I work in Human Resources, Social Selling has nothing to do with me, right?

The phones goes and I don’t know the number; it’s either a Cold Call or a Head Hunter / Recruiter.  I’m in the Office so I find an empty meeting room to take the call and answer.

It’s a recruiter. He goes through the usual story. Would you be interested in Company ABC.  Pre-IPO, all the salespeople are making more money than they can spend (I exaggerate but any sales person will know the drill). (Why is it that Head Hunters sound like a broken record? Maybe another Blog for another day?)

Now, I need to say that I’m not looking for a new role, but anybody like myself, who is “out there” will get these calls from time to time.

Back to the call.  I ask the name of the company the recruiter is working for and (as I’ve got my headset on) type it into Google.  Find that one of their Execs has been arrested for a minor offense (it happens) and go to their website.  Don’t really understand the messages on the website, so I ask the Recruiter.  “What does “We’re a global strategic consulting firm that specializes in helping companies solve their strategy execution challenges through a suite of integrated services.” mean?.”  It’s a direct quote from the website.  Then wish I’d hadn’t, as the recruiter tries and struggles, to explain.

On reading such a company (not customer) focused piece of jargon filled rubbish on their website, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to work there.  With the recruiter still struggling to give me an explanation, it gives me time to check them out on LinkedIn.

Great, I have a contact who works there, which would have been great, as I would have spoken to him, had I decided to have taken it further.

I now look at the LinkedIn profiles of the people who are second degree away and it’s all very uninspiring.

I politely turn down the approach from the Recruiter.

Now, I’m not having a go at this company, I’m sure they are well meaning managers and probably have an amazing product.  But in their search for talent, they are dead in the water.

So while if you are in Human Resources or a recruiter and reading this, I would agree that maybe “Social Selling” isn't right for you.  But maybe an “Employee Advocacy” program is. If your employees have boring profiles, people are making judgements that your company is boring and people wont want to work there.

As I hopefully demonstrated through that call I had with the recruiter, your website and your employees LinkedIn profiles are an extension of your brand.

Want to know how to sell to the modern, connected buyer?

If you're interested in a blueprint to help you in your move to digital and social then I recommend my book. “Social Selling - Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers”. Written in a workbook style, it's designed to help you implement a digital and Social strategy across Sales and Marketing. 

To order follow this link to Amazon there is also a Kindle, eBook version.

About the Author

Tim Hughes is co-founder of Digital Leadership Associates a company that provides support and guidance in all areas of Social as well as Social Selling. He has been called "an innovator and pioneer" of Social Selling and in the recent Onalytica list of the most influential Social Sellers globally, Tim was named as number 1.

Tim can be contacted on Twitter @timothy_hughes where he has some 155,000 followers or tim@digitalleadershipassociates.com - You can find him at his blog The Social Selling Network

Digital Leadership Associates 

Digital Leadership Associates is a consultancy to help companies move to digital and social. Set up by Social Media guru and bestselling social media author, Adam Gray @agsocialmedia and myself. DLA provides advice and guidance to companies, given by actual Social practitioners, that is people with actual experience in social media, social and digital transformations.  Check out our website or contact me at tim@digitalleadershipassociates.com