It is easy to come across the recommendations that pitch the same recipe to approaching Gen Y. Here is the gist:

First thing that you have to remember – Millennials will not read anything that exceeds the size of a tweet. That is why you recruiting message must fit into 140 characters or no one will bother. At the very least your message has to be split into small pieces (see above) and carefully sprinkled on top of a good deal of entertaining content. Suggestions include: sharing videos showcasing office gaming room, posting group photos of happily laughing employees, bragging about whose number of “Likes” is bigger, etc. Follow these rules and success is inevitable…

It would be funny if these ideas were not gaining momentum lately. Let’s take a moment to think about the implications.

First and foremost, this stereotype is quite unfair to many capable people of the Millennial generation. The popularity of social media simply cannot be used to define the entire social group. Gen Y is as diverse as any other generation and while it’s true that some Millennials are happy not to read anything longer than tweet, the question is: are you really after these people?

Are you really interested in people who made a choice not to make it beyond 140 characters?

I am not. For many obvious reasons, which I am not going to list here. But here’s the catch – because this idea is gaining momentum, Millennials who do not suffer from this new form of self-induced ADD can find themselves at a disadvantage competing in this framework, which will result in lower efficiency of the recruiting efforts. And Millennials will not be to blame for the low signal to noise ratio in your recruiting campaigns. You know, what goes around comes around.

I think this misconception stems from the fact that people fail to realize the difference between the marketing and recruiting environments. Don’t get me wrong: Twitter is a powerful information distribution tool that can be very useful. But let’s avoid “if you have a hammer everything looks like a nail” syndrome.

Effective marketing environment is not the same as effective recruiting environment.

Use the information distribution channels to bring people to the environment that is specifically designed to make your recruiting efforts more efficient, to give capable professionals more reasons to join your team, to interact, to collaborate, and to see beyond resume. The specific choice may depend on your hiring needs and your personal preferences. Just don’t do recruiting in a marketing channel – use each tool for what it was designed for.

With all the talk about social recruiting and how it’s going to change everything the simple truth is that social media were not designed to be a recruiting platform. And as soon as you accept it you will be able to use them much more effectively in your recruiting strategies rather than wasting your time trying to fit your recruiting message into 140 characters.

Vitaly Latush is a founder of BrightMesh – the knowledge network with naturally integrated recruiting tools creating a dynamic, collaborative hiring environment. Feel free to contact Vitaly if you are interested in innovations in this field.

Q. In what industries are you seeing similar changes?

A. Think about the way most companies currently hire. You post a job and then get blind résumés in response. This should be a social experience. If you took everyone and asked them to list everyone they knew, you could create an enormous social graph of several million people. There’s no reason to hire people that we can’t learn something about through some connection of our personal network. There’s no site today that takes advantage of the social graph in this way, yet.

Q. Doesn’t LinkedIn do that?

A. LinkedIn does part of it. It’s a great example of a company that is leveraging the social graph to grow and deliver value.

Q. What is it missing?

A. The site is missing some of the key social features that make Facebook so compelling. The ability to quickly understand someone based on whom they know, what they share and what others think of them, for example. To me, no one has fully cracked the code on social recruiting yet.

To read the rest of the article, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/business/18sbiz.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=lefkofsky&st=cse

Would you change your digital persona if you were job hunting and knew hiring managers might check out your social media activity? IT pros are split on the issue.

Half of IT workers said they might (22%) or would (28%) modify or delete content on a social media site if they knew a prospective employer was going to review their page as part of the interview process. The other 50% said they wouldn’t alter any content under those circumstances.

20 most useful career sites for IT professionals

The source of the data is Technisource, which provides IT staffing and technology deployment services. This summer the firm polled 508 IT workers, age 20 and older, on the subject of social media use by IT pros.

Most IT pros (82%) use at least one social media site, the study found. The most common social media site among IT professionals is Facebook (used by 87%), followed by LinkedIn (72%), Twitter (31%), Youtube (31%), MySpace (24%) and Classmates.com (20%).

In the minority were 18% of respondents who say they don’t have an account at any social media site. Asked why, the most common reasons cited were: no need (56%), no time (31%), and it’s too much work to keep up with (31%).

On the policy front, there’s no clear consensus on company rules. Asked if their companies have a formal policy regarding the use of social media sites for work, 40% said yes, 38% said no and 22% didn’t know. Just 3% percent of IT workers admit to getting in trouble at work for content posted to a social media site.

Respondents are also split on whether to “friend” or connect with their boss through social media: 37% said no, 32% said yes, and 32% said maybe.

Not surprisingly, recruiting and networking activities are common on social media sites, Technisource found.

One-third (32%) of IT workers say they’ve been approached about a career opportunity via a social media site. Among them, 82% were approached through LinkedIn, 22% through Facebook and 10% through Twitter.

Meanwhile, 41% of respondents have searched for at least one job using their various social networks. Of those, 85% say they primarily use LinkedIn to look for jobs. (See also: 10 best IT jobs right now)  

Roughly one-third (35%) say the majority of their networking is done through social media, compared to 33% who use face-to-face interaction. Networking via phone (12%) or through associations (11%) is much less prevalent among IT workers these days.

“Social media is clearly taking on a bigger role for both candidates and employers,” said Michael Winwood, president of Technisource, in a statement.

The full Technisource report, Social Media Use by IT Professionals, is available here.

Follow Ann on Twitter: http://twitter.com/annbednarz

Sep 13, 2010, 7:50 pm ET

Did you know Maine is one of the weakest places to find social-media-savvy job candidates? It’s one stat tossed out today from Doug Berg, stats which in many cases are useful in targeting e-mails, tweets, and other recruitment marketing.

Berg, from Jobs2Web, was speaking at today’s #socialrecruiting summit at Microsoft in Redmond, and was using a large database of traffic sent to corporate career sites this year from LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Some interesting data, based on 225,000 visitors:

• Who’s driving traffic? LinkedIn is driving the most job-related traffic (47%) to career sites, followed by Facebook (30%) and Twitter (16%).
• When do people view jobs? Well, “people hate their jobs right away on Monday,” Berg jokes, talking about stats that show Monday and Tuesday are high traffic days.
• When do people check Twitter? Often, Monday, Thursday, and Friday, mid-afternoon Central time.
• And Facebook? It’s a little slower in the morning. Mid-day is a high-traffic time for job-hunting, with strong traffic continuing throughout the day.
• LinkedIn is somewhat similar, “steady and strong,” Berg says, saying that even in the early evening, at 7 p.m. Central, traffic in job postings on LinkedIn is strong. Monday, Tuesday, and Friday are good days for LinkedIn, and the mornings are busier than on other social media recruiting sites.
• As far as physical locations, the most popular states for Twitter users are, in order, California first, followed by Washington state, New York, and Texas. Maine is the smallet market.
• For Facebook, Washington is slightly less popular; instead, Texas is the second-largest market, behind California.
• California, Washington, and Texas are the biggest LinkedIn markets.
• Engineers look at jobs online often mid-week, but there’s a decent amount of traffic on weekends. They’re busy thinking of jobs mid-day, but traffic spikes up again around 8 p.m. Central. Monday’s their biggest day for Facebook.
• Engineers are far, far more interested in finding jobs on Twitter on Monday than on any other day. Overall — though Monday is the exception — on most days, LinkedIn beats Facebook and Twitter for recruiting engineers, according to Berg’s numbers.
• Very few people (23 out of 10,000 in a Twitter visitor sample) find a job listing through a Twitter job search. They’re more likely to find them through a “follow” or a retweet, such as CareerBuilder retweeting a job listing.
• “I just don’t think a lot of people are using their mobile devices to look at job content yet online,” Berg says, showing that a low number of jobs sent via Twitter are accessed by a mobile device.
• “Tell me that LinkedIn is truly a passive candidate network,” Berg says, smiling, showing that the site is a candidate-rich source of people willing to talk to recruiters.
• “Job aggregators produce a tremendous amount of hiring success,” he says. Social media networks are not often the source of hires, but that’s partly because, Berg says, many companies aren’t sufficiently tracking them. Stay tuned, he says, because those numbers are likely to change in the future.

The buzz around location-based social networking

For this post, I’ll be focusing on location-based social networking sites; namely, Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt (BrightKite, Google Latitude, and many other services are also in the space), as a lot of attention is being given to these types of sites. Brian Solis describes location-based social networking as “a universe where physical and online activity merge to improve experiences and relationships between people and also between people and businesses, services, and locales.” Simply by using these sites, businesses are already building relationships with potential candidates and strengthening relationships with employees — and there’s a lot of potential for the future.

Keep in mind, although we’re talking about location-based sis, you may be able to use the ideas in this post for that next “big thing” in the social media world; it’s all about getting creative and thinking about how you can use the new tools you discover in the social space for recruitment, engagement and retention. Before you know it, your business may be ready (or have a sudden need) to participate in something new, and by learning about social networking sites as they emerge, you’ll be one step ahead when you do.

Location-based social networking: What is it?

Although the sites I mentioned above all work a bit differently, location-based social networking sites, or “lo-so networks,” allow users to “check in” at venues through mobile devices, to let people in their network know where they are at any given moment — or find out where their friends are staking claim.

Essentially, it’s social networking meets gaming — users interact and compete for “prestige” through badges, points, items or other awards (both virtual and real-life awards). Right now, these sites are primarily for businesses like bars, restaurants, retail stores, and tourist destinations (TV networks, magazines, and foodie guide Zagat also make up the list of top brands on Foursquare) — but that’s likely going to be changing soon, as evidenced by Foursquare’s message to us at CareerBuilder when we tried to claim our business on Foursquare: “While we’re working the kinks out of our system, we’re trying to limit foursquare specials to places where people meet, socialize and linger. Think: cafes, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, museums, theaters, etc. But stay tuned! We’ll be expanding the system soon, and you’ll be one of the first to know when we’re ready for all types of business!”

How can businesses use these sites for recruitment?

Right now, the capabilities for granular recruitment through location-based services aren’t robust — but future possibilities are vast. And in the meantime, it’s smart to get familiar with these sites, gain a presence — and get creative. Every medium you use to promote your brand and expose others to your business equals another touch point between you and the users you want to reach.

1. Loyalty programs

If you’re like me, you get to a store counter, frantically fish for that “buy 10 coffees and get one free!” paper card in your wallet, and, after a fruitless search, dejectedly get a new paper card and start the whole process over again — no free coffee obtained. Good news — many businesses have been using location-based services to test these types of loyalty programs — but instead of a little paper card, you get your stamp by checking into their place of business.

For instance, users on Foursquare can accumulate points for checking in and become Mayor of a certain location — and many businesses are now awarding the Mayor of their location (a title that changes hands all the time) with specials or certain privileges for their patronage. Similarly, users on Loopt Star is Loopt’s mobile rewards game where users compete to become “Boss,” and are awarded with special offers and free music for checking in at venues.

Other businesses are giving significant discounts to a user’s order when they check in for the very first time — a great way to welcome new users and say “Thanks for your business.” Still, most businesses on Foursquare aren’t offering specials (only around 3 percent are) — so the potential for your business to get in the space and make yourself stand out is huge.

2. Contests and Scavenger Hunts

Contests are a great way to promote user engagement. Some companies are doing raffles, in which every user who checks in gets entered to win a prize. Other businesses are creating scavenger hunts for users — like SPIN magazine and SXSW’s recent team up for a musical hunt.

Something similar could be done as a team-building event for employees — not only are scavenger hunts a fun event, but employees can participate in a little friendly competition and get to know co-workers they may not come into contact with on a daily basis. Games like this allow employees to come together as teams or interact with customers in a new fashion. They also have a lot of potential for increasing employee engagement and recognizing employee achievements (and, ahem, recognition is one of the top things employees said they wanted in CareerBuilder’s Mid-Year Job Forecast).

Geotoko is a site that just launched for mobile-based contests and sweepstakes that supports multiple location-based services. So, if you’re a business running a contest, you can maximize your reach by opening it up to Gowalla obsessives and Foursquare devotees all at once.

Another advantage of contests? Competition promotes teamwork among co-workers, and are a great supplement to other things you’re doing to onboard new employees and help them get to know the veteran employees.

3.Listening, observing and communicating

Foursquare recently introduced analytics tools — which allow businesses to monitor activity and adjust specials or engagement accordingly (like the P.C.C. Natural Markets, who used the tools to find out a lot of their Foursquare visitors were coming in for a specific type of donut). Foursquare is also currently testing Staff pages, which will allow employees to interact directly with customers.These pages have major potential for businesses to promote their company culture, let their employees’ personalities shine, and put a personal spin on their “business” face.

Many companies are getting creative and finding ways to communicate with their users to increase traffic to their business and enrich their relationships with users and the user experience itself. Rev. Dave Davis, executive pastor of Glen Ellyn, Ill.’s Parkview Community Church, says if a person checks into the church on Foursquare, they are greeted by a message welcoming them to the church. He adds that by reaching out to the younger generation in particular, speaking their language, and trying to reach them at their spot, they are more likely to visit your spot. (And he seems to be on to something — according to recent Forrester research, nearly 70 percent of location-based service users are 19-35 years old, and 70 percent have college degrees or higher.)

Imagine what businesses could do if they were able to identify candidates specifically and reach out to them? Even at this point, though you don’t necessarily know which users, if any, are interested in a job with your company, location-based sites are a great way to start building relationships and listening to what users want. For instance, when people check into your venue, they can give feedback or leave a “tip” about it for others to see when they check in. This is a great way for you to find out what people do and don’t like about your brand and make adjustments quickly when needed. Taking this even further, some businesses see who’s checking into their business on a location-based service and then follow up with a personal message on Twitter — taking one touch point and expanding that relationship to another medium.

Quick Tip: Aside from finding a user’s Twitter handle on his or her Foursquare profile, you can search for your business name and Foursquare check-ins on Twitter to find out who’s checking into your business on Twitter by going to search.twitter.com and typing in “at Company Name” 4sq.

4. Search engines and Foursquare

Foursquare is now reportedly in talks with major search engines, which could change the game for businesses and recruitment, as businesses would be able to gain presence on search engines through more people “checking in” and causing their business to trend in search. What implications could this have? If a business attracts more Foursquare users and conversation around that business increases, more search engine users will see that business’s name — and the buzz around it — online while searching. This would help businesses build a stronger employment brand, expose it to a larger audience of candidates (some of whom may not have been aware of the business — or even of Foursquare — before), and get more people applying to jobs there. The addition to search engines would eliminate the need for people to be part of Foursquare to see a business’s activity on the site — meaning larger reach. At the same time, giving a site like Foursquare exposure on search engine results would increase their user base: A win-win.

How much of an impact would this move have? That remains to be seen — and as I see it, significant potential lies in the staff experience of a business being displayed in search results. How much information about the business would be given in results? Would users see comments made via “tips”? Would businesses have an option to show “staff” check-ins with commentary in results? Would there be filtering options? If so, candidates could see which businesses had the most positive staff comments and experiences, as well as how active the employee community was for that business. What speaks better to a strong employment brand than happy and engaged employees?

5. Employee Orientation/Onboarding

In “4 ways Foursquare can improve your workplace,” Sharlyn Lauby talks about the potential of using Foursquare for employee orientation, as Harvard and other schools are already testing out. College and universities are using Foursquare to orient new employees and get them acclimated to surrounding hot spots — so why shouldn’t workplaces try it too to help employees learn their way around the office or surrounding area? Workplaces with big campuses could orient new employees to the campus and surrounding area with an orientation “game”; employees could receive points for visiting places like the gym, cafeteria, and library, and check off various venues to complete their orientation.

Any type of business could get new employees acclimated by leaving “tips” on Foursquare or other location-based sites for hot spots to eat or grab a coffee near work, getting employees familiar with the area (and helping local merchants in the process). This could also enhance the candidate experience; those who use location-based social networking sites may not only see you as active on these sites and learn a bit about your company, but could also see you leaving tips or recommendations of other places to visit in the area. This could in turn help to make your business’s location more attractive to potential candidates (it could be that one factor that makes someone want to commute a bit farther to work for you).

6. Event Marketing

Event marketers are using location-based sites to to drive participation in their events and create lasting word-of-mouth buzz about their business; Cynthia Rowley launched a new bridesmaid collection with the help of Foursquare and gave attendees at the launch unveiling a gift when they checked in. The restaurant AJ Bombers created huge buzz and the restaurant’s biggest sales days ever by creating an “I’m on a boat!” badge and having users check into a “boat” location for a restaurant event he threw. Difficult? No, it just took a couple of days of planning, a bit of creative thinking and a willingness to experiment.

Chris Bruzzo of Starbucks says in a recent New York Times article that the company hopes to use Foursquare for things like invitations to special events, photo sharing (which some location-based sites currently support), and online reputation scores.

What kinds of events could you use location-based services to promote? One possibility may be to encourage users to check-in at your booth at a job fair, for instance. This could also be a way to quickly see who visited you, and even follow up with a short thank-you message or targeted communication.

Guidelines to keep in mind

Make sure your business is listed on each network by making an initial “check in” to your business, even if you’re not yet able to “claim” your venue (this way, others can still find and check into your venue).
Different sites have different options for customization — customize and brand yourself as much as you can depending on that site’s capabilities. For instance, you can create a banner ad on Loopt — giving you significant potential to brand your business, get your message across to Loopt users, and even insert unique messages like job opportunities or upcoming events. And on Foursquare, you can create to-do lists of places for users to explore in your area.
Make sure employees understand your social media guidelines, are aware of your social media efforts, and know how to use the tools and successfully interact with users.
Determine your goals with this, just like any emerging social media tool. Do you have the resources and the time? What is your purpose?
As Jonathan Carroll of Gowalla advises, don’t leave fake reviews or tips, don’t put up poorly designed ads, and don’t forget to monitor activity. “Chances are if someone has a gripe or praise with their check-in, it’s a real-time thing: The patron is probably still there… so the business has a chance to make the experience even better.” Good point.
Get leaders involved so they understand the platform and can appreciate the application from a communication as well as a “bottom line” perspective.
These services may be virtual, but many say the key to success is providing users with real-world value. Think about what kind of value you can bring to customers, potential candidates, and your employees.
Other advantages to participating in location-based social networking sites

Increase your brand exposure and raise awareness of your business (Note: Many user check-ins are also posted on Facebook and Twitter, not just the location-based service itself, so you’re automatically gaining exposure to your users’ entire networks.)
Show potential candidates you’re savvy and interested in engaging with them.
Give potential candidates the opportunity to notice and learn about your company.
Connect with local candidates; users are using these sites to check in at venues in the area where they live.
One more touch point to reach both potential candidates and your own employees.
Potential to increase loyalty by customers/users — and recognize that loyalty with incentives.
Communicating with consumers at point of entry, service, or sale can be very valuable.
See for yourself what your customers and potential candidates are doing.
Strengthen your brand. We know that people now are much more likely to research products and services on their own, learn from their own observations, and listen to the feedback and opinions of peers rather than experts.Location-based sites are a great example of this in action.
Empower your employees while enriching user experience. As Shelley Bernstein, Chief of Technology for the Brooklyn Museum, says, they used Foursquare to create a multi-faceted experience for museum goers. One of the prongs of their three-faceted campaign involved asking their staff for their opinion on the best stuff in the neighborhood, and then leaving “tips” at these venues for Foursquare users to find. It’s a great way to engage your employees, who enjoy having some input into the experience — and the users they come into contact with may include customers, potential candidates, and even other employees. Get them involved as much as possible.
What critics are saying

Ad Age points out recently released Forrester research on location-based startups that says these applications are still too small for major marketers, as only 4 percent of U.S. online adults have ever used location-based mobile apps like Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt. In addition, 84 percent of respondents to the survey say they are not familiar with these apps at all. However, sites like Foursquare are adding around 100,000 users every week, and some say now is the time to make those early adapters your brand ambassadors. One commenter even argues that “early adoption by marketers will increase the quality of venue content and number of available offers, driving mainstream consumer adoption.”

As Yan-David Erlich points out in a recent Mashable post, “Ultimately, the location-based social networks that will thrive in the long-term are the ones that design their user experiences around users’ real motivations. The checkin, as a stand-alone act, is fundamentally empty. It begs to be put into context.” What that context plays out to be, exactly, remains to be seen. And a lot of what happens will likely be a result of businesses like yours experimenting in the space — and making your voice heard.

The bottom line

While many people claim to be “social media evangelists, experts, or (insert superior-sounding word here), the truth is, there’s a lot about social media that we’re all still kind of figuring out. As Sean Corcoran of Forrester Research states in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “The reality is the space is still very much a Wild West.”

It’s smart to experiment with these sites now while the user base is still relatively small (compared to sites like Twitter and Facebook), and see what sticks, knowing that the returns at this point may not be huge.

It’s important to remember that these tools often serve to complement what we’re already doing. Depending on your particular business, you may just be considering now to get involved in any kind of social media, or you may be on the cutting edge of new applications. Either way, the beauty is that you can find what fits for you, and make the most of it. Reach out to new (virtual) faces. One of those virtual faces just may become your next star employee.

Is your business getting involved with these emerging sites — and if so, how?

• Mobile is NOT a technology but a channel.
• Mobile is about personal one 2 one ENGAGEMENT.
• Mobile is about PUSH and PULL communications
• Mobile is about REAL TIME communications
• Mobile is engagement on the MOVE.

HR and Recruiting are about or should be about:

• Channels and community.
• Personal Engagement
• KIT messaging

• Internal Comms – make the intranet site an app.
• Onboarding – KIT real-time with your prospective new employees.
• Mobile Time sheets for contract staff.
• Employer Branding – no not the “recruiting element” but engaging with employees – getting real-time feedback on the “pulse” of the business.
• For Recruitment – mobile is the missing link between social media and recruitment but it is also a great database push communication tool.

Some key statistics

• Mobile will over take the desk top as the no one way we access the internet.
• It took two years to sell a million iPods, it took 90 days for the iPhone and 28 days for the iPad.
• One third of all mobile traffic is from an iPhone.

• 96% of Candidates with an iPhone use the mobile to access the internet every day.
• 100% have downloaded apps.
• 81% use the AppStore or equivalent as the main search for apps.
• 4% of candidates download apps from website links and 4% based on word of mouth.

Mobile will be huge BUT don’t please get caught up with the hype, it is not some panacea that will solve your recruiting problems but it will become part of your media armoury….and finally it is NOT a technology BUT a channel.

Next week I’ll look at what can you do with a mobile app.

Keith McIlvaine, Global Social Media Recruitment Leader for Unisys, discusses with Human Resources IQ, global best practices for using Twitter for your recruitment needs.

Best Practice #1: Be There!
ROI (return on investment) or Risk of Ignoring
The Return on Investment is always a question with internal stakeholders and an important topic to discuss. But what many individuals do not consider is whether the question is a monetary return or if it is a presence return. Conversations are occurring online whether you are there or not and whether you are a participant or not. While companies cannot control conversations, just being able to both listen and engage adds value to your brand perception.

Best Practice #2: Integrate Twitter
Everything is connected. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Myspace, etc. are all integrated—one social strategy.
Social media is changing every day and each tool looks to leverage the strengths of other tools, a very strategic integration approach. While companies and individuals are able to select the tools that best suit their needs for their target audience, the ultimate goal is to drive people to one site and leverage all of the social networking properties to drive traffic.

Best Practice #3: Involve your Stakeholders
Identify your stakeholders, determine a police for strategy to steer employees in the right directions. Everyone should be on the same page.

1. Business—HR, Marketing, PR, Legal, any business lines
2. Strategy—have an integrated strategy, policy and governance
3. Resources—know the go-to resources

A social media strategy is not about one person or business line but about the entire organization. It becomes critical to make sure that everyone has a solid understanding of the strategy as well as what information should be conveyed and focused upon. You should also consider what to do/not do whenever negative feedback may arise. There are a number of topics to consider which also leads to the criticality of having key stakeholders in the room!

Best Practice #4: Create Handle Strategy
An often overlooked and underappreciated topic but the selection of a Twitter handle strategy is also important. How do you want to approach the market? Once you understand the four types of accounts that maybe (or have already been created), this will further allow an organization to take the next step in their strategy and help to focus the content.

Best Practice #5: Drive Cohesion
PR, Marketing and HR need to create a cohesive message, consistent voice.
A consistent voice is important in social media and on Twitter. You cannot have the company addressing one topic and have recruiting or a business line speaking about something completely different. Again, going back to Best Practice #3, by knowing who the stakeholders are makes it much easier to ask questions and seek guidance. This should not be left up to someone on their own but instead as a total strategy –especially if you choose to have more than one Twitter handle.

Best Practice #6: Publish content creatively
Hashtags, URL shorteners, SMS texting techniques, 120 character messages, Twitter search, @ or D followers are just a few ways to publish creatively but you need to continue to work and identify content that is both interesting and that adds value to the company. Posting press releases or commenting on deals won are great, but add value so that non-employees may understand more about your company. Engagement is critical and helps to break down walls to your customer base, or even better, to your potential customer base.

Best Practice # 7: Delivering Value
Listen –> Follow –> Engage –> Share –> Link –> Ask –> Repeat
Value is often overstated in social media but it is completely critical to everything we do. If a person or company does not add value then they will be tuned out of many conversations. This “process” is an excellent way to better understand and relate to those you choose to engage. Listen and Follow to hear the conversations and begin to strategically build a list of interesting people. Engage and Share to start conversations and building trust to your network. Link interesting articles so that others see you add value, and not just about your company. Ask for anything only after you have spent time building your network and proving that it isn’t only about you or the company. Repeat as this process is never ending!

Best Practice # 8: Think Globally
Regardless of the size of your company or what you perceive your geographical reach to be, social media is accessed by all. You may work for a company in Iowa but someone in Istanbul, Turkey may become interested in your Tweets. It is social responsibility and networking wrapped up into 140 characters of global impact.

Twitter is a global tool. To integrate to your organizational strategy you have to think globally.

So it’s perfectly ordinary for Brelyn Hammernik to have connected with her former colleagues on LinkedIn when she left her job as a recruiter for TEKsystems, a Maryland IT staffing firm. But TEKsystems sued her, charging she violated the noncompete provision of her employment contract by soliciting her former co-workers on LinkedIn.

The case, as reported by my colleague Jaikumar Vijayan, is not as simple as it first appears.

Turns out she didn’t just connect with her former colleagues on LinkedIn — she actively recruited them through that channel, TEKsystems alleges.

Attorney Renee Jackson, writing on the Nixon Peabody blog, posts the contents of one such message:

Tom—

Hey! Let me know if you are still looking for opportunities! I would love to have come visit my new office and hear about some of the stuff we are working on!

Let me know your thoughts!

Brelyn

Depending on how the judge rules, this case could have far-reaching implications for the professional use of social media.

If the judge decides that Hammernik violated her non-compete provision by simply connecting with her former colleagues on LinkedIn, that will be bad for every social media user. Social media is emerging as a primary channel for professional networking, and limitations on using it will make it harder for all of us to find the next job.

If, however, the case rides on messages like the one sent to “Tom,” above, then it’s really no big deal. That message appears to be clear-cut recruitment. The fact that it was sent on LinkedIn is irrelevant — it would be recruitment if it was sent by e-mail, telephone, or smoke signals.

Jackson has legal advice for employers:

Employers should address these novel issues now — and avoid any confusion about the applicability of social media — by specifically referencing social media in any policy or agreement that attempts to restrict contact between employees, former employees, customers, and suppliers. Courts read such restrictive covenants very narrowly, so employers should reference explicitly contractor solicitation through social media in their policies and requirements.

Hammernik’s defense further complicates the issue, writes ZDNet’s Larry Dignan. She admits having LinkedIn connections to the people involved, but says they’ve never been TEKsystems employees. She names several people and said they initiated contact with her, and she then provided that information to TEKsystems. She admits to communicating with Tom Peterson, but says the communications didn’t relate to staffing or soliciting IT business for her new employer. And she says that TEKsystems’ and its employees’ use of LinkedIn and Facebook for recruiting, promotional or other purposes voids any claim that information there is trade secret or confidential.

The case against Hammerik seems pretty damming — but often evidence that seems clear-cut before a trial doesn’t look that way when you get to the actual courtroom. I learned that through repeated viewings of My Cousin Vinny.

LinkUp’s iPad website says the app has the following features:

For those not familiar with LinkUp, the site provides a search platform for jobs posted on company’s career pages, that may not neccessarily available on the big, generalist job boards.

A while back, I had the opportunity to hand feed Ostriches.  It’s quite an experience and I’d recommend you try it… as least once.

One thing I learned about feeding them was that an Ostrich knows what it wants and it’ll go for it – sometimes nipping at your fingers in the process.  Naturally, if one took too strong of an approach, I would move on to the next.  Little did the Ostrich know, I had a whole bucket full of food hidden away.  With a gentler approach, they would have received my whole stash.

Fast forward to tonight as I scrolled aimlessly through Facebook, I noticed the following from Boolean Black Belt (Glen Cathey):

“#LinkedIn – active vs. passive candidates? I’m telling you, based on laws of statistics alone, % passive is same as any other source.”

At first, it kind of bothered me.  I mean, “passive” is where it’s at, right?  Isn’t that what all of the top search firms get paid the big bucks to do?  Further, isn’t this the pool of hidden talent that every company is after?  How could it be the same size?

Then I stopped and pondered his quote for a moment.  Could there really be as many active as passive candidates in the market?

Wasn’t this whole social media recruiting thing giving us an edge in connecting with audiences (namely the elusive “passive” grouping) that weren’t easily accessible in the past?

Then something occurred to me.  Perhaps, as recruiters, we have been ignoring the majority.

Candidate Groups

There are three groups of candidates in my mind… active, passive and non-active.

The “Active” group is pretty easy to define.  This is the group of candidates who remain active in the pursuit of career opportunities.  They apply for job openings, they are networking for a new position, and/or they stay in constant contact with their recruiter of choice.  In a nutshell, they’re ready to make a move and they actively participate in that process.

The “Passive” group is a bit trickier.  To me, this group consists of the people who are open to opportunities, but aren’t investing time and energy into the pursuit of a new role.  Should the right position come along, or the right convincing recruiter, they may consider a move.  However, for the most part, this group is happy at work, performing well and not out trolling the job boards for a new place to call Office.

Finally, we have the “Non-Active” group.  These are the individuals who think they are performing well, are living a good enough life that they don’t even want to consider transition AND they don’t have time to deal with recruiters.  They are content in their routines and/or happy with their current status.  These are the people who will come to us when they are good and ready and no sooner than that.

To expand on the “Non-Active” definition a bit more, this would represent the largest grouping of talent.  Following along with Boolean Black Belt’s logic;  if as of May of 2010 we have over a  9% unemployment rate in the U.S. (Active job seekers… at least, I hope so) and the Passive pool is the same size (9%), then the Non-Active group would represent over 80% of the talent pool.

Before you challenge me to a duel on the statistics, let’s say that the “Passive” group is much larger… how about 30%?

Even then, we are left with a Non-Active grouping of over 60% of the working population.

Branding Picks Up Where Recruiting Ends

As my career has shifted more towards the direction of employment branding, something has become very apparent to me.  For all of the efforts that the recruiting profession pours into hiring the Active and Passive pools of talent, we don’t often consider our largest potential group of candidates.

Some may say that Social Recruiting (aka Social Media, Social Networking, Social Rambling… etc…) has been the tool used for this type of engagement with the general population of Non-Actives.  While I agree to a certain extent, I would also argue that we’ve been actively utilizing the tools to connect with people who are open to opportunities (i.e. Passives).

I don’t blame us – in fact, I totally get it.  It’s easier to quantify the results when we consider currently attainable objectives.  If I put in X amount of hours into Y activities, I can quantify the results with Z figure.

I’ve done these kinds of calculations myself… in fact, I’ve written about ROI in Social Recruiting before.

Social Recruiting Balance

How can we utilize Social Recruiting effectively in balancing our active recruiting efforts (better defined by BBB as active and passive sourcing efforts) with our long-term Non-Active recruiting efforts?  After all, likelihood says that the Non-Actives will eventually look for a new position… it’s our job to be there first, right?

Is it simply a matter of framing the target and setting the long-term goals?

With our current technology, connecting with this audience is very attainable – we meet them where they live and play (online).  So, how do we speculate and measure the effectiveness of the energy and dollars we invest today in results that we are not likely to see for years?

I could contemplate this all night long, but I’d love to see what you think.  The pool exists, the tools exists, the long-term value exists…

Why The Ostrich?

That finger nipping, overly eager and somewhat scary looking Ostrich, had no idea of the food supply he gave up because of his aggression.  All of his focus was on the here and the now… and, as a result, it cost him something much greater.

Are we giving up our treasure chest of a talent pool by remaining so tactical?  How can we find balance and brand for the future?

P.S.  Glen Cathey (Boolean Black Belt) is a fantastic contributor in the online recruiting space.  This post was not intended to counter his comment or thoughts on the topic… he just caused some ideas to bounce around in my head.  Thanks Glen!