Jonathan Duarte – Social Media meets Job Search

If you’re one of the 15 Million Americans out of work, chances are you’re first New Year’s Resolution might be “Get a Job!”.

In a must read, Free Ebook, from Polly Pearson and the recruiting team at EMC, 100 Tips from Fortune 500 recruiters, outline the their top job seeker tips and top mistakes they see job seekers making.

In the Ebook, 10 EMC recruiters listed their tips to each of the questions.

I did a little work to summarize the responses into some “Top Tips”, based on the number of times a tip or similar tip was repeated by a recruiter. A summary is below:

Top Job Seeker Tips
# 1 Job seeker tip- Networking!
9 out of the 10 recruiters stated that networking, in it’s different forms, was one of their top tips for job seekers. Networking came in multiple flavors from traditional networking on online and social networking, to using sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter.

# 2 job seeker tip – Being Prepared!
8 out of 10 recruiters stated this as being one of their top tips. When the recruiters stated “being prepared”, this included things like having researched the company before the interview, being prepared for the interview (ie, having practiced the most common interview questions), and showing an interest in the company by coming prepared with and asking questions about the company, the department, and the job, in the interview. This of course dove tailed into the following:

Biggest Job Seeker Mistakes -“Not being prepared in the interview”
Based on the above, its’ easy to understand why 10 of 10 recruiters mentioned being prepared as one of the biggest job seeker mistakes. Being prepared also included understanding how to interview, and having a clear objective or reason why you are interviewing for the position.

Word to the Wise… If you want to stand out in the interview, it’s really easy… Be Prepared! (I guess the old Boy Scouts motto is sill relevant!)

Recruiters Favorite “Sources of Hires” – Referrals and Social Networks.
Again, unanimous, 10 of 10 recruiters stated that Referrals or Social Networks were listed in the top tips from each of the recruiters. The favorite sources included everything from job fairs, employee referrals, college career centers, job boards, social networking sites, like LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter., etc. What’s interesting and important to note is that job boards were only mentioned in the 4 of the 10 recruiter’s top sources.

The 17 page Ebook has lot’s of great tips and quotes, here are a couple:

Linda Di, “There is no “best” candidate but “best suitable” candidate. A successful outcome for both the company and the candidate is to find out if they are the best match for each other.”

Michelle Flynn, “It will always be the preference of the hiring manager to recruit someone who is known to them. Give yourself the advantage by being a person to them, rather than a [resume].”

Liz Liptrot, “All people experience what you are going through [as a job seeker]. Whether it is your first job search, you have been hit by the recession, or you are just looking for another career – we have all been there. Don’t be embarrassed by your situation and network with anyone and everyone. Remember that most positions are filled through referrals.”

Technorati Tags: Interivew tips, Job Search Tips, Recruiter Tips, social networking job search

You NEED a Social Strategy! Even a basic one!

Your top recruits are already using sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter.
They’re out there looking for you!

What are they finding?

We are here!
We are a great company to work for!
Come, see for yourself!

or

We don’t get it!”
We don’t care!”

Even if you have a company presence on LinkedIn, Twitter, or FaceBook, Do you know what it says? Or who wrote it?

Social Media Recruiting is “Social”. (That’s the hardest part to understand)
It’s not about writing the bigger check than you competitors.
And, it’s not JUST about how many hires you generate. It’s about getting your message out and engaging your Top Recruits, on their terms, on the sites they use, how they want it, when they want it.

It’s not about writing a check to the site with the best ads on the SuperBowl! Or most aggressive sales people.

What good does it really do if you have a $20,000 “Branding Presence” on a national job board, when you know your Top Recruits never visited those sites?

What’s you message on FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, where your Top Recruits are? Do you even know?

If you don’t have a social strategy, don’t be surprised when it gets harder and harder to attract and retain to top candidates.

At the moment, social media sites may not be the primary driver of candidates applying for jobs, but they can definitely make the difference during the “Why Work With Us” phase of recruiting.

Social media sites like LinkedIn and FaceBook are quickly becoming the go-to portals for all kinds of information, including company information, product research, consumer reviews, etc. LinkedIn now even embeds company information from BusinessWeek and CNBC into company profiles.

A poorly planned, duct-tape social media recruiting campaign might have worked in the past, but the competition is quickly starting to heat up. Top employers like Starbucks, Addidas, Ernst & Young, and McGladrey are all using social media in their recruitment marketing.

If you know your Top Hires are individuals that know your company, products, clients and markets, and even your existing employees, don’t you think these are the candidates you should be spending the most resources on?

This is what Social Media Recruiting is all about. If you engage and help educate your Top Recruits, you stand a better chance at getting their attention. You can do this with social media… or you can just say “We don’t care!”

Unfortunately you aren’t going to get a phone call from some FaceBook sales rep, who for $25,000, will wave his wand and make the problem go away.

You need to know what to do. Where to start! What sites should we be on? And what are the best practices that others have implemented.

This is where having the help of an experienced and knowledgeable consultant can help you get the ball rolling.
• Someone who has 10+ years in the Internet Recruiting Industry, so they know the ropes.
• Someone who knows LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter, and has a proven track record.
• Someone who knows technical web design and how to integrate job postings into multiple websites.
• Someone who know how to build, implement and maintain a social media marketing strategy.
• Someone who knows how Social Media and Search Engine Optimization can be used to build a social recruiting brand.

I highly recommend starting with a 3-6 month pilot project. It’s easier to digest, you and your recruiting team get to learn the sites, and your recruiting message is clear. From the pilot project, you can then decide which social campaigns make the most sense to you and your recruiting team.

If you are interested in learning more about creating a Social Media Recruiting Strategy, please give me a call, or send me an email at jonathan @ Gojobs.com.

While there are a few Social Media Recruiting experts out there, there just aren’t that many.

Technorati Tags: FaceBook, LinkedIn Recruiting, social media recruiting, Twitter

Social Networking sites, like LinkedIn.com, FaceBook.com, and Twitter.com are quickly changing the recruiting landscape.

Not only is transparency completely altering the recruiting processes, but candidates are quickly learning more about the companies. Most employers have yet to realized this growing trend.

Those employers who start adapting to the new Recruiting Transparency reality stand to gain the greatest.

Recruiting in a socially networked world is going to require engagement, and specifically highly targeted engagement campaigns into niche groups to attract the best and brightest of the passive candidates.

In a recent, 1 hour Live Streaming Interview, hosted on Ustream.com, I was interviewed by Dr. Amy Vanderbilt, host of the TrendPOV Show, regarding “Who’s Tapping your Talent Pipeline”.

The interview is also available via podcasts as well as Ustream.

Below is a copy of the ustream. It’s 60 minutes long… FYI

The full interview is also available via Itunes for Free Downloaning:

Who’s Tapping Your Talent Pipeline? – Part 1

Who’s Tapping Your Talent Pipeline? – Part 2

Who’s Tapping Your Talent Pipeline? – Part 3

Who’s Tapping Your Talent Pipeline? – Part 4

Who’s Tapping Your Talent Pipeline? – Part 5

Technorati Tags: LinkedIn Recruiting, social media recruiting, Talent Pipelines

Kirsti Stubbs, @kstubbs, was interviewed by WhyHire.me about using Social Media and Social Networking sites in the recruiting process.

She discusses how she uses Social Media sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter and Blogs to source candidates and get a deeper understanding of who the candidate is.

She walks through some of the sites she is using, and even compares the ROI of social media recruiting to traditional job boards. Spelling out the difference in candidates that she is seeing from the different sources.

This is a great video for both job seekers and employers.

Job seekers, pay attention to what Kirsti says about your personal brand, and how she and recruiters like her are using social networking sites to find candidates that they think will fit their company.

Employers listen as Kirsti describes how she is using the different social media sites and especially with networking into groups.

Twitter is growing exponentially. Employer’s are using Twitter and other social sites to research job applicants. But still, few job seekers have no idea how to use Twitter for a job search.

One of the primary drivers of twitter growth has been the ability to share and find information.  Savvy Job seekers can use Twitter and this real-time information feature to not only research companies, their products, and services, but also build credibility and influence by providing followers with good, relevant, and interesting news, articles, and insights.

Doing this in your chosen profession and industry can help you build a substantial number of followers who can be leveraged into direct contacts within companies, which are imperative when you are searching for a job.

Twitter can build credibility and authority during a job search.

Top 10 Benefits of using Twitter in a job search:

1. Differentiate yourself from other job seekers, while building your credibility and authority with industry contacts, thought leaders, as well as employee s, inside companies you are interested working with..
2. Prove your industry experience and expertise, based on your twitter posts, your followers, your twitter friends, and your retweets. Your resume can’t do this!
3. Directly connect with senior management, employees, and owners of the companies that you are interested in working with, while building rapport and credibility, before you ask about job openings.
4. Build, Grow, and Maintain Relationships with your personal network and referral networks; including, current and former co-workers, clients, vendors, and other industry contacts.
5. Add value to your Personal Brand distinguishing you as a Subject Matter Expert, with connections to other industry thought leaders.
6. Keep your connections up-to-date on your job search progress.
7. Intimately know the companies you are interested in working with, through researching their products, their industry, their management, and their employees. You will not only gain critical information about the companies, but you will be able to make a much better decision about whether you want to work there or not.
8. Research the companies and publish your findings. This is basically using your job search time to learn about the companies and industries, but instead of just keeping the information to yourself, you publish it, making it available to others, including the people who are going to hire you. There are several stories of job seekers that were hired just because they knew more about social media and what was being said about the company than people inside the company. Publishing your finding, not only shows that you know a lot about the company, but that you are serious about your intent to work with them.
9. It’s Easy! Twitter only allows 140 characters, so you don’t have to spend an hour or two writing a blog posts, or racking your brain to find something to write. Finding and posting or retweeting relevant and interesting articles, tips, tricks, news, and information is easy to do and very rewarding. Not only do you learn about the companies you want to work for, but you also learn about all aspects of their industry, their management, etc. This is critical information to know if you want to find you Dream Job.
10. It’s Fun!

If you are using Twitter or other social media tools in your job search, please comment below! I’d love to hear what kind of results you are achieving. Did you find a job through Twitter? Let me know by emailing me at jonathan at jonthanduarte.com

Technorati Tags: personal branding, Twitter, twitter job search