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In a famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson he says, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”. This quote suggests that simply being innovative will help you easily achieve organizational goals by driving customers, prospective candidates, or investors to your company. In the real world, we all know that this type of thinking is disconnected from reality. Yet, some employers using social media for recruiting aren’t even building a better mousetrap. In fact, they are often building the exact same mousetrap as everyone else.

Think about an employer who utilizes social media for recruiting, and describe their social media strategy. Most employers that are active focus on the Big 3. They have a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account, and many of their employees use LinkedIn. Given the large user base of these 3 sites, it makes sense to build an active presence on these sites. As you dig deeper and look at their activity across these different platforms, there is often similar implementation: job openings, more job openings, and a sprinkling of information about the company. Perhaps, the thought is that if candidates are really interested they will navigate back to the careers site to learn more. But, the core of the attraction strategy is heavily biased toward one-way information dissemination, not communication.

This ignores the fundamental shift that is occurring in the way web users utilize the platform to consume information.

Unless using social media in recruiting for your organization is not focused on achieving results, I can’t see how this type of implementation will help attract top talent to your organization.

So, the question is, if you build the exact same social media presence in the exact same way as your competitors, will top talent beat a path to your door?

–Omowale Casselle (@mysensay)

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About the Author: Omowale Casselle is the co-founder and CEO of mySenSay, a social recruiting community focused on connecting talented college students with amazing entry-level employment opportunities. Our philosophy is simple, “Find a job you LOVE, never work a day in your life”. To learn more, subscribe to our email distribution list.