By Elizabeth Smith, ClearEdge Marketing
Just mention social networking in your sphere of influence, and chances are people’s ears perk up. It is the hot buzz word in today’s job recruitment market—both for job seekers and recruiters alike. For recruiters, it serves as a viable recruiting and research tool; whereas job seekers view it as a way to obtain credible information about job leads and potential employers. In fact, it has been estimated that 65 percent of business professionals are using social networking sites to connect and find new jobs.

Understanding Social Networking
So what exactly is social networking? It is a social structure made up of people and organizations where registered site users create personal profiles and then allow friends and colleagues to connect to them. It provides an unobtrusive way to stay in touch, as well as provides a gateway to other qualified candidates or job opportunities as they become available. This process is known as ‘friending’ and generates more credible, reliable references when referred to another friend or colleague.

Believe it or not, social networking is here to stay. According to ExactTarget’s 2008 Channel Preference Survey, 75 percent of Gen M and Gen Y ‘ers (ages 15-24) and 57 percent of Gen X’ers (ages 25-34) already have a social networking profile, compared to 40 percent of Baby Boomers. With a young audience already embracing social networking, we can expect this trend to continue and its usage to gain momentum.  

Getting Started
Social networking tools can consist of blogs, podcasts, videocasts, Web sites and communities. Starting a blog and posting your profile on one or all three of the main social networks (MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn) are good starting points. These sites continue to gain in popularity with LinkedIn and Facebook being the two main business-oriented, social networking sites. Neilson Online’s May 2008 study revealed that in one year’s time, MySpace grew seven percent to nearly 60.7 million users, Facebook 83 percent to 26.0 million users and LinkedIn 146 percent to 7.7 million users.

Additionally there’s a social networking site dedicated solely to job seekers and recruiters alike. Climber.com focuses on connecting individuals to people who can advance their career. Visitors can connect to recruiters anonymously and view featured recruiter and candidate profiles. It’s a cutting-edge site that is sure to become a hit with both recruiters and job seekers.

However, as with any other recruiting and job hunting tool, it’s crucial to focus your efforts on your target audience. Conduct extensive research to locate sites and communities geared towards your area of interest. If one doesn’t exist, you can create your own social networking site with sites such as Ning. These smaller, targeted sites and communities may contain just the candidates or employers that you are looking for—so don’t rule them out.

After you’ve created your profiles, promote them everywhere and anytime possible—your e-mail signature, Web site, business cards, blog posts, resumes, etc. Use creative ways to get your name out there—from viral videos touting your qualifications as a stellar recruiter to a keyword-rich blog and social networking profiles. There are increasing numbers of talented professionals who were discovered by their current employers through their personal blogs and/or profiles on social networking sites.  

Keeping Things in Order
Before you begin promoting yourself/your company via various social networking sites, there are some important rules of engagement that both job seekers and recruiters should keep in mind. One golden rule is that social networking sites should serve as just one component of your candidate recruitment/job hunting strategy.

Companies and recruiters need to:
•    Evaluate whether information found on social networking sites can be used during the interview process. Even though most recruiters are doing this today, potential future legal rulings could view it as discrimination.
•    Keep company profiles on social networking sites up to date. Job seekers start conducting thorough research on a company once they’re interested.
•    Determine whether company employees can be held liable for information posted on their profiles. This could include disclosing confidential company information, sharing personal details or photos that may be deemed inappropriate. Some employers are looking into having employees sign a legal document prohibiting them from posting inappropriate items to social networks at the risk of being fired.
•    Define who owns the content posted on company blog(s) and communities. Even though an employee may have written the content, a decision should be made as to who actually owns it —the company or the writer.
•    Establish guidelines as to what can be featured on company blogs/communities and what can be shared on an employee’s personal blog and/or a social networking site, such as Twitter. For example, a Microsoft blogger took his blog with him when he left the company; whereas Motorola took down a former employee’s blog since it was managed in a corporate community.
•    Monitor user responses to company blog posts and communities. Depending on the comments, the company could actually gain credibility in the eyes of job seekers by leaving some less-than-positive comments on its company blog.
•    Identify processes for removing inappropriate content (language, trademarks issues, etc.) on company blogs/communities. Explicit language, classified information, etc. should be removed.

Employees and job seekers should do the following:
•    Refrain from posting inappropriate pictures and/or comments to your profile on social networking sites. Companies now search the Internet to obtain information about a candidate that is often not found on their resume. Information on social network profiles and blogs have been used to establish character traits.
•    Confirm a potential future employer’s policy on blogging, communities and other social networking sites.
•    Clarify who owns the content – you, the company or the company that hosts the blog/community.
•    Verify the company’s policy about accessing and commenting on your social network during business hours.

Next Steps
Social networking is just the beginning. The up-and-coming hot trends are social mobile networking and social network advertising. eMarketer forecasts that mobile social networking will grow from 82 million users in 2007 to over 800 million worldwide by 2012. In mid-June, Facebook launched profession-based target ads and MySpace redesigned their home page—all in an effort to help companies better target their services to the right audience.

Stay posted. As with anything in the technology arena, things are constantly changing so that we’re more efficient in our recruiting and job search efforts. In the meantime, start creating site profiles and get connected to your next talented professional or ideal employer.