Jobinablog

Web 2.0 at work, the Generation Y way!

Generation Y are in our workplace now and will be around for a good while yet, so isn't it essential that employers really start to understand what they are like as employees? They do have a different mindset, and therefore will have different ways of approaching work- some good and some bad. Sacha Chua, has produced this slideshow to show what the generation Y take to web 2.0 is within IBM.

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When you have clicked through that, check out an exciting video defining what generation Y -or Media Snackers - are really about. It is a great 1.27 minutes definition!!

How big is your untapped recruitment marketing potential?

As a business you are sitting on a huge untapped wealth of future potential candidates. Sounds mad doesn't it, but what I am referring to is your untapped recruitment marketing potential of your business. Chris Cardell, a recognised business thinker, lists these areas of your business where your hidden wealth could be, and the areas where you have not optimised or maximised your marketing strategies. I have expanded and ammended these to give direct relevance to the recruitment sector.They are:

• Every brochure, letter or email you write that does not build, create or nurture a deep and outstanding relationship with your potential employees.
• Every letter or email that you would like to write but simply don’t get around to.
• Every penny you spend on recruitment advertising that does not work.
• Every penny you spend on recruitment advertising that does not utilise the proven techniques for improving candidate response levels.
• Every job seeker that you don’t thank for their conacting you for employment.
• Every job seeker that you don’t ask for a referral of anothr job seeker.
• Everyone who contacts you who is never converted into a future potential employee or referrer.
• Every magazine, newspaper, radio or TV station that you don’t appear on because you think PR is complicated.
• Every person who visits your web site who you never hear from again.
• Every week or month that goes by without you sending an email to your prospective job seekers/ prospective employees giving them some information of real value to them.

So you can see there will defiantly be something here that your business can benefit from doing. Go on take a couple of ideas and run with them!

How to use Forums to drive traffic to your corporate blog

So you have taken the bold step of creating your first corporate blog, but how do you drive traffic at your new site? There are several ways that you can do this - one of them is to use forums specific to your industry sector to do just that. First, look for forums that are popular with your customers, and then become an active participant in them. Not only will you boost your reputation as an industry expert, you’ll also get some great inbound links pointing back to your site.

To find your customers’ favorite forum hangouts, simply type your top keyword phrases into a search engine, along with the word, "forum." Just be aware that there’s a RIGHT way to promote your business in public forums… and a WRONG way. Derek Gehl, the prolific US based internet marketeer kindly shares his 7 Tips for using Forums to drive traffic to your blog.

1. Lurk before you leap!

Before you start wading into a forum with your opinions and advice, hang out as a silent "lurker" for a while and get to know the "flavor" of posts that are considered acceptable. Every forum is different, so what might be considered humorous in one could be offensive in another. Learn who the "regulars" are, what questions are typically asked, and what responses are given. Then do your best to follow the accepted model.

2.Focus on "relationship selling" — NOT product selling Forum promotions are all about selling YOURSELF as an industry expert, with a wealth of knowledge to share — they’re NOT about selling your actual product!

In a forum, gimmicky sales tactics and hype do NOT work. Unless you want to enrage the other participants, don’t post blatant "buy my product" advertisements. Instead, look for opportunities to respond to questions with the exact information the people asking the questions are looking for. The trick is to sit back, listen, and wait for legitimate opportunities to share your expertise. This will help you gain the community’s respect and develop a solid relationship with your target market.

The Social Media Reverse - 10 reasons to stay away

You have heard everyone go on about social networking (including me) and how you should be Myspacing, Facebooking, Twittering etc but what about considering the flipside of social networking. Could you think of ten reasons why not to be involved in social media sites? Would you even miss it if you did? Would your life change dramatically if you didn't twitter? John Mariotti has written an excellent alternative arcticle about why he is now staying away from social media - here are his 10 main points:

1. Social Media/Networking is an invitation to at best, uncontrolled and permanent over-exposure, and at worst, identity theft or misuse.

2. All of us are drowning in a tidal wave of complexity already, and these social networking sites make this complexity worse by an order of magnitude.

3. Social networking is in the evolutionary stage, and as such, all of the sites that exist now will change, evolve become either more useful and secure or go away. The lessons are there in recent history: Compuserve, early versions of AOL, Prodigy and all the other now defunct or otherwise transitory Internet, email or proprietary Web systems.

How do you build your online brand?

The advent of all the many social media channels, have made brand building 'more interesting'. There are now many ways that you can look to build your brand online in a very cost effective way. Like SEO it takes a little time and persisitence to succeed. Chris Garrett a social media consultant has written this excellent post on how you maximise all the channels - but only the ones that are relevant to you.

  As you can see the focus of the brand building is the blog. You use all the other media to drive people back to 'your brand' - your blog.

So I say again, why haven't you got a blog yet??

10 Ways to promote your new blog

So you have now written your blog and you are really excited about it - trouble is what do you do now? Obviously, you now have to let people know you are out there - you need to publicise it. If you are not sure about that part, then courtesy of Blog Perfume, here are the 10 main ways to promote your blog:

1. Social bookmarking sites
Sites such as Digg and Del.icio.us grab traffic and have it head right for your blog. These are quite easy to use (so long as you don’t vote for yourself) – create a free account, write a description, add tags and the address to your blog, and voila! – With compelling headlines and descriptions, you can quickly have traffic to your blog.

2. Forum visiting
Visiting forums in your niche market is nearly as old as the Internet itself – but this works and it’s free. Participate in the forums with relevant (compelling) information that leads to what your blog is all about. Having a great signature line with a link to your blog is the key.

3. Free eBooks
Writing and offering free eBooks will also bring traffic to your website. Your eBook needs to be compelling, well written and chock full of useful information (otherwise, no one will visit your blog, thinking you’ve nothing real to say anyway).

A corporate blog should now be part of your marketing strategy

Has your business been putting off looking at writing a blog? Have you seriously considered looking at writing one? Well if you need some good reasons why, Jennifer Slegg -  a search engine marketing consultant -  has written this very good article explaining why you should be writing a corporate blog. It is all about being another strand of online marketing.

If you have been sitting on the fence for a while, read this and it will explain why you need to do it!!

Recruiting Generation Y staff the Disney way

Following on from my previous post on using video as a recruiting tool, I wanted to share a post I read today by Bea Fields, whose blog is aptly titled "Attracting the New Workforce".  She looks at attracting the generation Y workforce, and how companies need to address their recruitment strategies accordingly. She has highlighted Disney's new recruitment campaign aimed specifically at generation y college leavers.

What I particularly like about this Disney program is this video, because it taps right into the mentality of different generation y groups. As you might expect from Disney, it is a well polished video, but it gets the exact message across.

59% of people on the internet view one video a week - are you using them on your site?

Video is now becoming a very key part of the online world, as shown by a recent survey by Universal McCann, where 59% of people watch at least one video online per week. Obviously there are the huge video sites like YouTube and similar concepts that have followed their trail. But it is the way that companies are more increasingly using video as a recruiting tool, that should be noticed. The video's may not even be a direct campaign of recruitment, more of an information tool, but they keep people on your website longer.

So is your company using video to attract / entice / inform people about your company? If not then you should be seriously considering the approach. Here is a great post about how a company went through the whole process of producing and publishing their recruitment video.

LinkedIn - A beginners guide

I thought I would share an article that I wrote recently for a good B2B website - BusinessZone.co.uk. I was asked to explain how beginners go about using LinkedIn, so for all you experienced hands, go off and make that cup of coffee.

But if you have heard about LinkedIn, wondered what it is and how it can be used to help you grow your network, then read the article  - LinkedIn for beginners - it is very useful. LinkedIn is the best social networking site for business!!  (I look forward to you sending me your LinkedIn invites).