Corporate Eye

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Stakeholder

If you build it, they will come – Media (part 3)

I’ve already discussed the basics of a corporate media section, and then how to step it up a gear. So – how do you get to the wow factor?

Bear in mind that this section will attract not only the professional media worker, but also your potential customers and investors, so it is worth some investment. I have noticed that some companies like to verify that a visitor is a genuine media worker before allowing them access to some of the pages – and haven’t really understood the benefits of this. Please don’t require people to sign up to gain access to your media features …
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Getting the basics right – Media Section (part 1)

Despite the importance of the media (both traditional and new) to a corporate brand, some companies don’t seem to cater to the needs of this stakeholder group very well at all. I am always surprised when I can’t even find a company logo for download …

(Yes, the logo is at the top left of every page, but your web design team will probably have optimised it for the web, so it won’t be good quality for printing).

When I last looked, over 5% of the FTSE 100 didn’t provide a section of their site dedicated to journalists at all.
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Informative Eye Candy

For this post, I wanted to write about the absolutely critical importance of clear and engaging web copy. After all, we’ve all come across badly written web pages that prompt a rapid visit to the good old “go-back” icon.

Then I found myself reading a Linkedin post about why human beings like visual content. And this reminded me of something we often discuss with clients at Corporate Eye. So, despite having a vested interest in writing about good web copy (I am a blog writer after all!), for this post I’m going to talk about…

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Okay, I’ll admit it – we have touched on the value and effectiveness of infographics in previous blog posts. But I think it’s worth revisiting this subject, and also adding some science to explain why visual images can be an incredibly effective way to communicate core messages and key data.

Human beings like colourful eye-catching content, and perhaps that’s no surprise when we consider that:

infographic-steps

Bold and vibrant infographics on a web page can convey important stories about your company fast. And that could take the form of showing resources and markets, achievement against target, or aims and ambitions.

Providing engaging and clear infographics can also be good news for web writers. How many times have you skim-read copy within a website? Well, don’t worry too much if you might have done this on the odd occasion, as research suggests that web users often only read 28% of the copy within a website. And maybe that isn’t surprising. There is of course a lot to take in on even basic corporate sites. But good infographics can help us stop skimming and increase our willingness to read by a massive 80%! Engaging visuals that tell a story can also help to embed key messages. As a broad rule, we only remember 20% of what we read, but we remember 80% of what we see.

Infographics can be used in a variety of different ways, on webpages and downloads. And they don’t have to be static. Animated infographics can be imbedded into webpages or incorporated into video links, and both options can help to deliver memorable and attractive content.

But isn’t this just a lot of fuss being made about pretty pictures? If someone is seriously interested in a company, surely they’ll take the time to read the carefully crafted web text on your site, even if the visual content on your pages is a little on the thin side.

As a writer of carefully well-crafted web text (Note to Editor: Please feel free to disagree!), I would like to say: Yes – all you need is well-written text! But I’m afraid I can’t. The truth is we live in an incredibly information-rich age, and even the best text has a heck of a lot to compete with. And science tells us that engaging infographics can help good copy stand out, be remembered, and perhaps more important of all, be understood.

If you would like to find out more on how to use infographics and other visual tools effectively, why not drop us a line and we’ll be happy to share our knowledge.

Note: With thanks to Hubspot for inspiring me to write this post

Candidate Outreach: LinkedIn

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Can I ask you a question? Have you heard of a social network called LinkedIn by any chance? Well, of course you have, and maybe you’ve just checked your own profile for updates (Still no news on that Richard Branson connect request? Oh well, maybe he’s busy).

With over 332 million members worldwide, Linkedin has become the place for professionals to network, share ideas, and recruit, and it’s not just a place for professionals either. The fastest growing demographic on Linkedin are students and recent college graduates, so, with a potential audience of experienced hires and brand new recruits, it’s no surprise that most companies use the network to share recruiting content, even it’s just listing existing vacancies.

There more than 4 million company outposts on LinkedIn, and although we work pretty hard at Corporate Eye, we haven’t checked them all out yet. We have seen quite a few however, and we’ve discovered some company pages that are very good indeed where recruiting and career messages are concerned.

So, if you have a company outpost on LinkedIn, how do you know if it’s any good, or could be better?

The good news is that we’ve come up with 3 basic rules to make your LinkedIn company page a constructive part of your online recruitment strategy:

  1. Share key messages, like: Why join us?

    The chase is on to recruit the best. If your business wants to attract in-demand high calibre recruits, it needs to project key messages that explain why they should join you, and not one of your rivals. A LinkedIn outpost can be an ideal place to explain your culture and share your employee value proposition. By sharing these key: “Why us?” messages, a company can vastly improve its chances of recruiting high quality candidates. Hopefully you’ll already have some content like this on your website, so not share it on your LinkedIn page?

  2. Engage with video

    59% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, according to Forbes Insight, and why should potential new recruits be any different? Web statistics have shown a steadily increasing rise in the use of video content, with projections suggesting this will continue to rise. An engaging, well made video clip, like an interview or company overview, can engage and communicate key messages fast. If you already have good video content on your corporate website, why not link to it from your LinkedIn outpost?

  3. Start talking

    A company LinkedIn page can provide a great platform for directly communicating with potential recruits. This could involve answering applicant queries, elaborating on any corporate content shared on your LinkedIn page, and explaining in more detail what sort of candidate you’re looking for regards a specific vacancy. And if a company is seen to be engaging with candidates online, this also sends out powerful messages about how willing your company is to engage with applicants.

If your company LinkedIn outpost is already obeying our 3 basic rules, then we have only one thing to say to you: Well done!

However it’s important to add that we think that these are just the basics a company LinkedIn page should be doing to reach out to the right kind of candidate, and there are other ways to build an effective career strategy through social media (and other social media platforms too).

If you’d like talk to us about using social media to hire the right people, through LinkedIn or any other social media outposts, why not drop us a line and we’ll be happy to share our knowledge.

Provide analyst estimates for a level playing field

Are you sharing information with your retail investors as well as your professional ones?

Institutional investors should already know the market expectations, but providing analyst estimates on your website enables retail shareholders to consider their options with the same information to hand. Surprisingly, this isn’t done on many corporate sites, though the numbers are increasing. Examples of those that do provide such forecasts are Prudential, Carphone Warehouse and Petrobras. All provide a variety of different measures.

Prudential analyst estimatesCarphone Warehouse - analyst estimatesPetrobras analyst estimates

But why not go a step further, and provide an automated feed of broker forecast information? This would mean that your investors can have the latest information very easily – and don’t have to keep returning to your site.

RWE analyst estimatesRWE does this very neatly: they provide broker forecast information on their site in some detail, and have archives going back to 2003. If requested, they will email the latest information out to you every 2-3 weeks.

I think that is a great service.

On the Hunt for Passive Candidates

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The idea that high-value talent is concentrated among people not looking for jobs has become widely accepted in the recruiting community. And the potential to locate these “passive candidates” is probably the top reason cited for using LinkedIn as a recruiting tool.

So—how true are these propositions? And how does the hunt for PCs relate to the Careers website?

On the first proposition . . . just don’t miss Ronald Katz’s article “What’s So Great About Passive Candidates?” and the brisk discussion that follows it. Some highlights:

  • There is no bright line between the active and passive states.
  • Needing a job doesn’t automatically mean there’s something wrong with the candidate—especially in the present economy.
  • Finding and hiring passive candidates usually costs more. Worth it?
  • The mere fact of current employment isn’t necessarily a good predictor of potential value.

On the second proposition . . . it’s worthwhile to take a second look. Certainly there has been a swarming effect around LinkedIn for recruitment, and definitely it’s related to the passive-candidate hunt. But as LinkedIn increasingly becomes a database for recruiters, there’s no reason to assume that most (or any) people with LinkedIn profiles are “passive.”

And now that LinkedIn is a happy hunting ground, there are hunters aplenty. Although LinkedIn was a secret weapon when Lou Adler offered 10 Great Tips for Using LinkedIn to Find the Best Passive Candidates on the Planet in January of 2008, those were the good old days. By February of 2009, LinkedIn was releasing Talent Advantage, an extensive suite of search-and-woo tools for recruiters and companies.

That said, there’s still some room left for getting creative with LinkedIn—and you can even do it on a budget with PeopleToucher, a clever LI search application. One thought:  There are still some really passive candidates on LinkedIn, in the form of entrepreneurs and self-employed folk who in fact are using LI for other purposes than luring recruiters. In the rapidly changing talent landscape, these hold-outs may offer a new source of energy and ideas for companies that aren’t getting everything they need from conventional hires.

So what’s the connection between passive candidates and the Careers website? Arguably, these are the visitors who may demand the most from your site. Active candidates might love your site if it lists any jobs they can apply for, and ignore everything else while filling out forms and uploading resumes. If there are no applicable job listings, they may leave in a hurry (unless the site provides other rewards, and/or encouragements to stay connected).

But a passive candidate contacted by a recruiter may very well go straight to the company site for a look around. And what they find there could have a considerable influence on whether they decide to pursue the opportunity.