Posts

20 Recruiting Influencers to Follow on Twitter

/0 Comments/in /by

To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart. – Thomas J. Watson20 Recruiting Influencers on Twitter

Recruiting is a tough job. In the world of staffing, it is your job to stay on top of the latest trends and insights into what the average candidate is looking for in a firm. From using social media as a recruitment tool to tracking what the millennial generation is looking for in a career, you have to consistently show your skills online as a rock star recruiter.

For insight into who and what is influencing the staffing industry in today’s candidate market, here are 20 influencers you can follow on Twitter to gain expert recruiting advice on all levels.

 

The Social Influencers

For tips on how to leverage social media as a recruitment tool, here are some experts to follow.

  1. @tonyrestell | Tony Restell

Tony gives tips and strategies on social media marketing for recruiters and small businesses.

Followers: 45,300

  1. @erinbaz | Erin Bazinet

Erin gives advice on how to utilize social media for branding, blogging and sourcing candidates.

Followers: 3,702

  1. @socialtalent | Johnny Campbell

Johnny’s focus is in driving productivity for recruiters through candidate sourcing and measuring social media analytics.

Followers: 19,800

  1. @billboorman | Bill Boorman

Bill discusses social recruiting product advice, social recruiting integration and social referral programs.

Followers: 23,800

  1. @emiliemeck | Emilie Mecklenborg

Emilie tweets on how social recruiting affects HR and how social media benefits the candidate experience.

Followers: 10,900

 

The HR Influencers

For advice on how to manage HR as a tool for effective recruiting, these mavens will show you the way.

  1. @susanheathfield | Susan Heathfield

Susan gives advice on how to use human resources to manage development of forward-thinking workplaces.

Followers: 5,529

  1. @sharlyn_lauby | Sharlyn Lauby

Sharlyn tweets on social solutions, company culture, and how to work through workplace issues as both an employee and a recruiter.

Followers: 24,400

  1. @mattcharney | Matt Charney

Matt’s no holds barred approach to recruiting and HR delivers advice on how to manage your staffing firm effectively and pursue the right candidates.

Followers:  17,100

  1. @kevinwgrossman | Kevin W. Grossman

Kevin posts on how to build an effective HR team and how to train candidates effectively, along with daily news articles.

Followers: 60,400

  1. @steveboese | Steve Boese

Steve discusses how to use HR as an effective tool for avoiding mistakes in the workplace involving employees, candidates and customers.

Followers: 36,900

 

The Sales Influencers

These experts offer great advice on how to sell your recruiting skills on social media.

  1. @jill_rowley | Jill Rowley

Jill tweets on social selling tactics and the relationship between effective sales and marketing.

Followers: 30,800

  1. @jillkonrath | Jill Konrath

Jill posts on how to get the attention of prospects through effective sales tactics and strategies.

Followers: 33,900

  1. @peoplefirstps | Deb Calvert

Deb provides insight on how to invest in your sales people and provide them the skills to recruit effectively and profitably.

Followers: 18,600

  1. @chartedpath | Mike Cleland

Mike offers advice on strategic planning, sales and recruiting productivity, and management coaching.

Followers: 1,046

  1. @binghamcp | Amy Bingham

Amy’s sales soundbite tweets offer advice on how to sell to customers and candidates in order to grow your staffing firm.

Followers: 537

 

The Sourcing Influencers

From hiring to firing, these top influencers provide tips and tactics on how to source the best candidates for your team.

  1. @shally | Shally Steckrl

Shally provides key insight into what it takes to source a great team and how to build great recruiting skills.

Followers: 24,000

  1. @meghanmbiro | Meghan M. Biro

Meghan tweets on how to use social branding and content marketing to source the right candidates for your recruiting firm.

Followers: 124,000

  1. @deandacosta | Dean Da Costa

Dean offers sourcing advice on topics ranging from staffing to technology and how to get the most out of your recruiters.

Followers: 51,700

  1. @stacyzapar | Stacy Donovan Zapar

Stacy offers recruiters advice on how to manage their time effectively, increase social engagement and build great candidate experiences.

Followers: 39,000

  1. @glencathey | Glen Cathey

Glen posts on his insights into Boolean search and how recruiters can use social media networks such as LinkedIn to their advantage.

Followers: 25,900

 

These 20 influencers provide insight into how recruiting is a multi-functional job with many roles that need to be filled. Follow them on Twitter for tips, knowledge and advice into how to succeed as a recruiter.

Discover how staffing software can further increase your recruiting abilities through social media integration and robust business intelligence tools.

How Recruiters Can Use LinkedIn Showcase Pages

/0 Comments/in /by

LinkedIn offers recruiters access to a talent pool of over 277 million people worldwide. Yet many staffing and recruiting firms aren’t making enough of all the opportunities the channel offers to get their word out.

A recent LinkedIn webinar described some common mistakes agency recruiters make when using LinkedIn, such as an incomplete profile, a missing company page and limiting reach. Fixing these common ways is an easy way for staffing and recruiting firms to make the most of LinkedIn.

One of the newest ways to extend your message via your company page is the use of LinkedIn’s Showcase pages – a great tool to segment your content.

How can recruiters use LinkedIn Showcase pages?

targetinglinkedin-1The challenge of promoting your overall brand, in addition to the various branches of your products/services, is that you may be providing content overkill to some audiences because they have to wade through your general content to find information that is directly applicable to them.

Think of how your ability to segment your marketing message can more actively engage specific recruiting and hiring audiences.

The Showcase pages provide a multi-pronged channel system to offer tailored content relevant to these distinct target audiences simultaneously.

For companies with products that appeal to different business needs or hiring companies that are reaching out to a variety of industries and candidates, this means that we can create engaging messaging based on specific needs and interests.

tweet1Lisa Jones, Director of Barclay Jones, a recruiting consultancy, offered a number of ways that recruiters can use LinkedIn Showcase pages in a post for UndercoverRecruiter, shortly after the roll-out of LinkedIn’s Showcase pages in November 2013.

She encouraged recruiters to think about segmenting pages to focus on both internal and external recruitment. She also pointed out that Showcase pages are perfect opportunities to:

  • Create a jobs page for each of your sectors and post jobs to those pages – such as creating a job board for specific people to follow, perhaps segmenting healthcare or IT jobs on separate pages
  • Create sector-specific pages for awesome sector-specific content.   Share the latest news on the fastest growing occupations within those sectors as well as employment updates as they relate to each sector.
  • Create a page just for your blog content. This will create a steady stream of relevant content to which you can point your audience.

thumbs-upOne of the best things about the LinkedIn Showcase pages — you can have up to 10 — is how easily they can be created.  All you have to do is click the “edit” menu on your LinkedIn Company page, then select “Create a Showcase Page.”

You can immediately start sharing engaging, specific content geared toward each of your target audiences.

The beauty of these Showcase pages is that some can be more general and some can be quite specific, according to your layered marketing messages.

But the value of Showcase pages doesn’t end there.  Recruiting firms also have analytics ability to determine:

  • Demographics – Get a clearer view of your followers
  • Engagement – Discover which content is getting the most engagement value
  • Trends – track patterns

The more ways you can reel in your target audiences the better chance you’ll have of creating a lasting impression, which may just be the difference between you and your competitor getting that next contract or candidate.

Learn more about using LinkedIn to benefit your business by reading our whitepaper, “7 Ways Staffing Agencies Can Leverage LinkedIn.”

Top image: Gil C / Shutterstock.com

Recruiting software blog: Tips for staffing and recruiting professionals on maximizing LinkedIn’s sourcing benefits

/0 Comments/in /by

Staffing and recruiting professionals who are adapting to the changing needs of the marketplace have a wide range of tools and tricks now available to them. The proliferation of social media and the digital presence of most professionals make the task of candidate sourcing significantly different than it was just 10 years ago.

In fact, new technologies are consistently being developed to increase productivity and efficient practices. In conjunction with the proliferation of social media is the advancement of staffing software and recruiting software solutions made available to recruiters. Industry professionals are better able to investigate the qualifications and expertise of a worker online and then integrate this information into an easy-to-read format in a staffing softwaredatabase. The inclusion of easy-to-search terms and profile organization methods used by a staffing software system and mobile accessibility makes this tool a go-to resource for recruiters.

To better optimize staffing software and recruiting software, a recruiting professional can use LinkedIn for improved candidate sourcing. Here are three tips and tricks for maximizing the candidate sourcing benefits of LinkedIn:

1) Understand the power of social media. The benefits of social media can be immense. According to a white paper from Ace Group titled, “Social Media: The Business Benefits May be Enormous, But Can the Risks – Reputational, Legal, Operational – Be Mitigated?”, in less than a decade, social media has taken over the world. The largest social media network, Facebook, boasts more than 750 million people actively using the site. It is expected that the number of users engaged on the website will soon grow twice as large as the population of the United States, which currently hovers at 311 million. For most staffing and recruiting professionals, quality information will be more viable about workers’ histories on LinkedIn. However, it is important to consider the industry a professional is in. Those who are in the media, marketing or entertainment industries are just as likely to have a professional Facebook presence as a LinkedIn profile. Regardless of what industry a person is in, it may be pertinent to consider a precursory look at a prospect candidate’s Facebook profile to ensure there is nothing that may come back to haunt a potential employer.

According to HH Staffing Services, 12 percent of employers have admitted to finding reason not to hire a potential employee because of something they found on a social media site. After a quick investigation of Facebook or Twitter, a majority of the time a staffing professional spends on social media networks doing research will be dedicated to LinkedIn.

2) Check candidate engagement. A staffing and recruiting professional may be looking for a candidate to serve as a manager or director of a department. As a result, it will be important to identify whether a potential candidate fits the mold for the position. Is this person a thought leader within an industry or do they try and spread information around or encourage engagement? LinkedIn Groups allow a staffing professional to track down whether a potential candidate is an active member of an industry community. Those who are on the cutting-edge of a sector are often participating in future developments. Social media allows for an individual to create and spread his or her voice, insight and information about topics.

“The opportunity to interact with anyone, anywhere, anytime is too world-changing to ignore. It has altered the traditional media expectation of consumers listening passively to radio and television broadcasts, or reading newspapers and magazines, with no hope of an immediate interaction. With Social Media, all that changed,” stated the Ace Group report.

Never before have staffing and recruiting professionals been able to evaluate whether a potential candidate is an active member of an industry community. While a lack of presence on LinkedIn Groups may not necessarily rule out a candidate, poor quality interactions could.

3) Align candidate qualifications. Clients of a staffing and recruiting firm want to hire a professional who aligns experience and job performance with their wishes. The prolific use of LinkedIn allows staffing professionals to engage with those who are not job seeking or who have not filled out an application for a position, but who might still fit the needs of the client. By researching and comparing the qualities an employer is looking for with the experiences and skills listed on a LinkedIn profile, a recruiter could find the right person for a job and contact them, instead of being on the receiving end of applications and hoping for a qualified candidate. In addition, the organized and static format of LinkedIn allows a staffing and recruiting professional to quickly peruse the information he or she most desires to determine if greater investigation into an individual is needed.

Remember, social media is a powerful tool and can provide great insight into the personality and experiences of a candidate. But, according to Karen Rehn, owner of HH Staffing Services, it’s important not to write someone off as a wrong match because of a couple social media posts expressing personal beliefs.

“Although employers can certainly gain some insights into the lives of potential new hires by their online profiles, be careful not to judge or to make hiring determinations solely on the information discovered online, unless it is directly related to the qualifications of the individual. Social media can also be misused and judgments can be made that are not correct or even relevant to the individual’s on-the-job capabilities,” said Rehn.

By searching for potential job candidates online with the use of social media, recruiting professionals are opening up their search to a much wider scope. In addition, the influx of information available may reveal information about a potential candidate that must not be used in the hiring process, including religion, race, gender and health status. Staffing professionals will have to carefully determine why and how they are determining the quality of a worker.

10 Tips to Writing Powerful Blog Posts

/0 Comments/in /by

Susan Young on blogging for staffing and recruiting companiesBy Guest Blogger: Susan Young

According to Numberof.net, there are 133 million blogs. I’ll take their word on that. In fact, the number has probably jumped since you read this!

It’s amazing to think so many people have so much to say. One of the greatest challenges I hear from professionals in recruiting, staffing, and HR is that they don’t know what to write, so they do nothing. It’s not much fun being stuck or afraid.

Blogs are vital to growing your name recognition, brand, and revenues online.

Merely having a blog is very different than proactively using it as a key marketing vehicle that drives traffic to your website. Share relevant and timely content and people will begin to pay attention.

Here are 10 tips to writing powerful blog posts:

  1. Stick to what you know.

    When you write about topics and issues that you are interested in and enjoy, the task becomes less burdensome. It also helps to stay focused. Readers will come to know that your blog is about staffing and recruiting. They won’t find cooking tips or vacation ideas from you. This is essential as you build your brand.

  2. Be transparent.

    Avoid hidden agendas and negativity. Your name is on every post. Be proud of what you share.

  3. Write in short, punchy and easy-to understand sentences.

    My theory is that we should write to express, not to impress. This is a “crazy busy” world we live in. People appreciate concise and succinct communication.

  4. Weave in your personality.

    Blogs are not typically written in a dry and formal business style. A more casual approach allows you to inject your personality into your writing. This helps connect with your reader.

  5. Avoid “JAR”

    – Jargon, Adjectives, and Rhetoric. Your readers are not looking for a stuffy sales pitch. They want something that’s compelling and thoughtful. Deliver it and you’ll develop a loyal following.

  6. Connect your posts with timely news stories.

    The news provides us with plenty to blog about. By mentioning current events (and reacting to them as you desire), you show people that you’re interested in what’s happening in our world. You can also tie in the news to your business, customers, and prospects. This helps to create attention-grabbing and timely posts. Using fresh information helps drive traffic to your website and shows you’re paying attention.

  7. Speak directly to the reader.

    Use active verbs and first-person language. Ask them a question or write a statement such as, “Consider this”, or “How about you?” By keeping people engaged, you can build rapport through your writing.

  8. Solve their problem.

    Providing useful tips to help ease a pain is important. Think of it this way: Your reader has a pain (challenge) and you have the pill to ease their discomfort. This tip sheet-style approach is effective because it’s reader-friendly. The bullet points allow readers to skim the content and glean nuggets and key information.

  9. Forget about the length.

    There is no right or wrong when it comes to writing blogs. Some people post only a few lines a day while others have several paragraphs or a tip sheet. Longer doesn’t mean better, it just means longer (see No. 3)

  10. Use interesting visuals.

    Grab a free image from sites like Flikr.com and insert it into your post. It breaks up the text and shows your creative side. Video is also extremely powerful and engaging. Remember, just as you may not love to write, a lot of people don’t like to read. Video blogs, or vlogs, allow people to get to know you by seeing your body language, and hearing your voice. It’s building rapport on a deeper level.

The bottom line: Your presence affects your prosperity.

To learn more, I invite you to this upcoming webinar, “The Nuts and Bolts of Blogging to Grow Your Staffing Company” on Wednesday, December 12, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST. I’ll share a special discounted offer that will only be available to participants! A fabulous way to begin 2013!

Webinar Attendees will learn:

• The #1 benefit a blog brings to your business
• 5 ways to get started…and keep going
• Secrets of successful content and blog writing
• Tips on developing your online voice and persona
• How to market your blog and generate new leads

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/372676638

Susan Young is an award-winning news, social media, PR, and communications professional with 26 years of experience. Her company, Get in Front Communications, works with businesses and associations to increase their visibility, credibility, and revenues. Susan has worked as Managing Editor of HR Communication, a daily e-newsletter for HR and recruiting executives. She currently works with NAPS and blogs on Monster.com. Her latest accomplishment: Being named one of the ‘75 Badass Women on Twitter.’

Staffing Software & Social Media Are Your Tools… And Your Staffing Plan Is?

/0 Comments/in /by

recruiting software social media strategyPart of an effective approach in candidate searches today includes leveraging social media.  Social media can be even more effective if the data you gather from this channel is successfully managed with the right recruiting software or staffing software.

I talk a lot here about the importance of integrating social media and staffing and recruiting software because I understand how important this is to you as a staffing professional and Bond US is committed to helping you make the most of this capability. But integrating social media into recruiting software or staffing software isn’t the end-all-be-all of recruiting and staffing efforts.

If your staffing agency or recruiting firm doesn’t have a wide-reaching tactical approach in place, then no amount of Facebook business pages, Tweets or even the best staffing software will bring you any closer to the ideal candidate.

Social media and staffing software are just two of many hiring tools available to you.  Consider the following and learn how social and staffing and recruiting software enhance – but shouldn’t necessarily dominate – key recruiting or staffing tactics.

• Finding Candidates –  Regardless of the tools you use to find or manage your candidates, you still need to start with a specific candidate profile. Your clients want to know everything about candidates you find for them, from prior experience to what they do in their spare time.

First determine who your clients are looking for, then use social media and staffing and recruiting software to find them.

• Communicating With Prospects– Some of social media’s greatest strengths are its abilities to be used as communication and engagement tools. But before you engage, you first need to know what to express for the best results and social media is just one of many ways to determine this.

Reviewing jobs on career boards, you competitor listings – and even stories in traditional media outlets – will help ensure the conversations you enter into are focused just as heavily on the needs and interests of your candidates and clients as they are on your own staffing objectives

• Understanding Client Needs – Social media can serve as an important resource when searching for background information on companies.  Not only can you determine their size, location and employment needs, you can also discern corporate culture by way of that company’s social media presence.

But effective research also includes the traditional channels of word-of-mouth referrals and networking. Though the internet does reveal plenty of information about clients, face-to-face conversations are still the best when it comes to learning about their needs.

Use social media and staffing and recruiting software as just two of many tools to find, communicate with and understand clients and candidates – and more importantly shape your overall staffing plan.

5 Location-Based Social Media Tips For Your Recruiting or Staffing Agency

/0 Comments/in /by

Social media has given recruiting companies and staffing agencies a host of new ways to find the right candidates.  As a result, more firms today are leveraging staffing or recruiting software that integrates data from the biggest social networks – think LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

While it’s true that the biggest networks will hold the largest candidate pools, even more (and sometimes more job-ready) candidates can be found by exploring networks you may not have considered.

I’m talking about location based social media.

You’ve probably heard of location based social sites like Foursquare where users check-in to share their locations, activities and tips on special spots with others.

Leveraged correctly, these networks can become powerful staffing and recruiting tools.  Here are 5 easy ways to start:

  1. Find Candidates At Events – You’ve got a booth at a job fair or trade show and you want to attract candidates to come by.  You can keep track of candidate check-ins to the show and offer invitations for people to check out your kiosk.
  2. Provide Tips To Check-ins – Perhaps you represent a staffing agency that works with numerous candidates for temp hiring.  You can encourage prospects to check in to your location by offering valuable interview tips in return.
  3. Keep Track Of Your Competitors – Are people checking in with your competitors?  You can follow candidates’ traffic to your competitors and then encourage them to check out your location as well, i.e., “Searching for a job?  Check out Recruitment Solutions for the best job search options.”
  4. Engage Your Facebook Followers – Invite your fans to check in to your offices through Facebook Places, the network’s own location based check in application. Your Facebook business page updates can then draw attention to the buzz of activity surrounding your recruiting firm or staffing agency.
  5. Track Ideal Candidates – You’re looking for sports-minded candidates for your fitness equipment company client.  How do you find such candidates?  Try monitoring local fitness-oriented check-ins where ideal prospects might be spending time, such as rock climbing clubs or triathlon events.  Then let those candidates know you’re hiring.

And, of course, with the right staffing or recruiting software, you can integrate activity from each of these social channels seamlessly into efforts.

To learn more about how your recruiting or staffing agency can best take advantage of location based social media, and how our social media enabled staffing and recruiting software can help, contact us or request a free demo.

QR Codes – Top Ten Tips for Staffing Industry Use

/0 Comments/in /by

At Bond US we are always looking for ways to help staffing agencies improve their processes and grow their business. With the recent success of our Social Media webinar last month (which can be viewed from our Resource Download Center) we are proud to present tips and ideas for using QR Codes to aid in your Staffing and Recruiting efforts.

So now we have a question for you. Do you know what a QR Code is? Want to understand how it might be used as an innovative, ahead of the curve, no cost marketing tool?

Let me help guide you through the many innovative ways a QR Code can boost your business success through the complimentary webinar, QR Codes – Top Ten Tips for Staffing Industry Use. In this webinar, presented by Bond US, creators of leading staffing software; you will discover how creating and using QR Codes can give your recruitment or staffing company a competitive advantage. Our webinar will cover:

  •  An explanation of QR codes and exactly what they are!
  • Reading QR codes and helping others read them
  • Increasing traffic to your website and social media profiles
  • Promotion of events in a unique way
  • Top 10 Tips and suggestions for using QR Codes in the Staffing Industry

We are committed to helping you move your business to the next level. Explore the power and unique approach of using QR Codes and let Bond US guide you into results, by registering for our webinar, QR Codes – Top Ten Tips for Staffing Industry Use. I look forward to seeing you online next week!

The Race To Zero

/0 Comments/in /by

Thanks for sitting down to read my latest blog post. Much appreciated. Now, stop what you are doing and open your in-box just for a moment, then come back….I will wait.

OK, so, what’s your number? How many e-mails do you have right now? 10? 50? 100? Or are you among the many people I know who have thousands in there, all jumbled together? If you are, I hate to say it but this just makes me cringe and shudder at the thought of facing that every day! Perhaps I fall in the other extreme (yes, I am a little ‘over organized’ some might politely say) but if I can’t see the last e-mail in the list I get a little antsy. At least once I week I try and get down to zero. That’s my goal, what’s yours?

E-mail can tie you unnecessarily to your computer, or to your phone, and can make you less productive in the long run. Click on the image to the right to enlarge and you will see what really annoys people about e-mails. Does someone from your office insist on sending you photos of their clever cat or include you on every chain (spam) e-mail known to man? Or is it the Reply All used by everyone in the company when it’s really just not necessary?

To put things in perspective, below is a video of Luis Suarez who works for IBM. For more than four years, he hasn’t used e-mail for work related communication. Although this approach might not be right for everyone, he is able to highlight just how time consuming and unnecessary a lot of the e-mails we receive daily really are. Are you guilty of emailing someone in the same physical location as you, when it’s just a few steps to go and visit them face to face? I know I am.

 

Too excessive of a change for you? What about just taking one day with no e-mail? Perhaps call it “No E-mail Day”? Well that’s exactly the change Paul Lancaster of Plan Digital started in the United Kingdom last year. You can read his manifesto here to learn how he structured the venture, and why he felt the need to push for this day. A day where we can all be more productive with our time, and not be tied to our in box for 24 hours. Last year it was 11-11-11, this year it is planned for 12-12-12 and has gained much press and publicity over in the UK. I for one am behind this venture, but would take careful planning. Not only would everyone on your team, or within your company need to know in advance, but depending on the business you are in, your clients or customers might not be so understanding! For more information you can check out his Facebook page here: No E-mail Day

Finally, here are my own personal rules for my in-box. Feel free to steal and use if you think it will help you! These are not rocket science, and widely used by many I am sure. When I get an e-mail, I do one of four things with it:

  1. Reply – if I can do so in a minute or two, I do so instantly. I then either delete the e-mail or move it in to an appropriately named folder if I know I need to refer to it later
  2. Move – sometimes a reply is not needed, but its information you need to keep and refer to later. Simply move it in to an appropriately named folder
  3. Delete – it’s ok to delete e-mails! I assure you! I do and I feel good about it. I even set up rules to automatically delete some e-mails depending on content or the sender. I even heaven forbid, delete some e-mails without reading them! Try it some time! (within reason of course- not those from your boss, not a good idea)
  4. Leave – if it’s going to take me a few days to get back and respond to an e-mail, I leave it in my in-box. Based on the other rules I have above, because I have so few in my inbox, I can immediately see what I need to still perform an action on.

So, those are my rules. Would they work for you? Do you have your own set or a unique way of organizing your in-box? I would love to hear about it below.

If you are on Twitter, you can follow Paul Lancaster @lordlancaster or @NoEmailDayHQ, or Luis Suarez @elsua.

Making the most of #hashtags

/0 Comments/in /by

Hash sign, number sign, pound sign, call it what you like, these little lines can be found all over Twitter.

Have you noticed them? From #justinbieber or #timtebow to #thevoice and #thegrammys, if you are tweeting you can’t have escaped them. I remember when I first started using Twitter, 4 or 5 years ago and I think the first one I saw was #SXSW for the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival held in Austin, TX. To be honest, I felt left out, had no idea what it meant and perhaps I was missing out on something big. I do like to know what’s going on!

Hashtags allow comments to be linked together. By adding the hashtag sign and a word or phrase to your tweets, they can then be reviewed in a stream with all other tweets containing the tag. Used in the right way, these can be powerful and informative. This year, I didn’t need to sit through the various award shows to find out who the winners where and who was best and worst dressed. I just reviewed #Oscars on Tweetdeck and saw the steady stream of photos and comments to get the experience without being tied to my T.V.

Just recently I sat in on a webinar presented by Linked In. It was ‘Best Practices for Getting More Company Page Followers and Growing Engagement’. At the beginning of the event, they mentioned the hashtag of #LICast to use if you wanted to tweet during the broadcast. This gives them, and anyone attending, a quick and effective way to see all of the comments made in one place. It’s a smart way to extend the reach of your event and get others to promote you at the same time. Other hashtags aren’t necessarily decided upon or organized for an event. Pop culture and daily events can help spawn new phrases to use. #Winning anyone??? (Charlie Sheen, if you live under a rock).

I know someone, near and dear to me, who loves to use air quotes but maybe not in the right way and at the right time. It amuses me and he is good enough to let me make fun of him (you know who you are). Using hashtags at the wrong time and in the wrong way is kind of the same thing! Things like #runningallofthewordstogethermakesnosense.

Consider using hashtags related to your industry. For many of our readers, tags like #staffing or #recruiting might be good ideas. Or #jobs, #hiring or #employment. Savvy job seekers using Twitter for their searching might jump right to one of those hashtag feeds. For example, the screenshot to the right shows tweets using #staffing in their tweets.

Another time for using hashtags is during conferences or work shops. The Staffing Industry Analyst Executive Form coming up next week has their own unique hashtag for the event. #ef12 will be used by event coordinators, vendors and attendees alike. Can’t make an event? Just find out their event tag and follow along!

So, in closing, if you are planning a job fair, an open house or any kind of event, consider using a hashtag to help others follow along. If you are attending an event, or can’t be there but want to stay informed, find out the hashtag so you can read and keep up to date. If haven’t ever used a tag, but want to get started, feel free to copy and paste the tweet below and do it now! 🙂 I will be sure to follow along.

 

Just read the following article by @meganwalkeruk for @BondUS http://tinyurl.com/73zr5u8 #awesomepost #usinghashtags

 

 

 

Maximizing Talent Management In The New Freelance Economy

/0 Comments/in /by

Talent management in freelance economyAn interesting thing has happened in the wake of the recovering economy.  Small and medium-sized businesses are making do with fewer employees and hiring less. That in turn is changing the face of talent management.

According to a Kaufman Foundation study, “New businesses that continue to generate the bulk of the economy’s net job gains in recent years have been starting up with fewer workers than historic norms and are also adding fewer workers as they grow”.

One of the big reasons behind this new trend may be the new freelance economy where more workers are providing services on a contractual basis.

So how does this new cultural shift affect talent management?  It seems that the ability to find these freelancing individuals may hinge on how effectively, recruiters and staffing agencies can find the most qualified workers.

However, a good portion of the freelance population provides high-level skills to companies looking for project-by-project help, in comparison with the numbers of temp workers performing basic jobs.  Writers, website and graphic designers are just some of the people filling out the new freelance economy.

Now hiring firms can help clients find everything from marketing and social media consultants to event coordinators and they don’t have to deal with locational limitations.  Thanks to business sites such as OnePlace and GoToMeeting, workers far and wide can join and participate in the virtual workplace.

Maximizing talent management will take some new skills from recruitment firms and staffing agencies as they mold their services to help their clients.  Now hiring professionals will need to:

  • Understand how to use social media to attract and engage freelance workers
  • Frequent the online sites where freelancers find their business connections
  • Find alternatives to career sites for getting the hiring word out

For example, in addition to referrals or campus recruiting, a hiring firm may use Twitter to find talent for new projects or post the need on LinkedIn to spread announcements throughout their networks.

The hiring industry is already seeing changes to help recruitment firms and staffing agencies learn to use online tools.  As social media has proven its worth in providing workers for blended workforces (those that contain full time and project-contingent workers), staffing software has grown to include social media integration.

And as hiring professionals are contracted to supply talent from the entrepreneurial freelance market, social channels will become more important in establishing relationships with those who can help companies achieve their goals…one project at a time.

For more insight into the new look of hiring in 2012, download our whitepaper, 6 Ways Staffing Agencies Can Engage Their Social Channels.