Social Media for Job Seekers and Beyond

Episode #9 Transcript

PUBLISHED ON AUGUST 10, 2010

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Peter Clayton: Hi! This is Peter Clayton with Episode 9 of the Onward Search Career Cast. We’re talking today with Interactive Account Executive Meri Gulyan from Onwards Search and Social Media expert Travis Falstad to get some great insider advice on the application of social media for both personal networking and business communications. And it’s great to have the LA office on our Onward Search Career Cast here. So, everyone is talking about it. We all know Twitter and Facebook and Linkedln, but really are these platforms effective outside of keeping personal connections? Is this something companies should be investing in? Travis?

Travis: Yeah, I do think that it’s pretty important. You know, most people think of marketing implications right away. Should my company be on Twitter? Should we have a Facebook group or fan page, that sort of thing. It’s important for businesses to embrace a new dynamic of communication as it comes along, be it social media or telephone and whatever will have you that’s going to happen over the next few years.

There are a lot of things--cost savings, for example, from business functions like customer support and tech support. That isn’t what comes to mind right away, but businesses can actually save millions of dollars if you just think about how important having an FAQ and a tech support site that includes threads from customers. You know, that can save what might be a two or three dollar per minute cost of tech support calls. Obviously, customer support, you know, is a tremendous opportunity as well. And I understand, especially at established companies; that can cost some fear--

Peter: Oh, it sure does, especially in the highly regulated industries like financial services and pharma. They’re terrified of this stuff.

Travis: And I think, it goes to say that there’s no reason for the companies to be 'first' by all means. I mean, there's no reason for them to be early adapters of these practices. But it is something that customers are seeing. I think it’s important to embrace the new dynamic for businesses.

Peter: So, how has social networking changed marketing strategy and what brands are using social networking effectively?

Travis: Oh, I think, in terms of the strategy; the iteration and the immediacy in a not-putting-a-message out there and just knowing, 'well know it’s been published it can't be changed', the campaign's underway. Now, these marketing campaigns may reiterate on a daily or weekly basis just to stay current with how the users are reacting to the campaign. Meri do you have any examples?

Meri: Yeah, I do. I happen to have some for small businesses and large businesses. There’s a small pizza store called Naked Pizza near Orleans that specializes in healthy pies. And because of their Twitter exposure, they had 68% of their sales come in from people calling in from Twitter. Since all that business is coming through -- yeah, it’s small business but, hey, it’s a big chunk of your business.

And Travis said that customer service that into it that are really great thing with their live community which is one of the turbo-tech products. What they basically did is integrated a live community. And they allowed customers to speak with each other, talk to each other and this actually helped them increase sales. And also, a lot of customers to speak with each other and to follow up to answer some of these questions because there were instructions that they were able to break down and speak with each other. So, that’s few awesome examples for small and large businesses.

Peter: Yeah, I would say so. I mean, 68% of your sales coming off of Twitter. I mean, that‘s a phenomenal statistic.

Meri: It is. And I would say that small businesses, definitely, need to get into this. It might be a little bit scarier for a large business to invest but if you’re a local pizza store or any other small business, it’s definitely something you want to look into.

Travis: One thing to add is, especially if you have a small business and often times you’ll have people that are active in high school or college interns are available or something like that. So, it's really easy to have someone at a very low hourly rate that's managing the campaign. The owner can directly put in what the needs of the business are and then you just have a high school kid or college kid to retail the craft a really savvy campaign for a very little cost.

Peter: So, how are the effects of social media measured guys? You know, between the metrics like traffic, sales, SEO, search and optimization leads, PR, retention and customer engagement. What is the best way to determine the success with social media and what are some of the tools that are used define these metrics?

Travis: I think it’s very different depending on the business and on the type of campaign. You know, the real estate business are all about lead generation and they need to have a different approach and use different metrics versus a companies that might sell, like a pharmaceutical company or even a smaller business like a supplement business. Metrics can be differ. But I may just try to see straight ahead. Google analytics and then combined with a couple of tools like Social Mention or, honestly, just even searching the Twitter thing and see what mentions you're getting there. In my experience in sales, has ultimately been; you want to follow it all the way up, coming out of live stand point. And see what efforts like with the cost, the cost of the time spent is really driving; in terms of ultimate sales. But depending on the business, that can be really hard to do.

Peter: When running a marketing campaign, where does social media fit in? I mean, is this something that you should consider from the onset?

Travis: I think, absolutely. Because, something that people might not tend to remember; your marketing campaign will have a social media aspect. The question is, do you want to participate? And I think that any company needs to certainly engage. People will be talking about the campaigns.

OK, example of a campaign, I think, was for Dr. Pepper in Europe. And the advertising company was asking people to allow them to put status updates in exchange for prices. And so they got a bunch of people to find out and they ended up pushing a status update that was profane to a bunch of 14-year old users.

I think that that’s an example where you certainly want maintain really tight control over it. And plan everything very well. Every campaign is really going to have a social media aspect and you certainly want to have people that are savvy. Personally, I do a lot of freelance work. I think that, were I running a marketing department at a firm, I would want everything that’s being done to ultimately have sign off by an announced person under my control.

Peter: I think that that’s really good advice. So, how does this work for an individual. Let’s say I’m looking for a job. Is social networking something that I should really invest some time in?

Meri: Definitely. Keeping up with social media is extremely important for the individual, especially when it comes to job hunting. The days of just posting your resume on job boards and searching the websites are pretty much gone. There are definitely those that still use them but you have to add the social networking piece to it. If you’re serious about finding a job, you have to start reaching out to your own personal connections and network. Twitter and Linkedln are both great social media sites that are useful and fairly easy to use. That’s the beauty of it. You don’t have to understand the technology to make it work.

Twitter’s great because it allows you send out job search updates instantly to your entire network. And Linkedln, one of my favorite sites, because not only can you keep your entire network updated; we also can ask to get introduced to another members of one of your connections. And these people know you in some capacity and will be happy to refer you to their contacts. And considering referrals are still the number one source when it comes to hiring, this seems like a pretty good way to go.

Also, I do recommend, don’t count anybody out. Just because they don’t live in the same city as you, doesn't mean they don’t know people in your area. The wider the net, the better. And just make sure to use social media to your advantage here. Again, posting is great, use the clear boards but make sure to add this little bonus to it.

Peter: So, should your network consist of just friends or just business contacts or can you mix the two? And also, can social media hurt you when looking for a job?

Meri: This is a little tricky. You can definitely cross the two just make sure your materials are appropriate for both networks. Everyone knows that you have a life after your business hours but if your content consists of announcing to the world that you got drunk last night then it’s a good idea to keep them separate. The advantage of crossing them, though, is that your business partners feel more connected. You’re adding a personal touch to your existing relationship which pays off in the end.

And yes, social media can hurt you when you’re looking for a job. It can also help you a little bit more but the hurting factor is there as well. Hiring managers will most likely google you. So, make sure you’re either posting appropriate materials or privacy settings are up to date. Ask yourself too: “Is this something I would want my future employer to see?" And if the answer’s ‘no’ then probably best that you take that down.

I think, the best way it can actually help you-- on the other side of it; if you’re passionate about what you do and you’re tweeting about that and blogging about that, hiring managers are going to notice and since they’re going to notice. You’re going to be up on there as candidate.

Peter: All of this media-- I mean, twitter wasn’t even around like three years ago, you know. So, when you look at this, how do you constantly keep up with all of the trends either as a company or as a candidate? Because this is moving so quickly. I mean, couple of years ago everybody was on MySpace and now, Facebook has taken over the world and Linkedln and Twitter. And just managing all of these different networks that all have sort of, the same thing. They’re all part of a social network but they have, kind of, cross purposes.

Meri: Yeah, you don’t have to google social media everyday but you do have to keep up with what’s going on. You have to know what hiring managers are looking at, if you’re looking for a job. And if you’re a company you have to know where your customers are coming from. But if you’re not paying attention to how social media is evolving, it’s not going to really help you out. And I know that it's changing the way we think. Travis, do you have anything to say about how that might work out?

Travis: You’d mentioned, previously, just how quickly everything has happened but I do think it’s just really important to have the headline--you know, Facebook, half a billion people. And we’re not really even getting into mobile. But the idea of that --to take a step back, everybody is now, familiar with the idea of being networked; always available and having access to any information at their fingertips. And we’ve seen this happen.

Apps, for example, just started to come into space about two years ago-- two and a half years. You know that’s one thing that’s going to be tremendous, I think. We really don’t have any idea where we’re going to be in five years. So, companies just need to iterate in a ball.

Peter: And you look at; there are companies who are building games, specifically, for Facebook and there are people making millions of dollars off of developing 'apps' for the iPhone and Android.

Travis: Playfish is a great example; acquire recently for, I believe, about $250 million and that company was 18 months old.

Peter: Yeah, it's phenomenal. And it just goes to show that the speed that all of this is moving. So, Travis, what's new in social media and how is it changing the way your thinking - and Meri - the way you approach your job? What kinds of things are different today because of social media?

Travis: The biggest thing, I think for me that is new, is really mobile. You know, services like Foursquare, I believe they just crossed the two million user - the one or two million user mark. A kind of location-based social mobile application to help businesses really focusing on retail but to really help businesses know who their customers are and what their traffic pattern is in a way that never would have even conceived of as recently as five years ago. I think keeping up with that is really important for business.

Meri: Yeah, I mean, on the job end of it. I think that being able to post the job on Twitter, Linkedln and Facebook; I've gotten great referrals off of that. And that's kind of the new way of thinking; reach out to your network through all the social media sites instead of making a million calls. That, definitely, helps out. People are connected really well. And of course, read through all that. We all have our 'tweets' or Linkedln updates and the other entire Onward Search team does that so we're very up-to-date with that.

Peter: Just so I understand this, Meri. You 'tweet' all of the new jobs that come in?

Meri: We do. We post them and then we start 'tweeting' them away. And then we re-tweet them if we feel the people 'tweeting' them within our own company. So, you want to get this out to as many people as you can. So, if you're helping out each other re-tweeting, it's definitely a big part of the social media as well. If you have a network of friends and you have the same goal, in which case Onwards Search does; you want to make sure you're re-tweeting your friends and the people that you follow.

So, yes, we're using that. We have some awesome jobs now. We've 'tweeting' out a lot of jobs in LA, recently. I know we have a few Web producers with gaming experience out there and we've been getting really a high need for online marketing managers and a lot of interactive designers. We're out there making sure these are on the job board as well as on the all the social media sites.

Peter: And I think what's so important for people to understand about this is; this is real time. This isn't like, "Oh, you know, this job came in last week." This is fresh stuff. So, you should be really paying attention to this, especially, it's a job seek.

Meri: It's interesting how companies change. Because I remember when MySpace was banned and the Facebook was banned. Now, that's the way to go. That's how you reach out to your network. And I think, companies have finally figured that out. On the other end, if you're looking for a job, basically you need to get our stuff out there via this network.

Peter: Travis and Meri, thanks so much for speaking with us today on the Onward Search Career Cast.

Travis: Yes, thank you very much.

Meri: Thank you!

Thank you for tuning into Onward Search Career Cast. For more information on the career opportunities available through Onward Search, you should visit us online at: onwardsearch.com or call 1-800-829-0072 and speak with an experienced recruiter. And you should also Onward Search on Twitter at: twitter.com/onwardsearch