For my proposal I chose to select a topic that would benefit the company that I’m interning for this summer, Built In Chicago. One of the projects that I was tasked with this summer is creating a marketing plan designed to attract new talent (students) to our site in search of attaining jobs with startups. There are a lot of great startups looking for this new talent and we want our job portal to be what both of these parties use to connect with each other. Therefore, my proposal question is:
How do businesses digitally communicate their value to talented students with the goal of recruiting them? How can Built In leverage these best practices to get students to visit their job board?
To begin my research process I started by finding sources and reports that provide tips for recruiting digitally. This will allow me to get a surface level view and then, through this big picture search, I can determine which companies recruit digitally well and then take a closer look on exactly what strategies they use. Then I can take all that I’ve learned and apply it to create new strategies catered to Built In.
The first resource I found was from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2011/04/11/recruiting-college-students-social-media/
I know this is a credible source because Mashable is one of the most popular news sites for social media, technology, business, and more. I consistently visit Mashable and from experience know how up-to-date, relevant, and trustworthy their content is.
The source outlines that the five most important tips to recruit digitally include: making it personal, keeping it real, deliver exclusively, add value, and stay ahead of the curve. All five points were developed with the focus of building a relationship with the potential candidate and showing them what it would look like to become a part of the company. These tips are a great start to my big picture research process.
These tips provide value to my project because I’m researching how business’s communicate with students online in hopes of recruiting them. Many students utilize social media sites on a daily basis making that a great environment for the business to focus their efforts in. Therefore, researching tips from a variety of sources is very relevant to my big picture, beginning stages research process.
I’m glad I’ve finally decided on a proposal and am looking forward to gathering more sources.
Perfect Timing 