Social Media for International Recruitment

[Alaina Wiens]

Hello all,

 

I've been asked to put a presentation together for an international recruiters conference that will be held on our campus. They'd like me to talk about "social media." Since this is my only parameter, I'd like to at least tailor the presentation to their purposes and make the case for using social media in international recruitment efforts.

 

Sadly, this is not something that is done strategically on our own campus. We have international recruiters and we encourage them to utilize the social media tools we have available, but there is no strategy in place. Without a good example to refer to, I might have a hard time making this sell.

 

I'm hoping to pull together information, stats, good examples, etc. to make the case to this group. Do any of you have examples, stats, or stories to share? I would forever be grateful.

 

[Krista Nielsen]

Hi Alaina,

 

We have a Facebook Fan Page for our American Language Institute alumni with almost 1,100 fans.  But it seemed to quickly attract those interested in our program, as well current students.  We wanted to try to control the type of visitors, and soon realized this was not to be.  So we created a second fan page that now has about 360 fans, which does not have Alumni in the title.  Our plan is to soon move all users (interested, students, and alumni) to the new page, which does not specify alumni, conducting all communication for all audiences in one place.

 

Alumni FP: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SDSU-ALI-American-Language-Institute-...

Newer FP: http://www.facebook.com/ali.sdsu

 

We have a 'sdsu food' voting page up, attempting to get folks engaged.  We post a lot of student info, student work, and answer questions for those interested.  I believe using Facebook for the international market makes a lot of sense.

 

Let me know if you want to know and we can chat :)

 

Thanks!
Krista Nielsen

[Alaina Wiens]

Thank you so much, Krista! I'm really hoping to be able to show some specific examples of social media directed at international audiences. This looks like a great example! Would you mind if I shared your page in my presentation?

[Krista Nielsen]

Sure you can :)

[Hariet Waffenschmidt]

Hi Alaina,

Being geographically far away from our international recruitment markets here in New Zealand, it is really important for us to reach out to our prospective students via 'social media' and other online initiatives to reduce travel costs.

Some of the key markets, for example China, can be very tricky to reach due to their heavily moderated online environment and networks like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube (only limited) are not an option. Waikato has an in-market recruitment adviser based in China who coordinates several social media initiatives from there - i.e. a forum on studying abroad in NZ run by a Waikato alum; 'sticky post' on a Chinese study abroad site; set-up of international student Blogs in Mandarin etc.

We also have a Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/WaikatoInternational, Twitter feed http://twitter.com/studyabroad_uow and YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/WaikatoInternational; StudiVZ group (German social networking site) particularly aimed at international students which helps us engage with them.

Additionally to these social media recruitment tactics, other online marketing tactics such as profiling on selected international 'study abroad directories' and email marketing are also effective in raising ones profile internationally.

I guess, the main thing is to think 'local'. Research what social media sites are popular in a particular market by asking students and leverage current or past students to help engage in their local language.

Good luck with your presentation!

 

Hariet

 

[Alaina Wiens]

Oh, wow, I never even thought about the kind of challenges that marketing to different international regions might pose. This is some really good advice. I specifically like note about researching specific regions and and talking to current students. I will definitely be including this in my presentation! Would you mind if I shared your pages as examples? Thanks a ton!!

[Hariet Waffenschmidt]

No problem. :-) Let me know how it went!

[Alaina Wiens]

The presentation's next month. Don't be surprised if I pester you some more. :)

[Bradjward]

Key Stats:

- 70% of Facebook users are outside of the United States.

- 76% of the over 1,000,000,000 daily YouTube views are outside of the United States. (Jan 2010, I've since read it's closer to 70% similar to FB)

You could sift through Alexa.com for updated information, but when I checked in Jan 2010 Facebook ranked in the Top 10 most visited sites for 93% of countries and in the Top 5 for 83%.

- Over 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to make Facebook mobile.

- More than 70 language translations on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics)

 

If you need some international school examples I can send you some stuff that we've got going on with clients, but email me for that info :)  One client saw 55,000 photo views and 2,500 new high school students become fans on their Facebook page.... last week. :)

 

[Alaina Wiens]

This is GREAT stuff. And I will definitely be taking you up on that offer for examples. Since I can't point to our own campus as a great example, I'd really like to be able to show this group some ways schools are doing this right. You're the best!