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

.
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. 

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.

Budget Airlines, are we really saving anything?

I used to really enjoy flying when I was younger.  My father used to travel in his job and as my parents wanted me to have an undisrupted education, I attended boarding school.  Although I hated being away from my parents, I used to really enjoy the adventure of travelling to Hong Kong or Cyprus, which I did many times.

When I first started flying to Hong Kong I was 10 years old, and I used to fly by myself.  I was dropped at the airport by my guardians, and they would hand me over to someone from British Caledonian and they put me into the Lion club, which was for young flyers.  I used to feel so special, getting a pack to keep me entertained through the flight.  Even as I got older the flights were enjoyable, it was still an adventure.

I realised today that all the enjoyment and adventure has gone, thanks mainly to budget airlines.  I had the displeasure today of dealing with Jet2 for the first time, and hopefully the last.  Not only has the enjoyment and excitement of booking your flight gone, its been replaced with frustration and anger.

I used the Skyscanner website to find a flight to Cyprus from Leeds / Bradford next year.  Skyscanner found me a flight with Jet2 for £425.96.  I thought that was a great price and so decided to book it.

I was forwarded to the Jet2 site, and asked to fill in some details.  Now this is where I quickly figured out that the £425.96 was just bait to draw you into the site.  Once in the costs would be added on.

Now the first thing you get hit with is baggage.  It states that hand luggage is free, however if you want to take anything to go in the hold its going to cost you: £41.98 per 22kg bag.  Lets be honest, who is going to go on a 2 week holiday without taking at least one suitcase.  So there is definitely going to be that charge added on.

Next thing you're hit with is: Online Check-in or Airport Check-in.  Now the Online Check-in is £10 extra (Not exactly sure why it costs anything, but there we go).  However, if you want to Check-in at the airport it will cost you: £36 (Now that is just scandalous).

Once you click to move to the next page, you get a pop-up that asks you if you want to take anymore baggage as Jet2 are doing a special deal at the moment:  50% off baggage costs.  Wow!  Sign me up!

Its great to see a company giving something back, they're so generous.  Enough of the sarcasm.

So I got to the next page, and I find a diagram of a plane and it asks me where I would like to sit.  When I click on a seat it says its either £6.99 or £24.99.  So basically I have pay for a seat.  Not only that but I have to pay for it on the return flight also.  Surely a seat would be a prerequisite of a flight.  I mean I cant really fly without a seat, its not like its a bus.  Pathetic!

Then we move onto the next page, the meal.  Now I'm aware of meals on most flights cost extra these days, so its quite easy to skip this one.  There's no way I'm going to pay £40 for 2 of us to have 2 meals outbound and 2 inbound.  Also we're not going to buy Jet2's insurance at £19.54 per person, or their entertainment pack for £40 for 2 people for both flights.

So we're finally at the check-out, not bad so far.  However once you select you want to pay with a Visa/Debit card, you then get hit with an £18.21 booking fee.  Ouch!  That however isnt the worst.  You want to pay with PayPal that's: £10.21 on top of the booking fee.  However on a Credit Card, you're looking at £18.87 on top of the booking fee.

Anyway, lets add all this up.  Lets say I was going to pay with a Debit Card.  Now the amount I was quoted on Skyscanner was: £425.96.  The actual amount I was expected to pay was: £524.11

In the end I booked with Thomson and got it for £381 flying from Manchester.

Now the point of this blog was vent my anger at the so called budget airline industry.  It seems like all the budget with none of the cost saving.  Also to warn other people of the perils of using budget airlines.

Get rid of budget airlines they offer nothing.  You're stressed when you've finally booked your flight due to the fact that its nearly £100 more than what you thought you would be paying.  Or you end doing what I ended up doing, going through the whole process getting to the end and then going to look elsewhere having wasted about 45mins of your life.

So are we getting anything out of budget airlines?  My personal opinion is no.  Bring back all inclusive flights.  I'd much rather just buy a ticket and know that its all included and I'm not going to get hit with a charge, like somewhere to bloody sit.

So for me the pleasure and adventure has gone from air travel.  Please bring back all inclusive flights, I'm fed up of the poor service and hidden charges.

Please be aware when looking for flights, that the initial cost your quoted wont be the one you have to pay. Oh and just for the record, I think its quite funny how Jet2 have taken there Twitter account down.  There was probably too many complaints about the hidden charges.  That cant be good for their PR if everyone is complaining.

If you're looking for PPC jobs, SEO Jobs, SEM Jobs, Search Jobs, Social Media Jobs, Display Jobs, Digital Planning & Buying Jobs, Mobile Jobs, Web Development Jobs or Senior Digital Jobs, just give me a shout.  Or if you have any questions drop me a line on: dale@digital-minds.co.uk

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eCommerce: Are we valued as a customer? Latest Update

I have made a couple of posts about the good and bad service I have received from varying companies over the past month.  I was getting really disheartened by just how shockingly poor the level of service was and I had the impression that customers just weren't that important to companies these days.

I put this down to companies working in a niche market knowing that their customers were just coming back to them as they didn't really have anywhere else to go.  The example I gave was Game, where I had got my product 5 days after its release and didn't really get a satisfactory response from their customer service team.

Well after posting my last blog, I was contacted directly by someone in their customer service team.  She was really apologetic and explained that they did care about their customers, and to make up for the level of service I had received that I could chose a game from their website and I could have it for free.

Its a shame that it got to the stage of having to use social media before a company reacts to a problem, however the fact that they did respond is a big plus on my part as I do have that feeling of being a valued customer, and in the end that's all we want.

With regards to Carphone Warehouse on the other hand, we have a completely different outcome.  They clearly don't care about their customers and I've had no response what-so-ever.  My complaint with them is ongoing.  All I would say is that if you're tempted on one of their cash back offers on Quidco, then don't be.  You probably will receive cash back, however it will be considerably lower than you were thinking.  Its a shame as the Quidco idea is great.  I will certainly think twice before entering into a deal on Quidco, and I certainly wont be entering into anything involving Carphone Warehouse.  They have conned me out of my money.

Dont use Carphone Warehouse, go direct to the phone companies you'll get a better level of service anyway.

If you're looking for PPC jobs, SEO Jobs, SEM Jobs, Search Jobs, Social Media Jobs, Display Jobs, Digital Planning & Buying Jobs, Mobile Jobs, Web Development Jobs or Senior Digital Jobs, just give me a shout.  Or if you have any questions drop me a line on: dale@digital-minds.co.uk

Hope Restored!

Over the last couple of days I have posted about some negative experiences and some pretty bad service from some retailers.  I'd pretty much given up hope that companies valued us as customers, and therefore didn't care about the service they offered.  That is until last night, all hope has now been restored.  Thanks to Pizza Express.

I know Pizza Express isnt an Online Retailer, however they do offer a service, and an exceptional one at that.

I was visiting the Albion Place Pizza Express in Leeds last night with my girlfriend Laura and it has to be one of the best experiences I have had with regards to service.

We made our order, Dough balls to share for starter, and we were discussing with waiter about the different types of chillies on an American Hot, as my girlfriend didnt want anything that would burn her mouth out.  The waiter was quite knowledgeable and discussed each.  Laura didnt want to take a risk and so decided to play it safe and order a Sloppy Giuseppe and I went with a Pollo ad Astra.

Our order came extremely quickly, however there wasnt any dough balls as they had brought our pizzas and instead of Laura's choice, they had an American Hot.  We explained that we had ordered dough balls and the one of the pizzas wasnt right, the waitress was extremely apologetic and said that she would go and get them to rectify the order and remake the pizzas.  Now as this was clearly an honest mistake, as we had been discussing the American Hot with the waiter, we just assumed he'd accidentally written it down.

We would have been happy with them just remaking the pizzas and bringing our dough balls.  What happened afterwards was extremely unexpected and shocked both myself and Laura.

The manager came over to us and apologised for the mix up, he handed us a plate of dough balls each and said that they wouldn't be charged.  He then said that we should save room for dessert as that would be on Pizza Express as well, and he was really sorry.

Now in my eyes, this went above and beyond what he needed to do.  We didn't see this as a big mistake, it was a simple error.  Laura and I left that restaurant feeling like we were really appreciated and valued as customers, and can honestly say we have never been made to feel like that anywhere else.  That was my first time visiting that Pizza Express, however I can guarantee it certainly wont be the last.

If anyone else is fed up with poor service, or you're a business that wants to see how its done, I couldnt recommend the Pizza Express on Albion Place highly enough.  Its second to none, and the staff are amazing.

Well done Pizza Express!

If you're looking for PPC jobs, SEO Jobs, SEM Jobs, Search Jobs, Social Media Jobs, Display Jobs, Digital Planning & Buying Jobs, Mobile Jobs, Web Development Jobs or Senior Digital Jobs, just give me a shout.  Or if you have any questions drop me a line on: dale@digital-minds.co.uk

eCommerce: Are we valued as a customer? Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the shocking service I'd received from an Online retailer, and it got me thinking about another incident that happened to me when I used Quidco to get cash back on a mobile phone.

The offer I saw was £80 cash back when I ordered an HTC Incredible S through Carphone Warehouse on a contract with Vodafone.  I thought this was a great deal as I was looking to get a new contract anyway and so thought I might as well earn some money back for doing it.

I signed up for the deal on the Carphone Warehouse site having been directed there through the Quidco site.  I filled out all the details, and asked for the phone to be sent to my nearest store.  Unknown to me this store was still being built.  This is where all my problems seemed to start.

I got an email from Carphone Warehouse saying that my order was being processed and I would get sent an email once it had been confirmed.  No email ever arrived, so I thought I would go into the store to check if the phone would be arriving.  The store advised that the order was on its way, and even though the store that it was supposed to go to wasn't ready, it should be directed to them.  It hadn't arrived yet though, so asked me to come back.

Eventually it arrived, and I went into the store to pick it up.  I went in on my lunch break and was in there for over an hour as there was a problem with my order.  There was a computer error that didn't allow them to close down my order.  They spent most of the time I was in the store on the phone to head office trying to sort this problem out.  It was left that they would try and sort it out and I should go back after work.

I went back into the store and they said that the only way they could do anything was to cancel my order and then put it through again.  I was obviously concerned about this affecting my deal with Quidco and was advised that it should be ok.

They put the order through and I started using the phone, however as I was checking on Quidco to see how my cash back was tracking, I noticed it was only tracking at £20.  I checked on Quidco to see if this was normal and it said that Carphone Warehouse deals did track at lower rates.  I decided to contact Carphone Warehouse direct by email and they advised that they would give me a complimentary £20 due to the problems I had received.  I wrote back asking if this was £20 instead of the £80 cash back as if this was the case then I didn't agree.

I heard nothing back from Carphone Warehouse.  About 4 months after I saw on Quidco that my cash back had been rejected.  On enquiring with Quidco they advised me that Carphone Warehouse had rejected it.

This is where the situation becomes laughable.  I spoke to Customer Services at Carphone Warehouse and they advised me that Quidco had decided not to pay me as I hadn't passed their T&C's with regards to the deal and I should check it.  I contacted Quidco and they asked me to send the order confirmation, as it had been Carphone Warehouse that had rejected it.

This is just a case of each one blaming the other, however I'm really not happy with Carphone Warehouse.  I feel like I have been conned by them into getting a phone through them.  They have tried to palm me off with £20 when I should have received £80.  They have seriously got off lightly from serious mistakes they have made, and that's not acceptable.  Why should I suffer for receiving poor service?

I hope to continue using Quidco, however this has left a bad taste in my mouth as am I going to go through this with other retailers?

I'm not expecting any response from Carphone Warehouse as they have palmed me off and ignored me all through the process.

If you're looking for PPC jobs, SEO Jobs, SEM Jobs, Search Jobs, Social Media Jobs, Display Jobs, Digital Planning & Buying Jobs, Mobile Jobs, Web Development Jobs or Senior Digital Jobs, just give me a shout.  Or if you have any questions drop me a line on: dale@digital-minds.co.uk

eCommerce: Are we valued as a customer?

I have recently been buying lots of things on-line, which I have been doing for quite a number of years.  I'm a typical bloke and I hate shopping.  I really detest the whole experience.  I don't like people when I'm shopping, they get in my way, they infuriate me as they don't seem to know what they want and where they want to be.  I don't like trying things on, as that's time out of my life I'm never going to see again.  Due to the fact that I hate the experience so much means I'm not an enjoyable person to be around when shopping.  My girlfriend will vouch for that.  Anyway, I established many years ago that I would much prefer to purchase as many things as possible on-line, so its something I do regularly.

The reason for this post, is that I recruit for a lot of retailers and I like to understand how they work as a business, so explore their websites and see the comments people have made about them. This helps me understand my clients and enables me to offer advice to my candidates.  I recently had two completely different experiences from two different sites and I wanted to discuss it, to see if anyone else has noticed this worrying trend.  The two sites I used were Game.co.uk and Amazon.co.uk.  One, the service was second to none, the other was absolutely disgusting, followed up with shocking customer service.

Firstly, lets talk about the positive.  Amazon.co.uk.  Admittedly I ordered from Amazon, however the products were dispatched by independent suppliers, but still the service was immense and I was felt to feel appreciated as a customer.  Now the suppliers in question were Areema Limited and PJP Electronics.  Both products I ordered were delivered well within the time stipulated and actually arrived on the first of the five day window they stated.  Both companies deserved the 5 star rating that I gave them.

Now here is the reason that you'll find the service so good on Amazon.  There is so much competition on Amazon from competing suppliers that there is a fear amongst them.  If they do a bad job then they wont get any more business.  Customer feedback is the key to getting better service.  Its the best form of marketing for these companies, and its free.  All they have to do is do a good job.  This is how business used to be, and its how business should be.  What happened to the customer is always right?

If we look at Game.co.uk on the other hand, this definitely doesn't apply.  They clearly feel that they don't really have much competition, and therefore if they don't do what they say, it doesn't matter as the customers don't have anywhere else to go.  This was made clear by the service that I received.

I pre-ordered a product well in advance of the release date, it was a massive release and was going to be in high demand.  Game contacted me to advise that due to the amount of pre-orders they were going to take money from my account early, not a problem I thought.  All I'll say is that the product eventually arrived 5 days after the release date, although I'd had to go out and buy it on the day of its release when it hadn't arrived.  This is bad service in itself, but when you mix this with the fact that they were updating their website, and their phone system, so there was no way of contacting them, it makes it atrocious.

I eventually managed to find an email address on-line and contacted someone.  A few days later I got an email from their customer service department with attached terms & conditions with regards to when a product doesn't arrive.  Not the response I was expecting, no apology.  I wrote back to advise that I have spent a lot of money with them in the past, and threatened to take my business elsewhere.  I eventually got a response over a week later, from this I gathered they didn't actually care as they had enough customers even if they lost my custom.

When you look at these two examples it just goes to show that competition clearly leads to a better service.  Game.co.uk clearly feels it can treat its customers any way it likes, as there isn't enough competition for them to go elsewhere.  If this is the case, then someone needs to step up to the mark and show them how its done. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's been made to feel like this by Game.co.uk

I'm not saying the Amazon way will work for everyone, but if it means that retailers are scared into offering a good service then I'm all for it.  Too long we have suffered from poor service.  We're the customers and we're always right.  Remember that!

If you're looking for PPC jobs, SEO Jobs, SEM Jobs, Search Jobs, Social Media Jobs, Display Jobs, Digital Planning & Buying Jobs, Mobile Jobs, Web Development Jobs or Senior Digital Jobs, just give me a shout.  Or if you have any questions drop me a line on: dale@digital-minds.co.uk

Stereotypical Recruitment Agencies.

I just read an interesting article by my colleague Simon Halkyard on how Social Media has changed the recruitment industry.  If you havent had a chance to read it, its definitely worth a read (http://simonhalkyard.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-social-media-has-changed.html).  Anyway, on reading Simon's blog, it got me thinking about the image candidates and clients have about recruitment agencies and whether their feelings were justified.  Lets be honest, I'm sure most of you don't have a favourable image about them.

I have been in the recruitment industry for over 11 years and have mainly worked in the IT & Marketing sectors for varying sized agencies, from start-ups to larger more established organisations and I have seen the way that they work and also I've listened to my clients and candidates feedback on other agencies.

Why does Recruitment have such a bad reputation?

Recruitment agencies don't exactly endear themselves to either clients or candidates alike as it seems like the relationship is all about money.  Now don't get me wrong, recruitment is a business so of course its about making money.  Its just most recruitment companies act as though that's all that matters.  How are clients & candidates ever going to have anything other than a negative opinion if they're just seen as money.

Recruitment is about service.  We're offering a client a recruitment service, enabling them to save time and evidently money on getting the ideal candidate into their organisation.  From a candidate perspective, again its a service.  We're supposed to help them find their ideal job, by offering advice with regards to their CV and recommending clients we feel they would be suitable for, and then approaching that client on their behalf.  It's not all about KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) including number of CV's sent to clients, number of interviews, number of vacancies you can get in a week.

I know I'm simplifying the recruitment process, and of course its more involved than this, however I'm not writing this for recruitment agencies.  I believe for most its a lost cause, and they'll continue to work the same way and give candidates and clients the same opinion of them.  I feel that the recruitment industry has to change and adapt the same way that all companies have to change or they will get left behind and become obsolete.  How about offering Quality, not Quantity?  There's a novel idea that could improve peoples opinions.

If there are any candidates or clients out there reading this blog, and you're dealing with agencies that aren't offering you a service, then know that there are companies out there that appreciate you as more than just a pound sign.  If you would like to find out more about the SERVICE we offer then get in touch, I'd be more than happy to run through how we can help you.

If you're looking for PPC jobs, SEO Jobs, SEM Jobs, Search Jobs, Social Media Jobs, Display Jobs, Digital Planning & Buying Jobs, Mobile Jobs, Web Development Jobs or Senior Digital Jobs, just give me a shout.  Or if you have any questions drop me a line on: dale@digital-minds.co.uk

Unusual Marketing Campaign for a Football club

Listening to Talksport this morning in the office (we're nearly all football fans), and one of the topics they talked about was Getafe's latest Marketing campaign to gain more Season ticket holders.


Now for those of you that aren't aware of who Getafe are, they're a Spanish football team from Madrid.  The problem Getafe have is that they're the 3rd biggest team in Madrid after Real Madrid (85,000 season ticket holders), Atletico Madrid (42,000 season ticket holders) and then Getafe (9000 season ticket holders).

This latest campaign from Getafe involves getting their current season ticket holders to donate sperm in the hope that they will create a new batch of Getafe season ticket holders. On first reflection this campaign seems completely and utterly ridiculous, and quite risqué and controversial.  However, if you think about it, it works.


Getting their fans to donate sperm to generate future fans is never going to work, as we all remember when growing up, most kids will support the team that is doing the best.  So this campaign would more likely generate fans for the two teams ahead of Getafe.  So this isn't a viable solution.  However I feel this wasnt the outcome they were after.


Where this campaign works, is by making people talk about the campaign and hence growing the brand.  In coming across as a future plan, they're getting an immediate impact.


A club like Getafe would not usually get much of a mention, apart from when looking at the latest Spanish football league results.  However they're now getting mentioned on a sports radio station in the UK, about their ludicrous marketing campaign.


Its not ludicrous, its working.  Getting people talking about your brand is surely what marketing is all about.


If you're looking for PPC jobs, SEO Jobs, SEM Jobs, Search Jobs, Social Media Jobs, Display Jobs, Digital Planning & Buying Jobs, Mobile Jobs, Web Development Jobs or Senior Digital Jobs, just give me a shout.  Or if you have any questions drop me a line on: dale@digital-minds.co.uk