Hopefully, you've made it to your local supplement store, and you're well equipped to stay healthy as we head into the holiday season (see last week's discussion if you're confused on this).  Enough of the fun stuff–now it's back to work!

Last week I ran across an article written by Peter Weddle that I found profoundly insightful.   I reference Peter's work from time to time not only because his observations are instructive, but also because his viewpoints are based on the broader recruiting industry (not just the real estate industry).  

In this article, he weighs in on the impact that social networking has had and will have on the recruiting industry.  I don't want to spoil his writing by chopping up what he wrote.  So, I am going to republish the entire article below and then draw some conclusions for real estate recruiting in our next discussion.

So, here you go:

Post Social Recruiting, by Peter Weddle

"For the
past five years, social recruiting has primarily been implemented in two ways:
data mining pools of talent and networking with prospective candidates at
social media sites. While such techniques will continue to be important, the
thrust of social recruiting in the future will shift to a far different kind of
activity: building and leveraging individual allegiance at employer and
staffing firm sites. It's the next phase in the War for Talent – the era of
post-social recruiting.

The
current incarnation of social recruiting has been stimulated and structured by
social media sites. The way we socialize with candidates is governed by the
format, functionality and focus of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. These sites
enable us to promote our brands, advertise to and connect with large pools of
professionals in a wide range of industries.

These
interactions have effectively defined social recruiting as a fleeting and
thoroughly functional relationship. Basically, we're saying to prospects:
"Hey, we're a buyer of talent, you're a seller of talent, let's do a
deal." While it isn't the most alluring of propositions, the fact that it
is aimed at a cohort of the workforce not easily reached by other media –
so-called passive job seekers – has made it an important addition to our
recruiting capabilities.

The word
"social," however, means something very different from fleeting and
functional relationships. Dictionary.com defines the term as "pertaining
to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a
social club." Translated for our purposes, it is the creation and
ongoing development of individual allegiance.

That's post-social, at
least as we have to this point understood social recruiting, but truly social
if we intend to use social technology on a large enough scale to address more
than one-off requirements.

Post-social
recruiting means interactions with prospects, candidates and applicants that
make them feel at home with and thus committed to an organization. It gives
employers and staffing firms a way to forge an enduring bond – a psychological
rather than simply an electronic connection – with select talent populations.

Why is it
the future of social recruiting? Because of the past. In the early 1990s,
economic conditions and competition forced employers to change the way they
dealt with employees. They could no longer afford the expensive overhead of
managing workers' careers, so they jettisoned both the career ladder and the
gold watch. They still employed those workers, of course, but each person was
on their own when it came to managing their career.

In the
two decades since then, individual workers have had no place to hang their
career hat. No homestead where they can get the practical and psychological
support they need and deserve. Professional societies and associations have
long served that purpose for a person's field of work, but nothing has existed
for a person's career.

And now,
the potential exists to correct that situation and, in the process, create a
formidable, new talent acquisition strategy. Post-social recruiting involves
using social technology to create true career communities – not today's posers
that are actually databases of candidates – without the expensive overhead of
traditional corporate career support. These virtual "careersteads"
nurture allegiance among talented workers and that bond, in turn, transforms
them into genuine employment prospects.

Careersteading
for Talent.  A
post-social community is not a network of active or passive job seekers. It is
not a one-off interaction based on a specific opening. Rather, a careerstead is
an ongoing relationship that employers and staffing firms establish with
prospects (i.e., people who haven't even expressed an interest in working for
an organization) as well as with candidates and applicants.

Its
purpose is not near term sourcing, but rather, long term interactions that help
to promote the career success of those who participate. That effort, in turn,
develops and sustains individual allegiance, and it's that bond which generates
recruiting benefits. These benefits include:

1.  A
heightened viral effect, because those who participate feel safe and supported enough to tell
their peers about the community. The allegiance community members feel toward
the organization encourages them to champion participation in it to others in
their field. 

2.  A
heightened employment propensity, because those who participate feel as if the organization
has their best interests at heart. The allegiance of community members
encourages them to work for the organization as many times as possible
throughout their career.
In effect, a careerstead is a highly
focused, self-sustaining talent generator that exclusively serves the
recruiting interests of a single employer or staffing firm.

How do you
create such a community? Not with questions and answers on a Facebook page.
And, not with job postings in a LinkedIn group or on Twitter feed. No, the only
way to establish a true careerstead – one that scales the power of social
technology to address all or most of an organization's talent requirements – is
by breaking all the rules we've learned to date about social recruiting. I'll
talk more about that in my next column.

Stay tuned for part two of this discussion.  If you have some thoughts you'd like to share now, you can join us in the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC) discussion group.

Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Last week, I highlighted a book
called Content Rules, written by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman.  Content
Rules shows how any small business, even a local real estate office, can
harness marketing power by becoming a micro-publisher.  You may want
to read Part 1 of this discussion before continuing, to avoid missing anything.

 There are great benefits to
becoming a content provider on the internet.  For example, Mike
Volpe, a VP of marketing at HubSpot, recently reported companies that blog
(i.e. produce content) generate 55% more website traffic when compared to
companies that don’t. In addition to more traffic, companies that produce
content recieve 97% more links coming into their sites.

 Despite the obvious benefits of
micro-publishing, most companies are hesitant to commit to regularly producing
content. The question we often get from owners and managers is, “How could I
possibly do this? It seems complex, a little overwhelming, and a lot of work!”

 Yes, it is going to take some
work—there is no way around that.  But, the complexity can be reduced
if you start the process with a plan and a set of principles.  Complex
Rules has published a simple framework that can help anyone get started down
the path of micro-publishing.   There are 11 of these best
practices in the book, here are the best six (in my opinion):  

1. “Embrace being a
publisher” – Put your quality content online: blogs, videos, podcasts, email newsletters,
ebooks, white papers, tweets, webinars, photos and images.

2. “Build momentum” –
Set a clear goal. Make sure your content includes triggers that compel users to take actions that
will eventually result in buying your products and services. Content itself does not
sell; it sets up the sale by giving useful information.

3. “Speak human” –
Adopt a natural voice online. Don’t put on airs. Avoid jargon, such as “impactful,” “synergy,”
“proactive,” “end-to-end,” “win-win” and “leverage” used as a verb. “Write the way you
talk.”

4. “Share or solve; don’t
shill” – Your content’s purpose is not to sell, but to educate and inform. This engages people and
causes a favorable reaction to your firm. To illustrate: The Pampers division of Procter
& Gamble produces online “Welcome to Parenthood” videos. The videos don’t sell
diapers; they inform new parents about babies, and cover topics such as “potty training,”
naps, etc…

5. “Do something
unexpected” – Customers love it when you or your firm does things differently. To gain attention,
surprise your online visitors. This works well for B2B firms that want to stand out from
their competition.

6. “Play to your strengths” –
You don’t have to produce the web’s most entertaining videos, podcasts, or blogs, but you
must publish some type of quality material online.

To wrap up this discussion, I want
to connect micro-publishing principles to recruiting. It is self-evident that
publishing great content will help your real estate office be more successful
at satisfying customers and selling more real estate. But can it also help you
recruit experienced agents more successfully?

 Yes it can—because attraction is
always more powerful than promotion.

Experienced agent recruiting is dominated by promotional activities.  Cold calls, direct emails, staged networking events, etc. are the tools that most real estate managers are using to recruit experienced agents.  Like the direct mail companies who soliciate new card customers, this strategy does produce some results when executed with a high level of persistence.  However, both candidates and managers often get weary in this process.

If you think you can outlast your competitors in the application of these promotional activities, go for it. But you better hope they don't find out how to attract agents to their cause.  If you think about it, Apple didn't become the most valuable company in the world by promoting their products.  They created something compelling and figured out how to attract people to it.  

By becoming a successful micro-publisher and
providing great content in your local community, you position yourself as an attractive thought-leader. Successful real estate agents want insightful information
and they want to be connected to intersting and  influential people.  If you
become a source for compelling information, you’ll have agents congregating around
you.  That is every hiring manager's dream.

Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

A few months ago, I
acquired a summary of a book called Content
Rules, written by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman.  Our company
subscribes to getAbstract, a business book summary
service that helps me be more selective about the books I want to
spend time reading.

The summary of Content Rules caught my eye because it
makes the point that the marketing of products and services is increasingly
becoming connected to content creation and management.  The
getAbstract summary put it this way:

“On the Internet, a brand new start-up, even a one-person shop,
can compete directly and quite favorably with the biggest Fortune 100 companies
– as long it offers superior online content.

Today, consumers find the products and services they want by
using search engines. Your goal is to create engaging, compelling, and
memorable content –blogs, videos, podcasts, and websites – that people like,
link to, and pass on to others. This can help your material show up on the
first page of search engine results – even ahead of material from huge
corporations.”

As a real estate company,
have you ever thought of yourself as a content provider?  If not,
maybe you should. 

Of course at a basic
level, the primary benefit a real estate company offers a consumer is relevant
and helpful information concerning the process of buying and/or selling
homes.  In this role, you are providing
content. 

However, there is a
tendency to want to consolidate this content production role under large corporate-powered
platforms.  While this is of some benefit, if you stop there you’ve
left yourself vulnerable to competitors who leverage the concept of micro-publishing.

As you know, real estate
is still a “local business” in most parts of the country.  And on a
micro-level, a local real estate office has the opportunity to become the real
estate “domain expert” for a local community or neighborhood.   How
is this done?  By becoming a niche (real estate/ your specific
community or neighborhood) content provider on the internet.

Content Rules gives
several (non-real estate) examples on how this can be done.  Here is
one I thought was interesting:

“As the new director of instruction at Reynolds Golf Academy in
Greensboro, Georgia, golf pro Charlie King badly needed to bring in golfing
students, but he had a very limited marketing budget.  King turned to
the web to build his clientele by showcasing the Academy with quality online
content that would attract golfers who wanted to strengthen their games. He
presented useful golfing tips and explained that golf is not as difficult as it
may seem. King believed that his expertise and humor would draw golfers to his
online
activities and thus, eventually, to the school.

In February 2008, King launched his blog, “New Rules of Golf
Instruction,” offering free lessons via blog posts and videos. In March 2009,
he published an ebook, New Rules of Golf Instruction, as a free download from
his blog and Reynolds’ website.  Golf magazine’s website ran an
ad-libbed video featuring King teaching a satirical lesson showing angry
golfers “The Proper Way to Throw a Club” into the water. The video went viral;
at 1.8 million viewers and climbing, it is continuing to generate hits on the
Academy’s website, providing great publicity and great fun.”

[Note:  Charlie's video was moved to Golf.com (a site owned by Sports Illustrated) because it got so popular.  To view it, cut the paste the following link into your browser address window:  http://www.golf.com/video/proper-way-throw-your-club ]

Do you think the average
golf pro at your local country club is a marketing expert?  Probably
not.  If guys like Charlie King can do this, so can you!

The key to playing this
game is to turn yourself into a content provider that produces quality
content.  What’s quality content?  It’s content that your
target audience would not only find interesting, but also helpful and sometimes
entertaining.  

Here is a quick checklist
for the content your produce.   Quality content is always…

True – Never deal in false messages. As author Annie Lamott teaches,
“Good writing is about telling
the truth.”

Relevant – Your message must be purposeful and must matter to your
audience.

Human – Don’t write about your product; write about how people use it.

Passionate – People will not care about your products unless they see that
you do. Use the strength of your feelings to engage them.

Original – An unusual story or a “fresh perspective” captures readers’
interest.

Surprising – Being a bit unexpected is interesting; being shocking is a way
to go viral.

In our next WorkPuzzle,
we’ll cover some additional guidelines for becoming a content provider and show
you how this applies to recruiting. 

Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.