@Alison Well China explained that the SHRM audience skews older and more conservative. That audience has generally seen EVERYTHING but they might be offended by me. I do think you’re right — social networking is super-mysterious and I hope we create enough allure to get people to come to the session so we can answer some of those questions.

@MN/Paul I totally support the LinkedIn/FB/Twitter distinction and I think LinkedIn is the more credible site; however, I don’t want people to exclude FB and Twitter and solely focus on LI.

@HRPuter I love how you got an answer!!

@Shawn I think your company needs some help. This might be a good place to start. Shannon is awesome. http://www.exceler8ion.com/

@Ian Whoa, thank you. That’s brill.

@HR Chick Well Lance has a foul mouth on him, too.

@Nick Good lord. Montana.

@HRJ This is why I don’t care for the differentiation between recruiting and HR. These functions, ideally, could be seamless and you could learn from one another.

@Colleen You should get up there for me.

@Lani OMG, yes, that’s a brilliant opening line.

No problem

And yes, riight – exactly. I’m sure there are many other uses as well, but I’m actually in marketing so those are the first examples I go to.

As far as B2B goes, I’d guess that online social networking has the same benefits as face-to-face networking (e.g., through a client event or something) just with more powerful tools. Basically, social media is the new golf course. And phonebook. And calling/business card. And CV. And on and on.

The take away would be some kinda of Social Media 101 starting points to just get set up in this world so you can see for yourself what’s going on.

While our college recruiters are all over this (which is how I find out about most of this stuff) I find it funny that everytime I go to your blog I have to go through our own security to say yes this is for company business.

I agree with the “Be honest and authentic” as that is how I got sucked into this as I’ve totally enjoyed the interaction with others working in HR and feel right at home.

So it’s a goodwill/brand thing and can be filed under a marketing initiative. Gotcha. I’d imagine that it would drive more brand recognition, so long as your messages are lost in the drivel of friends telling me “going to bed now” or “had a coffee at Starbucks.” Unless, of course, I worked for Starbucks, then I could direct market an ad to show up.

Sounds like more upside for a B2C company than a B2B company, but its value is not entirely lost.

Thanks,

HRputer (+1 wisdom)

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/06/23/montana-town-stops-asking-applicants-for-facebook-logins/

I didn’t believe it until I had read the articles.