IIC Partners Forms Alliance With CoolBrands
December 15, 2016 – IIC Partners Executive Search Worldwide has formed a marketing and brand management partnership with CoolBrands.
CoolBrands is a multinational branding company with over 10 years of experience in creating and packaging profiles for companies and for C-suite executives who are seeking broader market exposure.
“CoolBrands’ international experience is a perfect fit for our global organization. Anouk Pappers and Maarten Schäfer are experts in creating dynamic branded content and will amplify our members’ online reputation through the use of storytelling and video,” said Christine Hayward, executive director of IIC Partners.
Reputation Management
Through the partnership, CoolBrands will host webinars for IIC Partners members in 2017 covering online reputation management and the importance of portraying brands in the digital space. Together, CoolBrands and IIC Partners will also collaborate on content subject relevant to executive search and reputation management.
“We are living in a reputation economy where Google has become the new background check,” said Ms. Pappers, co-founder of CoolBrands. “A strong online reputation will generate up to 48 percent more business opportunities.”
Maarten Schäfer, the other co-founder of CoolBrands, said that “80 percent of people Google you before they decide to meet you and whether you like it or not, you are who Google says you are.”
Earlier this year, another global search firm strengthened its marketing and branding efforts when Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA) and Allegis Partners, its sister company focused on executive search, added veteran marketing expert Jennifer Silver as executive director and global head of marketing and communications. A host of other search firms have since followed suit.
“As Major Lindsey & Africa and Allegis Partners continue to grow and expand our business lines, we identified a need for a stronger, more cohesive and global marketing platform,” said Simon Robinson, president.
Just as important as marketing and branding is for companies searching the profiles of recruiting firms, it can be even more relevant for companies looking to preview the backgrounds of job seekers they might one day be hiring. More than one third of companies have disqualified a job candidate in the past year because of concerns about information found on public social media or an online search, according to survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Candidates were disqualified for illegal activity and discrepancies with job applications, among other reasons.
Social recruiting is also another reason why personal branding is so import for job seekers. Numerous reports have surfaced showing the increasing role social media is having on recruiting. Another SHRM survey, “The Importance of Social Media for Recruiters and Job Seekers,” found that nearly two thirds of companies (65 percent) found new hires through social media in the past year. The study revealed that 57 percent of organizations found new employees through LinkedIn, 30 percent through professional or association network sites, and 19 percent through Facebook. Overall, 87 percent of HR professionals said it was either very or somewhat important for job seekers to be on LinkedIn.
Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor, Hunt Scanlon Media
