Shhhh! Be very, very quite. Do you hear that?

People right now are talking behind your back. And if you don’t start paying attention you may miss out on a great sales and recruiting opportunity.

With today’s social networks, it’s easy for someone to become your biggest proponent, or your toughest critic. The key is to monitor conversations–and then respond appropriately.

Here is an excerpt from a social media conversation just last week about a firm in New York (that will remain nameless!):

“The core of a successful business are: etiquette, respect, and professionalism which XYZ Staffing does not possess any. If any they certainly lack a computerized database of candidates’ resume in their files. Very typical of a staffing agency to contact me months later to meet in person when we’ve already met. Is it so difficult for XYZ Staffing to get themself together with a centralized computer database of all candidate’s resume and information? Is that so very hard to do?”

If someone made this statement about your firm, wouldn’t you want to know? After all, comments like this could make it even harder for your firm to recruit truly exceptional talent.

Simply knowing what people say about your company can help you identify problems in your recruiting process, customer service concerns, or even isolated problems with a specific recruiter or other member of your staff. And on the flip-side, positive comments can give your sales and recruiting efforts a big boost.

Here’s how to find out when people are talking about you:

1. Create a social media alert at Social Mention. This free service allows you to enter your company name or other search string and be notified every time that string appears in social media.

2. Create alerts with the major search engines. For more information on how to create these alerts please visit my earlier post: Competitive Analysis: How to Spy on Staffing Firms.

If you would like to discuss online marketing or how your staffing firm can become more involved in social media please just give me a call at 888-696-2900 or email me at bsmith@haleymarketing.com.