Hire Strategies Blog

Worst ever Facebook advert - and I wrote it. But why it's also great!

It's interesting (to me at least) how what looked like a well thought out advert is so obviously wrong, wrong, wrong after the event! But the really great thing about this advert, is how much it tells me for the princely sum of £1.09.

This is the Krispy Kreme Facebook Page top area that shows the job search navigation image. This same style is used on recruitment "business cards" in store. The advert content is "on brand". In theory it could have worked. But it didn't at all although it did tell me a lot.

 

 

The advert below worked much better. In fact it got over 350 clicks compared to the 5 clicks the other advert got.

I also compared the two advert styles to other adverts I ran at the same time. The first thing is that the "good" advert has the Krispy Kreme logo in it. The first advert doesn't even have Krispy Kreme in the text (my like doesn't help). So on the basis that these are areas that Krispy Kreme does not have a local store but so many people are clammering for a store in their area, (just check out the comments on their Page) the logo should be well known. The click levels suggest this to be the case.

There are many other improvements that could be made to the advert and other ideas tested but for the two very short campaigns that I ran for Krispy Kreme, the logo won the day.

Net Result 

High volume of applicants for very little cost. In fact, for less than the cost of a single advert on any of the major job boards!

Soul Surfer. Beautiful film; beautiful message.

My daughter rented this film at the weekend so I was intrigued about why she was inspired to watch it. It is an amazing story based on the true story of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack and courageously overcame all odds to become a champion again.

Social advertising: what is PPC ad fatigue?

Google adwords is different to PPC advertising on Facebook and Linkedin. They may look very similar but they are not. Social PPC ads get tired very quickly so if you are going to try out Facebook or Linkedin you need to pay attention.

It's not about SEO or Social or Mobile; it's all about content.

All of a sudden everyone is an expert on SEO just because they've read a few Google posts about how search is changing yet again. But the thing is, nothing has really changed. It's always been about content so let's stop puffing out our SEO expert chests out and get down to what really matters. Content; but not just any old content.

Whatever you do, DO NOT press the button!

How social? How local? How mobile?

Yet another buzzword maybe but it does have a place in the mind of the recruiter. 

Aggregation of Advantages

I first heard this term attributed to Chris Boardman who is Director or Cycling for the British cycling team. Arguably the most successful British Olympic team ever; even more so than swimming (maybe). Boardman made lots of little tweaks many of which were so minor they were hardly noticeable but added together they made a significant difference. So much so, both the mens and ladies cycling teams kicked ass down under in the world championships beating the Australians twice! If nothing else, just knowing how much Australia will be hurting right now is poetry in motion. 

Of course we all have a view and understanding of social, local and mobile but as individual "channels" they may not be that significant but as small advantages they can make a difference. Social may only be relevant to 5% of your candidates, local may be 3% and mobile only 2%. Or whatever the numbers are they add up and over time they will grow. 

Lots of recruiters will choose to wait and see whilst forward thinking recruiters will look for every advantage they can get. For those that want to stay one step ahead of their competitors we think SoLoMo will be critical. We have a few improvements to add to HirePad to support this approach and will be sharing them shortly.

 

 

Krispy Kreme goes SoLoMo with HirePad for direct resourcing

We love Krispy Kreme doughnuts so helping them define and execute their direct resourcing strategy has been a very sweet experience. But there is more to the Krispy Kreme career site than you may expect!

We haven't got the Timeline for Facebook recruiting let alone mobile

That age old enemy. Never enough in the day to allow us to get things done. Of course social takes time and too often the "day job" gets in the way. But how effective is the day job?

• Sales people still like to cold call.
• Recruiters still like to advertise jobs.
• Marketers still like to send out e-mail blasts.

Roger McNamee - Disruption and Engagement - very cool talk.

What is a Talent Pool in HirePad speak?

ATS vendors offer talent pool functionality but we all know from years of experience they don't get used very well and are otherwise known as a bottomless pit of CV's. So what are we to do with all these applicants?

Talent pool vs. list vs. network vs. community

It really is time that we stopped with the names and focused on the business problem that needs to be solved.

Why do people use Linkedin?

642 responses as to why people use Linkedin. You can see full details at linkd.in/xWeAzQ. 

Any thoughts or comments?

If you "like" Jobs2web; you'll LOVE HirePad!

I love Jobs2web, I really do. I think they have done a fantastic job of creating a market and an even better job of selling their company. But.....

HirePad: a new beginning

After almost 10 years of advising on, integrating with and criticising recruitment technologies I have come back into the game myself. In 2002 I sold my ATS business. It was a complete disaster but I learnt a lot; hell of a lot! So I'm back but this time it's even more serious. I'm now putting my money in front of my mouth but will be just as critical about my own product as anyone else ever will be.

The mobile job application vs. the non mobile job application

Just under a month ago I started a poll on Linkedin posing the question:

"As a candidate do you really want to apply for a job using your mobile phone?"

I am running a track on this subject at TRU London next Thursday but thought I'd share the results from the poll now that there are only 4 days left. If you want to vote you still have a bit of time: linkd.in/zUrxzT

If social is not free is a job board a better option!

No such thing as a free lunch and although social is free in many ways, in just as many ways it isn't. Time; the one thing that makes us all equal. No matter how much money you have, you can't add any more hours to the day so what time you do have has to be managed carefully otherwise the time monsters come along and eat your morning.....

So is a job board a better option than social? There are pros and cons to both but whatever time you save up front with a job board; you pay for later.

Ahhh, the balancing act of recruitment.

Oracle buy Taleo; my ten penneth!

The general opinion of many of the comments I have seen on this one are not of surprise that Oracle made this move. However, my question is more about what this offers the customer.

For me, there are two key points of view on this one; best-of-breed vs. single platform/vendor/code base. But in reality what the customer wants may not be what the technology provides.

Global Management opportunity; office politics, loads of pressure, operational crap, unhappy customers. But the money's great!

OK there's no job; or is there? Imagine if all jobs stated the reality of the position! Would anyone take a look? You did. Can't see it happening any day soon but imagine it did.

Is Facebook a B2B channel (yet)?

You can dress SPAM up anyway you like, but SPAM is SPAM is SPAM. Or is it?

TRU London 2012: Should the online job application be mobile?

Click the TRU image to buy a ticket

I didn't attend the first TRU London but have attended them ever since and this year will be my third. TRU events have been memorable for me and I am hoping this year will be even better again; two years on there has been a lot of change! I also intend to turn up this time to run my track on the second day! So if you have some views on mobile job applications be there on Thursday 23rd February 2012. In usual TRU style no one knows what time the track will be!