Innovation
New Social Media Tools for Workforce Development: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
Social media are transforming the landscape of recruiting and employment, and Frederick County Workforce Services (FCWS) is leading the way.
FCWS uses Twitter to provide job seekers with up-to-the-minute information about open positions with local employers, upcoming events, and promising news headlines about the labor market (Twitter name: FrederickWorks). Although everything a job seeker can learn from Twitter is also available on the FCWS website, which averages 6,000 visits per month, Twitter does it faster, and has tremendous exponential value. FrederickWorks followers include not only job seekers and business representatives, but also a county commissioner and local print and TV journalists.
Job seekers and businesses can also check out workforce information on YouTube. The FCWS YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/frederickworks) features a Job Seeker Playlist and a Business Playlist, both of which include a variety of highly-rated YouTube videoclips containing pertinent subject matter. For example, employers can learn what questions they should (and should not) ask job seekers, and how to create online job applications. Job seekers can access the Web's best resources about resume writing, interview preparation, and job market trends. The FCWS YouTube channel also features footage of events hosted by FCWS, such as a Federal Employment Panel Presentation. In the future, the channel will likely offer video highlights of FCWS classes for job seekers as well as video clips of career specialists providing job search advice.
Facebook is evolving as a platform for promoting the agency’s work. FCWS first gave Facebook a try in connection with the 2009 Summer Jobs program, which gave young workers a way to access important information and also to discuss their experiences. FCWS’ brand-new Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=14957&uid=248383426005#/pages/Frederick-MD/Frederick-County-Workforce-Services/248383426005) will publicize job leads and event information, and offer career advice along with photos and videos. Staff are brainstorming ways to use Facebook to attract a wider audience to FCWS and to develop a sense of community among job-seekers who visit the Facebook page. Under consideration are options such as an electronic version of the agency’s in-person job clubs and other kinds of networking.
Quite a few FCWS professional staff members use LinkedIn accounts to stay in close contact with their business customers and to establish new relationships with prospective clientele. In fact, according to social media expert Brian Razzaque of Vision Multimedia Technologies in Baltimore, LinkedIn has become the #1 source for finding qualified talent.
These new social media save money. “The only financial cost is the time I’ve spent” setting things up, said Julie Anderson, Manager of Marketing, Communications, and Public Relations, who manages the FCWS website and initiated the agency’s presence on Twitter and YouTube. She piggybacks FCWS’ 5000 Constant Contact subscribers with Twitter and the website to save money and maximize inter-platform usage. “We’re not even going to do a traditional printed annual report,” she says, “because there are so many ways to distribute it electronically.”
Energy conservation is another benefit. A job seeker who is closed out of a popular employer panel, or has a conflict that prevents attendance, can access video clips of the event at home, through YouTube – gaining valuable information without having to get in the car.
“I see Twitter as a pretty efficient way to communicate,” Anderson explained. FCWS’ Twitter following has increased an average of 54% each month since June 2009, when its Twitter presence began, and 21% of FCWS Twitter followers have clicked through to the agency’s website. “The impact is immediate in terms of the reach. The biggest challenge is trying to capture your message in 140 characters or less.”
In one example of the viral nature of electronic communication, Anderson wrote in the county Office of Economic Development’s blog about FCWS efforts to help businesses succeed in the global marketplace. OED then used Twitter to drive its followers to her blog entry.
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