Your social media recruiting strategy and the Google test

Posted by: Joel Capperella

I am an avid user of Twitter (follow me @joelcapperella if you are so inclined). I use TweetDeck to manage my Twitter feed, which allows me to create customized tweet columns that are organized by category. Yesterday in my “thought influence” column, I discovered some good advice. The tweet was directed to marketing and public relations professionals, but is extremely relevant to our ongoing discussion about creating and executing a successful social media recruiting strategy.

The tweet — from David Meerman Scott — is as follows:


Looking for a marketing or PR job? You need to be able to pass the “Google test.” Do you? bit.ly/wrtilv

— David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) March 12, 2012

The Google test refers to the act of searching for a potential candidate’s name and his or her most recent employer. For example, Mr. Scott serves on the board of the inbound marketing software company, Hubspot. If we wanted to know if he practices the art of what Hubspot preaches, we might search “David Meerman Scott” AND “Hubspot”. In this case there is a host of information on Mr. Scott and his Hubspot-related work, as well as many of his published posts. These posts pertain to Hubspot or the related topic of leveraging digital social communication for marketing.

The Google test underscores an important aspect of our ongoing coverage of a social media recruiting strategy: personal brand development. While personal brand development is not in the direct control of your organization, it absolutely enhances the nature of the talent community. That is a main objective in the deployment of a social media recruiting strategy. The talent community must exist to enrich its participants, not just to create a fertile pool of go-to candidates (although it does have that derivative benefit). How do we add members to our talent communities and ensure our social media recruiting strategy is properly oriented? By actively seeking members that perform well in the Google test. To make the Google test part of your social media recruiting strategy, consider the following tactics.

1. Google test filter. Develop a standard process that filters as many incoming candidates as possible through the Google test. Although time consuming, you’ll identify candidates that might not be a fit for the specific job to which they have applied, but do match more general talent needs of the organization.

2. Search modification. Mr. Scott’s test is perfect for marketing and PR professionals, but the same search tactics might not work for the skill sets for which you are recruiting. To uncover the individual employee brand of a candidate, be more creative when administering the Google test. Identify terms that might be more relevant and shed more light on the individual.

3. Community invitation. Candidates with high scores on the Google test should be invited into the talent community. Whether through a Facebook page, LinkedIn group, Twitter chat, or even a specific blog post, you want your team to engage the individual and personally invite him or her to participate in the community.

4. Low scorer assistance. Another important element of a social media recruiting strategy is to avoid dismissing those who do not score well. Inform them of their score and tactfully offer suggestions for enhancing their personal and professional brands.

The Google test might be time consuming and it will require some adjustments to meet your specific needs. However, this test will help increase active participation with your targeted talent community and add value to your social media recruiting strategy.

(One last note: I encourage you to follow Mr. Scott on Twitter. His thoughts on how PR and marketing should be conducted in any business of any size are truly visionary as well as incredibly practical and accessible.)