With fireworks and the good times of Independence Day fading in the rear view mirror, it’s time to gear up for the busy summer ahead in recruiting. The interesting part of this summer will be the unique challenges employers face building a plan for recruiting during the rest of 2010 while thinking strategically about recruiting in 2011.

Should you be optimistic? Should you be conservative?

Whether you are bullish or bearish on the future, the growing competition for talent means that corporate recruiting teams have to take a hard look at how prepared they are to compete. Whether you are large or small, the key is to be strategic about building your employment brand. A strategic approach to building your employment brand will impact all of your recruiting activities.

Employment branding feels a bit squishy at times but it works as an umbrella for all of your other recruiting activities. Done right, it is a great investment. If you haven’t done so, check out Dr. John Sullivan’s almost endless list of reasons for building an employer brand. His timeless advice on the topic stresses that employer branding is the ONLY long-term recruiting strategy.

Are you wondering why employer branding is so critical?

Building a solid employment brand enables your recruiting team and executives to work within a framework that unifies all of your recruiting activities. It builds and promotes your philosophy, approach and values. It drives consistency in how all candidates experience your recruiting process. Employer branding becomes the engine that drives everything in your game plan for bringing in the best talent, particularly with the explosive growth of social media recruiting.

Social media recruiting has brought us all one step closer to the candidate. The time to investment in your brand is now. Don’t let the summer lull you into complacency or the economy keep you from making the right choice for your organization. The companies who invest and leverage their employment brand in their recruitment marketing activities will be the leaders; everyone else will be following behind the competition and losing traction with the best talent.

The commitment to your employment brand may mean big changes for some organizations. (See Sarah Welstead’s employer branding post on ERE for a great example.) Others may be sitting on a solid employment brand in need of a cohesive recruitment marketing plan to connect with candidates. Either way, now is the time to move forward.

Investing in your employer brand opens a dialogue directly with candidates, bringing you closer to hiring independence. When people associate you with a positive employment brand or recognize you as a great place to work, you will get better quality candidates. When you open the door with an employment blog or active twitter presence, you are making yourself available to interested candidates. Does that mean you will never spend a dime on recruitment advertising, pay-per-click recruiting and other recruiting services? No, but it means you are building a fluid, on-going relationship that you just can’t buy in a job posting. That’s recruiting independence.

Neil Costa is the Managing Director and CEO of HireClix. HireClix is a interactive recruitment advertising agency helping corporate recruiting teams leverage search engine optimization, pay-per-click recruiting, targeted interactive advertising, email marketing and social media to attract quality candidates.