The Engineering Search Consultant

Domain Name Change

Brian — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 05:28:46 +0000

We have moved our domain name outside of the WordPress server. You can now follow us at the following link: www.engineer-search-consultant.com. New blog updates will be made using this new link. We look forward in serving you in the new domain.

Thank you for visiting ‘The Engineering Search Consultant’

How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business

Brian — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:51:26 +0000

I have been blogging about social media, entrepreneurship, marketing and recruiting for approximately 1 month. It is hard to measure (quantitatively) ROI for a social media campaign. What I find most useful in any social media medium is the use of ‘Status Updates’. Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter all use ‘Status Update’ feeds to see what others are doing at any given point in time. I understand Facebook is very conversational while LinkedIN is used in business.

When building a community, I find linking myself to other recruiters can actually increase your book of business. How? I find most recruiters use ‘Status Update’ to update their existing ‘Connections’ on what assignments they are working on at this given time or what assignments they need the most help on. Using a split fee recruitment network, recruiters can have an idea on what other recruiters are working on and provide candidate assistance on those ‘tough to fill’ assignments.

Aaron Uhrmacher’s article, ‘How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business’ is a great article that tries to find some form of measurable metric to assess social media in a business context. He does a good job in identifying both quantitative and qualitative measurements in how we can measure the effectiveness of social media in a business context.

You should never stop dreaming – even when we are adults….

Brian — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:46:43 +0000

I am always a dreamer. Most entrepreneurs are dreamers. I remember when I was 5 years old (life was far easier!) and when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Responses of ‘A fireman, a police officer, a teacher’ came up. At that age, I never thought I would say ‘a technical recruiter specializing in engineering/sales search consulting‘ or an ‘SEO expert focusing on optimizing new web/blog designs ‘. What happened? Life is what happened. The harshness of the real world kicks in (some call it responsibilities). After university/college graduation, people take whatever job they can get in order to earn money and make a living. Some individuals stick with their first job out of university for many years as they earn experience in order to become very good at what they do. Others use that first job as a stepping stone for a better career.

Jeremy Miller’s article ‘Career Resolutions – Dreaming a Bigger Future’ states that dreams are important. Even through adulthood, dreams are what keeps you going in life. He states that adults still need to dream. However, their dreams are bigger in scope and more grand in scale as compared to a 5 year old kid. Maybe adults dream of owning their own company. You then consider what it takes to own your own company. You start thinking about your current management style, your current leadership style and how you can gain ‘respect’ from the peers around you. Dreams are important no matter what age you are. They motivate individuals in proceeding into a journey towards reaching an end-goal.

Update to Career Opportunities webpage

Brian — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:26:40 +0000

We have updated our career opportunities webpage. I plan on keeping this web page updated frequently with fresh assignments hopefully on a weekly basis. Please review this webpage frequently to keep in touch with my latest updates on any career opportunities. Thank you for visiting ‘The Engineering Search Consultant’.

Having a strong web/marketing presence can have hiring authorities calling you for your services rather than vice versa…

Brian — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:32:01 +0000

Recently, I blogged about the use of YouTube videos in your firm’s marketing campaign while using Head 2 Head web presence as a core ‘case study’ example. I wrote on how effective this video can be used if marketed to the right audience. Sarah Welstead is a senior client relationship manager (aka senior recruiter) with Head 2 Head and has written this article on how effective the corporate video was in order to increase Head 2 Head’s brand awareness. According to Sarah, the results of this video are detailed below (as discussed in her blog):

Several potential clients requested meetings with us, because they wanted to hear more about our alternatives to contingency recruiting
Increased web traffic by about 20%
Increased average PPV (pages per visit) by about 33%
About 25 of our ‘brand champions’ reported referring us to a boss, friend or colleague (“I sent Bob at Acme Ltd. the link to the video and told him he should call you guys in the new year.”)

With the use of this innovative approach to recruiting, Sarah has concluded that their firm’s ROI has increased by over 500% just with the use of this video. Maybe traditional methods of obtaining job orders (cold calling hiring authorities) is dead, and we (as recruiters) should try and embrace new ways of strategic marketing to promote our brand awareness. In essence, I believe with a strong marketing and web presence, hiring authorities should be able to find you (the recruiter) and your brand rather than recruiters searching out hiring authorities to find new clients and job orders.

Recruitment Battlegrounds – Using social media to thrive in 2010

Brian — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:15:27 +0000

2010 has arrived with promise of a more healthier 2009. I have talked about many changes that will be seen in this upcoming year. We all know that the economy is going through a slow recovery, more companies are setting aside recruitment budgets for their hiring needs and social media / social recruitment is going to become more of a potent ‘player’ in the recruitment landscape. The use of twitter, facebook, YouTube and LinkedIN will become staples (if not already are) and ‘must use’ tools in recruitment along with the ever popular job boards (which are slowly becoming ineffective) and the old fashioned ‘head hunting’ approach.

I came across Andy’s blog post today as he describes the upcoming year as a ‘recruitment battleground’. He mentions,

“companies that have not yet embraced social recruiting, via the sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube (not forgetting blogs), will need to take a long hard look at themselves, as these platforms will become the recruiting battlegrounds of 2010.”

I tend to agree with his stance as these trends have recently emerged within the last 3 - 5 years. Later, he mentions that with any battleground – there are casualties. Candidate and company expectations have grown considerably due to the use of this new medium. Communications (both internal and external) are becoming more rapid (almost instantaneous with the use of new smart phone technology) with the integration of social media in the mobile phone space. The recruitment landscape has definitely changed and we (as recruiters) must embrace and understand this new form of communication medium and avoid being a casualty of the recruitment wars.

Using Youtube videos as a successful marketing tool in promoting your firm

Brian — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:57:00 +0000

Here is a fun corporate Youtube video on recruiting. Sure, some people might find it offensive – however, marketing this video to the right audience (customers) can be very effective. I am sure significant measurable results can be obtained with the use of this video (results measured by number of job related inquiries, new job orders, # of click through to website etc..). Head 2 Head has approached the recruitment market through a very unique billing system. Instead of a traditional 20% contingency rate, they have decided to bill the client based on the number of hours a recruiter works up to a maximum of 60 hours.

At times, I wonder if this is really feasible. Sometimes important search assignments last a lot longer than 60 hours. Most of the time, its not the recruiter’s fault that a search assignment has dragged on for longer than the 60 hours they have promoted. In any case, I found Head 2 Head’s web presence and social media strategy quite effective in promoting their brand.

A company that is increasing sales through the use of a strong social media campaign – A study on 'Glynne Soaps'

Brian — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:16:37 +0000

I have been following Chris Brogan’s blog for awhile. He has posted an interesting article on how maintaining relationships will improve sales. Now this is not a new point – in fact this is standard sales 101. What’s interesting about this article is how he talks about the use of social media (twitter, facebook, blogging) in order to maintain existing relationships.

We all know ‘soap’ is a commodity – however, when Chris needed soap, he was always reminded of ‘Glynne’ soaps. Not Dove, Axe or any other brand. Glynne soaps used ‘modern’ marketing in a very strategic way. They interacted with their customer base through conversations on twitter, product reviews placed on a facebook fan page and created a blog with a very interesting way of marketing their product. (You can see a picture of one of their marketing material here). All of this was done through a cost-effective social media campaign as they did not spend money on expensive (and possibly ineffective) advertising campaigns.

Although Glynne soaps did a great job of using social media, Chris also points out a very important fact that has to be used in conjunction with a strong social media marketing campaign. The product (in our case candidates) also has to be good!

A company that is increasing sales through the use of a strong social media campaign – A study on ‘Glynne Soaps’

Brian — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:16:37 +0000

Corporate Buisness Recruiting using an NFL playbook

Brian — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:14:48 +0000

Maybe companies should start recruiting in this way to find top talent. I have never heard of Wheeler Industries but this seems quite interesting.