Early last week, Google+ opened its platform to everyone and accompanied its announcement with some very slick new functionality to their hangouts (video chat) feature. Not to be outdone, at its annual F8 conference, Facebook announced a radical redesign of how users will interact with the platform, now pushing all Facebook interaction into a timeline.
The changes have elicited much commentary on what the changes mean, as well as where the social Web is headed. In particular, "Share Buttons? Ha. Facebook Just Schooled the Internet. Again." by TechCrunch's MG Siegler sums up the situation nicely. He demonstrates that Google continues to play catch-up, while Facebook ups the ante and changes the playing field.
How? By eliminating the need for users to interact as regularly with the platform.
In essence, the new Facebook timeline has quietly supplanted the "like." Now, applications built on Facebook let users grant access to third party sites or software to automatically update their Facebook profiles.
Best example? All those Farmville updates you can't stand. Another one might be Spotify, a music site that allows you to show your friends what you are listening to.
Historically, these apps required some sort of interaction or confirmation from users, but the new generation of Facebook offers auto-share options that users can activate to post activity from these apps on your profile as it is occurring.
In support of our commitment to ensure you are making good social media recruiting strategy decisions, here is what the new Facebook changes mean for your strategy today.
Social media recruiting strategies will have to adapt to the reality that the Facebook platform will value active engagement far more than in the past. Users are being given more control over what they see and when they see it in their news feed.
A company's Facebook presence should drive the social media recruiting strategy in a way that helps build and nurture talent communities. In order to do this, social media recruiting efforts should be founded on sharing valuable content that gives the skilled professionals an incentive to engage or share the content themselves.
What about Google's enhanced hangout features? The upgrade offers a new dimension to the social media recruiting strategy.
The hangout feature is very rich, a bit spontaneous, and naturally personal. This face time with the candidate market needs to have a purpose. One that keeps the engagement fresh, interests candidates to participate, and offers value to the community at large.
This week's flurry of social Web announcements offers tremendous opportunity for social media recruiting strategies. A true milestone in the recruiting discipline. If you hire people in any capacity, you might want to narrow down your new Facebook timeline.
