Digital Recruiting

LinkedIn Opens up at Last

After announcing it would open up its platform ages ago - LinkedIn finally lets outside developers have access.

All the pro's and con's are detailed here - including the t & c's that they are imposing which may be a bit stifling and limiting.

But nonetheless- really interesting development for our clients. Watch this space.

Mash-Up my Career

So, I read this article today about how you can use technology/sites to map your life history.

I like this idea - overlay your life on a map of places you have visited, schools you attended, where you have lived etc add relevant content, photo's, links to friends etc

Instead of carving your name on a tree (maybe with another name, date and a heart around it) you can create your life history in a dynamic, visual and interactive way - a 3G biography - a personal diary or history.

Surely this is the future of logging your career experience? - a digital, real-time, resume: charting your work history, where you have worked, who you have worked with and examples of campaigns, clients, innovations you have worked on etc? An interface that will bring this to life.

A digital Career portfolio.

Is this the service that job boards can offer to ensure they are still a valid and relevant avenue for future candidates and employers?

An evolution of sites such as LinkedIn?

Surely it is.

Twitter & LinkedIn Partnership Merges Professional with Personal

One of the best pastimes I've read on a CV from a prospective candidate was;

 'reading, socialising and...thinking.

In an evening/weekend they liked nothing better, than to sit down and have a good think.........this certainly put some thoughts into my head.

It would seem that the anouncement that you can share your Tweets on your LinkedIn profile will also provide employers with an insight into your personality, pastimes and what makes you tick. As Biz Stone, Co-founder of twitter states; people are finding:

'the personna they create for themselves on the web is part of their resume in many ways'.

 
This certainly goes some way to blurring the line between your professional social web presence - LinkedIn and your more personal presence - or 'brand' on the web, on a site such as Twitter.

The partnership is great for LinkedIn in terms of making it a more dynamic 'real' time stream of info and super for twitter and its expansion plans for 'putting a little twitter in everything'.

'Real time' insights are what its all about.

Will we get real-time insights on real thoughts and real personna's or up-to-the minute insights on a contrived personal/professional brand?

Perhaps it will be like Big Brother - where after a while, you just don't notice that the camera's are there anymore.....oops.

Its not Y!ou...it's..er....

What's a brand all about?

Well,...employer brands, they are a representation and reflection of an existing, living, breathing organisation and its' culture, no? its actual values, it's reality...it's aspirations to an extent.

I was in San Francisco on holiday recently and the Yahoo  -'It's 'Y!ou' campaign was literally everywhere you went. I thought it was maybe a west coast of America, Silicon Valley-type campaign, but sure enough, when I got back to London and climbed into my cab and had a look around - it was eveywhere to be seen too. I thought...big media budget....hmnn...wonder who has that account...:o)

Seemingly the media budget was in the region of a huge $100 million - certainly it got my attention (on two different continents) but what impact did it make? 

It was interesting to be shown this chart below when I got back to work:

It would appear that for all the investment in the campaign, it's just not having a postive impact on the brand, quite the opposite in fact.

I guess the issue with the message is, it's not telling me anything about Yahoo! and who and what it is - what it stands for. Yes, personalisation is the future, and I like that you tailor your product/company to me...but that's if its relevant to me as an individual person - telling everyone its all about them...well, it just doesn't resonate. Perhaps our tribal instinct gives us a desire to pin our badge to something we identify with - and this goes for both consumer and employer brands.

p.s. nice article and debate about campaign here.

Social Web v. Destination Sites

Hey there, I'm back after a bit of a break - on hols and busy busy at work.

Here's something I wanted to share which is really interesting - its a post noting how traffic to brands destination sites is declining compared to the rising traffic on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Its all about the content and where its being consumed i.e. in the social web and less so at a brands own website.

Is the writing on the wall for a company's website?

Maybe not just yet, but it does reinforce the fact that clients should be engaging with their target audience where they are consuming media - on the social web. A considered, well thought-out social media strategy, where a clients site is integrated is key.