I recently came across a really interesting article on Recruiting Trends about Google’s social media effect on recruiting. The article discusses Google’s failed social media attempts before and discusses what is different in their strategy this time.

Google has an ambitious plan to extend social media across the entire Internet experience. You may have noticed the +1 sign that now accompanies a number of your favorite web pages, which is used to aid in future searches and the web experience as a whole.

This would be an incredibly ostentatious plan for anyone not named Google. It was only a matter of time before the most powerful brand on the Internet would break into the social media market. But what does this mean for recruiting? How could this affect companies like Linkedin?

In the article from Recruiting Trends, Vitaly Latush says, “If Google’s social overlay covers the entire Internet people may start choosing professional branding tools that better suit their professional/knowledge profile rather than accepting the one-size-fits-all options. ”

Google’s reach extends to nearly every corner of the Internet. Thus, building your recruiting brand through Google would be the most logical move should they develop the medium to deliver it. With Google+ they may have done just that. But only time will tell if Google+ can challenge and overtake Facebook and LinkedIn, or if it’ll wind up an afterthought like Google’s previous failed attempts.

Google Buzz anyone?

You can check out Latush’s article in its entirety by going here:

http://www.recruitingtrends.com/google-social-what-does-it-mean-for-recruiting

Dr. John Sullivan from ere.net has posted an interesting article about the top 30 social media recruiting errors. Many employers think that just by saying they “use social media” they are using it effectively when in reality that is really not the case. In fact, there are a number of mistakes that employers make over and over again when trying to implement social media strategy into their recruitment plans.

The common errors that Dr. Sullivan includes are separated into five major categories: strategy related errors, channel and tool selection errors, message and coverage errors, recruiter and employee support errors and process and administrative errors.

Essentially, for social media to work for your overall recruiting plan, a solid strategy is a must. You need to know who you are targeting, how you are communicating and always keep in mind your employer brand. In fact, Dr. Sullivan lists underemphasizing employer branding as one of the biggest mistakes.

What it really boils down to is that social media makes it too easy for employers to flood their subscribers with too much information that isn’t targeted or consistent. It’s important for an employer to have a plan in place and to stick to it lest they lose potential recruitments.

The fact is that social media can be an incredibly useful tool in recruitment. But unless you have a good plan in place, you should avoid it. To see the full list of common social media errors, go to:

http://www.ere.net/2011/02/07/high-impact-social-recruiting-errors-the-top-30-to-avoid/