It is no secret that social media is a hot topic right now. From a business standpoint, you know that social media can be a powerful tool for marketing and recruiting.

But what about your candidates? Do they realize the effect that  social media is having on their job search efforts?

Most employers will at least do a Google search of anyone they are interested in hiring. What they find can be damaging to a job search and a career.

Make sure that you are conducting these same search before sending a candidate out on an interview. Remember, they are representing your firm and this is just another way to manage your brand online.

The following article has some great tips for how employers are using social media, and how to clean-up any “digital dirt” that you may have.

Digital “dirt” can haunt your job search

Last week I listened in on our first guest webinar in our Lunch with Haley series.  The topic was Cybermarketing, and it was hosted by Mark Berger, an Internet sourcing guru.  I learned a ton of great info, but I wanted to bring to your attention three free resources that you may not be using to post jobs (that I did not know about prior to the call).

1. MySpace – I know what you’re thinking…with all the Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook buzz, MySpace seems to have taken a back seat.  And isn’t this site meant to be a free-for-all for teens?  Think again.  Did you know that the average age of a MySpace user is 35 years old and that there are 120 million users, and climbing?  You can “post an ad” on MySpace classified and expect a ton of hits.  Berger put it this way, “You’re crazy if your don’t post an ad to MySpace.”
2. GoogleBase – Google Base is a free Google service that helps you publish virtually any kind of information, such as job postings.  Your item will fall into one of several categories based on its content. This category determines which Google property will display your item.  You can submit one job at a time or upload several at a time from a spreadsheet.  Users can sort by location, zip code, company, job function, etc.
3. CraigsList.org – Again you’re thinking, isn’t craigslist for selling old furniture or finding an apartment?  To my surprise, the website is another great place to post a job (notice it is .org and not .com).  Berger explained that this site produced more hits than Monster and a little less than Career Builder for a job that he posted to all three sites.

Haley Marketing is very proud to announce that more than 500 staffing firms have downloaded our Marketing Best Practices Guide.  Get your copy today!

When the going gets tough…the tough do not pull back on marketing!  Why? If you’d like some proof of the importance of marketing aggressively, check out this article from the Wharton School. 

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

With corporate managers under enormous pressure to control costs and maintain liquidity in the current credit crisis, advertising budgets often appear to be a dispensable luxury in the struggle to survive. Executives who succumb to that temptation, however, put the long-term future of their companies at risk, according to Wharton faculty and advertising experts.

“The first reaction is to cut, cut, cut, and advertising is one of the first things to go,” says Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader, adding that as companies slash advertising in a downturn, they leave empty space in consumers’ minds for aggressive marketers to make strong inroads. Today’s economy “provides an unusual opportunity to differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd,” says Fader, “but it takes a lot of courage and convincing to get senior management on board with that.”

Research shows that companies that consistently advertise even during recessions perform better in the long run. A McGraw-Hill Research study looking at 600 companies from 1980 to 1985 found that those businesses which chose to maintain or raise their level of advertising expenditures during the 1981 and 1982 recession had significantly higher sales after the economy recovered. Specifically, companies that advertised aggressively during the recession had sales 256% higher than those that did not continue to advertise.

While marketing can’t change the realities of the current economy, it can make an immediate, positive impact on your business today and an even bigger in the months and years to come. 

Want more specific ideas?  Call 1-888-696-2900, and we will provide a free consultation for your firm.

Ever read any of Dan Kennedy’s NO B.S. books? If not, check them out. Dan’s not big on management theory (to put it mildly), just practical, no b.s. advice that entrepeneurs need to hear.

In NO B.S. Direct Marketing, Dan (who by the way is one of the most successful marketers on the planet), made a fascinating observation.  Here’s a quote from the book:

“You are not in the  (fill in the blank)   business,
you are in the business of marketing (fill in the blank again)  services.”

So how should you interpret this? Simple. As a staffing executive, your most important role is not to provide great staffing services; your role is to figure out how to create a market for your services.  

You might disagree with this observation, but consider this reality: great service does not differentiate your firm, and it will not create new opportunities for you. Your clients expect great service.

Your job is to figure out how to be different. To figure out who to target, what to sell, how to price your services, how to package your services, and how to deliver your services. Your job is to determine how to best position your firm, and then how to most effectively communicate your differentiation to your clients and prospects. Your job is to be a strategic marketer first and a staffing professional second.

It’s no small challenge. But the first step is to stop focusing on being in the staffing business, and start focusing on being a great marketer of staffing services.

I had a great conversation today with Eric Gregg, CEO of the Inavero Institute for Service Research.  Eric’s firm conducted a major study of staffing buyers to uncover some of the reasons why and how employers buy staffing services.

Among the findings was that those employers who were involved in multiple relationship-building activities (monthly contact, site visits, etc.) were significantly more likely to recommend their primary staffing firm.  In fact the “average willingness to recommend” increased by more than 50% as the number of contact points per month increased from 1 to 4.  (Download the report summary)

So what does this mean for you?  Great service is not enough! You need multiple channels of communication to nurture relationships, including calls, site visits, email and direct mail. Ideally, these communications will reinforce your value proposition, educate, add value, and help you nurture relationships. 

Hey, that exactly what we help staffing companies do!