[A transcript of Suzanne Marks' presentation to the San Gabriel Valley Economic Outlook Conference]
Most businesses today have spent a good deal time and money branding their businesses. The have done it in their advertising, in their corporate communications, and in their corporate culture. The most successful companies created brands have made corporate image personal and attractive to consumers, investors and prospective employees.
That same branding ethic now extends to social marketing as an avenue for your company to recruit the best new hires. In fact, some businesses have reinforced their brand’s appeal to prospective employees by creating whole new sections of their websites, or entirely separate websites, exclusively to promote the quality of their working environment. Social media components such as Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and Twitter are also crucial pieces of marketing for recruits. It is an increasingly important way to search for new applicants. Companies that used to spend thousands on recruitment, can now run ads on Craigslist, Facebook and MySpace, and then lead their prospective employees to those ads by using Twitter.
Social Media is also a way for employers to more closely examine and applicants, especially those who may have revealed more about their personal lives than they should have. Employers can use that information to their benefit, however there may be downsides to that which you have to consider before using it indiscriminately to make hiring decisions. At first glance, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace (the top sites being screened) do appear to be a gold mine of personal applicant information. In fact, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com report, the number of companies using social networking Web sites to screen potential employees has doubled in the last year, and what they have found has killed the hire for more than a third of candidates. Currenty 1 in 5 hiring managers conduct background checks by using social media, primarily FaceBook.
Conversely, more and more network-savvy applicants have begun to use social media, blogs, and personal websites strategically to give them an advantage over other candidates. They are branding themselves the same way companies do. They position themselves not only as someone best fit for the job, but who is also eager to work for your company. And the best and brightest talent also uses the Internet to review their prospective new employers with a critical eye. What does this mean for your company?
First of all, Make sure your web site makes your company attractive to new hires. This encompasses everything from: the user friendliness of your site, the quality of your products or services, your customer relations, how you do business, in other words, your brand. However, this also should include information about your internal culture, training, your hiring philosophy, benefits, and the advantages of your location.
Reinforce that with a well-maintained presence on LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter that drives people to your Web site. Some new talent may think your company is old and stodgy if you don't have a presence on these social networking sites, or they just won’t notice you at all. This is especially for people in their 20s who have grown up thinking that the Internet and social media have always existed.
Develop a social media strategy to entice quality talent and to screen applicants. Be patient and stick with it. Online marketing and recruiting takes time and constant attention to see results. However, if you can position your company in your target audience’s top-of-mind awareness, you will be miles ahead of your competition in finding the highest-quality talent. It will ensure that your business will thrive well into the future.
However, as with any tool, you have to be careful how you use it. Unlike traditional hiring tools such as team interviews, calling past employers, and background checks, social networking sites exist in a legal limbo of privacy concerns. Stories from recruiters show why these sites are so enticing.
It is all to easy to search for the candidate by name and refine the search by adding the terms: Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace and there’s no telling what you might see. Depending on their privacy settings, the quality of information available on a social network site varies. But you don’t have to stop there; you can also search blog search engines, such as www.google.com/blogsearch and business sites such as Zoominfo.
One recruiter related how she had found “The Ideal Candidate” for her firm. But when, she ran the applicant’s phone number on a search engine, up popped some explicit ads for adult services she was apparently involved in. Uh oh. In another instance an intern being considered for a permanent position had demonized his firm, his boss and his coworkers in considerable detail and by name. Obviously neither of these Rhodes Scholars was “ideal” for any position these companies wanted to fill.
As valuable as this information can be, make certain you don’t rely exclusively on such sites for your information. At this point in the evolution of e-law, there are no published cases yet on point. Lawsuits take time to work their way through the courts. However, it is all but certain that some day an employer will land in court being sued on allegations of discrimination or a violation of privacy for making use of a social networking site in the hiring process.
The conventional wisdom, is that anything online is fair game because any reasonable person must understand that the whole world has access to the internet. However, younger workers, and their lawyers, may well regard invading their social network sites in the same way older worker may regard someone who crashes a private wedding party uninvited, a act that violates privacy.
That said, when used carefully, in addition to the tried-and-true traditional hiring tools – interviews, calling past employers, and background checks, social network sites can offer valuable information. Just use common sense. The bottom line is Social Media is simply being social thru new media, over the internet and mobile networks.
People are sharing their stories and experience with friends near and far. Likes and dislikes are also getting shared and businesses are just beginning to capitalize on that. There are many ways for employers, job seekers and business to use social media for their own purposes.
On a personal note, recently we were invited in to pitch a large retail company. I was told who was going to be in that meeting and immediately started my social media search. I found out where they lived, worked, went to school past employment etc. I contacted people on Linked In that were in both of our networks to put in a good word for us. I tailored our presentation to the people in that room.
