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Social Media

Four Social Media Recruitment Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)

by 1 day ago

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When today’s job candidate seeks a new opportunity or simply surveys the employment landscape, they use search engines, social networks and personal connections to find the best places to work. Many candidates start the process on a search engine, and as we have seen, search engines are the gateway to social media since they index social mentions.

Organizations have responded by establishing a presence on some or all of the major social platforms. To get the full value from their social media efforts, companies need a strategic approach and an understanding of where to focus their efforts.

Are you prepared to succeed and stand out from the competition with your social strategy? Below is a list of the common mistakes companies make on social platforms. Ask yourself if you’re making any of these critical errors. If the answer is yes, it’s time to rethink your digital strategy.

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Technology & Resources

For Students And Recent Grads, Company Career Site Is Most Important

by 2 days ago

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When U.S. college students and recent grads go looking for a job, they want quick answers, trustworthy insights, and evidence the employers know how to use the various social media channels to add value to their search.

So says PotentialPark, a Swedish recruitment market research firm. Its annual survey (U.S. results were not posted as of this writing) of 3,552 U.S. college students and recent grads found young job seekers are comfortable with social media and expect that you will be too. While 86 percent of them make use of company career sites, more than half (56 percent) expect to find a company on Facebook, and 69 percent expect you to be on LinkedIn.

What PotentialPark found when it audited the corporate career sites of almost 500 U.S. firms was that only 57 percent link to their Facebook page; 79 percent connect to LinkedIn or some other professional network. The career site itself, says PotentialPark, “rarely offers any interaction.”

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Industry News

TalentBin Moves From Private Beta To Public; Launches Chrome Plugin, API Access

by 3 days ago

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TalentBin officially launched from private beta to public yesterday. The service, which bills itself as a talent search engine, announced via press release that it “just turned the entire professional web into the largest talent sourcing database known to mankind with its public launch.”

If you’ll excuse the bravado, what TalentBin is trying to do is actually quite impressive and has leaped forward since I saw the beginnings of their private beta at the HR Technology Conference last October.

What they are trying to do is fairly simple: create a searchable database that merges information about a person from all over the web into a single profile so that sourcers can get all of the information about them in one, digestible place.

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The Sourcing Function

5 Ways to Improve Your Outbound Effectiveness

by 5 days ago

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How do you approach outbound messaging? Are you in the “spray and pray” camp? Are you spending upwards of an hour crafting that perfect email only to find that it gets no response? We’ve spoken with hundreds of recruiters in the last year and have distilled what we’ve heard about what’s working into five tips:

Tip #1: “Go custom.”

If you’re sending form emails to people, the odds of success are low. It might even reflect poorly on your company’s brand. Many in-demand people get dozens or even hundreds of these messages every month. There’s nothing wrong with templates but there is a better way.

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Industry News

Report: One Of Monster’s Latest Suitors Is LinkedIn

by 8 days ago

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A report in Reuters has indicated that LinkedIn is among a handful of potential companies expressing interest in purchasing all or some of Monster Worldwide. According to sources close to the situation, LinkedIn and Silver Lake Partners are two of “a broad range of strategic and financial buyers” who are weighing Monster as a potential acquisition target.

According to the report, the company plans to send out more detailed financial information by the end of next week to potential buyers.

Monster Worldwide shares are up over 15% in late day trading in reaction to the report.

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Social Media

When Should You Be Posting On Social Networks?

by 8 days ago

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So when are the best times to post content to social networks (especially content you want clicked on)? It seems like a big question that should have a fairly straightforward answer.

Maybe you’ve done the click tracking on your own. You’ve found the sweet spot for when you post that gets the maximum level of engagement and impressions. But many people haven’t (or they have the data but have a hard time analyzing it and understanding it over the aggregate).

Well link sharing service bitly has some answers over a fairly huge data set that they recently shared.

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Social Media

Why Blame Social Media? Employee “Poaching” Has Been Going On Forever

by 10 days ago

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I said it often over at our sister publication TLNT: social media is an extension of the way we build relationships. Sure, it might change a few of the dynamics or the ease of which those relationships can be had. But many of the same principles that make people successful at building relationships and getting things done in real life are the same ones that are successful online.

Social media is a game changer in many ways but it is still hard to game human nature and ability. And when it is blamed for something that was going on before its time, there’s usually a counter-story there.

That’s why I was a bit amused when I saw an article saying that social media has enabled the poaching of employees.

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Technology & Resources

Google Search Changes: Bigger Index And Search Diversity

by 11 days ago

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Google continues to make changes to the way it searches the web. Every month, they release a search quality highlights post that explains the changes in more general terms. That’s better than the alternative. Previously, sourcers would just stumble upon a new feature that was rolled out and never announced. That being said, it isn’t always exactly clear how much of a change was made or how to utilize the new search function.

We’ll try to pick the updates that are most applicable to sourcers and, when possible, let you know how to best utilize the new changes.

First up, Google’s index is a lot bigger now.

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Industry News

LinkedIn Reports Big 1st Q; Buys SlideShare; Stock Soars

by 2 weeks ago

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LinkedIn served up a double surprise today, reporting it grew revenue in the first quarter by 101 percent, and buying content sharing site SlideShare.

Minutes after the markets closed in New York, LinkedIn made the two announcements, sending its already pricey shares up almost 10 percent in after-hours trading. The stock, which closed the day at $109.41, hit $119.80 after the reports were out.

LinkedIn said the SlideShare purchase is worth about $118.75 million, to be paid in a combination of stock and cash. Like LinkedIn, SlideShare is widely used by businesses and professionals, who use it to host their PowerPoint, documents, and other presentations. Users upload their materials, which can then be shared, and viewed in much the same way videos are on YouTube.

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Editor's Corner

The Importance Of Sourcing Mr. Irrelevant

by 2 weeks ago

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Even if you don’t pay close attention to NFL football, you might have heard that Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts with the first pick of the 2012 draft last week.

What you probably didn’t realize is the 252 picks later, the Colts selected another quarterback (this time from Northern Illinois University) named Chandler Harnish. As the last pick in the seven round draft, Harnish is dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant.” Since those selected in the later rounds get little press coverage, being the last pick of the bunch surely feels fairly irrelevant.

The more important lesson is actually how very relevant sourcing and choosing the right person for that position can be.

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