Lying on job applications has been a big problem in the hiring process for what seems like forever. Statistics show that lying on job applications is very commonplace. At the same time, very few employers take extra time out of their day to fact-check job applications. Hiring managers must take the hiring process seriously and verify the information that is given to them by candidates. Here are a few ways to check if a potential employee is being honest.
Contact Previous Employers
Contacting previous employers is a great way to check whether an applicant is being truthful. Not only does this show if the employee was in good standing, but it also reveals whether they worked there in the first place. Any responsible job applicant should have the contact information of their recent jobs on their application. If no contact info is posted or if any discrepancies are found after contacting, then that should be a red flag.
Verify Skills
Many job applicants litter their resumes with skills and certifications that they may or may not have. To assess their skills beforehand, have all applicants take a test to verify their skills. For example, if your job requires coding skills, then you should give a test that requires job applicants to code something.
A skill test can prevent hiring mistakes. If a job applicant has the skills they claim, then they should have no problem completing the test. Use the results from the test to determine whether the potential employee is right for the job.
Check Social Media
Scanning a job applicant’s social media can be useful in the hiring process. Many times, what candidates post on social media can verify some lingering questions you have about them. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are some of the most important websites to check.
When checking professional social media sites such as LinkedIn, make sure to look at the applicant’s profile and match up what you have on their job application. While other social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter are more personal, their online behavior can still be reviewed. Social media posts can often show the character of a candidate. If they’re known to argue and be abusive online, the same behavior may leak into the workplace and affect your current employees.
While doing the above does make the hiring process more time-consuming, it must be done if you plan on hiring the most qualified candidates. Make sure to take the time to thoroughly check over job applications. It just might make a difference.
Improve your business with better web design!
Throughout the online space and even in the brick and mortar business world, the current trend in marketing is Facebook ads. Articles after articles state that Facebook ads are the only way to communicate effectively with your customers, but what if we told you that there is also another way. The often-overlooked Facebook Messenger app can be a really effective tool to incorporate into your business. Whether you need an additional hand with your customer service or simply looking for a new medium for all your customer support needs, the Facebook Messenger may be the tool you need. The following list details just exactly how you can accomplish this by incorporating Facebook Messenger into your marketing arsenal.
What is Facebook Messenger?
Before we delve too deep into the benefits of Facebook Messenger, we first need to understand what it is. Throughout the years, Facebook Messenger has grown from simply being a medium for you to instantly communicate with your friends or family to an all-out state of the art marketing hub. Messenger has recently provided business users with the ability to exchange funds, share private messages with customers and distributors alike. Although the platform is rather easy to work with, it is only as effective as your intentions and execution.
A Familiar Platform for Customers
We spoke earlier about the ease of communicating with your customers through Facebook Messenger. This benefit is rooted in the understanding and familiarity the customer has with the app before they had even considered purchasing from your company. This is why many companies are now seeking to make this their primary form of communication. Over 126 million Americans use Facebook Messenger, so communicating with your customers through a familiar platform can help you better connect with them. All this makes issues such as customer support that much easier as you can quickly look up who sent you what and what your previous messages were like.
Is it Right for Your Business?
Most companies, before even dabbling on Facebook Messenger, you may already have an established form of communication with their customers. However, what often makes business leaders seek new forms of communication in the presence of a recurring issue within their current communication medium. Understandably, business leaders may have some reservations about moving their communication to Facebook Messenger. One of the things you want to keep in mind is the work that it takes to maintain a positive line of communication with your customers. Questions such as can you keep up with the workload, are all your company devices set for the messenger app and so on. Facebook Messenger is a great tool for any business, but the right plan for executing right must be performed prior to the addition of the app.
How Do You Manage All the Alerts?
It’s understandable to be a little unsure about your ability to handle every single message that comes into your business mobile phone or computers. After all, your goal is to provide your customers with the absolute best customer service, and rushing things may not be the best of ideas. Therefore, we highly recommend incorporating bot technology into your business Facebook Messenger. What exactly are bots? Bots are essentially a virtual assistant. They answer common questions such as contact information or return policies. This is extremely helpful as it only then sends you a notification regarding the most serious of cases.
How Can You Market with Facebook Messenger?
According to Facebook statistics, there are currently over 1.3 billion people using Facebook Messenger all over the world. This, of course, is a dream number for any company seeking to market their business through Facebook Messenger. However, it’s not as easy as simply sending out a bunch of ads to people. One of the best approaches to marketing through Facebook Messenger for any business is to deliver your email content through Facebook Messenger rather than through an email. Email can be an effective manner of marketing, but it has a lower open rate than Facebook Messenger. Your content through Facebook Messenger can have a higher rate of being opened as it is seen through a platform that customers are already using. As long as you don’t take them too far from Facebook, you can expect to see great results from your marketing.
Incorporating Facebook Messenger to your business may sound like a total overhaul of your communication line, but by taking the right approach and executing it properly, you can make it a very beneficial part of your company. Like any business decision, any and all concerns must be taken into consideration before applying this into your day to day business. Simply adhere to the list above in order to formulate the right plan of attack, implementation, and deliverance of this helpful communication medium.
If you need help incorporating social media tools into your business, RyCOM Creative Corp. can help! Contact us to learn more.
How easy is it to get someone’s attention? Not very, if statistics are anything to go by. For instance, you have about eight seconds to get someone’s attention with a video. And it’s considerably less when talking about static visuals, such as marketing and advertising campaigns. Some suggest it is as few as fifty milliseconds!
If that seems overwhelming, don’t despair! Just because it can be difficult to capture someone’s attention doesn’t mean that it’s impossible.
In fact, we’re going to look at five different tricks that will help you to keep the attention of your audience beyond that first split second that statistics say you have.
Use Your Visuals to Tell a Story
Want to get your audience engaged and involved in your marketing?
Tell them a story.
Of course, we don’t mean this in a literal way. Starting your marketing off with “Once upon a time…” is only going to appeal to a select few.
But it is possible, and recommended, to tell a story by directly using your visuals. And it doesn’t have to be a complicated story. In fact, the simpler, the better. There’s not really any need to craft a compelling narrative beyond, “This person uses this product, and here is how they benefited.”
Everyone loves a happy ending, even if it’s just in their marketing.
Use Color
In terms of quick tricks to grab attention, smart use of color is probably the most often recommended for visual design. After all, we often react to colors without even really taking the time to think about them; they tend to elicit an emotional reaction of some kind, as well.
The psychology of color tells us how the majority of people tend to react to certain colors. Red, for instance, is one of the most motivating, dynamic colors. That’s why red is so often used to get attention.
But for eye-catching colors, simply using a preponderance of a certain color, even if it is dynamic, isn’t really enough. Using too much of one color is potentially more likely to turn someone’s eyes away, rather than attract them.
An important aspect of color is the use of a palette that has already been established by the brand, such as colors in the company logo and other previously designed marketing materials.
The best way to use color to get attention is to include a pop of bright color along with accents, and thorough use of auxiliary colors like white, black, and gray as well. It takes caution and care to enhance the visual and avoid overwhelming the viewer.
Combine Fonts
Here’s a sad fact: people don’t really like to read. In fact, it’s much more likely that your viewers will simply look at the images and graphics included in your marketing, and base their impression on that alone.
But if you want to maximize the chances that your audience will actually be drawn into reading the textual content, then here are a few tips:
- Use highly legible, user-friendly fonts.
- Combine a few fonts together, including a heavier weight and a lighter weight.
A combination of typefaces is immediately more interesting and visually appealing than a single typeface on its own.
Include a Call to Action
Calls to action, or CTAs, are a common sight in marketing, but they don’t have to be as blatant as “Buy now!”
Effective CTAs use the perceived benefit to the viewer to motivate them to act. And that may be even more effective on a standalone piece of marketing.
It may be something like, “Get your free product now!” Or, for social media, it could be as simple as posting a trending hashtag, which in itself is an invitation for the viewer to repost or share and do the same. Because we are social animals, and love to be part of a trend, this is an effective way to both get the attention of your viewer and to involve them in marketing.
Brand Your Visuals
A final way to enhance your visual marketing and get your audience’s attention is to focus on branding. Include the name of the business, the company logo, the tagline, or some other aspect of branding within the marketing.
Not only should you make it clear who the marketing is for, the style of the design should also harmonize and blend well with the brand’s style as already established.
This helps to identify the marketing even without logos and brand marks, allowing customers to gain a sense of familiarity with the design. It also promotes the brand personality and aesthetic, adding each piece of visual marketing to a well-designed whole.
It’s true that there are a lot of pieces of marketing out there vying for the limited attention span of the audience. But there are definitely ways that you can up your game, and increase the likelihood of catching — and keeping — the interest of your viewers.
Author Bio
Sabrina Jackson is a content writer with experience in web content, blogging, sales copy and more. She writes with a passion to match her coffee color. Her favorite pass time is trying out new and unique tongue twisters.
