Some look at the social networking trend and say that it’s all a bunch of hype. Some look at it and feel the need to, and will try to, be everywhere. Some will consciously decide to be nowhere — we have the phone and that works very well, thank you. Many are feeling overwhelmed by what’s happening, the pace of change, and the fears about transparency. In most cases you don’t need to be and shouldn’t be everywhere. And, you may decide to be nowhere, but make sure that’s a conscious decision and not just resistance to inevitable change.

As for fear of social networking, the pace of change and transparency, think of it this way — whether you engage your brand in the discussion or not, the conversation moves on — nothing stands still, except that eventually people may just not care about your brand at all, and, well, at that point you won’t need to recruit anyways. If you want to influence the conversation about your brand and if you want to engage people in your brand story, then social networking has a lot to offer. The complete article featured in the Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership October issue, will delve further into that, but here are my more brief thoughts for the time being.

Social Media and Social Networking: Strategy or Tactics

The underlying premise of this article is that social networking is not a passing fad and that it deserves significant positioning in your talent attraction and management strategy.

Let me begin my differentiating, for the purposes of this article, the difference between social media and social networking. The terms are often used interchangeably, but I see an important distinction, especially for recruiting. Social networking is the application of social media, which provides the tools to share content and information, engage in conversations, and build networks. The key difference is what you choose to do after sharing your information. Social networking is pursued with the underlying intention of dialogue, engagement, and interest. It also results in a more sustainable talent strategy that differentiates your brand and brings forward many other business benefits. If you are simply pushing jobs out to Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, you are socializing job postings by using social media, but not necessarily engaging in social networking. If you’re engaging prospective talent in discussions and building active communities, you are pursuing a social networking strategy.

There’s also a significant difference between the two that influences how you design an effective strategy and how you define your desired outcome. Social media is in part strategic but mostly tactical and is really saying: “Hey, these are new channels through which we can reach people and we should broadcast our jobs.”

That may be fine, but it limits the value and doesn’t fully realize the potential or move you toward a sustainable solution. Also, and most importantly, when you use social media there is an expectation for networking! If you push a job out on Twitter and someone reaches out to you, they expect a response. When you don’t respond, the brand can be viewed unfavorably and over time this type of behavior will dilute the brand reputation and value.

This is similar to what job seekers expected with the introduction of corporate recruitment websites. They wanted a way to reach and connect with someone in a company they were interested in joining. Remember all the discussions about the “black hole of recruiting”? Well, in a social world, the expectations and consequences are higher. And, while today’s job market may be in favor of the employer, the cycle will turn again and the strategy that you develop and implement today will absolutely impact future talent attraction effectiveness — positively or negatively. If you want to develop a sustainable talent acquisition strategy and actively invest in the longevity of your brand, then it’s time to engage.

They Really Are Interested in You — Really!

The evolution of technology, social tools, and ease of access are driving rapid advancements in communication. People like to play, create, share, and comment about your company and brand. The fear you may be feeling about letting people “in” to your brand, so to speak, can be looked at one of two ways. You can either be fearful of what they may do to your brand, which “they” will do anyways, or, you can celebrate that people are interested in your brand, products, and services. Listen to what they have to say. You may learn something. Engage them in your business challenges; they may solve them for you. Yes, they want to hang out with you — if, that is, you have something interesting to say! A UK student who found his job through Twitter shared this with me:

Personally, the companies that I’ve been most interested in have been the ones that are blogging and therefore appear to be knowledgeable industry leaders … also, some companies have begun posting jobs on blogs, which I think is better than on a recruitment website or in a newspaper, because the candidates applying have read the blog and are interested in the company.

Now, that’s something to think about. Does silence imply your company has nothing interesting to say? That you’re not knowledgeable about your industry? Pursuing a social strategy isn’t just a way to attract and engage talent. It can also be a way to expand the innovative capacity of your organization — perhaps something we should consider as the talent function evolves.

Clearly the impact of “social” is still emerging and the potential is just beginning to be understood — although it’s already profound. We are still at the edge of what the social media wave will bring. The potential for sweeping change is enormous. We will certainly see the future impacted and unfolding before our eyes.

Look for the complete article in the October edition of the ERE Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership. Visit me online at TalentSynchronicity.com and follow me on Twitter @TalentSynch.

• Tight integration between the hiring management system and corporate recruitment site. This is key, because it is the basis for ensuring a consistent and positive job seeker experience. It’s also the most visible aspect of the online employment brand interface. The hiring management system needs to support the integrity of the company’s brand first and foremost, which, depending on the company, plays out at varying levels of complexity. An intuitive, flexible interface, supported by data capture, provides insight into the job seeker and drives the overall effectiveness of the system.
• Engaging above-average talent by providing a streamlined and user-friendly online application process ó one that candidates tell you is better than your competitors’.
• The ability to seamlessly pre-screen candidates by asking job-specific questions in addition to collecting their resumes. This component should also add value to the applicant’s experience while supporting recruiter productivity. If done well, a thoughtful approach integrated into your hiring management system can serve as a self-screen or job preview.
• The ability at a glance, to see how a candidate fits with the job he or she has applied for. You should be able to accomplish this individually and in comparison with all other applicants.
• Making it easy for your recruiters to communicate and build relationships with candidates throughout the recruiting process.
• Additional recruiter productivity enhancement tools.
• The ability to extract data from your system to make decisions that support continuously improving your recruiting and talent attraction process.

So where are you heading? If any of the above areas are priorities for your organization, then you’re already focusing on hiring management, the next stop in the evolution of the applicant tracking paradigm. Changing the perspective to hiring management also supports moving the technology from a commodity to a competitive advantage. Functionality that once was only accessible to a few at the high end is now within reach to any company with a desire to leverage the technology. Now’s a great time to define your needs through the hiring management lens and explore the alternatives. Note: Gary Alpert contributed to this article. Gary is the CEO of WetFeet Inc., a recruitment services firm that conducts ongoing research on trends and best practices in recruitment and works with companies nationally on a variety of recruitment issues, from technology to college recruiting and employer branding.

1. Define a “candidate as customer” philosophy. Defining a “candidate as customer” philosophy allows for a great deal of clarity in decision-making. By taking a balanced approach from the beginning, HR can anticipate any negative candidate experiences throughout the online application process.
2. Communicate your objectives to your IT department. The objectives of IT are not always aligned with HR. The IT department may often lack the expertise to understand what a good applicant experience looks and feels like. Yes, applicant traffic today is often at an overwhelming level. Processing volume to identify “best fit” candidates can certainly be daunting. However, the applicant interface does not need to be compromised to realize functionality that drives recruiter productivity.
3. Develop a long-term strategy with benchmark goals and critical touch points. Regardless of where a company may be in positioning their employment brand online, attracting and hiring best-fit talent for the organization is a long-term investment ó an investment that must be supported at critical touch points by the hiring management solution in place. The transition of adapting to the medium takes time, and the change management component is enormous. Execution of the strategy is not over when the system implementation is completed.
4. Establish a good method for communicating goals internally. HR needs to have a seat at the table, stay on the agenda, and position the value of balancing each interface competing for functionality. This is important to deliver a consistent experience to the applicant and cannot be underestimated.

The next step involves defining what to look for, and may serve as a guideline when considering the best-fit hiring management system vendor for a company. When you are looking to find the right vendor to help manage your online employment processes, consider the following questions:

• Is the vendor a fit with your company’s brand, philosophy, and expectations?
• Is the vendor client-centric, and do they understand your needs and objectives? Or are they driven to see how to fit your needs into their objectives?
• Have objectives been clearly defined and can they be articulated to identify any non-negotiables to achieve balance through a disciplined, committed approach to an applicant-centric solution?
• Can the solution consistently deliver a positive experience to the applicant?
• Does the application process follow a logical process, with minimum steps and redundancy?
• Have you taken the solution for a test drive? How does it feel?
• If you were an applicant would the process have been a positive enough experience to allow you, as the applicant, to feel in control of the process? Does it respect your privacy? Can you apply for a position or profile and provide only minimum information? Are you asked to provide sensitive information such as a social security number? If so, is the data being requested on a secured interface?
• Does the solution sustain, or ideally even add value to, your employer brand?
• Does it encourage candidates to periodically return to the company’s website and consider future opportunities?
• Does it encourage candidates to be open to receiving future correspondences from the employer as opportunities become available?

These are just a few things that can lead to a disciplined approach. Staying on the right path can deliver added value to an employment brand and not allow an HMS implementation to have a negative impact.