Staffing Robot - Web design and marketing services for companies in the staffing industry

QR Code Marketing Tips For Your Staffing Company

Have you seen these odd looking shapes before?

 

 

 

 

 

Most likely you've seen them on movie posters or magazine ads. Although similar, these symbols are not bar codes or UPC symbols. This funny looking square of black pixels is called a 'Quick Response Code' or 'QR Code' for short.

If you're unfamiliar, A QR Code is a simple ways for people to quickly interact with web based content through a mobile device. QR Code usage has increased greatly in recent years due to the wide-spread public acceptance of smart phones. Nielsen recently released a study revealing that 43% of all U.S. mobile phone subscribers own smart phones. For subscribers between the ages of 25 - 34, that percentage goes up to 62%. All of these phones are capable of scanning QR Codes.

The process for interacting with a QR Code is simple:
1) Download a QR Code reader app on your smart phone. You can easily find them in the appropriate app store for your iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile phone, etc. Some cost money but there's really no reason to pay for one. The free ones work just fine.

2) Now, when you see a QR Code, bring up your QR Code reader app on your phone. Next, scan the image, similar to taking a picture (many of these apps scan as soon as the QR Code is in focus), and you will be taken to web content through your mobile phone such as a web page, contact information, images, etc.

 

QR Codes are simple to make. You can have your favorite staffing website design and marketing company make them for you or you can create them yourself for free. Just google for 'QR Code generator' and you'll have plenty of good options. You can generate QR Codes in different sizes and you can also brand QR Codes with different symbols and colors. Be careful though, if you change up too many of the pixels the QR Codes won't be scannable. Also, some QR Code readers have a difficult time with QR Codes in different colors. Just be sure you test your final product with multiple devices and apps.

So, now that you know what a QR Code is and how to make one, most likely you're next question is - "What can my company actually do with QR Codes?"

Here are some ideas and creative suggestions on how your staffing company can effectively use QR Codes in your marketing efforts:

Magazine and other print ads. QR Codes are a great way to bridge your offline and online marketing efforts. Simply add a QR Code into any print material you produce and you'll be able to instantly share web content with your audience. The best part? You now have an even easier way to track the success of these print campaigns.

Company feedback cards. Looking for customer feedback? Create some feedback cards with QR Codes to hand out to your customers. You can create cards to ask for company wide feedback or employee specific feedback.

 

Business cards. Placing a QR Code on your business card is a great way to present a more interactive connection with someone you just met or a new customer.

 

Poster displays and clothing. Next time your at a trade show try placing QR Codes on all of your posters, display materials, even company clothing (shirts, hats, etc.)

Event marketing. The next time you're participating in or putting on an event, consider places you could add a QR code. Everything from leave behinds to print outs of our slides make great places for QR Codes.

Where should your QR Codes link to? Thought you'd never ask! Here are some suggestions on where you can link your QR Codes to for the best results:

• Your cmpany website
• Your company Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social pages
• Web contests, games and referral programs
• Exclusive content
• Special coupons or discounts
• Targeted landing pages - especially ones with forms to help you generate new business leads.
• Company contact information.
• Personal contact information. QR Codes can do more than simply link somewhere. They can actually store data like your personal contact information. This way, when someone scans your QR Code, all of the contained contact information is instantly pulled into the contact list on their device. 
• Downloadable content like a white paper or infographic.
• Your job board. Recruiting new candidates? Handing out cards and promo items with QR Codes linked to your job board is a great way to get the attention of new candidates on the go.

Two final tips when it comes to QR Code marketing.
1) Be sure any web page you bring someone to from a QR Code is optimized for mobile devices. Using a mobile marketing tactic like QR Codes and asking people to engage with you through their mobile device, only to bring them to a web page not optimized for mobile devices is a major fail.

2) Don't put QR Codes in your email signature or on a web page. No one is going to scan an image on a web page with their mobile device - just to go to a web page. Please just don't do it. Please.

QR Codes are an excellent new marketing opportunity for your staffing company. There is also a lot of supporting data out there suggesting QR Codes are here to stay and rapidly gaining in popularity/usage. Think of QR Codes as a perfect way to bridge your offline and online marketing efforts for your staffing company.

Questions or want more information on what your staffing company can do with QR Codes? Contact Staffing Robot today.

Helpful links and Resources:

QR Code Apps:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qr-app/id320140689?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qr-code-reader-and-scanner/id388175979?mt=8
http://news.cnet.com/qr-code-readers-for-iphone
https://market.android.com/details?id=la.droid.qr&hl=en

QR Code Generators:
http://www.systemid.com/barcode_generator/
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
http://goqr.me/
http://tag.microsoft.com/home.aspx

Creative examples of QR Code marketing:
http://mobilecustomersurvey.com/
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/inspiring-qr-codes/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GbplSdh0lGU
http://cardswapp.com/
http://www.awwwards.com/10-creative-uses-of-qr-codes.html

Breaking News: Concerro Acquired by API Healthcare

 

Big news today in the healthcare staffing industry. Concerro has announced they have been acquired by API Healthcare. Concerro, is a provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) staffing and scheduling systems for healthcare. 

 

 Concerro’s products and client base are the perfect complement to API Healthcare’s existing solutions and markets,” said J.P. Fingado, president and chief executive officer, API Healthcare. “Working together we will reinforce our mutual commitment to innovation and dedication to the healthcare industry. This strategic move allows us to leverage a larger number of talented, diverse and clinically-based staff to deliver the high quality of service that separates API Healthcare from our competitors.

This acquisition further consolidates the tech staffing space for healthcare staffing. In recent years API acquired Clearview and Concerro acquired Res-Q Healthcare Systems. Having all of this tech under the banner of API Healthcare will further increase their dominance in the healthcare staffing industry.

Official Press Release: API Healthcare Acquires Concerro

Bullhorn Launches New Career Site: theFIT

Bullhorn released another interesting product today: theFIT.

 

In there words:

theFIT.com is a place where job seekers and employees can get answers to those awkward questions that they really want to know, but would never ask.

Bullhorn claims the intent of theFIT is not a "dig-up-dirt site" but more about understanding the corporate culture of where people work or want to work.

What do you think?

 

Hospitalists Plus Launches New Website and Mobile Job Site for Hospitalists

We recently launched a new site we're excited to share. It's a great company that let us be innovative in our approach to their site and we think the results are fantastic.

Rhino Medical is one of the leading providers of physician staffing (locum tenens) in the healthcare staffing industry. We had the pleasure of re-branding them and creating a new website for them last year. They came to us a few months back with the idea creating a subsidiary focused on placing hospitalists. With the high growth in demand for hospitalists over recent years we knew this was a winning concept.

The first part of the project was to come up with a new name and brand for this entity. We went through several options and finally settled on their new identity: Hospitalists Plus (H+).

This identity included the creation of a new logo mark, typeface, color palette and visual elements for web and print that represent the focus and solid foundation of quality Hospitalists Plus promotes. 

From there we moved on to their website. The goal with the website was to develop something simple, modern, professional and for the main purpose of driving candidate and customer conversions through quick action.

 

Another main focus was to have the site work just as well on tablet mobile platforms.

We accomplished both of these goals by creating sleek, centrally focused home page with large buttons (perfect for mobile tablets!) that also serve as specific calls to action that drive traffic. Each of the calls to action are also very engaging because of the colors, technology and functionality. We also made the hospitalists jobs very easy to locate and apply for.

Finally, we also created a mobile website for Hospitalists Plus. Check out their site from your mobile smart phone and you'll find a completely new experience. This mobile website helps Hospitalists Plus provide their clients and candidates easy access to information through their mobile devices. The mobile website looks and performs like any mobile phone app, with the key difference being that it is accessed via the web, not through any specific device or platform. That means whether you have an iPhone, Android, iPad or Blackberry - the site's features and functions are available to you.

As a website development and marketing services company for the staffing industry, Staffing Robot works with clients of all sizes and budgets. We're constantly seeking out innovative clients that are willing to try new things and be creative. Hospitalists Plus defines innovative.

The best part about a successful project like this is a happy customer!

Once again it was great working with Staffing Robot. They constantly deliver high value to us with the website design, marketing and branding services they provide. I highly recommend them. Deric Gardner, President - Hospitalists Plus.

We're excited to see where Hospitalists Plus takes their new brand. We're honored to have had the opportunity to work with them.

Check out their new site and give it a try: http://www.hospitalistsplus.com. First view it on your desktop computer, and then go to the same site on your mobile phone for a completely separate experience! Take a look and let us know what you think.

You can read our full press release here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9074616.htm.

 

We asked before and Hospitalists Plus answered. So we'll ask again - who's next? 

INNOVATIVE CLIENTS WANTED!!! Please contact us here to get started: CONTACT STAFFING ROBOT.

 

 

BeKnown™ Facebook® Integration Now Makes It Easier to Express Yourself Professionally on Facebook

Guest Blog by Tom Chevalier- Global Product Manager at Monster and product lead for BeKnown™ – the professional networking app on Facebook. This post appeared orginially on Monster's blog - MonsterThinking.

Today at f8, Facebook’s developer’s conference in San Francisco, Monster announced that BeKnown™ is launching new features that make it possible for people to add professional updates like career changes and college graduation information directly to their Facebook profile. Monster is among the first companies integrating Facebook’s latest features to bring more social engagement to the online careers and professional networking industries.

So what does this all mean for BeKnown members? In the coming weeks, you’ll be able to share customized professional networking activity back to Facebook that goes beyond ‘Liking.” These custom actions open up new opportunities and make it easier for you to feature career updates and highlight your professional brand to help advance your career goals. Quite simply, you now have a better way to show a more complete story of who you are as a professional.

Facebook has always made it easy to discover great things and now BeKnown makes it even easier for you to present yourself as a professional, and connect with friends and family to better express what you’re doing at work or where you are at in your career. Through consistent and easy to understand settings on BeKnown (only ‘Everyone’ information is shared), you also remain in full control over how your activity is shared, thereby maintaining the separation of personal and professional information.

For more information on the announcement coming from today’s f8 conference, visithttps://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/563/ . And check out our BeKnown press release.

Guest Blog by Tom Chevalier- Global Product Manager at Monster and product lead for BeKnown™ – the professional networking app on Facebook. This post appeared orginially on Monster's blog - MonsterThinking.

Health IT Status Report: Interactive Map

iWatch - the center for public integrity, put out an interactive map providing a visual on the status of EHR implementations in the U.S. This map provides a status report on where states stand in distributing Medicaid incentive payments for adoption of health information technology.

It's pretty interesting to look at the data this way on such a hot topic right now. You can see it here:

http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/12/07/7567/interactive-status-report-health-information-technology-states/?utm_source=iwatchnews&utm_medium=site-features&utm_campaign=most-active

The 2009 economic stimulus law signed by President Barack Obama contained $27 billion in federal funds for eligible health providers who install electronic health records and follow government “meaningful use” guidelines to improve patient care. This portion of the law — known as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act — allows incentive payments to providers in  both the Medicare and Medicaid programs.  Medicare is administered by the federal government, while Medicaid is a partnership between federal and state governments.  In the case of the health information technology payments, the Medicaid funds are being distributed by the federal government to the states, territories, and the District of Columbia, for re-distribution to the providers.

What's Your Staffing Company's Mobile Recruiting Strategy?

Here's a great post about mobile recruiting from the Recruiters Lounge blog. In this post, Jim Stroud chats with Michael Marlatt about mobile recruiting.

The 3 biggest take aways we got from the video:

• Be sure your recipients have opted in to your campaigns
• Have a clear Call To Action - confirm a job, download information, fill out a form, etc.
• Be sure your sending them to a page that has been optimized for mobile. This one is perhaps the most important. Texting your candidates and bringing the a page that hasn't been optimized for mobile = serious fail.

What's your mobile recruiting strategy? If you don't have one we should talk. Contact us and we can discuss your mobile recruiting strategy and optimizing your web presence for mobile.

Staffing Robot Wins eHealthcare Leadership Award for Best Healthcare Website Design!

Staffing Robot won the eHealthcare Leadership - Platinum Award for Best Website Design in the Healthcare Category! We were nominated for the award based on the Medical Solutions website we developed earlier this year.

The eHealthcare Leadership Awards program was developed and first presented 12 years ago by eHealthcare Strategy & Trends in an effort to identify and reward those advancing design and development in healthcare. 

More than 300 organizations, representing a broad industry spectrum, received recognition for their outstanding websites and digital communications at a special presentation in Orlando on November 9 during the Fifteenth Annual Healthcare Internet Conference. Winners of the 2011 eHealthcare Leadership Awards were selected from nearly 1,200 entries. A total of 114 individuals familiar with healthcare and the Internet judged the entries. 

Judges looked at how websites and other digital communications compared with others in their organization’s classification. They also reviewed entries based on a multi-point standard of Internet excellence. The best overall Internet site category, for example, had to pass muster on more than 40 factors.

“Despite the challenging economic environment, organizations have continued to explore and invest in digital communications,” says Mark Gothberg, eHealthcare Leadership Awards chairman. “A significant number of organizations have made major improvements in their websites, expanded involvement in social media, more fully integrated traditional marketing with new media vehicles, and initiated mobile efforts to better serve current and future customers.”

Gothberg notes that improvements in websites were largely focused on enhancing visual interest, perfecting navigation, and showcasing key service lines. Videos, audios, virtual tours, social media tie-ins, and calls-to-action now populate many key service sections.

We're very honored to receive this award and very thankful to work with such an excellent company like Medical Solutions who provided us with the opportunity in creating such a collaborative and now 'award winning' website!

So, who wants to help us win next year? Contact us and let's get to developing your staffing website!

 

Interactive Google Map of Hospital Listings

Ed Bennett has long updated data on hospital social media usage on his blog 'Found in Cache.' Today he put out an interactive Google map based on that data.

The map lets you filter hosptials by type and drill down in to the locaiton and social media pages for each hospital. It's a great resource - check out the interactive hospital map here.

You can view the full screen version here: Full screen hospital social media Google map.

 

 

Staffing Robot Portfolio Update

The cobbler's children are finally starting to get some shoes! In other words - we finally updated our portfolio of work!

We've been asked to share our portfolio several times but have never taken the time to actually update it. We've been so busy with client work and our own projects that getting around to updating our sites often becomes a low (read: no) priority. :-/

However, we just updated our Staffing Robot portfolio from some of the work we did in the last year. Seeing how much we've put out there will give you a good idea on what we mean when we say "we've been busy!" And just think - this is only a small sample of the work we've done.

From staffing websites, to mobile websites and job apps, to branding for staffing staffing agencies, to custom job board creation and building our own software applications for staffing - take a look around at our recently update portfolio and let us know what you think.

Check back every few weeks or so and see the new projects we've posted! Also, if we missed adding your site it's not intentional! Just let us know and we'll put it up.

Got a project you'd like us to work on? Contact Staffing Robot and we'll get going!