Category: Twitter

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Google Internet Job Site Jobs Monster Recruitment Recruitment Agency Search Engine SEO SERP Twitter

Google Penguin 2 and the Jobs in Ireland

Did you hear Google released a major update to Penguin 2 on Friday? Matt Cutts (the head of Google’s Webspam team) recently confirmed on his blog that Penguin 2.0 is now live.

So let’s see how did the Google Penguin 2 update affect our Irish online recruitment industry. Here is the search result page for the word “Jobs” made in Google.ie.

Make sure if you do this search yourself that you are not logged in into Google yourself, have removed the Google cookie, etc – so that you do not see the Google’s “Personalised” search result for you.

Here is the new google.ie ranking for the search word “jobs”:

  1. Jobs.ie
  2. IrishJobs.ie
  3. FindAJob.ie
  4. Indeed.ie
  5. RecruitIreland.com
  6. Monster.ie
  7. Fas.ie
  8. Ie.JobRapido.com
  9. JobsToday.ie
  10. Twitter.com/jobs

So what can we conclude from the list of the sites that a are on the first page for the phrase jobs? By comparing what we have used to see there before the Google Penguin 2 update we can see what sites have been affected. Let’s start with the sites not affected by the update:

The SAON Group web sites leading with the purchased Jobs.ie site on top and their original IrishJobs.ie is steadily on top.

Nothing changed there for years. In fact may years. The last change there actually when Jobs.ie overtook IrishJobs.ie. If my memory serves me correctly that was towards the end of 2005. Very shortly after that IrishJobs.ie bought Jobs.ie.

So since 2005 the first two search results for the search for “jobs” have not changed in Ireland. So is Google doing much really with all these Panda, Penguin & Penguin 2 “updates”? Well in the last 7 years the results on top are not changing at all. Or does IrishJobs.ie & Jobs.ie have so good SEO specialists to keep them on top for all these years? It must be one of those.

The next three slots are Findajob.ie (aka LoadzaJobs.ie), Indeed.ie and Monster.ie. So what’s new here? Nothing much really in relation to the Google Penguin 2 update. Long term there isn’t much that has changed in here in the last 10 years really. What has changed is that Loadza has changed its domain name several times. They cannot seem to get it right really. EmployIreland.com that was 4th there is replaced by Indeed.ie about a year or more ago when they came to our market. Monster is the 5th recruitment web site there for the last 10 years.
So in essence the top 5 results for the word “jobs” haven’t changed at all in the last Google Penguin 2 update.

Where the changes that did occur are on the bottom part of the search page. That is the space that in the last 10 years have been occupied mostly by the Irish start-up job boards or similar sites. FAS was always there somewhere. They did rebrand to SOLAS, but forgot to do it online. Hence FAS.ie is still there. Good old civil servants…

So what the Google Penguin 2 update did affect is the last 4 remaining slots the search results page fro the word “jobs”. You can say Google hasn’t changed much really. What we are going to look at is if the Google Penguin 2 update was good actually. Or is it a step back in the quality of the search results?

The bottom of the page of the search results for jobs has been occupied by start-up job boards. It always was a dynamic space. In the last 10 year, about 100 web sites appeared and disappeared from there. I can remember the first Irish Jobs Aggregator IrishJobs.ie featuring there, and a long list of the site showing Irish jobs listings. There was one recruitment agency that made up there – in 2010 when the CPL.ie new web site was released. In this new update, CPL.ie dropped to 128 places, while their other site CPLJobs.com landed on a much better 53rd slot. Is there a hint that CPL.ie got hit by the Google Penguin 2 update? Most likely from the way it is ranking now.

It is still quite strange that no other recruitment agency got listed on the first page for the word “jobs” there ever, isn’t it?

So what did Google Penguin 2 update replaced the Irish start-ups with?

Ie.Jobrapido.com – one job aggregator. Well, it is the only .com web site here. It actually does have jobs aggregated from sites like freelancer.com and similar. Some Irish recruitment agencies as well. The overall quality of the jobs advertised (content) if poor. A large number of jobs are taken down from the sites they are originally published on anyway, and the whole set of jobs is a really poor representation of the list of active jobs in Ireland. In essence a really poor experience for a job seeker.

JobsToday.ie – a UK newspaper publisher. Note that any link you click on that site it brings you to their UK web site (.co.uk). This results-driven by the backlinks from their newspaper releases is so wrong that it actually reminds of the Yahoo style paid search result placements from the end of the last century. It is pointless and out of place. It is no good to a Google visitor. There are simply a handful of jobs listed there on some UK newspaper web site.

Twitter.com/jobs – The page with the HTML Title: Jobs at “Twitter –San Francisco”. San Francisco??? A search result to someone looking for a job in Ireland in Google.ie? Google? Don’t you have a Google Maps division? Or do you want us all to emigrate? What’s the story there? What kind of a (crap) search result is that? Or did the Google Penguin 2 algorithm value a social media sites results “a bit” too much so the results from the social media are going to creep into any search we make?

So to conclude what have the Google Penguin 2 update brought us? It removed Irish start-ups and replaced them with what can be the best described irrelevant search results. In their own vocabulary, they call it SPAM. Luckily for us, this only affects the bottom part of the page. The “under the fold” stuff. The top part of the page wasn’t affected by the latest update.

How did your site ranking feature in the Google Penguin 2 update last week? If you are stuck give the SEO Consultant a shout!

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Blogs Internet LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Recruitment Twitter

What is The Recruitment Unconference?

What is a recruitment conference? We all know the answer to that. It is a large meeting where a number of people (one by one) speak to the group. There are short breaks in between speakers, for the people get a coffee and network.

Who comes to the conference?

Speakers – are people presenting. Salespeople presenting how their solutions, products or services changed the industry for the better.

Delegates – people who sit, listen, take notes and have coffee in the breaks. Delegates are quite often people who are looking for a new job. They look around what else is there. Some attendees are there because they are sent there by their employers. They have to attend one or two of those a year. You can see them leaving quickly after the last presentation, to catch some time off for an afternoon shopping or something alike.

What is Recruitment Unconference?

Recruitment Unconference is a gathering of recruiters with the social media rules applied. There are no speakers. There are no delegates. Just recruiters who can behave as they do in the social media: lead conversations, contribute, listen, move to another room/topic, network or just have a coffee. Yes, there is a coffee here as well!

It is list Facebook or Twitter really. Everyone can talk about anything they want to really. Everyone can listen (follow/connect) whoever they choose. Anyone can comment, contribute and even ‘take over’ the conversation. Anyone can change the topic. Anyone can. And everyone is invited to do exactly that! Everyone is asked to contribute. Everyone’s opinion is asked for in a discussion on every topic he is physically present at.

Now that we know what the Recruitment Unconference is, let’s check on how the most popular one actually functions in the recruitment industry. This brings us to its founder @BillBoorman and his unconference events taking place around the globe. They are called TRU for The Recruitment Unconference. After the three characters, there is a name of the city or country the event is in. So you have TRULondon, TRUDublin and similar. If an event is held multiple times in the same city the name also gets a number Like TruDublin4. This is to form a hashtag for Twiter. Why is Twitter important? Well, the usual ways of communication like email and phone are one to one or one to many (mailing lists). The Unconference is different because everyone is welcomed to contribute. So social media is a place to look for any info (or post any info!) about the recruitment unconference.

Since the recruiters who attend the unconference are (in most cases) the natural users of the social media, they post their thoughts especially on the Twitter, as it is the fastest channel, in real-time during the unconference. They all use the hashtag so it is really simple to follow what anyone is tweeting about. That usually is a reflection on what is spoken about. You can usually follow multiple discussions from the same conference at the same time. What is the best about it is that anyone on Twitter can contribute to those discussions by using the same unconference hashtag. This makes the discussions leave the room and go out to social media. There the discussions get the life of their own.

The format that Bill has made for this TRU events is the following. There is a quick opening. The bigger the conference the quicker it is, since the larger the crowd is the harder it is to keep them quiet. Remember those are not your Delegates. These people are here to participate.

Tracks

Bill usually announces the tracks (topics) that will be discussed in different rooms. He also announces who is the track leader for each topic. That is usually an expert in that field. Or a recruiter who wants to share the recent experience with some new tool used for the recruitment, and ask for feedback. Depending on the size of the unconference there are usually 3 tracks running in parallel. They are held in separate rooms. Anyone can choose any track and even move to another track whenever they choose. Bill himself would for example move quite often from a track to track, hopping from a conversation to another and contributing to each one he hops in. Sometimes he would also bring the relevant points being made in another track that is happening in parallel.

As social media is not for everyone, the recruitment unconference is not for everyone as well. Some people prefer to be delegates rather than to participate. Social is not for everyone. The anti-social or traditional conference is not for everyone as well. People discovered they can apply the social media rules to the conference and that some types of conferences the social conference or the unconference is a much better format. Hence the recruitment unconference TRU that @BillBoorman started 5 years ago in London has spread to a long list of counties on different continents. Recruiters themselves found the unconference format to work better than the speaker-delegate format. Not all of the recruiters that is. But the recruiters that understood the social media and found the way how to use it for recruitment.

The #TRU in the City near YOU!

The recruitment unconference, the #TRU will come to the city near you if it didn’t already. You will not find a flyer in your post with a list of fabulous speakers. There is not even a list of delegates. To be honest not even flashing your own business card is a welcome gesture. Connection on LinkedIn and Facebook or Follow on Twitter is on the other hand. If you are a delegate type, trust me, it’s not for you. Where you will find about #TRU is in the social media channels, and there only. On Bill’s Blog as well. And from there to hashtags on Twitter. While I am writing this the #TruHelsinki is on right now. Guess what it is all on social media in real-time as well. You can follow it here: https://twitter.com/#!/search/?q=%23TruHelsinki&src=hash.

If you like what you see there we will see you soon at #TRU. If not, that’s OK too.

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LinkedIN Search Engine SEO Social Networks Twitter

Top Referrers to www.JobsBlog.ie

Top Referrers to www.JobsBlog.ie:

  1. linkedin.com – 276 Visits
  2. t.co – 82 Visits
  3. google.com – 22 Visits
  4. google.ie – 18 Visits
  5. facebook.com – 15 Visits
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Blogs Internet Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency Search Engine SEO SERP Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Recruitment SEO: How many web sites link to yours?

In the Links are the currency on the web we looked at the total number of links no the web that the Link Count tool from SEOmoz would show for our 20 recruitment agency web sites. But not all the links are equal. The more I think about it, it would be fair to say that no two links are the same. One (smart) way thinking about the links is to count just the web sites that link to your web site. So if there are 2 or 2 million links from some domain to your web site it would still count as one.

If we look at our 29 recruitment agency web sites list and www.JobsBlog.ie between them where is what we get:

URL

Sites Linking
http://www.cpl.ie

568
http://www.hays.ie

294
http://www.morganmckinley.ie

265
http://www.brightwater.ie

127
http://www.jobsblog.ie

126
http://www.hrm.ie

125
http://www.collinsmcnicholas.ie

100
http://www.eolas.ie

100
http://www.careerwise.ie

86
http://www.EdenRecruitment.ie

77
http://www.peoplegroup.ie

70
http://www.frsrecruitment.com

68
http://www.Vantage.ie

65
http://www.icds.ie

55
http://www.Sigmar.ie

51
http://www.3qrecruitment.ie

46
http://www.rftgroup.ie

44
http://www.Stelfox.ie

34
http://www.recruitmentplus.ie

32
http://www.accountancysolutions.ie

26
http://www.Recruiters.ie

19
http://www.MatrixRecruitment.ie

14
http://www.harmonics.ie

14
http://www.hudson.ie

13
http://www.gempool.ie

9
http://www.qedrecruitment.ie

7
http://www.Brompton.ie

5
http://www.placeme.ie

5
http://www.enterprisepeople.ie

5
http://www.solasconsulting.ie

4

The results show that only 5 Irish Recruitment agencies have more web sites linking to them than this blog. If you want your jobs to be seen by as many possible job seekers and as many possible clients (employers) it would be natural to want to bring visitors from as many sites to your site. Therefore having as many web sites linking to your site would help you get more candidates and clients. As simple as that. The above table show how good are you at that particular task. If your site is not on the list, you can get this figure for your site and compare yourself with the competition.

Even more important than this direct traffic of visitors that you get from other sites is the fact that from the perspective of the search engines like Google, your site the more “important” the more web sites link to your site. So the more links you have to your site – the more likely is that Google will display any content on your site above the similar content on any other web site. This is extremely important for the ranking of your jobs. When a similar job is advertised on many job boards and recruitment agency web sites, the site that will get listed on top is very often the one that has the most links from other web sites.

How to get more links to your web site?

Submitting your site to an online directory? – that is the most common answer I get when I do the Recruitment SEO Training. Unfortunately, the answer is always – no. Why not? The practise was abused and Google decides to in most cases ignore it, and in some cases even penalize it.

Just do not buy links. Please. – That is what Google would say, and in my experience, this is the best advice possible in most cases.

Spamming social media with your links. – Will make sure you get ignored, not followed by anyone but bots. Again the time and money the drain.

SO WHAT THEN?

Think about what links do you click at on the web.

You might click on a link in the article you are reading on some site. If you are reading a review on some blog, about the new tool the LinkedIn has launched, and there is a link to that tool within the article – you might click it. Ask yourself how did that article ended up on a publication you are reading? Can you submit your content there? With a link to something new and cool on your web site? If you are thinking of PR submissions at this stage, I can tell you, you are on the wrong track. Think of guest blog posts. Think of the places where different people publish content. You are probably getting where I am going with this… yes the combined name of all such sites is Social Media.

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CV CV Database Internet Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Monster Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Monster CV database vs. LinkedIn free Public Profiles

For the most European recruiters Monster used to perform the best as the CV database. The quality of candidates was on average higher than the average quality of the applicant who would apply on a job site in. Monster advertised this as a ‘Passive Candidate’ as opposed to the ‘Active Candidate’. They claimed that a CV is their database represents professionals that are in a search of their career progression (passive) as opposed to the unemployed person who is simply looking for a job (active).

LinkedIn came into the picture and have let anyone create a free personal ‘Professional Profile’ on their site. In the years to come the LinkedIn recruitment social network web site grew at a fast pace and the inevitable has come true – it’s number of users profiles outgrew the size of the Monsters CV database. Each day passing that difference is growing rapidly. LinkedIn is rapidly expanding while the number of CV’s in the Monster’s CV database in most cases does not grow at all.

Monetisation of the CV database

While Monster still uses the ‘old fashioned’ model in selling access to the CV database and charging per certain number of CV’s downloaded, LinkedIn sells you their packages where your credits are number of internal messages in the LinkedIn web site you can send to the potential contacts. Both approaches have their advantages. With a Monster subscription you actually end up with a few good CV’s. That is if you figure out how to use their CV search and do not waste all your credits in the process. LinkedIn on the other hand lets you see far greater amount of candidates. Again it is all up to you if you will find a way how to interact with them and intrigue them to engage with you via that brief message you can to a few them. More often than not a recruiter ends up with nothing at the end of the LinkedIn subscription. No CV’s added to the internal database or any other longer term value.

So Monster or LinkedIn?

There is no clear answer. There is far more recruiters who are proficient in searching the Monster CV database. For them it is hard to go wrong on Monster. LinkedIn recruitment packages have a far greater failure rate. Quite often a recruiter will after the subscription activation ask – What exactly is the difference between the free and this paid account?

There is a third option there as well. As opposed the investment into Monster or LinkedIn, you can also invest in yourself by getting yourself trained into what is mostly referred to Boolean Sourcing techniques. You can teach yourself by reading various resources online, or get the course that will bring you up to speed within a day! The result is that you have the whole LinkedIn opened in front of you without the limitations their recruitment packages are putting in front of you. If you are into the recruitment for a long haul – that is the best route for sure.

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Internet Interview Jobs Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

How to do Social Recruitment on Networking Events

Social recruitment is not just searching the LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for your perfect candidates. Social (aspect of) recruitment is using those to find people and reach efficiently to most of them via the social media. There are people that you will have to meet, since not all of us are comfortable tweeting and communication with recruiters in public forum. The best way to reach to those candidates are the trade shows and networking events related to them. Dublin Web Summit was a great sample of such an event. Today there is another –with slightly different audience expected. It is the Dublin Beta :: Launch Event. What is it? Here it is from themselves:

About Dublin Beta

Dublin Beta is the newest chapter of Silicon Valley’s largest and longest-running startup mixer, SF Beta. Join us for a stimulating evening of stimulating conversation, classy libations, and live exhibits from ten startups, coming from Dublin’s early-stage startup and technology community.

So who is likely to show up? Entrepreneurs! Will you hire them? No. So why bother?

Not every entrepreneur is successful in running the business and making profit. In fact, a fairly small p-percentage are. Can you find them some challenge in the roles you have open? If you ‘sell’ or ‘package’ your opportunities really well – you will attract the entrepreneurs as well.

So although non corporate heads on their shoulders, the Dublin Beta :: Launch Event is likely to attract the crème de la crème of the Irish IT entrepreneurs. You just need to find the way how to talk to them. In fact the best you can do is to turn it around. How about if they would want to talk to you on the event? How? Why?

Techies tweet. Like mad. The event has a hashtag that you can follow in twitter: #Dublinbeta. The event did not even start and there is a long list of people tweeting how they will come. Find your candidates between them. Follow, retweet and mention whatever is suitable in each case. Search for their LinkedIn profiles. Invite them to connect, and do mention you would like their opinion on something (that is relevant to each of them!). Ask for a few minutes on the event tonight. Make sure they have a lot to say about it. The result – you get a room full of people who can’t wait to talk to you!

Final tip: Make sure your profile photo is recent! If not make one right now and stick it online. The more recent the photo, the easier it is for people to recognize and find you on the crowded event. For best results – our make a photo of on the day of the event – in the same clothes your will appear on the event.

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Career Internet Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment Search Engine Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment

Recruitment training is an on-going hot potato in Ireland. When in early 2006 one of the largest recruitment agencies in the country called me to deliver a training, I was flattered but in the same time shocked. It was true that I knew how to write a job spec so that it appears on top of the job boards. It was true that I knew how to search LinkedIn. I know I am a good trainer. But,… shouldn’t recruiters know all this already?! Why do they call themselves recruiters if they cannot attract or find candidates?

I spoke to a lot of recruiters while traveling and training them around the country, trying to find out what do they do about their training and coaching. Interestingly enough almost all of them told me they have some internal training programme. What was even more interesting no one thought them even the basics about writing for the web, or searching the web to source candidates. The web as such was not a part of the recruitment training in Ireland in 2006! Fast forward to present.

Today I got my certificate: Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment. And I am very proud of it! And I know that everyone who did a one day course with me to get the Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment certificate is valuing theirs as well! Why? We simply learned so much within a day that it was hard to take it all in.

Only a few years after there was NO training for any usage of the web for Irish Recruiters, there is all of a sudden something that is a world class recruitment sourcing training programme? For this to happen the following was needed:

1. Internet, and especially the social part of it – where everyone can publish. Blogs written by enthusiastic experts have change the way we learn.
2. Recession that have shaken up the recruitment industry so much that every recruitment agency or HR employers department had to rethink the way they do their business.
3. And the most important ingredient – a RECRUITER with a passion for recruitment and the web.

There is no better person that I know of that would do it better than Jonathan Campbell. An inspirational speaker, innovative recruiter and a patent trainer.

Do you know how to find all public profiles, see a full profile of every single LinkedIn user, know how to find his/her email address, and the same for blogs Facebook and twitter? You do? Well than the Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment course is not for you.

Do you publish your jobs on job boards and search the CV databases to find candidates? And are happy doing so? Then the Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment is NOT for you as well.

Jonathan’s Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment is for everyone else in between. And I can tell you I know very few recruiters that are in the first group who know it all already. On the other hand I know a lot of recruiters who are job board ONLY oriented. And happy to do so. I do understand that there are niches, and industries where that works well. I also know that there is less and less of those every single day.

If you are short of candidates there is nothing else currently available in Ireland that I would recommend better than Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment course. Why? You WILL learn to find ANY candidate that has left his professional footprint anywhere on the web.

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Career Internet Jobs Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Twitter is Hiring in Ireland!

As announced last week Twitter is setting up in Dublin. The first position is advertised today for the HR Business Partner.

Here is from the job announcement:

“We currently have an opening for an HR business partner. Here at Twitter, the goal of HR is to serve as a consultant across the organisation, to shepherd the core values and to protect the culture.”
“We help to foster relationships of trust, influence and change, when it is needed. Increasingly, we are championing best practice solutions before they are needed. And, very importantly, we provide great service to all of our employees. We spearhead solutions that promote healthy and productive professional lives for everyone at Twitter.”

Most of Irish media started speculation how “big” will Twitters presence be in Ireland? The comparisons and parallels with the recently set up companies have been drawn like the one most quoted from the IDA Ireland spokesman: “Facebook came to Dublin with plans to create 40 jobs and will employ 300 people at the end of this year. Google came here with plans to create 230 jobs and now employs 2,200.
What the IDA Spokesman forgot to mention is the number of staff LinkedIn has in Dublin. It is fairly small office, and there is no need to grow it further much really.

My prediction is that Twitters presence in Ireland will remain VERY small. There is no need for a large staff numbers . Nothing like Google 2,200 people really. Nothing like Facebook 200-something as well actually. Why is that?

Google has a long list of products that it supports and sells from the Dublin office. Do not forget that Google is the largest Advertising company in the world. We all know what Google AdWords is. Facebook is trying to do the same really. If you look at both of their average staff, it is all Account Management and similar sales positions. LinkedIn has ex recruiters selling recruitment packages.
What will Twitter sell you? Do you ever pay to Twitter? No. That is the truth today, and it could change once in the future. Up until then, Twitter doesn’t need the army of sales people as Google and other selling advertisements do. Twitter does not sell. Twitter does not support you much either, since you are not a paying customer. Twitter just show you that image of a whale being carried out by birds when the site goes down.

Or am I missing something?

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Career Internet Jobs Recruitment Search Engine Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

#truLondon

#truLondon is tomorrow. Jet another recruitment conference in the already full calendar of similar events. Or at least events that would fall under the same category. Only this one is not a conference but as the organiser himself call it, this is an: Unconference. Interesting marketing spiel you would say, and then realise how wrong have you been after attending it.

For any conference, there will be fantastic speakers and those that are less relevant to what you are interested in. The conference format forces you to sit at your table for the full duration of it, and hopefully survive to the end to get to that valuable networking time. I know it myself, talking to a group of 100 recruiters about the aspects of the social internet sourcing, a large portion of them are asleep. They are here for the next or previous speaker. Their candidates are not on social networks (or at least they strongly believe so!). Here is where the unconference style gets interesting. There are always a number of topics covered by different speakers. You choose the one you like best, and even if you find a presenter boring – you can easily walk out and join something else going on in the same time. Sometimes even whole groups if they finish earlier – just ‘walk out’ and go and join another topic. What is even more important the setting is always organised so that there is no presenting of a speakers (OK, Bill does blow a whistle sometimes!) there is no podium, but kind of like Musical Chairs setting where people just sit around and one expert starts and leads the discussion on a chosen pre-set topic. Having no stand and podium the emphasis is on discussion. All in the group are invited to contribute. A good track leader will invite everyone in the group to contribute, and allocate time for everyone to have time to do so. The format is usually like: Here is a something that I have done in the recruitment that helped me a lot. Can this help you recruit in your industry or geography or niche? Interestingly enough the ones who are track leaders, actually learn the most. They hear all kind of feedback, and ideas of different possible applications of what they spoke about. Now tell me, how much have you learned as a speaker on a classical conference where you talk for 45 and have 10 minutes Q&A session?

But Bill did not stop there. Besides organising the best possible recruitment conference Bill makes sure that no one goes home for dinner. You simply get a continuous session pretty much until you can stand on your feet (or sit on anything) that day/night. There is no corporate policy that applies to you after hours, so a true brainstorming sessions just kick inspired by combinations of all the official talks during the day. And tomorrow you do it all over again. Two full days (you can forget 9 – 5 PM schedule), of top notch recruitment futurology.

To make things worse tomorrow we will also have to dance on the #Ride event in the City Hotel.

I am 100% confident I will hear about and see things I didn’t even know exist. I just learned reading in advance about something called Google+ Hangouts that Oscar Mager is going to talk about tomorrow. I do not know where have I been hanging out lately, but I honestly haven’t heard of the Hangouts thingy before. It sounds a bit like Facebook party, but with video element as well (oops, have to get a haircut today!) Oscar is already talking about the application of in in the recruitment. Bill said here that what is discussed on the #tru events becomes practice in recruitment some 3 to 6 months later. Not all of course – but very little have emerged in recruitment that wasn’t discussed months ago on the #tru events in this year.

Glen Cathey wrote an extensive review on the last years #truLondon on his blog. Here is one sentence where sums it all up:

I found TRU London 3 to be a fantastic experience and a welcome (and needed!) deviation from the traditional conference. I was exposed to more content and more engaged discussion than I have ever experienced at a recruiting conference of any kind.

I had a chance to participate on #truDublin and #truLeeds unconferences this year, and am really looking forward for the #truLondon tomorrow.

SEO for Recruiters

I am leading a track on SEO for Recruiters tomorrow afternoon – and want to thank you all who have sent the questions up front today. I also want to thank for all the feedback on the last SEO for Recruiters session I lead in #truLeeds. I am thinking on doing the #GoogleDance in London again tomorrow…

Twitter for Recruitment

There will most likely be another ‘secret’ track (you heard it here first) about nice sourcing on twitter. Ask about it tomorrow since it is not really announced (not much!).

So that is in short what is about to happen over the next days on the #truLondon conference. 190 names confirmed so far, and a long list of great topics and speakers. Well done on preparing it for us Bill! It is on us know to make it a success!

Categories
Career Recruitment Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Ivan Stojanovic @IrishRecruiter International Recruitment Conference Dublin 2011

Ivan Stojanovic @IrishRecruiter International Recruitment Conference Dublin 2011

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Blogs Career CV Internet Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment Search Engine Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Facebook or Print ads?

Ivan Andrija Stojanovic, Head of Online, CPL Osijek CroatiaWill you advertise on Facebook or in the traditional proven media like newspapers or radio?

I was talking to some postgraduate business and IT students (Overeducated and under experienced for Jobs of tomorrow) and asked them who has the Facebook account. I wanted to show how deep the Facebook penetration actually is. I got more hands up than that I could count. So I reversed the question – and asked who doesn’t have or didn’t use his Facebook account in the last week. I have 3 hands up. In the group of 80 people.

I asked them if they bought papers (any papers) in the last 7 days. Two bought local classified advertising paper looking for flats to rent. One bought photo magazine and one other bout a gardening magazine. Same 80 people.

All are postgraduate students, and all are looking at the job market. All are exactly those you will want to target with your jobs advertisements. So where will you advertise?

To look into it even further – the question is how will you actually advertise there. Facebook and LinkedIN will gladly take your money. Since those are ‘Cash Hungry’ businesses. Twitter and most other social networks do not provide a facility where you can just bluntly dump your advertising budget. It is a known fact that the proper ‘usage’ of a social networking site will give you far better results that advertising on the same site. Painfully small is a list of jobs filled from the advertisements on Facebook or LinkedIN. The way one sources the candies from the Social Networking sites is by constant branding, inbound marketing, networking – all the opposites from classical advertising.

Facebook seems like the best place to invest 90% of your recruitment marketing budget from todays perspective. Tomorrow? Ahh… it will probably change again… Just remember, it will never be the same as it once was, and the wheel will never start turning back. Where you will invest next year, is most likely into something that does not even exist today.

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Blogs Career Internet LinkedIN Recruitment Social Recruitment Twitter

Personal Branding and Digital Footprint

Creating your personal and or company brand is a delicate act on the social networking sites. You really need to be genuine, positive, honest, and stand behind anything you say. And that is something in the contradiction with the main task – being Active. What do you say on a web 2.0 sites – if you have nothing to say that day? You know you need to be active and communicate with others. The long term success of that contribution you make to the social networking – depends on the Quality of your contribution. If you have nothing to say – say nothing.

Quality of your online content
It took me a lot of time to learn that. After some time (and numerous mistakes!) I have realised that it is sometimes worth far more to post once a week on a blog than once a day! The quality of the content is actually far more worth than the quantity. If it takes a week to write a good article, do not rush it. Do not force yourself to publish when you do not have something of a value for your audience.

Digital Footprint
All you say (write) on the Web 2.0 sites will stay there, and will work for or against you in the future. It will always be easy to put your name or your company name in Google and check what you are all about. Your name associated with something you are not proud while publishing it – will most likely hurt you at some stage in the future. Carefully choose what photos you publish, and how you represent yourself on the web. Your digital footprint is there to stay!

Release your Marketing Message
The social networking sites like LinkedIN, Twitter and Facebook and blogs let you publish your ideas, thoughts and opinions. Define who you are and what you are. Then define who your target market and the audience are. List the topics you know about and they want to hear about. Bring your original marketing message in the mix. Do not push it on your audience. Leave it there for them to take it.

Let Go of your Marketing Message
This is what worries most of us. Corporations are shivering with just the idea of it! What do you mean by letting go of our (so far always tightly controlled) marketing message?

In the Social Web, the users will take your messages and give their spin on it. Here you are getting crowd generated picture of your brand. Your only made the initial input and slightly steering and maintaining it later on. Your audience – the crowd will decide if they like your message, and will contribute to it.

Candidate Digital Personal Branding
Your CV is great tool to open the doors. But it gives you what you want to say about yourself. This is why recruiters ask for references. To check up and make sure all you wrote is true, and that there isn’t something important missing.

In the Digital world of the Blogs and Social Networks – it is all about the public opinions being formed around yourself. It is about the number of people you are connected, about the ‘qualities’ of this connections. It is about the quality of your contribution to the public communication. It is about the response from the crowd on your social communication contribution. Does the crowd like you? Do they value your professional opinions?

How do you measure your Digital Branding success?
When the people you do not know, not your co workers, not friends or family, simple people who find you online – publicly show respect to your work and you – you must be doing a lot of good! It doesn’t happen overnight! You will need to invest a lot in creating a digital brand. Regardless if that is yourself or your company brand. It takes time.

The Social Web is changing. Remember MySpace? Remember Bebo? Both are gone. Have you started with Google Wave, or did you decided that you will be left behind? Social media tools are changing. You need to change your skills to be able to follow the change. Your message although always the same in its essence will have to be adapted for every new web publishing and collaboration tool that comes around.

Conclusion and a Real Life Personal Branding Example
Related to the recent article about the Internet traffic on Job Sites, I asked the LinkedIN Users for their input via the LinkedIN discussion: Irish jobs sites traffic comparison chart. Here is just a short few sentences I got as a reply:

Thanks Ivan and admire your humble approach. I suspect this combined with your vast knowledge and being a genuine nice person is how you have gained my respect and trust of so many others also. You have not become one of the market leaders for no reason…

…Hope to catch up with you again at the Christmas drinks.

Would like to hear how other niche and generalist job boards are doing, if you’d like to share….

MD of one of the Irish Jobs Site

When you start getting positive comments like this from the ‘crowd’ – people you are not associated to in any way, they start forming a Digital Image of your brand. Competitors recognition as in this case is of the utmost importance – that was the reason I have chosen this comment in front of all the others. It is a bit like the eBay and the recommendations it introduced smartly in ecommerce. People trust brands that are positively spoken about online.

What will you do today to create a Digital Image of yourself that you desire?

Categories
Internet Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Irish Recruiters on Twitter

Irish Recruiters on Twitter

Are you a recruiter in Ireland?

Are you using Twitter?

Do you want more exposure for your tweets?

Do you want more Twitter followers?

Send me your twitter name – just or mention @IrishRecruiter on twitter.

Here is the up to date Irish Recruiters list on Twitter.

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Internet LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Social Networks – a threat to the Recruitment Agencies?

Social Networks are here! Recruitment and sourcing in particular is changing. Job Boards that the recruitment agencies have been relying for as their main source of candidates are getting smaller role to play today. The future for the job boards is not extremely bright either. Their dominance is being replaced by the social networks. There are more and better candidates using social networks than job boards. Recruiters had to follow the trend – moving their business of the job boards – to the social networks.

Job boards will not really die tomorrow. Job boards will still have their place in the online recruitment world. Most of them in a bit different shape or form. They will serve as repository for active jobs, and feed their data to the web sites with the high ant targeted traffic (do you recognise the description of a social network here?).

A lot of the recruiters are not extremely happy with the way that social networking sites are changing the recruitment. They feel the threatened. Why? They feel that they will be bypassed since employers will be able to source and recruit directly on the social networking web sites. Those recruiters go that far that they themselves do not use the social networks, trying to stop the wheel of change.

The change is here. And more of it is coming. Embrace it. Don’t fight it. Resistance is futile.

Online recruitment as well as any online business are changing. Changing constantly and rapidly (Microsoft: At the Speed of Light). Adoption spread and growth of the Internet fuel the acceleration of the change of Internet itself. Market penetration phase is shortening, and the market reach is growing.

Social networks are NOT the end of the recruitment agencies.

Internet brought the quick and cheap advertising to the recruiters 15 years ago in a form of job boards. Employers used them as well as recruitment agents. Both successfully. Both competed for the same candidate. Social networks are no different. Both direct employers and recruitment consultants will use them. If used right, social networks will be (are today!) extremely beneficial in the recruitment process. Does this mean the end of the tunnel for the recruitment agencies? Absolutely not! Recruitment agents have their place in the recruitment process, and will always have it as long as they add value. The tools they use will always the be the tools that are on the disposal of the employers as well. Social networks today, and whatever comes along tomorrow.

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Internet Interview Job Site Recruitment Search Engine SEO Social Recruitment Twitter

Bill Fischer, Co-Founder of TwitterJobSearch.com

bill fischerBill Fischer is having a speech in Dublin on the Microsoft’s Future of Recruitment conference later this week. His company in Bill’s own words: TwitterJobSearch.com, is a global search engine for Twitter that uses natural language processing to identify and index offers of employment.

I asked Bill what will he be talking about in the recruitment conference in Dublin. Here is from Bill in his own words:

Bill Fischer: Hi Ivan, Yes, I’ll be discussing some of the challenges and opportunities that the real-time web brings to the recruitment space. There will be some analysis of the current social media landscape, some thoughts on search/cpc approaches to recruitment, and an introduction of some of our new products that sit in the social media/search space.

Bill is the expert in the field, and his latest Twitter Job Search gig raised a lot of dust in the online recruitment world. In the Ireland lagging in Social Media adoption article only a few days ago, I wrote about the Twitter Job Search penetration in Ireland. It will be interesting to see how will Bill’s presentation affect the number of jobs in Ireland in the Twitter Job Search and in the social media in general.

About Bill Fischer
Co-Founder and Director of Workdigital Ltd, the vertical search solutions development company that built workhound.co.uk and twitterjobsearch.com. Co-Founder of DVD Station, Inc., a world-class media/entertainment internet retail systems company. Former VP of marketing for a massively multiplayer online gaming company with over 2.4mm customers in 50+ companies, and builder of marketing systems for a user generated content site acquired by Electronic Arts. Previous marketing and general management experience at more.com, threerings.net and Ebates.com. A frequent speaker, interviewee, and panelist for entertainment trade and classified search and was acknowledged in the editor-in-chief of Wired’s book, The Long Tail, as an expert on collaborative filtering and internet search engines. Twitter: @williamfischer LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wmfischer