SMPlus on Twitter and I’ll be tweeting about my thoughts and summaries on each session, so follow along! I’m @JenGreenfield

Since my December blog post, Christiana Care Health System’s Fan Page (ahem, ‘Facebook Page’) has increased its fan base from the low 70s to 723 Fans (or Likers – whatever—you get the point). The PPC campaign evolved over time with a conservative budget. The primary goals were to increase the number of fans within specific targeted skill set groups (Nursing, OT, PT, etc.). And, depending upon the specialty and the ‘demand’ level of the open positions, the campaigns were focused locally or nationally.

The PPC launched with rave reviews from the client and continues to this day with weekly modifications according as dictated by the specific for hiring needs (which can change priority daily or weekly). Local competitors (and their employees!) were targeted, geographic reach was expanded, members of specific associations were located, social groups uncovered and many other ongoing modifications all within the Facebook ecosystem.

Within the past few weeks, Facebook has made major announcements regarding their Open Graph  platform and the transition away from the term “fan” to the nuevo term “Like.” (What’s really driving these changes is an increased capability to more precisely target your advertising dollars…and in turn, give Facebook larger amounts of cash. But, that’s another one of my posts. Taking into account these new changes and the fact that launched a number of PPC campaigns for a variety of recruiting and marketing goals, I thought I’d share with you some of my experiences, frustrations and take aways (without giving away any ‘trade/employer secrets’):

• People will click on your Ad but might not become a “Fan” or “Liker” – don’t get too frustrated, it takes time and tweaking.
• I like Facebook’s geography targeting capabilities. The ad system offers a variety of methods to target finite groups (within 10, 20 or 50 miles to a specific zip code or city) or entire states for that matter.
• However, Facebook’s ‘Likes and Interests’…I like ‘not so much.’ (The problem I’ve encountered lies within Facebook’s key word suggestions that depends on what keystrokes you type – or mistype.) Facebook states, “Likes & Interests targeting is based on information users list in their Facebook profiles like favorite movies and music, groups and Pages they have connected to and other information they have shared on the site. It also includes religion, political views and occupation/job title.” I find that as the ad system loads its’ suggestions, I’m at the mercy of what pops up vs. selecting actual key words or Boolean phrases. If I chose ’30 Rock’ (which I’m a big fan, err ‘liker’ of btw) for some reason the system suggests “artist.” Go figure.
• One element I do ‘love’ on Facebook’s targeting capabilities is the “Friends of Connections.” Let’s take a look at an example provided by Facebook: “Annie is a fan of the Etsy Page. When Etsy wants to promote their Facebook Page, they can choose to target an ad to Annie’s friends by selecting the “Friends of connection” filter. Annie’s friends will receive the Etsy ad with the following sentence: “Annie Ta is a fan of this Page.” Annie’s friends are naturally more interested because Annie’s interaction with Etsy is showcased directly in the ad.” It is a sort of a paid advertisement with a pre-existing endorsement that you don’t need to solicit. Good stuff.
• You can also opt to drive traffic to your Facebook Page or to a specific web URL. The Fan Page ads tend to yield better click thru results in my experiences. People like to stay within the Facebook community (which is why everyone is rolling out the “Like Boxes” all over the place.
• You can also modify your ads to include a variety of graphics or logos. A nice way to test out which images provide the better results and the lowest costs per click.
• One area that I’m still convinced is in ‘beta’ are the “Actions” that are tracked (whether a person who clicks on your Ad actually becomes a Fan/Liker) and the Conversions Tracker (which tracks whether or not a person who clicks on your Ad also performed another task on your Facebook Page – ie. Filled out an online form, supplied their email address, etc.). I find that Google Analytics performs better and gives more data in these type of ROI areas. But, I’m sure as Facebook continues to dominate the world, these type of advertisement tracking capabilities will only increase in functionality.

I welcome anyone’s comments or experiences with advertising campaigns on Facebook for both recruitment and non-recruitment related goals – submit a comment and let me know how things worked out for you!

I’m like a kid in a candy shop! So, friends I thought I’d share with you some resources, sites and tips that I’m learning along the way…

@Ramon_DeLeon – from Domino’s Pizza in Chicago had some great Take Aways:

• Uses http://Monitter.com to manage local tweets
• Uses video DAILY to increase exposure. Creates videos to “thank” customers and resolve customer service issues (example: 30 second “Follow Me” series and “Guest Pizza Maker” as successful fund raiser for customers.)
• Uses TweetPhoto.com
• Spends 1 hour each morning checking RSS feeds of twitter activity re: dominos and to his Twitter Channel and Facebook Fan Page
• Motto: Always be ready to post and share

And that my friends is how I’d like to bid you adieu, “Always be ready to post and share!” Stay tuned for next week’s take aways – there’s plenty more!

And, if you’d like to learn more about more upcoming events in Social Media – check out Mashable’s list (and their own event coming up on June 8^th NYC!!)

Brief Overview of Guy’s topic: Are you using Twitter to promote your business? Are you looking to create a large and raving fan base? If you answered ‘yes,’ you need to listen carefully to Guy Kawasaki. Guy is an entrepreneur, the co-founder of Alltop and has 218,000 Twitter followers. In this session he’ll reveal how he uses Twitter as a marketing super weapon and disclose his tricks and tips. He’ll also give you a guided tour of how major brands use Twitter. You won’t want to miss this high-energy session.

On tap for tomorrow, Mari Smith’s tips for Optimizing Your Facebook Fan Pages for Profit.

And, in case you’ve been living in a dark cave for the past 6 months, more info on the #SMSS10 event is below (Here’s a registration link – hurry there’s only a few hundred spots open!)

Social Media Success Summit 2010 is a live online conference that will empower you to use social media to gain more exposure, better engage customers and grow your business. The world’s leading social media gurus will show you how. Join 24 experts, including Guy Kawasaki (author, Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (author, Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (author, ProBlogger), Mari Smith (author, Facebook Marketing), Greg Jarboe (author, YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (author, Mobile Marketing Handbook); experts from Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, Foursquare and Groupon; Steve Rubel (Edelman), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Jason Falls (Social Media Explorer), and Ramon De Leon (Chicago Domino’s Pizza)–just to mention a few!

You can even join the discussion on LinkedIn too!

At the end of the month, I’m planning on writing up my ‘Take Aways and Highlights’ for your reading pleasure! Stay tuned!

Now, you’re saying, “Why should I care if Facebook decides to change platforms?” “What’s the big deal of a bunch of ‘like boxes’ start proliferating the web?” Well, I clearly see the writing on the proverbial Wall—and it seems to me, Facebook is poised on the verge of making the entire web “social” – so get ready. 

Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post states:

Today at our third f8, we are making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more social experiences for everyone. We have redesigned Facebook Platform to offer a simple set of tools that sites around the web can use to personalize experiences and build out the graph of connections people are making.

This next version of Facebook Platform puts people at the center of the web. It lets you shape your experiences online and make them more social. For example, if you like a band on Pandora, that information can become part of the graph so that later if you visit a concert site, the site can tell you when the band you like is coming to your area. The power of the open graph is that it helps to create a smarter, personalized web that gets better with every action taken.

 We think that the future of the web will be filled with personalized experiences. We’ve worked with three pre-selected partners—Microsoft Docs, Yelp and Pandora—to give you a glimpse of this future, which you can access without having to login again or click to connect. For example, now if you’re logged into Facebook and go to Pandora for the first time, it can immediately start playing songs from bands you’ve liked across the web. And as you’re playing music, it can show you friends who also like the same songs as you, and then you can click to see other music they like.”

 So, from a recruiting and employment perspective, I want to call out two very important phrases in Mark’s speech:

“The next version of Facebook Platform puts people at the center of the web.” And, “…you can access [sites] without having to login again or click connect.”

So, you will soon be ways to target the millions and millions of Facebook users according to their ‘likes,’ their interactions with other FB users, their interactions with other web sites, etc. It’s a game-changing scenario that could feasibly enable companies (employers) to reach out (target) to people directly based upon very detailed user-relevant information. Imagine how this would alter your recruitment campaigns if you there was a ‘go to’ site that enabled you to tap into (basically) an unlimited talent pool? And this talent pool provided you the tools to siphon off very targeted sub-groups of people with similar ‘likes’ and skill sets and send them direct messages, emails, ads, etc. announcing your career opportunities all without asking these people to leave the comforts of their favored site. This my friends, is a game changing scenario (full blown advertising models, while still not rolled out yet, will be the next step…trust me).

As the web becomes more ‘social’ what are the ramifications for not only targeting but for hiring? What should the limits be regarding privacy? I signed up for Facebook to reconnect with old friends. And while the site has created the ability for people to ‘listen, watch, learn, comment and connect’ to the activities of others in their circle of friends and friends of friends, it’s quite another thing for this information to be tapped from a current or future employer. Where does my privacy begin and end with this new Open Graph platform? Are we opening up a Pandora’s box of employment law issues that we haven’t even thought of yet? Lots of possibilities and lots of unanswered questions.

If you’d like to read more blog posts on the f8 conference and Open Graph, Chad Richards did a great job of locating and listing the “Top 25 Posts About Facebook f8 Open Graph & Social Plugins”

Feel free to share with me your thoughts on the role of this new Facebook platform as it relates to your recruiting strategy moving forward! I’m sure there are questions or scenarios that I haven’t even thought of yet…

Mashable’s Ben Parr did a great job of  summarizing what Twitter CEO Evan Williams and Twitter COO Dick Costolo presented to the attendees of the Chirp conference. And there are some points I thought I’d reiterate and comment:

Twitter’s Monetization Model (And my 2 cents—for what it’s worth.)

• Promoted Tweets are still tweets – not ads. (If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.…Sorry, to me, these are ads – and that’s ok, everyone’s entitled to make a profit off a good idea.)
• The success of a promoted tweet will still rely on creative license, analytics, and interaction. (Agreed!)
• Promoted Tweets start with search so that the company can test it to best serve users. (Great idea – supports the whole notion of “Resonance” and “real time”)
• Resonance: “Measures multiple axes of engagement with a tweet.” For instance – the system will measure all the different ways people engage with tweets: measures reuse of hashtags, clicks on avatar, clicks on shortened links, retweets, favorites, influence of retweeters, etc. While they won’t publish the algorithms, they will provide advertisers with scores to fine-tune PTs. (Sounds fair. Like all social media, it’s a work in progress.)
• After Twitter feels like it has a sense of how this works, it will roll it out beyond search. (No surprise here. Geo-location will probably be huge for advertisers.)
• Revenue share: 50/50 between developers and Twitter, after costs are deducted. (A nice win-win for developers.)

I’m eager to keep an eye out for the successes of Starbucks (and others) and will begin mapping out my own ‘PT Strategy.’

On another Twitter note I found interesting was the revelation at the Chrip conference about ‘Twitter published stats’ from Biz Stone:

• Twitter maintains a user base of over 105 million.
• Twitter.com receives over 180 million monthly unique visitors with 75% of Twitter traffic sourcing from outside applications.
• Currently, Twitter is adding 300,000 new users daily, experiencing 1,500% growth over last year.
• While still far behind Google and even YouTube, Twitter is fielding over 600 million search queries with 3 billion calls to its application program interface (API) per day.

Pretty impressive.

While I haven’t been able to read all of the blog articles about the Chirp Developer Conference Announcements, I found one very eloquent paragraph written by Brian Solis  in his article “The State and Future of Twitter 2010” that really made me pause to reflect on the significance of Twitter and it’s constant re-evolution of the way we communicate and share :

“The Twitterverse represents much more than a social network. It personified our aspirations, giving millions of people a stage for which to earn untapped recognition. Whereas YouTube inspired so many individuals willing to brave the lens of a Web cam and the resulting activities that ensured from friends and strangers online and in the real world, Twitter gifted a microphone, a stage, and a captive audience to those who could enchant our heats, minds, and attention in 140 character proclamations.”

The power of Twitter lies within me and you. What are your thoughts on Promoted Tweets? How are you going to map out your Promoted Tweet strategy? Please post your comments and share!

Facebook is getting ready to change the way users can interact with Fan Pages. Rather than click on the button “Become a Fan” of a Facebook Fan Page, you will soon be able to “like” the Fan Page. Sure, you can “like” comments, pictures, videos, status updates, etc. so why change the differentiating component behind the “Become a Fan” option?

Facebook states users click “like” almost twice as much as they click “become a fan.” Facebook says changing the button will make users more comfortable with linking up with a brand and will streamline the site.

Business and employers use Facebook Fan Pages to connect with their customers and/or job seekers and often build PPC or CPM advertising campaigns to drive new traffic to their fan pages and generate new fans. The average user becomes a Fan of four pages each month, according to Facebook.

So, was this idea to change “Fan” to “Like” based on the notion that if you give someone less of a commitment to something, they are more likely to engage? Really? Is that what social media networking is all about? Personally, I’d rather announce I’m a “Fan” of Whole Foods or Social Media Examiner than just say I “Like” them. By becoming a Fan, I’m endorsing and engaging the company/organization/employer and other Fans.

I “Like” lots of things my network of friends, family and co-workers post…this doesn’t mean I endorse every action they do or take. And, yeah…it has always irked me that with all the privacy settings Facebook has developed/changed, there is still no way to “hide” the Fan Pages that I’m a Fan. This singular fact makes my decision to “Become a Fan” all the more important to me—anyone on Facebook can see it!

So, if I decide to “Like” a Fan Page, how am I ‘involved’ with this organization? Will I receive all the same updates and interconnectivity I enjoy as a “Fan?” The short answer is “Yes.” The long answer according to a Facebook spokesperson is basically only the language is changing, “The core functionality of Pages will remain unchanged. Pages will still have distribution into News Feed, and the administrators of those Pages will still be able to call the people connected to their Page, ‘fans’.”

So as Sarah Joacobsson of PCWorld so eloquently stated, “What that means for you, Facebook user, is that nothing will change except the words.”

What I’m sensing, with this “Like” vs “Fan” word change, is the overall impact it will have with the advertising and targeting capabilities on Facebook. I am doubting the true purpose of the ‘like’ status to make Facebook users to feel ‘more comfortable’ connecting with brands. I know some people who are commitment-phobic but changing the word from “Fan” vs “Like” is just semantics. I envision Facebook providing advertisers increased capabilities to target “Likers” vs “Fans” in ad campaigns. As Joe Ciarallo from PRNewser points out, the change to “Like” will undoubtedly increase the number of fans, “brands will increasingly need to look beyond “number of fans” and into deeper metrics around engagement and e-commerce.” Couldn’t agree more Joe.

Philadelphia Flash Mob

Philadelphia has recently seen an increase recently in ‘flash mobs’ that are organized and communicated via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. There have been three events recently (Feb 16th, March 3^rd and most recently March 20^th). The most recent event on March 20^th teens congregated in the thousands on South Street around 9pm and parents alerted police about something going down after “seeing messages on their childrens’ mobile devices telling them to come to South Street.” Well, at least those parents were on the ball and realized the potential implications a mass ‘tweet’ to ‘come down to #SouthStreet’ implies.

What I found most interesting in reading up on the recent increase in organized riots (which face it, that’s what they are) is the role social media is playing and how it’s become a scapegoat in some opinions.

A letter written by council members Frank DiCicco and James F. Kenney stated, “It is disheartening; to say the least, that these youth so casually disrespected our residents, businesses, customers, visitors, and our police department,” the letter dated Wednesday explained of the mayhem, which was reportedly organized via text messages and other mass communication, possibly Facebook, and resulted in a rampage through the Macy’s department store at the Market East mall and a massive snowball fight. No one was injured, but at least 150 teenagers were involved and 16 arrests were made, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“While they certainly owe this city an apology and deserve to be punished under the fullest extent of the law, we believe that social media outlets should also bear some of the blame.” Council members Frank DiCicco and James F. Kenney, explain that this is the second such time a band of mischievous teens has formed via social media and went on to destroy property. “We believe that the lack of monitoring of these sites allows for mass, organized riots to occur.”

Hmmm…not sure I agree with the last sentence. Who is going to monitor Twitter for “flash mob tweets?” The police?? Twitter?? A new Social Media Consortium on Prevention of Organized Rioting? I realize technology is changing, but the game still remains the same—kids, when the get together in mass quantities, can end up getting into trouble—a lot of trouble. Even if only 1% of the group are the actual ‘trouble makers.” I’m sure all of us can recall moments in our teenage-angst years where we all congregated at a party, corner, park, etc. and a few bad decisions resulted in some not-so-great results. Take that memory add about 2,000 more kids to it and you’ll see the problem Philadelphia is facing.

So, what’s a city to do? What should the parents to do? Well, I don’t have all the answers. But, perhaps monitoring your child’s activity on Twitter isn’t such a bad idea? I’m not saying stalk them—but just keep an eye out for increased activity—I think we all know what that looks like (head down, type, type, type, type, laugh, type, type, type, type and then “I’m going out.”). And, obviously a few parents who were looking for warning signs, recognized them, and did something about it—this is something we as parents do on a daily basis. Curfews might help in the interim but I’m not 100% convinced this is a solution. Giving these kids positive outlets for all their pent up emotions during those confusing tween- and teen-years is the best long-term solution in my mind. But, in a city that’s going to be taxing soda to pay the bills, who is going to foot the bill for expanded after-school programs? Perhaps the courts will shine some wisdom in today’s ruling.

A few links I found interesting:

Philadelphia Weekly – Another Flash Mob

CNet – Will Philly Sue Facebook Over Teen Flash Mobs

In his most recent tweet, (as of Monday at 9:30 EST) Gibbs provides details on his purple bracelet and why he’s wearing it (vs. the press just speculating about it and his matching purple tie). This is the type of connection that I like to see from a Press Secretary and the type of ‘open communication’ from the White House that the American public deserves.

Social media played an integral role within Obama’s campaign and continues to be utilized within his administration. U.N. Ambassador Susan Price, Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke all tweet about relevant topics within the scope of their responsibilities and I find that refreshing.

This brings me to the irony of another article I read in the same front section, “Using Social Media for Antisocial Purposes” by Thomas Watkins. Watkins’ article discussed how gang members were using Twitter to send out threats, boast about crimes, share intelligence on rivals, and network with people across the country. Who knew gangsters were so tech-savvy!? Law enforcement is using the same ‘Twitter-tools’ to capture and put criminals behind bars. In the San Francisco Bay Area, law enforcement closely follows gang activity to build cases, monitor relationships and make arrests. And, apparently MySpace is still a favorite of the Crips, Bloods, Florenceia 13, MS-13 and other gangs—members have posted incriminating photos and videos of people holding guns and making hang gestures. Watkins states, “Tapping into tweets and status updates can be easy. Agents pose as pretty girls and send flirtatious friend requests. Confidential informants sometimes let police peer into their accounts.” Takes detective work to a whole new cyber-level in my mind…

Just goes to show, that a new technology—such as Twitter—can be embraced by very disparate audiences and incorporated into daily life in contrasting methods. Who knew what Twitter was capable of two years ago? Where will we go from here? Guess it quite literally can be up to you and me!

I enjoyed Jay’s “Social Media Scattershot” term that helps define what many companies and organizations are doing right now…utilizing ALL of the social tools without real thought into strategy and goals, not to mention the ability of measuring results. I’d agree that social media can be a very inefficient use of time and if you’re not asking the integral and ‘up front’ questions about implementing social media (such as “Why are we doing this?” or “What is the business-level outcome?”) you’re doomed from the outset.

So, I’m asking myself, “Why do people want to engage with Alstin? Or, with any organization for that matter?” And, once you answer that question you’ll know how to build your strategy. (For Alstin it would be multi-pronged effort: engage current clients to participate in new services, engage prospective clients to become new clients, and help brand the “Alstin” name as the premier employer marketing communications agency—easy to do right?).

I believe that the notion of a blog as a central spot or “hub” is an excellent analogy with a variety of social media “spokes” driving visitors, traffic, etc. to the hub (ie. Facebook Fan Page, Twitter channel, YouTube, etc.). And, I really enjoyed the analysis of why a blog is superior in the social media space because it passes all of these four questions:

Four Characteristics of a Good Social Media Hub:

1. Is it Controllable?
2. Is it Measurable?
3. Is it Sociable?
4. Is it Searchable?

My other take aways from the webinar include:

• “Search and Sociability are tied together like peanut butter and jelly.” I love this analogy!!! So much of Alstin’s blog traffic comes from Google and a large percentage is 1^st time visitors and we’re constantly seeking new ways to make our blog more ‘search friendly.’  And, we’ve had a number of new prospects contact us as a direct result of a blog post.
• It’s not about volume (ie. Number of Facebook Fans, Twitter followers, etc.) engagement is about depth.
• Be sure to evaluate your business-level outcome…and be careful how deep you jump in the pool.
• Compendium offers some great tools (which I’ll be investigating more) that would assist in the ‘multi-author’ blog process with a ‘gentle’ approval process and ‘SEO keyword strength-meter.’ These type of tools are an absolute must if you’re overseeing a blog(s) that have multiple authors, etc. It’s the humanization of social media that makes or breaks its success. So, having ‘real people’ who are the experts in doing/solving/selling what your goals are makes a huge difference in the voice you’re sending out there.
• Companies that blog have 55% more traffic to their web site than those who don’t.
• Blog Measurability: pick the right metrics! If you are focusing on building a community with repeat visitors and comments, use those areas to analyze. If you’re blogging for business—to create an awareness of your company, look at total visits, % of new visits, visits from search. If you’re blogging for e-Commerce, look at average length of stay, pages per visit, referrals to other sites (like your corporate site).

“Blog Measurability” brings me to my final thought for today…Alstin (@AnnetteAtAlstin) recently published our first “contest” blog post to engage new and returning blog visitors. Some stats that we’re all proud of (big kudos goes to Annette!!):

• 28 comments to the ‘photo pix’
• Traffic doubled on March 4th and March 5th
• 76% of blog visitors entering the blog on our contest page
• 90% of the visitors to the contest page went on to view other pages of our blog

Cost: Zilch. (Well, ok a $50 Starbucks card)

But it goes to show you, engagement, interaction and the humanization business in today’s online world is only going to continue to increase—so thanks Jay, Chris and Debbie for all of your valuable insights!

Techcrunch described Prezi as “just plain awesome. It’s entirely Flash-based app that lets you break away from the slide-by-slide approach of most presentations. Instead, it allows you to create non-linear presentations where you can zoom in and out of a visual map containing words, links, images, videos, etc.” (If you want to read the rest of the review, click here.)

So, I’ll be building my two Prezi’s today, you’ll see the results in my next week’s blog post – I’m using their canvas, zoom, zebra, frames, rotation and storyline tools. Prezi’s can be viewed in a web browser, freestanding or embedded within a blog for presentation/sharing purposes. Stay tuned for my next Tuesday blog with my two Prezi’s!! I can’t wait! I love learning new tools! Seriously. I do.

If you’ve had experience or have developed Prezi’s for your own needs, feel free to share them! Comment and post your links.

And, here’s a link to some cool Prezi’s that others have created. http://prezi.com/showcase/

Turns out there was a lot of ‘buzz’ over the weekend with the ‘auto-follow’ feature which is now disabled (when originally launched, Buzz automatically would have ‘followed’ my most frequently emailed or chatted contacts in Gmail – something I definitely wouldn’t want made public!!)

As I was looking at it yesterday, I was thinking, “What’s the big deal?” Yeah, sure, I use Google Reader daily (hourly, more like it) to stay on top of all the news that interests me (or stuff I find funny – btw I’ve been following *%$# My Dad Says waaaaayyy before he got that sitcom deal – he’s still funny as *%$#). And, sure I’ve use Google Docs to share work projects, I literally can’t live without Google Maps and I’ve had my Gmail account for a while now…but, what’s all the Buzz?

The interface seems pretty basic and right now I have two followers (one I don’t even know??) and I searched and am following four people (a.ka. random friends). Buzz didn’t recommend anyone to follow like Google stated it would, but I don’t really keep my Gmail contacts up-to-date. So far…little activity…little “buzz” on my end, but it’s only been about twelve hours since I started poking around, so I’m not bashing the Buzz. Just trying to figure out (like many of you) another tool in my social media arsenal. What I’ve researched and learned is boiled down to:

• Buzz links all the people who use Gmail (which is at 176 millions users according to comScore‑so there’s a built-in audience already)
• Google stated there has been over 9 million posts and comments in its first 56 hours of launching
• There have been over 200 mobile check-ins per minute (that’s nearly 300,000 mobile check-ins per day).

Speaking of mobile…so Buzz is available on the iPhone and Droid 2.0 (rolling out to other Mdevices shortly) – and what can you do with that?

• You can look up who is buzzing ‘nearby’ and share info about where you are/what you’re doing (ie. “I’m at Philly Cupcake!!!” My friend’s ‘buzz’ to me: “Oh grab me a strawberry shortcake one!!” (Ed Note: If you’re in Philly and haven’t had the deliciousness of Philly Cupcake, you’re seriously missing out on one of life’s great pleasures…but, I digress.)
• You can post Buzz tagged items with your location so that people know where you frequent and why.
• Keep up with who you’re following (and who is following you) through the mobile Buzz interface.
• Comment or ‘like’ other people’s Buzz.
• There’s a Buzz layer on Google Maps so you can view what’s going on in a glance.
• Read Buzz about places you’re interested in.
• Click the Buzz icon on the top of the Google navigation bar to open up the posting box.
• Say ‘post buzz’ to your iPhone (still not sure what this accomplishes).

Areas I see that are of concern to me (and lots of others):

• Privacy (big concept within all the social media sharing technology) – of course Google is already responding to many concerns and is making ‘private’ and ‘public’ features already. Time will tell (and I’m talking social media time = minutes vs. days) with this area. See BusinessWeek article.
• Getting people to use another social media tool. (Although I tend to agree that since it’s interwoven with Gmail, people are going to test it out, especially us technerds…early adopters.)

Areas I see as huge potential for advertising initiatives:

• Gmail advertising is already so prevalent it only makes sense that “buzz” advertising would take off.
• Since it’s an open platform, I’m expecting a tidal wave of new apps being developed.
• I really like Ben Parr’s idea of an ad revenue share for Buzz apps and its own app store to monetize this platform would be a win-win.

Only two things I’m wondering right now…is it “buzz” or “Buzz?” And is Todd Jackson getting any sleep? Poor guy. I don’t think this past weekends’ buzz was what he’d anticipated. Stay positive, Todd! Everything new always needs tweaking!

And, as Alstin is developing an app of our own (coming soon to the App Store!), I started to wonder—there must be a huge demand for developers to create customized apps? I’ve talked with vendors and web sites about rolling out apps of their own in addition to providing customized app creation services for clients. And I was curious about the market, statistics and the potential revenue stream I could create for this type of product.

And, I discovered, I’m not alone. App stores have had more than $4.2 billion in revenue last year, according to Gartner Inc., which tracks information technology worldwide. Analysts expect that to increase to $29.5 billion by 2013. (And, no there aren’t any typos in that sentence—$29.5 billion!).

As mobile technology continues to advance (and become more accessible and less expensive) and innovations like the Apple iPad (a 10-in touch screen computer sized somewhere between a laptop and an iPhone) are created, you can be sure that this will help generate the demand and interest for more apps. From a Feb 1^st, 2010 Philadelphia Inquirer article, “A bonanza for app developers.” (written by Carolyn Davis) she quotes Lisa Allen, a board director for Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic,  the local chapter of a global group that aims to foster education and networking among the mobile-development crowd. “Today’s mobile phones are as powerful as many desktop PCs—more so, if you consider that they’re also location-aware and have a built-in billing and payment system…We’re seeing people run their entire lives, even their entire businesses, from their mobile phone.”

Apple announced in January that billion apps had been downloaded from its App Store from among more than 100,000 titles in categories such as games, business, new, sports and health. Blackberry App World has 4,000 titles and Google’s Android Market has 20,000.

From a recruiting, hiring, retention and online application perspective apps really have unlimited potential for opening up the communication process. Making it more direct, more efficient, more targeted, more everything. (Can you tell I’m really liking mobile technology??) Create an app so potential applicants can download employment-focused videos or podcasts interviewing a Hiring Manager. Or, create your app with the functionality to enable job seekers viewing your jobs (through your own app or through a job board/job aggregator site app) to easily download their resume and apply right from their mobile device. Or, develop an app function to stay in touch with prior applicants, send out newsfeeds about your company, update them on the hiring process—the ideas really are limitless. Does your company have multiple retail locations? Imagine being able to identify a smart phone user with your app and send them targeted career opportunities based upon where they are standing! Develop app for internal purposes and marketing…perhaps an “HR Welcome App” to stay in touch with recently on-boarded candidates (remind them to fill out specific forms, reiterate the rewards for your existing employee referral program) or create a retention-focused app to update employees of awards earned, milestone achievements or other positive news. And, one thing I love about apps is the metrics and measurability they provide—love my numbers!

So, when someone asks you, “Do you have an app for that?” You can say, “Yes! There’s an app for that!”

According to the Mayo Clinic’s web site, “Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) starts in the fall and may continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody.” That sure sounds like the 2009 economy (“jobless recovery”) to me. (Sounds like some people I know as well…but that’s a different blog post all together.) The Mayo Clinic also goes on to recommend that SAD isn’t just the case of the “winter blues” and that treatment (in various forms) can help you keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year. Well, I’m all for that—right 2010 economy?

I’m seeing blips on my radar of recovery. My colleagues are seeing blips as well. But, I’m not detecting the colossal tidal changes I’d like to be seeing. I know, I know it’s only three weeks into January but, come on! I was chuckling back in early December at posts and articles like GL Hoffman’s Jobs Summit comments.

But now, I’m wanting some of these recommendations to come to life.

Our 2010 economy needs some serious therapy. I work for a small business, heck I even had my own little web design business for a few years, and as I’m sure all of you know—it’s tough out there. Even if the calendar is saying 2010, I’m still feeling 2009. Except for executives at large banking institutions (don’t get me started on that one), margins are still thin, profits and losses are still being monitored daily down to dollars and cents and the budget restrictions aren’t loosening up quickly enough.

I think the 2010 economy needs a serious ‘therapy plan’ to get out of this SAD funk. Just off the top of my head, I’m envisioning the following:

• Create a “Re-investment Plan” of every single bonus dollar a banking executive would receive in 2010 directly lent to small businesses across the US at zero percent interest for the first three years. I think that would help loosen up some budgets and increase spending and ultimately hiring.
• Create tax incentives for companies that create new jobs. If we can push through and market the “Cash for Clunkers” program—why can’t we launch and market a “Job Recovery Tax Break” to promote job growth? We’re all doing way more with WAY less—if an employer could see the value of rehiring talent because the advantages out weigh the risks, don’t you think they’d take that chance?
• Create tax incentives for entrepreneurs to start their own business (and hire people to work). Have we lost sight of our roots and forgotten that the entrepreneurial spirit is what has made the United States so successful?
• Provide funds for state and local governments to assist unemployed workers to find employment. I’ve never seen my local library so busy and so overwhelmed!
• Remember the New Deal government public works program in the 30s? Maybe we should take a closer look and morph its basic concepts into solutions that makes sense for the 2010 economy? Perhaps, invigorating and investing in green technology?

Are you seeing any signs of the elusive ’2010 recovery?’ Supposedly it’s going to surface in the spring/summer…

For now, I’m thinking of spring—warm, sunny days with lots of green. It’s already staying lighter later…a daily sign I see for good things to come—one extra minute or two at a time.

I found the article written by Hope Yen on December 16^th in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

• Americans sent more than 110 billion text messages last December, double the number in the last month of 2007, as the short hand communication becomes a popular alternative to cell-phone calls.
• The nation’s 270 million cell-phone subscribers each sent an average of 407 text messages in December 2008, according to government statistics released yesterday by the Census Bureau. That’s more than double the 188 messages sent by the average cell subcriber in Deceber 2007.

“We are seeing a clear trend of huge increases in text messaging, “ said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project. “If teens are a leader for America, then we are moving to a text-based communication system. For them, there is less interest in talking.”

Her research found that the average teen now sends more than 2,000 text messages per month. About two-thirds of all teens use text messaging, mostly because of its simplicity as well as the privacy of being able to communicate without being overheard.

Lenhart predicted that texting would keep growing as parents begin using it as an easy way to reach their children.

At the same time, the average length of a cell-phone call declined last year to 2.3 minutes. That’s the shortest chat time since the 1990s, before mobile devices and cheap calling plans became widely available to everyday consumers.  The peak talk time came in 2004, when a a caller on average chatted for 3.05 minutes.

All of these stats remind me of a skit that Robin Williams does in his latest (HBO) comedy special “Weapons of Self Destruction” where he talks about Twitter ‘going down’ and everyone was freaking out about what to do with their thumbs!??! And he spoofs on a Dad re-introducing himself to his child, “Hi! I’m Dad!” LOL!

So, the bottom line: we’re evolving into a society where texting someone is more ‘efficient’ than calling them—leaving a voice mail or actually ‘connecting’ is becoming pointless.

Since when has communication been all about efficiency? Is it really that hard to push a few buttons on your phone to retrieve a voice mail? Is it really that hard to make a connection via cell towers and wireless technology? What’s wrong with talking ‘face to face?’ and rambling on about a story and reminiscing about the past and laughing out loud – for REAL. Well…a lot I guess. I’ve been there. Done that. Case in point: my mom calls, I ‘ignore it’ (this capability is another blog post all together that relates specifically to dating and the calamities of being single in today’s world, but I digress…). My mom leaves a voicemail. Instead of listening to it, I just text her…’what’s up? Just chking in…” and so the text ‘dialogue’ begins and the voice mail gets deleted.

So, what’s my point? Texting is the new communication vehicle. How does this affect how I work and how I interact with my clients and projects? So far, not too much. However, it will (eventually) change how employers engage and connect with potential applicants. And, I’m sure I’ll be exchanging text messages vs. emails with clients very soon…2010?

So, for now…ttyl cu n 2010

The Holiday season is overwhelming upon us. And, with the holidays, I’ve been seeing a lot of familiar holiday cartoon classics and specials on TV which makes me nostalgic for the ‘old days.’ Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman and the The Year Without a Santa Claus always make me smile!

So I felt for my blog post today, it would be appropriate for a “rerun” of my own…so here’s a link to Alstin’s December iOnline publication which features my original blog post on the Social Recruiting Summit in NYC – my take aways and social recruiting dashboard ideas (still working on this project).

December iOnline 2009

Enjoy your time off and the holidays! Next week, I’ll be taking on “Texting & recruiting = gr8!”

As a firm believer in social media recruiting, I feel the Phase Two answer should be Pay-Per-Click (PPC) targeted advertising campaigns. The ability to target a specific skill set through their online behaviors within a finite geographic radius offers the perfect next step solution.

You’ve built your Fan Page, Twitter Job Channel or talent-centric micro-site. You’re updating the content on a regular basis, communicating with your existing fans/followers/visitors. Now, you need to increase your reach and build a larger audience.

PPC campaigns are available on all the major social media outlets. And, one solution I thought I’d focus on today—Facebook PPC campaigns.

Facebook PPC campaigns:

Structured in a similar set up as a Search Engine Markeing (SEM) campaign on Google, Yahoo! or Bing, Facebook allows advertisers multiple ways to target your advertisements to a very select audience based upon information gleaned from a person’s Facebook profile:

• Geography (US, State, City, Zip Code with a targeted mile radius.)
• Gender (Not that I’d recommend implementing this option.)
• Target people on their birthday (“Happy Birthday – try out a new career!” Maybe not. But, you get the picture.)
• Education (Up to 20 schools and/or 20 majors and graduation year)
• Workplaces (This option is HUGE – imagine creating a targeted campaign to Facebook profiles who currently work for a competitor – create your ads to talk specifically to them and encourage them to visit your Fan page, Talenthub or Career Microsite. Or, feature a specific job you have that’s in demand.)
• Languages (Great for targeting bi-lingual skill sets!)
• Keywords (The sky is the limit with these options – target profiles based upon interests, activities, favorite books, TV Shows, Movies, or job titles that users list in their Facebook profiles. Keywords can also come from groups or Pages users belong to or are fans of…a quick focus group within a department that has multiple openings or hard-to-fill opportunity can provide ‘extra-curricular’ activities that are common interests from which to target.)
• Connections (Target users who are connected to your Fan Page, an Event, Group or Application – by doing a little research this option can provide excellent targeting results!)

My point? It’s scary how detailed our digital footprints have become and how efficiently employers can target their recruitment advertising. Don’t wait – start Phase Two today! Feel free to comment or contact me with questions and/or results you’ve had (or not had) with targeted PPC campaigns.

The term CyberMonday term was born by the NRF as a day for bargain-hunters to take advantage of faster Internet connections at work but the most recent NRF survey found that most shoppers — 91.5 percent — now do so from home. (Obviously with the increased usage of cable/FIOS Internet access).

And now, CyberMonday and now has taken on greater momentum thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

As reported today from Mashable’s Adam Ostrow, “According to numbers provided by Coremetrics, sales for this year’s Cyber Monday beat last year by 13.7 percent.

Some other numbers directly from the report [PDF link]:

• The average dollar amount consumers spent per online order rose 38.2 percent from Cyber Monday 2008 ($180.03 versus $130.24), led by apparel retailers.
• Consumers bought nearly 10 percent more items per order on Cyber Monday 2009 compared to Black Friday 2009 and nearly 30 percent more compared to Cyber Monday 2008.
• Consumer shopping hit its peak from 9-10 a.m. PST, but maintained stronger momentum throughout the day than on Cyber Monday 2008.

“Americans appreciate the convenience of shopping online, which doesn’t require standing in line, circling for a parking spot, or even changing out of your pajamas,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. (Author’s note: Amen!)

So, while I’m nowhere near finished holiday shopping, I’m glad to report that the hashtag #ShopCyberMonday was used on Twitter by over 650 retailers on CyberMonday for special discounted items, coupon links, and much more. Facebook users could log on to retailer’s Fan Pages and get access to great coupon codes to use online and sign up for alerts for specials and discounts. What better way for retailers (and employers – hint, hint) to communicate with their customers than directly through social media? It’s a win-win situation where everyone saves, and I’m all about savings this holiday season. (And, all the free shipping offers are a huge time saver!!)

So from now on, I consider myself a confirmed “Cyber-holiday shopper” and you won’t see me trolling the mall parking lots anymore! I’ll be enjoying my coffee in my PJs clicking away and searching for Facebook Fan Page coupon codes and cost-saving #hash tags! Serenity now!

The Social Recruiting Summit in New York City on Monday was a great event—from the networking TweetUp event at Bar 657 sponsored by Monster to the final conference session given by Jessica Lee (who slung some mud at Monster ironically – but Eric took it like a champ with his flair for sarcastic wit) I learned a lot and confirmed a lot about what I’m currently doing within the social media space.

It was also great to be able to meet some of the people I’m following on Twitter and meet the authors of articles & blog posts I read all the time (John Sumser, Dr. John Sullivan, Gerry Crispin, Laurie Reuttimann, etc.) as well as meet some recruiters who echo many of my client’s concerns, frustrations, and questions.

As I reviewed all of my notes, I noticed a lot of the questions for the speakers focused around the “How-To’s.” My colleague, Annette DeHaven did a great job of summarizing the “take away’s” from the conference (if you haven’t read it – you shouldn’t miss it!)

The Q&A theme, especially for Social Recruiting Panel with Sodexo’s Kerry Noone, Microsoft’s Heather Tinguely and RSM McGladrey’s Ben Gotkin focused on the details. Most common questions that were asked:

• How much time do you spend on social recruiting in your daily routine?
• How do you engage your executives/CFOs for budget buy in?
• How do you engage your own employees to support your social media messages?
• What are you doing about compliance?
• Did you outline a strategic approach before getting into social media? If so, what was it?
• How do you measure results?

Fred Wilson in his Keynote session really hit the nail on the head when he mentioned that there was a “big area for growth in the industry for creating recruitment strategies and providing a single dashboard/platform” that can manage all social recruiting from one centralized resource.

So…since there is a technology gap within this area, I thought I’d list my vision for “How-To Build a Social Recruiting Strategy / Dashboard” the bricks and mortar way (until someone can create a dashboard that can sync all of the items below):

My New Social Media Mantra/Dashboard Theme: “Complete Transparency. Transparency Breeds Authenticity. Let It Be. Don’t Limit the Dialogue.”

Blogging:

• Create a program & schedule to engage current employees (each department/business unit will write one blog post/week.
• Feed/link this blog from the home page of my Career Site home page. (Add video (upload on YouTube) and podcasts as well if not available on Career Site).
• Sync blog with photos on Flickr.

Twitter:

• Set up automatic Jobs Feed under corporate careers channel.
• Highlight 3 jobs/day or other job-related news with manual tweets.
• RT valuable; tweet original/researched content.

Facebook Fan Page:

• Set up schedule for daily status updates & link promotion to blog.
• Create Jobs RSS Feed for up-to-minute content from our Career Site/ATS/TAS.
• Set a goal to publish link to one newsletter, article in the news, press release etc.
• Set a goal to upload one new video/podcast/photo per week.

LinkedIn:

• Use LinkedIn for reference/resume checking.
• Update my status to promote blog posts and featured job openings (sync with Twitter account).
• Create LinkedIn Groups for each business unit/department—encourage employee bloggers and current employees to join and promote the groups to colleagues, friends, etc.
• Send out discussion items and Q&A to members of the group on a weekly basis.

Job Search Engine Promotion/SEO

• Create a job search engine sponsored job pay-per-click campaign (either on Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com or LinkUp.com). Budget doesn’t have to be huge, monitor results and reinvest accordingly.
• Sign up with Jobs2Web.

Internal Promotional Campaign

• Establish an incentive campaign to recruit employees to engage in Social Media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Koda.us). (ie. iTunes gift cards to person who has most Twitter followers, etc.). Promote campaign through Intranet.

External Promotion Campaign

• Request each employee blogger to find 20 people in their industry/line of business via Twello (or other Twitter directory) and invite them to follow our Twitter jobs channel/join LinkedIn Group.

My Daily Social Media Recruiting Itinerary

• One blog post/week; Tweet 3x/day; Check Facebook Fan Page for posts/comments and submit new status update daily.
• Use bit.ly to find people who are RT our tweets and RT information about our competitors. Follow these people.
• Engage these people to follow our Twitter Jobs Channel, read our Blog and join our LinkedIn Group(s).

Google Reader

• Set up Google Reader for key word Twitter searches/news trends/industry trends.
• Competitor blogs/news.
• Industry News.
• If it’s a search or something of interest, get the RSS feed.

That’s a lot to fit on one dashboard, but that’s what I envision being a great resource for efficiently managing a fluid social recruiting campaign. Measuring results and monitoring budgets would be a nice module, too—but I don’t want to get too greedy.

Please feel free to add your notes/thoughts/feedback to the areas I found to be major assets to a social media recruiting campaign – I’d love to hear from you! – Jen Hitchens-Greenfield

In recruitment advertising, a lot of money is spent on things like search engine optimization and marketing, job boards, banner advertising on industry sites, email – etc. Online advertising is key to your ability to drive qualified candidates to your site. Investing in these programs is an important part of your success as it casts a wide net to attract qualified prospects.

Yet too often, the people who come to your site leave without delivering a resume or an application – Statistics tell us that most resume and application activity happens during work hours. So what happens when a boss or coworker walks in, the applicant drops what they are doing and may close the browser.

And what about those who did leave a resume or application? How valuable would it be to have continued dialogue with them after they leave your career site?

Retargeting allows you to recapture their attention, those who applied and those who didn’t, and re-message them by sending them either back to:

• Your Career Website

Or redirecting them to:

• Your Landing Page, where they could be surveyed
• Employee Testimonials, where they could hear from people they would work with if they worked for you
• Videos that could talk about the company and tell a story
• Industry News – maybe something innovative your company was involved with or an award you won

The point is, retargeting allows you to communicate with your candidates the way you would like to – if you had the time.

It gives you the opportunity to make your advertising investment pay off by building a relationship with the skill sets you hire, now and in the future.

There are 3 different types of retargeting. Site, Email and Creative. All of them involve placing a cookie on the computer of the visitor and delivering an ad to them on other websites. Retargeting is critical to your marketing efforts for one primary reason – a candidate who has expressed their interest in you by visiting your web site is more qualified than one who did not visit your web site. Retargeting allow you to focus your ad dollars on these “pre-qualified”, or “filtered” candidates which will improve your ability to attract the talent you want.    Keeping your communication highly relevant by serving ads based on the specific jobs the candidate has reviewed keeps the candidate interested well into the process of sorting resumes and setting up next steps. Your acquisition cost is lowered by targeting only people who have visited your site – 100% target reach.

When your message is served to visitors on lifestyle and information sites chosen by them, your employment brand is associated with their interests and develops a lifestyle affiliation.

Once they leave your site, they are no longer thinking of you – but retargeting allows you to remain top of mind as they move around the net through out the day.

Read more about the details of retargeting at my iOnline Newsletter article. If you have any questions about retargeting, or have experience with it—I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts!

Road to Recovery

I don’t know about you, but I need a dose of good news today. I’m tired of hearing all the negative news stories and terrible stats…so I’ve compiled a list of top 10 articles I’ve read recently that highlight some good economic/recovery/job growth news and make me feel optimistic. While not every article is 100% positive, at least there are some signs of life after this recession. I hope they brighten your day a little bit too…

Top 10 Reasons to be Optimistic about Recruiting in 2010

10) Monthly Job Losses Coming to an End, Says Conference Board

9) LinkUp’s October Job Report Shows Slight Signs of An Improving Job Market In U.S.

8 ) Temp-Worker Increase May Foreshadow Return to U.S. Job Growth

7) Job Openings in U.S. Increased for Second Month

6) World Stocks in Pause After Dow Hits 2009 High

5) Through the Glass Less Darkly – it’s a good time to remember that when an economy is just coming out of recession, its weaknesses are always more obvious than its potential strengths.

4) Monster Employment Index Showing Slight Improvement

3) Job openings rise, but hiring still weak

2) More Companies Plan to Hire Than Cut Workers

1) US Employers are Hiring with Retail in the Lead

So my friends, look at the glass as half full today…I know I’m looking forward to attending the Social Recruiting Summit next Monday to discuss recruiting strategies and results within social media and I hope to see you there too!

Follow my #socialrecruiting updates on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jengreenfield Or, feel free to post your comments or links to other articles below!

Then I listened on KYW that Septa decided to strike at 3AM. I knew what that meant. Ug. Nooooooo! Long lines, standing-room-only regional trains, people stranded, frustrated, irate, etc. (in a city that’s already known for our lack of patience). My commute wasn’t too bad all things considered – others not that lucky. Annette (our General Manager) had a 3 hour commute, I heard people had to beg, borrow and steal to coordinate rides, companies pieced together “emergency” transportation solutions at parking garages and I saw a lot of bikes on my train this morning. My evening commute is fast approaching and from what I saw this AM in Suburban Station (cones, gates and those crazy poles that make mazes for forming lines) I have a feeling I’m in for a long commute home.

So…while I was working today and in between meetings and emails I read online a few articles about what the whole problem is with Septa and its transit workers. And, I’m getting more upset with each piece of information I’m reading. Average salary of a transit worker? $52,000 NOT including their benefits. Workers want at 4% increase in pay (or raises totaling 11.5% over five years depending upon the article you read) AND they want to keep paying only 1% of their healthcare costs. Uh, hello? We’re in a recession! “Salary increase” is a four-letter word to most of the people I know who are employed—they’re just happy to be employed!

And, on top of it all Septa decides to strike on ELECTION DAY! Brilliant! Whoever gave the “ok” at Transport Workers Union Local 234 for that idea should seriously evaluate their priorities. I mean you’ll “hold off” for the Game 5 of the World Series but not Election Day? Where is the logic in that? And, what kind of message does that send the thousands of transit takers to strike at 3AM and leave everyone scrambling for their morning commute?

So…as you can see my feelings on this issue are pretty strong and I happened to tweet to GL Hoffman (of JobDig and “What Dad Would Say Blog” and founder of a great job search engine aggregator LinkUp.com – full disclosure, I’ve written on their site before) that I felt this odd-ball combination of happy events and crazy facts would make a perfect “Gruzzle.” If you don’t know about Gruzzles, get on board. GL Hoffman creates them and FastCompany has featured Gruzzles and they can be downright LOL funny. So I proposed the idea, he liked it and drew up this formula that I think captures the essence of this debacle quite well:

Septa Transit Workers Strike

So…thanks GL for finding the Gruzzle visual for my rant, let’s hope the Phillies have a repeat, and Septa smartens up to reality!

Too often when discussing social media (Twitter, facebook, blogging) with clients and friends I hear the standard “obstacles” about how/why these type of “social” media outlets are just “time wasters” or “unproductive.” (Or, the real straight-shooters just say, “I don’t get it and I don’t want to get it.”). OK…sure, bury your head in the sand – I’ve always found a lot of success doing that—duh.

I think Dr. John Sullivan’s article provides a wonderful analysis of the ‘nay sayer’  attitude and how we, as recruiting professionals, can combat the negativity and overcome the obstacles put in front of us regarding social network recruiting. And, his recommendations fall under a topic that is always near and dear to my heart – metrics, data, numbers, the ‘proof is in the pudding’ type of information. You can’t argue the facts and that’s what I like the most about his four recommendations.

Locating hidden talent, reducing vacancy rates, college impact, increased communications response, employer branding, and on and on. It makes sense right? And his outline really is a “how to do it” guide for recruiters. The problem for me? I’m not a recruiter. I help recruiters. I work with tons of Human Resource professionals and teams and departments. And, I’m so curious to see if some of Dr. Sullivan’s ideas work (ie. Using your own employees as a baseline for the ability to find top talent or creating a small pilot program or a split sample to gauge results from different recruiting tools). I’d jump at the opportunity to ‘partner’ up with a recruiter to create some test scenarios for using social media to fill specific position(s). I’m envisioning: outlining a goal, giving it a timeline and a small budget and measuring as much data as possible, and of course sharing results. Any takers? (Email me at blog@alstin.com)

Another, relevant article (published in AdAge, so yes, I realize the source is going to report on the topic in a different light)  about  “Ten Things Social Media Can’t Do – A Healthy Reminder for Setting Expectations” by B.L. Ochman.  In this article, it supports my constant mantra that social networking takes TIME and EFFORT (and some blood, sweat and tears). I particularly like #5 “Can’t…be done in-house by the vast majority of companies” because it keeps me working! And, I like working!

I’m a big fan of purging stuff every once in a while—and moving is an excellent catalyst for streamlining your life. I think I get the cleaning bug from my mom, (whose nickname—given by me, my brothers and sister—is the “White Tornado” due to her cleaning fury episodes). Going through ten years of accumulated presentations, hand outs, project sheets, internal marketing materials and the tschokes from various vendors, I was astonished at how much I was holding onto in one small office. A few of the items that I came across made me laugh out loud.

· Careerbuilder candy jar – (What happened to our monthly delivery of Twizzlers and bubble gum?)

· HotJobs travel coffee mug with a square bottom that doesn’t fit in any cup holder I’ve come across.

· CD of “lounge music” from eVite.com that I acquired at a SHRM event when the site was first launching (yes, now I really feel old).

· Yahoo! HotJobs Super Recruiter Action Doll complete with brief case, cell phone, glasses and cape!

· Careerbuilder Monkey Ad promo pieces

· Various Trump Monster stuffed animals, coffee mugs, note pads, calendars, stress balls, eye balls, you name it.

After successfully filling many large trash bags with files dating from 2001, I organized six moving boxes, labeled all my items with stickers and hoped for the best.

Now, it’s Day Five and I’m looking back on the progress we’ve all made:

With the help of two co-workers (thanks Steve & Joe!), I successfully put back together my desk on Day Two (the mover’s weren’t able to figure it out). The bruise on my knee (which I got after the desk fell apart on me) is now a faded memory. My Mac was up and running (of course!) and Internet and email access weren’t far behind which was a miracle in itself (thanks Tony R!!!). All of our stuff is finally moved over – no thanks to the rain delay from Tues night…can’t move in the rain! And, when the rain stopped, building rules said, “Can’t move after 11pm.” Go figure.

Things I really love about our new space:

· I can open the window in my office AND I have complete control of my thermostat.

· It’s on Broad Street (so now I can say I work on the Avenue of the Arts!)

· I can still hear the police and fire sirens very clearly.

· The bell at City Hall is much louder (it’s a nice way to ring in each new hour)

· I get better radio station access from our new location (you don’t know how sick I was of listening to 106.1 – not that it’s a bad station or anything…)

· The sun comes into my office window around 3:30 and gives a nice sunny lift to my day.

· When I shout—looking for people—they can hear me!

· The ladies room has three stalls (we have a lot of women in our office) and hot water (if this doesn’t seem like a luxury item to you, consider yourself lucky).

Things I will be getting used to:

· Dialing “9,9” before every call

· Smaller, but greater quantity, of elevators

· Very cold air conditioning

· Everyone’s new location and “phone buzz”

· Walking up Sansom Street instead of Walnut (I’ve headed for our old space three times so far before I realized where I was/wasn’t.)

So even though my office is chaos and filled with boxes and files, I’m looking forward to the future and all that it holds. (This time I won’t accumulate so much stuff!)

From the employers’ perspective, with a monthly subscription to LinkUp.com, your company’s job opportunities can gain exposure to LinkUp.com’s audience. In June 2009, they received over 3.4M job views and unique visitor growth was up 391% from June 2008 to June 2009. And, as part of the monthly employer subscription, LinkUp will also enhance your search results position by rotating your jobs into the top two positions of the Sponsored Job position based on general keywords (selected by LinkUp.com). LinkUp.com also has a ‘Sponsored Job’ keyword advertising package that allows for a more “hands on” customized pay-per-click advertising solution where you select a comprehensive list of keywords built specifically for jobs you identify.

Not only does LinkUp.com offer PPC ‘Sponsored Job’ solutions, they also offer subscribers social media services as well. I wrote previously about their stellar Facebook Jobs app that also enables your employees to add a “Job Box” on their Facebook profiles to expand your reach within Facebook. LinkUp.com also feeds jobs into their new Twitter channel www.Twitter.com/JobsonLinkUp.

Don’t have a Career site that enables you to easily update, post and track your company career opportunities? (Or, maybe you don’t like your ‘home grown’ or current solution?) LinkUp.com offers that, too. Their Career Portal service is fully customizable and enables you to manage all applicants for each job posted and includes an array of sorting, keyword searching, and ranking capabilities as well. The Career Portal can also track sources and provide reports (although I didn’t delve too deep into these two areas). If you want to see a Career Portal in action, visit http://lsiowa.jobdigtracker.com/careers/ or http://lloydcompanies.jobdigtracker.com/careers/ (Note: the Jobs RSS feed capability for job seekers.)

So, my monthly ‘Vendor Review’ of LinkUp.com gets two thumbs up for providing a unique value to both job seeker and employer alike. If you’re interested in a demo or finding out pricing, call or email me—I’d be glad to help.

My next blog post….”The Move – the day after.”

If you haven’t already heard, Alstin Communications is moving up the Avenue of the Arts to 121 South Broad Street…stay tuned.

Take your employment message mobile! CollegeRecruiter.com can deliver a 145 character text message to the cell phones of more than 3.4 million text and 200,000 mobile streaming video enabled cell phones used by college students and recent grads who have all opted in to receive text messages from CollegeRecruiter.com You can scrub the cell phone users by 700 different fields of data. Each cell phone text message campaign also includes a free follow up plain text or HTML email campaign to reinforce your message to all recipients.

CollegeRecruiter.com states:

- 80% read your message within 20 minutes of receiving it.

- Response rate is 20 times greater than banner ads

- Response rate is 10 times greater than direct mail.

- Over 90% of text messages are read by the recipient. It is a direct link between you and the target candidate.

- On average 15% of the respondents will forward the message to a friend.

So, if you were interested in mobile marketing for your recruitment messages, text campaigns can be very targeted and yield terrific results.

Sure there are plenty of options in the marketplace for employers to pay thousands of dollars for this data feed through an external vendor. Or, tens of thousands of dollars (in the case of CareerBuilder) to develop a Fan Page and feed jobs (only posted to CareerBuilder) to the Fan Page (isn’t that double dipping?) but those pricey options aren’t in our clients’ budgets and probably not in yours.

Why do I find the new “Current Jobs at Our Company” App so refreshing? We’ll let’s see…did I mention there’s a FREE option? The free option will wrap/feed your five most recent job postings on your career site and publish them to your Fan Page. And, a very cost conscious $39/month Premium option is also available that wraps/feeds ALL of your jobs to your Fan Page.

What else did I find so refreshing? It’s easy! Within a few clicks following the tutorial (nicely designed—by the way—complete with screen shots for those of us speed readers) I had been notified that “Within 48 hours the LinkUp Web Development Team would contact me to finish the process.” Basically QC to ensure that I am who I say I am. Within one hour I was contacted by Eric (who was very nice and well informed about the application/product) to finish out the process and I was able to activate the Jobs app on my client’s Fan Page, create the tab and the feed was instantaneous! Viola!

(Actually, I think said “WOW!” – out loud.)

So…more about LinkUp.com…the mastermind behind this job search engine is none other than GL Hoffman. If you don’t already subscribe to his “What Dad Would Say” blog you’re really missing out on some seriously funny posts (and diagrams).

I hear ya saying, “Yeah, yeah another job search engine like Indeed or SimplyHired.” Not really. LinkUp.com ONLY aggregates jobs from company web sites (Translation: no job boards are allowed to spend big $s in paid search advertising to drive traffic to their sites and you won’t find crazy jobs like “Work at home and make $20,000/day!” Does anyone really believe those jobs are real??? But, I digress…that’s another topic all together…)

So, because there are ONLY active company career site jobs on LinkUp.com, it gives the job seeker a true picture of the recruiting landscape and ALL the jobs that are available.

Sure, LinkUp sells PPC advertising but these ‘sponsored jobs’ are easily recognizable and still very relevant to search parameters (much like Google Ad Words’ Sponsored Links). Full transparency AND the bonus that employers don’t have to bid against the ‘big boards’ for advertising/promoting their jobs.

Right now there are about 20,000 companies and 400,000 jobs on LinkUp.com. And, if you’re a smaller company without an ATS or Career Site,…LinkUp is affiliated with GL Hoffman’s JobDig and “JobDig Tracker” which offer cost effective web-based TAS and Applicant Portal solutions. Smart huh?

So…two thumbs up for LinkUp’s FB Jobs App. And, if you’re in the market for a cost-effective Facebook “Careers” Fan Page but don’t really know where to start, email me (blog@alstin.com) or post a comment – Alstin can get that done for you, and I’d be glad help.

It’s so robust, it’s almost scary! Imagine being able to provide all of your employees the ability to tap into all of their social networks (think Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) and promote your company career opportunities. And, be able to track every point of contact through the entire dialogue. Jobvite has an amazing matching technology that enables recruiters (and employees) to promote specific career opportunities only to the people in their networks that would qualify or be interested in that specific opportunity. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack!

Recruiters can open the lines of communication about specific career opportunities through the synchronization of Jobvite with their Outlook contacts, email a specific opportunity to all employees (or specific groups of employees) and announce a specific position to select LinkedIn or Facebook contacts (based upon available profile information). Jobvite immediately scans a person’s profile on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter for job relevancy, location, job title or industry and lets the recruiter select which individuals (in their network) they’d like to “Jobvite.” In a few clicks, your opportunities could be sent around the world! Makes my head spin

I could go on and on about the other functions (“Work with Us” Facebook app, scan a potential candidates social imprint, create custom trackable URLs for external site promotions, etc.) but time is flying by and my emails are piling up and I haven’t even read half of my Google Reader articles…stay tuned…

All kidding aside, training for the Sprint Triathlon was intense. Now I know why they call them “brick” workouts…because it feels like you hit a brick wall head first going from bike to run or swim to bike. But I stuck with it and things got easier. Swimming is definitely not my best skill. The anxiety I feel doing a lap of freestyle is overwhelming. So, I switched to breaststroke. Harder? Perhaps. But at least I could get my breathing under control and do six laps in a pool without stopping. In my mind I kept thinking the .9K swim of the Philly Sprint Tri was 38 laps – and there’s no stopping in the Schuylkill River!

Race Day came quickly and I hardly slept the night before. I triple checked my bags and my gear about ten times. Up and out by 6:30 AM, no traffic on 76 at that time! Finally reached the transition tent and set up my bike and running gear and befriended three other women in my swim heat (there was no hiding my age with my bright orange race cap and the number ‘36’ firmly written in permanent marker on my calf!). One of the women had done the race before and gave us all some great pointers and tips for making the transitions smoother. Talking with them and the camaraderie I felt really helped reduce the anxiety that was creeping up as each wave of swimmers went into the water.

I’m not going to lie—I honestly thought, while swimming against the current during the first leg of the swim, that drowning was a distinct possibility. (Or, at a bare minimum—the humiliation of being hauled into one of the rescue boats, and therefore disqualified from the race, scared me as well.) Hyperventilating and unable to catch my breath, I looked around and saw that I wasn’t the only one struggling and that I wasn’t the last one in our heat. There were many other swimmers in the water who weren’t doing freestyle and who were bumping into one another and doing backstroke just to catch their breath. As I realized this, I said to myself, “You’ve worked too hard and for too long to be carried away in a rescue boat. Get it together. You can do this….you can do this.” So, I switched gears, kept repeating, “I can do this…I can do this.” And just told myself to get to the first buoy and if I could do that, I’d attempt to get to the second buoy. Sure enough, I rounded the first buoy and starting across current, then down current and next thing I knew I could see the rainbow arch that was the finish line to the swim. I guarantee you’ve never seen a swimmer in the Schuylkill River smiling while doing the breaststroke.

After I exited the water and could hear the crowd hooting and hollering support I was literally smiling ear to ear—I had done it! Transitioning into the bike portion was simple and as I snapped on my helmet and hopped on my bike I was literally on cloud nine. The bike portion was even enjoyable as I got a chance to look around Fairmount Park and see the city skyline in the distance that I’ve always loved. Running has always been something I loved, so once off the bike, I knew I was in the home stretch! Seeing my family and friends cheering me on also pushed me to try harder. Crossing that finish line knowing I just ran a 8:36 mile for the 5K run part was exhilarating! The first thought as I crossed the finish line? “I can’t wait to do this again next year!”

So, why am I writing about my Sprint Triathlon experience? To remind myself that during the toughest times and the hardest challenges in life, we’re not alone. Through the love and support of family, friends and co-workers we can get through anything. Stay positive my friends. Live strong.

One product I’m very impressed with that focuses on this problem, is TalentFilter. Their search technology offers a truly automated solution that “sweeps and filters” all resumes from one search. Translation: you don’t need to search your ATS, your subscription RDBs, and the Web in three (or more) steps. TalentFilter does it all at once.

TalentFilter also ranks the resumes matched, enables you to forward to Hiring Managers for feedback/interest and market back out (in bulk emails) to the top tier resume results. If the sourced resume is interested in your open position, an interview can be scheduled within their system as well.

Let Alstin further help streamline the process. When time – your time – is of the essence (and isn’t it always?!) , my team can perform the actual sourcing (we’ll outline the core competencies from your job description for you) and based upon your skill set criteria run/monitor the search and deliver the results.

I do recommend going one step further. Have Alstin design a static or animated eCard, landing page or microsite  that touts your organization, location and assets of the available opportunity and market a branded message directly to the top ranking sourced resumes. We’ll track all the results – you will have solid stats backing up these efforts – and by opening the door to communication through these additional (and I might add cost-effective) interactive tools, you will be able to easily and effectively communicate with these candidates on an ongoing basis.

Want to set up a trial, talk about options that may be right for you or discuss questions you may have? Email me at blog@alstin.com

Why does it seem like time goes by too fast? Are we trying to cram too much into too little time?

Even with time flying by every day, I was determined to watch the live stream of the Social Media Recruiting Summit on Monday June 15th and was really pleased to see over 500 other “stream viewers” not to mention all the attendees at the sold out event. That’s a lot of people taking time out of their insanely busy schedules to watch, learn, and interact about a single topic. The mobile-to-mobile marketing presentation by Chris Hoyt and Michael Marlatt was quite informative and interesting. And, I now have a new word for my techno vocabulary: “backchannels” – kind of like the old school days of passing notes to classmates but on a business-scale that you can utilize for good (vs. the evil, which those passed notes always seemed to create in grade school).

I wished I could have attended all of the sessions at the Social Recruiting Summit, but afternoon meetings popped up on my calendar (not to mention the 100+ emails piling up in my inbox). Ah well – maybe more time will be available next year – although I’m sure the topics and trends will have changed. (And, I’ll be sure to RSVP early for a chance to visit Google’s headquarters!!)

For now, my goal is to take a deep breath at least once a day at work and unplug/disconnect/pause/logoff/shut-down/tune-out/turn off for at least an hour a day at home…which will probably occur right before I pass out at bedtime.

It’s amazing to me how far technology has changed all of our lives in recent years. It’s even more amazing to me how much technology has changed how organizations recruit. 10-15 years ago print was still king and “outside the box” ideas included radio and billboard promotion and direct mail campaigns. Today there’s text messaging, RSS feeds, Twitter channels, behavioral targeting, viral marketing, wireless networks, laptops with more GB, RAM & video capabilities than ever before, On Demand, “nudges,” virtual career fairs, status updates, advatars, gravatars, blogs and on and on. If you blink, it sometimes feels like you missed something.

I’ve led presentations on many of these “technology channels” and highlighted the strengths (and sometimes weaknesses) they represent for an organization and their recruitment strategies. Often what I’m asked is “What are the latest trends that are working?” Sometimes these tools are so new it’s often the early adopters who take the risk and reap the rewards. Risk isn’t a popular word right now in the recruiting industry, or any industry for that matter. But, sometimes those who are willing to take a different direction than the road most traveled become the innovators-the one’s leading the pack and getting the results.

I’m optimistic about the future and the economy and I honestly think that those organizations who take the time now to analyze their “old” processes and implement new technologies and methods in their recruitment tools will really come out ahead when things start picking up. And, as history has shown, they will eventually pick up. So Carpe Diem my friends! Out with the old, in with the new. Not sure what to do or where to start? Feel free to leave some comments or questions, the more the merrier…if we forge through this together we’ll all come out ahead.

More recently, I started to dive right into the Twitterpool, and then I really started to be amazed. For me, the greatest thing about Twitter is it’s applications (or Apps) that have been developed. TweetMyJOBS, TweetDeck, TweetBeep, Twello…it’s the Apps that make Twitter so amazing from a recruiting standpoint.

Any recruiter can start tweeting out his/her jobs on the appropriate channels of TweetMyJOBS (like eQuest just started doing for its customers) and reach Twitterers who have the exact skillset/interest/geolocation that you’re seeking. (Cuts out the job board, I mean middleman, huh?). Jobcircle.com recently announced a Twitter-based recruiting tool for employers. Their “Social Media Recruitment Pack,” provides companies the ability to create a privately branded Twitter job channel, which is an account on Twitter that allows them to tweet open positions to the Twittershpere in real time. Your jobs are wrapped and automatically “tweeted” to the company channel and distributed to over 160 vertical and industry niche job channels (established by JobCircle.com on Twitter as well). One of Jobcircle’s first clients on board with their new product was QVC. QVC was in the discussion stages internally and considered building this Twitter job channel themselves. Once they heard that Jobcircle would have their channel built and functioning in 48 hours, their decision to outsource this task was made. With over 120 followers already retweeting their open positions out into the market, QVC has seen 20-90 more views per job posting. Soon they will have updated SEO data to report and they expect a significant uptick in organic traffic. Pretty amazing.

I signed up (all in the interest of research of course) for a few Twitter job channels related to my skill set/industry. I was amazed that within 3 minutes I reviewed an “On Call Copywriting” job in West Chester, PA and emailed my friend on Facebook about it (a copywriter living in West Chester, PA) and she started chatting with me on FB (she’s a FB-addict like myself). After this all happened within 10 minutes of me viewing the job-tweet, I really started understanding the sheer power Twitter, and social media recruiting, possesses.

I’ve read all the blogs, posts and articles on NYTimes, CNN, etc. about Twitter and the “fad” of tweeting, but until you witness it first hand (or know someone who got a writing gig or publishing deal from their “novella” tweets or a friend who landed a new job from a Tweet) you don’t really grasp the power and (in my opinion) longevity, this type of communicating possesses within the business and recruiting world. Tweeting isn’t a fad, it’s a form of communication, and I’m thinking this could get seriously addictive! Well,…gotta get back to my TweetDeck notifications, it’s been chirping non-stop. 

Ready to learn more about the impact social networking has on recruiting? Alstin offers on-site workshops, consultation and customized strategies for implementation with sociability – a full suite of service offerings for when employer marketing meets social networking. Contact us today at blog@alstin.com.

A good part of my daily activities focuses on analyzing data – the ROI from an SEM campaign, career site traffic patterns, landing page metrics, ratio of views/clicks/applies to determine job posting performance, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I love crunching numbers and seeing what comes out.

The only area where it’s often very difficult to get good data – data you can use to make tough decisions, I’ve found is “Source of Hire data.” In my experience, very few companies (no matter how big or small) truly know where their hires come from. Frequently, I’ve seen clients rely on Source of Hire data reports from their ATS to make decisions about how to spend their recruitment budget.

Makes sense right? But how do you ensure the data is accurate? And what happens when the data is at best confusing or at worst – completely inaccurate. Recently, I assisted a client with delving deeper into their application process and how their ATS was set up to track sources of hire. After meeting with their ATS Account Manager, we discovered a slew of things that were creating inaccuracies. So, what areas would I recommend any HR/recruiting staff to look at “under the hood?”

1.) Automate your Source of Hire identification. Point A: You might as well label the “self select” option as “useless” because job seekers are notorious for selecting inaccurately (clicking on the first source on the list or what they “think” you want them to select). Point B: In this Web 2.0 world, job seekers are probably touching various points on the Internet (LinkedIn, a big job board, Google, Indeed.com, blogs, tweets, etc.) to find out more about your organization – asking them to choose “one” source is bound to be inaccurate.

2.) Analyze your Source of Hire definitions (aka Source List options) and be sure they are updated to ALL the sources you are using (ie. LinkedIn post; a Facebook fan page, etc.)

3.) Use unique URLs in all media placements that include your now squeaky clean Source of Hire definitions (ie. A very basic example: http://ATS.company.aspreq#&source=SOURCECODEHERE! (yes, I’m shouting this out – it’s that important!)

4) Verify, test, verify, test – make sure your unique URLs are working & train your team to use tinyurls to shorten for other placements offline. We all know GI = GO, so don’t put garbage in your ATS anymore. Verify the data coming through on the back end, run reports frequently and troubleshoot areas/questions.

5) If your ATS has a tracking capability to follow “applicants” as they navigate through your application process, analyze this data. What is your drop off rate from the ”click to apply button” to “completes application process?” If it seems high (and it most likely will be) you really need to review your application process and streamline it to its shortest possible length.

6) Update all links on your corporate site that direct traffic to your career site as a defined “source ID.” These links will help you identify who came through directly from your corporate site vs. going to another site(s) first. (#6 isn’t fool proof at determining which hires originated from the corporate/careers site, but identifying this traffic as a “source” is better than not identifying it at all.)

7) Establish an Onboarding Questionnaire that asks the newly hired employee where they heard about this opportunity. Enable a new hire to insert info/data in the “Other:” field. Heck, allow them to tell multiple sources or their story of “how I got hired.”

8.) Use your ATS’ email templates!! This could be another post/discussion all together. ATS email templates are your friends! Design them, use the personalization capabilities, send graphics, links, promote your employee blog, email a monthly newsletter, etc.

With your sparkling clean Source Data, your reports will certainly be able to tell you where your recruiting budget should be allocated. Next step: a Media Plan/Recruiting Goals based on facts not anecdotes.