If you are a Social Brand Practitioner or interested in Digital Marketing , you will greatly benefit from this conversation full of insights .
Read the detailed report on Digital , Social, Mobile Trends here
Category: marketing
The Depth & Scope of Recruitment Branding
Read the insightful article first by my Friend & Thought Leader Gautam Ghosh on People Matters
The concept of “Employer Brand” has undergone a dramatic change in recent times. Content is shaping how people find and connect with each other. Organizations now have to become content creators to remain relevant. They cannot rely on external media—paid or earned—alone. They have to invest in creating “owned media”. For an employer brand this means media that showcases the organization’s culture in the form of articles, presentations, videos on the websites, LinkedIn company pages, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and YouTube channels. This is necessary as otherwise the average Joe will only see the reviews and ratings from employees and alumni on a wide variety of subjects ranging from culture to salaries to interviews on sites like Glassdoor.
@rucsb: 10 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts for All Things Employer Brand http://t.co/2ivcvcdbID #EmployerBrand
Lets fully understand the depth and scope of Recruitment Branding role to be able to equip people with the right resources and budgets to make a difference.It is a mamooth task of ” Making Company as the Employer of Choice” in the Talent Market which requires Budgets and Resources. Recruitment Branding has been gaining traction and I assume there is shortage of Talent, and the “Experts” in the Market. We have prgressive HR Professionals who continually reinvent themselves & invest time to acquire New Age skills ( Design Thinking, Social Media Marketing, Storytelling) Let me debrief what is Recruitment Branding.
I hope some #Sketchnoter would attempt to make a Visual Sketchnote out of these thoughts .
Project Deliverables on
Recruitment Branding + Social Media Management + Digital Social Assets Management + Content Marketing + Influencer Marketing + Branding Campaigns + Contests + Event Promotions + Advertisements + Careers pages management + Digital Branding + Blog Management + Social Influenced Recruiting + Social Listening
Gaps –
1. Recruiters may or may not focus on Applications on ATS received through FB + Linkedin + Careers site. Currently not tracked on no. of ATS apps processed.
2. All Recruiters are not Social or Digital Savvy .
3. Mobile recruitment – in initial stages , yet to evolve
2. All Recruiters are not Social or Digital Savvy .
3. Mobile recruitment – in initial stages , yet to evolve
Talent Community – Recruiters lack community management skills
4. Recruiters need basic education to Spruce up their Linkedin & Social profiles and become Digitally Savvy.
4. Recruiters need basic education to Spruce up their Linkedin & Social profiles and become Digitally Savvy.
Marketplace trends –
SMAC disrupting Recruitment & HR –
Are Recruiters ready and prepared yet, Equipped with new age skills ?
Hunters and Farmers in Recruiting similar to Sales Model . ( Sourcing teams in place)
Talent communities as source of Talent pool / Talent pipeline
Conversations has shifted to online platforms – – candidates are talking about your brand, culture, hiring experience on Glassdoor / Facebook
Talent communities as source of Talent pool / Talent pipeline
Conversations has shifted to online platforms – – candidates are talking about your brand, culture, hiring experience on Glassdoor / Facebook
Communication Gaps with candidates in Hiring Process , if addressed provide better Candidate Experience.
Social Networks as the conduit for Human to Human Marketing / Influence the Marketplace conversations in favor of your Brand
Employee Advocacy – Employees , Recruiters & Leaders as primary Talent Ambassadors who represent your Brand on Digital platforms
Social Networks as the conduit for Human to Human Marketing / Influence the Marketplace conversations in favor of your Brand
Employee Advocacy – Employees , Recruiters & Leaders as primary Talent Ambassadors who represent your Brand on Digital platforms
Next Steps –
1. Employee Advocacy – Employees and Recruiters as Talent Brand Ambassador – Tools like Elevate from Linkedin & Meddle it will help meet rubber on the road.
How Technology is Blurring the Boundaries Between HR and Marketing
2, Influencer Marketing – Identify Influencers from the Business for Talent attraction . Thats why collaboration with Marketing is utmost important.
3 Campaign Examples- #ADayintheLife Campaign , #WhyIloveIBM Campaign, #WomenatIBM Campaign , #MyLifeatCapgemini, #AdobeLife.
4 . Strategic approach to Campus Branding to Influence & Attract Top Talent
4 . Strategic approach to Campus Branding to Influence & Attract Top Talent
( Leveraging Insights from Linkedin Talent surveys)
5 Content Marketing – Paid , Earned , Owned Media . Then end of free social media marketing which means there is less engagement with Free Social Media and investments and Paid Media or Earned Media is the way forward . Content Marketing Revolution has just begun. Nine out of ten organizations are now #Marketing with content – that is, going beyond the traditional sales pitches and instead enhancing brands by publishing.
6. Social Listening – Is Talent even engaging or experiencing your Employer Brand ? or do they experience the Employer Brand mainly through Recruiters who may or may not have the full understanding of EVP ( Employer Value Proposition). Is your EVP Employer Value Proposition clearly defined ? Brand storytelling is about why your company exists and who your customers are , who you really are and what value you provide to internal and external customers 10 Foundational Elements of Successful Brand Storytelling
7. KPIs – Social Influenced Hires, Employer of Choice award / Linkedin Talent Suvery / Glassdoor Employer survey / Candidate Experience / Social Listening, Offer to acceptance ratio
Brilliant example of Talent Branding
Adobe’s Talent #Branding Blog – http://t.co/cpkLyzbh0Q 1. Responsive Design 2. Easy Navigation 3. Rich Content #HR — Ruchi (@rucsb) August 27, 2015
IBM Jobs Blog http://blog.ibm.jobs/
A Tale of Two Tweets
On Dec 19 , after reading an article by John Rampton, Why most colleges dont teach Internet Marketing , I tweeted & copied Coursera Founder , Prof Andrew Ng , whose lecture I attended at one of the IBM Education conference.
.@johnrampton great write up. The solution is to offer #DigitalMarketing as a #MOOC http://t.co/B6FYRQV083 cc @AndrewYNg #education Dec 19, 2014 
Exactly, within 15 days , I received a revert from Vishal Sachdev, Director @ Univ of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, that solution I proposed has been implemented.
RT @vishalsachdev: @rucsb Solution implemented @uiucbusiness and @coursera https://t.co/c6Z2Xj3bq5 cc @johnrampton @AndrewYNg Jan 04, 2015
Whoa.
Such is the power of internet, when information flows freely without boundaries of hierarchy or power.
Reminds me of New clue From Cluetrain Manifesto ( Source- Doc Searls and David Weinberger) – On the Net, we are the medium. We are the ones who move messages. We do so every time we post or retweet, send a link in an email, or post it on a social network.
Digital Marketing course starts in April 2015, for all those who care about Digital and Marketing stuff.
Image Source http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2008/12/cluetrain.jpg
Social Media is the talk of the Town
Social Media explosion is the talk of the town. Almost every business , industry, company is trying to tap into the opportunities that explosion in Social Media provides for improved business outcomes.
Leveraging Social Media has become imperative for companies to engage with customers, employees and business partners. Marketing & comms department has been the first to jump on the bandwagon to engage in 2 way communication models to reach out to customers. In the age of information overload, attention becomes the currency and Branding acquires centre stage.
How can HR remain immune or impervious to this excellent opportunity. Broadly speaking, when it comes to Talent Management – HR function is about Capacity planning, capability building, engagement and retention. What I see is rise in the HR Job roles that has components of Social elements embedded into it.
For example , if you are a L&D professional, you must be thinking how to utilise newer models eg Flipped classroom into learning process.
Recruitment is not left behind either. We have newer roles in Recruitment eg Recruitment Branding , Recruitment Marketing . After all the job of hiring managers is to sell the “work” ,Organisation “culture ” to the prospective candidates.
Leveraging Social Media has become imperative for companies to engage with customers, employees and business partners. Marketing & comms department has been the first to jump on the bandwagon to engage in 2 way communication models to reach out to customers. In the age of information overload, attention becomes the currency and Branding acquires centre stage.
How can HR remain immune or impervious to this excellent opportunity. Broadly speaking, when it comes to Talent Management – HR function is about Capacity planning, capability building, engagement and retention. What I see is rise in the HR Job roles that has components of Social elements embedded into it.
For example , if you are a L&D professional, you must be thinking how to utilise newer models eg Flipped classroom into learning process.
Recruitment is not left behind either. We have newer roles in Recruitment eg Recruitment Branding , Recruitment Marketing . After all the job of hiring managers is to sell the “work” ,Organisation “culture ” to the prospective candidates.
Social networking phenomenon revolutionises the recruitment experience for both candidates and employers. Companies are rethinking their social media strategies to make recruiting processes more transparent and to tap into and engage with the talent pools. More and more companies are on the lookout for know how on how to leverage social networking sites eg Facebook, LinkedIn to advertise jobs, increase brand awareness, showcase Company culture and provide a glimpse to candidates about the working environment, growth , learning, career and development opportunities.
Both candidates and employers are using the digital footprints to research about each other and find data points for better decision making. Hiring can be viewed as a Match making process . More the data points, assumption is, better would be the decision ie final outcome for both employers and candidates.
In my experience, I see 2 kinds of recruiters & hiring managers. On one end of spectrum, we have recruiters who has invested in self learning , acquired new skills to use social networking for sourcing, engagement, building relationships with candidates. On other end of spectrum , few hiring managers & recruiters are wondering and still pondering over the risks. Social networking adoption Benefits far outweigh the risks, ask any candidate or HR Professional who has reaped benefits from this new medium. Technology is neutral. A fool with a tool is still a fool. Recruiters and hiring managers must enhance their understanding on the value Social media and social networking adoption and invest in self education and self learning. They must learn from recruiters who are using Facebook graph search, Linkedin recruiters license and reaping great benefits to minimise agency dependency and reduce costs & generate value for organisation with fewer resources. They are the ones who are innovating on the field. These recruiters understand Social Recruiting . Social Recruiting as a concept is relatively new. Talent can not be hired, it can only be courted.Go figure – how. Simply put, Hiring in other words , is a long & extended conversation. For hiring managers, Hiring is about channel mix too. Employee Referrals is another process which can be disrupted using the social networking platforms. Much scope to bring Efficiencies and Effectiveness into the Hiring process and to disrupt the existing models and evolve new Hiring Models. Employer Branding has nuances and implications understood by the privileged few. Employer Branding and Social Recruiting is bound to witness growth in coming years.
Sage advice from Social Business gurus ~ Get Social. Do business
As Dr Marshall Goldsmith says ~ what got you here! won’t get you there.
If you are still wondering why, what, how ..then remember, Self education is the key. Follow and Learn from Thought Leaders. . I tweet and share insightful stuff on Social HR through twitter (@rucsb) and my blog ~ HR Gurukul.
Bonus ~
What IBM Recruitment is upto –
1. Integrated Social approach to ATS ( Applicant Tracking System)
2. Employee Referral Program empowered by Social Referrals
3. ROI of Social Recruitment measured through Influenced and Direct Social Hires
4. Hiring Processes enabled & powered through Analytics
5. HR Leaders Rely on Data than on Gut. Better Decision Making on part of HR Leaders. Improved Business outcomes.
3 Key Actionables to get started on Social HR (Recruitment) Journey
1. Invest time in building your own Linkedin and Twitter Profile.
2. Socially Network with Thought Leaders in Social Recruitment
Tony Rustell
Matt Charney
Todd Raphael
Sarang Brahme
3. Invest in your Learning and Development. Join IndiaHRLive, IndiaHRChat, TChat, SocialHRSuccess discussions on twitter . Connect with & Learn from HR Leaders and Practitioners. Learn about Social HR from Meghan M Biro, Abhijit Bhaduri, Khalid Raza, Gautam Ghosh , Self Promotion Alert : Ruchi Bhatia
I can be contacted via twitter @rucsb
Recruitment Marketing
Here are the 5 interesting articles on Recruitment Marketing this week i discovered . I follow +William Tincup & FistFul of Talent for interesting insights on HR .
Key Insights from my Experience with Digital Ecosystem –
1. Websites are repositories of dead content , hence rise of Web 2.0 , Emerging Technologies, Social Media platforms
2. Social & mobile has forced people to form new habits , on an avg every person checks in their smartphone several times a day.
3. People lead to discovery of new content and content leads to discovery of new people – key is to engage employees to share interesting content that shapes conversations in favor of Employer Brand .
4. Talent cant be hired, Talent can only be courted . Talent looks for an overall experience , when it is positive at early stages, candidate’s interest is piqued in the job/ role/ organization.
2. Social & mobile has forced people to form new habits , on an avg every person checks in their smartphone several times a day.
3. People lead to discovery of new content and content leads to discovery of new people – key is to engage employees to share interesting content that shapes conversations in favor of Employer Brand .
4. Talent cant be hired, Talent can only be courted . Talent looks for an overall experience , when it is positive at early stages, candidate’s interest is piqued in the job/ role/ organization.
5. How does one cut through noise on the Social Media is the key. Key is to first identify the communities of talent and then do targeted messaging within those communities.
7. If communities don’t exist, one needs to work through creation and building the talent communities first across hot skills in demand from both current scenario as well as futuristic point of view.
8. Visually appealing content goes viral quickly on Social Media
9. Social Media is a great platform for Social Listening .
10. Twitter & Google search results are quiet useful and generate many insights to pick clues from & act upon.
My take – Recruitment Marketing is an interesting role at the intersection of HR, Marketing and Branding 🙂
Ruchi Bhatia (@rucsb) 
