These days, no social recruiting strategy is complete without addressing the issue that is ‘Neutral networks’.

Forums and review sites may not be the first place an organisation thinks it needs a presence to attract top talent; however they are one of the first places an active (or even a semi-active) candidate goes to get an unbiased insight into what it’s really like to work for a particular company.

If you’re not already familiar with sites like Glassdoor.com - you should be.  In a nutshell it allows users to browse career related information about a company. But what makes this data special, is that it’s anonymously provided by current employees.  Reviews of management teams, salary information, photos of the building you can expect to work in, it’s all there.

What’s interesting about the latest Glassdoor update is that it’s chosen to integrate the Facebook API, in a way that dramatically enhances its value proposition. Now, if I choose to log into Glassdoor using my Facebook profile, my social graph will be mapped against any companies that I’m checking out. So if I want to work at Google for example, I can see which of my Facebook friends can possibly help me with an introduction. Sure Linkedin has this feature, but it doesn’t have all the rich data on salaries and reviews from actual employees. What do you think? Has Glassdoor now become the one-stop shop for all your career research needs?

It’s been dubbed the Best/worst recruitment video of all time.

The video, entitled: “At Twitter, The Future is You!” - is so bad, it’s funny; and with 0.5million views in 3 days, we can see this one going viral.

Sure it’s cheesy, but it’s a great example of an organisation using video to increase it’s transparency, and to convey personality. (Something very difficult to do in any professionally made videos.)

Worth a watch.

LinkedIn revealed two important updates last week which will considerably increase the possibilities of engagement with a company.

Company pages will now be able to publish status updates, which will be showcased on their profile but will also appear on the homepage newsfeed of their followers. The followers will have the possibility to Like, Comment or Share those updates, and their interaction will be seen by their network.
Company pages will now be more similar to Facebook fanpages, and will be more dynamic and engaging. This new possibility has a consequence for companies; their page will have to be managed and monitored to avoid having someone speaking in the name of your brand without authorisation. Company pages are automatically generated when LinkedIn users chose their employer. It is still the case, and as employees can make mistakes when choosing their employer (XXX, XXX EMEA, XXX ltd. etc), there is the possibility of having several Company pages speaking in the name of one company. With these new dynamic company pages, companies have to monitor their LinkedIn presence more than ever, encourage every employee to register on the right company page, and finally identify thought leaders authorised to speak in the name of the company.

For the moment, this feature is only available on beta test.
http://blog.linkedin.com/2011/10/06/company-status-updates/

This new feature comes with a better integration with Hootsuite: company pages will be manageable on a Hootsuite dashboard, which will allow community managers to run the LinkedIn company page in the same place as their Facebook fanpages or Twitter accounts.
Networking groups can also be monitored on Hootsuite now, with the usual possibilities of Hootsuite.

http://hootsuite.com/linkedin

Those two innovations will increase the possibilities of engagement on LinkedIn, both on a personal side (group monitoring) and institutional (company page monitoring) and presents a great opportunity to start conversations with the followers of a brand. Companies will have to consider it and take total control of their LinkedIn presence.

If you need any information regarding companies status updates or Hootsuite, feel free to contact Carve consulting at info@carveconsulting.com.

Facebook, the biggest social network in the world, has announced many new featuresat the Facebook F8 conference developer last week.
http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/09/22/facebook-f8-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/

Those changes affect the personal use, with the introduction of the “Timeline” as a new profile, and the ticker, which showcases everything happening in your network but only in a small box, while the posts from your closest connections are showcased in the main newsfeed.

The timeline is well designed, graphic and allows to access easily and fast the activity of someone in the past few years. It encourages users to post more information, but will trigger many concerns regarding privacy.

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/09/22/hands-on-with-facebook-timeline-the-story-of-your-life/

http://mashable.com/2011/09/28/new-facebook-feature/

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-timeline-zuckerberg%E2%80%99s-biggest-gamble-yet/

Facebook is also becoming kind of media hub, with applications related to music (Spotify, Soundcloud), Movies/TV (Netfix, TV) and News (The Guardian, The Washington Post, Yahoo news). Using those apps, you will consume content directly from your Facebook dashboard, and your activity will be showcased on the ticker of your connections. This is a big step in “social entertainment”, as the content provided to you will be filtered by your friends. But once again, many concerns about privacy rise: we don’t always want our friends to know what we read, watch or listen. This package of new features is a major shift in Facebook strategy : we used to share something on Facebook, it will be automatic now, positioning Facebook as a major platform for entertainment and information.

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/09/22/facebook-introduces-a-new-open-graph-read-watch-eat-and-more/

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/social-reader/

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-yahoo-news/

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/09/23/how-to-listen-to-music-with-your-friends-on-facebook-spotify-hands-on/

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/09/22/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-announces-integration-with-facebook-in-44-countries-but-not-us/

Applications related to lifestyle (sports, cooking etc) will also be launched and will allow you to share what you do: how long you’ve been running, what you have cooked etc. These new features will be very useful for brands, as they will create new information to target people.

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/09/22/facebook-announces-lifestyle-apps-for-media-movies-books-and-more/

So, Facebook is once again totally new, and brands will have to adapt to these changes.
New information will be available for brands, behaviour on Facebook will change, Fanpages will also probably change too (it is not the case for the moment yet).

The ticker for example changes totally the way brands interact with customers for the moment, as they don’t appear in the Home newsfeed anymore

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-engagement-punish-2011-09?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+allfacebook+(Facebook+Blog)

But as the activity on Facebook becomes richer and more automatic, the possibilities for brands are expanding and they will probably have to think bigger

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebooks-changes-marketers/

http://luxurysociety.com/news/20450

You probably already know it, the Carve team are a group of massive geeks who love to hang around on the internet to catch every social media related news story. They share it by email, by Twitter, by Facebook, but in the end it always stays in the office. So we’ve decided to share it with you. Concretely, every day the team will post a blog showcasing three articles to keep you posted about what’s hot in social media. No need to thank us, it’s our pleasure!

So for today….

Hootsuite announce new Facebook features: “Facebook Groups, Events, Photos & Geo Make #HootSuite Even Friendlier”

“How Younger Adults React to Brands on Social Networks”

“Google Explores Re-Ranking Search Results Using +1 Button Data”

Have a good read and see you tomorrow!

The Carve Team

One of the most FAQs I’ve been asked since joining Carve (other than “What is twitter?”) has to be:

“How do I keep on top of LinkedIn?”

LinkedIn needn’t be laborious, all you need is 5 minutes a day to keep on top of it and get the most you can out of corporate social networking.

So, if you’re a serial LinkedIn procrastinator, or you’re guilty of not even logging on to LinkedIn until you receive one of those “I’d like to add you to my professional network” emails; here are my guidelines on how to get the most out of LinkedIn in 5 minutes or less each day! Enjoy

Carve are always looking for new and inventive ways to work with recruiters.

The latest feature in our Social Recruitment Strategy is the ‘Apply with LinkedIn Button’.

This feature allows candidates to apply for job vacancies posted on your website with their LinkedIn profile merely by clicking a single button, rather than filling an online form or sending a mail with a CV attached.

This is something we believe will radically streamline the job application process.

What it means for the recruitment process?

From a recruiters standpoint, there are a number of benefits: by stripping away the laborious process that is normally associated with applying for a role and providing candidates with one click functionality, you can expect to see a dramatic increase in applications, particularly from passive candidates. Many passive candidates may not have an up to date CV which may traditionally have dissuaded them from applying; now, as long as their Linkedin profile is up to date, they can apply in a second. Another great advantage is that candidate information is presented in a standardised format, allowing for easy integration into existing applicant tracking systems or CRMs, eliminating the need to reformat CVs.

From a candidates perspective, the new feature means an end to lengthy application forms and constantly having to locate and amend CVs. Rich data, already provided within their LinkedIn profile, forms the basis of their application. The new feature also provides the functionality to track and manage applications. As with all things social, it also features the ability to visually map their own social graph, showing how theyre connected to the company theyve have just applied to.

Our view

Whist its clear that it will take some time for the majority of companies to successfully embed and integrate this functionality into their existing websites and CRM systems, the new function could fundamentally revolutionise the attraction / application process. First of all, it makes social recruiting a whole lot more social. More importantly, in our industry weve seen a dramatic uplift in the usage of mobile devices to engage in web based activity. However, applying for jobs from a mobile device up until now has been a non-starter. This new functionality, if executed correctly, would mean that relevant candidates are no longer confined to a computer, and can apply for opportunities on the move.
In terms of potential downsides, one early one to watch may be the proliferation of non-relevant applications. However, Linkedin is offering the ability for recruiters to ask qualifying questions.
If youd like to find out more about this functionality, and how it can be integrated into your current social recruitment process, be sure to get in touch.

Have a great weekend.

The Carve Team

A survey of more than 4,000 UK businesses from Reed looking at social networking in the workplace.

Some interesting numbers in here, not least that more than 30% admitted to not having any kind of social networking policy in place. The question that would have been interesting to ask is what percentage of employees are *encouraged* to use social networks at work? Those areas - from recruitment and customer services to Ideation, business networking and product/service advocacy - are a massive opportunity for value creation in organisations. If 1/3 don’t even have a policy, how many have a business-use strategy?

For those who haven’t yet met Jon (some of you) or Malik (all of you), I just wanted to take two minutes to ‘formally’ introduce them:

Jon has joined us from BLT and is consulting primarily in B2E / Recruitment, helping corporate recruiters and consultancies realise the value in social recruiting, employee empowerment and organisational advocacy. Jon made a film of his first week, below, which is apparently his excuse for not having written a self-depreciating bio.

Jon Tweets @Jernandes

Malik joins us fresh from business school (EM Lyon) and will be primarily working on social media strategies in B2B markets. His bio is below. Hailing from Cannes, we await his First Week with Carve film with considerable interest.

Malik is the newbie of the team, and another Francais wanting to settle in London because of Brit rock clichés. Deeply influenced by a drunk graffiti artist in Barcelona who shouted at him to « Express Yourself or Be Quiet », he has since that day vowed never to be quiet, and therefore loves to express his original and crucial perspective on just about anything: from the the latest social technologies, to Lady GaGa’s haircut to analysing Barcelona’s latest footballing masterclass. Previously a hard-core Seesmic user, he finally accepted to leave his first love and switch to Hootsuite to follow his workmates, as of proof of obediance.

Malik tweets @MalikAberkane and you can see his Flavors

So, welcome to the team - and yes Malik you need to change that LinkedIn photo..

Hi all! Jon here;  some of you twitter type people may already know me as @jernandes…and some of you linkedin people may already know about my new role at Carve!

First of all, I just wanted to say ‘Hi’ to those of you I don’t know (just yet).

Secondly, I thought, what better way to announce my arrival than with a blog post about my first week at Carve. Actually, I can go one better than that. Here are my edited highlights from week 1!

Be sure to say ‘Hi’ back!

http://twitter.com/jernandes

http://uk.linkedin.com/jonfernandes

Jon