SOCIAL MEDIA
Making Social Media Work for You
Dr Courtney Shelton Hunt shares why organisations need to develop a social media system and the imperative behind a LinkedIn Company Page. By Rowena Morais



JAN 2012 | HR Matters : There really isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach for employers when it comes to embracing social media. The best approach involves tailoring your social media investment to what you feel will produce the best returns in your own situation. What advice can you give employers, keen to embrace social media, about how to assess their current practices and identify any opportunities for improvement?

Dr Hunt : As I discuss in Part 7 of the Social Media Primer1, the first step is to identify (or confirm) the organisation’s strategic priorities. It’s impossible to accurately assess current practices without some standards by which to measure their effectiveness – and those standards should be driven by the organisation’s goals and objectives. From an employment perspective, those goals could include increasing the quality of the talent pool and/or the ability to find candidates for hard-to-fill positions, raising awareness of the employment brand, and increasing the attractiveness of the organisation as an employer of choice.

It’s also important to consider other relevant factors like the organisation’s size and industry, the number and type of positions typically available, annual turnover, and the demographics and digital practices of current and prospective employees.

Just as there’s no “one size fits all” solution that can be applied across organisations, there may be no single approach that works for all employee groups within an organisation. For lower-level and/or entry-level positions, for example, Facebook might be a logical outreach and engagement platform. For more experienced professionals, however, LinkedIn probably makes more sense.

With a renewed understanding of and focus on its strategic priorities and operating characteristics, an organisation can then evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current practices and determine whether and how social media and other new digital technologies can offer opportunities for improvement. If the internal evaluators don’t have enough social media expertise to effectively conduct this assessment on their own, the organisation should invest in the services of an outside consultant, who can also help them be more objective and less likely to stick to traditional approaches because they’re inside employees’ comfort zones.

HR Matters : You’ve discussed, in your blog, the need for employers to develop a ‘social media system’ that identifies a home base and satellites and which specifies inter-connections and communication flows among them. Can you expand on this point?

Dr Hunt : The basic idea behind a social media system is to recognise that one site/platform is primary (like the hub of a wheel or the sun in a solar system), and that other sites/platforms serve as feeder sources to the main site. From a hiring perspective, home base may be the careers section of the organisation’s website or the landing page of the applicant tracking system. Satellites include social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google Plus. They can also include blogs, talent communities and other digital networks.

Home base should be the place with the most complete and accurate information about the organisation, open positions, and other things prospective candidates might be interested in (e.g., benefits, cultural values). The ultimate objective of engagement on the satellite platforms should be to drive traffic to the home base using a push-pull approach. In some instances, this push-pull may be direct and transactional, with a short-term focus. For example, a link for a specific job posting may be pushed out to interested parties via Twitter, which then pulls them into the website to learn more and apply. In other instances, the push-pull may be indirect, with a longer-term relationship focus. An organisation may choose to share general job search tips, company news, and/or industry information via social media, for example, without having that information be connected to an existing position. Doing so can highlight an organisation’s cultural values, demonstrate its focus on providing quality content, and reinforce the employer brand. Keeping the employer “top of mind” with prospective candidates and maintaining a fresh and vital connection over time increases the likelihood that an individual will apply when there is a new position for which he/she may be qualified. Although it’s important to connect all the satellite channels to each other, most organisationally-focused content-based traffic will flow from the satellites to home base rather than among the satellites.

HR Matters : You argue that every organisation should have a LinkedIn Company Page. Is this absolutely necessary and why so? How would this be relevant and how would this put small organisations in a positive light?

	Get more details on what your subscription gives you
	Make your subscription payment now.
	Contact us at +603 6140 6398 or email us for details
	Choose between a print edition or digital edition subscription.

Dr Courtney Hunt Courtney Shelton Hunt, Ph.D. is the founder and principal of US-based Renaissance Strategic Solutions (RSS), a consultancy that helps organisations increase their effectiveness through the design and implementation of innovative and leading-edge strategies and programmes. RSS works with organisations of all sizes in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, in a wide range of industries

RSS is the founder and sponsor of the Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community and the Global Center for Digital Era Leadership (GCDEL). Developing these communities and meeting the needs of practitioners with respect to the strategic implications of new digital technologies is currently RSS's primary focus. In addition to providing training on what social media is and how to use it, Dr. Hunt offers her expertise to clients interested in developing social media strategies and creating and implementing related programs. She also helps organizations create and implement social media policies and provides training to ensure both managers and employees understand their rights and responsibilities. Visit the SMinOrgs Community and GCDEL. Prior to founding RSS and the SMinOrgs Community, Dr. Hunt was the Team Leader for the Midwest Communications Practice of The Segal Company/Sibson Consulting. She has been a Professor of Management for many years and has won awards for the quality of her teaching and writing, in addition to receiving recognition for her editorial and leadership skills and her creative approaches to curriculum development. She has also held several human resources and organisational development positions throughout her career, in a variety of organisations. And with an undergraduate degree in accounting and training in systems design and development, she has also worked in the accounting and information technology fields. Dr. Hunt’s background in business development, communications, human capital management, information technology, and academia, combined with her business acumen, enables her to provide a holistic perspective and strategic leadership to organisations. She is a sought-after speaker who regularly shares her expertise through presentations and workshops. She also provides insights and thought leadership through her blogs (the SMinOrgs S.M.A.R.T. Blog, the Digital Era Thinkers Blog, and Renaissance Reflections), as well as white papers, published articles and book chapters. She has been developing a Social Media Primer and is currently writing a Digital Era Guide for Leaders.