The following series of articles I will write about the long list of changes LinkedIn have brought in lately, and how does it all reflect the recruitment process in Ireland. The main topics are:
• Free Job Advertising by LinkedIn
• Paid Job Seeker Account on LinkedIn
• Why Would I Pay LinkedIn?
• LinkedIn Future – Advertising Platform
If there is any topic in relation to LinkedIn you think I missed – please let me know in the comments from below, and I will do my best to include it.
I have spent most of the last week with Facebook and Google in their fancy Dublin offices. One word I have been hearing over and over: Maximize. They used the word Maximize in every second sentence. It is absolutely unbelievable on how many places you can put that word and almost not lose the meaning of what you are talking about. It reminded me of the Supersize Me a bit, and sometimes I just had to apologize because I started laughing laud (lol).
If you think about the top companies that are ‘in’ lately, we are talking about the (Google) search engine turned into the advertising platform. Social Networking Web Site (Facebook) turning into the advertising platform. Computer company (Apple) turning into mobile phone (iPhone) company turning into the advertising platform (App Store).
The common denominator is the Advertising Platform. Hence the more time you can say Maximize in describing your products and services the better chance of success in the modern economy.
So how can LinkedIn Maximize?
Maximize your Employer Branding – Company Page on LinkedIn
Maximize yourself as a job seeker – Paid Job Seeker Account
Somehow I do not think it is enough. LinkedIn will have to think of more places and times they can put the medical word Maximize in their lingo. To thrive they need to become an advertising platform of some sort. There is no other way up the food chain.
The service I would gladly pay LinkedIn to do for my today is to do the sourcing for myself. What they did is they have created this wonderful social network, and it is super easy to use, and has so many job hunters on their database. I can use it for free, or I can pay to use advanced features. LinkedIn is really easy to use, and a great product in a whole.
But guess what – I am a busy recruiter. I have no time to spend on web sites. I have my clients and candidates I need to put together to fill roles. So since you have all those nice sourcing tools, and large database, why don’t you do the sourcing for me and I will give you a cut of my placement fee? That is something I would pay LinkedIn to do for me today.
Unfortunately LinkedIn is not jet on that stage of a development as a company. They still think – we are the internet company, we have a web site and charge the usage of it. Just compare it with Google for example. Google was exactly like that years ago. There was just a form to place your credit card details and pay for your Google AdWords ads. All you had to do yourself on the Google site. Today – you tell them what your business needs are, and Google does it all for you. They charge you of course for all that, but they are higher in the food chain now. They work closely with the customer. They look after you. They give you what you need. If you look at the titles of numerous opening Facebook has in Dublin – they are doing exactly the same. Hundreds of Account managers will be available to you.
And where is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is still a few years behind in their business model. They still think they can ask for your credit card without talking to you. They still think they are there to provide tools as opposed an overall service – and just do your sourcing for you.
Dara O’Briain defined how wrong one can be in the eyes of the Irish low as:
1. there is all this stuff which comes under: That’s grand
2. then it moves into: Ah now don’t push it
3. … and finally it comes under: Right now you’re takin the piss, and that’s when the police come in.
LinkedIn is also placing the job seekers in three categories and offering a product for each. If you are looking for a job you should pay different fee based on how desperately you feel:
1. Basic Job Seeker
2. Job Seeker
3. Job Seeker Plus
What those get you is that you: Get noticed by recruiters with a Job Seeker Badge. And you can send some from 0 to 10 LinkedIn messages called inMails to other LinkedIn members.
Large numbers of us Irish feel a bit strange with this public display of interest in another job that you present with your profile on LinkedIn. In the US, people are in fact far more honest on the labor market. The size makes a difference, and Americans are far more mobile within the country. The way we are is we are looking for a job close to where we live. A Cork-man will hardly even contemplate to move to Limerick just because there is a better job there. Americans would move thousands of miles away easily for a better opportunity. So when social media comes into play where you publicly state your intentions (and what you feel about your current employer), we have a problem here. Everyone knows everyone, and have a cousin that knows someone, etc. So the job seekers accounts in Ireland can actually be looked in Dara’s classification as well. This time it is a classification of a job seeker – how badly do you want a (new) job? LinkedIn accounts here should be renamed as:
1. Basic Account (just paying and faking I am not looking!) – I am grand.
2. Job Seeker (coming out aren’t we?) – Don’t push it!
3. Plus- Right now you’re takin the piss, and that’s when the HR come in!
Well, we all know that job advertising on LinkedIn is for most of us, far from free. With a lack of a volume discount that is the industry standard in within job board, LinkedIn actually priced themselves far too high. For that reason, the number of job advertisements sold in Europe was always really symbolic. It was always just a handful US multinationals with jobs in Ireland advertised.
LinkedIn decided to give away free job advertisement to recruiters. They know the ‘First Time Free, Pay Later’ model only too well. Remember, for a number of years, LinkedIn was 100% free to anyone. Only in the last couple years they brought in the paid LinkedIn Recruiter product, than all the different paid types of the accounts as well. The move I personally really never liked – the paid account to the job hunters is now available on LinkedIn. I just never liked asking unemployed for cash, to help them find a job. Regardless if you call it unethical, or just super greedy, in my books it is just bad.
So how will the free job advertising on LinkedIn change the recruiters life?
If you did not get your free LinkedIn job advertising slot – ask for it. There is plenty of Irish LinkedIn staff fairly active on LinkedIn itself, so get connected, and ask for free slots.
When you publish your jobs on LinkedIn, and I will cover that topic later on it this LinkedIn series – How to publish a Job on LinkedIn? You will notice that only a certain jobs in Ireland can be filled via the LinkedIn. Do some research before – since publishing a wrong type of a job on LinkedIn is exactly the same as publishing a CEO job on Jobs.ie (a.k.a Nixers.ie).
But the real problem will actually happen if you do manage to hire via paid job advertisement on LinkedIn. You will want to advertise again – and the far too high advertising price by LinkedIn will stop you.
The only way for recruiters ‘Friendship’ with LinkedIn going forward is if LinkedIn gets a bit smarter and creates a super low cost entry level Recruiter package. To get recruiters used to pay a small nominal fee and upsell from there. The current jump from Free to Paid product for the recruiters is too high for LinkedIn’s product to be considered as a ‘Freemium’ offering.
Would you pay LinkedIn in the PPC model (clicks on your ads to jobs)? YES!
Would you pay LinkedIn in the PPA model (per CV received)? YES!
Aren’t those the super low cost, and tight budget control products? Didn’t that exactly built Google into the largest advertising agency (and platform) in the world in the shortest timeframe possible?
So here is an open letter:
Deal LinkedIn,
Stop taking money from job hunters, and get to business. Just implement the appropriate business model used by all eh market leaders in online advertising –Google and fast growing Facebook. We will all be far more interested to be placed in the control seat, and monitor our budgets in some PPC or PPA model than purchasing an unknown value – Job Slot Advertisement. Your current model is a showstopper. PPC model will be embraced instantly by far larger number of potential customers (recruiters and employers), so instant cash flow, and in the end will also bring in far higher revenue than your job slot or job credit advertising model.
Yours truly,
Irish Recruiter
irishrecruiter@gmail.com
Small note on the article of this article
To write successfully for the web you have to put something extremely catchy in the title. Most likely something that is not really ehm,… true. You need to make sure your title is so intriguing people will click on it to follow the link and land on your article. Hence the title of this article is:
Free Job Advertising by LinkedInAs opposed to what the article is really about:
LinkedIn Have sent a number of free job slot advertisements to a few recruiters in Ireland.
You are far likely to click on something like free job ads by a leading global recruitment social network – especially if you are a recruiter – which this article is for!
The social media is leaving scars on the traditional advertising models. How your brand is represented on Facebook is far more important than the article in Irish Times. Why? Simply because of it far greater reach. Far more people read Facebook than Irish Times. Far, far more, and the gap is getting bigger each day.
In recruitment the social media is finding it’s place, and Irish Jobs Sites feel it on their skin. A dozen of small job boards simply vanished during the last year. The big national ones are in the panic mode. Here is the sample from Irish Jobs, how they are reacting to the recruiters and candidates embracing he social media sites, and just leaving their IrishJobs.ie web site. They publish a survey that shows people spend tons of time on Facebook, and less on LinkedIn and Twitter. But they take a protectionist view to try to save their (extincting) industry. So they say that the social media sites, with Facebok leading the game actually costs Irish industry – since people hang out on Facebook as opposed to work. Here is their story:
Findings from IrishJobs.ie’s social networking at work survey
Ninety per cent of all respondents said they used Facebook in general, while 39pc visit YouTube and 15pc use Twitter.
The survey found that workers were against the idea of banning these sites at work. Some 77pc were in favour of some sort of access to them during working hours.
More than half of the respondents felt they are just as productive as ever and 7pc feel that social networking sites make them more productive.
The 7pc claim that short breaks to check these sites help them concentrate better when they returned to work.
Five per cent of respondents claimed they were less productive, as they were constantly distracted.
It was also revealed that large companies were more inclined to have a social networking usage policy during work hours, with 58pc of those within these companies confirming it.
Usage among employees in these companies was lower, with 43pc logging onto social networking during work hours.
Some 27pc of SME employees said their workplace has a social networking policy and as a result, 55pc of employees admitted to using these services at work.
What this press release is supposed to achieve is a knee jerk reaction from the directors and business owners – to shut down access to Facebok (please correct me if I am wrong here)! It is the same surfers that Irish Jobs have lost over the last years, that went to Facebook. Facebook is more fun than boring jobs sites. And Irish Jobs and the likes are losing visitors, losing advertisers, and the revenue. Their business model is actually quite ‘Last Century’ really. And with no future. And it is a hard fact to swallow! Hence the scare tactics here by the Irish Jobs marketing gurus.
It is funny to watch the traffic on a job site – when you remove the jobs from it!
This is a short history of the Jobs Site for Dublin Airports new Terminal 2. The site goes live with the Boom announcement on TV (11,461 visitors immediately). The next day all the national media covers the story (12,288 people on the site). Weekend – the site ‘quiets down’ with about 2,500 people a day. Next week, about 5,000 every day steadily. That all went well. Actually too well – the recruiters are simply overwhelmed by the volume of CVs (here is a Irish Jobs Site PR). So what to do next?
Remove the jobs from the Jobs site! :)
But the traditional media and by then the social media as well has done its duty. The Site is still hot! There are still a few thousand people on the site every day, so watch the change in their behaviour now – when the site has no jobs any more:
Web Site Pageviews
Drastic drop since there are no jobs to apply on a jobs site!
Pages per Visit
With no job on, there isn’t much to see on a jobs site, isn’t it?
And now my two personal gems….
Bounce Rate
BTW that figure shows the percentage of the people who come to your site, and click on no link on your site but just leave.
Well jobs site with no jobs,… ehm,… Highest bounce rate possible?
Average time spent on the site
I mean really guys? No jobs? On a jobs site?
So the job hunters answer to the Jobs Site with no jobs is: We will leave, and we will leave immediately!
Cpl PMO Solutions are pleased to announce a Recruitment Open Day for IT Business Analyst’s. Cpl as largest IT Recruiter have unrivalled access to Ireland’s top companies in the Multinational, IT, Finance, Telcomms sectors and across the economy as a whole. With this coverage our specialist recruiters deal with the hiring managers for IT Business Analysts in every sector and are interested in meeting Business Analyst’s coming from a functional or technical background at all levels for current and upcoming opportunities (contract and permanent) with our clients.
If interested in attending please call in to Cpl’s offices in 83 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 between 12noon and 7pm on Thursday Feb 11th or contact liam.walsh@cpl.ie or Ph: 01 6146135 / roisin.kenny@cpl.ie or Ph: 01 6146073 for more info.
I had a chance to talk to Derek O’Neill about his new recruitment web site launched recently TxtAJob.ie. It is a first Irish site to offer a free jobs advertising to employers, and charges job hunters for receiving the job advertisements via the SMS messages. Here is what Derek has to say:
1. TxtaJob.ie is a first mobile recruitment application in Ireland. The BETA was released a few months ago. How is Ireland embracing it? Is Ireland ready for Mobile Recruitment?
Job seekers and employers alike seem to be embracing the idea without question. This is evident in the 1800 job postings to date, with about 1200 active at the moment. Hundreds of job seekers have signed up before we have even started advertising. We are certain that Ireland is ready for mobile recruitment, especially given where mobile technology is. With WiFi access and large screens the new norm for mobile phones, we are perched to be the first to grab the recruitment market via a mobile platform.
2. The benefits from Employers are obvious – your service is free! What is the take-up like and what are the general trends?
In short it has been fantastic! It has exceeded our expectations by a mile really. What is even more important is that the subscription rate is actually accelerating. We get the same amount of job hunters subscribed in a day now, that it took us a week to get when we started.
3. Jobseekers get the unique service from txtAjob.ie. You simply subscribe and get your offers on your mobile. What was the initial feedback during the BETA period?
We took on board literally tons of constructive feedback and suggestions. The category listing is perhaps the best example – where the job hunters and the employers actually defined it for us in those first few months. The service we provide now is already miles better that what we could achieve on the first day when we launched.
4. How does the competition react? In fact are the traditional Irish jobs sites a competition at all? Is there any competition?
The competition has yet to say anything about us, that we know of! Although we are providing a different kind of way to search for employment and our service is free to employers, our competition is still the likes of IrishJobs.ie, Jobs.ie, and your regular job boards such as Gumtree.ie. We are however providing something unique to the Job Seeker, while providing a more organised, cost effective medium for the employers. We are job seeking on the go, getting the information to the candidates for the employer as soon as the job is available.
5. How do you see the economy in Ireland today? Are there sectors clearly out or still deeply affected by the recession?
We feel positive about the economy and like to believe things are on the upswing. We have noticed a bit of a downward trend of using recruitment agencies, while companies are searching direct. In saying that, the recruitment agencies we have contacted seem as busy as ever. We have noticed lack of jobs in the Banking, Tourism & Travel and aviation industries. There is plenty of work in Web development & design, driving, cleaning, and general trades. Then again maybe its just the companies and recruiters we have yet to speak to, only time will tell!
6. What sectors of the industry do you serve the best so far? What sector embraced the new technology and the business model fastest? What sectors are lagging behind?
It is hard to say, it is still early days. We haven’t seen any specific sector pick it up faster than another. All employers are keen to get free advertising of their job postings for free via the website. While professional work is being put up through the website, general work (a days painting or plumbing) is being posted mainly via our quick texting system by texting the word Ad + Job description (160 characters) to 51000 (standard text rates).
7. What’s next for txtAjob.ie?
The launch of our own mobile phone application with 92% mobile phone compatibility across Ireland is what certainly excites us the most. While we are not the market leader in job advertisements, we are the first and only business to provide the service on a mobile platform. We believe mobile phones and all of their technology is the way of the future, and we are successfully leading the recruitment industry in Ireland that way. We want to make sure that if there is a job in Ireland, we send it to the interested job seekers mobiles instantly. Our mobile application will make it easier than ever to receive and apply for relevant jobs instantly without having to use a computer. You will even be able to type a quick cover letter and send your CV which is uploaded to the system when you register.
Personal branding is certainly the next step for us, look out for our radio ads on FM104 and Newstalk.
How to handle the SEO jobs?
Irish companies are still not 100% sure if to have the SEO outsourced to the specialist SEO Company, or to hire SEO staff directly, and have them work onsite. The constant barrage from the SPAM email offers from mostly Far East SEO companies and their low pricing and the high contract rates of the local Irish SEO companies and professionals mate things even worse! To outsource to an unknown company on the other side of the world, or to hire a local provider – who will in most cases charge you twice more?
The reason it is so hard to hire a SEO staff or engage a SEO company is that there is relatively little understanding on what SEO really is. It is not uncommon to hear the completely opposite opinions and definitions on what the SEO is. Some people bring in the pay per click (PPC) in it, some talk about on site and off site SEO, some talk about link building (now, how do you build a link?). The social media, made things even more complex lately.
So how do you hire someone not knowing nothing neither on what the task on hand is, nor the results that are to be achieved? You are quite likely to fail. If you stick to it, you are quite likely to fail a few times as well.
The same is true if you hire internally or a external SEO vendor.
Do it yourself SEO jobs are the natural result of this situation. You either try to do it yourself if you are a small company, or you ask the existing staff you have to learn and do the SEO tasks for you. That is even more often a recipe for the disaster. You are asking of your staff to do a SEO job that they have not been trained for and have no experience in it. Jet somehow you expect them to succeed?
Hiring for SEO jobs is tough!
The best peace of the advice is to get a the best SEO professional you can get – to help you and do the job interviews for you. Regardless if you are hiring an external SEO company, or a onsite SEO vendor, or the person to do SEO inhouse on your payroll. You are far likely to get the right one to do your SEO jobs than trying to asses the candidates yourself (presuming you are not a SEO specialist yourself!).
According to the Monster Jobs Site, the most used interview question is:
Are you ready to answer the Tell me about yourself question? If not, you should prepare the answer for that most common interview question.
Here is the advice from Monster Jobs Site:
Tell me about yourself – This is usually the opening question and, as first impressions are key, one of the most important. Keep your answer to under five minutes, beginning with an overview of your highest qualification then running through the jobs you’ve held so far in your career. You can follow the same structure of your CV, giving examples of achievements and the skills you’ve picked up along the way. Don’t go into too much detail – your interviewer will probably take notes and ask for you to expand on any areas where they’d like more information. If you’re interviewing for your first job since leaving education, focus on the areas of your studies you most enjoyed and how that has led to you wanting this particular role.
Be aware that if this is a first question it sets the tone for the whole interview. With a well prepared and planned answer you can steer where you want the rest of the interview to go to. Get your answer ready for the Tell me about yourself – today!
Be careful what you wish for!
I want a new job web site (iwantanewjob.ie) is still in Beta phase, but it does look like a job site already. The prominent placement of the job search facility on the home page is good.
Job advertising is free until the end of January 2010. The pricing is low, and the site is already hosting numerous banners trying to monetize the traffic. With the Alexa traffic ranking of 6,590,136 (This site JobsBlog.ie is on 718,509 today), meaning there is 6.5 million web sites with more traffic; it will be hard to monetize the traffic.
With the December coming, and we all know what December online job search figures are (although this recession might turn things up side down!) Iwantanewjob.ie is not likely to attract any significant traffic this year. But that was probably the plan anyway, to take some time to get the jobs up there first.
Well all the best wishes to ‘I Want a New job’ jobs site. Perhaps there should also be a site called: ‘I Want My Old Job Back’.
There is more than a ten of Irish jobs sites that advertise themselves as free Irish jobs sites. Advertising the jobs is free. Some of them would then try to charge if a recruiter or employer tries to engage with the job candidate, and most of them would just send the job applications and CVs for free to the employers as well.
There are a number of business models here – where if an employer wants’ a extra exposure on the front page, he can pay for that. Or banner advertisement are available, or in most case Google AdSense is there on the site to monetise the web site traffic.
Job Aggregators would even go a step further, where not only that the job publishing is free, but they will also take the jobs directly from your job site for you.
Then there is a few dozen Irish jobs sites that are not really advertising that the job advertising is free, but if you ask nicely, you can get your jobs advertised on them for free with no problem. Those are usually smaller and niche web sites that cannot attract enough web site traffic to be able to charge for it. They usually start with a Free Trial for job advertising for all the employers and recruiters. Then they hope the jobs advertised will build the required amount of job seekers on visiting the site that the job board owners will be able to sell that traffic later on. When that does not happen, and it doesn’t in most cases, the pay per click advertising is usually brought on in the form of Google AdWords to try to keep the job hunters visiting the jobs site. When the budget for that is gone – the job site usually turns silently in the free job board – with some sort of monetising the web site traffic like Google AdSense.
The majority of the Irish Jobs sites end up in this category of free jobs sites – simply because they cannot attract enough job hunters to be attractive enough to the job hunters.
How to find where to advertise your jobs for free?
Search for jobs in Google. When you see a web site with no physical address and just a form to fill to contact them, or a mobile phone – you just found a free jobs site. The exception might be only the site owner is still finding it hard to realise that his jobs site is not really head on with the top Irish jobs sites (as he hoped for) but silently become a free Irish Jobs site.
Niche Jobs Sites
To have a good niche job site in Ireland you need a good domain name. Most are gone, simply since Jobs.ie, or Saon group bought them. Here is just a list of some of the domains pointing to the jobs from Jobs.ie – some redirected domains, some showing some niche jobs sites.
labourjobs.ie, callcenterjobs.ie, languagejobs.ie, dentaljobs.ie, chefjobs.ie, nixers.info insurancejobs.ie, nxrs.com, job.ie, okrecruit.com, holidayjobs.ie, nixers.com, munsterjobs.ie, mysalesjobs.ie, architectjobs.ie, graduatejobs.ie, nixer.com, jobs.no, beautyjobs.ie, wages.ie, jobsinkerry.ie, lawjobs.ie, teachingjobs.ie, motorjobs.ie, employment.ie, jobsni.ie, callcenterjobs.ie, securityjobs.ie, salonjobs.ie, nixer.com, cooljobs.ie, irishconstructionjobs.ie, managementjobs.ie, nixers.com, alljobs.ie, jobsingalway.ie, retailjobs.ie, leinsterjobs.ie, airportjobs.ie, ulsterjobs.ie, infojobs.ie, legaljobs.ie, traveljobs.ie, bankingjobs.ie, australiajobs.ie, jobs.ie, drivingjobs.ie, propertyjobs.ie, itjobs.ie, fitnessjobs.ie, hairdressingjobs.ie, hrjobs.ie, jobs.ie, myconstructionjobs.ie, salary.ie, jobsinwexford.ie, nixers.ie, driverjobs.ie, wages.ie, connaughtjobs.ie, legaljobs.ie, nixers.ie, callcentrejobs.ie, creditjobs.ie, educationjobs.ie, pubjobs.ie, irishpubjobs.com, jobsinlimerick.ie, nixer.ie, cafejobs.ie, salary.ie, jobsinkilkenny.ie, mediajobs.ie, cadjobs.ie, teachingjobs.ie, auditjobs.ie, retailjobs.ie, secretaryjobs.ie, quantitysurveyingjobs.ie, tempingjobs.ie, jobsincork.ie, fitnessjobs.ie, irishpubjobs.com, nxrs.com, okrecruit.com
So, not that many domains available any more for a niche jobs sites. Jobs.ie really got a long list of good ones.
Sorry you are too late! Or are there some hidden gems out there?