Snapchat – It’s Not About Selling, It’s About Showing

Snapchat – It’s Not About Selling, It’s About Showing

In a market loaded with tech recruiting firms and organizations competing to attract the best tech talent, how do you connect with those you may not be able to find on traditional social networks? How do you build trust and show the authenticity of your team?

The team at Objective Paradigm thrives on employees being themselves and using their personalities to connect with candidates and clients. With that said, it was only a matter of time before the team at OP launched a Snapchat account. To find out more, we sat down with Nicole Brooks, Internal Recruiter, and Robyn Carney, Sourcing and Research Specialist, to see what they had to say about using Snapchat as a business.

Why use Snapchat for recruiting?

NB: I am really proud of our culture and I am constantly talking about it with potential internal candidates. I am an avid Snapchatter and I thought that it would be a great platform to use to showcase the culture here at OP in real time.

RC: In addition to being an amazing tool to show the world our culture, we also love the geo-filters. We did it once for an event which really helped promote the event itself. We also used it in the office for the Lunch and Learn. It’s a great way to grab attention. We’re planning on eventually using geo-filters for hiring days and at events where we’re meeting with potential candidates. It’s a great way to get our name out there. Snapchat even allows organizations to announce that they’ve sponsored a specific filter.

SanpChat Lunch and Learn OP

The OP crew getting Snapchat ready!

How did you implement your Snapchat initiative?

RC: When we did trial runs with Snapchat we had a group of interns helping myself and another sourcer set it up. We did a test run with a geo-filter and encouraged people to follow the OP Snapchat. The geo-filter was a huge success, we only registered for three hours and it was seen almost 800 times in that span.

Once the ball really got rolling we ended up with the three of us, Nicole, Dayna and myself, running with the initiative. We met every week to discuss how to keep the momentum going. Now that we’ve launched we’re fielding questions and requests as they arise. We have loose guidelines in place for recruiters who want to use our ‘Oprecruiting’ name or request a geo-filter.

NB: I lived and worked in Paris for a few years and when I moved back to the states I became an avid Snapchat user. It has proven to be a great way for me to stay in communication with my friends that live all over the world!

When I started with OP last year, my friends overseas were constantly asking me to send them snaps of my new job and office. They were very interested in my new work culture and it sparked many interesting conversations, but most of all it made my friends feel like they were here with me.

After coming to the realization that if people could really see what it is like to work here they would instantly want to be part of OP. I mentioned using Snapchat to our Leadership team as a way to communicate with candidates for internal opportunities. Our team was smaller then and I am happy that because of our growth (and the interns..haha) we have been able to explore other ways of communicating with candidates and each other!

How did you onboard your company?

RC: It was actually a request from someone in the company who was curious as to what the Snapchat initiative was trying to do. Doing the lunch and learn was a fun and positive way to bring the whole company up to speed. We went over the stats of Snapchat, why it’s so big, then we talked about how to use it in a company setting.

NB: OP is busy but no one turns down free food which worked to our advantage! It was great to get everyone together. We knew we needed to address questions, comments and concerns around using this platform. My favorite part of the Lunch and Learn was seeing everyone play around with the filters. I also had a fun time announcing whenever we got a new follower!

snaplnlop

…I saw what you did on Snapchat last weekend…

Privacy concerns

RC: Objective Paradigm is all about the work/life balance, we knew immediately that there would be a huge concern with privacy. We wanted to make sure that the recruiters knew that following OP’s Snapchat wouldn’t mean that we were compulsively checking their stories. We made it a central part of the Lunch and Learn that we walk through how to set up filters on Snapchat so that we couldn’t see their stories – only what they voluntarily sent us.

 

robynsnapop

You tell us, Robyn!

Early results & contests

RC: We hosted a contest to convince our team to take the last steps in following us on Snapchat. We asked the team to send their funniest or best snaps from the weekend. The majority of people who attended the Lunch and Learn sent us snaps. We ended up choosing the snaps that made us laugh the most.

Winning OP Snapchat

Swartz takes home the candy and movie tickets! Congrats!

What’s next / goals

RC: We have some big plans in the works for our Snapchat. We’re going to continue snapping for internal fun; geo-filters for company-wide events and competitions amongst the recruiters. But we’re also planning on rolling out larger contests and competitions amongst our followers. We’re going to start posting tips and tricks for the industry.

NB: One of our goals was accomplished already and that was to drive internal excitement around OP’s Snapchat!

There has been more of a buzz around the office about it and we have already had people sign up to use it for events that they have coming up! We plan to continue to drive internal engagement through different ways as Robyn mentioned. We think this is a way to increase our external following by getting the buzz to exist outside of the office. We are having fun with it!

Thanks Nicole and Robyn!

Being authentic attracts authenticity and connecting is just the beginning. Find out more about employment branding and connecting in non-traditional ways to identify the talent you didn’t know was out there. And follow OP on Snapchat!

 

snapchat-objective-paradigm

Stay tuned to the OP blog for more from Nicole and Robyn on Snapchat, work / life balance, sourcing and recruiting!

Nicole Brooks graduated from Northern Illinois University where she majored in Psychology and Sociology. She started her career working for Abercrombie & Fitch as a Senior Manager. She was fortunate to travel the world and live in Paris, France where she oversaw A&F’s international French store expansion. Upon returning to Chicago she joined Objective Paradigm as their Internal Recruiter. She is passionate about developing relationships with others and empowering them to be the best version of themselves.

Robyn Carney grew up in Rochester N.Y. before spending her college years in Syracuse, where she got her Bachelors in Social Studies education and traveled to Europe and the Middle East. After she got her first degree, she decided on another and ended up at the University of Chicago for her Masters before starting on a path in research. It was her love of research that made her explore the possibilities of a social media app beyond snapping photos of her cats to her twin in Japan. Her love of research and new experiences drove her to join Objective Paradigm’s team as a Research and Sourcing Team member.

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