Facebook recruiting with SMS

The world of mobile recruiting is still a nascent one but Facebook fan pages have a way to use SMS right now that is free and easy to use. If your company has a fan page on Facebook we suggest you begin to use and promote SMS updates to potential candidates and promote your latest jobs.

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.

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.

Southwest Airlines using web 2.0 to recruit, retain

We recently discovered how Southwest Airlines is using web 2.0 for recruiting and retention purposes. It’s called “Nuts About Southwest” and its probably the best employment branding site we’ve ever seen. Lets take a look.

In this first photo we see 3 distinct web 2.0 technologies. 1) a blog 2) Photos via flickr and 3) videos (hosted on Youtube).

Then in the lower half of the page we get 4) Polls 5) RSS feeds and 6) Podcasts. Their footer also shows links to the major social media sites Youtube, flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn and their Twitter account.

Anyone can join and register on the site. If you were a job seeker considering a career in the airline industry, which company would you choose? This is why Southwest has an edge on its competitors. They are forward thinkers who are using web 2.0 to differentiate themselves in the job market. We tip our hat to them. They are an employer who truly ‘gets it’.

Even McDonald’s is recruiting on Facebook

Yesterday we discovered an ad on Facebook that piqued our interest. McDonalds has a new recruitment campaign. Here’s a quick screen shot. See the page.

It’s a rather long fan page with a story about an employee and a call to action to “Search Careers Now“. There is no wall to make comments so this page is clearly designed to drive traffic to McDonalds.com to apply. They currently have over 1,000 fans. Check out some other facebook recruiting tips.

NOTE: it is very likely that this page was created by their ad agency and they paid to sponsor it throughout Facebook.

More about E&Y’s facebook recruiting strategy

Ernst and Yong’s Facebook group is up over 13,000 members. An impressive number. But I found this quote from their director of recruiting about why it works:

Dan Black, director of recruiting for Ernst & Young used Facebook to connect with students. But he did so in a different way. Lots of questions were asked on E&Y’s wall, and he wrote back in a very personal tone. Realized that this was one of the few channels to have a direct conversation with students.

E&Y definitely gets this social media thing. Its about establishing relationships above all else.

Oracle’s Facebook group out to lunch?

We were browsing the company groups on Facebook today and came across Oracle’s page. Upon first glance it appears to be a popular group with more than 1600 members. But we were disappointed to find that it is rarely updated with content, nor has anyone bothered to remove spam on their comment wall.

There are problems with this group from several standpoints. First, it appears that a lone employee started the initiative. Bad move. Companies wanting to utilize Facebook are better off assigning a TEAM of people to manage the group. That way if one person leaves or loses interest, the group will not get stale.

Secondly you need multiple people to add content and engage the members. There is some content on here but most of it appears to come from overseas members. Its curious why they didn’t start the network as a closed network (employee only) because anyone can join. The only reason to create an open group is for recruiting or PR purposes.

Thirdly, spam has found its way to the Wall and no one has removed it. All administrators have the ability to remove spam so its obvious that the creator has forgotten about this group. (A group can have multiple administrators)

Perhaps one day someone at Oracle will discover this group and close it or revive it the right way.

Sodexho embraces Social Media Recruiting

Blogger buddy Matt Martone of Hotjobs alerts us of the recruiting efforts of Sodexho. They are embracing social media with a fervor by utilizing YouTube, blogs and Facebook. They also use Second Life.

Now if they would only add podcasts they could be maximizing their social media recruiting efforts!

As we’ve stated before, all employers need to start crafting a social media strategy for recruiting. The next generation workforce is waiting in the wings.