Social media is changing the way we do business and achieve success. Whether you are marketing a product or service, recruiting talent or involved in a political campaign you have to be aware of the changes in successful marketing strategies. Social media is all about stimulating conversations and creating relationships. Successful campaigns are using social media but how is it affecting our marketing strategies in this down economy?

Ira Kaufman noted in his post Recruit Against the Tide the importance of building an Integrated Recruitment Marketing strategy. He noted “applying LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to create engaging conversations so your company will “come up” in conversations in a variety of places and talented job seekers will take notice.” This is also an excellent way to reach passive candidates.

Another sign of the time is shown in Jessica Meher-Akken's interview with IT Business Canada where she talks about How to use Twitter to recruit the right talent. "In these difficult times, hiring managers are realizing the huge benefits of Twitter as a recruiting tool."

Guy Kawasaki recently posted 10 ways to use Linkedin to find a job. He says “In these kinds of times, you need to use all the weapons that you can, and one that many people don’t—or at least don’t use to the fullest extent, is LinkedIn.”

Contrary to many opinions, Social Media is not all about young adults but it encompasses a large growing segment of middle aged and baby boomers too. I use Quantcast.com to check on demographics of the various social networking sites I use when I am preparing my marketing strategy.

I am preparing a paper on recruiting success stories using social media. I would love to hear your successes, please leave a comment and share your successful outcome and the strategy you used.