New Tools And Apps

I have been playing around with a few new applications recently and considering which will work for Recruiters, Job Seekers and HR professionals.

Replyz

I love this free twitter app that enables you to target engagement either with specific twitter users by name or people asking questions on a specific subject or topic. it is frighteningly effective, and in my trial, worked 10 times out of 10.

Photo creds: replyz

If you enter a specific name, replyz reads their stream and returns question topics that the intended target might be interested in, or # places that they actively post in.A great way for finding the route to engagement with someone you want to connect with.

Conversation is still the best route to connection.
Other features include a customised dashboard for setting follows on topics, people, conversations you start or conversations you join. You can apply an RSS feed to any of these so that you can keep up to date even when you are not logged in to Replyz.
Theres a flash card section that enables you to follow a topic and get the latest question asked on twitter, you reply via Replyz direct in to the twitter stream and away you go.
For the competitive amongst you, there’s a leader board for the questions that get the most responses, as well as a separate tab for originating questions direct to twitter. As yet, i find nothing not to like about it.

Flowtown

Pic creds: Flowtown

Flowtown gives you social connection details from e-mail addresses. All you need to do is input e-mail lists, connect with outlook or check individuals as new mails arrive. (You can enter up to 10,000 at once by export.)

You can also e-mail direct from Flowtown, inviting sign ups, or send invites to join you in the shared social networks.

You can seperate your e-mails by social media channel users and update them whenever you launch somthing new, like a fan page.

Flowtown incorporates twitter, linked-in, Facebook, you tube and other social places. Altenatively you can build e-mail lists from your social connections, creating as many touch points as possible.

Other neat features of the application are the individual analytics and reporting. you get reports that show the % of time spent active in each network, giving you the best place to connect. (you can run analytics by whole list, groups or individuals.) Flowtown also has the functionality to integrate in to your landing pages, existing C.R.M. or A.T.S. from what I can see, this has real legs.
When you sign up, you get 50 integrations fee, then the costs kick in. The pricing plans per month are volume based. A basic account gives you 10,000 imports at $17.00 a month, a plus account 25,000 at $37.00 a month and for big users, a Max account, 200,000 at $197.00, alternatively you can opt for pay as you go at $0.05 an import. something there for everyone.

Ryan Leary

Boolean Toolbar

I love free stuff that makes things I’m not very good at easy to do. not being a sourcer, I find conducting in-depth Boolean  string searches quite complicated. I was therefore delighted when my friend Ryan Leary at RecruitingTools.Com, (great blog to follow), launched a free toolbar with 100 pre-loaded searches.

You can change the keywords, locations, skill-sets and other criteria to suit your needs.

I’ve run a few searches and proven it idiot proof. The toolbar includes social networks, blogs, and other on-line places. You can download the toolbar free from the link at the end of this post.

Brave New Talent

Brave New Talent recently launched an application that solves an age-old problem around privacy and Facebook in particular. 70% of candidates are quoted as being unhappy at employers being able to look at their “private” data on-line.
The app allows job seekers to connect with direct employers via Facebook, while only giving access to the information from their profile that they either want to give away or show as relevant. That means no more concerns about being tagged in embarrassing pictures.
This also allows job seekers to follow companies publicly or privately (ideal for passive job seekers that don’t want to advertise the fact that they are looking.)
I see one of the keys to success with a Facebook app is being opt in. This keeps users personal stream free for chatting with friends, whilst harnessing the marketing potential of the channel. Take a look at this one and see what you think.

Bullhorn Reach

I’ve blogged about Bullhorn Reach recently,and not always been complimentary. rather than getting angry, the team at Bullhorn have given me a good look round  the Beta version, and it has a few features I really like.
Firstly, reach operates independent of Bullhorn, so you don’t have to be a Bullhorn user to use it.
Secondly, and linked to what I have already said about Facebook, there’s a FB friendly function that allows you to choose who receives your updates from reach and who doesn’t. That means your college friends (who have no interest) do not need to receive your content updates from reach, whilst your business connections do. I’m not sure how this applies to other channels, but this option wins for me.
There are other features I like (and a few I don’t). I will update you in due course how I am finding the beta test.

Pagemodo

Pagemodo enables anyone to build a professional looking page in Facebook from templates. There are quite a few designs to choose from and the finished results look fantastic. The build is very simple (if you can work a WordPress theme you can build it.)

Photos are very easy to import and look fantastic.
The free option is free forever and you get one page without any video option. You get a very professional looking landing page for your fan page or profile page.
Going beyond one page, (I’m in the process of designing mine), you can buy upgrades inexpensively.
The Basic account gives you 3 active pages and no footer and costs $9 a month. The Pro version gives you 7 pages with video import function and placing at $19 a month. The Agency account gives you 15 pages with resale rights and all of the functions including unbranded at $59 a month.
The free version has some great templates, will be free forever and gives you a great opportunity to look the business, without the need for coding or any of the other techy stuff.
It’s often overlooked that social recruiting only works when the landing page (destination) all your activity is pointing people towards looks good. Pagemodo helps with that.

These are a few of the applications I’ve looked at that merit a mention. What are you using at the moment that you think are worth looking at? I will continue to post about applications and tools once a week as I find them.

Keep being ambassadors,

Bill

Links In This Post

Replyz – Free Sign Up

Flowtown – Free Trial

Download The Bullion Toolbar – Free Download

Brave New Talent – Create A Free Profile

Bullhorn Reach – Apply For A Free Beta

Pagemodo – Sign Up For A Free Page