So what is Company Follow?

Ryan Roslansky, explains on the LinkedIn Blog it “…helps you be among the first to learn about developments at companies… find job openings… or stumble upon business development opportunities… The new feature lets you tap into key goings-on at nearly a million companies that already have their company profiles on LinkedIn and more that are being created every day.” and it’s simple to use. To see how easy it is to use click here for LinkedIn’s explanation (they do it so well).

Company Follow has several advantages for the Jobseeker who can be notified when employees join, are promoted or leave a company and when the company is advertising a job opportunity, though only when advertised on LinkedIn itself. They can have notifications delivered by email, which is the smartest, and can choose the frequency, e.g daily when actively looking for a new role.

So what can a Jobseeker do with this information? They can:

• Be selective of the companies they follow, choosing those that they most want to work for, have the best reputation in the industry and where their skills would be of the greatest asset to the potential employer.
• Follow all of their selected company’s news listening for what they’re not saying and trends that are emerging where hidden jobs may be found
• See who is leaving. Is their role being advertised? Were they recommended by their manager? Who do they know who knows the departing employee or their manager?
• See who has been promoted. A great opportunity to make contact with a message of congratulations and to follow up some time later to see how they’re getting on i.e. a way to ease into a potentially door-opening relationship.
• See what Executives or Senior Managers have joined. Is the company taking a new direction? Have they won a project? Will they need you in their team?

Company Follow is great for companies who want to attract talent and keep tabs on their competitors so if you’ve not even created your company profile, get cracking! If you already have one you may want to give it a once over and ensure that it will attract followers.

So what can a Company do with this information? They can:

• Build their followers and have a potential talent pool ready to be tapped in to and because, unlike groups, there is not a restriction on the number of companies a person can follow, potentially have followers who may not have been able to join their group.
• Be aware what their competitors are doing. Your competitors can follow you and this gives a company a great opportunity to know who is listening and, you never know, you may just decide to poach them yourself!
• Be aware of what is being said. The content on LinkedIn is user-generated and this may concern you but as these conversations are already taking place, it’s better to know than pretend they’re not.
• Follow their competitors and therefore proactively manage your current employees. You’ll know if your competitor is looking for someone who they could find in your team and therefore you have the opportunity to keep your staff happy and content.
• Follow without being blocked and currently, this is a great advantage over, say, Twitter. So go follow your competitors, to protect your talent pool and to find your new employees.

I wonder what LinkedIn will come up with next….

The beauty of what I do is that on any given day I get to turn my attention to many different industry sectors. I could be writing for a social care organisation, a government department, a high street retailer or one of the country’s leading breweries, I just don’t know what’s round the corner writing wise some days. Yes, I am used to donning different hats and facing up to a whole range of challenges, but this sounded like a very different kind of proposition altogether – A 1000 word script that had to contain elements of humour yet be professional AND informative – and all captured on camera for a niche audience who really look up to this ‘dude’.

I bit the bullet and decided to take the brief. It resulted in a trip up to sunny North London. Then, during the course of the meeting, the client, the owner of www.oggs.com, a gaming review site, just happened to mention in passing that he had negotiated a few golden tickets to enter some online contest and that he might invite me to be in the team.

I thought no more about it until a few days later when, script (click on link below to see youtube video) and press releases duly cracked and submitted, I got an email confirming that I had indeed been invited to join ‘Team Oggs’ – a seven strong team brought together to try and win a million euros in the Grand Final of Microgaming’s Million Euro Slots Tournament at the end of last month.

Hey, even Ridley Scott had to start somewhere!

I accepted the invitation but quickly came across a stumbling block. . The online gaming industry may be very technically advanced, but their software doesn’t like Apple Macs – and I use….an Apple Mac!

Fortunately that particular dilemma was solved when an agency where I take desk space a couple of days a week kindly offered to let me chance my arm at winning the million from the comfort of their offices in London in a tournament where1500 finalists from around the world played a selection of some of the best online slots games in the business in the hope they would walk away with the big prize.

There was, however, a twist where my participation was concerned. (my life is never ordinary) Each player in ‘Team Oggs’ had to sign a contract in advance stating that if they won, they would take no more than 5% of the winnings, with the rest of the money going to charity. It was an unusual collaboration to say the least, but there really was nothing to lose and a lot to gain. So I signed up.

What’s more, the client was so pleased with the video and releases that he paid me double, yes that’s right, DOUBLE, what I originally quoted. Another first for me! And, it all only came about because I stepped out of my comfort zone.

Did I win? Er, I’m still here aren’t I? No, I didn’t, but hey, I didn’t even expect to be competing. The point is, stepping outside of your comfort zone needn’t always be a scary experience. It can reap rewards and lead to the unexpected. Getting paid double was good enough for me, although the 50,000 euro cut of the prize would have been nice. Oh well, onwards and upwards!

(incidentally the dude in the video, one J Todd, normally wears t shirt and jeans. Yes, I even got him to stand in the middle of a field wearing a suit!)

- Alasdair Murray, Freelance Copy Writer, alasdairdmurraycopywriter.co.uk

Not so long ago, even at the beginning of the new millennium, letters where still kings of communication, and we were perfectly prepared to wait the week required for a response. At the start of 2010 the world of communication is a very different place. Clients can contact me 24/7 by email, mobile phone or instant messenger, I  can receive information regarding what my favorite celebrity is eating for breakfast as they are eating for breakfast as they are eating it, direct to my mobile phone. Equally I can find out what someone I’ve not met more than once got up to on New Years.

This prevalance of Social Networking and communication is becoming increasingly important for recruiters, and clients increasingly want to make the best use of referral schemes over the traditional methods of recruitment/ 83% of adults regularly use social networks, which now takes up 93% more time than in 2006 according to bizreport making the need for individuals to capitalize on this increasingly apparent.

This can often be a bit bewildering, tricky and time consuming, so we have put together a few tips and ideas to help you get thinking about how the new world of communication is important for your job hunt.

Finding jobs online has long been the norm, but in the forever evolving realm of the internet the world of online recruitment is too changing. Searching through an online jobs-board is useful, but not always fruitful. According to an article on Mashable.com the amount of jobs posted on job boards has been decreasing at over 13% in recent times, making this an ever more prevalent issue. This is a quick guide to get you thinking about how web 2.0 could help you with your career, getting you ahead of the game in these tough times.

For some this may seem a little confusing or scary: Social networking, online referrals and self branding may sound a bit scary for some. However, all it’s really about is building your network and getting yourself ‘out there’ online.

The traditional way to find jobs online was to apply for roles, not really knowing if you where actually going to enjoy the role. Whilst it would be naive to say these days are over, Web 2.0 has bought for many the opportunity to build a personal brand that attracts employers to them.

This does not mean you need to be an online guru, but it’s important to make yourself aware of these technologies and how recruitment fits into them.

Web 2.0 is not a technical term like it sounds, more a buzz word that refers to an idea or attitude. This being that the internet has moved on from its roots towards a wealth of rich interactive content composed and shared through a system of participation and community.

This starts with your CV, make sure your CV is clear, this may sound obvious and nothing to do with new technology, more common sense, but the majority of sites, including MPB allow employers to search CVs to find candidates there interested in. Make sure all the terminology in your CV is your industries most used. – take a look at some job descriptions in your field; does the text in your CV correspond well to requirements?  For example, rather than putting experienced with Microsoft Office put Experienced in using Microsoft Word, Excell and Acesss as an employer may be looking for someone with particular knowledge of one application. Mypeoplebiz also allows you to write an anonymous personal profile which is searchable by employers, and you can find a guide to getting this right here. 

 To really participate in web 2.0 You need to be a “prosumer”, a content producer, not just a consumer of online content. This doesn’t have to be difficult and you can spend as little or as much time as you have depending on what you want to do.

Whether you want to go all out and create a blog, or maybe your one for a YouTube video or a flickr photo album or all of the above. It is up to you and what you feel up to doing. If your currently unemployed this a good project to undertake as a way of building your IT skills whist doing something that may help you get that much craved job.

Blogs

If writing is something you like, start a blog about your professional expertise and experience, this works particularly well for media and marketing jobs and has become almost essential requirement for some roles. You can include photos, music and video in this too, bringing together all your online work.

Creating a blog will prove your passion and understanding for the subject matter. Mentioning this in your CV or Profile will highlight your passion; recruiters are likely to check it out. If they like what they see they will want to hire you, not just on your apparent professional ability but it is a great way to make you personable, make your blog get them like you.

-Making a blog doesn’t have to be difficult, give it a try with blogger.com or wordpress.com, both free.

Video

A new trend is the talking CV or video resume, this can be a great way to stand out from the crowd and get noticed, but only do this your feel your are confident enough, otherwise it may do more harm than good. In the New Year Mypeoplebiz will enable you to attach your talking CV to a job application and employers also will have the ability to create clips explain the role to you and introducing the work environment.

Photography

One of the simplest things you could do is create an album on flickr.  Flickr is a photo sharing site where you can upload your photography to discuss, share and interact with other photographers. If you have a digital camera or a mobile phone camera, get snapping!

This will be great for personal interests or hobbies section of your CV, even better say your applying for a role in a electrical retailer, you can prove your interest and understanding of the technology, cameras, computers and the internet just by creating photo album online.

Going social and Building your network

So you’ve got Facebook and reconnected with some old school friends and laughed at some embarrassing photos of yourself, but how can social networking sites help get you a job?

Firstly, it’s an excellent way to bring everything together and publicize anything you may of created online as outlined above, also make sure all your profiles are linked together, e,g there is a link to your twitter on your facebook profile etc. You may also want to think about how employer friendly you profile is, and remove content or change security settings to fit as it’s reported that many employers search social networking profiles of prospective employers to gain a greater insight.

Secondly, if you haven’t already done it, join the professional social networks. Primarily this is LinkedIn, but there others, namely xing.com that could also prove useful. Perhaps not as fun as the other social networks but definitely a useful tool for building your professional reputation and finding jobs. Start by adding all your contacts from outlook, Gmail etc you can build up from this point on. There are simple functions to do this on LinkedIn as well as an Outlook LinkedIn Application. The more people you are connected to the easier this is because you’re only able to reach other people in your network (1^st 2^nd and 3^rd degree connections).

Recruiters are starting to use LinkedIn (as well as others social networks) as a serious source for candidates, and is a great place to find jobs online, so complete as much as your profile as possible. The mypeoplebiz LinkedIn page publishes all the jobs on the site, including referral bonuses, you can refer anyone or people can refer you.

Further to this there are thousands of jobs advertised on linked in, look through groups, almost all of them have a jobs tab. More important advertise yourself, get involved join groups and conversations this way you can make connections and get noticed, Avoid sounding like a sales pitch, people will tune out. Stick to the rules of the group – it will be tempting to post in more popular sections of groups to get more attention to your message but these groups are often well policed and is likely to get you kicked out of the group if you do it more than once.

Evaluate regularly, how much time are you contributing to this compared to the delivery, are there any additional bonuses that you have discovered.

However, be patient this will not change your circumstances overnight, try to have fun with it and make it something you enjoy.

 Let us know of your web 2.0 activities and any experiences you have!

Despite only a slight increase (from 50 – 58%) in the implementation of a more formalized resourcing strategy in HR departments,  the report highlights how this figure was expected to be higher, as surveys show that 76% of employers ranked “attracting and recruiting key staff to the organization” as one of their top three resourcing objectives.

Such a small number of companies formalizing their HR strategies could be due in part to the current economic uncertainty. Widespread recruitment freezes are making implementation of a formal resourcing strategy much less of a priority. Without large amounts of recruitment HR departments have a little room to ‘wing-it’ case by case, or do not want to introduce a system which may not be right when the economy picks up again.

However, other reports show that despite the woes of the credit crunch there are other signs that recruiters are looking for new ways to implement formal strategies.

In a recent article on workforce.com Ed Frauenheim said that “despite the downturn, investments are being made in HR software vendors that could lead to new capabilities when the economy eventually recovers.” Recruitment software is selling well, comparative to how the market is affecting sales of just about anything else. “Spending in the first quarter of this year was up 10 to 15 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008” said Josh Bersin, head of research firm Bersin & Associates. HR departments definitely seem to think this a good way to bring their recruitment up scratch, 21^st century style.

These programs are far from cheap, and the truth is that economic recovery will be slow, and companies are looking to reduce costs as things begin to pick up.

HR columnist Gillian Hibberd brings us a cheaper suggestion for moving things into the 21^st century, social networking sites. Feared by many companies as the ultimate time-waster for their employees Hibbered warns that organizations are going to fall “out of touch” and she champions some of the “opportunities that social networking provides”. Nowadays, “what we have to grasp is a matter of urgency … we have a new generation of workers who are web 2.0- and now expect these technologies to be part of their everyday lives  – work included”. The social networking beacon is flashing; research shows 8 in 10 HR professionals belong to these sites, and certainly for a bit more than catching up with old friends. Many said they were using it to make recommendations for suppliers and partners and to share guidance and advice from peers.

Resourcing through social networking sites seem like the obvious answer, referred to by some as the “holy grail” of recruitment. However, despite the buzz about social networks many bosses are skeptical. Maybe rightly so. How many HR consultants can say they would really know how to do this properly? is this really a strategy that can be formalized?

Perhaps this why some organisations are failing to boost the attraction and retention of key talent through the benefits of Web 2.0, according to the CIPD 2008 Recruitment, Retention and Turnover survey only 20% had adopted web 2.0 technologies to attract or recruit employers, Yet, of the 100 CIPD respondent members, over half (56%) believe that social networking sites are useful for engaging potential job seekers and welcome its ability to shed light on how they are perceived in the marketplace (52%). The majority (62%) are concerned, however, that damaging comments about their organization might be posted.

I leave with these quotes;

“We surely have to find ways of harnessing the benefits that these technologies bring while also mitigating there risks” – Gillian Hibberd

And as Frank at MPB often says as things move in the world of web 2.0

“In the end it’s all about balance”; whether the candidates are from the ever growing social networks or the more traditional angles: “It’s all about … getting the best from both worlds”

Since June 2009 to date, over 220 agencies have registered and are supplying candidates on a flat fee basis to employers, forming a diverse range of industries such as form Nestle, Sony, Camelot, Sab Miller, Next, Gerson Lehman Group, Jessops, McArthur Glen, Aspect, DSG International, Selfridges, Inter Resolve, Universal, Britvic, Royal London Insurance, OC&C, HMV, Premier Farnell, etc. We currently receive an approximate average of 50% candidate flow from Agencies. The remaining 50% are made up of 20% direct applicants and 30% are coming from our referral network.

The mypeoplebiz referral network is made up of 2000 users actively recommending friends and contacts to vacancies on the site and earning substantial rewards. What’s great is that our research shows this is likely to keep on growing!

Ofcom’s research into social networking show that 4 in 10 adults in the UK use social networking sites at an average of 5.3 hours per week. Bebo states the average time spent per visit is estimated at lengthy 40minutes. Ofcom further reports that UK adults are spending more time on social networking than our EU neighbors.

The other interesting statistic shows that one of the biggest group on the social networks is 35-49 year olds who constituted 25% of users in 2008, and according to the latest facebook stats on iStartegyLab the 35-54 year olds age group are the fastest growing age group of the site, growing by 276.4% in only 6 months. This is the category that we expect to use mypeoplebiz, either to look for a job or refer a friend for a cash bonus, reflecting that this is usually the age-group where people are most economically productive. This suggests that the number of applicants we get through the social networks is only going to grow bearing in mind the huge expansion of sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin over the past few years.

The findings reflect the opinion that a recruitment portal at this stage of the market’s development/sophistication has to offer a “rounded” service to clients and cannot simply offer clients a “direct only” solution for their recruitment. Some recruitment industry commentators have even gone so far as to say that the social networks are the key to achieving the Holy Grail of recruitment and delivering “direct only” candidates in the future.  However, Frank Verala mypeoplebiz CEO commented, “Recruitment is often more complicated than people realize: Referral schemes and direct applications through the social networks are our specialty, and we are doing as much as anyone else to utilize social networks, but, companies have to get the bigger picture and that is about achieving a balance in your approach and benefiting dramatically from reduced administration as well as having a complete view of all recruitment activities.”

“In the end it’s all about balance”; whether the candidates are from the ever growing social networks or the more traditional angles: “It’s all about providing a system that works for employers in helping them to recruit through getting the best from both worlds”.

Frank Varela, founder said “we are delighted with the initial success and with the response from the recruitment community and the support from clients”

Check out the article in full here.

A takeover is therefore looking less and less likely as co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone remain stalwart and confident that Twitter can compete with its bigger rivals. Twitter has already rejected takeover bids from both Facebook and Yahoo, which illustrates the site’s commitment to being a major player in the social networking market. Twitter is surely also leading the race in terms of column inches, as the public continue to be charmed by this completely new form of communication.

It is testament to Twitter’s popularity amongst it’s hardcore that it is expected to perform so well. It could be viewed as a slightly risky proposition. A significant number of Twitter users must simply be dead accounts which have been opened and never used. Twitter is defensive about statistics so this is difficult to verify, but I suspect that if we could delve into this information we would see that that Twitter is less addictive than its older cousin. Inactive accounts will also be a factor with Facebook, but that site definitely seems to have a deeper purpose and more ubiquitous appeal; it is harder to imagine the world without Facebook now considering its almost complete entrenchment into our daily lives in both the personal and business spheres.

What today’s news does however support is that quickfire communication over the internet is becoming big business, mainly because Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and their counterparts are such effective tools for their respective demographics. Twitter’s microblogging approach has clearly captured the zeitgeist in a hugely effective way, and it is good to see serious business people taking such methodologies seriously.

It seems that the smart money continues to be on social networking online, and this seems unlikely to change any time soon. It will be interesting for us all to see what developments come next.