Lisa Jones of Barclay Jones writes some great guest posts for us. This is another…
Size matters!? Does the size of your community matter to you? It should do, in the very least as others may be judging you on it and decide whether you are worth their time!
Rubber Necking
The term “social media rubber necking” is one that I use often with my clients. My theory is that if you have a great connection /follower list and you lay enough online content about, and enough people look, like, reply, comment, share etc… that other people will be attracted to your content by default. How can you “work” this?
We all slow down to look at things that others have stopped to look at (the motorway, the street, the office)… are people slowing down to look at you and your brand?
Case Study
- John finds an article about the sector he recruits into in LinkedIn Today. He shares the article through his LinkedIn Updates.
- A few people he is connected to see it and like / share it. Their status updates with this content and the fact that he was the originator.
- Their connections (likely to be just like them and thus perfect connections for John) see it and see who was the originator of the content. They review John’s profile. They see he is well connected. If they Tweet, they’ll possibly check out his Twitter feed and see his follower numbers.
- They connect, their friends connect and so on…
What impression is he giving these people outside of his immediate network? What are they thinking when they scan his profiles? If he is well connected they will likely be assuming that he knows his stuff and is worth their follow and thus time? He is thus likely to get more Twitter followers and more LinkedIn connections invites.
Never before has the following of you and your brand been so visible!
Mine’s Bigger than Yours!
I spoke with a recruiter once who was vehement that his 548 LinkedIn connections was massive network. I quizzed him on his sector (IT) and region that he covered (UK) and we agreed towards the end of the discussion that this was in fact a small network. How many IT people are there in the UK? (I bet someone could quote me a stat out there.) I bet it’s really very high (and a lot higher than 548). I’m not suggesting that this recruiter should spend every waking moment connecting with every IT bod out there, but I am suggesting that every recruiter thinks about their network and the value of it and works hard to actively increase it over time.
I feel that the average client and candidate is looking for you to be better connected than they are… they pay you for your connections either in £$€ or with a resume/CV. How does your community look online? How could it be judged? Is it better than that of your clients’?
Capitalise on the Rubber Neck
Some things to think about:
- Consider how connected you look on LinkedIn! If you’ve been in recruitment 5 years and have 250 connections, do the maths – 50 new connections a year … really?? Surely you have met/sourced/placed more than that? I suggest aiming for the 500+ barrier (and then keep going). By getting to 500+, the counter on your profile stops and you look “connected” (but don’t stop there!).
- Consider your follower/following numbers on Twitter. I genuinely feel that the strategy of you follow me I’ll follow you does not work. It’s insincere and impossible in reality (I only follow people who have something interesting to say, and I never expect the people I follow to follow me back – but am obviously delighted when they do).
- Consider if your LinkedIn account contains the lovely LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) words. I have strong opinions on recruiters looking more targeted than someone happy to connect with anyone… see previous blog.) How could being a LION be interpreted by your potential audience?
- If you run a group, what do your stats say? (There is an option in every group to review how it “looks). Number of members, discussions, comments etc… Do you have a busy restaurant, or a one with tumble weeds?)
- How many Facebook likes do you have? More and more recruiters have Facebook pages. Getting likes should be a strategy, not be a by product!
- How many LinkedIn company followers do you have and do you even know who they are?
If you behave like someone who is worth following the likelihood is that you’ll be followed. If you behave like an avid connector bent on carpet bombing me with your jobs, I’m likely to drive on by! Take a look at how you look – would you look back if you didn’t know you? What would your impression be? Are you worth following?
I love wiki – read what it says about rubber necking – you never know when the history of the term may be needed in a pub quiz!
