By: Gillian Seely

Joe Sharron, Dave Kimmelman, Jeff Taylor, Meg Toland, Michael Clarkson

While all agreed that social media is indeed the new frontier for recruiting, the panelists’ social media perspectives varied in some areas. Joe Sharron, for example, spotlighted Hubspot’s progressive policy of letting employees take the reigns of social media with little oversight and blog at will.  This type of policy would not work so well at Hollister, however, where Meg Toland strives to keep all outbound messaging in line with the company’s corporate message.  Takeaway? Social media should be tailored to the requirements of propriety for a particular organization’s persona and function. There is no cookie-cutter social media mold that every company should use.

A recurring matter raised by the audience was that of keeping personal and professional spaces separate online. The panelists concurred that any space once considered “private” is quickly diminishing.  They advised people to be very aware that whatever they post o

nline can and probably will be read by unintended audiences, even outside of the “9-5” day…which, by the way, is diminishing too thanks to social media and technology.

Another issue raised was how companies and agencies can deal with negative press or reviews in the online space, where word-of-mouth (perhaps “word-of-hands” is more appropriate?) spreads rapidly. Given that the quantity of information online is so vast, and to respond to each negative comment with an apologetic, proactive letter would be nearly impossible, the

new mindset seems to be “take the good with the bad”.  Recruiters can use negative feedback posted online to enhance their services and improve the recruiting experience for clients.  Posting a pro-active, sympathetic, blanket-apology in forums where negative comments appear is one example of a crisis-PR strategy that could go a long way, and is more effective than individual responses. The bottom line for recruiters in the online space, as Jeff Taylor put it, is “if you can’t do it 1,000 times over, don’t do it at all!”

So, how do you “do” social media effectively? If you can’t do something 1,000 times over, don’t do it at all. And let’s face it; no one has time to send individual Facebook messages to 1,000 candidates in a day. That means recruiters really need an efficient way to manage their Tweets, such as HootSuite, a tool recommended by Meg Toland. They also need to determine which tools and applications offer them the best value for their time.  While Twitter is a great place for agencies to post snippets of job postings for large numbers of job-seeker followers, it isn’t necessarily right for an in-house corporate HR department.

Panelist and lawyer Michael Clarkson, who might have been expected to play devil’s advocate, agreed that social media is more than just a trend for recruiters.  He spoke to the value of sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and provided fascinating insight into the legal problems caused by using social media for recruitment. While the benefits of using social networking sites to recruit employees and enhance diversity initiatives are obvious, he emphasized that the line between proactive hiring and discrimination can easily be blurred. This is particularly true when recruiters contact candidates via sites that allow users to post photographs and personal data that would not be found in a traditional resume. He advised all companies to have a clear electronic information policy that includes guidelines for social networking as well as blogging.

There was an undeniable consensus in the room: social media is the new frontier for recruiting. In the last several years, people have watched Facebook and Twitter move from personal forums meant purely for socializing, to applications that are often required tools in the workplace. Those who choose not to embrace it just might find themselves “unfriended”, LinkedOut, and incapable of finding and hiring the best candidates for their organization.