We award you a Medal of Honor for endeavours in the field of Social Media. With active operations on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Google+, Vimeo, Army Live Blog and the recently launched initiative on Pinterest, you are leading the way forward. And it seems from behind ‘enemy lines’, as in some quarters of RecruitmentUSA there is often little value held to using social media for anything close to brand engagement. And as you target audiences on each platform in a unique way, your latest move into Pinterest is an ideal movement to reach its predominantly female demographic.

So unlike many, you’re not afraid to put it to the test and are doing so to catch onto the growing popularity of the platform now – rather than waiting in the trenches to see what happens next. (Even though you could, having established forward bases on all the major social media fronts already.)

It’s real employer marketing. Or Social Employer Branding, as we like to say. And in that awful cliché ‘War for Talent’ – you’re showing how fortune favours the brave. You really are a ‘client’ after our own heart. We salute you.

You know how to attract me.
I like what you say to me.
You’re there for me.
Whenever I need you.
You always talk to me.
And people are always talking about you.
You make me happy.
You’re encouraging.
Ever helpful.
You get me excited.
You’re inspiring.
I want to be with you.

I’ll be leading a track about Engagement in Social Recruiting at #trulondon next week on Thursday 23rd. I’d love to see you there.

The world of advertising has always plundered popular culture – even before the growth of the internet. Original ideas have been copied. Or at least ‘inspired’ some people’s creativity. But with Google and now the rise of Social Media,’naughty’ creatives and designers, who think no-one will ever notice, blatantly display someone else’s work as their own. Why would you do that? What does it achieve? Apart from the option of being uncovered and ridiculed.

True originals are created by that old phrase ’99% perspiration, 1% inspiration’. It’s tough. It’s hard. But it’s damn satisfying when you get there. And when you do reach that nirvana – don’t be tempted as some are, especially in the digital world of web design, to replicate it on your next few projects just because you can re-skin, re-brand and re-use it. Where’s the fun in that? And much more telling – where is the client’s ‘brand’ in that?

But it’s not just design types whose original thinking is clouded by the digital world. Delve into the depths of social media and it’s the same. The copyists. The case studyists. With the etiquette of sharing ‘socially’, comes the easy option. If Company X do that, we can. If Agency Y did it that way, why don’t we just do the same thing? If Business Z were success with that, let’s see how they did it and follow that plan. Why? Because you’re afraid to try something different yourself? You need a safety net of somebody else’s originality to show you the way.

It’s a philosophy we’ve never believed in. For years, the only way to know what we did – outside of seeing the actual work itself – was when we entered it for awards. Our website was literally just fun and games. We kept the ‘creative’ wheels turning by doing what we considered were the best solutions. No matter what everyone else was up to. Same with Social Media, we just did it. Slowly. Enquiringly. Testing the water. A trial here, the odd fail there. It grew. We saw what it could achieve. What we could do. We learned by rolling up our sleeves and getting on with it. It’s the only valuable way to go, in our honest opinion.

A true enquiring mind should be able to discover, use, create and ‘sell’ the strategies, solutions and ‘successes’ for itself. If you want to learn what others do, don’t just take it verbatim and rely on them to do the ‘hard work’ for you.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the initial beauty for recruitment to social media was that it encouraged the personal contact? A connection on LinkedIn. A friend on Facebook. Even a follower on Twitter. How everyone complains about the auto-bot Vacancy Twitter accounts. A Facebook Wall of job ads. An intrusive and bland job invite on LinkedIn.

Where is the engagement? It’s not just about ensuring there’s some interesting video posted on Facebook every few days. Or photos of your latest team building away-day. Nor a distant connection to someone you don’t really know who works there. It’s surely about engaging, attracting and being interested. Liking what they say (and do). Being attracted to join, or start, a conversation with them. Getting to know the company or brand ‘one to one’. Then you know if you’re right for each other. Not because the latest technological advance says that you are.

Otherwise, Company Anon will be studying your LinkedIn profile, judging your social savvy on Facebook, telling you how good they are and then finally, when the metaphorical ‘Blind Date’ wall slides back… well let’s just say, your career may not be exclaiming ‘Amazeballs!’

It’s our Twitter 3rd birthday today. Like most people discovering Twitter around this time in early 2009, it was news of the Twitter ‘exploits’ by a certain Mr Fry that pointed us in its direction. So we’d like to say a big, sloppy thank you, Stephen. For without you:

…we wouldn’t have spent the last 3 years tweeting, retweeting, sharing, linking, spouting, chatting and, always, learning in the Twittersphere.

…we would not have become so engaged in the world of social media and, from there, into social recruiting.

…the andsome business might have missed the chance to embrace the opportunities offered by the above – so fully and so early on.

…midnight hours wouldn’t have been so delightfully filled by everything from one&other 4th plinth chats to managing communities and recruitment campaign deadlines.

…our awards shelf would be significantly emptier.

…and our clients (both old and new) couldn’t have taken full advantage of our knowledge, expertise and interest to help them recruit more creatively and effectively in this space.

We can’t thank you enough.

Love

@andsomepeople