Category Archives: Social Media

Social Media ROI – Perhaps it’s not what we Thought

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yomamaI recently came across a fantastic article titled “The New ROI for Social Media Recruiting” which not only gave great insight into this year’s ERE Recruiting Conference & Expo but shared a little of why folks still are not jumping on the social media bandwagaon, especially executives. Perhaps we are trying to measure the wrong things.

This article talks of discussions that took place at the Conference that even big named brand representatives are still having a hard time getting their senior corporate managers and leaders involved or even understanding the ROI of social media and how it affects their organizations. We’re still looking at it as an end all, cure all as opposed to a valuable tool and channel of influence to our overall efforts. Perhaps that’s because of how it’s been presented to us.

Social is a grand tool for getting your brand out there and as this article surmises you can’t not be there.

You can’t not be on social because candidates, potential candidates, and those whom you hope to attract and someday hire will see your absence from the social media landscape as a negative. Doing it poorly is equally negative.

When a company fails to post regularly, and especially when comments and questions go unanswered for days or never, or when a company indiscriminately dumps all its job postings into Facebook’s news feed, it says, in the words of one recruiter, “This is a lame company that has no idea what social media is all about. Who wants to work for a company people think is lame?

The great thing that social enables us to do, and especially for brands and organizations, is telling the employer story and building its brand. Things such as the culture of the organization and what to expect in the hiring process on through to the day to day “what it’s like to work there” kind of things. These are the very particulars potential candidates are looking for when deciding whether or not to even begin the hiring process.

We may never be able to obtain ROI in how many folks we’ve hired through Facebook or Twitter (social in general). Instead, we should be looking at the value in branding and reputation building.

What does your company brand look like online? Are you a ghost town?

If you’re looking into a few easy ways to start, check out Glassdoor’s free resources.

Building a Brand in the Social Media Era

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brandingThanks to smart phones, social media and the 24/7 news cycle, we are now in the era of Social Business.  Every human contact with a brand is amplified.  Some brands have embraced Social Business (UnderArmour, SalesForce), while others have learned a lesson the hard way (Rutgers University, Target).

My friends at SlideKlowd and the co-founder and Brand Strategist Justin Foster know a lot about building a brand in the “fishbowl”.  Justin is a master at this and when he speaks covers a wide range of topics including:

·       How a positive internal culture can be your #1 brand differentiator

·       The first 10 seconds and last 10 seconds of first impressions

·       Adjusting your business and marketing strategy to harness transparency

·       3 emerging business tech trends – and what to do about them.

·       The role in personal branding for professionals and executives

Tomorrow, April 25th from 10:00 am – 11:00 am Central time, Justin will be a guest host on a WEBINAR that will dive into the above topics. You won’t want to miss it folks, I guarantee it! I’ll be there with bells on.

Head on over and Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

slideklowd webinar

FYI, we’ll be using the Slideklowd app during the presentation. Come on, you know you wanna join in on the action.

Annoying Apps and Invites: Don’t always blame it on your Facebook friends

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facebook_apps_and_gamesWe’ve all been inundated with app requests within Facebook such as Angry Birds, Farmville and even Birthday requests. It never seems to stop.

There was a time when I would literally post status updates saying “I won’t join your Farmville – no matter how much you pay me, so stop sending the request to join.” Some folks got offended and others got me to thinking that perhaps it wasn’t my friends at all trying to get me to join them in playing games on Facebook. Hmmm…..

I then put on my research cap and went to looking around the webs for more information on this and found things such as:

With that knowledge I quickly started changing all my notifications and settings within Facebook having to do with the apps and games. Guess what? Nothing changed. I continued to receive notifications and requests.

This got me thinking to myself “If Facebook can control the ads we see by what we’re discussing – perhaps they’re the ones sending me those app and game suggestions.” As a matter of fact, I’m sure that these companies are paying Facebook to have their precious app incorporated within the platform and how are folks to hear about the app if Facebook doesn’t tell them?

Then I wondered if I was yelling at my friends within Facebook to stop sending me requests for no reason? It’s quite possible.

We have been sold a bill of goods that if we change our notifications and settings we have control over what we see. We’ve also been told that we can control our privacy settings by a click of the button – but is this really the truth? I think not.

Here’s the thing we need to understand – no matter what we do Facebook (or any other platform) can do what they want with our information. Nothing on the webs is private or can be kept under control – we’re only made to believe that and we shrug our shoulders and continue on about our business.

Facebook keeps looking for ways to get information to the masses through what we share, like and talk about. That’s a fact and I don’t blame them for that. They have to make money somehow.

I just think they should come right out and say it “We’re watching everything you do – so we can suggest what you’ll like next, where you’ll eat, what you buy, what games you play, who you play them with” etc. Not making us think that our actual friends are calling on us to join them in their endeavors.

In the end I must apologize to my Facebook pals. I’ve been blaming you for something I should have researched earlier.

What do you think? Have you thought the same thing?

Social Media Policies – Are they absolutely necessary?

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Social MediaYesterday, I had the privileged of hosting a LIVE Google+ hangout with two of my friends and employment attorneys in the HR space Heather Bussing and Mary Wright, discussing Social Media policies. It was a fantastic discussion on privacy, legalities and best practices of Social Media in the workplace.

Here are a few things we discussed:

  • Is incorporating social policies the cure all?
  • Who owns the social media accounts – the Employer or Employee?
  • The Applebee’s fiasco
  • BYOD (Bring your own device) Who has rights?
  • Monitoring Employees Social Media
  • Is anything really private once it’s on the internet?

Take a look:

I’m a huge advocate of incorporating social technology into our everyday workplace and these gals made valid points from both an Employer and Employee perspective.

We concluded that the best social media policy is simply “Be Professional.” I think we can all agree that’s something to keep in mind and that most of us should think before we post.

About my guests:

heatherHeather Bussing is an employment attorney and the Editorial Advisory Board editor at HR Examiner. Heather has practiced employment and business law for over 20 years. She has represented employers, unions and employees in every aspect of employment and labor law including contract negotiations, discrimination and wage hour issues. She regularly advises companies on personnel policies and how to navigate employment discipline and termination issues. You can connect with her on twitter @heatherbussing.

maryMary Wright is the editor of HR Gazette, a daily newspaper for HR Professionals and Employment Lawyers. She is an Employment Attorney who has been practicing law for 25 years. Mary is passionate about helping make sure Employers and HR professionals who struggle daily with all kinds of issues and wants to make sure they get a fair shake in the courtroom as well as the break room. Connect with her on twitter @hrgazette.

Photo Credit: Bizfest

Googling yourself won’t cause Blindness

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google yourself“If it can be Googled – it shall be Googled“ 

Last summer I wrote a post titled “Have You Googled Yourself Lately” which sparked a little conversation. It’s a catchy title and a pretty informative read that talks about the importance of your online trail – your brand. How you are perceived in the eyes of folks online. It also gives a few great social listening tools out there to see what folks are finding out about you through what you’ve allowed them to see online.

We joked about this on a recent Twitter Chat and someone stated “I hear that causes blindness.” And we all laughed.

Laughing aside, it’s important to understand that folks are using things like Google Search or other mediums to find out about you and what you’re sharing online. Whether it’s for a potential job to which you’ve applied, perhaps you’ve filed for FMLA and your manager actually wants to see if you’re in Cabo for the week, if you’ve recently applied for a loan and your bank wants to check you, or if you’ve filed an insurance claim for disability and you’re your insurance company wants to make sure you’re not off skiing somewhere – folks are starting to use the internet to look you up.

That being said, it’s important for all of us to see how others are viewing us and make sure that you are being represented properly and protecting yourself and your personal brand.

I’ve heard recently that because of Google’s algorithm, for example, there may be things that others see about you online that even you’re not seeing about yourself. But there are certain things you can do to protect your online personal brand whether you are in job search mode or simply concerned about how folks are judging you, online.

  •  If you have a Google account, you can set up Google Alerts where you can get daily or weekly email notifications when your brand name (or your name, etc) shows up online. This is a great way to see where you’re popping up online and it’s free!
  • Google yourself (or use another search engine) often to see what’s actually getting out there and what others are seeing.
  • You can make your social accounts (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) private and change your settings – but why not simply behave yourself online. Most folks these days want to see your personality, interests and other things to see your human side. And, Recruiters and Hiring Managers are looking on these very same sites to fill key positions at their companies. See this Infographic about how Recruiters are using Facebook’s new Graph Search.
  • Everything you say online can and may be held against you. Here’s a great Infographic on managing your online reputation and some key things you can do to protect yourself. Take them to heart.
  • There are a few settings within Facebook that will allow you to remain semi-private. Here’s some info on the new privacy changes and what you can do to protect those privacy’s. Don’t fully disclose your birthday, street address and other information that others may potential steal and ruin your online reputation.
  • Don’t allow third party apps (especially within Facebook and Twitter) access to your information. When using these games and third-party apps within these platforms you are allowing them free reign to inside information and this can be damaging.
  • Don’t look at porn. If you simply find that you must do this – use an alter ego (a different name) so that these trails can’t come back to you. I see folks all the time on Facebook looking at naughty things and it’s posting to their Facebook walls. Just don’t do it. Go to the Library or something and use their computers :)
  • Think before you post. Don’t post status updates or pictures when you’re not being responsible or when you’re mad at someone. This is always the best advice to live by. These things can come back to bite you on the butt later on.

In the end, if you’re using social media and being aware of what you’re showing, what your’e posting and not making bad judgement’s then you should have no worries about what’s being found about you.

Go ahead and try it, Google yourself right now (I know you want to) and see what comes up. You may be a little embarrassed but I promise you won’t go blind.

Photo Credit: Sodahead

Stop harassing people on Social Media -You’re acting like my Mary Kay lady!

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Mary_Kay_logoI’ve been getting a lot of “salesy” direct messages, tweets, inmails, etc. as of late and I’m getting pretty tired. Allow me to vent.

Social Media is an awesome tool for sharing content, making connections, building trust, sharing others amazing content in hopes of others reciprocating and getting your message out there in front of folks who wouldn’t normally hear your story. After all, what’s greater than having a HUGE FAN of yours out there sharing your wares to their friends, family and followers – as opposed to you constantly shouting “Buy this! I’m Great!” to all of your connections.

It’s really gets to be too much at times. I get it – you have to make your monthly quota or you’ll get fired! You think you have the only product out there that gets rid of stains on my teeth. But you’re doing it all wrong.

Folks don’t want to constantly be listening to you selling – in that manner. It must be slid-den in there “matter of factly.”

It actually reminds me of many of my Mary Kay representatives I’ve had throughout my lifetime. Now, let me say upfront I have nothing against Mary Kay, their products or their people. But sometimes you really get some hard-sell person who makes it their life’s ambition to constantly harass you in hopes of you caving in and buying their products. I suppose we’ll always have these kind of folks wherever we go.

I’ve had to block my phone number, put “do not answer” in place of my representatives name in my phone, block someone on Twitter, disconnect with folks on Facebook and LinkedIn because they would not take hint of “Would you mind not sending me anymore of those” to heart.

Wanna get black balled from social media – keep doing that.

Here’s the thing – if people see you’re doing something amazing, your’e sharing great information about it, you’re sharing other folks’ stuff that makes sense, you’re friendly and honest – they’ll come to you if they need your services / products. They don’t need to be brow-beaten and forced into doing something simply to get you off their back. Who wants to do business like that?

Here’s a great post I came across yesterday after having decided to write about this myself earlier this week “5 Ways You’re Annoying Everyone on Social Media” and while I don’t agree with all of these on the list – it wouldn’t hurt for you to read.

I’ve discussed the issue I have with my current Mary Kay lady to a couple of folks that live near me.  They tell me that their Mary Kay lady doesn’t harass them one bit! They call her when they’re out of an item and need to replace it, they want to try a new color or product for a new season and they get it – no questions asked. No hard sell. It’s easy-breezy.

My response – Can I have her number?

And that’s how referrals are done. It’s called word-of-mouth for a reason.

HR and your Social Strategy – Do you even have One?

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???????????????????I always love to go to my extra-smart friends for guest posts to mix it up a bit. I’m quite boring, in reality, and don’t wanna bore you to tears. Jeff Waldman is one of my go-to-guys in that respect. Check out this outstanding post and make sure to connect with Jeff and his team. You can find them all over the place. 

Photo Credit: en.blog.zyncro.

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SocialHRCamp business partner Salima Nathoo and I recently co-authored a 2 blog post series for SmartRecruiters and Blogging4Jobs on “Why HR Needs to Speed Up Social Media Adoption” and “Why HR is Slow to Adopt Social Media”.  The former post focuses on the business case and the latter on barriers to adoption.  It was a tough exercise to go through because there are so many reasons why HR needs to adopt and why HR has not already done so.  The focus of this post is on a simple question that can be applied across all business functions.  The question is… “What does social media adoption have to do with strategy”?

Oh Right… Strategy…
Does it not make sense that the activities that you perform during the course of your work day support some strategic aspect of the business you work for?  Sure there are tasks that one would describe as mundane, repetitive, pointless, etc… but if you ask yourself “why” you are doing those tasks you probably could, or should come up with some strategic reason for why you do them.  The same holds true for social media.

Ah Ha Moment…
Before you dive into the social media maze you need to clearly understand what your core HR business challenges are that you are trying to solve.  Forget about social media for a second; every organization has challenges and strategic objectives that are being tackled.  If they did not exist there would be no organization to work for.

Ask Yourself…
Pull out the dusty HR strategy and the business strategy and identify the top 3-5 priorities.  Are you trying to attract higher quality talent to “hard-to-recruit” jobs?  Are you trying to solve a growing retention issue?  Are you trying to support the business expand and enter new markets?  Will you be tasked with organizational restructuring or acquisition initiatives?  You get the point but it’s critical for you as an HR professional to figure this out first.

2nd Ah Ha Moment…
For all you non-HR people reading this blog post this also applies to you too.  It does not matter what area of business you work in, the fact remains that you need to understand the core business challenges you are trying solve before you dive into social media.

Now You’re Ready to Think About Social Media…
You now have a crystal clear idea of why you want to use social media; now it’s a matter of identifying the social media platforms that will enable you to achieve the best results.  The task of figuring this out will be so much easier if you have a clear idea of why you want to use them in the first place.  Sorry, just slapping up a Facebook page because “everyone else” has one is a complete waste of time, and will ultimately make you look foolish.

So, think strategy first, then social media second.

This blog post was originally published in the Social Media Camp blog.

About the Author:

jeffSocial media enthusiast, entrepreneur, social HR strategist and educator, Jeff is the Founder of Stratify, a social HR solutions consultancy and SocialHRCamp, the first-ever global HR unconference. With a background in business, HR and marketing, and a diverse career spanning all facets of HR Jeff has been carving out and leading the way in a growing niche that brings together HR, social media and business. Founded in 2012 SocialHRCamp helps the global HR community adopt social media into HR business practices and will be running events in Canada, United States, Singapore, Philippines and India.

Maybe it’s time to dumb down our Social HR presentations

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social 101When it comes to adoption of Social tools into our organizations some folks may be a little behind in adapting. That’s okay, because that was us at one time or other.

I have spoken at my share of events and conferences especially in regard to technology and social tools in the workplace. Something I have to keep in mind is that “Not everyone is on the same level playing field.” We’re all at different levels of adoption and knowledge of these things. And that’s okay.

At a few recent events we (those of us who have been involved in social and technology longer) seemed to have forgotten this and really seemed to have taken it over the top of the heads of the attendees.

Sometimes we talk to our audiences in our own language and they’re sitting out there looking at us like a young calf looking at a new gate.

I try to remember when presenting that it’s best to “keep it simple, stupid” – because you don’t want to lose your audience completely.

When holding social presentations there will probably always be a mixture in the crowd of the following:

  • Those that have no clue about social adoption (as it regards internal collaboration and social media at work)
  • Those that understand the need for adopting but have no idea how to begin
  • Those that think these tools should never be incorporated into the cubicles and spend tons of dollars on “how to block it” at work
  • Those that have jumped in and are getting their feet wet
  • Those that have fully adopted technology (mobile, internal tools, etc) and have seen great success

This will more than likely always be the case. That being said, it does make it difficult when presenting to this kind of crowd. Perhaps it’s best when planning our events to segment our presentations into (a) (b) and (c) groups instead of lumping them all together.

At one of my most recent events I had a few folks (ladies) come to me in the lady’s room afterward to tell me “Thanks for talking on a level we could understand. Most of us aren’t up to speed and you kept it simple and very easy to understand.”

HR is rapidly advancing in social technologies but we must remember to share on a level that folks can understand not only in the need for incorporating these tools, the benefits and ROI’s but also share the “Here’s how to do it” as well.

Cause let’s face it – we can pretty much Google stats and the “WHY you need to do Social” – am I right?

Photo Credit: JohnHaydon