Social Media for Staffing.

55 ideas ... in less than 22 minutes a day.

Over the past year, I've had the opportunity to speak about social media at staffing conferences across the U.S., from big conferences like the 2015 Executive Forum and Staffing World to smaller events like the Midwest Staffing Owner's Conference and Alternative Staffing Alliance Annual Conference. I've been in crowded rooms in front of hundreds of staffing firm owners, executives, salespeople and recruiters ... and they're all asking the same question:

"What should I be doing with social media?"

I have two answers to this question:

You should be using social media to support your direct sales efforts.

Think of social as the new way to cold call. It gives you the ability to directly connect to staffing decision makers, create awareness of your firm, educate prospects about the value you can offer, nurture relationships and support your traditional sales activities. Just like email and the phone, social offers another way to sell.

You should be using social to drive inbound leads for employers, and to recruit job seekers.

Social media is an effective way to reach people you don't already know. You can use it to engage people with intriguing ideas, to get them to visit your website. And once you get them to your website, you can then convert them to active sales prospects or job candidates.

At this point, most people will tell me "that makes sense, but what should I really do?" I've learned that when it comes to social media, most staffing professionals want a specific "to do" list. They want to know the best way to invest their time on social media.

Well, here's my list:

What to do on LinkedIn

I recommend that people spend 15-to-20 minutes per day on LinkedIn (this doesn't include time for direct recruiting). This time should be used as follows:

Build your network - 500 connections should be your minimum goal!

Spend a few minutes every day inviting people to connect. This can include:

Prospects you've recently met (or you have been referred to).
Additional contacts within current clients -- actively build your network within each firm.
Vendors with whom you can trade referrals.
Influencers in your market and industry.
Your Outlook contacts (LinkedIn can automatically invite your contacts to connect).
Upload email lists to send invites (great to do before a job fair or tradeshow).
Join local groups (Chambers of Commerce, SHRM, etc.) and send 1:1 invites.
Use a tool like Connected App to find people to connect with.
Use LinkedIn's "Who viewed your profile" and send invites to those people.

Direct messaging to nurture relationships with clients and prospects.

Share content, ask questions, network ... but don't hard sell! Here are some tips:

InMail people you are not connected to - share industry news and educational content as a way to open the door.
Use Connections to send messages to the people in your network. LinkedIn allows you to send one-to-one as well as one-to-many messages.
Go into Groups, click the Member link, and then send messages to other members of the groups you've joined.
Use Connected App to congratulate people on new jobs, say "Happy Birthday," and keep in touch with your network.

Build your personal reputation.

Use LinkedIn's tools to build awareness and position yourself as an industry expert with your clients and prospects.

Optimize your LinkedIn profile. Be sure to include:
- An interesting title with keywords.
- Great summary that shows off your personality (and the value you provide).
- Brochures, videos and other content people can download.
- Recommendations -- get lots of them!
Share status updates every day. This can include posts from your company blog, jobs, recent placements, video, pictures, and links to other interesting articles.
Post (blog) on LinkedIn. LinkedIn will promote your post to your network and others who may be interested in what you are writing. Be sure to tag each post with appropriate keywords.
Ask for recommendations (give to get).
Join and be active in RELEVANT groups -- groups where your prospects hang out.
Ideally have relevant images to share (people notice visuals first).
- Add attention-grabbing images to your blog posts.
- Create graphics to promote other content on your website.
- Create graphics to promote videos about your firm.
- Create and share a Slideshare presentation.
- Use the free content at http://staffingworks.haleymarketing.com.

Build your local office reputation.

Whether you are a one-office firm or a branch office of a big national company, you can leverage LinkedIn to create a stronger local presence for your organization. Here are a few ways to build your local brand:

Get EVERYONE building their networks and sharing your company content.
Assign one person responsibility for sharing your company blog and other content as updates on your LinkedIn company page.
Get everyone to like and share your company content (the more you engage with your content, the more others will see it).
Create a LinkedIn group targeting a local industry or job seeker audience.
Share content that drives people back to your website (or back to your local office page if you're part of a bigger organization).

For Recruiting (professional-level talent).

It's no secret that LinkedIn is a powerhouse recruiting tool. Beyond the direct recruiting you are probably already doing, here are a few ways to use LinkedIn to attract top talent to your firm:

Build your network with professionals in the industries you serve.
Create a group just for specific types of professionals in your local market.
Create an alumni group for people you placed.
Celebrate successes by sharing placement stories and congratulating placed candidates.

Twitter (No, it is not a waste of time)

I get a real kick out of Twitter. People seem to love it, hate it, or not get it at all. For some, it's a primary connection to the world. For others, it's a complete waste of time. I'm sort of in the middle. I think most people waste a lot of time on Twitter, but used in the right ways, I've seen it be a powerful sales tool (and I've personally closed more than $100K from Twitter). Here's what I suggest:

Build a relevant following.

Create a Twitter account for your local office.
Strategically follow others:
- Your current clients.
- People who are following your clients.
- People who are following you competitors.
- Local influencers and associations.
- Companies you want to do business with.
Automate content to your Twitter account (e.g., your company blog, other HR blogs, your job data, other local sites that offer relevant content to your audience).
Retweet influencers in your industry and community.

Direct sales.

Reach out to key decision makers via Twitter (follow, Tweet @them).
Once these people follow you back, you can direct message them.
Monitor what your key prospects are saying on Twitter, retweet and respond to their messages.
Use Twitter's advanced search tool to look for companies that are hiring or posting jobs.

Recruiting.

Post all your jobs to your local office Twitter account. Use an RSS feed from your website / job board and a tool like TwitterFeed to automate this process.
Create a local Twitter account for specific jobs in your market (e.g., @AccountingJobsBuffalo).
Get an RSS feed from your job board that matches each local Twitter account, and push each feed to the appropriate account.
Turn candidate testimonials into graphics that you can Tweet.
Share career related content from your blog.

Maximize job fairs, tradeshows and other events (my favorite way to use Twitter!).

Live tweet before and during events using #hashtags.
Use a tool like Bufferapp.com to pre-schedule tweets throughout the event.
Follow people who are live tweeting at the events.
Direct message your contacts and ask for a face to face meeting.

Facebook

At this year's Staffing World conference, I spoke with a lot of people about Facebook. Most people use Facebook regularly (OK, obsessively), but they didn't see much business value. Then there were those firms who were killing it on Facebook. Here are a few secrets to their success:

Don't waste time unless you are willing to spend money to promote your content and build an audience. To be successful on Facebook (at least initially), you have to be willing to invest money to get your content (and company) in front of the right people.

If you are willing to invest in a PPC campaign, consider a "like" campaign to add followers. You can promote your company to:

Your candidate email list.
People who match specific demographic criteria.
People who have similar profiles to your email list.
People with specific job titles.

Sponsor specific job posts. You don't want to overdo job posts on Facebook. So only boost your best jobs -- the ones that will attract the most candidates (or the right candidates).

Target demographics that match likely candidates
Target people who might be the spouses of likely candidates
Ask for referrals - on Facebook or on a landing page on your website

Boost the organic reach of the content you share on your company page.

Get everyone in your office to like, comment and share the content. The more people engage with your company content, the more often Facebook will show that content to others. Just be sure they don't engage with your paid content, or you'll run up your advertising bill!

One last note about Facebook marketing: Think locally! The most successful Facebook marketers I've met have very strong local Facebook accounts. They build a big following in a specific geographic market, and then they "train" people to know that the hottest jobs will be released first on Facebook. While larger national companies tend to have more "likes," they don't get the same quality of response to their jobs. Our best guess is that the followers of a local staffing company know all the jobs are relevant to them, so they are more likely to respond.

How will you spend your 22 minutes?

Like any sales tool, social media takes work. But it's really a lot less than most people think. You don't have to master 15 different social tools, and you don't (and shouldn't) kill half your day online.

Whether you're using social media for direct sales, recruiting, or inbound lead generation, the key to getting the highest ROI is to use the tools strategically. Have a plan for how you will invest your time each day. Be deliberate about who you target, how you communicate, and how you plan to drive response.

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