…HR ideas from Jeffery Giesener – SourceMob – CEO
April 22, 2014
We all know people who seem to know everyone…people who can get you in touch with just about anyone.
In his visionary 2002 book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell used the term “Connector” to refer to people who regularly offer help in facilitating connections, build relationships and are totally comfortable engaging people.
It’s amazing that The Tipping Point was written 11 years ago, before the birth of LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
From a social media perspective, have you thought about where your social connectors are hanging out today? Have you thought about how you can use social connectors to reach new candidates for your current positions?
As you may guess, social connectors are hanging out in social networks. In fact, BusinessInsider.com reports that users with 150 connections in social networks are called “Super Socials.”
Where Are Your Super Social’s Hanging Out?
84 percent of Super Socials are connecting on Facebook, 39 percent are on Twitter and 38 percent are on LinkedIn. That’s right! LinkedIn is NOT the only source for your social candidates. In fact, LinkedIn is light when it comes to profiles for IT, nursing, young professionals and women.
Do these numbers surprise you? They shouldn’t. BusinessInsider.com also reports that Facebook is the 800 lb. Super Social gorilla. So if you are not targeting your sourcing efforts towards Facebook, Twitter and Google+, you are missing a huge opportunity to engage with your potential candidates.
Isn’t it time to begin applying part of your candidate campaign budget to testing and learning how to source candidates from more sources than LinkedIn?
The Power of Word of Mouth…
- When asked what sources “influence” their decision to work or not work at a particular company, 71 percent of participants claimed that connections from family members or friends exert a “great deal” or “fair amount” of influence. (Harris Interactive)
- Other candidate conversations are significantly more trusted – nearly 12 times more – than simple job postings. (eMarketer)
- 90 percent of candidates trust job recommendations from people they know. (Econsultancy,)
Tapping Super Socials for Social and Mobile Job Connections?
Here’s how I see you succeeding in social recruiting: First, identify where your unique Super Social audiences are hanging out. Next, target specialized social marketing campaigns to impact these various groups. The campaign intent is to enable word of mouth conversations to flow through employee and friends networks onto Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, email, and Mobile texting.
Just imagine the viral effect for your career verticals when you stimulate your candidates’ social graph. When you take the marketing time to focus on your various social audiences, it won’t take long for you to see positive outcomes from your top passive candidates, who are also driving their friends and family back to your job portal for applies and hires.
To learn more about SourceMob’s best practices for social and mobile recruiting, give me a call at 612-249-2740 or email me at jeff@sourcemob.com.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Jeffery
Jeffery Giesener
CEO – SourceMob