Getting your company known to the right potential candidates is tough. This is especially the case when trying to attract the right graduating college students. Students at the big schools are flooded with information, career days, job fairs, emails, and posters. The information is often generic and broad — deliberately so and designed to attract a cross-section of students. But, at the same time it can lead to a flood of unqualified applicants and can degrade your on-campus brand and image. Most organizations focus on the bigger schools, so there is no budget or time left for smaller campuses. Students at small private schools and often even at state universities are left out of the active recruiting process for these reasons. Any tool or service that allows you to spread the word about your opportunities with better focus and wider penetration is a winner.
As I have previously written, video has become king. A recent report by Gartner predicts that 25% of all content will be delivered by audio or video by 2013. Those who want to gain mindshare and generate interest in their career opportunities or organization need to use some kind of interactive media — video, instant messaging, polls — anything that attracts and engages Gen Y. The most useful and powerful interactive tools include social networks — particularly Facebook if you are targeting college students — and even LinkedIn and Twitter — as well as video sites such as Youtube, Hulu, and AOLvideo.
Laura Short at Stout University of Wisconsin has created an interesting slideshow for college students giving them reasons to use LinkedIn and encouraging them to — because it is where you are. In this presentation she encourages students to develop a personal video and post it as a LinkedIn video. She also talks about the importance of a video presence.
As video is becoming the dominant form of communication, recruiters who stick with text-based career sites and even text-oriented social networks will find themselves in trouble if they are looking for younger candidates.
There are many services that produce videos and I have listed a cross-section of them in previous articles. But it is very hard to find any company doing something different enough that it may change the way we interact and communicate with candidates. All the social networks I am aware of are based on reading and writing. You have to create a written profile and list and bullet your experiences, education, and so forth. Recommendations are written. Resumes are written. Any interactivity is through asynchronous conversations (e.g. email), a smattering of instant messaging, and sometimes the ability to post messages, pictures, and videos and make comments.
There is, however, one company that has gotten my attention. It is U.S.-based and aimed squarely at college students.
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