Some of you whispered. Some of you spoke passionately. Some of you should be stuffing bills into this RecruiterGuy's cuss jar. But of the 22 responses (I was hoping for more) that were received via phone, email, and DM's as a result of my "Can I Just Whisper.." article, one thing was clear. We've got a few folks in Recruiting that are just a little irritated with their leadership's slow adoption of anything social and/or that are blown away by the snobbery that is being felt between HR and PR/Communication teams.

Now having said that - there was one person that left a detailed message about what they felt was being done right. And after listening to it numerous times it seemed to boil down to just two things to me... Trust and Partnership. (Hey PR types... notice that doesn't even rhyme with 'exclusivity' - you know who you are.)

So in a follow up to the initial ask and as a result of the responses - let's chew the fat a bit on why it might make sense to actually partner outside of teams that are traditionally responsible for any external media or marketing. Let's talk about who the stakeholders are when we think about our external brand and its delivery in this online social world we're doing business in. Then let's talk a little bit about how to structure that team - or if that even makes sense.

As much as Recruiters complain that the social media landscape shouldn't only be owned by marketing we can see recruiters that are guilty of this themselves. And at the risk of ruffling some feathers (since my main audience here is likely Recruiters and Staffing personnel) let's realize for a second that we bring as much insight to the game as a PR team might bring firepower.

Other groups from your company to consider playing ball with? Brand Management, Business Development, Marketing, External Affairs, Customer Support/Services and Legal. (Yes.... legal. - Don't be hatin'.) Each of these departments (if you're not at a small company where someone may be a few of these entire departments all by themselves!) bring a different perspective to the game and can help contribute new ideas or solid feedback or historic lessons about your product and customers.

Your company has a team in place that is similar to this but Recruiting isn't included? That's a shame.

Trying running this little tidbit by them:
No one makes a better employee than a person that loves your product and believes in what the company does or stands for.

Finish it up with this one:
Every single person that applies for a job can be a potential customer (if they aren't already.)

Now imagine if your team were assembled with (at a minimum) people from each of these groups and the team was given a collaborative working platform to create, share, and review social media strategies and deliverables. Each representative responsible for ensuring that where overlap occurred representation was present and that their respective departments were informed and providing input and feedback as well.

These persons would be functioning not only as the strategic team for social media but as ambassadors of each portion of the business - helping to ensure that even the easiest of wins aren't missed for branding opportunities.

• Product placement or social contests on campuses during recruiting season helps sales and attracts students.
• Recruiters promoting social and charity events via networks helps perception and employment brand.
• Social network collaboration (presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) lends to consistency in message and delivery between company and recruiter image.

Where would you envision easy wins for either Recruiting or participating teams working in tandem with each other? What kind of strong take-a-ways would you see happening? Any reduction in spend? Any increase in ROI?
We complained no one would partner... so let's blow out some things that would make it worth everyone's time. You know the drill - hit the comments box, my inbox, or my phone line.

originally posted on RecruiterGuy.net