Blog

Just in case you were wondering, we are living in the future. And by “The future” I mean a sci-fi movie. Specifically, Minority Report starring Tom Cruise.

Google can predict flu outbreaks in real time, Target knows if your teen is pregnant  and most importantly, The Cheesecake Factory can look into a Big Data crystal ball and predict exactly how crispy the pickles on your cheeseburger ought to be. Now that is “Absolute Customer Satisfaction”. It’s also just a little bit creepy, but probably worth it, for a seriously perfect pickle.

There’s been quite a bit of buzz lately about the implications of Big Data for Recruiting and Employer branding. A lot of it is super-complex and detailed, like this post on HRExaminer.com. But most of us just need to understand the basics of what Big Data is and how it’s changing the candidate attraction and hiring process. Unless you are a massive fast-food chain willing to invest millions into understanding the complex nature of the diner/pickle relationship, the following should be more than enough info.

Firstly, What is Big Data?

It’s pretty impressive sounding, that’s for sure! And, honestly, it is impressive.

Big Data can be described in terms of a problem it presents. Wikipedia says : “Big Data is a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications.”

It can also refer simply to a large amount of complex data that requires advanced programs to be captured and processed. Big Data can even be used to refer to the ways in which that data is processed, stored, and applied.

Basically, thanks to computers, we now have the ability to gather, store and utilize crazy amounts of information about people.

I know Wiki’s definition is sexier, but mine takes way less time to say, and Big Data tells me that time is money, so you are welcome.

Secondly, How does Big Data affect you?

Always the most important of questions.

Big Data impacts recruiting and employer branding in several key ways. I’m going to present five of them, because in my expert opinion, they are the most important. Also, my “expert opinion” is backed by Big Data (me Googling) that’s so compelling, Tom Cruise should star in a movie about it.

1 – The talent search

There is a lot of talent on the internet. We now have Facebook, job boards, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Vine and even Instagram in our recruiting tool belt. That’s some seriously Big Data at your finger tips and mining that data is a great way to discover passive candidates. Monitor social sites for keywords (the more specific and technical the better) related to your recruitment effort. Apps like HootSuite make search monitoring easy, while Gild is another app that gathers Big Data to help with (specifically tech) recruiting.

Big Data can also help solve one of the biggest obstacles in talent acquisition : resume spray.

Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s awesome that social sites, like Facebook, increase the amount of visibility and applicants that a job post gets. Having more candidates to choose from is definitely not a thing to complain about! Except, perhaps, when you get overwhelmed by resumes… But thanks to tools for Big Data processing, employers can efficiently sift through those resumes and leverage the data they provide to weed out the most qualified candidates.

That processing can also be done via the Cloud, instead of on local servers, which cuts down on both time and costs, quite significantly. This doesn’t mean you won’t need to interview, but it should help narrow it down to a better caliber of candidates who make it through to the interview stage. For more detailed information, check out this post on making the candidate search faster and more exact with Big Data. If you’re looking for a free tool for large scale data processing, check out Hadoop, more specifically Hadoop MapReduce, which is explained nicely in this article.

And that’s a lot of words! This article may be about a seemingly endless stream of data, but I think blog posts are better kept short and sweet.

Next week: 4 more ways you can use Big Data for recruiting and employer branding, and I will attempt to predict the next Mrs Tom Cruise using information I’ve gathered from Google! Stay tuned.

March has been a seriously busy month as far as social media goes. There is so much happening on the internet! I don’t know where to start …

Okay, I take that back. I started by writing about Facebook’s soon to be released News Feed updates. I think that was a pretty smart move, considering we are a Facebook recruiting app, but there’s still so much to talk about like :

Pinterest got a makeover, I’m really digging the “people who pinned this also pinned” feature. It helped me waste a whole bunch of time that could have been spent outside, in the sun, with my loved ones. Okay, maybe I don’t like it so much anymore.

Google released Google Keep, their version of Evernote. From watching their promo video, I’m pretty sure Keep would make my life better, as I would never run out of pickles again, oh, and never be late for meetings, or forget an amazing article idea which is also important. Too bad it’s only for Android. No pickles for me.

Facebook has changed their cover photo policy yet again! I think most brands will be pretty darn happy about Facebook getting rid of their rules against including calls-to-action, pricing, and contact info in cover images.

Google Plus has introduced a filter that allows user to search for images only. This is a great example of Google Plus adapting to the increasingly image-based nature of social media and yet another reason to use G+ for recruiting.

Tumblr hit a major milestone, the company recently announced that it now hosts over 100 million blogs. Most of them are dedicated to six-pack abs, kittens snuggling with puppies, and teens who post pictures of their funny hair and tattoos. There are also some awesome blogs about social media and digital culture like the one run by Social Media in Organisations.

Hopefully I covered all of the most important stuff, but I know I’m forgetting something…

…

…

Pickles!

Last week we laid out the major ways in which Facebook's News Feed is going to change in the upcoming year. Today we're going to examine what those changes mean for employers and brands in general and how Facebook recruiting, branding and marketing will need to adapt in order to stay effective. I'll try not to get too heavy on you, but these changes are serious for anyone using Facebook for business. Of particular importance will be a major new emphasis on image-based stories and an increase in a user's control over what they see in their feed. Currently users have a rather limited ability to curate the content they view in their News Feed. They can hide specific posts, but not much more. With Facebook's recently announced updates, users will be able to filter content much more selectively. They will have the option to view updates from specific groups, such as "Friends" or "Close Friends". Users will also be able to view content from their "Following" feed (brands whose Pages they have Liked), but some marketers are worried that users won't choose this option.

Facebook has pitched these changes as a way to please users and that makes sense. The updates are in response to concerns that many users are finding their News Feed increasing cluttered. They complain that they are missing personalized content, such as a friend's important status update, due to this clutter. But I would also suggest that another reason for the updates to Facebook's News Feed is that it will make investing in Sponsored Stories, and paying for Facebook ads, a necessary step in increasing brand reach. The other major change is the increased focus on image-based posts. With over 50% of the updated News Feed devoted to image-based content, brands would be wise to shift away from using text updates. Brands will also have to curtail how much text is embedded in images that are used for marketing (no more than 20% is allowed). What this means for you:

• Investing in Sponsored Stories and Facebook Ads will no longer be optional. Yes, I know, not having options isn't fun. But really, even without these changes, I've always advocated investing in both of these tools. It's inexpensive and a great way to learn more about your customer base.Silver Lining: Sponsored Stories and Facebook Ads will have a much larger visual presence, making them more impactful and engaging. Considering how easily users can tune out the small-scale content appearing on the right-hand side of their screens, having the News Feed center-stage is a pretty great thing.

• Creating or purchasing eye-catching images will be a must. Again, this is something brands should already be doing. It is a bit of an investment, but social media is becoming more and more image-based and brands need to adapt, News Feed updates or not! Silver lining: It's a kick in the pants to make you take your branding's visual appeal more seriously! The updated images you use for Facebook campaigns can also be used to spruce up your company site.

• Having varied media content is more important than ever, which is yet another argument for using video to boost employer brand! Sharing links that are accompanied by images will also be more important, so choose content to share from sites that include images with their posts. Silver lining: You have another awesome excuse to make an employer video! And hopefully blogs and online newspapers will make a greater point of including large, beautiful images with their articles.

All in all, the updates to Facebook's News Feed are definitely going to affect how employers and brands reach Facebook users. Hopefully, the overall effect will be only a slight cost increase in exchange for greater impact and visibility.

Sign up here to check out what Facebook will look like when all is said and done. We'd love to know your thoughts, advice and concerns in the comments! Happy Monday.

Showcasing awesome social recruiting is our jam. We've been having a blast featuring employers and recruiters who are using Facebook and social media to recruit. We're also pretty excited about March Madness. So it makes perfect sense to do a Link Love about social recruiting slam dunks! There're so many cool ways to get social with recruiting and employer branding, that it's hard to pick just a few examples. But it's nowhere near as hard as it would be to restart my career from scratch and try to become a basketball super star — especially considering my diminutive stature and complete lack of agility. So, I'll woman up and get to it!

Let the Link Love Madness begin: First, check out this amazing recruiting video that isn't actually a recruiting video. Cleveland Clinic made a video showcasing what it means to be a part of their organization in such an amazing way that any candidate would be honored to work for them. Warning, you will probably cry. How should you reach out to amazing talent? With sports references, obviously.

"I LOVE THE WAY YOU BALL: How to Write a Crazy, Sports Influenced Recruiting Note To The Best Candidates" by Ken Dunn is a must read. Mostly because he is hilarious, but also because he knows what he's talking about. Killer combination! If you want to win with social recruiting you've got to build relationships! Here's how to get connected with social media MVPs to take your game to the next level.

Papal talent management. Oh wow. Talk about recruiting for the major leagues. And last, but definitely not least, I'm going to toot my own horn a little and link to our fantastic interview with Reg Hamilton of Phoenix Group. This case study examines how Phoenix Group achieved amazing results using Facebook for both branding and recruiting.

March Madness is upon us! Unfortunately for me, no one here cares. Basketball is not that big in Holland, which is shocking, considering how ridiculously tall the Dutch are. Back home in Canada, this is an exciting time for my family. My parents are searching Google for tips on filling out their bracket choices, hitting up Costco for snacks, and mostly likely sporting Duke University hats. Ahhhh home.

But, luckily for me, I have another kind of madness to keep me entertained. Facebook Madness 2013!

The release of Facebook Graph Search kicked things off early in the year. It’s been exciting employers and recruiters everywhere with Facebook Graph Search’s promise of a much more selective way to search for talent and greater access to passive candidates. Also, over the past few months, Facebook timeline has been shifting and changing. Okay, so that hasn’t been super exciting — hiding maps under a “More” tab isn’t exactly madness… but I digress!

Now Zuckerburg has revealed FB’s plans for a completely re-vamped Facebook News Feed. Madness!

Whenever Facebook rolls out new changes, we get a little freaked out. Which is pretty frustrating considering FB shakes up their UI as often as Dennis Rodman dies his hair (yes, all of my basketball knowledge comes from the movie Space Jam). And, as with Rodman’s ever-changing coif, those changes can be awesome, but they can also be just plain scary for Facebook recruiting and branding. Before we go into the pros and cons of the News Feed’s new look, let’s go over just what those changes are going to be.

The five main changes :

1. Mobile – We all know that compatibility with mobile is no longer optional. More and more of Facebook’s active users are accessing the network through smart phones and tablets and Facebook is finally starting to make mobile a priority. Yay! The updates to News Feed put “mobile-first”, taking user interface cues from Facebook apps and emphasizing consistency between mobile and desktop interface.

2. Bigger Images – Another mobile-inspired change is the shift towards making images the main focus. Photos will dominate the latest version of Facebook News Feed, as they are now much larger and make up 50% of News Feed Stories. This is most likely inspired by the rising popularity of image-driven apps like Instagram, Pinterest and even Google+.

3. Less Text – More emphasis on images means less emphasis on text, which means text updates will become much less effective, if not obsolete. Facebook is also getting much more strict with it’s 20% text in images rule. This means a severe limit to “call to actions” and an end to “price and purchase info” embedded in images. It is another attempt by Facebook to have a cleaner, more elegant overall look and feel.

4. Multiple Feeds – Users will now have the option to choose certain “sub-feeds” that they would like to view more often. For example, users can choose to view more posts by “close Friends” than other friends (Google+ circles anyone?!). This will reduce clutter and make it easier for users to keep up to date with the content that matters most to them. These changes address increasing complaints by Facebook users that they are missing interesting updates due to an over-saturation with irrelevant content.

5. Chronology – Another way in which the changes to News Feed aim to quell user complaints is by displaying more content chronologically, with less reliance on edge-rank algorithm (a fancy term for Facebook guessing at what you want to see!)

Obviously these changes will make a huge impact on how employers will use Facebook to recruit and promote their brands. But the degree to which your strategy will have to change depends on what your current strategy is. If you are already running ad and sponsored story campaigns, and focusing on quality images, then big kudos! If not, then these changes may be a hassle, but they’re also a reason to revamp and improve how you use Facebook. This is always a good idea if you want to stay ahead of the competition.

Next week we’ll go over some pros and cons of the revamped Facebook News Feed, how to tweak your Facebook recruiting to make it work for you, and why Steve Nash is awesome and you should Like him on Facebook. Wait… he’s not in Spacejam! Disney really should release a new edition with him CG’d in.

Enjoy March Madness!

Yesterday, we released an in-depth interview with interactive media specialist, Reg Hamilton. In the interview, Reg shared some key strategies for social media branding and Facebook recruiting. We love posting articles like these, as real-life examples of businesses utilizing Facebook and social recruiting are more useful to our client and reader-base than any other type of content.

Our previous post about Gordon Food Service, and their use of Facebook for branding and recruiting, was one of our most successful articles. In that interview, Dave Wiltjer outlined real-world strategies that GFS has used to great success. Most of our readership is employers and recruiters looking to hire for small to medium-sized businesses, and as such, advice from Forbes, based on the best practices of Fortune 500 companies, is far less applicable than the straightforward, down-to-earth strategies laid out by Dave and Reg.

And strategy matters.

In a recent piece for Inc., Eric Schurenburg wrote:

“Strategy is not complicated, or impractical, or disconnected from reality. And it’s certainly not optional.”

I think our recent articles, on both Gordon Food Services and Phoenix Group’s Think Saskatchewan Jobs campaign, show just how true those words are.

Today’s links are all about strategy. From why every business must make strategy a top-priority, to simple strategies for everyday business problems. Oh, and don’t worry, there’s an Infographic!

Link Love:

The 4 key things strategic thinkers do. This is the Inc. article I quoted above, it also has a super informative case-study, so definitely check this one out.

Strategy is never static, it must shift and grow with your business. This article explains how and why companies are shifting their strategies to promote innovation over

What about effective strategy for everyday office situations? The HR Bartender explains the importance of using problem solving strategy to find real solutions instead of just bandaids.

Optimize your Facebook engagement strategy with this simple plan.

Infographic time! How and why you waste time and strategies to become a time management pro.

What’s your best bit of social media strategy advice?

Reg Hamilton is a specialist in Interactive Media. He has over 18 years of tech experience, is an accomplished artist and designer, represents Phoenix Group on the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada’s Mobile and Social Media Council, and his LinkedIn profile was one of the most viewed in 2012.

So as you can imagine, he’s a pretty busy guy. That’s why we feel very lucky that Reg has agreed to share some of his knowledge with the Jobcast blog.

Jobcast: Hi Reg, would you mind explaining to our readers what Phoenix Group is all about?

Reg: Phoenix Group is a full-service advertising agency with nearly 40 staff. We offer branding, creative, interactive and media services. Phoenix Group is a place where ideas grow. We create outstanding creative campaigns and build long-term value for our client’s brands. We’re about growth and results. We’re about thinking. Good thinking. That means great creative that grows business ideas and solutions. Our leadership team does a great job providing a supportive atmosphere that encourages success.

Jobcast: Phoenix Group has been very successful with Facebook to grow their clients brands. The results of your “Riders Oath” campaign for the Saskatchewan Roughriders were outstanding. Why did you decide to make Facebook a priority for brand promotion?

Reg: Rider Nation is a powerful force of nature. Phoenix Group and the Riders decided to focus on growing the number of Facebook fans. Due to the large number of existing fans—around 76,000—there was a significant opportunity to mine this group of people to reach likeminded brand loyalists. A target was set to increase the number of fans to 100,000: if reached, this number of Friends would lay the foundation for a powerful customer database. In addition, the team wanted to continue to lead the league in merchandise sales, fan avidity, and visitors’ game attendance figures. Because the Riders are such an important part of their fans’ lives, social media is a great way to reach them and to join the conversation

The integrated campaign produced outstanding results, with the number of Facebook fans increasing by more than 24,500 (for a total of 103,679 by the end of the year). We feel Facebook influenced results, with ticket sales virtually sold out for the year and over 67% of all CFL merchandise sales were Riders products.

Jobcast: Are there any key pointers you could give our readers about improving their branding with Facebook?

Reg: Content is king and context is God. The narrative rules and social stories attract fans. Give the fans 10x more than you ask for. Facebook is a great channel for content. Our Community Managers encourage fan engagement with conversation starters and questions posed to the community to encourage conversation and participation amongst users.

Tone is one of the most important aspects of any social media strategy. Users expect to engage with content they relate to on social media—they don’t want to be told; they want to have a conversation. Be honest; be real; give them something they are interested in.

The use of social media is an opportunity for the brand to develop a ‘human’ tone without representing an individual person or employee. It is important each post and interaction has the appropriate message for each social channel and uses a conversational, creative voice.

It is also important to note that there will be feedback, both positive and negative. Both should be dealt with on a timely basis. Having an effective and dedicated community manager, along with an appropriate strategy will ensure the conversation thrives and moves forward—don’t get lazy.

Jobcast: In your current campaign “Think Saskatchewan Jobs” you’re tasked with branding an entire Province! Can you talk a bit about the project and the types of social media strategies you’re employing?

Reg: Saskatchewan is booming. We have what the world wants and needs. Saskatchewan has one of the strongest and most stable economies in the world. With plentiful resources in demand around the globe, the Canadian province offers strong long-term career prospects. In fact, Saskatchewan has the lowest unemployment rate in Canada. Saskatchewan offers a high quality of life, with excellent education and health systems, affordable cultural and recreational activities and short commute times. It has everything you need to raise a family and advance your career. That’s the Saskatchewan story. Our Government recognizes the importance of social media and the benefits of using Facebook as an innovative channel for getting this message out.

Some brands tend to use Facebook fan acquisition strategies that are one dimensional—Like us to win a pizza or hot tub, share your personal family photos and your story to be entered to win an iPad. We are all used to seeing that approach. It’s like an extension of old school newspaper enter to win into social. Well, we wanted to do social differently.

Our objective is to grow a vibrant Facebook community to showcase Saskatchewan as a place of opportunity. This is accomplished by promoting job opportunities in the province on Facebook through the use of the Jobcast API recruitment app, by offering tips and tools on re-locating to the province and by creating conversation around quality of life and jobs. Having actual people who live here—or better yet, who moved here—talking about Saskatchewan is far more credible than the Government praising the virtues of our province.

Jobcast: We love what you’ve done with the Think Saskatchewan Jobs Facebook Career Page. How effective have you found recruiting with Facebook to be?

Reg: The rate of fan grow of this community is outstanding, with 2,400+ Likes in the first couple of weeks of the campaign. What’s really amazing is the total weekly reach is averaging out around 1.7 Million people hearing about Saskatchewan jobs. The very nature of social media enables the creation and maintenance of relationships. As a result, job marketing fits in perfectly. We are really happy with CTR on job applications at 10%

Jobcast: The level of interaction that you maintain with your followers on the Think Saskatchewan Jobs Facebook Page is impressive. In what ways do you feel maintaining a dialogue with fans benefits social recruiting?

Reg: The most effective strategy is to focus on building a strong, focused community on Facebook to attract job seekers to the province. The most effective approach was to use a combination of relevant content and Facebook apps.

The right mix of content is very important when it comes to social media. It is important to keep campaign goals in mind, but to also offer the community content relevant to their needs. Social job seekers want to engage with you and they also want interesting and helpful information that’s not just from you. The best practice rule content ratio for social recruiting is:

• 25% – Job postings

• 25% – How to get hired here

• 25% – Saskatchewan culture

• 25% – Fun/Lifestyle

Jobcast: What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced in implementing social recruiting strategy for Think Saskatchewan Jobs?

Reg: This campaign represents the most recent social media marketing effort for the Government of Saskatchewan. Much research and effort went into developing the right strategy to ensure its success. There are many elements involved in this campaign, so excellent teamwork is critical to achieve success. Our creative team together with our client do an awesome job of positioning this positive message in carefully crafted stories.

Jobcast: Many employers are intimidated by the idea of of using Facebook for talent acquisition. Do you have any advice for getting started with Facebook recruiting?

Reg: Fish where the fish are. Companies looking to make new hires are seeking the most cost-effective, efficient ways to find new talent. Job boards launched a revolution in recruiting more than 15 years ago. And now, social networks are doing the same—but in a much more targeted way. Through social recruiting, companies are learning they can find the best talent efficiently and very quickly.

Jobcast: Why did The Phoenix Group choose the Jobcast app for the Think Saskatchewan Jobs campaign?

Reg: Canada, we love Canadian technology solutions. The Jobcast app fit the requirements we needed to a tee. The user flow to search the jobs and apply is excellent. The Jobcast technical staff worked out a perfect solution to synchronize 10,000+ jobs in a tight 5-day turn around. Jobcast is great to work with and are providing wonderful results. The Jobcast app is really flexible so our creative team was able to ensure all elements were on brand.

Jobcast: Thank you, we’re glad to be a part of such a cool campaign!

You’re obviously a pro when it comes to social media. What do you think have been the key factors to your success?

Reg: That’s a nice compliment, but I think it comes down to hard work. I’ve always been an early adopter of new technology. Social media isn’t a silver bullet or an instant win for everyone, it takes more than just starting a Facebook page to be successful. It takes a good strategy that defines who the target audience is and what the goals and objectives are, then diligence and attention to keep things moving in the right direction. There’s no finish line, either. When you achieve your objectives, it’s time to set new ones. Social media doesn’t stop; the conversation doesn’t end when you achieve your goal it keeps going.

You can find out more about Phoenix Group on their website and look up Reg on LinkedIn and Twitter. To plan your move to Saskatchewan or see an example of an effective Facebook Career Page check out Think Saskatchewan Jobs on Facebook.

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to Reg for sharing his advice and experiences, we really appreciate it!

International Woman’s Day is on Friday (March 8th, 2013 for those of you in the future).

How will you celebrate?

Please don’t say by wearing a lot of pink. Unless, of course, pink really brings out your eyes. Myself, I’m going to celebrate by reading tons of blog posts about women in social media, because thinking about work as ‘celebrating’ is good for productivity!

Working with the guys I do, it’s easy to forget how differently women can be treated in the workplace. I never feel like gender is an issue at Jobcast. It’s awesome.

Even more awesome, when I started gathering the links for today’s woman-centric post, I realized that in our last article, the one with examples of people using social recruiting effectively, two out of three examples we used were women. I know this doesn’t mean the glass ceiling has gone the way of the Berlin Wall, but I feel pretty good about how amazing women are succeeding in social media and recruiting.

Happy International Woman’s Day to me! And to all of you, from all of us at Jobcast.

Links!

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook wrote a book encouraging women to Lean Into Risk in the workplace. Here’s a great write-up on the book and its somewhat controversial premise by author Margie Warrell.

And, speaking of female COOs, this article asks the question: why do so many young women aim for COO not CEO? Sure, it’s written by a man, but one with a perspective on women in the workplace shaped by a very successful wife and interactions with his many “bright, talented and capable” female business students.

Rayanne Thorn explains how she got over the fact that she is not Wonder Woman and is much happier for it. Although I’m not giving up the title Sam “The Dark Knight” Parker any time soon, I applaud her honesty.

International Woman’s day is held in March, which makes sense, because March is Women’s History Month. Here’s Laurie Ruettimann (aka The Cynical Girl) on the subject of Women’s History Month and awareness in general.

Now, here’s the article I wish I’d written (I’m getting tired of saying that 🙂 ) The Top 25 women in social media, which makes for an inspiring list. All of these women deserve the mention and many of them have super informative blogs you can follow. Get following!

One of these Top 25 (with an awesome blog) is Leslie Bradshaw. This article about women and success is a great example of why her blog is a must read!

I’m going to sign off with a quote from one of my all-time favorite weightlifting coaches, Mark Rippetoe, on training strong women:

“Women are not a special population. They are half the population!”

Also this is his mom:

In last week’s blog we talked about taking the plunge into social media — not waiting for permission — just doing it. I asked our CEO and fearless leader, Ryan St Germaine, what he thought about the subject and in true Ryan-style, instead of bragging about himself, he expounded on our clients and best practices of social recruiters:

“From speaking with clients I’ve noticed that people get overwhelmed by social media and see it as this big, daunting task that requires a masters degree to understand. It’s not. All of the best social recruiters got started by putting one foot in front of the other and just going for it. They didn’t ask for permission or write a 40 page report. They created a social media account and started having conversations with their target audience. They engaged their audience by being of service and providing value. You can start right now if you want to with just one comment, message or post. The only thing stopping you from building your talent community… is you.”

I thought I would follow his lead and bring you some cool examples of people and companies who have done an awesome job of getting social with their recruiting, despite not having a masters in social (as if that even exists!?!)

I’ll start with someone who Ryan references often: Bill Boorman. Bill is a great example, in part because he has been doing social recruiting since before social recruiting was a thing, but mostly because he’s one of the most respected authorities on the subject. An early adopter of Twitter recruiting, he was the first person in the UK to register a business with an @ symbol in its name, and his trailblazing attitude towards recruiting didn’t stop there.

Bill started out as a traditional recruiter, but when faced with a lack of clients due to a recession, he decided to differentiate himself by going social with his recruiting. When he made this decision, the field of social recruiting was still in its infancy. He had no flashy social strategy infographics to follow, nor any of the impressive statistics showing the importance of social for recruiting that we now have, but he took the plunge anyway. This daring decision jump-started an illustrious career as a social recruiter, advisor, and public speaker.

Bill’s story is an awesome one, but wait, the awesome continues. An example I’ve used before, and will probably use again, is Stacy Donovan Zapar.

This is one connected woman — the most connected woman on LinkedIn to be exact. Stacy started her social journey with a focus on LinkedIn. She used the platform to become an early adopter of social recruiting, and then leveraged what she had learned to transform her own career. There was so much demand for her advice on social recruiting, that she began a blog which quickly became successful. This snowballed into a career as a public speaker at recruiting events, and now she has even launched her own social recruiting training business, Tenfold Social Training. Cool!

Our final example of social recruiting ingenuity is Jessica Lee and her work with Hotel Marriott.

Jessica Lee has taken Facebook recruiting to the next level with Hotel Marriott, but even before this campaign, both she and the Marriott brand were early adopters of social. Bill Marriott has been blogging since 2007, and the brand has been very active on Twitter and Facebook for almost as long, but they didn’t stop at conventional social recruiting. Hotel Marriott’s clever use of gamification for Facebook recruiting, with their My Marriott Hotel, has won them multiple awards and tons of press.

Jessica Lee has been using Facebook, Twitter and blogging to further her career in social recruiting since 2008 and is now considered one of HRExaminers top 100 influencers. In 2012, Lee signed on as Marriott’s Director of Digital Talent Strategy and has taken the company to new heights with innovative social recruiting projects like their recent Best Foot Forward campaign. Hotel Marriott and Jessica Lee have shown just how beneficial taking a chance on social can be.

All three of these examples took a risk on social recruiting back when it was still new and unproven. Today, Facebook is at over a billion users, LinkedIn is one of the first places recruiters go to find talent, and Tweeting for jobs is common practice. In the current social media focused landscape, as Ryan so elegantly put it, “The only thing stopping you from building your talent community… is you.”

Now, just so we don’t leave things on a cheesy note, I’m going to give you a teaser for next week’s article.

We’ll be sharing some firsthand advice from Reg Hamilton, a specialist in Interactive Media with over 18 years of tech experience. Reg represents Phoenix Group on the Board of Saskatchewan Interactive Media Association, serves on the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada’s Mobile and Social Media Council, and has one of the most viewed LinkedIn profiles of 2012.

In our interview, Reg shares some amazing tips for better social recruiting and explains how Phoenix Group has run extremely successful social media campaigns.

Stay tuned!

Okay, fun fact, both of my parents worked in HR. My dad has conducted and consulted on more interviews than I can come up with a clever analogy for (shocking, I know!). My mother specialized in classifications, so she's also very comfortable with the interview process. When I write these articles I always try to keep them in mind. What aspects of social recruiting would they be interested in learning more about, how can I make Facebook recruiting less intimidating for them, and how can I make posts about things like #hashtags less boring for them to read? Super hero analogies work great for my dad, and I sincerely hope that the rest of you follow in my mother's footsteps and accompany your blog reading with a glass of wine! Lately, like my parents, I've been conducting some interviews. These interviews are for our blog and have been amazing! I've learned so much about how small businesses are using social recruiting through talking with people like Dave Wiltjer from Gordon Food Service. It got me thinking about how social media is changing the interview process and the ways in which employers and recruiters are using new media to benefit their interviewing. So, our Link Love this week is all about the art of the interview, with a bias towards the social media side of things. Enjoy! "The Holy Grail of Interview Questions." Okay, so I took that quote completely out of context, as you will learn if you go on to read this very clever article that lays out some effective interview questions that are rarely asked. Social Media Headhunter answers the question:

So what exactly do you ask a social media consultant in an interview?

Video interviews are probably the biggest game changer that social has brought to the interview process. Here's an infographic that explains the awesome cost and time saving benefits of video interviews. Google+ is back in vogue for social recruiting — big time — and part of that is because using Google hangouts is a great way to pre-screen candidates for interviews. Leave it to the Dutch to come up with the wackiest job interview technique ever! It's no wonder I fit in so well in Holland. Bonus infographic: From the invention of the telephone to video interviewing via mobile, the evolution of the job application. P.S. Happy birthday dad!