xScion Solutions, LLC

For the past few months we have been on a mission to develop our talent community, primarily through social media outreach. We have sent e-mails out to people in our Applicant Tracking System with requests to join our group on LinkedIn, follow us on Twitter, ‘Like’ us on Facebook. This is downright exhausting for people to visit us on three websites; so we narrowed the field. We targeted LinkedIn as our medium to post articles, update our group with interesting discussions, and reach out to past employees and friends for referrals. When this approach brought us a whopping two new people to our group, I decided it was time to get personal. I tabled the mass e-mail and started reaching out to my connections on LinkedIn who had some relevance to xScion, past/current/prospective employees, friends etc. I sent each connection a personalized note along with the invitation to join my company’s LinkedIn group. My personalized efforts doubled the number of members I recruited to the group, but when that number is only four new members, it hardly seems worth it.

All this time spent on attempting to build a following with little success left me questioning whether it was my efforts that were failing or was it possible that social media was slowly becoming obsolete? I stumbled upon this article, which is what inspired me to write this post. Mr. Reimgold focuses on Google+ and the fact that the website is a ghost town, completely dead; it just came too late in the game. No one wants to log onto another website, build another profile, add people to circles. I took his ideas and applied them to my experience with recruiting member to my company’s LinkedIn group. It might be that people have little interest in following another group and connecting with more people. We are on social media overload, which is perhaps causing a slowdown in the use of these websites. Of course social media will always serve a purpose in some industries, but the creation of new networking websites needs to come to a halt because if Google can’t make it work it doesn’t bode well for other companies.

Today marks the second annual social media day! With the ever expanding world of social media, it seems fitting that we have a day to recognize and reflect on how media, advertising, recruiting, and socializing has changed since the rise of LinkedIn in 2003, Facebook in 2004, and Twitter in 2006. Though these websites serve slightly different purposes the common goal is to keep people connected through the Internet.

Some would say that we already put too much emphasis on social media, why do we need a day to celebrate it? I don’t see it as a celebration so much as a reflection on how far technology has come since the days of picking up the phone and calling your friend. Instead of picking up the phone you now have the option to write on your friend’s wall, look at their pictures, mention them in a tweet, or send them a message on LinkedIn. It has been proven many times that when used appropriately social media can be a wonderful tool for businesses, families, and keeping in touch with friends miles away.

Many people disparage social media because it eliminates the personal, face-to-face connections with people, but in reality these websites aren’t going to disappear anytime soon. In fact, websites similar to LinkedIn and Facebook continue to appear. If you are a typical non-believer in social media, let today be a day where you look at the positives of these websites and embrace them, you just may find they’re not as harmful as you once believed.

Get involved in a local meet-up http://www.meetup.com/mashable/ and celebrate however you deem appropriate!

With the economy being as horrific as its been the past few years and unemployment at almost 10 percent, people are desperately looking for ways to make there LinkedIn profile and resumes pop. However, filling up the empty space with meaningless buzzwords isn’t the formula for standing out in the job market.

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