Social Media is the future > picture by Stuart Miles

Many employers think social media should be banned from the office, some think that social media stops production. 

Let me tell you this, if you have a lack of production in your office that’s a performance issue not a social media issue. 

Social media grows everyday and it’s now a natural way for people to communicate, your customers communicate this way. 

If you ban social media from the office, would you ban your employees from using their phones?  What about when they go home? In the old days it was a chat on the landline with Mum “Yes Mum Grumpy boss said No to Twitter again even though I tried to show him the benefits” These days Mum is on Twitter & the message is also seen by 5,000 other people!

20million U.S households don’t have a landline phone they use their mobiles and they access social media from their mobiles. This is the way it's going, soon all conversations will be done using some type of social media.

There are many companies that use social media well within their organisations, from marketing the business to allowing ambassadors to naturally rise and preach the good message of the company to others. 

If you’re a good employer wouldn’t you want your staff to tell many others, let others know about the great training, how your company is planning to expand and that you’re looking for new talent. 

As a good employer you owe it to your employees to give them a social media policy and show them how to use Social Media for the good of the company 

Joe Gordon is widely known as the first British blogger to be dismissed for work-related comments made online. Gordon wrote a general, allegedly humorous, blog, entitled the Woolamaloo Gazette, about his life which sometimes touched on his work at Waterstone’s. The comments about work included complaining about shift work, he called his manager an  “evil boss” and a “cheeky smegger” for asking him to work on a bank holiday. He also referred to the firm as “Bastardstone’s” Gordon was dismissed from his position in early 2005 following a disciplinary hearing, but he successfully challenged the decision on appeal, following the case’s high profile in the media.

Catherine Sanderson is a British woman who worked in France for a British law firm.  Her blog was not strictly work-focused either but did occasionally contain references to her employers, without identifying them by name. Her comments about her employers mainly involved gently mocking the conservatism of some of the senior partners. When Sanderson’s employers discovered her blog, she was dismissed, provoking a huge storm of negative publicity. Sanderson took her employers to tribunal and received compensation for wrongful dismissal.

In these two cases and many more similar cases employees have been dismissed, many of those dismissals have been overturned or payouts have been awarded for wrongful dismissals. It’s easy to see why, the argument being they weren’t told that they couldn’t.

You know social media isn’t going to go away so you need to embrace it and educate your employees on it’s many uses.

Show them the good way they can use it, post photos of work charity events, videos of a great day in the office, great messages they can share with online communities.

Show them how you wouldn’t want it to be used, I say show as visual information is absorbed quicker.

Then make sure that everyone is familiar with the Social Media policy.

I would also recommend a private social networking platform which just your organisation gets to use, you are then giving your employees a platform to freely discuss employment conditions. 

That way you are giving your employees many options of communication and if your employees feel better communicating this way then isn’t it better to keep it contained if there's ever a grievance.  

Follow me on Twitter for advice and tips  @jobhopjulie

Yesterday I listened to a speaker who completely spoke my language, who inspired me and motivated me not to give up with my quest to make employment human again.

The event was held at The Space in Norwich & the speaker was Mal Fletcher, social futurist, speaker and broadcaster. The topic was social change and Mal is the chairman of 2020plus, a London think tank on social change and leadership innovation.

Within Social Change there are many subjects which Mal touched upon and I will put a post about those on our Norwich Social Media Wk site but for JobHop I’ll just cover what was said that relates to employment.

What is obvious is that change is happening and employers need to start putting some plans together for the age of connection.

Employers need to be thinking how they are to engage with the Millennial generation and if they haven’t got a strategy in place now for that to happen theres going to be trouble ahead.

By the millenial generation we mean the under 30 age bracket, there’s been the Boomer generation age 50 -60’s ( the make love not war generation) the Gen X 30’s - 50’s ( how do we make it happen now generation) and now the Millennials, the under 30’s ( shaping the future generation) 

I repeat the message: If you haven’t got a strategy in place that includes the millennial generation there’s trouble ahead, well actually the message was “Your plan is screwed” 

The Millennial generation are the “Futurists” , the digital generation, they are digital natives, they’ve had a head start on this digital era. If you’re my age, lets just say Gen X, try having a game on X box , hold a conversation on the phone, eat a sandwich & sort out a bit of HTML coding on a website all at once! It’s not easy, for this generation is comes naturally.

As employers you need to be investing in this generation, getting their attention as they leave college and nurturing that talent within your organisation. 

If you invest in their skills then you will receive their loyalty, you’ll have given them a story and Mal speaks really passionately about having a story.

Only the other day I was speaking to a Millennial and she was saying how she started at the company on work experience, she was then taken on and absorbed all the training & knowledge that the company could offer. The story was that she very quickly climbed the ladder and is now a very loyal, passionate Managing Director of the company, what a story!! 

Mal says that Millennials are loyal to a good story and once that happens then WOW! make them the face of your company, they are your advocates, let them spread the word round like Wild Fire. We then get into Employment branding which I’ve spoken about many times before and you can read an earlier post on that here.

Over the next few years Business as we know it will change and Millenials will be the driving force of that. Mal says that you must have a digital team and you must get Millennials to run it, if you want to speak where people listen then you MUST be involved in Social Media. Barrack Obama understood the viral collectiveness of the Millennials and it’s time that Businesses also understand it.

Businesses have to realise that the Millennials bring collaboration and collaboration is an engine for change. 

I remember queuing up at Woolworths to get the new Adam and the Ants single ( Gen X ) Millennials download everything, it’s the age of the Wiki, collaboration & sharing. There is one thing that they would queue for though..Technology! Technology is the new Rock and Roll!

Businesses will become digital and collaborative, one warning of advice from Mal was “Don’t let your technology get out of date” 

Companies need the Millennials digital skills and in return mentor them and grow their talent in other areas. 

But for businesses wanting to attract talented Millennials a change must happen. Trust is a small word but some employers find it so hard to do. Millennials are in the era of Trust.. ie Ebay, it’s normal for them to trust the other person online to pay. If employers don’t trust their employees they will walk and that means trusting your employees to use technology within the workspace. Instead of having Social Media guidelines, many companies just ban Social Media use within the work place.!!  Remember that isn’t a social media issue thats a performance issue, just like someone using the phone all the time for purely non work activities.

If you don’t trust your staff then how can you expect loyalty? 

Employment is going to be very different and only those with the ability to change will survive. 

Mal Fletcher is currently on tour around Europe I would urge everyone to go and hear his message about Social Change, it will change the way you think for sure.

I think we all know that social media isn’t going to go away, it’s just going to grow and grow and grow.

What I don’t get, why isn’t it being discussed in a positive way in schools? 

Why is it that many teachers only see it as Facebook & something really bad that students waste their time on?

Students do use it to stay connected with their friends & yes that can be a distraction in class when they should be concentrating on what’s being taught, but social media can also be a great way for them to connect with key people in Industries. 

In my opinion students should be encouraged to use social media in a positive way, in a way that is going to help their future, in a way that is going to help them market themselves .

With an average of 23 applicants going for every 1 job, how can you get your students to get their heads above the competition? 

There are many many ways that social media can be used to attract employers, jobs, key people etc..

Firstly they should be taught about “digital dirt” & what they say online can stay online..forever! 

So if you only choose to give your students one piece of advice, let it be this, if you want to get an interview then think “damage control” 

8 out of 10 employers use social media to initially screen applicants. If they find negative comments, abusive language, drunken photos, scary friends then the student wont get an interview.

Students will say that it “isn’t fair” that they’re being checked out like this, but they need to accept that they are and it will continue to be like that throughout their working life.

Socially networking online is second nature to students so going one stage further & networking online to get a job should come easy. Students need to be shown how, where and who to network with and be shown how to have a strategy in place.

Show them how connecting with the right people can put them in the right place for when it’s the right time. 

There are many platforms where students can showcase their work., like youtube, vimeo, pinterest, screencast, the list goes on.

Show students how to tap into this power cleverly and how they use it to market themselves.

What they do now will pay off later... If they start curating their media presence after they leave college they’re behind, the earlier they start the better.  

Follow me on Twitter @jobhopjulie 

Attracting Talent using Social media

Employment Branding 

Attracting talent using social media 

When job seekers want to find out more about your company, do you know what they do?

If you said they go to the company website then you’re a little bit right because a few might tap in the whole URL address into a search bar but the majority will GOOGLE your company name! And yes, you’re web site should come up in the search ( if it doesn’t tut tut!) but now anything being said about your company can appear. Google isn’t just a search engine anymore it’s a social search engine and relies on relevance. If relevant people are saying relevant things about your organisation then it will appear in the search rankings. 

So what will a strong employment brand mean? 

It will mean that your organisation becomes like a magnet, attracting top talent 

It will mean no more pushing jobs

It will mean reduced recruiting costs

It will mean saving time 

It will mean not being bombarded with unsuitable C.Vs

It will help you with retaining talent 

It will mean a good message is being heard 

What do people think of your organisation when they hear the name?

Would it receive the same reaction as Google, Apple, Innocence, a cool place to work? 

Virgin, Zappos, Sheraton, adobe, America Express, Starbucks, Microsoft, KPMG, all of these companies have talent scrambling to get in.

So why should top candidates work for your company? 

Find out from your own employees why they love working for you, is it the flexible working hours, the great training, the fantastic career prospects, the creche facilities, the company ethics?

Survey your employees and start building case studies, if you get any negative feedback then use this opportunity to turn your employees into ambassadors. Every employee that talks about their experience whilst working at your company contributes to your employer brand.

"Employees have always owned the brand; they just haven’t had the tools to broadcast their opinions to large audiences as they do today."  Dr John Sullivan 

Your employment brand is not owned by you it flows from your employees and is spread by them and with social media it will spread faster than you’ve ever known it. 

You must let all your employees know that they are brand ambassadors and that they must represent the company brand when they're at work and when they’re not at work. 

When candidates source information about your company and come across positive comments from employees,it’s becomes apparent that they’ll be joining an organisation that they can trust. 

A couple of tips that help with employment branding and to give candidates a better insight to the organisation are:

1. Have a culture Blog

Where employees can blog & vlog about their work activities, company social events,    fund raising days, anything that is done in the name of the organisation.

Zappos does this brilliantly check them out http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/inside-zappos 

1. Video Tour

Video is so powerful and your candidate will emotionally connect with your organisation if you do it well. Take them on a tour round the company, have different employees chatting, go to different departments, show how your employees unwind..you might have a TV room or have a gym. Show the environment, are you surrounded by lovely countryside or are you lucky enough to have a station across the road and a convenient bus stop.

So remember ask yourself the question “Why should top candidates work for your company?” 

There’s a new name for head hunting and it’s called social recruiting, it’s about being engaging and building talent communities 

If you’re a recruiter then I’m assuming that you’re familiar with Linkedin, getting your head around Facebook, have a few followers on Twitter and you're most definitely using Job Hop! Recruiter’s know that usually the most desirable candidates are the ones that are currently employed, social media gives you the ability to reach the talent that “are not actively looking”, powerful ay! So right now tweeting your #jobs and #careers are working a treat, you’ve connected with some top talent & are building some great relationships and you’re asking is there anything else you should be doing?  There are so many tools out there that will help you connect with candidates and show you how they’re communicating, too many to mention so I’ve just included a few favourites. 

www.bullhornereach.com   has now more than 35,000 recruiters on this platform & a network of  more than 20 million social media profiles.When anyone within your recruiter network of contacts updates their profile it shows up on your dashboard alerting you to a move might be on the cards.If they’ve been in touch with any other recruiters you will also be notified. It’s easy to put on jobs which are then posted to job boards and sent out across Twitter, Facebook and linkedin.There are great analytics, showing you how many views your jobs have received and the relevant traffic sources. Onlooking job seekers can find out more about you via your public profile and any sharing of articles, videos, blogs etc via Bullhorne will help with your recruitment branding.

www.activeinterview.com Perhaps you want a better insight to your candidate before inviting them to the office, the perfect product is Active Interview. Of course you can you use skype and many recruiters do these days however active interview allows you manage everything in one place. You can provide your candidates a questionnaire prior to the on line webcast, have a public questionnaire so candidates can opt to take part and  they can even attach their c.v’s. You can interview 15 candidates for free and  opt for an upgrade if you like it and want to continue using it.

The other nifty tool that I’ve come to love is www.zoho.com  This great applicant tracking system keeps everything simple, is very effective and frees up your time to concentrate on sourcing talent. With just a few clicks you can post jobs to multiple job boards, review c.v’s,reach and organise candidates and book in interviews. Source, engage, manage, how simple is that!    

So get rid of any recruitment headaches and try out the recommended tools  

you can follow Julie on Twitter @jobhopjulie 

Welcome Google+ So how can Google+ help you find a job?

On Linkedin you are asked “How do you know this person?” On Facebook you get the message “Is this person a friend?” On Google+ Nothing, you can connect with anyone and everyone.

No gatekeepers, no approvals, you can immediately connect with the right person, so if you know the name of the employer at a certain company & they are on Google+ you get an immediate connection.

Google+ will undoubtably help with getting in front of employers & to get jobs.

The straightforward, simplicity of the navigation makes everything feel very easy to operate. One of the features of Google+ is the circles, it gives you the ability to drag and drop your contacts into circles that you the user creates.

So these contact circles can be potential employers, contacts at a certain company or a circle of people that will keep their ear to the ground for you. So now when it comes to updating your posts it can be relevant to the group you are speaking to.

Another feature is the ability to directly e mail someone on their profile page, of course there will be some that will start hiding their e mails the minute their inbox starts filling up.

All in all we think Google+ is great & another way of easily getting in front of the employer.

We shall keep you posted of Google+ developments 

Face Book targeting for a job                                          

When you look at the job adverts, in papers, magazines, job boards off line as well as on line had it ever crossed your mind to place an advert yourself?

Who is going to see my advert you may ask and admittedly if you place one in a shop window, a paper or a specific industry magazine then you are leaving it mainly to chance. The chance that the right person from the right industry, who is recruiting or collecting for their talent pool is in the right place at the right time to see your advert.

What if your advert can land right into the right persons lap, the chance that they would see it and read it would be far greater.

This is where Facebook becomes a great tool to use.

People just give information away freely on Facebook, it’s a marketing persons dream.

For instance if you have a Facebook profile and one of the interests that you stated was playing hockey, I bet you see a few adverts trying to sell hockey sticks.

If you liked a page  “like” cross country runners, how long do you think it will be before you’re looking at running shoes that you somehow came across on Facebook!  It’s all such a coincidence..let me tell you something “there is no such thing as coincidence”

So how does this help you get a job? 

Using Facebook adverts can get you in front of decision makers at companies you want to work for or in front of like minded people who can help you.

Facebook never asks for Job titles when anyone opens an account on it’s platform however it is part of a users identity so more often or not it is used somewhere.

So when you are placing your advert and you are working out the demographics ie you want your advert to reach people who live in London  Age 35+ who like.. veterinary surgeon, veterinary, manager, partner, director, owner, veterinary medicine  

Then you know that your advert is going to get in front of owners, partners, directors in veterinary or other veterinary people that can connect you.

Remember that the reason people love Facebook is because it’s social so you must keep the advert social, this all helps with your edgeranking on Facebook..like a score system which I won’t go into now. So how do you keep it social & professional? perhaps have a poll..in this case symptoms of a sick animal & a vote A or a vote B to what they think it could have. Then a link to ..Check out what Paul has to say about the prognosis and this links to a nice video of you chatting about the symptoms, what it actually is & what you prescribe. All of this is to get someones attention, by watching you in video they have connected with you & under the video you will have a personal Bio, your c.v a link saying Job offers here with a link to your e mail address.

So when your chatting to old school buddies on Facebook next give some thought to what you can really achieve with Facebook.

How many times do we say "8 out of 10 employers now search on line for a candidate" ?

So could you lure the perfect employer by changing your Twitter name? perhaps to 

@carsalessteve  @phpdeveloperPaul  @ LandscapegardenerJill 

Do you make sure that your tweets are linking back to your professional profile? (preferably your Job Hop Profile ) Is your profile packed out with the expertise and skills that the employer is looking for?

Why not link your tweet back to your Job Hop Blog and your future employer can leave a comment for you.

Try stalking the companies on Twitter that you want to work for and engage in conversations with them. If they are asking questions then make sure you reply with the answers, even if you have to google the answers!

Set up TweetDeck for the companies that you want to work at and follow the conversations they're having.

Set up a Twitter list for Recruiters, check into it daily and see what new jobs they're looking to fill.

Why not try and get a job at Twitter  follow their recruitment department @JoinTheFlock

Twitter is another platform for you to build relationships with the right people. Before you know it you will be at the forefront of employers minds when it comes to them filling a vacancy.