Dutch Police on Hyves and YouTube

Since this week the Dutch Police uses Hyves, YouTube and Marokko.nl as a part of their employer-branding strategy. Their first purpose is to strengthen the reputation of the employer brand of the Dutch police. Secondly the police wants to make the target group feel that they want to belong to the police.

According to the recruitment and selection department of the police is social media a very useful channel to influence people's conception about what it is like to work for the police. The recruitment and selection department of the police is a part of the police that supports all police units with their labour market communication.

The recruitment and selection department of the police selected three types of social media that will be used the coming year. The choice for these media is based on the target group and the range. Hyves is with 9.7 million users the biggest social media platform in The Netherlands. A specific channel via YouTube which will be managed by the police is going to be used as a collect and distribution platform of video material about working for the police. Marokko.nl is chosen because of its biggest not-western immigrant community. The website has one million visitors a month and has 173 thousand members.

Another goal of the police is to create diversity in their police units. That is the reason why it is very important to reach not-western youth. According to the recruitment and selection department of the police Marokko.nl is an important channel to reach this goal.

Together with the operator Marokko Media the police created a special introduction page. In addition, the police developed a specific Hyves page, which is kombijdepolitie.hyves.nl. This pages offers you information about working for the police for instance: video's, photo's, downloads, a game, blogs, an event agenda and the latest vacancy's. In addition people can also chat and make use of the discussion forum which the police offers.

Should a government agency such as the Dutch police use these kind of social media for their recruitment purposes? Do you see any disadvantages or advantages?

What is your opinion? Feel free to react...

New Customers for Small Business because of Social Media Use

In this blog there will be presented several interesting facts about social media usage in Small Business. A study reported by 'The Center for Media Research' which was done by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business tells us that social media adoption by small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year. Small businesses are investing in applications including blogs, Facebook and Linkedln profiles more and more.

Social media opportunities are very usefull for Small businesses. The following chart shows a few interesting fact:


Isn't it interesting to notice that 61% of the respondents use social media for identifying and attracting new customers. Dr. Alan Glazier reported (2010) that the biggest expectation that small business owners have from social media is expanding external marketing and engagement including identifying and attracting new customers, building brand awareness and staying engaged with customers.

In addition, 45% of the respondents expect social media to be profitable in the next twelve months.


Nevertheless, 50% of small business social media users tell that it takes more time than expected.




Small business also experience other positive effects:

• 72% have found different new ways to operate more efficiently.
• 47% have been led to find new products and services that benefit customers.
• 43% have become better teams as hard times force people to work together.

Maximizing productivity while keeping costs low seems possible with the use of social media.

Aren't you convinced yet? Take a look at websites such as marktplaats.nl, Twitter and EBay. more and more companies start promoting their products and services via these kind of websites.

However, what are the disadvantages of using social media in your company? Is it just something for Small Business, or do you see big companies using social media as well? Is it perhaps a little unprofessional?

Feel free to react...