Do you have a social media policy in place for yourself? Does your company? How are you policing yourself in the ever-evolving social media landscape today, consisting of popular destinations like Twitter, Facebook and millions upon millions of blogs, forums and communities? The phrase promiscuous linker has been tossed around online for those who friend, connect to, or follow everyone they possibly can. A good bit of recruiters I know are guilty of this very thing, and why wouldn't they? In order to be an effective recruiter, you need to be connected to as many people as possible in order to find the right, qualified talent to fill your positions. Does this sound like you? I know for a fact that it's me. I'm guilty of having bloated networks of people across various sites online. When I took a hard look at these communities recently, I realized that I didn't know 10% of those I was following, friends of, or connected to. The big difference though between myself and others is that I have been making strides this year to introduce myself to many of these people, making a real connection with a real person. I've been taking my online connections offline. I've been using the phone and also meeting people face-to-face. What a novel concept!
With that in mind, I decided to take it a step further and put a social media policy in place for myself, a social media "recruiting" policy in fact, to better navigate the social waters each day, instead of the unstructured approach I've taken the last few years. For this policy, I wanted to key in on a few areas that I believe most people in the recruiting industry can relate to. This social media recruiting policy will always be a work in progress, as the landscape of tools, sites, communities and especially rules of engagement continue to evolve.
Here are three areas my social media recruiting policy is focused on:
1) My Social Media Goals. To be me. To be authentic. To be personal. And with that, let the chips fall where they may. Using social media has been a true work in progress. At first, I was in the shallow end of the pool, simply watching, listening and only chiming in with very careful and calculated updates, tweets and comments. I made it more about me, less about others. Fast-forward to today. My social media game has been taken to new heights simply by getting more comfortable. I'm in the deep end of the pool now, engaging people in discussion, helping, sharing, and building a brand for myself and my company. I want to continue to add value to communities I'm apart of. I'm going to strive to make more introductions to people I don't know. I want to build an audience and community around things I care about, including recruiting and sourcing. I want to protect my name. All of this in mind, while continuing to exercise good judgement and represent my company and others that I consult for the best I can.
