Perfect Example on Recruiting through Social Media

This must be one of the best examples I have come across in recruiting on how to fill a position. This shows that Forrester understands the effect of Social Media. They are recruiting through Jeremiah’s own blog with a guest post.
For those that don't know Jeremiah Owyang, he is the one leaving the verry position they are recruiting for. Jeremiah is one of the people that people turn to with questions on Social Media and has travelled around the world for Forrester to teach people and corporates about this topic. You can refer to him as a guru on this subject matter and has met probably thousands of people that know this subject. He therefore is "the one" with the network to recruit for this position.

Recruiting at the heart of your market and using Jeremiah as brand ambassador for ‘his Job’ is brilliant. Perfect example that Forrester understands recruitment and social media use.

Just for the example I think it would be great to follow the rest of the process and apply for the job myself, but since I don't qualify for the "non-negotiables" and I love what I am doing now, I will skip that part.

So why is this such a great example for the recruitment industry? Here are some thoughts:

• The introduction by Jeremiah himself. You cannot be more convincing than this. He knows best what the job includes!


• Recruiting on this blog puts them at the heart of their target market


• They use the online Social Media network to spread the word. Connecting through facebook allows them to draw more friends in the network to the blogpost and so to the position.


• Jeremiah continues to be a brand ambassador to Forrester, even after he's gone


• They use links to twitter & blog profiles to follow people and get their impressions to set the company and job culture


• They introduce the team with pictures and profiles that the applicant will become part of


• They define clear and non-negotionable must-haves for the job


• Clear links to twitter and Linkedin profile of the "recruiter"


• Clear links to Forrester community for more impressions


• Options to share this post with multiple social media channels so the viral marketing of this post can do its work

It would be interesting to see how fast this job is filled, how qualified the person is and if he comes out of Jeremiah's realm of influence.

Some more thoughts you can consider when posting jobs:

• Make sure you follow up correctly when people start applying for the job on your website.


• The webform and follow up responses are critical. Make sure it is branded and looks the part.


• If possible skip the webform and either parse the CV automatically or have people apply for the job with their Linkedin profile or Facebook profile.

At PeopleXS we can make sure that the Facebook profile is read directly into your ATS with contact details, work experience, etc.

So for all recruiters out there. Keep this list in mind when you post your next job. I will do my part in making sure you are enabled to do this easier when using PeopleXS allthough a lot of this comes down to your own creativeness.

Let me know if you have more good ideas and I will include them in this listing
Good luck!



(special thanks to @bvdhaterd's tweet and reference to rectec.nl)

Flexibility in SAAS

Flexibility as SAAS supplier remains an interesting and disruptive topic. Even though PeopleXS has set a new standard since the year 2000 in approaching software development for an Applicant Tracking System, it seems that different parties are finally trying to catch on.

What does flexibility mean?

Typically all suppliers say they are very flexible in their system. They can change things such as tab labels, workflows, reports, etc. But that is just it. They can change it, but "they" have to do it! Real system flexibility however means that admdinistrating users of an application can change these items themselves. And I am not talking about changing a label on a field or tab or changing the data selection for input on a standard report.

The kind of flexibility within a SAAS model that I am talking about (or that PeopleXS is enabling) includes creating your own new custom fields that:

• you can immediately use in the application;


• you can immediately use in reports;


• you can use in the report wizard when you are creating your own reports;


• you can use and immediately display on an application form on the website;


• you can use as a field on the vacancy text dislay on your vacancy portal;


• and that you can use within your search engine.

That is the kind of flexibility that we are talking about at PeopleXS. Customizable by your own administrator within our normal user interface.

Why would I want to have this flexibility?

The foremost reason is that you don't need a PeopleXS expert, you don't need development and you don't have to spend money to get it done.

Secondly Software as a Service (SAAS) is per definition suitable for this kind of functionality. Isn't this what the internet is all about? Making things easier for all involved! If we would not create these kinds of benefits within SAAS we might as well have stayed with the client-server model that we were all used to.

As a third reason we can see that technology and organizations are constantly changing and so, even though you may standardize your work processes and candidate and vacancy handling, you should have the same options to change your ATS along just as quickly and easily. Again, without the use of expensive expertise.

Ofcourse, when you don't want to be bothered with system settings you should have the option to have your supplier do it, but it should be an option, not something you are forced to do as otherwise your investment becomes worthless.

PeopleXS is still market leader in customization within one standard product. We have been doing this since day one, and even though, others are trying to catch up. It is not done this intensely to serve the end-user and value the people that are using the tool.

This was recently confirmed by Jacco Valkenburg, Dutch Recruiter of the year 2009 and author of the book "Recruitment via Linkedin". Jacco is currently writing his new book "Recruitment Systems and Technology" where he is comparing the different Recruitment Applications on the market. After a meeting with Jacco as one of the last ATS suppliers on his list he stated about PeopleXS "I am very impressed with the flexibility of the system setup and have not seen it in this intensity before"

Unique visitors facebook.com doubled

Really increadible, but the number of unique visitors on facebook over the last six months doubled. Leaving myspace behind in the dust, facebook literally took off from 59 million to 122 million! Facebook clearly is becoming the next big thing in Social Media even though they are not a new party in this arena. They are averaging 700,000 new users each day. Most growth, 70%, is located outside the US.

Een ander perspectief op Social Media

Sociale Media in de wereld van recruitment is echt groot aan het worden. Logisch want er zijn veel mogelijkheden om je online tussen de mensen te bevinden waar je naar op zoek bent. Er wordt zelfs zoveel over gesproken dat men hier en daar ook uit het oog verliest wat je er nou werkelijk mee kan doen. Juist om die reden denk ik dat het goed is om niet te ver vooruit te streven of onszelf te verliezen en ook bij de mogelijkheden van 'nu' stil te blijven staan. Focussen we wel op de juiste technologie?

Lees het volledige bericht hier verder

Social Recruitment Evolution

The Future of the Social Web

The objective of a blog is to keep people up to date of recent experiences and new(s) facts. My visit to the Corporate Social Networking Conference 2009 in Amsterdam has already been 2 weeks ago, but it is still interesting enough to write about. I will discuss the various topics separately in different blogs over the coming period.

The first speaker of the event, Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester, made a big impression on me. He stated “that Communities will continue to evolve over the next few years to and become companies and institutions that will be in power of product brands and services”. Basically not new for me, however the steps that he described on the road ahead I find very interesting. In the following article I will describe these steps.

Fact is that the Netherlands is taking the lead and is far ahead in Europe with the penetration of Social Media in daily live and work. 40% of the dutch are on Social Networks such as Hyves, Facebook, Linkedin and twitter being the most popular. Innovative companies differentiate themselves by setting up communities for their customers where they can discus products and experiences.

The whole social experience nowadays is rather chaotic or disjointed for a lot of people. People talk about, lots participate, but by far not everyone, and actually most people are still unaware of what they can accomplish or do with it. Let alone where we are evolving to. Part of the reason for this is that most consumers still have separate identities within the several social networks that they visits. These are still separate islands.

Simple technology should provide a ‘portable identity’ within the near future that will enable consumer to take their identity with them wherever they surf on the web. This will cause a significant transformation of marketing, eCommerce, CRM and advertizing. Mobile ID’s are just the beginning of the steps in this process of independent sites towards a total social experience. Consumers will start depending on their peers and the opinions of others when they are buying online. Socially connected consumers will empower communities and pull away the decision making power from the brands itself. Eventually this will lead to communities that will create and develop the next generation of products by themselves.

Soical Networks are a representation of what we do. We connect to it and share info. Ofcourse companies and brands would like tap into this information and review our social data, profiles and friends. The problem right now is that we are all working on different islands or networks which leads to frustration with the consumers using the technology as they have to register their info over and over again as well as the brands that would like to connect to us.

The web is now evolving to a phase where the various networks can overlap in different area’s and share information through SocialID’s which allows for brands and people to start communication in a totally different way. The evolution of the web in this area proceeds through 5 phases or ‘era’s’as Owyang calls them, these are:

1. Era of Social Relationships (people connect and share).
This is the first development fase of the social web as it started in the 90’s and as we now know it. Simple data is stored and can be shared with each other. This process that has already taken place forms the basis of the following four era’s that will be described below.

2. Era of Social Functionality (Social networks become operating systems).
Today’s Social Networks have evolved passed the stages of ‘friend’ networks to platforms that engage social interaction through various applications and give a new meaning to communities. But even now social relations are still imprisoned within these sites.

3. Era of Social Conolization (every experience becomes soical).
In the following fase of social evolution, that we can probably expect later this year, technologies like OpenID and Facebook will enable people to surf the web and take their social online connections along with them. The bounderies of social networks and traditional websites are beginning to fade out and every website visit will become a social experience.



4. Era of Social Context (Personal and accurate content).
Next year, when most websites are starting to recognize the personal identities of their visitors and their social relations, companies will customize the information presented to visitors of the site based on their experience, their interests and preferences, and who their friends are. In addition to these intense social applications social networks will include email type functionality and form a basis for everyones online experience as they will move the information towards you. Which reminds me of the movie "Minority Report" from several years ago. Check this scene...



5. Era of Social Commerce (Communities shape future products and services).
In about two years from now, when social networks are the repository of personal identities and relationships, they become more powerful then ever and even more powerful than Corporates and CRM systems. Communities will become the driving force behind new innovations and brands. This will result in an inferior position of brands in relation to the community and will be a major turnaround in the power of the connected customer.

What do you mean Revolutionary? Democrocy rules!

Sharing Music tracks with Soundcloud

Hi All, my son is really into music and creating his own tracks. He loves sitting behind his keyboard for hours and playing with FruityLoops to get the right beats and tunes set up, yatayatayata. In the past you really needed tons of expensive equipment and a real live studio to make some kick-ass music. Today you can simply do that from behind your computer or even with a simple iPhone (I've been told). Now I found a cool tool for him that he can use to update all his friends on what he is doing and at the same time listen to what they are listening to. Soundcloud lets you update, move and send music around fast.

You can receive, send and distribute music with your friends and fans. Listen to it and download when you like it. You have a drop box location where you can simply listen to all your received music by people you follow or don't follow in a playlist. You can delete it right away or get back in touch with the creators if you're realy down with it.

When you have send stuff yourself you can keep track of what you've send, who has been listening to it and who has been downloading it. Before you know you'll be a rock star yourself. Check out this introduction video. ....it's cool!

SoundCloud: The Tour from SoundCloud on Vimeo.