Let’s Be Friends

Leveraging Social Media in the HR Space

A How-to Guide

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Sage Abra Social Nuggets

How are people getting answers to their questions?

Why are people in HR using social?

Where are people talking online?

When are people talking?

What are people talking about?

Who is talking about Sage Abra and HR?

HR and payroll professionals, thought leaders,

companies

Benefits, compensation, HR technology and more

Seasonal trends (tax season) and relevant

industry news

Blogs, microblogs and forums/communities

To get answers to their HR related questions

and stay updated on the latest news

Reaching out to peers, industry associations,

thought leaders/social influencers & competitors

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How to succeed…

It’s easy as 1, 2, 3

1. Are you social?

2. Join up

3. Integrate with Sage Abra’s social media efforts

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Step 1: Are you social?

Do a mini-audit of your current social media efforts

• Are you on Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn?

• Are your employees active in social?

• What is your current process/workflow for social?

• How are you integrating social with other marketing

tactics?

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Step 2: Join up • Join a network—if you’re new to social start with Twitter

and set up an account

– Why Twitter?

• High content volume

• Environment promotes active engagement with users

• Tweets are easy to compose

• Messages are short – 140 characters

• Manage all your social activity and Listen to

your audience using tools like

– Content Management: Spredfast, Hootsuite,

Tweetdeck, CoTweet, Engage 121

– Social Listening: Social Radar, Radian 6

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Step 2: Join up (cont’d)

Follow top HR influencers and use social actions to connect with them

HR Social VIPs!

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Introducing Social Actions

Sharing

Interacting

Promoting

Share • sharing a link to a piece of valuable content

• same as above, with acknowledgement of the

source influencer.

• giving extra recognition/credit to an influencer

• connecting and helping others to connect

• dialogue; responding to others or making

general comments

• driving traffic to Sage Abra content and

marketing

Acknowledge

Credit

Connect

Converse

Advertise

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Social Engagement…

It’s not just about Sage Abra Share (2x day on Twitter)

Acknowledge (2x day on Twitter)

Credit (2x day on Twitter)

Converse (Real-time)

Connect (1x week on Twitter) Advertise (1x day on Twitter)

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Step 2: Join up (cont’d)

Be social! and utilize the social actions framework to guide your activity

Share: Sharing a link to a piece of valuable content (2x day on Twitter)

Acknowledge: Same as above, with nod the source influencer (2x day on

Twitter)

Credit: Giving extra recognition/credit to an influencer (1x day on Twitter)

Connect: Connecting and helping others to connect (1x week on Twitter)

Converse: Dialogue; responding or making comments (Based on

engagement)

Advertise: Driving traffic to Sage Abra and your content/marketing (1x day on

Twitter)

Top HR & Payroll Social

Discussion Topics

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Step 3: Integrate with Sage

• Connect with Sage Abra

– Follow us on Twitter

– Friend us on Facebook

– Join the discussion in our group on LinkedIn

– Subscribe to the official blog of Sage Abra

• Piggyback and leverage Sage Abra’s efforts as your own

– @mention Sage Abra to increase awareness

– Retweet content posted to Sage Abra’s social channels

– Link to our blog posts

– Participate in discussions in our LinkedIn group

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Short-term goals for social

In the first 60 days, you need to focus on…

• Establishing social network

• Building social presence (audience)

• Listening to gain insight into online audience

• Integrating with Sage Abra’s social media marketing

efforts

• Beginning to implement advanced social strategies

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Advanced social activities …

Create and manage a blog

• Blogs are the top-ranking format mentioning HR

solution/software (Sage Abra social audit)

• By the end of 2011, 43% of US companies are

expected to use blogs for marketing purposes

(eMarketer)

• Use a popular and easy blogging tool like Tumblr or

Wordpress

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Advanced social activities (cont’d)

Some Best Practices for B2B blogs

• 300-500 word key word rich posts that discuss HR themes

• Leverage internal resources (employees) for content

• Promote with other social networks and on corporate

website to drive traffic

• Post 2-3 times per week with timely and relevant content

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Advanced social activities (cont’d)

How to use blog and integrate with other social

networks

• Within posts link keywords to Sage Abra and your

content/marketing

• Post links to individual blog posts on Twitter, Facebook

and LinkedIn to cross-promote

• Leverage social channels to get guest bloggers to help

produce content

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Top HR Technology

Blogs to Read

Name Link Influence

score

Steve Boese’s HR Technology http://steveboese.squarespace.com/journal 204

The Human Capitalist http://www.humancapitalist.com 78

SystematicHR http://www.systematichr.com 58

Ascentis Blog http://blog.ascentis.com 26

HR Technology Vendor News by Hrchitect http://www.hrtechnologyvendornews.com 21

Knowledge Infuser http://www.knowledgeinfusion.com/ondemand/blogs/infuser 20

Employee Performance & Talent Management Blog http://www.haolgensoftware.com/blog 18

Strategic Workforce Planning http://strategicworkforceplanning.blogspot.com 4

myStaffingPro Applicant Tracking System Blog http://blog.mystaffingpro.com 3

Cytiva Talent Management Software Blog http://info.sonicrecruit.com/blog 2

HR Interoperability Blogs http://www.hrinterop.org/blog 2

HR Bytes – Blog by Amit Avasthi http://amitavasthi.blogspot.com 0

TALKX Blog http://blog.talx.com 0

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Advanced social activities (cont’d)

• Create a discussion forum on LinkedIn

– Start discussions about relevant and timely topics

– Share other HR thought leaders content and ask for opinions

– Utilize plugins like slideshare, box.net, and polls to promote

content and engage members

• Create a company page and connect to your

employees, customers, and prospects

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Advanced social activities (cont’d)

• Set-up a YouTube channel

– Brand your channel using your company’s marketing

guidelines

– Upload videos!

• Product related

• Customer success stories

• Thought leadership pieces

• Fun videos about your company and employees and spread

them to make them go viral

– Repurpose your written content into videos

– Embed videos on your blog and website

– Send updates to channel subscribers

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Advanced social activities (cont’d)

Grow your audience by using inventive tactics

• Advertise on social networks to promote channels

• Integrate social sharing capabilities on website and in

company email signatures

• Social promotions and giveaways

• Social content creation

– Games

– Viral video

– Case studies

• Utilize social ―plug-ins‖ i.e. Twtpoll, Twitpic

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Be ambitious yet

realistic about growth

Continuous Growth

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2.5

2

Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4

1

# of followers

gained per day

If you gained 3 new

followers per day in

1 year you’d have

1,095 followers

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What does success look like…

• Realistic growth expectations

– At first you’ll see a high growth rate as employees, customers

and friends connect with you

– Once the word has gotten out, growth will likely slow

– To avoid plateau’s connect with influencers and mutually

promote

– Growth rates vary depending on network, strive for an upward

trend and focus on overtaking competitors

• Grade yourself using online tools

– SocialMention.com

– Klout.com

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Long-term Goals

• Gain confidence of prospects and customers

• Trigger conversations that are beneficial to your brand

and product

• Drive online audience to your content

• Continue to grow your social network

• Have fun! After all winning in social is about developing

relationships.