The term Social Recruiting is overused.  And It is largely misunderstood.  Social Recruiting is not just about finding more candidates through social media.  And it is not about replacing job boards with free services.  It is about building targeted and trusted referral networks and talent communities through social channels that can benefit you and your organization long term. 

The relationships that you can build with your community in online social networks can aid in recruitment, onboarding, and retention if done properly.  And it can be done without wasting too much time if you are targeting your efforts. 

I'll be talking more about this at the Get Social Conference in Tulsa, OK On May 4th, 2010.  Hope to see you there.

Ben Eubanks is one of the organizers of the upcoming HRevolution unconference in Chicago on May 7th and 8th, 2010.  He asked me to give a preview of the session I will be leading there with Jessica Merrill.  Here is the post from the HRevolution Facebook Page.

I had a chance to catch up with Craig Fisher (@fishdogs on Twitter) recently to ask him about what his session at HRevolution would entail. Check out his response below. If you're anything like me, you're going to be drooling to attend the session he's facilitating!

Social Media Secrets Outside of the HR Box and How to Build a Recruiting Rock Star Brand

by Craig Fisher

I am a big believer that everyone you know is a potential lead. Or at least they have the potential to refer quality job candidates or other business to you. So I teach people how to build targeted referral networks, but also how to better tap their existing personal networks. If your network is aware of what you do and are used to getting value from the information you provide in your social channels, they are far more likely to be responsive when you reach out for help.

So how do we strike the perfect balance of giving and receiving to generate helpful responses?

And how do we avoid wasting time doing that?

First we have to break out of our HR and Recruiting mind set and become marketers. We should all be indirectly marketing ourselves on a regular basis in order to build our personal brands and generate the best leads and referrals. But few in HR participate in groups and organizations that are not related to our field or industry.

I'll show you where to find some hidden treasures of real world and online social networking that are outside of the HR box. And I'll show you how building a strong personal brand can make your job easier and help you to be more effective at the same time.

Let Craig know if you like what you see. I know he'd love to hear what you think!

If your organization is planning a Social Media recruiting initiative, you may have started thinking about what tools to use.  But you should really begin with the goal.  What do you expect to gain from using Social Media, be it for marketing, PR, or Recruiting?  Who is the target audience that you want to attract?  Where does that target audience hang out online?  You may not need a Facebook presence, or a Linkedin Group, or a Twitter page to network with that audience. 

What you will need is a professional friend-maker to help build your employer brand.  Sure, you can put up profiles in all the hot SM spots and post some topical info or discussions there.  But who is going to be the person (or people) who actually reaches out to your new community members and have conversations?  Having multiple anonymous people behind a company brand who help keep the communities going is so impersonal.  Having a real person to identify and bond with is better.

The person you choose may be from recruiting or HR if this is a Social Recruiting initiative.  And if that's the case, they can be a great liaison to prospective employees.  They can help new hires through the on-boarding process and keep those relationships going to assist with retention.  Think of it this way: if someone from a company leverages a social platform to reach out to you as a job candidate or an employee, and becomes your online friend, aren’t you much more likely to have a good feeling about the company than you get just from the formal HR process?

The professional friend-maker from your organization can also deliver company news and info to the troops in the various online social places they are already spending time.  They should be tasked with keeping a finger on the pulse of the internal community, as well as the external community, being "friends" with both employees and prospects.  But as with any social media presence, there must be a good degree of transparency so that the "friend-maker" doesn't get labeled a “dirty, no-good spy.”

Good and bad company news delivered to employees and/or prospects by the "friend-maker" can be absorbed with less skepticism than from a company newsletter or formal announcement.  If the "friend-maker" is doing his or her job correctly, they are actually making friends within and outside of your organization.  They are a real person and a real employee, just like everyone else, branding themselves as one of the more friendly and helpful faces of the company.  They are someone your target audience can identify with.  They will help you achieve the goal of your social media initiative.

I'll be discussing community building and more at the upcoming TRU USA Conference April 19-20th, 2010, in Madison WI. See www.thetruconferences.com for further information.

Earlier this year, Geoff Webb and Bill Boorman of TRU Events asked if I would be willing to participate in a fundraising effort for a charity called Orchid that promotes awareness of male cancer.  I said sure, what's the catch? 

Of course there was a catch.  The idea was to do a calendar depicting male social media personalities from our industry, staffing and HR.  The calendar would be The Men of HR.  And the subjects would be depicted with something covering their their most male of areas, and doing something that was a part of how they do their everyday job. 

The premise is silly.  After all, the "men of HR" aren't necessarily a bunch of models, body builders, or even firefighters that you would expect to see on a calendar.  So the idea is that the photos would be somewhat silly too.

Ummm...okay...  What the heck.  I'm game for almost anything at this stage in my life.  And if it is for a good cause, I'm glad to help.  I wrapped a towel around myself, set the timer on the camera, ran to the wall, turned, scowled, and held my iphone up to my ear.

I sent Geoff the photo sort of hoping he would say he couldn't use it.  Just my luck, it ended up on the cover of the calendar. 

The calendars are available for order at http://menofhr.eventbrite.com/.

Congratulations to the TRU Crew for their efforts in helping this good cause.

Cheers, CF

The A-List Solutions team will be descending  on Madison, Wisconsin later this month to lead tracks at the TRU (The Recruiting Unconference) USA event on April 19th and 20th, 2010.  And if TRU London was any indication of how much fun USA will be then we are in for a real treat.

This time around I will be leading tracks on What's Hot and What's Not, Community Building, and The Social Media Circus along with some other very entertaining and knowledgeable colleagues.  I also plan to lead some secret sessions on socializing and networking that will include live demos of advanced beer drinking. 

I want you to join me there and I have a free ticket to give away for the event.  If you want to attend the event but don't want to pay the $400+ price for both days, then Tweet the following:  I want to attend #TRUUSA with @fishdogs #truwithfishdogs.

I will use Twitrand to randomly select a lucky winner who tweets this phrase, complete with the hashtag #truwithfishdogs, between now and Wed., 4/14/2010.  Who's with me?

On Tuesday, 3/31/10, I appeared on the DriveThru HR blogtalkradio show.  Here is the podcast of the show.

Show Name:

(Replay) - "LinkedIn should be your friend" - DriveThru HR Show

Date / Length:
3/31/2010 11:00 AM - 30 min

Description:
Host Bryan Wempen will be visiting about LinkedIn with Craig Fisher @Fishdogs owner of Owner A-List Solutions and IT & Executive Recruiting firm. We will be commenting and sharing information on why social media is NOT just for 22 year olds. DriveThru HR has regular guests from all areas of HR and Social Media aka New Media.