So you’ve built up your Talent Community or Talent Network and gained a significant amount of followers on your Twitter profile and Facebook page.  The question is what do you do next?

The answer to this question you’ve heard a thousand times: engage!

When I talk about engagement I mean a few things.  First, it’s the bi-directional communication you have with a candidate to promote your company opportunities, understand their qualifications & skill-sets and responding to their questions in a timely manner.   This engagement is extremely important action in getting value out of your Talent Community, social recruiting and recruitment marketing efforts.

The second part in the engagement formula is a lot less individualized but will ensure that candidates stay “engaged” with your profiles.  This, of course, is Content!

By sharing “great” content you can provide value to candidates and make them more open for engagement from your organization.  The question is what constitutes “great” content and what type of content will provide value to candidates?

Let’s answer what constitutes “great” content first.  “Great” content is all determined by the audience and your own judgement.  Whether reading a blog post or watching a video, you will determine whether or not the content provides value and share it with your followers.  Not until you share it and you see the reaction in terms of engagement metrics (views, click-throughs, RT’s, mentions, etc.) that you will truly know if the content was “great” for your audience.

A few rules I live by when sharing content:

1. If you liked it, share it.
2. Try sharing different types of content & measure it.
3. For content that performs well, share more like it.
4. Don’t be afraid to share content.  The more you share, the better.

Simple rules but the main idea is try things and get an idea of what content works well and what doesn’t.  The type of content you will share more often is wholly determined by what your network & followers respond well to.

So when we look at the type of content that we can share with our potential candidates, here’s a few to consider:

• Industry Blog Posts:  One of the first things you should do is set up a Google Reader account and add the RSS feeds of your favorite blogs.  Share blog articles that provide value to your target audience & definitely include any blog posts done by your own organization.  Choose blog posts that share your viewpoint on issues.
• Company / Industry News: When breaking news happens in your industry or at your company you should share it with your audience.
• Your Marketing Content: What better place to broadcast your content (blog posts, videos, whitepapers, etc.) than your own social profiles.  Just be sure you are also providing other outside content as well.
• Your Job Content: Definitely feel free to share new opportunities at your company with your network within your stream alongside your job distribution efforts.  This should not make up the majority of the content you share however.
• Continued Education: When you come across interesting webcasts, live stream events or continuing education opportunities (you may also offer some), share them with your audience.  Candidates should be continually trying to learn more about their disciplines and will appreciate any help you provide to do so.
• Fun / Humor: Not all your content has to be ultra-specific to your industry and it also doesn’t need to be humorless.  Feel free to show your organization’s personality by sharing funny content you come across as well.

There is so much content available at your fingertips that it can sometimes be overwhelming.  The key, however, is to find content that you like that expresses your organizations views and can provide value to the target audience you are trying to engage with.

Later this week, I’ll go more deeply into how to set up listening posts to find great content that you can share with your social recruiting followers.