Original post by Debbie Horovitch via B2C
I’m sure not everyone is guilty of these hiring faux pas in the social media era, but I’ve seen it enough in the past 4 years of interviewing and pitching for social media positions and clients that I know many business owners are hurting their business in the process of recruiting. Whether you are hiring someone to work as your employee, an unpaid intern or you have a professional recruiter finding your new social media community manager or contract agency, the old fashioned rules of social etiquette apply, even more so when you’re hiring social media professionals who know more about digital marketing and socializing technology than you do.
First lets review “The Rules” of social media, though I’m sure you’ve heard them before, many experienced hiring professionals just don’t believe they’re true or that they apply universally:
- Be transparent
- Be authentic
- Make a conversation with you worth their time
The social media professionals you are hiring, know and live by these rules, and you can expect they’re sharing your ignorance if you make it obvious that you don’t. As painful as that might be to hear, it is true and the HR professionals who embrace the new rules of social media are the ones who are able to more consistently find and place the right candidates.
- Treating them like they are less valuable than your client. Successfully finding the right fit in a candidate at the right time and having the right offer/environment/culture to keep them happy is an art form and requires a commitment to developing a professional relationship with candidates that could be described as “personal”, “friendly” or “intimate” – not sexual of course, but you’re friendly enough to spend time together socializing, drinking, or volunteering / participating in events online and IRL evenings & weekends.
- Drop them and never call again the minute you know they aren’t right for your position right now. This is the ultimate in rude behavior, and for candidates who prize their ability to influence their professional opportunities and their entourage of friends alike, you can’t afford to have them cut you out of the conversation.
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