September 2011 Social Media for HR Business Decisions Bill Balderaz Webbed Marketing September 2011 "HR is starting to act and behave like marketing. Everyone knows what HSBC and McDonald's business, but what do they think of [these companies] as employers? September 2011 Agenda Why HR professionals should be utilizing social media Social Networks Overview Monitoring tools : What to Look For Social Media Policies: Legal, Compliance and Ethical concerns Social Media Cheat Sheet 1
Why HR Pros should use social media Social media is here to stay 695 million Facebook users 120+ million LinkedIn users 140 million tweets each day 2.5 billion Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn visits received in one month 164 million active blogs Why HR Pros should use social media Build your network Nearly 3,000 LinkedIn groups dedicated to human resources (nearly 10,000 groups that deal with HR is some capacity) Develop corporate culture Social media is all about building connections. Why not use it to strengthen your company internally? Keep employees in the know through a private, internal social network like Yammer Why HR Pros should use social media Recruit new employees The number of companies using social networking sites, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, to recruit increased from 34% in 2008 to 56% in 2011 (source: SHRM) Social media is a quick and inexpensive way to recruit talent Social media allows you to get more insight into a potential candidates skills for the job Advance your career Become a thought leader in the industry and connect with those with similar interests 2
Social Networks Overview LinkedIn Recruit Talent World s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 120 million members in over 200 countries and territories. LinkedIn counts executives from all 2011 Fortune 500 companies as members; its corporate hiring solutions are used by 75 of the Fortune 100 companies. More than 2 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages Apply with LinkedIn plugin allows candidates to submit their LinkedIn profile for job opportunities on an employer s website. LinkedIn Connect with other HR Pros HR Professionals are actively on LinkedIn talking about key issues that affect the profession Join groups that interest you, participate in the discussions and answer questions 3
LinkedIn Example HR Groups Linked:HR (#1 Human Resources Group) (435,807 members) Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) (58,948 members) Human Resources Professionals Worldwide (31,607 members) Human Resources Professionals: THE "Unofficial" forum for SHRM members (21,043 members) HR.com (18,601 members) Human Resource Management (15,075 members) HR & Talent Management Executive (63,242 members) HR Executive Network (9,057 members) Human Resources Training Network (9,164 members) Human Resources IQ (6,977members) Facebook Recruit Talent More and more companies are using Facebook to recruit talent. Easy and inexpensive way to announce jobs to candidates who are specifically interested in working for your company Provides a way for you to give candidates a glimpse of the corporate culture at your company Facebook Connect with other HR Pros SHRM and other organizations/companies host active industry discussions on Facebook 4
Twitter Recruit Talent Search Twitter for keywords and hashtags relevant to the position you need to fill Reach out to your network on Twitter for solid leads for the new position in your company Source: http://oneforty.com Twitter Connect with other HR Pros Monitor HR and career trends Connect with others with similar interests Participate in HR Twitter Chats Blogs There are hundreds of HR related blogs Monitor relevant blogs for key industry information Comment where appropriate Consider starting your own blog Example HR blogs and communities http://www.fistfuloftalent.com http://www.citehr.com http://hrschoolhouse.wordpress.com http://www.hrcapitalist.com/ http://hrmanager.squarespace.com http://www.tlnt.com/ http://www.hr.com/ http://hrtests.blogspot.com/ http://positivesharing.com/ http://www.humanresourcesiq.com 5
YouTube Great for introducing/building your brand Ideal for showing company culture Many companies are utilizing videos to attract talent Google+ Already one of the fastest growing social networks More sharing/privacy options (Circles) Can share a post, link, video or photo right from Gmail Google+ updates appear in search results Google+ is still brand new and will evolve just as the other social networks have. It s impact on social networking is not yet clear. Listen First Monitoring Tools 6
Listen Research and listen to what your audience is saying before you start talking. You can learn a lot about your audience, competitors and influencers just by listening. Monitor and Track: Conversation volume Conversation topics Where people are talking Tone of conversations Industry influencers Listen Free Monitoring Tools Many free tools that allow you to monitor what is being said about your company, brand and industry Google Alerts Email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Social Mention track and measure what people are saying about you, your brand, your services, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Listen Free Monitoring Tools TweetBeep Hourly Twitter updates. Great for online reputation management, catching all your @replies and @mentions, finding networking opportunities, keeping up on the latest news, and more! Twellow An online Twitter directory that grabs publicly available messages from Twitter and then analyzes and categorizes each of the users responsible for those messages into the various categories. Twitter Search Real time search tool for all public tweets on Twitter.com. 7
Monitoring Tools - Paid Paid tools allow for larger number searches, in-depth searches and work faster than free versions. Many also help with the analysis of the data. Investment ranges from $500 to as much as $10,000/month Hootsuite Pro Alterian SM2 Radian 6 Sysomos BuzzLogic Viral Heat Monitoring Tools What to Look For Covered networks Most hit Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, but if need niche discussion groups may need to go paid Metrics/reporting Some show graphs, others just aggregate numbers Workflow capabilities Customer support services Ease of interface Social Media Policies 8
Social Policies - Legal Compliance and Ethical Concerns Social Media policy should extend to all employees Train employees on social media This allows employers to show employees the right way to use it Implement a policy NOW Guidelines for Creating Policies Create the policy to fit your culture and previous policies/handbooks Make it easy to understand Create a rollout plan for your new policy Educate your employees on the policy Involve ALL relevant parties and department when creating and reviewing the policy Do your research! Look at a lot of other company s policies to be sure to include all pertinent information Social Media Cheat Sheet 9
Social Media Cheat Sheet: What to Post Use what you have From business blog, newsroom, YouTube, etc. Make sure is recent, relevant Watch other users and re-post interesting updates Be sure to give credit to user by referencing them in your re-post using @Name Events News posts Awards Customer quotes/testimonials Contests Promotions, coupons Advice / tips Reference other resources Pictures / videos Destination updates Location stories Seasonal info Social Media Cheat Sheet Best to post daily or at least 3 times a week Set aside 15-20 min for posts Sync social networks together to make content efficient (Hootsuite, Tweet Deck) Ideal to post during day Social Media Cheat Sheet Connect back with those offering connection (be sure they are a legitimate contact if you do not know them) Reply to questions from connections Re-tweet, share, link to posts from connections Anytime see something of interest, share it, comment and give credit to original author Thank others for sharing info you posted 10
Take - Aways Social Media is here to stay Conversations about your company and industry are happening online whether you are there or not Social media can be beneficial to HR pros both personally and professionally Listen First Stay up-to-date on what is being said in your industry Identify where people are talking about what topics Stay legal Be clear on regulations/policies for your industry. Know what you can and cannot take into consideration when making a hiring decision Questions? Bill Balderaz President Webbed Marketing (a division of Fathom SEO) Twitter: @bbalderaz Email: bbalderaz@webbedmarketing.com Social Media Part II will discuss social media strategy. 11