Corporate Eye

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Archives for August 2009

A Cautionary Note


whoa

While doing research for the series on social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), I came across this must-read article by attorney Lester Rosen, president of Employment Screening Resources.  The title alone makes it worth a stop:  The Rush to Source Candidates from Internet and Social Networking Sites – Let’s Slow Down and Think About This for a Minute. Rosen writes about some potential legal issues that may be associated with social media recruiting–and though there’s not a lot of detail, he points out some topics worth considering.

Beyond the legalities, however, there are several practical aspects of social media recruiting that may deserve more time for thought.

  • First . . . a social media strategy only communicates and amplifies what you have to offer. If the corporate site is lame, luring people there will not net positive results. If job descriptions are uninformative and application processes are overcomplicated, promoting jobs and attracting applicants will not pay off (or at least not well enough). So if social media is not part of a comprehensive strategy, it probably won’t be worth its investment.
  • Second, if a broad-spectrum approach to social media recruiting doesn’t fit your company’s needs, there’s no reason to pursue it. Looking mainly for highly experienced specialists? Forget about Facebook. Seeking highly creative, innovative personnel? They’ve moved on to more exotic arenas (boutique boards, niche sites, affinity groups, etc.) Most companies have a mix of needs, but the key consideration here is to identify targets and objectives before jumping into an aggressive social media strategy.
  • Third–it’s been said often, and by experts, that social media presence is more than just putting Follow Me and Find Us badges on the website. It doesn’t work without a well-tuned approach and knowledgeable management. And it doesn’t work fast! So a half-hearted effort will likely cost money without producing results.
  • A fourth thing to consider: Executive branding expert Meg Guiseppi says baby boomer executives are afraid of LinkedIn and social media. If one of those scaredy-cats is just the man or woman your company needs, they may not be visible online at LinkedIn or anywhere else. Takeaway?  It will take old-fashioned, offline fundamentals to track them down.

And finally–just in time for this post–Recruiting Trends is offering a free webcast titled Sourcing Backlash: Integrating Traditional Approaches with Leading Edge Technologies.  The agenda includes pros and cons of emerging technologies; phone techniques that complement social media; low-tech/low-cost tactics for increasing passive candidate flow; and much more!


(Thanks to hansol for sharing the original “Whoa” sign.)


Leveraging LinkedIn


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Twitter, Facebook, and . . . can’t leave out LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is the social media platform that really was designed for business, and it has some powerful capabilities, especially in terms of locating passive candidates and recruiting executives.  But nowadays there’s a lot more to consider in constructing a social media strategy, so it’s important to see how these three players fit together.

Recruiting’s Smart Experiment with Social Media offers a flyover of the whole social media landscape, with lots of examples and links.  Excellent starting point.

Now drill down–way down–with Computerworld’s Facebook vs LinkedIn smackdown.  It’s a bit ancient, having come out last year, so there may be features/capabilities not noted.  But the article explores six real-life business scenarios (such as “research a company you’re interviewing with” or “find a contract resource”), explains how each platform could be used as a tool in that scenario, and declares a winner.

I’ve already done several posts about using LinkedIn for recruiting, and it’s quite easy to find opinions and advice on this topic, so I won’t go over old ground.  But here are a couple of news items:

12 Ways to Use LinkedIn Today offers a dozen smart tips for making the most of any LinkedIn presence.  Remember–LinkedIn is a two-way street, which means that recruiters and companies have to be just as sharp and savvy as job seekers!

SAP just announced a special LinkedIn app for its channel partners.  Not entirely clear how good the value proposition is, since pricing has not been announced–but companies desperate to find those elusive SAP all-stars may find it worthwhile.  And more to the point, this looks like a harbinger of more LinkedIn link-ups to come.

Last stop on today’s tour . . . visit the buffed-up LinkedIn Talent Advantage site for some webcasts and case studies that actually do offer good information about LinkedIn as a recruiting tool.  More tips and news at their blog.


(Thanks to Sharon Mollerus for the chainlink glamor shot.)


The Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme | BBOP

bbop-logoCaptains of Industry often get a bad press.  Their public image is as an exceptionally wealthy older man sitting in a glass tower, possibly stroking a white cat and waiting for the day the James Bond of regulation finally arrives.

As the wheel of sustainability turns, many may be starting to realise that mandatory meaningful reporting is approaching at an increasing speed.

However, if they look around at schemes such as GRI, AA1000 and SA8000 they discover well established standards which others have helped to build.  Where can they leave their mark and show they truly do care?

One answer is the Business and Biodiversity Offset Program (BBOP), which has just completed Phase I and is now looking for a broad range of industries to get involved in Phase II.

[Read more…] about The Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme | BBOP

Belgium’s Bekaert — Engaging Home Page

Corporate websites continue to improve their ability to capture the attention of visitors. You might think that the best are those that offer consumer products. Well, I found a corporate website that —

is a global market leader in drawn steel wire products and applications and a technological leader in its two core competences: advanced metal transformation and advanced materials and coatings.

The company is Bekaert and it has been in business since 1880: a remarkable achievement.

The company must have realized that the above description might need a little expansion, so they also said —

You might know us for example as a supplier of steel cord products for tire reinforcement – one in every four tires in the world runs on Bekaert steel cord. Or maybe you know our Dramix® steel fibers, used to reinforce over five million cubic meters of concrete every year. But we also offer significant added value for various businesses in all kinds of markets, from automotive to construction and from utilities to the heavy equipment sector.

Somebody is on the ball, offering an informal translation. OK, on to the Home Page —

Bekaert goes right to the task. Information about the company is readily available.

1., 2. On the upper left is Bekaert in a nutshell; click on More About Us to obtain a well done summary of what the company does.

3. The Annual Report is prominently displayed. Click on the image and you get a easy to navigate online version. No PDFs here.

4. The company provides a search capability to find out more about their offerings. This is useful to a number of stakeholders, including potential customers, investors and the media.

5. Continuing on the theme in #4, the company offers stakeholders a more focused approach to match their products to industries.

6. News and share price and no need to go to Investors and more clicks unless you need more information.

7. Bekaert provides visitors with an easy to navigate map of the global locations. Click on the map and the home page shows the map in place of the Annual Report.

Another good feature is this graphic on pages that you navigate to from the Home Page (see right) —

An example of effective use of a corporate website for stakeholder communications. Bekaert’s website is a good example of using the Home Page for quick visitor communications.

A New Brand Shift – From Paper to Digital Coupons

sams-clubAccording to a study by Scarborough Research, consumers still rely on their Sunday newspapers to get most of their coupons.  That trend might change faster than you think as brands begin to get on the digital bandwagon.  Sure, we’ve all seen coupons online, but according to Scarborough’s study, only 7% of U.S. households surveyed actually get coupons from online sites.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the stats from the Scarborough Research study below:

The percentage of U.S. Households that obtain coupons from the following sources:

  1. Sunday newspaper = 51%
  2. In-store coupons = 35%
  3. Mail = 31%
  4. Preferred customer card/loyalty card = 21%
  5. In-store circulars = 20%
  6. Weekday newspaper = 17%
  7. Product packages = 16%
  8. Magazines = 15%
  9. Text Messages and/or Email = 8%
  10. Internet Sites = 7%

Looking at these statistics, I feel like I’ve stepped back in time, but apparently, they’re representative of U.S. household’s behaviors related to coupons.  Clearly, the digital opportunity for coupons is huge, and companies are starting to notice.  Just this month, Sam’s Club announced that it would stop distributing printed coupons entirely and instead announced its new eValues program that offers personalized coupons to shoppers digitally through their iPhones, Blackberrys, in-store kiosks, and so on.

Looks like this trend is about to pick up some serious steam as more companies look to distribute coupons through email, text messages, and online than ever before.  At a time in history when more people are looking to the Internet and their smart phones for information and content than traditional sources, the shift makes sense.  I suppose the only question really should be, “what took everyone so long?”

Your thoughts?

Image: Flickr

Fair Play for Facebook


facebook-f

Recent posts have included several on Twitter, and a couple on social media in general.  So in the interests of equal exposure, it’s time for a focus on Facebook.

One of the secrets to social media success for businesses is understanding the different functionalities and “personalities” of the various platforms.  By now, tribes in the remote Amazon know that the special nature of Twitter is the 140-character limit that creates discrete messages (aka tweets).  So what’s the corollary super-simplification for Facebook?

People have Friends, companies/products have Fans.

Beyond that . . . I’ve looked (and looked and looked) for a good introduction to the magical powers of Facebook for business, but I’ve come up empty.  The “basics” of Facebook resolve down to get an account and poke around.  Which could be worth the time if you want to get a feel for the experience.

And/or for a refresher on social media in general, here’s a primer from HR consultant Kevin Wheeler.  (And it’s worth a stop at the home page of Wheeler’s company to see the excellent virtual version of Kevin.)

Now we’ll go on to some more specific material about Facebook:

First, what’s new with Facebook.  That’s a very current topic, due to the fairly recent acquisition of FriendFeed by Facebook.  If that statement doesn’t have meaning for you, don’t worry about it–just jump in with Jeremy Owyang’s excellent post on The Future of Facebook.  Short version:  More like Twitter.  (While at Jeremy’s Web Strategy site, check out this post on Facebook traffic, and listen to a podcast on Facebook Connect for Business.)

And just as I’m writing, there’s another bit of breaking news:  The Huffington Post has implemented Facebook Connect in a new service called HuffPost Social News, which “aggregates Huffington Post stories that a given user’s Facebook friends have recommended or commented on, and shares the user’s Huffington Post activity on their Facebook profiles in turn.”  It will probably take a while to judge the significance of this move.

Meanwhile, on a more practical note, browse these two round-ups:  5 Tips for Getting More from Facebook and 32 Ways to Use Facebook for Business.  Both are targeted (like most of what’s available about Facebook) for small businesses and entrepreneurs rather than big companies, but they offer a general flavor plus some handy information.

And finally, follow up on Facebook for recruiting.  Two good posts from ere.net:  some candid remarks on Facebook for business and a quick overview of recruiting apps for Facebook.

But nothing beats real life, so drop by www.facebook.com/ernstandyoungcareers to see how things are working out for Ernst & Young.  They got a lot of publicity when they ventured out on the Facebook ledge to court college students a couple of years ago, and interestingly enough, it looks like they have 30,731 fans as of today . . .

For a really zippy look at the E & Y approach, watch How Ernst & Young and Starbucks Use Social Media, from 60SecondMarketer.   One minute well spent, actually!

There certainly isn’t as much how-to (or even why-bother) lore for Facebook as for Twitter, but that gap may start to close soon.  To get a more substantive grasp of this particular match-up, read Twitter Vs. Facebook.  A thorough analysis–and ten minutes well spent, definitely.


(Thanks to benstein for the excellent “f”.)