There is a fantastic interview by Robert Scoble on WorkFast.tv about how a couple of employees started “Blue Shirt Nation” their internal social network which now has more than 22,000 members. Its a fascinating look at how a couple of employees went outside their job description and started it on their own. They also detail how senior management took to the idea and began to approve and fund the project. Blue Shirt Nation is a great example of how social media can engage and retain your employees. Watch it!

Want to go to OnRec Expo in Chicago, Sept 9-10? You can save $100 by using code: F5nPTk

Our founder, Chris Russell, will be presenting “Facebook Recruiting Secrets” at the conference. Lots of industry luminaries will be there. Check out the speaker list. Here’s the session topics.

The number of social media communication platforms continues to grow and impress us. Take kyte for example. Its a multimedia player that lets you share various types of content: audio, video, photos, even live streaming!

Think of kyte as the Youtube player on steroids. Its got tons more features including real-time chat and plays extremely well with other social networks (you can easily embed it on facebook, myspace, etc). It even integrates with things like Twitter, so every time you publish to your kyte channel, the word goes out to friend and foe alike.

Its got so many features we are still discovering them. So head on over to kyte.tv and start your own channel and broadcast your content. Use the kyte player to tap into the next generation workforce.

SHRM’s annual conference last week in Chicago was great. Jobs in Pods definitely wowed those who stopped by our booth. We even did an impromptu jobcast with an HR director from the city of Denver. Now we’re just busy with the hundreds of leads we got. Looks like we’re going to have a busy summer.

Our founder Chris Russell was just interviewed on Total Picture Radio about the show. Listen here.

We just heard about this video on Oprah and thought it was a unique way of hiring. He got thousands of video applications and picked the winner on her show. Its just further proof that Youtube is a valuable branding/recruiting tool.

Here’s a more visual look at how Jobs in Pods distributes its Jobcasts. Think of jobsinpods.com as the ‘basecamp’ for each jobcast. From there they get re-distributed.

We get asked a lot about how to integrate social media recruiting into your existing recruiting efforts. The easiest way to start is via your own web site.

You already have job seeker traffic coming to your site. Give them the ability to subscribe/read/join your efforts on whatever social media sites you have a prescence on. Got a Facebook group? Well, link to it! The same advice goes for LinkedIn, Youtube, etc.

Other ways to encourage people to join:

• Promote internally. Encourage your employees to join up and they’ll in turn invite other people.
• Add links to these sites in your email signature. Especially among your recruiters who communicate with candidates on a daily basis.

The more people you promote to, the more others will subscribe & join. Think like a marketer and they will come.

Views of our jobcasts on our Youtube channel have increased rapidly in the past month. Its taken us just over a month to go from 10,000 to 15,000!

Like we’ve said all along Youtube is free advertising for anyone who uses it. Many business are now uploading their commercials and other types of content. For our clients its just another way we add value to podcasting your jobs.

Jobs in Pods and Talent Technology have joined forces to offer recruitment professionals a free 1 hour webinar on June 10th at 1pm Eastern time. The subject is:

Secrets of Social Media for Employment Branding

Greg Moran, Director, Industry Sales and Partnerships at Talent Technology and Chris Russell, founder of Jobs in Pods will offer real life practical examples of how to incorporate social media and Web 2.0 tools into your recruiting process!

Watch the archived version here >>

Ryan Healy, one of the the young guns over on the Brazen Careerist site has a great post about why companies should be using social media. Here’s the full post but check out his quote which we think sums it up neatly.

Social media is a constant conversation and because of this, business is now a constant conversation. It’s a comment string on Brazen Careerist, it’s someone’s Facebook wall, and it’s a Linked In recommendation. Someone, somewhere is out there talking about your company, and they can say whatever they want. All you can do is control the conversation.

Controlling the conversation does not mean telling people how to talk about your company or spamming a couple bloggers with job postings or company descriptions. It means creating a presence where you can initiate and continue a conversation.

What social media requires is authenticity, because even a newbie social media user can sniff out a phony quickly.

We believe that Jobs in Pods is a place you can begin the conversation. We strive to make each and every Jobcast as authentic as possible. Today’s job seekers demand nothing less.