9 Reasons why you need a mobile strategist.

Here are nine reasons why you need a mobile strategist:

• Business Moves at Mobile Speed

According to Cisco, by 2016, there will be 10 billion Internet-enabled devices globally and smartphone traffic will grow 50 times the size it is today.  Mobility is no longer a nice to have — it’s a critical requirement of doing business and staying competitive. Enterprise mobile spending is higher than ever, and mobile projects now span every department and industry.

• BYOD is the New Reality

Apple has been a major force behind the BYOD movement and new findings show that globally, BYOD is catching on. Enterprises around the world are making the decision to support employee-selected devices. However, maintaining security, control and visibility into devices and data has become a primary concern for CIOs. According to Gartner, the BYOD movement is here to stay, but security and management of these devices will continue to be pressing concerns among enterprises.

• Multiple Mobile Initiatives Cause Major Fragmentation– Make it One Person’s Day Job

With enterprises currently managing multiple mobile projects and new ones being added at a rapid clip, mobile is too often put into silos at most organizations. This makes management and decision-making, as well as future proofing and budget management, incredibly complex and time-consuming for employees with other job functions.

• A Mobile Strategist is an Objective Voice of Reason for the Increasingly Mobile Business

Maintaining the delicate balance between addressing user needs and IT capabilities can be difficult for any company. Let your mobile strategist be a hub between all department spokes to ensure that mobile initiatives truly reflect business need – and the technology is in place to support it as well.

• Mobile is No Longer a “One and Done”

It used to be that enterprises designed and implemented a mobile app and called it a day. Today, a single mobile app alone cannot fulfill all business objectives and needs. Mobile initiatives today require strategic planning, budgeting, research, prototyping and testing, as well as consistent updating. Mobile undertakings need to be iterative and agile, rather than tactical one-off projects with a beginning and an end.  Jeffrey Hammond from Forrester Research has some great advice on how to readjust your thinking this way in his recent report Take Advantage of the Mobile Shift.

• Time is of the Essence

Time to market for mobile initiatives is a top pain point for enterprises, as delays in deployment can cost major dollars. Every day a competitor has an engaging app on the market and your company does not is a day of lost revenue.  Speed to market isn’t the only important factor when it comes to be able to do mobile fast – companies also have a need for speed in rapidly iterating and refining mobile initiatives to stay current, incorporate feedback from users, and make adjustments based on data from analytics.

• Poor Design is the Silent Killer

One in five IT and business decision makers is frustrated with the usability of mobile projects delivered, and a similar proportion is unhappy with the robustness of the projects commissioned, according to the 2012 Mobile Business Forecast. Ensuring mobile projects are easy to use will help improve efficiency and productivity gains, as well as profitability. A mobile strategist can ensure that intuitive UI design, ease of use and strong feature/functionality are built in to mobile projects from day one.

• Mobile Adoption is a Major Concern

Executives rolling out mobile initiatives aren’t the only ones that are frustrated with the end project. Perhaps more significant is that despite the investment of both money and time companies are making in mobile, 75 percent of employees are not adopting internally-facing mobile apps. Even worse, only one in five companies has seen customer-facing mobile initiatives adopted by ‘the majority’ of their target market.

• App Discoverability is the New Challenge

The work is far from over once an app is published. Today there are more than one million apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play. With Internet traffic increasing over smartphones and tablets, enterprises must take care to ensure their apps are discoverable quickly.

These factors combined have created an environment that has made it crucial for enterprises to evaluate their mobile strategy and who is tasked with leading that strategy today and tomorrow.  As the mobile channel continues to grow we expect to see this strategic role take flight in a big way.

Introduction to Mobile

Guest Post by Shannon Van Curen

It is no secret that mobile technology has made an enormous impact in our culture. Smartphones have become a huge part of our lives. To date more than 100 million Americans own a smartphone (comScore Reports January 2012 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share). An Ericsson ConsumerLab study added that 35% of smartphone advocates will use an app before even getting out of bed. With over 64 million Americans preferring to use their smartphone for social networking, it is not a surprise that Facebook ® is the most popular smartphone app, followed distantly by Twitter ® (comScore 2012 Mobile Future in Focus).

Smartphones are undoubtedly here to stay, and they are only improving with time. Nielsen ® has gathered data that shows an estimate 60% of new cell phone users prefer a smartphone and the International Data Corporation ® has predicted in its Worldwide New Media Market Model (NMMM) that by 2015 US internet users will prefer to use their mobile device to access the internet over their PC. In fact, if you are an Android 4 user, you can start internet browsing in Google’s ® Chrome on your PC and carry your work over to your mobile by logging into your Chrome account.

Smartphone users will only continue to grow. With the majority of Americans soon to be glued to their mobile device, there is a huge opportunity for talent and acquisition professionals. It has always been imperative for recruiters to be where their talent lies: LinkedIn ®, job boards, career fairs, networking events, and now mobile. From a candidate’s prospective, 57% of seekers prefer to search for jobs on their smartphone, 51% would like to also receive job alerts, and 39% would like to view upcoming recruiting events (Potentialpark online study, Mobile Recruitment: A Thriving Trend Amongst Job Seekers).

There are several ways to interact and engage with potential talent through mobile.

SMS Campaign

One easy campaign is by using SMS (short message service, also known as a text message). It is rare that we carry our PCs around with us throughout the day, but our cell phone is usually nearby. Nielsen’s ® Factsheet: The U.S. Media Universe estimated that teens dominate SMS usage by sending over 3700 text each month. However, Gen X still attributes for over 750 text messages each month, compared to the near 600 that adults ages 35-44 send. SMS campaigns have been estimated to be much more cost effective than traditional print advertisements and snail mail. Responses to SMS campaigns can also be tracked and data can be analyzed.

QR Codes

QR (quick response) codes are another easy and cost effective service to brand your career openings through mobile. There are many sites that help generate QR codes. Delivr.com is a just one free site that will turn any web page or online job description into a QR code. QR codes can be placed anywhere. You can turn your online job description or careers site into a QR code and place that code on business cards, flyers, signs, displays or even handouts. Once the candidate sees the QR code, they can easily scan the code by using a QR Reader. Just a quick scan and the site embedded behind the code will instantly appear on their mobile device.

Mobile Apps

One of the newest trends in mobile recruiting has been through the creation of mobile apps. To date there are over 100 million mobile apps with over 745 apps being created each day for the iPhone and 543 being created each day for the Android (Mobilewalla sm). Ironically, Android does consume the largest market share of smartphones with over 50% of the share; iPhones fall behind at 32% and Blackberry at 12% (Nielsen ® America’s New Mobile Majority: a Look at Smartphone Owners in the U.S.). The technology to create an Android app is slightly more advanced than it does to create an iPhone app. It is far more cost efficient to create a mobile app than to post on a major job board.

The largest opportunity for HR professionals is through the creation of mobile apps. Many companies are starting to add apps to the Google ® Play and iTunes ® marketplace. Candidates can easily download these apps in a matter of seconds and will always have access to your career openings. It’s one of the best passive recruiting technologies available for recruiters today.

(via mrecruitingcamp)

Responsive websites zonder respons

Recent sprak ik met de social media manager van Starbucks en toen het onderwerp social via mobile voorbij kwam zei hij: “You need to stop thinking about mobile”. Een stelling die hij mij moest uitleggen. 

Hij zei dat eigenlijk alle websites doormiddel van responsive design gemaakt zouden moeten worden. Bij responsive design maakt het eigenlijk niet uit op welk scherm een website bekeken wordt want de pagina zal aangepast worden aan het scherm wat op dat moment in gebruik is. Voordeel is dat je geen aparte versies meer hoeft te bouwen voor desktop en mobiel. One size fits all of, in dit geval, One site fits all. Nu ga ik er even vanuit dat mijn lezers weten wat responsive design is maar mocht dat niet zo zijn klik dan hier en probeer het zelf uit.

Waar ik het eigenlijk verder over wil hebben is de stelling die Jeremy met veel bravoure uitsprak; “You need to stop thinking about mobile”. Want is dit wel zo? Uiteraard is responsive design een fantastische oplossing voor bedrijven die simpele websites hebben en geen bijzondere processen, zoals bijvoorbeeld een sollicitatieproces, op hun website laten plaatsvinden. Maar zijn deze processen wél aanwezig op de website dan gaat de stelling niet op. Een smartphone is een smartphone, een laptop is een laptop en een tablet is een tablet. Het generaliseren van deze devices tot één platform is hetzelfde als zeggen dat je niks om je gebruiker geeft. Een mobiele sollicitant bijvoorbeeld zal thuis achter zijn laptop wellicht wel de 25 velden van het sollicitatieformulier in willen vullen maar als hij of zij in de trein een leuke vacature voorbij ziet komen en wil solliciteren zal de vraag om de 25 velden in te vullen beantwoord worden met een diepe zucht en zal de sollicitant zijn telefoon vervolgens uitzetten. 

User experience verschilt per device en daarom ben ik sceptisch over responsive web design. Het is niet belangrijk wat jij als bedrijf mooi vind of wat handig is. Het is de gebruiker waar je naar moet luisteren om vervolgens je content en processen op die manier te presenteren. Anders is het enige voordeel van je mobiele website eigenlijk dat je niet meer hoeft in te zoomen bij het bekijken van een website. 

Hieronder staan wat screenshots van hoe de Starbucks website er op de verschillende devices uitziet. Als ik vervolgens wil solliciteren binnen hun career center krijg ik het scherm bij de vierde afbeelding. Hier zal ik verder over hebben in mijn volgende blogpost. Als iets niet mobiel geoptimaliseerd is moet je het ook gewoon weglaten op je mobiele website. Uiteraard zijn we allemaal nog aan het leren maar ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’. 

Why SMS-marketing still works.

Marketeers love hypes. And they love to put a hype into their marketingmix like for instance their Mobile Marketingmix. Augmented Reality? Nice! ? All those likes on Instagram? Nice! They tend to forget about the millions of mobile users. About 234 million in the US alone.

The Facts
When we just look at the facts we see that people will miss 84% of the newsfeed on their Facebook, 71% of all the tweets in their timeline will be ignored and 88% of the emails are not opened anymore. On the contrary 98% of all text messages will be opened.

The Gift of No

by Heather Bussing

When you apply for a job, especially when you really, really, need a job, you’re scared and vulnerable. You are opening yourself to judgment about whether you’re good enough. You might be rejected.

There’s also this glimmer of hope. You start to imagine being there, the excitement of starting something new. You dream of money and security. Maybe you can pay down the credit card. Or buy meat again.

It’s like the moment right after you get a lottery ticket when you fantasize what your life will be like if you win. Often, the odds are about the same.

You fill out the fields in the online application and upload your resume. You try to say  why you would be great for the job, searching for words to show you are special. You don’t want to look desperate. But you are.

Even if you have a job, applying for a new one with strangers is disconcerting. It feels like you’re walking naked into a party where everyone knows each other, but no one knows you.

The reality is that you can be naked with a hot pink boa, but the ATS won’t really notice what you’re wearing, or even whether you seem nice. The chance of anyone even looking at your information is low.

It’s more like pouring a glass of water into a lake.

But you have no way of knowing that because pretty soon you get a friendly email thanking you for your interest in the company and telling you how glad they are that you applied. They say they will consider you. And even if you’re not right for the position you applied for, they’ll keep your information on file. They might even contact you if another position opens that would be good for you. Wow, you think. This could work out.

They give you hope.

Most of the time though, there is no hope. Only a few people of hundreds or thousands get a call or an interview. Everyone but the person who gets the position is rejected. It’s a process of No.

There are many smart and compassionate people working on how to make this reality better, kinder, more respectful. They call it Candidate Experience. They are looking hard at what it’s like from the moment the job is written, how it is described, where you find it and what that’s like. They are looking at the application process and how companies respond.

They are trying to make a kinder, gentler No.

I don’t think people want a kinder, gentler no. They want a yes. If they can’t have that, they want to be able to easily find out where they are in the process. And if they can’t have that, they would rather have a quick no.

No sucks. No dashes your fantasies. But No also lets you move on. No is what gets you to the company that says Yes.

No sets you free.

If companies really want to improve candidate experience, they will end the stress and angst of false hope. They will give the gift of No.

What about recruiting Generation Y?

Millennials. Generation Y. Echo Boomers. The Trophy Generation. It doesn’t matter how you label them, young workers born between 1977 and 1992 are part of one of the most unique groups to hit the workforce since, well… Generation X.

There are a lot of misconceptions and distorted beliefs about people in this age group. Some of the most common complaints that senior workers make today are the same as for any past generation in its youth.

 Flickr/Cubmundo

Young adults tend to be too eager. They’re enthusiastic about their ideas and the potential they feel for the future. They tend to be impatient. They have less loyalty to companies than their predecessors. They’re lazy, obnoxious, and think they know everything. This sounds a lot like Gen-X and the Baby Boomers during their younger days, doesn’t it?

Despite this, Generation Y is indeed different from their predecessors, and this is one of the biggest reasons why your business could benefit from hiring them. For every open position you have, at least one in four applicants will likely be a millennial: In the United States, there are about 50 million millennials, out of a total labour force of about 200 million.

With such a large pool of ready, willing, and eager workers, you will inevitably find yourself hiring a few. But why? What makes them different? Gen-Y is:

• More tech savvy. Millennials know their way around a computer. They’ve grown up with the Internet. They cut their social teeth on AIM, MySpace, and Facebook. They know how to save time using short cuts, and can often manipulate simple code.
   
• Knowledgeable about personal branding. Ask a Gen Y about personal branding and they’re likely to floor you with an expertise that their older counterparts can only hope to achieve. You can leverage this for internet marketing, since millennials are naturals at figuring out how to brand themselves and their “product.”
   
• Connected. And available. About 75% are on a social networking sites, versus only 50% for Generation X. That’s a pretty big gap, considering the fact that Gen X was the first generation to really sink their teeth into technology. What’s more, the Echo Boomers have a greater understanding of the value social networking has in a company’s success. They’re always looking for the bigger, better social network, and can help your business succeed by staying on top of trends.
   
• Cheaper than the competition. Let’s face it: young workers, eager to prove themselves, are more willing to take lower pay than their more experienced peers. They’re less likely to be married and have families, tend to be more flexible in terms of work hours, and don’t mind a little extra work if it means more fodder for the resume.

Gen Y also has a habit of job hopping, but this is a much more acceptable—and indeed, expected—than it was even 20 years ago. So open your minds, and your workforces, to the labour pool of tomorrow.

Further more this tech savvy generation is taking a big share in the group of early adopters that this world has. Mobile recruiting is still in it’s early adopters phase and while recruiting Generation Y “mobile” is a great tool to reach them. Contact them via twitter, facebook or SMS on their mobile phones and experience the conversion you’ll get on this channel. This group of people is ready for the recruitmenttools of tomorrow so start talk their language and you’ll find your Gen Y candidates. 

(via TribeHR)