Jobs in Pods Blog

We came across this little diddy on the wires about the effectiveness of podcasts. Very interesting. We think its just further proof that every company should podcast their jobs (among other things).

Podcasts and Online Video Show Ads are Three Times More Effective Than Traditional Online Ads

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Podtrac, the leading network of podcasts and online shows, today announced the results of four independent advertising effectiveness studies with TNS, a global market research company, which reveal podcasts as having a three-fold ad effectiveness increase over traditional online video and a seven-fold effectiveness increase over television. Unaided ad awareness across two years of studies was 68% compared to industry benchmarks of 21% for streaming video and 10% for television. The studies spanned two years, from February 2006 to March 2008, and multiple product categories including: television programming, automobile, financial services, and digital imaging. 52 online shows and podcasts participated in the four campaigns studied and 6,869 audience members participated in the research.

Ad formats consisted of: embedded :15 and :30 host-read audio and video ads, embedded :10 and :15 produced video ads, ad banners on publisher websites, and social networking in the form of publisher blog entries about advertised brands and related topics. Podtrac developed the advertising effectiveness methodology in conjunction with TNS.

The study showed embedded advertising in online shows and podcasts to be highly effective for increasing brand awareness, usage intent and positively impacting brand perceptions across four diverse product categories: television programming, automobiles, financial service, and digital imaging. Results included:

• Average unaided ad recall of 68%

• Average aided ad recall of 89%

• 73% average increase in likelihood to use/buy vs control group

• 69% having a more favorable view of advertiser due to ad exposure

“The unaided awareness level of 68% is considerably higher in podcasts and online shows than in other offline and online media,” said Mark McCrery, Podtrac’s CEO and Co-Founder. “Narrowly targeted audiences, appropriate ad formats, content relevance, and show host involvement are some of the factors which come together to produce highly effective ads in online shows and podcasts.”

“The data also suggest audiences are paying close attention to show content and the embedded ads within them which greatly increased ad effectiveness in the studies,” said Doug Keith, former Vice President of the Media & Entertainment Group at TNS and currently President of Future Research Consulting. “The high unaided ad recall figures are no doubt the results of a less cluttered environment.”

The folks at Youtube are now providing feedback on every file you upload. They provide information and stats on 4 key areas: Views, Popularity, Discovery and yes Demographics!

Now you can track the trends on your video, find out where they came from and see their age and gender. Here’s an example from our most popular jobcast on our Youtube channel. It’s the “What does an SAP consultant do?“, a jobcast from IBM’s Chan Le.

Here’s the ‘Discovery‘ section which tells you how people found the video. They also include keyword data so you can see what keywords they used on Google and Youtube search box.

Here’s the screen shot of the Demographics section.

Finally we have some great data to sink our teeth into. Thanks Youtube!

More Youtube recruiting tips.

The internet is now a global resume database thanks to a bevy of people search sites. It’s a digital world and job seekers are realizing that they have to be able to be found online. Here are the top five that every sourcer and recruiter should be using.

1. Wink: very comprehensive search engine which claims access to over 400 million profiles worldwide. They offer a variety of filters to search including ‘Career’ which you can type keywords. We searched for Webmaster and got back 66 thousand hits. Not bad.

2. LinkedIn: everyone knows about this directory of “A” players. They are adding people at 1 million per month right now.

3. ZoomInfo: Gain access to profiles on more than 37 million people - all on one easy-to-use site.

4. Jigsaw: user generated contacts. People upload the info on business cards they collect. Very cool site with lots of search capabilities.

5. PeekYou: search by name, work or school. A PeekYou profile helps other people find your websites, social-networking pages, photos or anything else about you online. You can also create a profile for friends or relatives to ensure that they may also be easily found online.

Indeed.com, the job aggregator is now getting over 7 million monthly visitors so that puts them just behind Monster in terms of traffic. That means they are now a big driver of web traffic to your jobs on the job boards you use.

They integrate information about your company inside a profile page and forums. So here’s your chance to add content and respond to job seekers (much like a Facebook page). The profile page is a bit hidden though. You have to click the “More” link:

View IBM’s profile

Once you get there you can add links, videos and read comments about your company from the blogosphere. We are adding our Jobcast videos from Youtube to our clients pages.

But you can do it too as long you register with Indeed. You can also use the forums to interact with job seekers and give them info on your interview process, benefits, etc.

Companies would be wise to assign a recruiter(s) to monitor this area and respond to job seekers when they ask a question. Indeed’s traffic is only going to grow and as more job seekers discover these places to interact, its your chance to reach out to candidates and be proactive.

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.

Bill Vick of Xtremerecruiting is doing some cool interviews with industry execs. This one should be of particular interest to our readers. It features Shannon Seery of Bernard Hodes and she dishes the dirt on social media recruiting.

(We tried to post the video here but had some technical problems)

Social media blogger Shel Israel has a great post on the effects of social media on HR. We couldn’t have said it better ourself.

Social Media can put a whole lot more humanity into that which we call Human Resources. On both sides, people can use it to show who they are, which, in the end, may be more valuable than just show what they’ve done and what skills the job entails. Instead of filling slots, recruiters can start having conversations with team members. All sorts of relevent information can be shared. For example, video tours of neighborhoods where employee families live, including local parks, schools, summer arts festivals.

Ultimately, social media can not only restore the humanity to human resources. It can make the entire recruiting-hiring process a more accurate matchup at lower cost. Why would any company not move in this direction?

Why indeed.

We have discovered 2 pieces of media which every recruiter MUST consume if they want to adopt and promote social media in their own company.

The first is a video from Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Analyst.

Video: Len Devanna on Culture Changes how Corporations Adopt Social Media (3min)

In it Len Devanna, Web Strategist at EMC says the following on getting executive buy-in:

“How are your kids communicating? Are they talking online? Are they twittering? And that generally rings true, that this medium is real…its here to stay and the current generation coming up expects it from a company.”

The second item is a podcast from the Marketing Edge. Its even more revealing than the first.

The social mind of a corporate marketer

In it, Chris Barger, a Social Media Strategist for IBM/GM says this about the ROI of social media:

“This is a relationship building process, sales happen as part of a larger relationship and thats what blogging, podcasting and online social media was intended to do.”

Interviewer Albert Maruggi’s reaction to the above statement is priceless. There is no better explanation of what social media is and is not in this interview.

There has been an explosion of articles in the mainstream press and blogosphere about utilizing social media to recruit. Here are some of the best.

Innovation: Corporations Embrace Social Networking (Foxnews)

Recruiting and social media (Powerpoint presentation from Organic)

Companies recruiting through social networks

Recruiting through social media

Social Media & its Impact on Online Recruitment- revolution or fad? (OnRec)

10 Social Media Tactics for Finding Talent

The answer is absolutely yes. One of the questions we often get from corporate recruiters is whether or not older folks are using sites like Facebook, Youtube, etc. They understand that Gen Y is on them but are unsure of others.

While many of these sites skew to a younger audience, there is a significant audience above age 35. Here’s the proof.

Facebook: 25-35 yr olds are the fastest growing demographic

Youtube: 62% of users are 35 or older (view graphic)

Podcast listenership: Nick Tabbal of comScore said, “While the conventional wisdom says that only young, tech-savvy consumers are downloading and listening to podcasts, there is also a sizable market among 35-to-54-year-olds, indicating that the audience is broader than previously thought”

MySpace: Internet users between the ages of 35-54 now account for 40.6% of the MySpace visitor base

These sites/technology are becoming pervasive across them web and integrating themselves into the lives of almost every American on the web.