Comments on: The New Reality – What It Takes To Get Hired In Social Media http://impactinteractions.com/best-practices/the-new-reality-what-it-takes-to-get-hired-in-social-media/410 Online Community and Social Media Best Practices Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:41:44 +0000 hourly 1 By: The Need for a Chief Community Officer (CCO) | Seek Omega http://impactinteractions.com/best-practices/the-new-reality-what-it-takes-to-get-hired-in-social-media/410#comment-3266 The Need for a Chief Community Officer (CCO) | Seek Omega Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:58:22 +0000 http://impactinteractions.com/?p=410#comment-3266 [...] examination and development of the job description and corporate goals are necessary. According to Impact Interactions; “…you have to understand and like business for business sake. Because Social Media is not all [...] [...] examination and development of the job description and corporate goals are necessary. According to Impact Interactions; “…you have to understand and like business for business sake. Because Social Media is not all [...]

]]> By: MRowland http://impactinteractions.com/best-practices/the-new-reality-what-it-takes-to-get-hired-in-social-media/410#comment-1461 MRowland Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:43:44 +0000 http://impactinteractions.com/?p=410#comment-1461 Simply put, we don't consider follower counts to be a metric of value. While you may be one of the few who delete spam followers, most folks do not. The prevailing thought amongst most people is the more the merrier instead of quality over quantity. That makes going through 1,000+ followers time consuming and not very useful. Many followers get hooked by one or two items by a writer, follow/friend them and then set it on auto-pilot. We would rather our applicants tell us how they use social media and what they are gaining from it instead of simply focusing upon their 'counts' of followers or friends. As they do that, we follow up with how that would relate to a business situation. We want to see if a candidate can connect the dots so to speak. Twitter and/or Facebook proficiency is easy to learn, but also easy to game to drive up your numbers. See our blog entry on Misleading Indicators - Followers and Friends for more on our thoughts about this. And no, we don't feel that most users of social media are slackers without business skills. We just want them to be able to frame the use of social media in a business oriented way because that is our business. We'll teach and train the rest of our methodology to our newer employees, but we need to know if you have business skills or at least can demonstrate that at least you understand that these can be business tools as well as social tools. Because in the end, social media is really social business for our clients. Simply put, we don’t consider follower counts to be a metric of value.

While you may be one of the few who delete spam followers, most folks do not. The prevailing thought amongst most people is the more the merrier instead of quality over quantity. That makes going through 1,000+ followers time consuming and not very useful. Many followers get hooked by one or two items by a writer, follow/friend them and then set it on auto-pilot. We would rather our applicants tell us how they use social media and what they are gaining from it instead of simply focusing upon their ‘counts’ of followers or friends. As they do that, we follow up with how that would relate to a business situation. We want to see if a candidate can connect the dots so to speak.

Twitter and/or Facebook proficiency is easy to learn, but also easy to game to drive up your numbers. See our blog entry on Misleading Indicators – Followers and Friends for more on our thoughts about this.

And no, we don’t feel that most users of social media are slackers without business skills. We just want them to be able to frame the use of social media in a business oriented way because that is our business. We’ll teach and train the rest of our methodology to our newer employees, but we need to know if you have business skills or at least can demonstrate that at least you understand that these can be business tools as well as social tools.

Because in the end, social media is really social business for our clients.

]]> By: Allen MacCannell http://impactinteractions.com/best-practices/the-new-reality-what-it-takes-to-get-hired-in-social-media/410#comment-1460 Allen MacCannell Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:33:22 +0000 http://impactinteractions.com/?p=410#comment-1460 Are you really saying that you'd hire someone who hasn't learned the ropes at Twitter and Facebook yet (and not because those who haven't would be willing to take a lot less money)? How about, "we consider having a decent follower count on a major social medium important but not nearly as important as business skills" (provided you have good metrics for those such as "Applicant needs to show they sold $300,000 in goods or services last year"). Also, since I delete Twitter spam followers regularly, I would consider a quality follower count (easy for an outsider to peruse) to be a great metric on whether the person has "street smarts." I don't own a social media consultancy so far be it from me to say that an applicant being Twitter or Facebook proficient might be a minimum requirement for me to hire if I had one. You might feel that a lot of Twitter and Facebook users are slackers with no business skills, which is fair enough to assume, especially if it is your experience in looking at job applicants. But I know I wouldn't hire a breakfast cook who can't already make a mean bacon and egg special. Are you really saying that you’d hire someone who hasn’t learned the ropes at Twitter and Facebook yet (and not because those who haven’t would be willing to take a lot less money)? How about, “we consider having a decent follower count on a major social medium important but not nearly as important as business skills” (provided you have good metrics for those such as “Applicant needs to show they sold $300,000 in goods or services last year”). Also, since I delete Twitter spam followers regularly, I would consider a quality follower count (easy for an outsider to peruse) to be a great metric on whether the person has “street smarts.” I don’t own a social media consultancy so far be it from me to say that an applicant being Twitter or Facebook proficient might be a minimum requirement for me to hire if I had one. You might feel that a lot of Twitter and Facebook users are slackers with no business skills, which is fair enough to assume, especially if it is your experience in looking at job applicants. But I know I wouldn’t hire a breakfast cook who can’t already make a mean bacon and egg special.

]]> By: MRowland http://impactinteractions.com/best-practices/the-new-reality-what-it-takes-to-get-hired-in-social-media/410#comment-158 MRowland Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:32:26 +0000 http://impactinteractions.com/?p=410#comment-158 Hi Mark, Happy to help you recruit.. ;-) You should contact us as we have similar circles of experience where we might be able to help each other. Mike Hi Mark,

Happy to help you recruit.. ;-)

You should contact us as we have similar circles of experience where we might be able to help each other.

Mike

]]> By: Mark Fidelman http://impactinteractions.com/best-practices/the-new-reality-what-it-takes-to-get-hired-in-social-media/410#comment-157 Mark Fidelman Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:53:39 +0000 http://impactinteractions.com/?p=410#comment-157 I agree with some of the comments above. Your community building activity needs to align with the business objectives set forth by management. I actually wrote a job description (which we are asking for candidates now) on this topic here: http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=723907&trk=coprofile_jobs I agree with some of the comments above. Your community building activity needs to align with the business objectives set forth by management.

I actually wrote a job description (which we are asking for candidates now) on this topic here: http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=723907&trk=coprofile_jobs

]]> By: MRowland http://impactinteractions.com/best-practices/the-new-reality-what-it-takes-to-get-hired-in-social-media/410#comment-147 MRowland Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:07:14 +0000 http://impactinteractions.com/?p=410#comment-147 Thanks Kunal, That's part of the point, numbers are frequently thrown out but not explained as to why it matters that some one has 2,000 followers on Twitter or 3,000 friends on Facebook. Smaller numbers with larger concentration of who your true audience is, followed up with calls to action by this audience is what we look for in evaluating the success of your social media work. But it must be in terms of business results, not personal... Mike Thanks Kunal,

That’s part of the point, numbers are frequently thrown out but not explained as to why it matters that some one has 2,000 followers on Twitter or 3,000 friends on Facebook. Smaller numbers with larger concentration of who your true audience is, followed up with calls to action by this audience is what we look for in evaluating the success of your social media work. But it must be in terms of business results, not personal…

Mike

]]> By: Kunal http://impactinteractions.com/best-practices/the-new-reality-what-it-takes-to-get-hired-in-social-media/410#comment-146 Kunal Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:48:14 +0000 http://impactinteractions.com/?p=410#comment-146 For people who choose to tout the size of their follower and fan bases, I think it's important to ask them: * What was your motivation for building a large base of fans/followers? * What tangible benefits has this large base delivered? These could be personal benefits, as long he/she understands how these could translate into the business world. For people who choose to tout the size of their follower and fan bases, I think it’s important to ask them:

* What was your motivation for building a large base of fans/followers?

* What tangible benefits has this large base delivered? These could be personal benefits, as long he/she understands how these could translate into the business world.

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