I’m speaking on Wednesday at Staffing World in Orlando. My subject: Strategic Marketing.
As part of this presentation, I’ve put together a brief on social media’s impact on the recruiting industry. The purpose of this brief is to describe five common social media approaches and to illustrate how staffing companies are using these leading-edge tools to expand their business.
Blogs
Editorial-styled website, frequently updated. Microblogs are for shorter communications.
Examples: WordPress, Twitter
Recommended application for staffing executives: Communicate information about your thought leadership, customer relationships or the way you do business. Easy applications: hot jobs on Twitter to your followers.
Industry Best Practices: Manpower (global staffing company), Veredus (IT staffing firm with 4 offices)
Social Networks
An online community of people with similar interests
Example: LinkedIn, Facebook
Recommended application for staffing executives: Facilitate discussion and brand awareness through groups and profiles. Set up company pages and engage with your customers. Join or start up groups that connect your company with customers.
Industry Best Practices: The BOSS Group ($23 million creative staffing firm), Eliassen Group (~$100 million IT and clinical staffing company)
Media Sharing
Facilitates the sharing of a variety of media, especially photos and videos
Examples: YouTube, Flickr
Recommended application for staffing executives: Shoot videos and photos featuring your value proposition and post them to media sharing sites for increased visibility. Recruiters can give advice to jobseekers; temporary workers can give testimonials; hiring managers can provide case studies and/or testimonials.
Industry Best Practice: Denham Resources (professional staffing firm in Fresno)
Reviews
Online reviews that allow hiring managers, decision makers, candidates and temporary employees to review staffing companies and influence potential users
Example: Yelp
Recommended application for staffing executives: Find out what buyers and contract or temporary workers are saying about your company, and respond with solutions as needed. A rapidly growing population follows and reads online reviews, so it’s important to be aware of what your audiences are saying about you.
Industry Best Practice: The Larko Group (office staffing firm in Chicago)
User Generated Content (UGC)
Publicly available articles, video and other media that are produced solely by users of a product or service
Examples: Q&A data bases, video, blogging, podcasting and wikis
Recommended application for staffing executives: Engage your customers, contract employees and temporaries in the operations of your business.
Industry Best Practice: Express (multinational staffing firm)
