Job Recruitment: How Companies Are Using Social Media In The Hiring Process

Hey everybody! I wanted to start out today by thanking everyone who has participated in discussion and given feedback. I enjoy reading over comments and getting ideas from my readers so I can provide the best relevant and useful material that will help you be successful in using social media as a tool to build your business. So thank you!

Ok! Let’s get started, so today I wanted to talk a little about something that I think is going to revolutionize the hiring process companies use for future applicants. Lately, in my social media marketing class we have been talking a lot about our LinkedIn profiles and how we can optimize them in a way that really benefits us when looking or applying to new jobs. So in today’s topic I want to discuss how companies are using social media basically as a tool to weed out and hopefully in the end hire employees. As social media is on the up and up a lot of businesses have jumped the bandwagon and started into this new realm of social media recruitment. Which for some of us can be pretty scary! I mean really, when was the last time you checked what was on you profile? Well, before you open a new tab to check all your social platforms let’s take a deeper look into this topic.

This infographic from Staff.com takes a closer look at social media and recruitment.

According to the inforgraphic 92% of companies are using social media in some part of the recruitment process. Whether that be to check up and see if you are a qualified candidate, post positions for hire, or make sure your not going to be a risk for the company. Either way, the odds your profile makes or breaks your chances to receive a job are almost guaranteed. Social media has become such a huge part of our lives, companies can learn a lot about who we are as people just by perusing our online profiles. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who is about to hire someone to work for their company. If you had a little crystal ball to see everything you wanted to know about that candidate would you use it? Of course you would! Companies are doing just that. Our online profiles being that magical crystal ball that gives them a look into our lives and who we are as  people and more importantly future employees.

Something else the inforgraphic points out and something I want to stress is the importance of LinkedIn! For you that have no clue what I am talking about when I say LinkedIn. Immediately head over to Google.com and read as much as you can about creating a LinkedIn account and do it ASAP!!!! LinkedIn is on the forefront for companies seeking job applicants. I can stress it enough how important it is for people seeking a reputable job to be connected and networking on LinkedIn. According to the inforgraphic in 2012 93% of companies use LinkedIn. Thats almost double the amount that use Facebook and Twitter. On LinkedIn’s press website LinkedInPress they say “Two new members sign up to LinkedIn every second.” Below I have attached an image for those who are more visual learners.

I’m not making this stuff up or trying to promote LinkedIn for any personal gain. However, I believe LinkedIn is on its way to being how people find jobs. What am i saying it already is! The proof is in the pudding as they say, but I will let you make the call I am just here to point out where companies are and how they are using social media to find new and promising job applicants.

So what does all this mean for you as a job seeker? Get a LinkedIn account and like the inforgraphic says “for the love of all that is good, complete your profile.” Its not just LinkedIn though, companies still resort to other platforms in the recruitment process so as a person seeking employment make sure your profiles are professional and not saturated with a bunch of pics of you on the weekend out getting smashed.

Build A Brand! Using Social Media To Gain Brand Awareness

Social media has become a very powerful tool in the world of business. It has opened up a lot of doors for smaller companies to start competing on the same level as some of these top ranking fortune 500 companies. A lot of these doors, which a mere 5 years ago would have otherwise not been accessible if not for social media. With the such little barriers to entry that are involved with social media almost any company can use it to their advantage. However, not only has social media been a huge benefit for companies, but it is also allowing customers to connect with businesses in a whole new way. One thing social media has changed in the realm of business is the increasing amount of brand awareness companies can achieve with such little to almost no costs. This is extremely important for smaller companies to get their name out there and start driving potential consumers to their products or services. Today I want to talk about how social media can help your company achieve a higher brand awareness and look at some examples and ideas you can use to achieve such possibilities.

The first step to achieving a higher sense of brand awareness is asking yourself “what problems am I or my company experiencing with marketing our brand?” Let’s take a look at a infographic done by NEXT Marketing Agency Inc.

According to this infographic 43% of companies are finding that they have little to no market place distinction what so ever. This means all the efforts these companies are putting in to making themselves known like Facebook posts, Twitter updates, Instagram pics, or what ever it might be; isn’t sticking with consumers. They just aren’t remembering what they read or who they read about. So your job as a marketer is to start garbing the attention of your target audience. Use things that might entice them to either read more, participate into a conversation or better yet consume your product/service. Let’s take Starbucks for example. One thing they are doing to attract customers and gaining brand awareness at the same time is through a new program called “Tweet A Coffee” . Tweet-a-coffee is a new way to send $5 Starbucks egifts to twitter friends and followers. This promotion is attractive to consumers and it is a great way to be remembered. Something of this nature finds a way to burn itself into peoples minds and the next time you go out for a cup a coffee you get that voice in the back of your head saying “Hey, why not go to Starbucks?” This is just one example though, you don’t always have to take it to this extreme. The main thing to remember as a marketer is to make sure to be memorable. Use well crafted wording that is not just easy to remember, but also is intriguing and gets people talking.

The next step or process of increasing brand awareness ties back into what I talked about in a previous post “Consumer Insight: Understanding the Wants and Needs of Your Target Market” and that is understanding your consumers and why they are connecting the way they are. Here is a graph I found over at Barnraisersllc.com in a post about building brands.

This graph shows what motivated consumers to “like” a certain brand on Facebook. This is helpful information for marketers because it provides insight about your consumers and what they are motivated by. Back to the Starbucks example, they obviously saw great results from their promotions because according to this graph 40% of consumers associate with brands because they are looking to receive discounts and promotions. So if Starbucks is giving them what they want of course they are going to stay loyal to their brand. Other than just loyalty, consumer insight also helps give you knowledge about what attracts consumers to your brand so you can grow your online identity. Sir Francis Bacon had it right when he said “Knowledge is the key to success.”

Now that we have be memorable, understand consumer behavior, next let’s move into enhancing your business identity. With this massive movement towards “going green”, we have seen a lot of companies changing their image to focus on being environmentally friendly and socially responsible. This is highly do to the impact a companies image has on the awareness consumers have about their brand.

Consumer Insight: Understanding the Wants and Needs Of Your Target Market

I started this blog on the foundation that small businesses can benefit from using social media as an effective marketing tool. I wanted to help by giving my insight and some useful tips for small businesses to “level up their social identity” and get started in the realm of social media. In my previous posts I went over some of the basic principles involved with social media. For example, my first post “What Can Social Media Do For Your Company” covered what social media was and how companies can can effectively utilize different social platforms. My most recent post “Social Media Resourcing”, discussed the topic of whether or not companies that choose to use social media as a marketing tool, should outsource or manage their social media efforts in-house. In this post I want to change gears a bit. If you haven’t figured out already by the heading, this weeks topic is on consumer insight and how companies can use social media to gather information on their target market.

I assume most everybody reading this is familiar with common business lingo and concepts, but for those who are new to business and are looking to get a head start over the competition let me clear a few things up. When I say “consumer insight” what I am referring to is what Web Definition defines as “an intrinsic need or desire of the consumers, to which the brand alludes with its solution offer. “Insight” can be derived from classical market research understanding or from psychological knowledge about emotions and behavior in relation to the brand.” Next, the concept of “target market”. A target market according to entrepreneur.com is “A specific group of consumers at which a company aims its products and services.” Now that we are all on the same page, let’s dive in.

Social Media and Consumer Insight

Since social media is now a major part of our lives, businesses and marketers cant help but gather information on us as consumers. So from a business standpoint social media and consumer insight go hand in hand. A study done by socialmediaexaminer.com found that in 2012, approximately 58 million Americans have developed a “social habit”, which is the tendency to use social media sites multiple times a day. That is a shocking 17% increase from 2008. For more information on social media as a habit check out Tyler Crabbs post “Analysis of How Social Media Affects Our Everyday Lives” over at tycrabb.wordpress.com. Meanwhile, back to the topic at hand. If this many people are connecting to these social platforms multiple times a day what can we learn from them as consumers? How can this information help us in our goals as a company? Why do we need to know what they are doing on social media sites? All essential questions I am sure your asking yourself as your reading this (if your not, you should be). I will answer a few of those questions in a second, but I want to ask you a few first. My first question is what does your company expect to achieve from social media? Next, how do you expect to find your target audience on these social media platforms? Last but most important, if your already using social media, hows that working out? Yes, that last question was sarcastic. If a company is engaging in social media marketing and hasn’t gathered any consumer insight, my guess is its not working out so well or at least it is not as effective as it could be.

As a small business I don’t expect you to spend countless resources or valuable company time messing around to much with social media. However, gathering consumer insight is vital to make social media marketing effective. So if you do choose to manage a social media platform for your company or outsource your social identity make sure you gather some information on what your consumers are doing.

Now let me get back to those questions I mentioned earlier. What can we learn about consumers from social media platforms? Wow! I could go on and on about this question, but let me point out just a few of the basics:

• The amount of time consumers spend researching a particular product or service.
• Who is using particular products or services?
• How often are people sharing or interacting with a company before being considered a “loyal” consumer?

These are just some of the many things we can determine from consumer behavior on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and some of the other leading sites. The next question is, how can this information help our company achieve its goals for social media? This is one of the questions I hope you don’t catch yourself up on to much. It is a relatively simple question to answer. It has every thing to do with your company achieving your set goals for social media. I say this because, with out understanding your customers or potential target markets, how are you as a company suppose to design a marketing plan around social media if you don’t even know who your looking to target? You cant! I cant stress enough how important it is for you to learn about your consumers before you try to market towards them. If you don’t you will waste valuable company time, money, and resources. This all leads into the next section which is how marketers use social media to target a specific market.

Target Marketing

Understanding customer behaviors and gathering insight allows marketers to effectively target consumers who will most likely use their products/services. Now that we have an understanding of consumer insight and what that information can do for your business, its time we implement some of the knowledge gained. In this section I am not necessarily going to tell you how to target customers/consumers, that is for a whole other post. Instead, in this section I am more concerned with going over what to look for in consumer behavior that will help identify your companies target market.

This idea or concept of target marketing ties back into what I said earlier about consumer insight. How are consumers spending there time online, who is using particular products, and who is talking about what? Nielsen a consumer insight company in a recent study “State of the Media: U.S. Digital Consumption Report, Q3-Q4 2011” released that internet users spend roughly 21.3% of their time on social networks.

Another important factor in specifying a specific group or target market is finding what the 21.3% or so of people spending their time on social networking users are talking about or doing in those realms of there social platforms. Not only is it important to find the social media users, but that information does you minimal good unless you know what they are doing with that time. Consumers are discussing brands, companies, and experiences on social media. According to Ravi Condamoor, CEO of  Serendio a firm that mines social media networks said “While some consumers will still pick up a phone to call a help line, the vast majority is now turning to blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc., to provide real-time experience feedback,” So it is important you understand what your consumers are doing and how they are reacting.

The information is out there! There is no question about that. It just matters on how effective or how much time you have to find it. A lot of target marketing comes from consumer insight. So the more you spend learning about consumers and their behaviors the more ammunition your company has to target and “attack” future and current customers.

Social Media Resourcing: Outsource or In-House?

Since the recent explosion of social media there is no question as to whether or not social media can be a benefit for companies looking to gain a competitive edge, but rather who should those companies have maintain their online identity. According to Forbes.com “it takes a midsize company about 32 hours a month to capably handle a single social media platform.” With most top brands ranging from 5 to 9 platforms, that’s roughly 160-288 hours a month just on social media maintenance. So ask yourself “is it worth delegating in-house or should companies look outside the office for ways to maintain their social media presence”?

In-House Over Outsource? You Decide!

Let’s start with the basics; so what exactly are the pros and cons of maintaining social media in-house over choosing to outsource it to a company who specializes in maintaining online business identities? Like anything in business, when companies choose to search “out of house” for people or companies to take over projects it can result in the company losing touch with its original goals. There is an old saying that goes something like “Out of sight. Out of mind.” If your company is not keeping up with its own online identity, then how do you know how customers are responding to your social media efforts? Another major issue with outsourcing is familiarity. By this I mean, most companies who provide outsourcing services (in our case social media upkeep) will have no relation to the company and in most cases will know nothing about what your company is about or wants to achieve. Of course this issue is something that can be resolved, but not without time and access. Which face it, these reasons are probably the main reason outsourcing would be considered in this situation in the first place. Next is priority. When companies outsource social media, the companies they usually hire are also handling several other accounts. So, do you think you’re on top of there list? Lastly, with outsourcing your giving up control which is one of the most important factors in business. When you lose control, you lose the ability to do things the way you planned or the way you want them to go. So let’s recap, the pros to keeping social media in-house are:

1. Staying in-touch with company goals
2. Familiarity with the company
3. Prioritization
4. Ability to keep control

Now that we have gone over the basics of how keeping social media in-house can benefit a company’s overall social media performance, let’s look at what outsourcing can provide.

Outsourcing! Is It For You?

In the previous section, I went over some of the benefits of keeping your companies social media efforts in-house and why outsourcing might not be the best option. In this section I want to provide the pros to outsourcing and why keeping social media in-house could cause problems.

The first and most important thing any company should ask themselves before choosing to outsource is “do we have the time and resources to do it ourselves?” Like I said earlier in this post, it takes most midsize companies 32 hours a month just to handle one social media platform. With that said, outsourcing social media can free up a lot of time for companies to focus their priorities elsewhere. Time is a valuable resource for any business. We all have heard the saying “time is money” this is especially true in business. This picture from entrepreneur.com shows just how much companies force social media on top of other, more important tasks that employees could otherwise be more focused on.

Another important benefit of outsourcing social media that surprises most companies is the ability to save money. Think of it this way, when you keep social media in-house who is handling that task? How much time do they spend managing your social media identity? How much are you paying them to perform this task? With a social media consultant or expert you may not be spending as much, since their expertise and knowledge of  social media will allow them to complete your company’s goals at a much faster pace. Besides just saving money, social media consultants also offer their expertise. Staying on top of what’s new in the social media world is another task in and of itself. A consultant can provide your company with new ideas on which platforms will best suit your company’s goals and how to utilize those platforms effectively to gain the best possible results. In my opinion, the industry knowladge is priceless. Take a look at this picture.

With 94% of businesses using social media, 74% of them are seeing increases in website activity, 65% are gaining marketplace intelligence, and 58% are generating new leads and developing loyal fans. Is it worth risking such a vital tool in the hands of someone who is not skilled nor has the knowledge to run it effectively? Outsourcing may be a wise option for your company and clearly the pros far outweigh the cons, but the decision to outsource or stay in-house is for you to decide. Looking back, outsourcing provides:

• Extra time to perform more important tasks
• Ability to save money
• Expert advice
• Effective utilization of social platforms and tools

Making the Choice

Now comes the hard part. Is your company going to spend the time, resources, and man power to keep up with the ever changing, extremely difficult, and hard to measure task of managing its own social media platforms? Or will your company invest the money to outsource at the cost of lost of control, familiarity, and connection to the customer? Both options provide an array of benefits and negatives. So, take the time to asses which outlet will best suit your company’s goals without breaking the bank. Research is the most valuable tool a company possess, use it.

What Can Social Media Do For Your Company?

Social Media: What Can It Do for You? (Business Edition)

Social media is the forefront of most internet activity today. With a little more than 2 billion active users throughout the top social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and a few other leading sites people rely on social media to keep them in-tune with society and up-to-date on the newest trends. From a business standpoint social media is a viable tool for business of all realms to engage and connect with customers. Today I want to talk about what social media outlets can achieve for your business and how your company can utilize them effectively.

Understand Social Networks

The first and most important part about using social media is taking each platform and learning how they operate. For example, Facebook and Twitter two of the top social media platforms work completely different from other platforms like Instagram or Pinterest. Understanding how each one operates and how consumers use them will make all the difference for adapting social media to fit your companies goals. Eric Tsai over at Design Damage put it as “having a map of the town”. Once you have knowledge of the streets around town, you feel more comfortable maneuvering around and locating places of interest in our case finding consumers.

Social media is filled with potential consumers, some actively searching for products/services and some waiting to be found and targeted by your business. It is your companies obligation to understand the markets and consumers who operate in these social realms. With a clear understanding how social media sites work you can move onto the next stage in adapting social media for your business.

Which Social Network Is Best for Your Business?

Now that we understand how social networks operate  and how potential consumers use them, the next step is to find what social media platform will suit your company most effectively. Before you go signing up with all these different social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, take some time and ask your self a couple simple questions. Ask yourself:

• What do you want your social media presence to achieve?
• Where can your target audience be reached?

After you have answered the what and where your company will best be suited, try pin-pointing just one major platform to test the waters. If social media is a fairly new concept to your company (assuming so since your reading this blog) than keep your first online experience simple. You don’t have to be on every platform to reach a wide array of potential consumers. A few statistics from Dustin.tv are as follows:

Considering who you want to reach and the platform they are most likely to be reached on is an important task. Most small businesses or companies adventuring into the realm of social media for the first time often make the mistake of constructing pages on sites with the most active users. Now I am not saying this is a terrible approach, but it is vital for your company to seek a platform that will best suit your companies goals and objectives. “Active user base is an important metric to know, but always remember that it’s not the size of the social network that matters. It’s your ability to connect with your audience.” – Dustin W. Stout

Using Social Media Effectively

Once you have successfully determined who your target audience is and which social media platform or platforms (if you decide multiple sites will benefit your companies social identity) you can start to develop consumer relationships by connecting and engaging with said potential consumers. However, tread with caution! This step, as important as it is, is also the step most companies get themselves in trouble with.

A lot of beginning companies tend to solely treat social media outlets as a way to advertise. This is a fantastic way to fail in attracting your target audience. How many times have you walked into a store and immediately are bombarded by sales employees trying to get you to try different products? Annoying? Same goes for social media. Nobody wants to see there feed blow up with sales promotions and ads about new upcoming or existing products every five minutes. Following a few simple principles will help maximize the effectiveness of your social media platform:

• Plan! Planning will be your most effective tool when dealing with the social network. Find out who will maintain your online profile, what you want your profile to achieve, and how you can work towards your goals.
• Start off slow. Being new to the social network you don’t want to overdue your presence.
• Start engaging. This means communicate with your followers. Ask questions and most importantly answer any concerns people might have.
• Share information about your company. This is a good way to raise brand awareness without being “that guy” on the news feed.
• Finally, learn the virtue of patience. Gaining 1 million+ followers is not something that happens overnight. Social media takes time, so understand your not going to be an overnight celebrity.

With these steps I am confident social media will be a huge benefit for your company! Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, and many others are valuable tools in reaching potential consumers. They are also amazing at raising brand awareness and getting your name out there. Just remember don’t make it more complicated then it needs to be and have patients.