Being Candidate Centric…

…ideas from Jeffery Giesener – CEO – ShoppeSimpleNetwork.com

Imagine if your Passive Job Candidates would suggest how they want to be recruited?

Imagine if you could distribute job postings to where your Passive Job Candidates are (Facebook personal profile page, on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, their MyHome pages, email and of course Mobile)!

The Result? More Qualified Candidates.

I know some of the many challenges in today’s Talent Acquisition world are balancing all that’s on your plate. And in many cases you have to do more with fewer resources this year than last. Plus as Passive candidates increasingly turn to Social and Mobile Networks to do their career research they have begun to steer their own job search. Did you know Social Networks now account for over 48% of total recruiting? *

I was visiting with a prospective client last week and this HR Executive waived an Excel report and said “ OMG I need to recruit 75 new positions this quarter. I just don’t know where I am going to get these candidates?”

“She also said, what used to work for us in the past like Monster ads and LinkedIn postings are just not generating the same quality or quantity of applicant flow that they used too.” 

A Social Sourcing approach for your business…

• Have you ever considered giving your Passive Job Candidates the opportunity to pre-select themselves into your job postings of their choosing on any Social or Mobile Network?
• Have you made it one-click easy to have your employees and Job Candidates to share your job postings and career information with their Likes, Shares, Tweets and Retweets, Google+ Followers, texting on Mobile or sending them to their email contacts? Plus protecting your candidate’s data is something you want to be careful about as using a 3^rd-party sharing tool could expose your business to violating your own privacy policy.

At ShoppeSimpleNetwork.com we believe in giving your best Job Candidates (your Passive ones) the keys to driving their Social career conversations and interactions with your HR Team. We do this in a number of interesting ways using our integrated Social, Mobile and Data Management Sourcing Solutions.

Now you’ll have Social and Mobile Career Centers that integrate Sourcing across all of the major Social and Mobile Networks and they work on autopilot. You’ll get all of these Social Career Centers at an affordable fee and delivered in less than 45 days.

Plus, our proprietary Sharing Widget creates an incredible viral BUZZ about your jobs, career conversations and your brand.

We do this by sitting on top of your ATS system (any of them) as a Social Plug-in and deliver your job posts to Social and Mobile without any of your IT Teams involvement, expense or your HR Teams project management. That means no IT resources needed for implementation, Period.

You’ll know it works because we’ll show you the sources of your applicant flow through our social enterprise analytics. Now you’ll see the ROI and value of the program not to mention all the other intangibles we create for your brand. Yes it is that simple. We Guarantee It.

The result of our customized Social job targeting is that your Talent Acquisition efforts will see a higher, better-qualified applicant flow from key Social and Mobile demographics that you are not fully reaching today.

So let’s take the first conversation step together.  Let me know what your schedule looks like in the next couple of weeks for a virtual meeting and we’ll get our Social conversation started. Email me at jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com or ring me up at 612-349-2740. Or stop by the SourceMob booth at the LEHRN Conference on February 29^th  here in the Twin Cities MN.

Best,

Jeffery

Jeffery Giesener
CEO/Founder
ShoppeSimple Network

Email: jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com

Direct: 612-349-2740

PS. Please feel free to forward this email to a friend or colleague.

Sourcing for Super Socials

… ideas from Jeffery Giesener CEO Shoppesimple

We all know people who seem to know everyone…people who can get you in touch with just about anyone.

Malcolm Gladwell in his visionary work called The Tipping Point (written in 2002) used the term “Connector” when describing people who like making connections.  They’re totally comfortable meeting people and offering help in facilitating connections on behalf of others. Gladwell was onto something.  His book was way ahead of the curve, written before the birth of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

From a Social Sourcing perspective have you thought about where the Connectors are hanging out today?  As you may guess, they’re hanging out in Social Networks. In fact, BusinessInsider.com has given today’s Connectors a new label, “Super Socials”.  Specifically, Super Socials are those people who have 150 connections on a given network.

Where are Super Social’s hanging out?

BusinessInsider.com reports that 84% of Super Social’s are connecting on Facebook, 39% are on Twitter and 38% are on LinkedIn. Do these numbers surprise you?  Most HR Pros we speak with believe LinkedIn is where the Social Sourcing action is taking place. But the Social Sourcing game is not just about LinkedIn. It is about Facebook and Twitter too.

When you consider that in 2010 (the last year reported) 1 out of 6 new hires found their job through social media, the growing Social Sourcing trend is one you just can’t ignore any longer. If you aren’t targeting your recruiting efforts beyond LinkedIn you are missing a huge Social Sourcing opportunity. Isn’t it time to begin pushing the Social Sourcing boundaries in your business?

What Gladwell Foretold Pales Compared to Paul Revere

In April 1775, Paul Revere caught wind of British orders to capture rebel leaders and forcibly disarm the colonists. So Revere and his fellow rebels devised a warning system and we all know the “one if by land, two if by sea”. What’s less known is Revere’s networking savvy.

Revere needed to reach Lexington to warn rebel leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock. First, two acquaintances rowed Revere across the Charles River, to Charlestown; there a horse was waiting for Revere, lent to him by another pal, Deacon John Larkin.

Chased by Redcoats, Revere was diverted to the town of Medford. Because he knew the head of Medford’s military, Revere rode to his house and warned him.

Most of us know the Lexington part of the story. Less known is that on the same night that Revere made his midnight ride, a man named William Dawes went galloping off in the other direction to muster the militias to the west of Boston. Revere’s ride stirred up an army, while something like three people showed up from the towns Dawes visited. Why? Revere was networked.  He knew everybody and so was able to storm into one village after another banging on all the right doors and calling out all the right people by name.

Revere was blessed with an uncanny genius for. . . you guessed it . . .being Super Social and used his talents to Socially Source his rebel brigade. He became our very first Super Social recruiter!

Today’s recruiter needs to be Super Social too and ride all the right Social Sourcing horses they can to find the best job candidates.  The Super Social numbers tell the story so don’t limit yourself to just LinkedIn for you can never tell from behind which door your next great recruit will be found.

Best,

Jeffery

CEO/Founder

ShoppeSimpleNetwork

612-349-2740

jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com

www.shoppesimplenetwork.com

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeffery-giesener/0/600/b82

Being Super Social…

ideas from Jeffery Giesener CEO ShoppesimpleNetwork.com

We all know people who seem to know everyone…people who can get you in touch with just about anyone.

Malcom Galdwell is his visionary work called The Tipping Point (written in 2002) used the term “Connector” for those people who like to make connections and is totally comfortable meeting people and offering help in facilitating connections.

It’s amazing that The Tipping point was written 10 years ago even before the birth of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and the iPhone.

From a Social Media perspective have you thought about where your Social Advocates are hanging out today? As you may guess, they’re hanging out in Social Networks. In fact, BusinessInsider.com reports that people who have 150 connections in Social Networks are called Super Socials.

Where Are Your Super Socials Hanging Out?

84% of Super Socials are connecting on Facebook, 39% are on Twitter and 38% are on LinkedIn. Do these numbers surprise you? They shouldn’t. BusinessInsider.com reports as expected, Facebook is the 800 lb. Super Social Gorilla. So if you aren’t targeting your marketing efforts towards your Social and Mobile customers you are missing a huge opportunity to engage with your customers and turn them into your Advocates.

So isn’t time to begin applying part of your marketing budget to testing/learning how to market to your Social and Mobile audiences?

The Power of Super Social Word of Mouth…

• When asked what sources “influence your decision to use or not use a particular company, brand or product” 71% claim reviews from family members or friends exert influence. (Harris Interactive)
• 53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their Tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product. (ROI Research for Performance)
• In a study conducted by social networking site myYearbook, 81 percent of respondents said they’d received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site; ClickZ
• Users put great trust in their social networks. One-half of respondents said they considered information shared on their networks when making a decision. (eMarketer)
• A study found that between 10% and 24% of US social media users turned to social networks when making purchase decisions about various categories of products and services. (eMarketer)
• 67% of shoppers spend more online after recommendations from online community of friends. (Internet Retailer)
• Facebook, blogs, Twitter and customer sharing are considered the most effective tactics for mobilizing consumers to talk up products online. (Etailing)
• Consumers say that word of mouth is still the number one influence for purchases. (Retail Advertising and Marketing Association/BIGresearch Study)
• Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touch points when it comes to influencing purchases. (AdAge)

Tapping Super Socials For Commerce?

Here’s how I see marketers, we are working with, succeeding in Social and Mobile commerce. First they have identified their Super Social audiences by tagging source. Then they are targeting specialized Social marketing campaigns to impact this group. Their intent is to enable word of mouth enabling conversations to flow through to friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, email and of course Mobile Texting.

Imagine the viral effect for your business when you stimulate your customer’s social graph.

A suggestion: when you take the marketing time to focus on your Social and Mobile programs, it won’t take long for your business to see positive outcomes from your top Super Social customers driving their friends and family back to your website for transactions.

Best,

Jeffery

Jeffery Giesener

CEO/Founder

ShoppeSimpleNetwork

jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com

612-349-2740

http://www.shoppesimplenetwork.com

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jeffery-giesener/0/600/b82

PS. Need help putting your plans together just give me a ping or ring and I would be happy to

The Rise of the Mobile Micro-Site

We live in a world of “instant”.

The word “instant” for us Internet Marketers is not new.  We’ve deployed “instant” micro-site web infrastructure to optimize search conversion, increase lead generation, develop sales pipeline leads, train and educate on YouTube and create a host of other Customer Relationship Management (CRM) opportunities for our consumers. Yes, micro-site marketing has proven itself with a positive ROI which has been cataloged many times in the web business success library.

Today, when people want instant information, instant search, instant PR, instant video, instant shopping, with increasing frequency they access the Web using their smartphones, Tablets and other Mobile devices. Mobile is fast becoming the new micro-site playground for online marketers.

Consider these Mobile Trends

* Total m-commerce sales for 2011 were expected to exceed $10 billion, according to the Internet Retailer Mobile Commerce Top 300.

* In December 2011, sales stemming from Smartphones and tablets accounted for 11% of total online sales, up from 5.5% in December 2010, according to the IBM Benchmark report that tracks online sales of some 500 retailers. – Internet Retailer

* By the end of 2012, we may see eight of every 10 phones sold in the US being smartphones – cmo.com

* 38% of smartphone owners have used their smartphone to make a purchase at least once – ComScore

* Well-known retailers, including Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, JC Penney and countless others are building out their mobile commerce efforts. These brands realize that their future is intimately tied to dominating commerce in mobile – CMO.com

So what are your Mobile marketing plans for this year, and do they include developing Mobile micro-sites?

Mobile micro-site opportunity is ready to explode

According to Gartner, by 2013 more users will turn to their Mobile devices for online purposes rather than using their PCs.  We see by the numbers that it’s already happening. This past month of December, consumers used their Smartphones and Tablets instead of laptops and desktops for e-Commerce shopping at an increasing rate.

The IBM Benchmark found that 14.6% of all online sessions on retailers’ sites were initiated from a mobile device, more than double the rate of 5.6% during the same period in 2010.

The Launch Pad for Mobile . . . Micro-Site Marketing

Before you build an enterprise mobile experience for your consumers, we recommend that you first build and test Mobile using micro-sites.  This will enable you to see the current mobile user profile so you invest wisely in your enterprise system.

But the power of micro-site marketing is not in creating one micro-site. As we all have learned with more traditional online marketing, the success of micro-site marketing is in the creation of many targeted sites and optimizing each of them. That’s when it really pays off.  The challenge for us marketers is in having the ability to create and optimize numerous, targeted micro-sites easily within the context of everything else we’re now doing.  Where do we find the time and budget?

Mobile micro-sites multiply your market presence

ShoppeSimple can help you easily and affordably create and optimize targeted Mobile micro-sites which are built with minimal resources required by your IT team. Powerful measurement tools are provided to track the success of each micro-site too.

So right now (before your competitor jumps in) let ShoppeSimple help you develop and optimize the use of Mobile micro-site(s), all of which will drive Mobile traffic back to your website (mobile enabled or otherwise) for transaction processing.

We will provide you an initial Free Trial Period and the appropriate time to do your own testing so you feel comfortable moving forward.

To start your ShoppeSimple Trial simply connect with me at jeff@shoppesimplenetwork.com or ring me up at 952-349-2740

Best wishes for a successful 2012

Jeffery

CEO/Founder

ShoppeSimple Network

 

 

 

 

Social Media Revolution

Take First-Mover Advantage in TransactionalRSS

ShoppeSimple’s founder and CEO Jeff Giesener recently sent out this letter, and I thought I’d share it with you here on the blog:

Closing the Gap

ShoppeSimple client closing the gap with competitors

Source: compete.com

In new technologies you hear about the term “first-mover advantage” – the first company in a market space to “own” a new communications media or sales channel is significantly ahead of their competitors — who pay a price to play catch-up in customer acquisition. You may see the above graph as a case in point. The chart measures site visits for a ShoppeSimple client (see the blue line) who began offering TransactionalRSS feeds in July 2009, and how they closed the gap between their competitors only after one month. Ask yourself… is your competitor looking to make a similar move against your business?

For a peek behind the curtain…you can see more retailers who are creating their own first-mover advantage at our beta site, www.shoppesimple.net.

Another word or two on Closing The Gap. There are many gaps to close in marketing today.  The buzzword in marketing today is “conversation”.  Social media gives you an unprecedented opportunity to hear and listen to your customers, become a part of conversations, spread your message and build your brand.  But marketers continue to face the challenge of converting conversation into sales.  A late 2008 Marketing Sherpa survey of social media marketers (as recapped by eMarketer) puts a spotlight on the issue.

ShoppeSimple closes the gap from conversation to conversion.  The ShoppeSimple TransactionalRSS (TRSS) Feed System combines widely used RSS technology with a proprietary SaaS-based publishing system which allows merchants to open an online channel to consumers and consumers who want merchant offers on their own time. It is inherently opt-in, anonymous and private for the consumer — and merchant offers can be accessed, purchased and shared through readers, browsers, from social networks and mobile devices.

That being said, a significant challenge for marketers is how to stay on top of all this social media buzz while maintaining margin, keeping business focus and increasing top and bottom line growth. At ShoppeSimple, we help our clients do all of the above with just one click. Our system delivers TransactionalRSS Feeds to your customer’s browser, reader, social network hub and mobile device of choice with just one click. We also help you monetize your social media assets. And all of it is done easily and with just a simple cut and paste from your website into ShoppeSimple’s TRSS Feed System. Learn more by checking out the videos at RSSCheck.com.

…I would welcome the opportunity to hear your thoughts about our product and learn how we can improve upon what you saw in the demo.  To jump on board contact us at 612.349.2740 or email info@rsscheck.com.

Looking forward to having you come on board…

Jeffery

Conversation to Conversion

The buzzword in marketing today is “conversation”.  Social media gives you an unprecedented opportunity hear your customers, become a part of conversations, spread your message and build your brand.  But marketers continue to face the challenge of converting conversation into sales.

A late 2008 Marketing Sherpa survey of social media marketers (as recapped by eMarketer) puts a spotlight on the issue.

The survey found, for example, that most respondents see social media as only “somewhat effective” at increasing online sales.  In terms of measurement, 32% off respondents believe that “Blog or social network advertising” is accurately measured — the most of any social tactic listed — while only 16% found it a very effective tactic.  47%  and 46% said that “user reviews and ratings” and “blogger and journalist relations”, respectively, are very effective, but only 15% and 11% believe these activities are very accurately measured.

The question, then, is how to bridge the gap from conversation to conversion.  eMarketer cites an Epsilon report that finds e-mail click through rates in Q1 ’09 at 6.1%, while click-through rates in industries such as retail electronics and  apparel saw declines from Q4 ’08 to Q1 ’09. And email is often a barrier to turning social media success into sales success.  Collecting email addresses from social network interactions is difficult and considered undesirable in most social networking conversations.

ShoppeSimple bridges the gap from conversation to conversion.  The ShoppeSimple TransactionalRSS feed system combines widely used RSS technology with proprietary SaaS-based publishing system to open an online channel to consumers who want merchant offers on their own time.  It is inherently opt-in, anonymous and private for the consumer — and merchant offers can be accessed, purchased and shared through readers, browsers, from social networks and mobile devices.

You can see  what many retailers are learning about TRSS at www.shoppesimple.com, or visit RSSCheck.com to contact sales.  And let us know what you think!