74% of users have positive impression of companies who use new media

Here is further proof that if you use new media to communicate to your customers your company will have a much more favorable impression. Research firm eMarketer released this latest info which caught our eye. Podcasting your jobs is a perfect example of new media in action.

To succeed the article says: “If companies are going to be a mainstay in new media, they’re going to have to realize consumers expect more than a passive existence,” said Mike Hollywood, Cone’s director of new media, in a statement. “New media are about experience, dialogue and immediacy. There was a time when just being in new media got you the gold star for effort. But consumers are continually refining their expectations and more and more are looking for specific interactions.”

Great examples of social media recruiting #1 Intel

Intel’s employment branding commercial is now playing on TV and of course Youtube, so it counts as social media recruiting.

This might be the first ever employment branding spot we’ve ever seen on regular TV (by a corporation). It looks to be part of a new ad campaign that we really love. It’s positioning themselves as a “cool” place to work, unlike any other. Nice job Intel!

PS…they do podcasts too!

Great example of facebook fan page by an employer

While on Facebook today we noticed an ad that caught our eye.

The Visiting Nurse Service of Connecticut has a Facebook fan page and uses it to connect with candidates, list jobs, photos and other useful information. Frankly we’re surprised more employers are doing this although with the job market troubles thats probably why.

But this is a great of example of how to do it. We especially like the job feed in the lower left and the fact they post real photos of employees and events. They’re currently at 750 fans and that number will surely grow over time as long they consistently participate on the page and engage people.

A fan page is a great extension of your corporate brand and comes with plenty of tools and features to manage it. You’ll get stats on age and other demographics. You’ll be able to send out broadcast emails and messages and updates will appear in fans news feeds. All in all its a great way to take advantage of what social media has to offer.

What is podcasting?

Podcasting is simply internet radio (or video) on demand. But we like what 6 year old Emily has to say about it.

So c’mon, lets podcast your jobs. Give us a call at 203-572-2053.

Recruiters should take cue from Obama’s social media strategy

Attention recruiters! Take a look at how the Obama Administration is using social media to communicate with people.

Recruiters and employers everywhere should be establishing their own communication points on these sites in order to communicate with prospective candidates. And we do mean communicate. Social media after all is a two-way street.

Sodexo takes it up a notch

Our pals over at Sodexo are taking their social media recruiting strategy up a notch with the launch of their new career site. They now have a “network with us” page which connects candidates with their pages on sites like facebook, Youtube, etc.

We asked the Sodexo team to comment on their initiatives and we think you’ll find this Q&A intriguing. Kerry Noone, Marketing Communications Manager responds.

1. Why is sodexo embracing social media?

The purpose of our social networking efforts has been to build personal relationships with potential candidates and current employees. Our goal is to give our visitors the opportunity to take a look inside Sodexo, to interact with us and to strengthen our employment brand.

With more than 120,000 US employees and 6,000 client locations we have career growth opportunities that need to be creatively communicated. Most candidates know us as a food services management company, however, we are a leading facilities management provider and part of a global organization with talent needs in IT, Marketing, sales, etc. We are able to highlight unique jobs on our blog (www.sodexocareers@blogspot.com) by highlighting some of our employees and their experiences in and out of work.

We are also using social media to improve our candidate experience. We have seen a dramatic increase in job inquiries with today’s economy – a 35% increase last month alone. While our recruiters try their best to keep candidates informed of their status, candidates now have a way to reach out to us regarding status, work environment and other questions. As admin of this group, I am in a unique position to connect the members with the right person on our Talent Acquisition, HR or Hiring Manager Team.

2. How did you sell this effort to management?

I feel extremely lucky. I really have not had to “sell” anything to management. When Sodexo says they are innovative – they mean it. Talent Acquisition had already embraced the idea of social media with out first Second Life job fair when I was applying for my position. Sodexo’s Second Life experience and other innovative initiatives were all over the internet – and that sold me on the leadership and the company.

My role was to help increase our footprint on the internet through social networking starting with Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sodexo-Careers-Past-Present-Future/19595418960) YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/SodexoCareers), and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/44261). I also knew I wanted to start a blog as soon as possible. The Sodexo Careers blog (http://www.sodexocareers.blogspot.com/) was private for about a month while we ensured we had commitment to its transparency. Since then, we have been careful not to take on too much and have remained focused on building the networks we have.

Many of our recruiters are excited to take part now with their own Facebook profiles, monitoring and participating in the Linkedin discussions and now on Twitter (http://sodexocareers.blogspot.com/2008/12/sodexos-twitosphere.html). They join industry groups that relate to their area of concentration, contribute to blogs, answer questions and requests from potential candidates, post career opportunities and recruitment events, etc. that are visible to the networks that they build.

3. Are you measuring results?

If there is a number to track we track it. We look at the number of Facebook members, LinkedIn group members, Twitter followers, YouTube video views (over 44,000 video views to date) and subscribers, blog readers – returning visitors and unique visitors, and visits to our Careers website and specific page hits, all of our microsites, our alumni and employee referral site and our Career Connection eNewsletter. We also assess the interactions and discussions within the groups.

By looking at the numbers monthly we are able to see the growth and activity. We are also able to identify activities that have increased or decreased traffic and make adjustments to our plans. It’s amazing how they all work together to promote each other. Of course we monitor activity through Google Alerts and Twitter searches as well.

4. Any success hiring stories yet?

We believe the efforts are paying off. We’ve greatly increased the traffic to our careers website and job postings since beginning these initiatives and have some great feedback from industry leaders. We’ve generated over 40,000 views on our YouTube channel where we had no public facing videos at this time last year. We have hired candidates through LinkedIn and have had candidates from Facebook interviewed. Because of the long-term “relationship building” nature of these activities, it is difficult to connect a straight line from a single source to individual hires. The power is in our recruiters and other employees creating and managing individual profiles that connect their networks with Sodexo.

10 reasons why your company should be jobcasting

After reading Chris Brogan’s article Twelve Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss, we decided it was time to write our own reasons why your company should be podcasting their jobs. Some of them may parallel his, but hey, its all good…!

Here goes;

1. Every college kid has an ipod. Imagine them walking to class and listening to your jobcast.

2. The next generation workforce reads blogs. Jobs in Pods is a blog too.

3. Your company needs to become “more cool” with candidates.

4. Your company needs to differentiate itself.

5. Your company needs to give candidates real information about what its like to work there.

6. Enhancing your job descriptions with links to your “jobcast” will increase applicants.

7. You dont need to know SEO. Jobsinpods.com is very search engine friendly.

8. We do all the work. You don’t need to know how to podcast.

9. You can easily plug-in each jobcast on your corporate career site, Facebook page, etc.

10. Recruiting = Marketing. Jobcasting = unique marketing tool.

Click here to get started.

Branding your job descriptions

Are your job descriptions boring and dull?

Do job seekers who read them actually get excited about the opportunity? For many postings on the job boards, the answer is probably no to that question.

One of our goals here at Jobs in Pods is to blow up the traditional text job description and reinvent it. While talking recently with one of our clients they pointed us to what they were doing with their postings on CareerBuilder to spice them up and actually engage job seekers.

The company is WSFS Bank in Delaware and they do an excellent job of branding on CareerBuilder. Take a look at this.

They integrate their podcast from us into a slick flash header which really ‘pops’ and gives a great first impression of the company. They use actual employees in the photo which is refreshing to say the least. They have a strong call to action to find out more about why they were named a best employer. All in all, its an excellent example of what you can do these days to brand yourself as a great place to work.

So get out there and blow up your job postings! And when the dust settles consider adding jobcasts to the mix.

Facebook adding Instant Messaging

For recruitiers on Facebook its getting even easier to connect with candidates. According to the ReadWriteWeb blog:

Facebook Chat will be slowly rolled out this week. The announcement, made via The Facebook Blog, says that the rollout will be slow, but, unlike MySpaceIM, there won’t be anything for you to install when it arrives in your profile – you’ll just have a new “Chat Bar” at the bottom of your browser. On the one hand, Facebook needed to launch chat in order to compete with the News Corp giant, but on the other, we have to wonder, do we need another IM?

Facebook IM takes a page out of Gmail’s GTalk, mimicking the way that browser-based IM functions – it even offers a way to pop-out your conversation window, so you can continue browsing Facebook without losing track of your chat session.

In addition to the pop-out feature, Facebook chat, like any IM program, lets you appear “offline” if you don’t want to chat. The conversations are private, and the chat sessions history is saved from page to page and between login sessions, but not permanently. You can also clear the chat history at any time using a provided link in the conversation window to do so.

Live chat is something every company should be integrating into their own corporate career sites. Facebook’s announcement will now let you try it out for those employers who are establishing a presence on the social network. Use it to answer prospective candidates questions about your company. Its just another tool in the Facebook recruiting toolbox.

Using photo sharing sites to spread your employment brand

Photo sharing sites like Flickr and Slide represent yet another free way to promote your company.

You already have pictures on your company website. Why not take it a step further and use these new social media sites to increase awareness? Take a look at what LinkedIn does. On their company blog they have a Flickr widget displaying their latest photos. They call it “Working at LinkedIn” and show the actual people and working environment. How cool is that!

So do yourself a favor this summer. Hand one of your interns a camera and instruct them to photograph your office and the people in it. Give potential candidates an inside peek at what it looks like and humanize your corporation. Be more open. Be more transparent. Make yourself more approachable and candidates will begin to see you in a different light.