YouTube,Google+.Livestream And The Social Channels
There’s a great feature that I have only just noticed on Google+, that I think offers good opportunities for employer branding and social recruiting. I have been working with a few clients on hosting hangouts on a weekly basis, and inviting candidates to come and talk. While the audiences aren’t huge, the feedback and results are great.
The other benefit is that you can record these shows for posting to YouTube, sharing or embedding on your career site and other social places. YouTube have lifted the 10 minute limit on these videos, so you can house the whole show, and that’s got me thinking about what is possible, and in particular the best way to promote video and other content across all of the social channels.
The other way that you can use YouTube with Google+ is sharing pre-recorded videos for broadcast in to a hangout. This has possibilities for your employer brand videos, training, even team communications. The closer tie-in between Google products and YouTube has real potential. You can promote hangouts to your circles as well as promoting events through the wider social networks. Combining a hangout with livestream using screenshare also means you can broadcast on to your fan page on Facebook, embed as a live event on your career site, pretty much anywhere on-line. You also get the opportunity to run chat features in both channels so that you can engage with potential candidates. Once you’ve scheduled the event you can share it through Facebook events, LinkedIn events, Plancast, Twitvite, (my new favourite event software BSwarms) and all the other event sharing platforms. There’s real opportunity to get plenty of people from your target audience to the event. You can make plenty of noise to announce it. Google+ has a great people search facility that makes targeting individuals easy by discipline, trade, skill, experience and location for further invites.
I spotted a great example of cross-channel promotion for a Ustrean show today from Deloitte in New Zealand, who continue to raise the bar in this area. They’ve started promoting their internship and graduate recruitment program by connecting potential candidates through a series of blogs, events, weekly ustream broadcast on to their Facebook fan page titled “up close and personal”, events and other activity.They’ve also just started promoting hangout sessions with the graduate recruiters. All the content and sessions are promoted via an active twitter, Google+ and Facebook page. They engage in every channel they can, but use live video very well.
They currently have 121 live openings to fill at the next intake. The promotion for the ustream event came to my attention via an infographic on Pinterest, which was repinned in the social recruiting infographics board I follow. The Infographic contained some very simple to follow info on Deloitte as a business and employer.
The image linked back to traditional media on the job board Grad Connection. If you don’t know GradConnection, the board is rich in social features including forums, more images than words, and featured employers. The featured employers page includes Facebook, YouTube and Twitter widgets linking to the social places, links to the career site and an application process that encourages joining for updates and a simple C.V. upload and parsing to populate all applications. The only thing missing is the opportunity to apply using a social profile like LinkedIn. I think this site is a good model for what a social job site can be.
Switching over to their Facebook fan page, they’ve already switched over to timeline and the result looks brilliant. The banner they are using is consistent with their graduate branding featuring a slightly open door against a black background, with the strap line, “Make your move.”
The 4 featured apps with the new big button looks are likes, photos, events and not surprisingly, YouTube. Close to half the content is pictures or video, so it looks great in the new format. The YouTube channel on the Deloitte page is powered by the Involver app. This is quite a new app to me, but it’s brilliant and easy to install. The YouTube app features the latest video uploaded at the top and other videos from your channel underneath. Click on any video and it moves to the top for viewing. The freemium option allows for 1 video auto-posted to your page and wall each day, and there’s a paid for version that does a lot more including posting to multiple pages. Other apps in the Involver suite include RSS feeds, Flickr, a neat app that renders html in to the Facebook i-frame and a twitter feed. Involver also publish a brilliant engagement platform that is also worth a look.
A Deloitte Intern Video
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkik0VfGGDQ&w=560&h=315]
There’s plenty of other video content in a similar vein that gives a good feel for life and work at Deloitte NZ, though the stand out is still the U-Stream live Q and A sessions. I’ve spoken with Paul Jacobs of consultancy Engage, who is supporting Deloitte Grads NZ in to the social arena about the impact this has had on their employer brand. The results clearly show that they have become the employer of choice among the student population, but the stand out area for me is the multi-channel approach they are taking, where one compliments another and video and live broadcast features highly.
The other area that I think offers great opportunities for recruiters is running the event as a careers fair. Individual recruiters can be available via either Skype or individual circles for one to one conversation, and including a simple application process to apply or sign up for your talent network. Promoting a career event across all the channels, making it live and accessible offers real opportunity for dynamic recruiting, connecting with your possible candidate base.
Bill
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