UNISYS’S SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITING STRATEGY ALSO A BUSINESS STRATEGY
In an article yesterday on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s website, author Peter Key highlighted Unisys Corporation’s use of social media tools in recruitment. The article (below) showcases some of the ways Unisys gets its name in front of hard to reach job seekers, namely IT professionals interested in cloud computing.
I think that the article misses the most important point though. Unisys’s use of social media as a recruiting tool has led to stronger positioning in the minds of cloud computing specialists. Not only was Unisys able to recruit strong employees, it has made itself a social media beacon to people interested in the new technology. Cloud computing is a relatively new idea in IT. Many companies claim to be leading the way in this endeavor…but it’s usually via their own websites. That’s the exact opposite of cloud computing.
The cloud is a place where companies can store information outside of their own websites for consumption. Talking about how great you are on your own website doesn’t lend a lot of credibility to that claim. On the other hand, Unisys shares its enthusiasm for cloud computing all over the web. Probably the best place to see this is the company’s YouTube channel.
By matching recruitment activities and corporate messaging together on a various platforms has made the recruitment efforts a business strategy. When people interested in cloud computing watch videos on YouTube about what Unisys is doing in the arena, they are also exposed to ways they can join this cutting edge corporation. I say the two should always go hand-in-hand. So why don’t more organizations do this more? Could Ford lure “car guys” to a Facebook page about an upcoming Mustang model and then ask them to work for the company? Could Chili’s showcase its new menu on YouTube and place a video about how great their foodservice careers are right next to it? Sure they could. I wonder why more companies haven’t made this connection yet.
Check out Unisys on:
Unisys using social networking to recruit
http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blogs/technology/2010/03/unisys_using_social_networking_to_recruit.html
Another one of the things I didn’t have room to mention in my story about Unisys Corp. last week is how the Blue Bell information-technology company has bolstered its social media presence since Ed Coleman became its CEO in October 2008.
Unisys is on Facebook, has a channel on YouTube!, and has a large presence on Twitter and LinkedIn.
“There are conversations going on about the company all across the social Web,” said Unisys spokesman Jim Kerr. “If you’re not in there, you’re not aware of the conversations, not participating in them, not shaping them and not seen by influencers as being relevant.”
The company developed guidelines for its employees to follow on social media that it put in place last spring. Among other things, they are meant to make sure that the workers project a consistent image of Unisys and know what regulations governing public companies prevent them from saying. The guidelines also take into account the fact that once something makes its way into cyberspace, it tends to stay there a very long time.
“On the Web, anything can be traced,” Kerr said.
Ellyn Raftery, Unisys’ chief marketing officer, said the company uses social media to try to enhance its overall reputation and its reputation as a leader in specific areas of technology.
Taking part in social media conversations about various IT issues has “given us a way to build our reputation with the industry analysts,” Raftery said.
Unisys also uses Twitter and LinkedIn for recruiting and has been so successful at doing that, Raftery said, that it has nearly eliminated its use of outside recruiters.
For example, Raftery said that when Unisys got into cloud computing last June, it started to use social media to follow people considered credible in the space. That led it to John Treadway, whom it hired last September to direct its cloud computing portfolio.
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[...] Unisys estimates they saved a million dollars in HR recruiting costs by using social media. [...]