Cheap Alternatives to TalentBin

I recently had a demonstration for Monsters new tool Talent Bin.  I was interested in TalentBin before Monster got their grubby little hands on it.  It's actually a great tool.

So what is TalentBin?

TalentBin is all about the Holy Grail of Recruitment, the elusive Passive Candidate.  It basically scrapes the internet to find you talent.  It basically gets the information from multiple sources and compresses it into one nice little profile.  One of the clever things about TalentBin is that if the system can't find the information on someone, it won't show them in the search.  It keeps looking and slowly builds up their details over time as it finds them.

I know this post is titled cheap alternatives to TalentBin.  However, I'm not saying I'm going to find a free product that will be as good as TalentBin.  I might be able to offer some free products that can do some of what TalentBin can do.  Honestly, if you want something as good as TalentBin.  Then buy TalentBin.  If you're not in a position to get it, then hopefully you might find these tools below useful.


SourceHub by Social Talent

SourceHub is not only a time saver, it's a recruitment lifesaver.  Time is money and all that.  For any recruiter who is worth their salt, they'll understand how to search for talent.  I'm not just talking about a quick LinkedIn search.  I'm on about a full Boolean search across multiple platforms.  Anyone who has worked in recruitment will know that this is very time-consuming.  However, its worth the effort if you want to find the best talent for your role.  SourceHub will now build a search for you.  You fill out a few criteria, and based on research Social Talent have done.  They will give you the Boolean strings for you.  Not only that though, they even recommend sites you might want to search.  The thing that makes this a truly great tool though, the fact you can edit searches yourself.  Take out skills that are irrelevant and replace with other skills.  All that and it's completely free.


Prophet

So you've found a list of prospective candidates.  Now it's about doing some more research and finding their contact details.  This is where Prophet comes in.

Prophet is one of the most useful tools I use in my day to day.  Prophet is a Chrome extension that will offer you someone's email addresses or other Social Media channels.  It can basically cut down the amount of time it can take you to research someone, and then enable you to contact them.  One of the things to take into consideration about Prophet is that it won't find 100% of the people.  Don't get me wrong, it works most of the time and even if it only found 50% of the people it's still going to save you a lot of time.

Similar tools:  There are some similar products out there.  However, Prophet is the one that I've found to be the most successful.  The other ones are:  Connect6 PeopleDiscovery & 360Social


MailTester.com

Now although Prophet will check for emails, and advise if the ones it's found are verified.  There is a site which will enable you to check to see if an email address is correct.  Obviously you'll have to do some searching on Google to find the email format.  However, once you've got an email address.  Type it into Mailtester and see what it says.  Again this isn't going to be 100% successful as some servers won't allow email verification.  You will find that it works most of the time though.

Zip Profiles

Now this one is relatively new to me.  It was a recommendation from RecruitingBlogs.  In a nutshell, it can be used as a CRM system.  Enabling you to keep track of candidates that you find, and associate them with a particular vacancy.  It allows you to extract people from LinkedIn and message them outside of LinkedIn.  By using the Chrome Extension, you can also build a search which will search LinkedIn (not as precise as using SourceHub, but pretty good).  One of the best features I've seen on it is the ability to predict email addresses.  It will advise as to what it feels the domain part of the email is, and then give you potential choices.  You can use this in conjunction with Mailtester.com and get some great results.

It post is by no means suggesting that you don't get TalentBin.  It is just offering you some potential tools if you're not able to get it.  Although, I would suggest you check out these tools even if you already have TalentBin.

I personally feel that Sourcing is all about: "AND" not just: "OR".  Use this tool AND that tool.  Not just this one OR that one.  Use all these tools together and I feel you'll get some great results.

Let me know your thoughts?  Always interested in hearing about other sourcing tools or techniques.

Dale

Inappropriate use of LinkedIn

Someone I know; and is highly respected in the Talent Acquisition / Social Media space, mentioned the other day on Twitter that she had received a Valentines card through LinkedIn.  She was rightly offended, as that's an inappropriate use of LinkedIn.

It got me thinking about how some people can be inappropriate in their use of Social Media.

I doubt you're now thinking, "So what's wrong with sending a Valentines card to a contact on LinkedIn?"  However, just in case anyone reading this, is actually thinking that.  Let me explain.

LinkedIn is a professional networking site.  It's where business leaders, experts in their field and professionals generally contact other similar people.  It's also where a lot of recruiters will look for talent for the roles they're looking to fill.  I've worked in Recruitment for over 15 years, 10 of that using LinkedIn.  I've never thought about approaching someone on their for a date.  The only romancing I thought about doing; was for them to fall for the job I was recruiting for at the time.  See what I did there?

I've started to see a pattern forming on LinkedIn over the past few months, and this is clearly being generated by the misuse of the site.  One of the handiest tools on LinkedIn is, "People Also Viewed".  However, on the candidate side I'm finding it becoming less effective.  Usually, it will be based on what profiles other users have viewed after viewing that particular candidate.  This is great if, the other users have been interested in the person for their skills and background.  What I've been finding recently, is if I'm looking at a woman's profile, and she's quite glamorous.  The "People Also Viewed" section consists of a number of other glamorous women who have no matching skills what-so-ever.  This is a massive concern for me.  This means that inappropriate behaviour of people on LinkedIn; is actually starting to affect the effectiveness of searching.

I use LinkedIn on a daily basis for searching.  I've had to adapt in the past to how I use LinkedIn.  However, this usually stems from LinkedIn trying to get people to pay for a Premium account, and I didn't feel the value.  As far as I'm aware this is the first time that people's misuse of it has affected my use.

So if you're in LinkedIn thinking about dating and want to approach someone.  DON'T DO IT!  Get on Match.com or some other reputable dating sites.  People on LinkedIn don't want a personal relationship with you.  If they were looking to date, they'd be on a dating site as well.

Social Media and Customer Service

Social Media growth has been exponential over the last few years. However, it still amazes me the amount of companies that use it badly. Now, I don't profess to be an expert. It's just I use it daily and when I see some companies use of it, all I can think of doing is a head slap.  Now it's not all companies. Some have invested a lot of time and resources into their social media. Not only do they have someone managing it, in some cases they may have a whole department.

Used correctly social media can increase brand awareness, sales, customer opinion and ultimately lead to an increase in profit. This is great in theory, however in practice this is not always the case. Not unless you have an amazing person looking after your social media. Someone with the patience of a saint and the skin of a rhinoceros.

Social Media is about understanding your customers and potential customers. You have to take into consideration human nature. As a species, we've had it pretty good since the end of world war 2. The standard of living has improved, so have the services we receive from companies. However, I feel the biggest improvements have come with the advent of the internet and particularly in the rise of Amazon. Amazon has changed the way we shop. Long gone are the days when we would wait weeks for something we ordered by mail. We can now receive things next day.

As a whole this is great. However, a major problem has arisen from this.  We have changed as a species. It's risen our expectations and made us more impatient.  We expect things immediately.  Not just goods or services, everything

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Now, if our very high standards aren't met then we have to complain. However, just like the way we order things we expect our complaints to be dealt with immediately. This is an area that I have found that companies are dragging their heels with regards to social media. Some companies are still trying to direct customers down the snail mail route when complaining.  The problem with this, it's that if a customer gets too frustrated then they have found an immediate solution. They'll take to social media and basically air a company's dirty laundry in public.

I still believe that a lot of senior management within companies don't understand social media. They've just heard of it and know they should be using it.  Poorly run social media can be detrimental to a brand and do more damage than good. Social Media is live. Your customers can express their opinions about your brand and other customers and potential customers can see their opinions. This can determine whether they use your company or not.

Human nature hasn't changed so much that we no longer complain more than we'll say something positive. We still do, although we've become far more impatient and fussy.  We now have a lower threshold for the amount of crap we'll perceive to take from a company before complaining.   

Be warned! It takes a long time to gain a great reputation and a second to lose it. 

Android Apps for the lazy or seriously short of time.

I'm an android user, and as I work with a computer and a phone all day.  I'm always looking to find Apps for extensions that will make my job easier.

Now I must admit there are some awesome apps out there, and I probably use a lot of them.  I'm constantly on the look out for more and being a geek it really intrigues me.

On my latest search, I recently found a few that could be useful.  To some extent I could use them for work, however I would class these apps for people who are too busy to even answer the phone.  Surely everyone has time to answer the phone?  I'm not talking about a messaging App here.  I'm actually talking about an App that means you dont have to press the button to answer the phone.  You just hold the phone to your ear and it will answer it for you.  You also dont even have to hang-up, just turn the phone face down on your desk and the app will hang up.  I've been using it for a week or so now, and its a bit awkward to start off with, however its pretty nifty once you get the hang of it.  It will also, immediately put your phone on speaker phone if you move it away from your ear.  Now that's pretty handy for work, although not so handy if its a private call.

If you're interested in this App, its called: SpeakerPhoneEx - Pro and it costs 94p on Google Play

The next App is called Gravity Screen Pro, and it basically uses your phones instruments to work out what your phone is doing.  For instance, if you lay your phone flat on your desk the screen will turn off.  It does the same if you turn your phone upside down as it assumes its in your pocket.  This App though isnt just about turning your screen off.  It uses the camera to sense when you're near and if you swipe your hand over the phone the screen will light up.  This App is really good, if you can get the settings right.  I dont believe I have, as the screen sometimes doesnt turn off and I have to use the power button (which you're not supposed to do).  Now, I'm giving this App the benefit of the doubt as judging from all the positive comments it maybe down to my phone.

If you're interested in Gravity Screen Pro, it costs £1.21 on Google Play

This next App is for the people who forget to put their phones on silent at night and are woken up by an email or some other notification.  Nights Keeper allows you to set the time that you want your phone to go on silent, and the time you want it to come back on.  It even allows you to set different times for the weekend, if you're wanting those extra minutes or hours in bed.  There is more to this App than just putting your phone on silent though.  You can add numbers to a list that the App will allow to come through in case of an emergency.  Pretty awesome.

If you're interested in Nights Keeper, its absolutely Free on Google Play

I have a few more Apps which I will write about shortly, that might be more beneficial to work.

Dangers of Social Media

Now I'm sure most of the people in the UK are aware of the issues with the economy and some of the repercussions it's had on some household names. In the last few months the most notable effected companies have been Jessops, Comet and HMV.

 Now it's always a massive shock when companies go into administration or out of business as not only are they brands that many of us have grown up with, there is also the mass-job loss that follows. It's always disappointing when people lose their jobs, especially as many will have worked that the particular company for years and will have a genuine love of the brand.

 Now most of these companies disappear with what seems like the minimum of fuss, there maybe an article on the news and questions asked about how it happened and who's fault it is, however then it seems to become just accepted and then the story goes away.

 Then there is the HMV story, which is where a company underestimates Social Media and their plight starts trending worldwide on Twitter. Now most of you will know what I'm talking about, however if not then I have posted their feed below:

 On Friday last week anyone that followed @HMVtweets would have seen the following tweets:




Now clearly Twitter had witnessed in a way something that no company ever wants revealed, the way they were going about sacking staff. It just so happened that in this particular case, the staff member felt aggrieved and just happened to be responsible for HMV's Social Media. A very dangerous combination.

 Now in my opinion this just highlights the problem with HMV. The company never properly embraced Digital, and it just seemed like it was an after thought. Digital is not an afterthought, it should be at the forefront of any companies' thoughts. If we take just Social Media into account for example, Facebook has over 32 million UK users, who many could be potential customers. Surely that is reason enough to invest? Not only does it have a great reach, however many campaigns can give you immediate feedback.

 There are several changes that I have noticed within the eCommerce market over the last few years. Companies that are slow to embrace digital seem to be the ones that struggle. HMV is a prime example of this.

Alienating Customers through Mobile

I'm an avid Android fan, always have and probably always will be.  I consider myself a geek, and for me its all about the spec of a Phone / Computer / TV etc.  I have always considered Iphones a bit pretentious and what's under the bonnet is not worth the price tag.  You can get better spec phones for a lot less, so in my eyes its not worth the money.  Now I would like to put something straight, I'm not a hater of all things Apple, far from it.  Macs are so worth the money, and that's because what's inside warrants spending extra.

Anyway, this isn't a blog about reasons for liking or not liking Iphones, its about Apps for Apple and Android. For a long time I have always been jealous that some Apps were available for Iphone and not on Android, however there has been a shift of more equality as the Android market share has increased.  I think a lot of companies have started trying to have their Apps available on both platforms at the same time.

Current figures suggest that Android has a 68% market share compared to Apple at 17%.  Now going on this figures you would at least think that companies would develop Android Apps first due to it being available to more customers.

I recently signed up for Virgin Media when we moved house as I wanted fibre optic broadband, phone & TV.  Virgin in the last week or so have just launched their TV Anywhere service which allows streaming of TV to Mobiles, Tablets and Computers.

Now the major issue for me is that this service is only available on Iphone and Ipad, and the Android version isn't due for release until March next year.  Surely Virgin are alienating all their Android owning customers by releasing this service to one platform and not another.  There was a time that this would have been acceptable as Apple had the market share, but come off it Virgin.  Surely you did some research with regards to market share before you released this App.  Even if you couldn't have been bothered to research it you could have developed them at the same time.

Does anyone else agree with this?

Now I appreciate Mobile Apps are expensive to develop, however for a company Virgins size it should be able to develop them at the same time.  Poor show Virgin.  You certainly have one annoyed Android customer.

If you're reading this blog post then you're probably aware that I run a recruitment company specialising in Digital Marketing. I work for myself and I have to work as efficiently as possible as I work with quite a number of clients and get quite a few roles in each week.

One of my friends Ryan Gibson writes an amazing blog on working from home and the tools he uses to help him get by. He also interviews other people in the industry about how they became successful working the same way. If you haven't read it, I advise you to check it out: Generation Y Working. Anyway, Ryan's blog got me thinking about the tools & products I use on a day to day basis that aid me in my work. In this blog I will cover some of the products I use and how I feel I benefit from them.

Now at this point the obvious thing would be to mention the usual Social Media channels like LinkedIn & Twitter, but I wanted to mention some of the more obscure tools I use. Some of the things that help my business as well as making it more productive.

So here's some of the tools: 

Lemon: is a tool I've used for a while now, and I could probably sell it. Its a fantastic expense managing tool you can use on your phone. You scan your receipts in using the camera on your phone and then it saves it to your account. You can use it for personal and business at the same time, you just tell it when you're scanning the receipt what it is. You can download all your expenses to a spreadsheet when its time to claim them back. Its a great tool and I would definitely recommend it. Its also free (although there is a premium version you can pay for).



Awesome New Tab Page: I think the name says it all. Its a home page for Google Chrome that enables you to customise it and put your most used sites there. It takes some time to get it just how you want it but its worth the effort. There's no looking for bookmarks or typing in web addresses its just one click. Its definitely worth a download.




Buffer: Is a great tool that enables you to publish posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn at different intervals. Buffer will post 3 times a day: Morning, Midday and Evening. You don't need to be online, it will post for you. This will hopefully mean that you're getting maximum coverage even when you're busy doing something else. Also, there is an App on Android & Iphone now so you can Buffer posts when you're away from your desk.

ifttt: Basically it means: if this then that. This site has so much potential and its getting even better all the time. Its a way of automating the web. Although that explanation doesnt do it justice. There are some many different channels to choose from. You can get it to email, or SMS you if its going to rain tomorrow. You can get it to change your Twitter Avatar when you change your Facebook profile, while also saving the picture in DropBox. You can get it to instantly follow someone on Twitter when they follow you. Its a fantastic tool or tools.

Anyway, I think that's enough for now. There are lots more tools & Apps I use and I'm discovering more hidden gems every week. I will try to keep you updated with some of the best ones I find.

It would be great to hear back about some of the tools you use and would be lost without.