Category: Focus on Recruitment

New Methods for New Media

Posted on by Buyer Advertising

The face of recruitment is changing. There’s already been in shift in how your organization hires employees, and social media is responsible. Where job seekers used to open the classified section of their newspapers, where they once logged into Monster.com, now their method of choice for securing a new position is to turn first to their social networks. That’s where you come in. To recruit top talent, you need to put yourself at the front lines. But it isn’t as simple as building a site on Facebook, as Tweeting out your jobs every morning. Tackling recruitment using social media has to be effective—not just cost-effective. It requires a new strategy.

To reach the maximum number of hires, talk to the client in a more personal way. If your approach comes across as too business-like, you’re going to scare potential recruits away. Answer questions as they arise on your networks. If you prove to a there’s a human on the other end of the keyboard and that your social media site isn’t simply Job Board 2.0 or a bullhorn that’s an afterthought to your hiring practices, you’re going to have more interest in your open positions.

Another approach to consider is building a place for social media promotion into your traditional marketing. Update your website with links to your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Build job promotional details into your current materials and job marketing efforts. The more people would follow your lead, the larger the pool of quality of employees you’ll have.

Managing Negative Facebook Feedback

Posted on by Buyer Advertising

You’re a business, and that means you’ve got a Facebook account. As the nation’s consumers and potential hires continue to toss out the newspaper, delete their links to monster.com, and instead log onto social media, crafting a Facebook presence is a good idea. But what happens when good ideas go bad? If there’s one inevitable in life, it’s that you’re going to run into conflict. People will badmouth you. On Facebook, this takes the form of negative and sometimes downright nasty comments, justified or not, on your Facebook Wall—right where it’s viewable to all who visit. What should you do? Here’s some advice.

Stay positive. Facebook is still so new, and it’s all too easy to confuse the personal nature of the medium and reply in a personal manner. When you respond to negative comments, don’t get defensive. After all, you’re representing your business, and as a rule, businesses have thicker skin. If you decide to write back, remain calm, courteous, and professional.

Engage your detractors. Oftentimes, a person will make a big splash to get noticed. Barring profanity, try and find out what they’re after. If you turn an unhappy customer, that’s positive PR that lives on your wall for at least a few weeks. Nice!

Don’t be afraid to hit “delete”. Should the conversation go from productive to public spectacle, you need to take action. Delete the thread. Some folks are just out to do a little mud-flinging, and Facebook empowers you to nip that in the bud. If your online assailant uses profanity and verbiage of an adult nature, get it out of there. You don’t want other (and possible younger) consumers exposed to that.

Social Media and Recruitment for Education

Posted on by Buyer Advertising

Social media: it’s a phrase that inspires thoughts about real-time interaction, reminiscences of the flowing green fields in Farmville, and a healthy dose of anxiety if you haven’t been keeping up with the trend. With an astronomical growth in popularity of Facebook and Twitter—not to mention a user base who is spending more and more of their leisure time online—social media remains a premier way to tackle your recruitment initiatives. Recruitment trends in education have a distinct flavor. Read on and discover what strategies schools and universities are using to pull in top talent.

The multi-platform approach. Facebook, Twitter, blogging: educational institutions have been using a multi-pronged strategy to reach out to students and talent alike. As large educational institutions create spaces for sports and students activities, it’s a no-brainer for them to use separate Facebook and Twitter pages specially designed to advertise jobs opportunities.

Real-time feedback for job seekers. Nothing is more discouraging to potential job applicants than submitting their letter of interest or resume and then waiting… and waiting… and waiting. Posting their interest as a Facebook entry or blog comment allows an administrator to acknowledge them as a person and give feedback.

Research goes both ways. Just as candidates can click through and explore the culture and information on an institution of a higher ed., so too can a school explore the personality of a person. The tables have turned, and some hiring decisions are being made without ever meeting a candidate in person.

Smart Ways to Engage Employees

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As successful businesses know, good recruitment strategies extend beyond the signing of the contract. How you retain quality employees can often lay the groundwork for a talented, savvy workforce—or, on the other side of the coin, a stagnant one.

Keeping your workforce actively involved in your company is simply good business. It saves money on the cost of rehires and keeps quality talent under one roof—yours. With the rise of what 360Blog describes as “elite employees,” investing in particular employees could yield benefits for years to come. That’s because these professionals demonstrate self-motivation, intelligence, and tact. As the sooth-sayers of businesses predict, a segmenting organizational pattern of businesses will put these elite workers in greater demand than ever.

But motivating an employee base isn’t as simple as flicking a switch. Strategies for engaging employees include developing innovative reward systems and marketing them internally. Give recognition (and prizes) where credit is due. Craft morale-bolstering events. Encourage feedback from your workforce, and seek out and promote innovative thinkers. Of course—this is all easier said than done! Luckily, there are partners (like us) who help bring it all together. In the meantime, take stock of your employee base and encourage engagement.

3 Quick Recruitment Tips for LinkedIn

Posted on by Buyer Advertising

It’s more than just a passing fancy: according to Socialnomics.net, 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary source for finding employees. Smart employers are beginning to look at social media not only as an extension of their marketing efforts, but crowning it an essential recruitment tool. Why? LinkedIn puts to digital ink what job hunters have known for years: networking is the best way to land a position. The key for recruiters, of course, is wiring in directly to these quality candidates. Here’s a few pointers.

Get active. If you’re logging onto LinkedIn only when you have a position to fill, you’ll be staring into an empty basket every time. The best recruiters spend time building their network even when they’re full up. LinkedIn gives you some great ways to do that: inviting colleagues and acquaintances to connect, joining professional groups, and listing yourself by geographic location.

Be Generous. Offer advice to other networked professionals, check in every so often with a genuine, “how are you?”, and offer answers to questions in the “Answers” section of LinkedIn. Becoming a resource is the number one way to attract attention in the world of social media—and in the case of LinkedIn, more attention means better access to qualified candidates.

Stay Current. Update your own profile with links to your personal and company homepages, provide an email address, and keep information up-to-date. Staying relevant keeps you foremost in the minds of potentially perfect candidates—and after all, isn’t that what we’re after?

We’re Buyer Advertising. Nice to Meet You.

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Where to start? The past few years have dropped huge changes onto our laps: major alterations to the way humans consume information, rumblings of economic uncertainty, and the coronation of social media. But no matter the ups and downs, this much is true: a brand remains the bread and butter of your company. A successful recruitment strategy is the engine behind success.

That’s where Buyer Advertising shines. For decades now (we came together in 1966, FYI), we’ve seen first-hand what brilliant marketing can achieve. What works? Bold approaches backed by innovative brainstorming. What doesn’t? Aimlessly firing shots off the port bow. That’s why we back up our portfolio of services with research. Every strategy we develop is fueled by extraordinary effort, innovative social media tools (such as this blog!), and good, old-fashioned elbow grease and burning the midnight oil. That’s a trade secret—don’t tell anyone, okay?

This space shall be our canvas for sketching out our thoughts on marketing trends, a place to scoop the latest buzz in recruitment advertising, and a portal to the inner-workings of our offices. Watch it! Join the movement. You’ll find us here, ready to lead the way: www.buyerads.com/blog.

Until next time,
Your friends at Buyer Advertising