Search technology continues to fascinate. Serendipity search is going to be a hot topic. The ability for Google to take your location, a piece of information about you (context) and then serve you up relevant results without you searching for anything (serendipity) is going to open up a world of new search potential. It will take a lot of time for this to seep into relevant recruitment examples. To learn more read how to build a serendipity engine and Google creating a serendipity engine. As well as contextual search instant search is something I’m watching closely as well as the continued excellence being paved with companies like Siri (which Apple recently bought)and Google with voice recognition which is improving in leaps and bounds on the Android platform
Social Ads are a very interesting topic. Expect Facebook to lauch their competitors to AdSense soon. I’m still surprised that more recruiters in Ireland aren’t advertising via LinkedIn and Facebook rather that Google’s AdSense. I’m expecting more to shift some of their advertisement budget over to these mediums. I’ve been using LinkedIn’s DirectAds for the last year, and they are a simply excellent in terms of the high response rates a recruiter can get for targeted passive candidates. You can learn more here
Apps are all the go. I've found that these days you are more than likely getting the lads in the pub speaking about their apps rather then the week’s heroics of their favourite soccer, rugby or GAA superheros. This wasn't so much the case last year, but it was very noticeable this year. App mania has caught hold. This Christmas I spent a lot of time, playing around with Iphone, Ipad and Android apps. The ones that I’ve been enjoying the most are: Live Tracking for family members flight details, IST for speed traps on the road, Bump for sharing details, heart rate, just because it’s so cool, but also handy after a work out and then Instagram for photo sharing which I’m beginning to enjoy a lot.
2011 will also see some interesting entrants into the Irish market. The one I have ear marked for success is Social Talent from Jonathan Campbell. This company offers a number of services worth investigating but one service they will have a lot of success with in 2011 will be consultancy and development of social media recruitment strategies. If you want someone else to manage your entire social media recruitment strategy and don’t want to go through the trouble of setting up the strategy, the platforms, the content calendar, the analytics then they may be able to help. Check out their site here. They have 4/5 clients already in just a few weeks and I expect this to grow quickly. I’m also expecting to see the job boards to try something this year, we might see some basic social networking integration into their platforms, maybe even allowing you login to certain sections of your site using Facebook connect, we’ll also more than likely see some partnerships with the likes of Careerbuilder and others to provide more coverage.
The latest edition of the Irish Recruiters and CIPD social media recruiter course (CSMR) is finsihed – there’s lot’s of rich content in it worth exploring. If you want to get a quick 6/7 hour update on the basics of social media recruitment this could be the one course you want to do in 2011. The course costs 499 euros for non annual members of Irish Recruiters, and 399 for members. It is run over 2 evenings with 3 hours training on each night. Here’s the course content:
- Understanding the importance of social media with examples of best case scenarios from world class brands
- A deep dive into the world of social networking and the variety of networks that exist around the world
- How to create a social media recruitment strategy that scales. This section will dive into the main considerations that need to be taken into account before you build your strategy.
- A deep dive into LinkedIn and the plethora of tools and techniques that can be deployed on the site to drive your social media recruitment strategy. We’ll take a close look at some of the more advanced features that most people do not pay close attention to but offer huge advantages when deployed properly. We’ll also look at managing groups and communities.
- A deep dive into Facebook and how it can be used to build brand. At this part of the course we’ll dive into some world and Irish examples of Fan Pages in the recruitment industry worth reviewing
- The course also takes a close look at using Twitter and picks a small number of recommended apps to be aware of.
- We’ll also look at the power of using YouTube to build brand and we’ll take a close look at how building your own YouTube channel into your social media strategy is worth considering
- We’ll look at the interesting topic of widgets and buttons and why they are so important
- The important topic of metrics will be carefully analysed with recommendations given for free and paid tools that can help you understand your ROI on investment.
- We’ll then look at the innovation that is currently taking part in the world of social media with plenty of time spent reviewing apps, blogs and other social tools and sources that every recruiter in Ireland interested in the world of social media recruitment should be aware of.
- Finally, we’ll talk about the future of social media recruitment and some of the trends and technologies that will shape the industry in the coming years.
QR codes continue to be all the rage in the east and are slowly continuing to appear in Ireland. Check out Audi's latest use of QR Codes:
Just like we are seeing people "Liking" things on Facebook and "Recommending" things on LinkedIn... tagging is going to become more important for products and people in 2011. This will open up a whole new world of micro-social graphs. More on that in future posts.
Wishing you all a very successful 2011.
Happy Hunting!
