I was just talking with a very media-savvy lady who surfaced an issue I hadn’t thought about: Twitter vs. romance.
She reports that it’s a challenge nowadays to find someone in the dating pool who wants to have actual conversations–or even make auditory contact (i.e., pick up the phone and call). “I’ll tweet you” is apparently the newly preferred way of getting “in touch.”
But she’s determined to find that retro someone who’ll ask for a date instead of texting an address with the endearing message “6:30?”
Recruiting is actually more like dating than like any other human ritual. After all, you’re trying to find the very best person for an important, hopefully long-term relationship. You’re looking for people who might be a fit, then getting to know them, then persuading them to join you (well, your company) in a union that could be mutually fabulous–or just as easily, awful for all concerned.
And although it probably could happen . . . for the most part, planning to find and woo a suitable mate by means of tweets (or texts or links or blogs or emails) seems like a shot in the dark.
So with all the hoopla over social media for recruiting, it’s important to keep in mind the multiple dimensions of communication necessary for engaging candidates. Put another way: What do you do with them after you find them?
Companies need a comprehensive approach that seamlessly integrates discovery, invitation, outreach, and follow-through–with the corporate website as a central nexus. I’ll explore, and come back soon with a checklist for getting from “Hello” to “I do!”
Meanwhile, for a refreshing burst of candor about Twitter/Recruiting, check out Twitter is a Great Recruiting Tool, for Other People at social media headhunter. And be sure to visit Social Signal for more of Rob Cottingham’s cartoons about the social media world, plus excellent articles and good advice from the bloggers there!
Cynthia Giles has followed a serpentine career path from academia to publishing to marketing and design to information technology and corporate communications. There’s plenty of detail about this journey at www.cynthiagiles.com, but briefly--the common theme has been ideas, and how to present them effectively. Along the way, she became an accidental expert on data warehousing and business intelligence, and for the past ten years she has combined corporate contracting with an independent consulting practice that focuses on marketing strategy for smaller businesses and non-profits.
Having spent quite a bit of time looking for work, and anywhere from two weeks to two years inside a wide variety of American companies—she has given much thought to what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to creating a great employment fit.