Hewitt Associates Launches Mobile SMS Campaign!

Today marks the official launch of Hewitt’s SMS Job Alert Campaign. The goal is to provide experienced-hire prospects (candidates) a non-intrusive communication channel for staying informed and connected with the latest career opportunities at Hewitt.

How does this mobile recruiting campaign work?

The current campaign is targeted towards attracting Executive-level prospects with program management experience. Subscribers “opt-in” to the SMS campaign by responding to the ad as noted in the image above. Curious about how it actually works? Try it: Send a text message with the keyword “HEWITT2″ to 88000. After opting into the campaign, subscribers receive an auto-response thanking them for their participation, along with a link to view Hewitt’s mobile-optimized job posting. The current SMS campaign is being powered by Recruit2Mobile.

I am very excited to be part of this ground-breaking project at Hewitt, particularly since I am partnering with fellow Sourcerer Mark Tindle, Think Tank Member Tim O’Connor, as well as with Mike Galyen from Recruit2Mobile. Stay tuned, more to follow…



About Hewitt Associates

Hewitt serves more than 3,000 clients who understand that people are their most important asset—and they count on us to maximize their human resources (HR) investment. Hewitt is the world’s largest provider of multi-service HR business process outsourcing (BPO), and the only firm fully integrating HR outsourcing and consulting.

Hewitt has been in business for more than 65 years and has approximately 23,000 employees in 33 countries. Nearly 95% of our largest clients have worked with Hewitt for at least five years. Hewitt’s leadership, reputation, capabilities, and relationships remain HR’s benchmark, giving clients real value in the face of increasingly complex human capital management challenges. Visit Hewitt to learn more.



About Recruit2Mobile

recruit2mobile’s management team fuses a history of innovation with extensive experience in recruiting, talent management, mobile marketing and software-as-a-service technologies. With more than five decades of combined technology-meets-recruiting knowhow, recruit2mobile’s management team has the knowledge and expertise to create a bold new world of mobile recruitment and communication.

270M U.S. Wireless Subscribers push out 1 Trillion Text-Messages

Mobile adoption in the U.S. has experienced phenomenal growth. According to CTIA’s President and CEO Steve Largent, the U.S. wireless industry reached 270 million total subscribers at the end of 2008. While that number alone is already quite impressive, what I find even more amazing is the fact that U.S. subscribers have sent 1 trillion text messages (yes, that’s TRILLION with a “T”) in 2008, which triples the previous year’s SMS traffic. Worldwide, SMS is being used by 3 billion wireless subscribers and is now the most widely used application on the planet. So, is it really any surprise that SMS (A.K.A. “text-messaging”) has become such a widely used tool within the U.S.?

Mobile Marketing & SMS

If you have followed my blog in the past, then you have likely seen my posts on why I believe mobile-marketing matters, as well as why SMS in recruiting can be key to engaging a target audience. Suffice to say, I’m a big fan of SMS but I also realize that there are still many within our industry that still don’t quite “get” mobile. It is often a confusing topic, which is why I wrote my earlier post on Mobile Recruiting 101.

In general, mobile marketing is a broad term that simply refers to the use marketing over a mobile device. Mobile campaigns may include contests, coupon-give away, info-alerts, job-alerts, mCommerce, movie promos, ringtone give-away, etc. We frequently see mobile and SMS linked because it’s medium by which many of the promos above are offered. SMS services run off a short code, which is typically a 5 or 6 digit number (either shared or dedicated). For example, last year BMW kicked-off a mobile campaign using a keyword and short code to encourage consumers to learn more about the BMW X6. Consumers were prompted to text the keyword “BMW” to 67463 (short code). The result? BMW fans were provided a link that (once clicked) redirected them to BMW’s mobile-optimized site showcasing the X6. Leveraging a mobile through SMS is becoming a common practice for many forward-thinking companies (e.g., Nike, Coke-Cola, Microsoft, etc.) all carry their own version of a short code. That said, SMS is not the only channel for connecting with a target audience. We see Multimedia Message Service (MMS) as another channel for engaging consumers. However, compared to the 3 billion global SMS users, there are only 1.35 billion global MMS users so we will table the MMS discussion for a later post.

Mobile Marketing Success Stories

Two key events have contributed to the popularity of mobile-SMS in the U.S.:

1. American Idol Voting for your favorite singer was made simple (and interactive) by simply placing your vote via text message. American Idol set an SMS record in 2008 when over 78 million viewers responded by “texting” in their votes.

2. Presidential Race in 2008 Most notably, President Obama set a world SMS record when he alerted approximately 2.9 million opt-in subscribers during the announcement of Joe Biden as his VP selection. Followers joined by texting “OBAMA” to 62262 and they were immediately provided real-time status updates. Obama was even named Mobile Marketer of the Year for running one of the most successful mobile campaigns in history.

With 270+ million U.S. subscribers, and 1 trillion text messages sent last year, SMS is clearly a communication channel that we cannot and should not overlook. Kim Dushinski, author of The Mobile Marketing Handbook, cited that companies should think about allocating 5-10% of their digital marketing budget towards mobile marketing efforts. Bottom-line, it’s time to get creative in how we engage prospective talent through this unique channel.

Upcoming Mobile Recruiting Webinar: April 23rd

If you are interested in learning more about how mobile integrates with recruiting, I will be delivering a webinar on Thursday, April 23rd. The event is being hosted by Shally Steckerl from Arbita ACES. You can get more details by visiting the registration link here.

T-Mobile’s Dance Ad is Pure Entertainment at its Best

This is one of the most entertaining videos I’ve seen yet… this is just pure fun so enjoy!

If you’re interested in how the video was made, check out this exclusive behind the scenes footage…

From a $4,000 phone to MIT’s SixthSense, what’s next in mobile technology?

We have come a long way from the world’s first mobile device. In 1983, Motorola launched the DynaTAC 8000x (A.K.A. - the “Brick Phone”) which weighed 2lbs. and retailed for a staggering $3,995. Over the past 25 years, global wireless subscribers have grown from 300,000 (in 1984) to over 4 billion wireless subscribers in 2009.

So What’s Next in Mobile Technology?

We are approaching the day when we no longer need to carry traditional mobile devices. Imagine a world where we can snap photos by simply gesturing with our fingertips, dial a number using digits projected into the palms of our hand, or view tag-clouds projected on a person we have just met. While this may all sound like science fiction, that future scenario is not too far away. In fact, MIT’s Media Lab recently launched a fascinating demo at TED showcasing their vision of the future.

If the advancements in mobile technology over the past 25+ years are any indicator of the future, I look forward to watching its evolution over the next 25+ years. Since we can’t fast forward into the future, how about we rewind and take a look at how we got here…

Mobile Recruiting 101: Basic Q&A

Ok, so I know what you are thinking: Mobile (SMS) is just for the youth market, right? Well, while that may have been the case a few years ago, we are now witnessing a growing trend that reveals otherwise. Today, of the 262 million total U.S. wireless subscribers, more than 138 million users now send and receive text messages. 72% of those between 25-49 use text messaging, and 53% of texters are 35 years-old and up.

While it is easy to get excited about the trends in mobile, it’s important to understand the basics before embarking on any mobile recruitment strategy. What follows is a quick primer that I have put together to hopefully addresses some of the fundamental questions.

Mobile Marketing: Basic Q&A

Q: What is SMS?

A: SMS is an acronym for short message service. SMS is often referred to as text messaging.

Q: What is MMS?

A: MMS is an acronym for multimedia messaging service. MMS messages are typically mobile messages that contain some combination of text, images, audio, or video.

Q: What is the standard length of an SMS (text message)?

A: SMS/text messages are usually limited to 160 characters, with spaces.

Q: What are the two questions that need to be asked prior to executing a mobile recruiting strategy?

A #1. What are the key goals and how can mobile help to achieve the objectives?
A #2. Who is my target audience and what is most important to that audience?

* Identifying the objectives and target audience are both critical to understand in order to craft the most effective marketing program to achieve the desired outcome.

Q: What is a Common Short Code (CSC)?

A: Common Short Codes are short numeric codes to which SMS or MMS can be sent from a mobile phone. Short codes are commonly 5-6 digits, and can be “vanity” codes (which no other company can use) or shared codes (used by many companies). The short codes facilitate an interactive mobile experience between the consumer and host company. See mobile marketing examples by Sprite and Coca-Cola. For more details, visit the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA).

Q: What are the five most common modes of communication available on a mobile device?

The five modes include:

1. Voice
2. SMS (A.K.A. - text messaging)
3. Web (WAP=Wireless Application Protocol, or Mobile Web)
4. Applications (think of any device (i.e., iPhone) that can leverage mobile apps)
5. Email (Not always available to all mobile users.)

* Of the five modes of mobile, SMS/text-messaging is the most widely used application on the planet.

Q: How popular is text messaging?

A: Consumers today are using text messaging more than ever. Worldwide, there are 4 billion mobile subscribers with 3 billion currently using text-messaging.  In the U.S., there are over 262 million wireless subscribers and 138 million using text messaging.  In Q2 of 2008, a Nielsen Mobile study revealed that in the U.S. there are now more text messages being sent and received vs. phone calls.  See more stats here.

Q: What is a keyword and how is it used?

A: Keywords allow your consumers to interact with your mobile programs. For example: “Text HEWDIVERSITY to 77950“ allows potential candidates to “opt-in” and receive job alerts from Hewitt Associates.  To start, users are prompted to send a text message with the keyword “HEWDIVERSITY” to the short code 77950. In this example, the keyword ‘HEWDIVERSITY’ is tied to an auto-response that confirms the opt-in subscription, as well as a “call to action” message.

Q: Why would any company want to engage in recruiting through mobile marketing?

A: Let’s face it: Technology is changing the way we all communicate at all levels. Our target audience has become increasingly “mobile” and no longer simply sitting at a desk waiting for our call or email.  The mobile device is personal and next to the wallet, purse, or keys, it is the one thing we each carry with us. As working professionals, we are often on-the-go, traveling, in meetings, attending conferences, training, out to lunch, vacation, and so on.  With over 262 million U.S. wireless subscribers, we need to consider ways in which we can increase the odds of connecting with our target audience. As some would say, ‘fish where the fish are’… Click here to read: ‘Mobile Recruiting: Why Run SMS Campaigns?

Q: What is WAP?

A: WAP is an acronym for wireless application protocol and is commonly referred to as the mobile web. WAP sites are mobile versions of a websites, typically optimized for mobile devices.

Many mobile-optimized sites today are using the ‘.Mobi’ extension. More and more companies today are staking their claim in the dotMobi space, which is evident by the fact that dotMobi sites actually experienced a seven fold increase last year. As a standard practice, mobile-sites should not be a “web-version” of your site on a mobile device, but a “MOBILE-optimized” version made for mobile. It should also (ideally) automatically detect whenever someone is visiting a site through a mobile browser. You can get more information on dotMobi, as well as “best practice” development tips by visiting MobiThinking.com.

dotMobi site example: CloudRecruiting.mobi (*Note: From any mobile browser, type either ‘CloudRecruiting.net’ or ‘CloudRecruiting.mobi’ to view site.)

Still have questions?  Please list your comments below and I will be sure to respond back as quickly as possible.

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