Recruitment: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Millennials?

Talent Acquisition of the Largest Labor Segment in the Age of Social Media

Millennials, the the generation born between 1981 and 1997 today represent 35 percent of the workforce. This compares to Gen X at 34 percent, boomers at 29 percent and the silent generation (pre-boomer) at 2 percent. (Pew Research)

It stands to reason that a greater percentage of millennials use social media than, say, baby boomers, and they do so on mobile devices while on the go. So, where to reach them on social media? Pop quiz: What social media site is best for reaching job seekers? If you said LinkedIn you’d be right — but that’s best for older, more experienced hires. For recent graduates and those with under two years of experience Facebook, as well as YouTube, is where you have to go to reach them best.

What does this prime pool of potential employees want out of a job? Reports site short term rewards and long term relationships as key attractants (SHRM), but from my experience you cannot understate the role company culture plays in attracting millennial job seekers.

That’s why you need to build a relationship with them online now, in order to attract them to fill spots later. Things like an inside look at what it’s like to be an employee at your company. What freedom-friendly policies do you have (e.g. flex hours, work from home)? What on-site amenities (e.g. health club, game room, free food/snacks, etc.) can they enjoy every day on the job? What team building and other fun events can they expect to participate in if they worked here?

When you share these and, eventually, job openings, you need to optimize your social media posts for mobile devices as part of an overall mobile-first digital strategy.

The golden rule for attracting millennials to your company using social media is the same as successfully marketing to any potential customer — know your audience.

LinkedIn 201 Basics: How To Share Thought Leadership [Infographic]

Four easy steps to building your online subject matter reputation by sharing informative articles on LinkedIn


No Time For Social Media? Why You Should Make Some


(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I came across this article, How to Make Space for Social Media,  published on Harvard Business Review by Alexandra Samuel, Vice-President of Social Media at Vision Critical, a market research technology provider (@awsamuel). She had me from the first sentence:

Few professionals were sitting at their desks in 2004, eyeing the empty slots in their calendars and wishing that somebody would just invent a new way of communicating to fill those long and lonely minutes.

Nice. And, something I wanted to share in a way more robust than a simple tweet or LinkedIn update, which is why I’ve based this entry on her’s.

In the article she takes an honest look not at not just the reasons why it makes sense for today’s executives to be active on social media, but why it’s worth giving up other activities in order to find the time to participate. It’s powerful stuff. She supported one of my recurring mantras regarding social business for companies — hire a social media professional to lead the way — but goes on to address the individual executive’s reason for doing so.

Here are the four questions she says execs need to ask themselves in order to realize the value spending (more) time on social networks:

  1. What am I learning from social media?
  2. Who am I meeting through social media?
  3. Who am I reaching through social media?
  4. How am I replenished by social media?

Please read the article for the reasoning behind the questions. There’s a lot to learn — and to teach others resistant to the idea of devoting time and energy to social media — that you will be able to use.

After all, the best way to get senior management “buy-in” for your social media initiatives is to first explain the “why” before the “what, how and when”.

Food for Thought: Adding Social Media to the Menu

After taking time off for summer adventures, misadventures and mishaps (fodder for future posts, no doubt) I came across an article written earlier this year by confessed social media neophyte Bruce Buscel on his attempts to secure PR services for his relatively new restaurant, Southfork Kitchen, located in New York’s vaunted Hamptons on Long Island’s east end. While restaurant centric in nature, there are  lessons to learn for all businesses, big and small, about how social media has changed the landscape for both marketing and public relations.

After two failed attempts to engage a PR firm to support his restaurant’s launch, first with  traditional PR firm that appeared to just go through the (unsuccessful) motions and another with a “foodie” led boutique firm which (on paper) would seem to have been a good fit but ultimately wanted to change the client rather than support it, Bruce  realized that:

“The old P.R. model is as useless as the fax machines on which press releases used to arrive.”

He decided to turn to media firms with expertise in social media. Surveying six of them, he came up with a digital dozen strategies for social media. From those, here are my top five social media strategies for all businesses (paraphrased):

  1. It’s a dialogue– listen and respond
    The first word in social media is “social”. It’s a dialogue, not a broadcast. Listen always; respond frequently; curate connections.
  2. Keep your social media activity current.
    The only thing worse than not being involved in social media is to allow your participation to go stale.
  3. Know your audience.
    Engage them where they already are participating online. Keep in mind that if your customer base is comprised of several distinct audiences that participate on different social networks you’ll need to tailor your content for each.
  4. Assess your progress regularly.
    Like any other business discipline, you need to plan strategy, execute tactics, assess results,  and then modify your plan as indicated. To do so you need to track KPI (Key Performance Indicators) relevant to your specific business and goals (likes, follows, time spent; service issues handled, sales/conversions, etc.) .
  5. Engage a social media pro to get you started and then plan long-term
    Bruce is not alone in wondering how to get up to speed on social media. my advice is, as always, hire a social media professional (one who has successfully been performing social media as a profession for a number of years) to get you started. Then, plan on who will take over that role long-term. Consider bringing your contracted pro in-house if it makes sense for you both.

Bruce concludes,

“What is the sound of irony? We are all in the P.R. business now.”


A New Year, But Same Rules for Social Media PR




Accept social media as an ongoing tool; create a social media policy; trust and use your staff; plan on who and how to handle crisis communications; keep social media social – participate in the conversation; be honest; always think of your image.



image credit: association of web design professionals

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