Mid April was a busy time for the team at 4MAT with our Corporate Business Breakfast and the Social Media in Recruitment Conference on consecutive days. Both events offered great insight into how businesses and recruiters are using online, social media and mobile.
Matt Alder (Metasift) and Adam Templeman (RWE npower) were in conversation with Jeff Grout at the 4MAT business breakfast discussing their experiences of using online, mobile and social media to attract talented individuals.
Understanding your audience
Understanding your target audience, mobile and taking the plunge and using social media were hot topics at both the business breakfast and Social Media in Recruitment Conference.
Whilst many companies have yet to take the plunge, those who have been using social media are now beginning to see the importance of an integrated recruitment marketing strategy. Social Media on its own is not a silver bullet.
Adam Templeman and Matt Alder both stressed the importance of developing relevant content for the audience. Both gave examples of where using social media to target relevant groups of people had generated substantial cost savings. Adam referenced a Facebook advertising campaign to promote career fairs, which resulted in 6 hires for 1-1.5% of the cost when compared to a traditional media campaign or using recruitment agencies. He also shared his experience of using social media as simply a job feed, which simply rapidly resulted un-follows and un-likes. A thread which continued the following day at SMIR, where the phrase “don’t vomit jobs” was regularly referenced.
Using your career website as a content hub
Adam expanded on this with his recent experiences at RWE npower. As a regulated energy provider, the company is not always subject to positive comments in the press and on social media. As a resourcing team, they use social media to enhance their brand, by sharing the stories from within the business. By encouraging their employees to Link, Like and Share content from their career website, blogs and comments on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, RWE npower can use their new career website as the hub for all their content. They use social media as the starting point for the conversation, with the ultimate objective to direct people to the relevant page on the career website.
Conversations about your company are already happening
Adam explained that “The conversations were already taking place on social media and by joining the conversation we have the opportunity to promote the positives from within the business and provide a more balanced view.” He went on to say that “As a business you can’t control the conversation and if you ban people from using social media at work at their desktops, the conversation still takes place; on mobile”.
The importance of mobile
Mobile is a massively growing platform for recruiters and Matt Alder hi-lighted this through the recent
mobile survey carried out by Reconverse and Educate, as well as his experiences in the US earlier this year. Out of 25000 survey respondents 84% stated that they felt organisations should have a mobile version of their website and 49% had already applied for a job on their mobile. Interestingly 79% of those that hadn’t already applied on a mobile would do so in the future.
Matt went onto explain that with the majority of mobile phone users already receiving email via mobile, it was a case of businesses transferring to mobile, adapting their approach to using mobile effectively and then revolutionise. The move from traditional media to the internet 12+ years ago took similar steps and for most businesses this phased approach is achievable.
Integrating social media, mobile and your career website
Once more understanding your audience was referenced heavily at both events, especially when considering where people land on a mobile site. RWE npower has started to use QR codes with their new mobile site. Regional, as well as job specific recruitment campaigns are being launched. Each of these campaigns links, through QR codes, to mobile pages containing relevant videos, information and vacancies.
The misuse of QR codes is often hi-lighted where campaigns link through to pages which are not mobile optimised. The worst examples included QR codes linking to the ATS vacancy page, a non-mobile home page and the use of QR codes on the underground. Although the underground example was based on a QR code creating a business card on the phone, is deployment meant that the majority of people would have discounted the advert, realising that they did not have access to the internet.
KLM Surprise – Spreading happiness and enhance the brand
KLM was cited as one of the best examples of companies that have combined mobile, social media and an understanding their audience to improve brand perception. KLM implemented a campaign called KLM Surprise. KLM realised that waiting for a flight can be extremely boring.
By using 4Square and Twitter to see who had checked in at one of their locations, they could then search their social profiles, get to know them in a discrete manner and find a personalised gift. This was then delivered at the gate by a KLM employee. In doing so KLM were able to spread a little bit of happiness and by doing so improve their brand perception.
Is there a potential opportunity for temp agencies to use this? It’s certainly an extension of the doughnut or cake run.
In summary
Social media is no longer new and the domain of the young or techies, but mainstream. The conversations are taking place already and often on mobile, so as a business the choice is to join the conversation or ignore it.
The dangers of ignoring the conversation are that you miss what is being said. Although you may not be able to control the conversation, there is an opportunity to steer or influence it.
As recruiters and resourcing teams looking to attract and influence an audience which is increasingly social and mobile, it is essential to understand their interests and be able to provide relevant information and therefore be able to take part in the conversation. For those that don’t the risk is being ignored and the conversation moves on to those that do.
David Johnston
