Hire Strategies Blog

Is Facebook a B2B channel (yet)?

You can dress SPAM up anyway you like, but SPAM is SPAM is SPAM. Or is it?

Is Linkedin really as good as we "think" or is it already an urban myth?

This question has been nagging me for a while. So many recruiters have claimed that they get all their hires from the job boards they use yet in reality they have no decent tracking to know where their hires really come from. Now Linkedin is flavour of the month but is it really just a load of hocus pocus? Has anyone got any real decent stats to prove their claims? I wanted to find out first hand so started digging with a Linkedin poll. 

Job boards vs. social networks. #in

The job boards pretty much took the entire job advertising market from print in around 10 years. The social networks could take the market from the job boards in maybe half that time; so it is now the job boards market to lose. Here's a few things they could try to save it.

I am man - I am Google. I am woman - I am Social.

Search hasn't changed but social has changed the game as far as advertising is concerned. But what do we men know anyway?

Pages, pages everywhere so where does my career site fit?

(Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography)

As a recruiter you have your coveted career site but you also have Pages; Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ and no doubt there will be more incarnations to follow. But as more "brands" push people to their Pages rather than their website (X-Factor is a typical example) where does that leave your own site? Redundant or different? The road ahead is daunting.

IBM Social Business Viewpoint

I had the pleasure of attending the IBM social business viewpoints meeting yesterday at the new IBM Forum location. Getting in required the use of my well worn passport and I somehow passed this first security stage with no questions. But having made my way up to the starship enterprise top deck I wandered around looking for human existence. I was in but I was alone; or was I!? 

Would you refuse applicants without a social profile?

What no LinkedIn? What no Twitter? What no Xing? What no Facebook? Well you won't be able to register with us then until you get one. I mean, we need your Klout score.

Of course you would never, ever, ever do such a thing. It is absolutely proposterous and open for so much trouble from the PC police. But, already in certain cases to apply for a job online a CV is mandatory. As is a telephone number. And an e-mail address.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and even Talent Communities; it's all about the data!

Thing is, we probably all know this yet, when we talk talent communities of any kind we get all hot under the collar about the conversations, engagement, employer brand blah blah blah. But, we do actually need all these conversations to take place, photos to be uploaded, friends to be found because every action, every conversation, every like - counts. It counts for advertisers which is where Facebook make (some of) their money. But there will be a bigger picture as to how Facebook monetise all of this information; but that's nothing new. For talent communities we need to be thinking much further ahead about the real goal.

Talent community or field of dreams?

Build it and they'll come. Will they? Will it work? Will anyone really care?

Who is responsible for tracking? Media channel or media buyer?

Why is it that there are still so many challenges in finding out where your great new hires came from?

There are more tracking tools than you can shake a stick at yet recruiters still struggle to measure the success of their hiring channels. The ATS can’t do it. The job board can’t do it. Even Google Analytics or Atlas Tracking tags cannot do it alone. It’s absolute madness. So who’s responsibility is it then?