Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: The State of Social Recruiting

Friday, August 24, 2012

The Cynical Girl: The State of Social Recruiting

Posted: 23 Aug 2012 03:45 AM PDT

I do a ton of corporate speaking gigs. A woman called me, yesterday, and asked me if I would come and talk to her global HR team in New York.

“Could you talk about social media? That’s still a thing, right?”

Yup. Still a thing.

I told her that I would prefer to share examples of strong recruiting teams who invest in smart and sophisticated recruiters and HR professionals who can balance trendy technology with good recruiting practices.

But that’s not what she wants. The HR lady is trying to get her employees excited about working in HR. She values their intelligence, their commitment to the profession and their desire to learn & grow.

“You can talk about Twitter, right?”

Yes. I can talk about Twitter. So many social media professionals laugh at people who still ask about Twitter. Not me. Most of the world isn’t on Twitter because there is no need to be on Twitter. If some HR lady wants me to talk about how to set up a Twitter account and source for candidates, I say Y E S to that request — depending on how much it pays, of course.

And I applaud people who are intellectually curious. So what if it took a couple of years? Better late than never.

“We really want strategy, Laurie. How do you recruit on Twitter? Should we have a Facebook? What do I do with this new thing called Pinterest?”

Yes, uh, strategy. Funny how strategy means different things to different people. Someone told me that HRCI and SHRM will only certify sessions as “strategic” if there’s a number in the title.

“The Five Ways to Kill Your Career in HR.”
“Seven Steps Towards Irrelevancy in Human Capital Management.”
“Four Key Features of Any Stupid Session on HR Strategy.”

I’m not sure if that rumor is true — but it’s funny to me.

Anyway, to answer this HR lady’s question, I can talk about it all. That’s what I do for a living.

But do me a favor. Take a look at this document on social recruiting. It’s pretty good. It’s from Jobvite. They have not compensated me to post this. I just like it.