Social Networks Are Not Just About Having Fun.

I’ve been banging on about the importance of social networking to recruitment and my job networks on Twitter are gaining a considerable following @JobsAustralia @Jobseen @GamerJobs @ITJobsSydney as an example. Check out this article from the weekend Courier Mail by Amanda Horswill. Read article here. You’d have to be an ostrich not to notice the level of media coverage social networks receive these days. “These networks won’t work”, “It’ll take years before social networks are vital to recruiting”, said the critics. I say the critics need a rethink on these claims. I say, social networking is already integral. If you don’t believe me, read in this article what Iggy Pintado has to say about my ideas…

Ah. I love it when a plan comes together.

Other adaptations of social networking techniques create new takes on a traditional job board. Online Recruitment owner Geoff Jennings says he runs a number of different Twitter accounts that “feed” (provide updates to) “followers” (people who agree to receive his messages) a one-line description of particular categories of jobs, followed by a weblink to the job ad on a different website such as Careerone.com.au. The information he uses is collated by a third party, a website called an aggregator (www.recruit.net), which “scrapes” information off a number of websites and collates it into a single-line description called a “news feed”. Jennings takes this news feed, combines it with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed from other sites than ban aggregation, and mixes in a few of his client’s positions that he is contracted to fill. He then broadcasts the jobs on Twitter, under account names such as ITjobsbris and ITjobssydney and gamerjobs.

“At this stage I am just testing the service. My company is not yet big enough to draw a large following on Twitter if I only put the jobs my company was recruiting for. But if I put many jobs on I can feed to a broader audience,” he says.

“That’s my strategy, anyway. I am very up-front about it (on those accounts).”

He maintains a personal account under his own name: “I don’t flog jobs in there, it’s to brand me as a recruiter. But on the other accounts, people don’t want to see me in there among the jobs.”

He says while he doesn’t get a large number of inquiries from Twitter to his company’s positions, the response so far is promising.

“I do get a lot of people ‘re-Twitting’. That’s when people pick up my Tweet and put a RT in front of it and send it out to their network. Then you get that community-based thing going. From that, I have had emails saying ‘I am interested, tell me more’.”

Social networking expert and author of Connection Generation Iggy Pintado says Jennings could possibly represent the future direction of Twitter.

The Everlasting Jobstopper

Here’s a job ad. from CareerOne from 2006 - and still running. Click here.

I hope they’re no applicants out there, on tenterhooks, waiting for news.

OMG - No Investor Support

Fairfax’s MyCareer.com.au number of ads stands at 25,000+. Seek’s - 105,000+.

And it’s no wonder. Even the folks who should be supporting MyCareer aren’t advertising with them.

Fairfax NZ is advertising for a Acquisitions and Retentions Manager . Where did they place their ad? Seek.

Then there’s Online Marketing Group, the folks who boast in their job ad that “Fairfax Digital is a strategic investor in our company”, have posted a job for a Online Account Executive position. Guess they don’t have much faith in their investor. They chose to advertise exclusively on Seek.

SEEK Price Review (Australia) 2009

Thanks Seek. If I was still a customer. I would have really appreciated this gesture.

Dear Geoff,

As you may know SEEK reviews pricing structure at this time each year.

I want to let you know that there will be no price rise of SEEK products in 2009.

This decision has been made in recognition of your ongoing loyalty to SEEK during an extremely challenging economic period for all Australian businesses, and as a demonstration of our support of your business and our industry during this time.

SEEK remains absolutely committed to supporting your business by delivering:

* Australia’s largest job seeking audience
* Products that better suit your needs & attract a more relevant audience to SEEK
* Superior customer service and flexibility

Thanks again for choosing to use SEEK and for your support.

I wish you all the best for the coming year.

Kind Regards,

Joe Powell
Managing Director
SEEK Employment

Social Niche Job Boards

I’ve been banging on about social job boards for yonks now. And there are still folks out there who remain unconvinced of their supremacy over traditional job boards. Or, at the least, there are folks who think this so-called supremacy is a long way off.

So, in an effort to practise what I preach (amen, do you you hear me brothers and sisters?); in an effort to get that particular ball rolling, I’ve decided to have a shot at a couple of social job boards. Here they are: SalesZoo & GamerJobs

Go and check them out. Here’s a chance for the members of the congregation to critique me for a change. Be gentle:)

Important Information On Your Account At CareerOne.com.au

I received an email from CareerOne today asking:

Dear Careerone Employer,

As a valued customer, you are receiving this email as our records show that you have posted a job ad with CareerOne.com.au and we want to make sure your account remains active.

We are currently updating our records to ensure we continue to offer our advertisers the best service and support. As a result, any accounts that have not been accessed in the last 18 months will be deleted.

To keep your account active, simply login to your account today.

Forgotten your password? We can resend it to you.

I appreciate the need to keep business and sometimes the way to do this is to get customers who have dropped off, back on board.  I have not advertised with CareerOne for over three years.  And I daresay there’d be many others in my position.  Is this email going to inspire me to begin advertising with them again?  Unlikely.

There’s nothing wrong with a phone call.  This seems to be a lazy way of doing a necessary job.  Plus, it looks like one of those bank scam emails and I am not about to click and find out…

Future Of Job Boards - Is It Social

Online community is a bit of a buzzword at the moment and I reckon it’s important we begin to define it in the context of recruitment. Why? Because recruitment is moving rapidly into an almost entirely online workspace. This being the case, whatever is a hot topic in the internet generally, becomes a hot topic for us. More importantly, though, we need to understand this concept in order to shape how we respond to it.

Here’s where I break it down for the readers: There are two main components to the notion of community. These are: a) common interest b) communication. So, a community is a place where people with a common interest meet to exchange knowledge, discuss ideas or get to know one another.

The demands of our lives are such that, with regard to communication, interactivity is vital. It allows us to achieve all three aspects of communication in one shot. In doing this, we can make informed decisions about WHOSE information we need access to and WHAT sorts of things we want to know. Interaction gives us this. It permits us access to a subtext in the discourse of a particular communication. It does this through commentary, but also through circulation on social networks.

Okay, so where does this leave job boards?

Over the short term, what this means is that job boards will attempt to integrate some form of interactivity into their sites. Sites such as TribeHQ have already begun to do this.

In the long term, however, job boards will not serve the functional requirements of our society. Lacking some of the basic elements of community, they will not be able to satisfy the need to streamline information resources, and they will not provide the social proof required to verify the validity of their advertisements. Seek already have difficulty with this and dedicate a large amount of resources to preventing (sometimes unsuccessfully) fake job ads.

‘Future of the traditional job board’ was discussed together with Thomas Shaw and Diane Lee at the ‘Recruitment Rumble’ recently. Listen to the recording here.

Classified Ad Ventures Acquires Hippo Jobs

Simon Baker, the CEO of Classified Ad Ventures, has acquired the youth job board Hippo. Hippo appointed an administrator on March 24th.

This is a great result for James Masini, General Manager and founder of Hippo Jobs, as it gives him an economic lifeline and allows him a continued involvement in the company.

Simon has a good track record as a leader at the helm of a fledgling classified businesses. He resuscitated a drowning realestate.com.au in 2001 when they were down to their last few dollars. There, Simon grew revenues from $4m to $155m in FY 2008.

Simon Baker said, “We believe that niche jobs sites are a growing opportunity. Managers have less time than ever to troll through the hundreds of irrelevant CVs they often receive from the general jobs sites. Our investment in ArtsHub shows that by having a targeted audience, we are able to deliver a small number of quality candidates that meet the advertisers’ requirements.”

“Hippo has successfully matched the youth of Australia with employers of choice for the past 2 years. As part of the Classified Ad Ventures, advertisers and candidates using Hippo Jobs will benefit from a combined 40 years of online classified experience and receive better results.”

Hippo Jobs will report to Chris Vulovic, the head of Classified Ad Ventures’ Innovation team.

Live Recruitment Rumble - May 7th, 11:00am

There’s nothing like a good stoush.

And frankly, while I like nothing better than a good old jab at industry players like job boards and recruiters, I reckon it’s about time I took on one of my own kind.

So, rally around the shelter shed, peoples, it’s gonna be a bewdy. (details here)

Join online recruitment industry leaders Geoff Jennings and Thomas Shaw for a LIVE “Recruitment Rumble” Thursday May 7th, 11:00am - 12:00pm. All gloves will be off as Geoff and Thomas go head to head in a discussion about key topics (Geoff may even wear his shiny purple boxing shorts).

Joining in the live discussion is Diane Lee, founder of Even It Up! providing a perspective from the job seeker point of view and “outsider” to the industry.

Topics for discussion include:

- Future of the traditional Job board?
- SEEK vs. CareerOne/Monster - who will win?
- Fake job adverts?
- RCSA: Soft as a marshmellow?
- Should I use a recruitment agency or go direct?
- Background searching candidates online?

Do you want to listen or join in the discussion? Register here.

Geoff Jennings is the controversial man at the helm of http://www.geoffjennings.com, a site dedicated to keeping the recruitment bastards honest. He has worked for online industry leaders and is currently Managing Director of www.onlinerecruitment.com.au

Thomas Shaw is the “pretty boy” of online recruitment, having established his stranglehold of the industry via his blog www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/blog By day he works in the recruitment industry, and at night a tweet from Thomas can make or break your organisation.

Diane Lee is the founder of Even It Up! which aims to provide information about recruitment practices for Australian jobseekers. Diane is leading the revolt from frustrated job seekers who want an even playing field www.evenitup.com.au

Michael Harvey Appointed CEO At CareerOne

Michael Harvey has been appointed new CEO of CareerOne. He succeeds Dr Stephen Hollings, who has been appointed director of sales strategy at News Ltd. Both appointments are effective as of May 1.

I had hoped there’d be no casualties. But I guess if you’re gonna fight a war, you want your best people up front, you know, leading the troups and all that.  I’m, not certain Harvey is C1’s MacArthur.  His background is in finance and he spent 11 years at Foxstudios.  A strategy man - no doubt.  But C1 needs more than strategy, it needs leaders who’ll fight on the frontlines.  Will Harvey be a leader with a viable weapon, or a spreadsheet?

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