Tag Archive for: LinkedIn

How To Look Like a Recruitment Rockstar

According to Jobvite and its annual Social Recruiting Survey, social recruiting has become an essential HR practice with 92% of U.S. companies using social media to find new talent. By leveraging social for recruitment, you can position yourself as a rockstar saving both time and money and increasing your effectiveness while hiring. Here are six ways to deliver best-in-class results:

HA MacLean Photo

HA MacLean Photo

1. Have a Plan

Understand and know the persona of the typical candidate applying for a position at your company. Also, know what your company wants from a successful candidate.  Relying on a job description that was based on the person in the role previously may not be the best option. Interview hiring managers to understand their current needs and develop the job description from that point going forward. Be sure to incorporate the latest details from the industry so that successful candidates will be challenged.

2. Know Your Audience

Candidates go online to search for job opportunities as opposed to old standard searches. Understand the search preferences and ensure that you use the right channels to share your job openings. Remember that mobile should be an important part of your strategy and toolkit.  In 2014 and beyond, mobile is key to your recruitment efforts.  If you fail to incorporate this, you will lose out.

3. Leverage Social Media

Be sure to have well thought out branded social channels. To be successful, you must have the appropriate resources to post information to these channels, and someone needs to be actively listening and responding to potential candidates. Information should be fresh and in line with your overall brand.

4.  Leverage the Power of the Brand

Using branded social channels is only a part of the equation.  The real power comes from the leveraging the power of your brand.  As a result, we are seeing a significant trend towards marketing and Human Resource professionals working side-by-side versus being mutually exclusive.  With the economy improving, Human Resource Practitioners are realizing that they are in a selling role.  They need to be able to understand the brand value and what it means to be associated with the brand.  Candidates increasingly want to work for organizations that are respected and trusted.

5. Unleash the Power of Employees

Give your employees both the power and the tools to share job vacancies with their friends and families. Jobvite will also confirm that employee referrals are the highest quality, lowest cost source of hires at any company. To be successful, this means that you must not only trust that your employees will utilize social media appropriately during work hours, but you must actually give them access to various social channels in order for them to share.

6. Understand the Numbers

LinkedIn alone has more than 200 million members in more than 200 countries. More than 2.6 million companies have pages set up on the network. Facebook has more than 1.11 billion active users and Twitter has more than 554 million active users. You can learn a lot about current trends and skill sets available in each of these channels. This will help you hone your search.

Want to learn more?  Sign up for our newsletter at TaylorMade Solutions (insert “newsletter” into inquiry box)

A version of this post previously appeared on the salesforce.com blog.

How Not to Get Hired (Or, Get Fired Once Hired)

Over that last several months I have been working with clients helping them build out their marketing and communications departments.  I have done the needs assessment, workforce planning, along with job descriptions, application review and interview design.  Through the application review process I have to say that there is one shocking theme emerging – the inflation of one’s experience.  Needless to say, inflating your experience is either the best way to NOT get hired or, should you manage to fool the hiring manager, it is a sure fire way to get fired!

I work in a pretty small market.  I tend to know who is who when it comes to my industry.  If I don’t know someone, I can easily call someone and ask about the person.  So, it is really concerning to me when I see people inflate their resumes, including their LinkedIn profiles, with details that I know to be questionable.

Even if I didn’t work in a small market there are some telltale signs that raise eyebrows.  While it is entirely possible that you were waiting tables or someone’s receptionist one week, it would be more rare that that your next job would have you leading teams that approved the top dog’s speeches and/or press calendar.

I am not saying that you can’t work on a team that supports senior management, but I have to confess that professing that you were single-handedly responsible for the approval process for either a CEO or a senior politician such as a Senator, a Provincial Premier or even a leader of a country is a bit far fetched.  In the last two weeks I have read resumes that have made such claims.  In one case, the candidate had been a receptionist and his next job was working for a Premier of the Province “approving” his speeches and speaking points.  In another case, the candidate had managed a bar and the next job she was the CEO’s press secretary and responsible for approving all interview requests, messaging and speeches.  In both cases, I know the person who actually performed those roles.  As a result, I know the candidates were not performing the actual duties that they claimed to have done. I also know that people are not moved into such roles with no experience.  These roles require a fair amount of expertise and experience.

Inflating your experience is a dangerous practice and here’s why:Screen Shot 2014-03-10 at 3.45.34 PM

  • On the front end, experienced hiring managers and/or HR Professionals will rule these candidates out.  That is expected, but it becomes more serious as we look at this further.
  • In small markets, your reputation and creditability will be impacted sooner than later.  People know each other and it doesn’t take long to lose your credibility.
  • Another scenario?  Suppose you try this in a market that isn’t so small and you get the job.  Things might be good for weeks or months, but eventually, it will become clear that you don’t have the experience claimed.  The results then are be bad for both parties.  Neither of these outcomes are preferable for either party.

Many organizations are taking steps to weed out false information in the event that it was not discovered in the screening and interview stage.  They use companies that investigate your education, work history and even credit history.  So, beware that more and more companies are doing this. If an employer finds out you misstated your experience, the end result is quite simple. You will be shown the door.

The cardinal rule is to tell the truth.  Eventually it comes out and it can be far worse and devastating to all parties concerned.

Want to learn more about issues and risks to your business, connect with us at www.taylormadecanada.com.

10 Ways to Avoid Looking Silly on LinkedIn

LinkedIn continues to grow in popularity and is used by more recruiters than any other tool right now.  While you might not be looking for a job, you might want to use LinkedIn to enhance and maintain your personal brand.  But the question is:  where do I start?  Or, I have a profile, but don’t seem to be getting anywhere, what am I doing wrong?  Here are 10 ways to avoid looking silly on LinkedIn:

Image courtesy of swishdesign.com.au

Image courtesy of swishdesign.com.au

10.  Not Completing Your Bio

Be sure to put substance in your profile.  Don’t just list your employer.  Actually give context about “what” you do and “what” you are responsible for. Don’t be afraid to show  some of the professional interests that you have.

9. Talking about Yourself in the Third Person

I have to admit that practitioners find this odd when people do this.  This is your profile.  You own it and maintain it.  I don’t know many people who speak about themselves in the third person when having a normal conversation.  So, the question is, why in the world would you choose to do that with your LinkedIn Profile?  Advice: don’t.  It is that simple.

8.  Not Using Recommendations Correctly

Like connection requests, giving LinkedIn Recommendations should be carefully considered.  Remember, Recommendations are public and visible on your profile as well as the profile of the person for whom you have written the recommendation. Sure you can manage visibility, but why bother giving a recommendation if you aren’t willing for it to be public.   You have to manage and develop your personal brand.  That being said, not giving anyone a recommendation also sends a message and not a good one.

7.  Over Sharing

Depending on your contacts and your network, the level of sharing will vary.  It is important to remember that LinkedIn is not like Twitter or Facebook.  Sharing one or two really good pieces of content/advice a day would be more than appropriate.  I only share a couple of pieces of content per week, but tend to like or comment more on the content shared by others.

In addition, LinkedIn is not the place to share what you had for dinner, where you are going on holidays, etc.  Remember that this is a professional networking site. Keep it professional.

6.  Not Using  Groups Appropriately

Groups are a great source to make connections and learn from others.  It is important to join groups that you have some interest or connection with.  Be sure to contribute to the conversation when you have something to add.  Don’t use it as a source to spam people with your services and/or products.  It is also important to be professional.

5.  Don’t Show Your Birthday

Some practitioners might disagree with me on this one, but this is not Facebook.  Why in the world would you show your birthday on a professional network?  Are you looking for birthday wishes?  Do you really want that level of personal detail available to your entire network, the public and possibly recruiters?

4.  Connecting with People When There is No Obvious Connection

Choosing whom to connect with is something that people should give great consideration.  Different people have different criteria for who they accept when new people reach out to them.  Some for example, will only accept LinkedIn connections from people that they know well and are in their respective industry.

Others, including myself, will accept LinkedIn connections from people in my industry as long as they are connected to other people I know.  I do not connect with individuals whom I don’t know and there is no obvious connection.  I also don’t accept connection requests from people who either don’t have a photo of themselves and/or it is a logo or some other odd image.

3.  Spamming People

One of the greatest pet peeves that I have, and I know that others feel this way too, is having someone ask to connect with me and then when I do, they start spamming me with:

  • Vote for me to win or be recognized for X
  • Endorse me for X
  • Recommend me for X
  • Buy my product and/or service

I did not accept your connection to be bombarded with requests or sales pitches.  If you want to ask a question or have a conversation, that is one thing. The action or reaction you will likely get from me is a disconnection.

2.  Not Having a Professional Photo

Ensure that you actually have a photo for your profile.  You should even go one step further and have a professional photo.  The photo should only be of you and not you and  your significant other and/or a buddy.  This is YOUR professional profile.

1.  Not Being truthful

Remember that this is a public profile and someone will call you out for using a more important title and/or claiming that you had a team of 50 professionals reporting to you when you in fact had no direct reports.

Of course there are other things you should/should not do.  And, if you still have questions, let me know.

5 Ways Small Business Can Leverage Social Media for Real-time Market Research

As a small business owner and a professional Marketing and Communications Practitioner, I know the value of market research.  When I worked for large organizations, we often hired agencies to provide specialized research services. However, we smaller business owners just don’t have the luxury of the big budgets that the larger organizations enjoy.   We also don’t have a lot of spare time.  So, I wanted to share 5 really easy ways that small business can leverage social media for real-time market research:

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1.  Maximize your membership in existing groups like Facebook, Linkedin and blogs to gain valuable insight into what topics are hot. By being an active listener you can find emerging themes.  You can learn quickly what, if any, conversations taking place about your brand.

For example, if you own a restaurant you can learn about trends that are happening in food preferences.  If your customers and/or target market are discussing local organic foods as being important, you could start promoting the local fare that you have on your menu.  Alternatively, there might be an event – perhaps a beer festival – that you would want to promote and create a menu pairing for the various types of beer being featured at the festival.

2.  Use Twitter Lists to organize key stakeholders, customers and Influencers.  Using lists saves time when you want to focus on specific information and/or people.

For example, if there is a specific vertical that you want to penetrate, make a list and add the people you see Tweeting on the topic. You can then easily learn who is in that space.

3. Conduct Facebook surveys to reach out to your followers and ask them specific questions — keep the same questions so that you have consistent data. One of the benefits of doing this type of research versus a focus group is that neither the facilitator nor any other members of the focus group will unintentionally influence the participants. You can have your survey be anonymous or with a customer name attached to it.

For example, if you are uncertain about carrying a new product, you can ask your community.  You can develop a simple questionnaire that you can send to all your followers/subscribers or those who have “Liked” your Brand Page.  By reaching out to your customers you are demonstrating that their opinion matters.  You are getting a first-hand account of what they think about the product.

For more information on how to set up your survey, visit Facebook’s survey page.

4. Use Pinterest to determine what photos are being pinned from your website.  This can be an invaluable tool. Learn what is popular and by default, what is not.  Learn what is resonating with your customers through your visuals.

It is quite easy to do: simply go to your browser and type:  http://pinterest.com/source/YOURWEBSITEHERE.com/.

5. Use Twitter Hashtags to search and track relevant conversations.  You can use hashtags to monitor conversations about competitors, different product lines, events and more.  You can use existing hashtags or set up your own.  They are simple to use.

For example, if you are hosting a user-group and you want to know what the buzz is both leading up to and during the event, you could create a hashtag specific to your event.  Once you do this, be sure to share it with your organizers, sponsors, delegates, etc.  It could be as simple as #CustomerSpeak2014.  By simply searching your event hashtag, you can monitor all the chatter.  If you notice a problem emerging, you can be proactive and take action.  You can then share the solution using the hashtag, letting your delegates know that you were listening.  You can also use the hashtag to monitor post-event conversations and use that intelligence for lessons-learned.

These are just five examples of how you can use social media for real-time market research.  What are some other channels that you use and what have been your results?