Todd Nilson specializes in social media strategy focused on employment branding, the hiring process, and candidate experience. He began his career in 1996 as an IT recruiter and spent time as a lead game designer for an online game company. Currently, Todd is the managing director for Social Syntax, leveraging technology resources to help businesses radically strengthen their sales, brand awareness, employee & customer retention and satisfaction through social media channels. He is also the founder of GoIndigo, LLC, a Milwaukee-based creative career events management company responsible for volunteer-driven events like Milwaukee JobCamp, Resume Slam, and Interview Improv.
1. How did you get your start in the industry?
I’ve always been an adopter of new technologies. I just can’t seem to resist the allure of the shiny object. But where I’ve been luckier than others is that I’ve developed a behavior—I can’t take credit for doing it consciously—of discarding those new technologies almost as quickly if I do not see its value. Because of this tendency to always be trying the newest tech, I got a reputation for giving an unvarnished opinion and started getting invited to talk about social media trends at work and with groups to which I’ve belonged.
As for specific things I’ve done to move into social media consulting, I came at it differently from a lot of people. I’m not a marketing guy. My first experiences with social media technologies were in the context of being a hobbyist gamer. I started as a player of online games and quickly became staff and then a creator of multi-player online games. These online communities are filled with people who are passionate about the subject matter, so I gained a strong appreciation for the ways that people can share (and misbehave) in an online setting.
Because I was also recruiting technology professionals as part of my work with SPR Companies, I started applying the lessons about online communication and community engagement to my hiring activities. For me, the questions about the ROI of social media have always been in mind, because from a recruiting perspective I was always asking and trying to track the source of my hires. Knowing whether you hired someone via one social media channel or another is about as direct as you can get with showing ROI.
2. What is the biggest challenge facing your industry?
The professional services industry for information technology is being crushed for talent. While unemployment remains problematic in other professions, the IT world has it only half as bad. Talented software developers, for example, are highly sought after and often receive multiple offers. Social networks like LinkedIn have made it that much easier to move into a new job, so companies, in my view, have miles to go in order to put together meaningful employer messages that not only attract top talent but have a substantial and stimulating work culture backing up those brand assertions.
3. What is the secret to your social media success?
Being successful with social media work has everything to do with planning. Companies simply cannot take an ad hoc approach to a social media presence. They need to think harder about who they’d like to reach, how they’re going to reach out, and what mechanism they’re going to use to measure the results and improve. A majority of companies are still fobbing off “the social media” thing to interns, which shows that they simply don’t understand the crucial importance of these new channels. I’m very much in favor or hiring interns but you simply do not entrust your social media world to someone who has not even learned a modicum of business etiquette, no matter how digitally savvy they may seem to be. The digital space is the first place where most people go to learn about your company. If your social media efforts are a hodge-podge of abandoned blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, you’re in trouble.
4. What do you think is the future of social media?
Social media will be increasingly combined with local, mobile applications to the extent that it will be difficult to release a new SM technology successfully that does not have a mobile component. Along the same lines, expect to see more developments in the areas of augmented reality (AR) and virtual worlds. We’ve seen only some early experiments with these technologies to date, but someone is going to get it right and make it ridiculously easy for the world to participate. Expect another Facebook phenom to emerge out of one of these spaces.
5. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?
To someone just entering the workplace and wants a career in social media, I have two suggestions. First, never lose your sense of play. It’s the willingness to experiment and play (I use the term in a very serious sense) that will keep your skills current and viable in a highly volatile space. Second, you must absolutely find ways to specialize. As the social media consulting space continues to mature, there will be no place for the generalist. Social media is not an end in itself and nobody ever made a living by being a telephone consultant. Social media is an appliance used to accomplish other goals. Consider your strengths and experience and choose an application of these attributes to establish and build on them.
6. Where can we find you on the web/on Twitter/Facebook/etc.?
You can find me on Twitter as @talentline411 where I talk about talent and hiring or as @socialsyntax where I talk about social media technologies and strategy. I blog at talentline411.com and socialsyntax.net along the same lines. I also keep up-to-date profiles on Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011
6 Questions on Social Media with Todd Nilson | Business 2 Community #socialmedia #B2C
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