I was asked to speak to NPA Worldwide, a global organization of personnel professionals, in a workshop for recruiters.  Social media and recruiting go hand-in-hand, especially in today’s climate where finding the ideal candidate is the name of the game.

Fortunately, social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook provide some amazing tools to allow recruiters to target potential placements.  We all post such detailed personal and professional information about ourselves in online profiles that can all be easily searched, that means that finding that ideal candidate is (or can be) easier now than ever before.

Time
One obvious issue that was discussed is the time investment required to be successful in social media.  Several of our participants today voiced concerns about the level of involvement needed. My thoughts on the large time investment are this:  if you are spending tons of time on LinkedIn and you know that it’s working, then that’s obviously well worth the effort.   In order to justify the time, you have to be monitoring your social media efforts and quantifying your results.

PLET
I presented my PLET method for using social media, which covers the basics that everyone needs to know if you’re going to successfully take advantage of these new media channels: Post, Listen, Engage, & Track

Here are some examples that I covered for how recruiters can use this methodology:

• Posting information is crucial, and content is still king! But don’t just throw out your job posting like every other recruiter does- find some way to “hook” people and get their interest. Keywords are crucial, but finding your (online) voice and letting your personality show through are important.
• If you aren’t measuring it, then you can’t improve it (or for that matter, know if it is worth your time investment).  Measuring the effectiveness of social media efforts is a must – so using tools like URL shorteners (bit.ly) that allow you to see how many clicks you’re getting to job postings can go a long way towards helping you start to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
• Listening for opportunities is one of the chief ways to take advantage of online tools.  Google alerts to monitor for lay-offs or openings is a free way to extend your ability to know what’s happening.  We also discussed the importance of organizing all of that kind of information, and using RSS feeds with Google Reader is a brilliant way to not only organize, but it will give you the ability to do searches as well.
• I talked a lot about the great tools that Google provides, and Analytics was another one.  Knowing that your site or blog is getting increased traffic from wherever you are spending your time promoting is just as important as knowing if people are hitting your links.  The reason we can be so good at online marketing is because we can measure it on such a granular level!

Using social media channels can be the promised-land for savvy marketers, with visions of virally-propagated sugar plumbs dancing through their heads.  The reality of social media marketing is that while everyone is clamoring to “go viral” since that seems to be the buzz word, there is no chance that is going to happen unless you give people something to talk about.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Joe Hall nailed this concept in his recent post that referenced Bonnie Raitt, and he also has some great examples of how you can get people talking. This is an important step – mainly because you can be extremely savvy about how to use social media tools, but if you don’t have information that is going to get people talking, I think you’re ultimately going to end up frustrated and feeling like a failure.  Just because all these shiny new toys in the marketing arsenal have incredible reach with little or no cost, does not mean that you can take the marketing out of the equation.

We are currently working on a couple of Facebook applications to help spread the word for clients, but what word are we going to spread? Without something worth talking about- why would we even bother to build something like that?  The simple answer is:  we wouldn’t.

Make sure you can “give them something to talk about” before you go jumping into social media.  In my most recent presentations on creating WOW (Word of Web) using Social Media, I always talk about this:

If you can’t speak to me with conviction about what you do, why you do, and why I should want to be involved (or buy your product, or work with your firm); then you have no business trying to do that using social media tools! Online marketing is moving at an increasing pace to a completely online conversation, so if you can’t convince me in a face-to-face conversation that I should work with you, how do you expect to be able to do that online? The same old marketing/advertising tactics are not going to prove very effective.   I don’t think you have to go so far as Yoda says and “unlearn what you have learned,” but I do think that a different mindset must be applied.

Some Great Reading about Social Media and measurement:

• Going Viral isn’t Marketing…
• 7 Myths of Social Media Marketing 2010
• How to Measure Social Media

If you’re still on the fence about social media marketing as an effective channel for your business, you may want to think again.  Take a look at this calculator that shows how quickly the medium is advancing:

When it comes to successfully marketing a business, the key is to be where your customers are, but your competitors aren’t.  Considering the hesitation some businesses have about jumping in to social media, there is a great opportunity to be one of the first out of the gate.  The reasons why your business should explore social media are endless, and so many articles explaining everything from 101-type starters to strategy models; just get out there and do it already!

I gave a workshop this week for the Sales & Marketing Society of the Mid-South as part of their new workshop series for their members.  We covered our 4-step program to using Twitter for marketing or promoting a business,  The PLET Method:

Post  |  Why, What, When, How

Listen  |  Real-time searches and Monitoring Tools

Engage  |  Rules of Engagement, Best Practices

Track |  Analytics, URLs, Phone numbers

Here is a copy of the presentation that we went through. Although none of the screen-capture movies are there, you can still get the main ideas behind the PLET method:

More and more businesses are recognizing the need to get involved in social media, which means that social media “experts” are popping up left and right.  Beware anyone who tells you they are social media expert.  Here’s a great example of why I say that:  Click here But beware, definitely some R-rated language (funny though).

Three of my favorite points from this workshop were my reasons why everyone should get involved in social media:

1. 3 out of 4 Americans are using social technology
2. Typical cost of a social media account is $0.00
3. Social media is like word of mouth on steroids

It’s exciting that so many of those in the workshop were totally new to Twitter and wanted to see if Twitter had potential for their marketing and communications. With so much buzz coming up, we’ll have another series of classes on social media very soon with our friends at Howell Marketing Strategies.  More details on that soon, but this time we’re planning on a 4-day workshop, focusing one day each on:  Strategy, Twitter, Facebook, & YouTube (but possibly SlideShare or LinkedIn as well).

I spoke today to the Memphis AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) about integrating social media into their marketing efforts to engage supporters and donors, as well as to get people to help spread the word.

I think fundraisers and cause marketers are no different than the rest of us: in these trying economic times, everyone is clamoring for the same donation dollars.  The need for a more cost-effective strategy to spread the word is crucial. Communicating more effectively than your competition is the name of the game.

That’s why social media is perfect:

• Typical cost of a social networking account:  $0.00
• Audience: varies by platform, but some counts put social media users at well over 1/2 a billion (and continuing to grow quickly)

Here is a copy of the presentation:

Day 3 of our Social Media Crash Course for Business was an intro to using Facebook for marketing your business.  Since our surveys told us that most of the class already had accounts, we decided to skip the really elementary material and jump right into something really helpful: how you can separate your personal and professional life on Facebook.

Like all the other days of this seminar, we talked a great deal about strategy.  If someone doesn’t claim the saying “in all things, have strategy” then I’m going to!  Here are the slides from our class today:

Tomorrow we’re going to cover:

• Fan pages vs Groups
• Advertising
• How to grow your Page and add Fans
• Best practices for B-to-B organizations

Awesome first class in our Social Media Crash Course for Business series that we’re hosting with Howell Marketing Strategies! We covered the basics of social media:  why it’s important and why you should evaluate these tools and see if they are a fit for you organization.

The top 2 reasons were:

1. 3 out of 4 Americans are using Social technology
2. Social media marketing is like word of mouth…. on steroids

Here’s a copy of the slides that we presented to our 11/30 class: