When recruiting via social media, the main aims are the same as any other campaign: know your audience; develop a strong, long-term strategy; and look to engage with potential employees.

Once you’ve begun a campaign, keep it going regularly. Whether this means blogging, updating social networking sites or website content, up-to-date content shows a dynamic and contemporary company which will attract talent to match. Sluggish sites with few updates and outdated information have the opposite effect and can be detrimental to your recruitment drives.

The ongoing growth of social media is a fantastic opportunity for recruiters, opening up an amazing talent pool which stretches far beyond the usual boundaries of agencies, job pages and speculative applications; it just requires the right strategy and the correct platform to take off.

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However to begin with, focus on the big two: Facebook and Twitter. Both of these sites allow you to keep in contact with hundreds, even thousands of people every day and enable you put your brand and message in front of them. You may have come across our introduction to Facebook blog article and our Twitter for business blog article.

Once you are familiar with the two sites, you can start to build up your social media reputation. This will require regular updates and it is important to let potential customers know exactly what you are offering. Sharing your knowledge and expertise on these sites is a good way to draw people in and by engaging with customers; answering queries, showcasing new products and sharing your company’s latest news, your profit margin will increase.

Customers are more likely to use/buy your services/ products if you offer something back in return. The key to profitable social media is interacting, rather than broadcasting.

Ultimately, social media is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to reach a wide audience, so make sure you plan your strategy carefully.

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The mentions of Bebo on Twitter that day and night came in fast and furious, with the majority of them from Bebo users, angry about the rumours of immediate closure (there seemed to be a belief it was closing that night).  Many of them stated that they were planning on jumping ship to Facebook in advance of any termination of their BEBO accounts.

Having personally never been a Bebo user myself, I signed up!  We’ll see how long it remains live!

Some Background Info

Bebo has a massively different demographic to the likes of LinkedIn and even Facebook.  Bebo has (or had) the biggest share of the under 17 year old market, and was the 2^nd largest social network in the UK (with an equally strong following in Australia).

But globally, and more specifically in the US, Bebo is, and has been lagging behind for some time – at it’s peak it had approx 40 million users, compare that to over 400 million active facebook accounts.

Up until early 2007, BEBO and Myspace had almost equal share of the social media market, but in the summer of that year Facebook almost came out of nowhere and established itself as the top dog.  Ever since, Bebo’s numbers have been falling…  and for a business that’s solely making money from advertising spend based on users and eyeballs, AOL has finally decided that enough’s enough.

 
Why did it fail?

I think Bebo’s problem was that it simply didn’t innovate.  It started out as almost a carbon-copy of Myspace, and didn’t adapt when it needed to.  Like Myspace even now, it’s a bit slow, a bit clunky, and still looks like one of the early social networking sites.  In the meantime, along comes Facebook, with a real buzz about it globally, and it brings a a fresh approach to social networking with it’s focus on status updates and live news feeds.  The result is a truly mainstream social resource, used not just by the schoolkids, but by everyone.

Which all leads to the question – why didn’t it evolve?  I personally think that Bebo’s decline wasn’t helped by it’s acquisition by AOL (Time Warner).  I think they were just too big, with too many fingers in too many pies, and Bebo was just something else for them to play with.  They used their financial clout to jump on the social media bandwagon without the real investment and understanding of making it a long term success.

Look at other examples such as MySpace -acquired by traditional news man Rupert Murdoch (News Corp) in 2005 for $580million (now valued at next to nothing), and also Friends Reunited – one of the UK’s first social networking sites before any of us knew what social networking was.  It was purchased by ITV for £175million in 2005, and recently sold for a mere £25million following a massive downturn in usage (although it does appear to have found some momentum again).

It’s no coincidence that the other big names in social media which ARE still performing – Networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – are all still under the original ownership of the then small startup companies whose passion and drive made them the successes they were and still are today.   Unlike Bebo’s current owners, they included evolution in their strategies. 

Future:

Despite everything, surely for someone, Bebo can be a success – it’s still the 4^th most popular Social networking site, and 31^st most popular website in general! (globally) – according to recent webstats from Hitwise.   Just like the other main players, I don’t believe that Bebo should be written off just yet, and if your business or organisation wants to engage with a younger market, then Bebo is still (for now) a main player. 

Unfortunately, I think the announcement regarding Bebo being up for sale, and the rumours that followed of immediate closure won’t help the decline in usage, which in turn doesn’t help the likelihood of a suitable buyer stepping forward.

I’m sure Bebo will find a buyer, and maybe even a UK one (given its popularity here), but certainly AOL will struggle to recoup anything close to the $850 million they paid just 2 years ago, and by the sounds of it – they’ll settle for almost anything.  Quite tempted myself..

More over at Scotland on Sunday – Why Bebo lost its bounce

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This week we’re down in Ayrshire – exhibiting at the North Ayrshire Council’s e-Biz Expo taking place on Wednesday at the Menzies Hotel in Irvine.  The seminars (aimed at small and growing businesses) at this event include ecommerce, SEO and social media, so we’re looking forward to chatting with the audience on all these matters!

Then on Friday and Saturday we’re once again doing the “New Start Scotland” exhibition at the SECC – Scotland’s biggest event aimed at new-start businesses (although it attracts many established businesses too!) with a wealth of exhibitors, seminars, workshops and business advice clinics.

I’m actually delivering our popular “Embrace the Space” seminar as part of the New-Start Program, so please drop by if you’re in the area and want to hear me on the subject of positive business use of Twitter etc.   More info on this, as well as times can be found at our Social Networking page.

Then next week, we’re in Edinburgh with a short pitch at the TTOM Innovation Partnering Event followed by a talk to the Students at Abertay in Dundee about starting a creative business (always good fun!)…

If you spot any of us as we take this show on the road, then please come and say hello!!

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And to be honest – they’re right – Twitter is full of useless noise – much of it fun and amusing noise, but noise nonetheless, and certainly not the most obvious resource for “proper” business use.  But with a little knowledge on how to get the best from Twitter, it’s possible to filter out that noise, and get easy access to powerful information about what your clients are saying – about you, your brand, your competitors, their wishes, desires, likes, dislikes and more.  With gazillions of people worldwide already on Twitter, and unheard of growth rates, surely even the most skeptical business owner can see the value of tapping into this mind-set.

If Google is a search engine to people’s websites – then think of Twitter as a search engine to their thoughts.  And knowing what people are thinking is one serious business advantage. 

So give it a try – Follow the 7 steps below and get tweeting (sorry – but I didn’t make up the stupid terminology).

1 – Signup

Ok – fairly obvious really, but head over to www.twitter.comand signup – it takes seconds.  Choose a suitable username related to your business name, but don’t stress to much over this – it can be changed later.

2 – Customise

Before you do anything – add a little customisation to your Profile page.  Why?  Because if you don’t, you’re just another faceless twitter account – similar to the countless spammers, con-men, phishers and idiots (sorry – but they do exist) that sign up to Twitter just to cause problems for the rest of us. 

Be proud of who you are – add your name, your biography, your logo (avatar) and customise the background.  Stand out from the crowd, and have a profile that gives people reason to trust you – understand who you are, and maybe they’ll find value in following you.

3 – Post a few Tweets

Next you’ll want to post a few tweets, to let the world know you’re alive…  again, do this before announcing your twitter page to the masses, and before you start following anyone…  it’ll help establish you as a credible (albeit new) twitter user, and with a few posts to read, then any potential follower will know what to expect should they choose to follow you.

4 – Follow Others

Start by Following other people you know that use Twitter..  search for them via Twitter’s  ”Find People” function,  and click the Follow Button.  Easy as that…  now browse to the people they follow, or browse their other followers.  Recognise any of them?  Worth following them too?  You can also use Twitter search to discover other users of similar interests etc, or people talking about certain subjects.

Don’t follow everyone for the sake of it – there’s no value in this whatsoever, and you’ll appear like a twitter spammer simply building up a target list!  Choose suitable people that are related to your business… your clients, your suppliers, your competitors (yes – they WILL know you are following them) etc. 

5 – Attract Followers!

Ultimately, you want people following you, otherwise you’re marketing to nobody!  Some methods to gain followers (other than many of the people you follow, following you back) include:

• Announce it to your clients via your online newsletter, your email footers and your website.  Take any opportunity to tell people your Twitter URL.
• Encourage people to “retweet” your tweets
• Flag up important keywords with the hashtag – makes it easier for people to find it – see here for help understanding what a twitter hashtag is
• Use it, but don’t overuse it – don’t be one of those Twitter users that floods my tweet-stream with 100’s of pointless tweets. 
• Consider using an image in your tweet – statistically, tweets containing a link to an image are re-tweeted more than most other tweets.

6 – Get Serious

 After you’ve used Twitter for a while, and are following a few people, the limitations of the Twitter.com website become clear – which is why anyone who’s serious about twitter ignores the twitter website, and actually uses one of the many 3rd party Twitter tools.  And the one I’d recommend is Tweet Deck.

WIthout giving a full tutorial on the many excellent features of TweetDeck, suffice to say that it makes it possible to filter out all the noise in Twitter, and allows you to easily and quickly find all the important tweets posted by your followers, as well as datamine the thoughts of the twitter masses, search for relevant business information, exploit potential sales leads, and much more…  Need more help? – Give us a shout, or come to one of the workshops and we’ll spend time showing you really how powerful a tool this is…

7 – Monitor and Evaluate

Like any form of Marketing, knowing your return on investment is vital to help understand the impact it’s making.  I’m confident that after a short time, Twitter will certainly be a “fun” elemnt in your marketing strategy – but is it actually delivering for you?

Monitorring your activity and success on Twitter isn’t difficult, but depends on “what” you want to measure.  For example :

• How many “Followers” (and the growth of new followers).  – http://twittercounter.com
• How many clicks back to your website – you can use your own web hosting statistics (assuming they provide you stats), or, even easier, you can use a service like www.bit.lywhich is built into tweetdeck
• How many of your Tweets are being “re-tweeted”
• Are your images engaging your followers?
• Understand why people “stop” following you – “was it something I said” ?

Follow these 7-steps, and let us know how Twitter works for your business..  It’s not a silver bullet – it won’t magically turn your product or service into this year’s must have (especially if it was poor to begin with!), but used properly – Twitter can improve your customer service, your PR, your repeat business and your word of mouth, not forgetting the business benefit that comes from reading the minds of millions!  Have fun!

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With the emergence of devices like the iphone and Blackberry which use direct user manipulation with the screen, this has allowed screen sizes to be maximised, allowing users to see a lot more data. This is a big advantage for designers. The way in which people appear to be using the mobile web seems to be based very much more on practical functionality, communication, and accessing data/carrying out tasks quickly on the move. In this respect and with the challenge of designing for a smaller screen, its clear that mobile interfaces must be designed with content and usability at the forefront, whilst still conveying a companies branding and image successfully. Some mobile sites which demonstrate successful examples of this stripped down design, content focused approach are Amazon and Twitter.

The interface possibilities associated with phones also open new opportunities for designing the best user experience. Built in features like touchscreen, the mobile keypad, accelerator keys, the iphones motion detection and even vibrate could be used to maximise the efficiency of accessing mobile data. The type of sites that have proved most popular among web users support this idea of a more functionality and content focused web. News, weather and sports sites, email, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and of course search engines all rank very highly.

The statistics for mobile use in Britain are also interesting with Britain making up 20% of worldwide mobile web usage, second only to America. The number of mobile internet users grew from 5.8 million to 7.3 million is the third quarter of 2008 according to research from Neilson Online, meaning the mobile web is growing 8 times faster than desktop. The result of this rapid increase in mobile web usage has taken many businesses by surprise and are unaware that a large amount of their potential market are now surfing the web via mobile. In 2009 I think that many companies will start to see the advantage of having a mobile version of their site – not as a replacement but as a peripheral part of their overall brand strategy, allowing them to maximise their exposure to their markets.

As mentioned, social networking and the ability to update accounts like Twitter, Facebook and blogs, on the move and improve communication plays a big part in the mobile web and web in general. At a seminar we attended last week, one of the speakers Joe Hughes from Yomego suggested the theory that in the future social networking will take a more focuses approach where users in certain communities will have their own social networking and communication sites to discuss their interests, hence allowing advertisers to be more focuses aswell. Whether or not this happens to the extent he suggested is debatable, but the web definitely looks set to continue to embrace this social and community aspect of communication and generating content and the role the mobile web plays in this will continue to increase.

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