• Twitter Basics.

• How to Use Hash Tags on Twitter.

• How to Create a Twitter Profile.

• How to Recruit on Twitter.

From the TMJ Social Recruiting Survey, I found these statistics particularly intriguing:

• 50% of job seekers still spend most their time searching on traditional job boards

• 29% of job seekers use social media as their primary tool for job searching

• 45% of companies plan to invest more in Social Recruiting in 2012

• 92% of companies use 10% of their recruiting budget on Social Recruiting

Blogging is the single best career differentiator for me.  It helps me organize my thoughts and reach a large audience of individuals based on my topic and keyword of choice.  It’s also extremely helpful for search engine optimization and is the an effective way for your name and website to reach the first page of Google.  But before I started using blogging as a way to drive website traffic and reach a targeted audience, I spent a lot of time learning how to craft, write, and articulate my story which I think it so very important.

My blog, Blogging4Jobs started out as a resource for job seekers on why they didn’t get the job.  I was a HR Director and tired of giving my turned down job seekers the canned response of why they didn’t get the job.  I also wanted to find a way to make me stand out from the rest.  You see, I was middle manager HR and the not very patient type.  I wanted to find a way to gain experience and find a way to articulate that experience.  A blog for me seemed to be the best way.  My blog also ended up being a great pipeline to fill positions.  As I provided job seeker resources and tips, word got around that I was also HR and a recruiter, and I would receive unsolicited email resumes almost every day of the week.  By providing resources and information, I built a candidate pipeline by partnering with other recruiters and we developed a way to share candidates allowing us to more quickly fill positions.

So if you are interested in getting started in the world of blogging whether to build a brand, personal development or for your company as a HR services provider, here are some articles, tips, and ideas to get you started:

• Blogging. The Digital Story Tale.

• Blogging, Copywrite, & Plagarism — Part 1.

• The 5 P’s of Blogging.

RECRUITING

Using mobile devices for recruiting candidates  come in many different forms and involve a smart phone, cell phone, tablet, or mobile device.  Mobile recruitment can involve the use of smartphones for either the candidate or the recruiter.  In fact, there are many apps, technologies, and tools used as part of a company’s recruitment strategy built and developed for purely the recruiter’s benefit.  This might include an iPhone that aids in candidate sourcing or QR Codereaders for use at job fairs.

On the flip side, recruiting tools exist to make the hiring and interview process easy and mobile ready for the job seeker as well.  These include mobile ready websites, job board apps, and text message alerts for job seekers who are mobile, active, and on the go.  Mobile is especially appealing for this reason.  Recruiters can engage job seekers anywhere and at anytime.  A quick text message for a recruiter to alert a job seeker offers a real-time opportunity to engage them on the spot quickly and easily.  Job seekers don’t have to wait to be in front of a computer to apply or email about a job.

These quick bursts of information are part of the new rules of recruiting.  Companies must begin to market to candidates in the way that serves them best.  This is unconventional to most senior leaders who view the recruiting process as part of “the my way or the highway” school of thought.  Imagine marketing your newly launched product solely relying on newspaper because your 60 plus CEO reads the paper and believes his customers should too. Not exactly the most effective product marketing strategy, and its likely the same for your candidate recruiting strategy when it comes to mobile.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Engagement and communication happens on the fly and using mobile strategies in human resources should be no different.  Imagine engaging with a small group of cashiers at your local offices to make them aware of a part time shift available on Saturday night.  With just one text you can communicate them quickly and without intrusion.  Mobile technologies like apps offer the option for companies as well as managers to engage their workforce right away.  Tools like Rypple’s new app allow for mobile access to their social performance management tool.

Other tools QR codes offer up the opportunity for employees to learn more by scanning corporate posters or job openings directly from their company breakroom using their mobile device.  These different channels to disseminate information offer an opportunity to reach a new and engaged audience in a way that suits them best.

The mobile world is a fast paced and real time and all the time.  With mobile strategies for your HR and recruiting teams, you can engage your audience whenever and wherever they may be.  Increasing the likelihood that they’ll receive the message or support the current marketing or communication strategies already established on the more traditional channels.

Listed above is the webinar that I lead for Xceptional HR titled “Mobile:  The Next Big Thing for HR, Recruiting, and Employee Engagement.”  The webinar is approved for 1 Strategic HRCI Credit.

You can check out more articles on Mobile Recruiting and HR:

1) Business on the Fly with Mobile

2) The Internet Equalizer — The Smart Phone.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to teach the entire SHRM staff on how to use Twitter.  The embedded presentation is from that training session.  They were very open and asked questions which I enjoyed.  It was a great way for the professional association to introduce their corporate social media policy in a relaxed way.  This short presentation gives anyone an overview of what and how to use Twitter on a basic level.  The nice thing about Twitter is it gives back as much as you put into it.  Give to your community and Twitter and they will respond  if you provide engagement, value, and relationship.

More resources on Twitter and Social Media Policies are listed below:

• Twitter Termination — a Cautionary Tale

• The Era of Corporate Social Media Discrimination

• How to Write Social Media Policies

Just in the HR/Recruiting/Job Search space there are in upwards of 10-15 Twitter chats that happen on a regular basis.  That’s a lot of time spent chatting, engaging, and tweeting in front of your computer.

Hash tags are not just for Twitter chats.  As I mentioned, they are very popular for conferences and other online events like Blog Talk Radio shows which are also very popular.  Two of my favorite HR radio shows live streamed on the internet are Drive Thru HR with the hash tag #dthr and HR Happy Hour with the hash tag #hrhappyhour.  There is a back channel of conversation that happens during the event where Twitter users share 140 character nuggets of information to their audiences and also provide real-time feedback to the event as well as the speaker.  Many speakers or event organizations aren’t even aware of the unsolicited advice.

Because Twitter chats and hash tag conversations move so very fast, it’s easy to get lost.  That’s why one of my favorite hash tag tools is TweetChat.com.  It allows you to sign into your Twitter account and segregate the tweets you are able to see just to the specific hash tag.  Plus it also allows adds the hash to your tweets automatically.

Here are some other hash tags, Twitter chats, and events that are common in the HR and Recruiting spaces:

• #tnl
• #radchat
• #tchat
• #careerchat
• #hfchat
• #genychat
• #shrm
• #hr
• #recruiting
• #hirefriday
• #blogchat (not an HR chat but a great resource for blogs led by Mack Collier)

This topic has been quite popular as I am sure you can imagine.  Just last week a women was terminated in Pennsylvania as a result of her tweet from a company Twitter account.  While personally, I don’t think the tweet warranted termination, I wasn’t there to make a decision.  What did transpire was a media firestorm.  Companies now must consider the media fallout from terminations that happen as a result of social media.  If they did plan to terminate her, I would have recommended a fat severance and a nice legal document to keep the speculation and media to a minimum.  Of course hindsight is 20/20 and  things never exactly work out there way.

Embedded is the slideshare deck from my presentation.  You can learn more about the topics mentioned, by visiting the following articles:

• Social Media Discrimination

• How to Write Social Media Policies

• Rebranding Transparency & Corporate Social Media

Twitter is now boasting well over 155 million tweets per day.  It is the third most popular search engine on the internet.  Be sure to take a look at the short video to learn more.  One of the benefits to this tool is that you do not have to have a Twitter account to search externally on Twitter.  You can learn and observe before diving in.

Here are more resources on social media and Twitter to get you started:

• How to Create a Twitter Profile

• Twitter Chat Tools

• Differentiate Yourself with a Twitter Welcome Video

• Running with Scissors.  The Auto DM

HR is now at a critical point where it can truly become a business partner using social media as a catalyst for this.  I believe that HR can demonstrate it’s value beyond the department using social media as a point of insertion.  Imagine how perplexed the marketing, information technology, and your senior leaders can and will be, if your HR team is suddenly the social media experts.  HR can take the lead and be the point of information and reference to change and catapult your organization into the new age of digital strategy.

This is where I see HR.  It’s a turning point in our business where HR can make a true distinction paving the way for the future of our industry.  See what I mean by viewing my slide share presentation.

Like what you see?  I have some other thoughts on social media and how it is impacting business:

• Social Media Discrimination

• How to Write Social Media Policies

• How Celebrities Use Social Media

The video walks you through how to set up your own RSS feed which you can do for most anything.  I will on occasion set up a RSS feed for tweets by keyword or hash tag so I can better follow the information or news contained within the stream.  RSS feed aggregators including the one I created at HRBlogger.info are a great way to organize your favorite videos, blogs, and information in one place.  HR Blogger was created as a way to do just that for the human resources, recruiting, and talent management industry.  So if you haven’t I suggest that you check out www.hrblogger.info.

But before you do, here are some additional articles and blogs posts to help get you started on how to leverage social media in the human resources industry:

• Can RSS Make a Comeback? 

• Social Media for College and Career Services

• HR Blogger Hell & SEO Strategy Tips

• Tweet This! Twitter for Business Book

• How to Recruit at Conferences like SXSW

Here’s a short video on how to create your own Twitter profile.  For more resources and information about Twitter, check out my Twitter business book, Tweet This!  Twitter for Business, and be sure to check out more resources listed below:

• How Celebrities Use Social Media

• What Makes a Community a Community?

• Twitter Chat Tools

• Your Kids, Concerns, & Their Social Media