Tag Archive for twitter

Google Wave Goodbye

January 7, 2010 / Justin Hillier / 5 comments

So you have this fancy new product and you figure the best way to promote it is to invite 4000 developers to your headquaters, record the whole 90 minute event, and post it to Youtube for the world to see and hope, well know, that it will go viral and be talked about all over the world. You pitch it as “if email was built today, what would it look like” and all of a sudden everyone is listening, and why not, look who you are.

Yep, that’s Google and Google Wave. But where has it gone? It was only a few months ago that every man and his dog that was on the net was begging and pleading for an invite and it was Top 10 in Twitter Trends with no problem at all. It was the new cool communication tool that was a must have, and we all couldn’t wait to get our hands on it. How fickle or quick things change. It has been at least 3 weeks since I have seen anyone reach out for an invite, in fact I tried giving my 7 left away and had no takers.

It seems that Google Wave was either the best viral marketing of a new freeware software communication tool of all time or that Google have actually got this one wrong. To be fair I just think there timing is off. I was totally sold after watching the movie length episode of all Google Wave tricks and treats and what else they have planned for the “new email”. How could you not be jumping over yourself to get your hands on it.

So where has it gone wrong. Firstly, it is very obvious that you need a large network to get the full power of Google Wave. With the limited (understandablle as it’s in Beta) amount of people on it, this makes it a glorified IM platform. Most importantly has Google jumped the gun on Google Wave?

Twitter is still the shiny new toy that we are all addicted to. It’s simple, quick and easy and everyone is on it. There are no 100 page instruction manuals needed, and the added tools that allow you to track a wide range of facets make it the “in thing” Its that addictive that Michael Specht just passed 30,000 tweets. How many waves would that equate to and how many people would you need to have on there to do that?

I don’t doubt that Google Wave will have its place moving forward and will prove to be a great communication tool. But should Google have waited 6-12 months until Twitter and Facebook start becoming a bit stale?

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Gen Y – Don't get caught in the trap

November 25, 2009 / Justin Hillier / No comments

Gen Y, it seems like everyone is focused on the age group of 18-30 more then ever before. The age group that are our next thought leaders and will be running our major companies and countries in the next 15 years. So why worry about them so much now, are we really in a position to fast track any of that much needed development and learning that we put a “wet behind the ears” candidate into a role that they have no experience in, and yes it does happen.

You see, I hear and read every day, that HR and recruitment folk and doing their best to understand how to attract Gen Y’ers. They are a fickle generation, the digital generation, and demand things that in all logical terms is outlandish. What makes them so wonderful that we should bow down and give them what they want. And why is it that the older, more experienced are getting pushed to the side, are all recruiters out there, middle aged men having a mid life crises and looking for the 21yo blonde?

I was listening to Lucian Tarnowski debate with Alan Whitford recently at #trulondon, and he said that Gen Y looked for stability and security in their careers – but don’t we all? That Gen Y were facing trouble’s that no other generation has experienced, but how is this different to the world wars of yesteryear or The Depression? Are these not all unique challenges? And the thinking that Gen Y are more adept at using the internet and other technologies, well i doubt that very much, the oldest person on Twitter is over 100yo and she gets by just fine.

Think back firstly when you were a child, or your own children were toddlers. Think of how many times they asked for McDonald’s or an ice-cream and how many times you said no, maybe later. Clean your room, tidy up your toys or eat your vegetables and I will think about it. That reward had to be earned. So why is everyone chasing the Gen Y candidate with such gusto? What have they done to deserve such high adulation and desire within the recruitment market.

Yes it’s true, there is an aging global population, and in 10 years time the baby boomers will be out of the market and the second “true” candidate short market will represent itself (the first being after WW2). Experience and knowledge counts for a lot in business, and hiring a 37 or 47 year old compared to a 27 year old can bring a wealth of knowledge into your business that is invaluable.

At the end of the day you need to be very careful how much of your recruitment strategy is geared towards attracting Gen Y or any particular age bracket, even a slightly age skewed message or strategy could land you in discrimination hot water. They say the mind and body is only as young as it feels, and I personally know people that have a better outlook on life and more energy and experience then people half their age.

Why we stereotype people/candidates based on their age is beyond me, should we just not be looking for the best candidate in the market regardless?

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Is your social media strategy, 120, 240 or 360 degrees

November 22, 2009 / Justin Hillier / One comment

So chances are you have heard of social media and you have a strategy in place to reap the benefits of the new wave of interaction that is now available to us all. You are using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Xing, Delicious, Digg, ah the list goes on and on.

Your strategy is sourcing you a great deal of traffic and to date you have somewhat figured out there is a benefit in doing all of this and you are starting to see some return for your efforts. Well done, this will and should occur with a defined plan in place. Whilst it is still very much early days and the approach may very well change in 5 years time, we must get the most out of it’s current structure while we can, why not, it’s an opportunity missed otherwise and what is the business value in that?

So for now you have solved what is the puzzle of social media and recruiting. But is that really it? It can really be that “relatively” easy can it?

What if I was to suggest that your strategy is only 33% complete? And there should be in fact 3, yes 3, parts of your social media strategy.

1. Attraction + Engagement + onboarding

This one is a bit of a no-brainer for the first 2 uses, but who is using social media for onboarding? Attraction and engagement is great when talking about utilsing all of the above mentioned sites to spread the word about your company, the fantastic opportunities you have, and what a great business you have become.

But what about on-boarding. Do you encourage new employees to connect with current employees prior to starting and entice them to start getting involved in the business in any way they can. Either just by following a conversation or getting up to date with current projects that they will be working on.

2. Retention + Engagement + Collaboration

Here is where your social media strategy provides you your greatest ROI. You have attracted talent, hired them, they have under-gone a great on-boarding process and they are starting to hit their straps. You’re employees are all over social media as we know, however how can you harness social media internally to improve outcomes and enhance engagement and more collaboration. We do after all enjoy the people we work with, more then the job itself most of the time.

Supplying your staff with the ability to create chat groups, pose questions to the rest of the business and move projects along with more communication is every companies dream. Imagine allowing managers the ability to have a better understanding and the “pulse” of their staff by simply getting more involved in what they want to talk about, business or otherwise.

With meetings always cancelled or shifted to a time when not everyone can attend due to sickness or holiday, the meeting itself never resolving or covering every discussion point required, and follow up more and more difficult as some people just cannot be tracked down, why not have your staff continue moving things along with the power of a community platform.

Not only is this great for speeding up discussion and greater collaboration, but if you ever have a question why not pose it to the rest of the company in a non-intrusive manner. Who knows what answers you will get and what other business enhancements may be raised from one conversation alone.

3. Exiting + Alumni

It is suffice to say that people move on at some stage, but does that mean your communication should cease entirely. Understanding why people leave is never easy or straight forward, and answering surveys, being involved in discussions and simply making them feel like their voice is still being heard is crucial.

You may not want to stay in touch as a business with every ex employees but it would be remiss not to have some connection with former employees for either future job opportunities or business deals. You never know who might be your client or vice versa moving forward.

This is just a snapshot of course, but how many of us can say, we are indeed utilizing social media and its power to its full potential. My mum always told me if I’m going to do something do it properly, I wonder if this relates to social media and its use in recruitment as well?

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In 24 hours I have learnt something…wow

November 12, 2009 / Justin Hillier / No comments

Well it’s been less then 24 hours since my blog went out to the wider public and in that time I have already learnt something. They say that if you have a $Million idea, chances are someone else has had that same idea and has already beaten you to it. How many times have you had the light-bulb moment, done your research (Ok I didn’t research this one but I did think it was a no brainer) to only find out that you’ve been beaten to the punch.

Well I’m happy to say, that my (well not mine as someone beat me to it) idea of having job postings automatically upon posting, feed into twitter with specific silo’s for location and job type has already started. Tweetjobs.net have cornered a niche of the market that takes an uploaded XML file and formats it into a Tweet. It takes key pieces of information from the file such as, job title, key skills, location, salary and a url link to the job on the clients web site and auto formats it before sending it out. This is all done in a fraction of a second. What can be better then that.

Well there’s more. They also manage client branded Twitter accounts for both end clients and agencies.

Richard Sutciffe and James Mayes are the brains behind the operation and with years of recruitment and IT experience behind them, there is no doubt that this business will be a success. Further proof of this is Broadbean’s decision to trial the service. Whilst it’s early days, signs are good and they will contemplate a full roll out next year, all going well.

So maybe the job boards don’t have to worry about social media and implementing new initiatives to deliver a better performance, the likes of Broadbean could beat them to it. All I know is I have to hope for another light-bulb moment.

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