Social Media and Recruitment

Fitting social media into a company is a difficult task.

Social Media professionals don’t fit in to the normal paradigm.

Define What You Need• Understand what you want to do with social media. Ask

yourself, “what do I want from social media?”. If you want to make social media the game changer for your company, you will need to go for a Tier 1 candidate.

• If you have direction, you may only need a Tier 2 , ie. Someone to grow social media in line with your strategic goals

• If you need someone to implement against predefined KPI’s and processes then you will need to hire at Tier 3 level

Tier 3

Tier 2

Tier 1 Social Media Director

Social Media Account Director

Social Media Manager

Community Manager

Social Media Data Exec

Social Media Marketing

Exec

Who?

• Social Media is still in it’s infancy. There are no experts out there yet, but there are people who can help your company.

• Remember, that the more senior the hire, the more they will be defining their own role. This is new ground for both brand and candidate so the JD will have to have a certain flexibility

• Hire communicators. As social media grows in importance for your company, the social media people will have to be able to communicate with the senior stakeholders about what it means to them

Position SM Strategy

SM Planning

Marketing Website Integration

Social Listening

FB Apps

Social Media Director

X X X X X X

Social Media Manager

P X P U P P

Social Media Account Manager (Agency)

U X X U P U

Social Media Exec (Agency)

U U U U U U

Data Exec U U U U P UCommunity Manager

U P P U P U

X = expert P = Proficient U = Understanding

Social Footprint• Investigate every candidates social footprint.

Ask them for their accounts, both personal and private and connect with them.

• You aren’t looking for embarrassing photos or spelling mistakes. You are looking for their level of social engagement. If they don’t engage as themselves, they won’t engage as your brand.

Conclusion• The guidelines for these roles are just that,

guides. Ultimately, if you are hiring social media professionals for the first time, you are going to have to go with your gut a little bit.

• Make sure you know what you want and set your expectations accordingly – after all, you get what you pay for.

• Beware anyone who calls themselves “guru” !!