Frankly I could have written this anytime the past two years, but I was hoping that as more of our industry talks about best practices in using social media and best ways to promote “employer brands” or “recruiter brands,” that things would get better.
I was wrong.
Really, really wrong.
This past weekend I spoke twice at MinneBar, a 1,000+ attendee Minneapolis tech event hosted at Best Buy headquarters.
During my IT career maintenance presentation, I asked the following question:
“Out of 10 inquiries via email, phone, social media, and LinkedIn, how many of them do not suck?”
The room of 90+ IT pros erupted in laughter.
1 out of 10 was the answer.
One … out … of … 10.
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This is the same response rate I received two years ago, last year, and at IT user groups I have attended throughout the year.
I’m not writing this to give you a bunch of “best practices.”
I am posting this to raise a really large, very visible red flag that likely what you are doing is not just falling on deaf ears but pushing away the folks you are trying to attract.
My suggestion is to take a look at the “message” you are sending and ask yourself this question:
If you were receiving this would you reply … is this any different than the other 1, 5, or 10 messages that will be received this week?
