The Power of Social Media
Capt. Asher Ballew, USAREC, Sarasota Company
June 15, 2015
Social media allows recruiters to reach out directly to potential leads, providing us a newfound ability to network with prospects and COIs and access and share information.
The digital communications revolution has altered the way U.S. Army Recruiting Command does business. So why aren’t we taking advantage of it across the command? I believe there are two reasons.
First, it’s hard to measure. Our systems aren’t advanced enough to track and monitor internet prospecting. But the greater problem, I believe, is because we aren’t comfortable using it.
Most company-level leadership has little knowledge of communication tools such as posting, tweeting, and instagramming. So when a twenty-five year old recruiter talks about using the social media to recruit, company commanders and first sergeants are either amazed or reluctant.
Utilizing social media gives us a significant advantage over our sister services and allows us to keep pace with the private sector. User generated-content allows us to share ideas for motivation, support others, and helps us learn more about our communities, finding out what’s important to our neighbors.
Web-based communities allow for the sharing of ideas, job openings, and networking. There are multiple social media sites from which to gather and share information. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Craigslist give us additional resources for prospecting that we didn’t have five years ago.
They give us the ability to share information instantaneously. One tweet or post about an inspirational Future Soldier physical fitness session can be shared hundreds of times within a few hours.
We can use share posts about Future Soldier training and each FS’s progress on websites like Facebook, generating curiosity.
Getting the same message out to the same number of people ten years ago would probably have taken weeks, if not months. Social media allows us to gather and share information instantaneously, legally, and ethically at no cost.
Through Facebook and Twitter, recruiters can gather important information on leads and applicants easily and quickly, allowing recruiters to establish a relationship. The idea of bonding and establishing trust through the internet is a strange concept for most adults and our leaders, but not for today’s youth. They establish connections with without ever coming face to face with others. Some even prefer the anonymity of connecting without first meeting.
Teenagers are rapidly-changing individuals and informal analysts, therefore, recruiters need to be able to quickly alter their messages.
How do we use social media at the tactical level? When our center leader or engagement teams are prepping for follow up on hot leads, ace records, or a specified lead, they prefer to blue print some individuals prior to contacting them. This is already an industry standard in hiring in the civilian workforce.
We can stay competitive with our civilian competition in seeking top-notch recruits by searching the internet for information. Gathering information during the recruiting process allows us to quickly establish trust and a relationship, which youth value.
Recruiters are using websites to gather information on leads to establish a relationship based on mutual friends, which is common on Facebook. This is critical, because referencing or linking a known friend establishes an immediate connection to a prospect. Prospects are looking at events their friends might have attended in order to establish rapport through possible missed connections.
This is such a common practice Craigslist established a section for missed connections. An example of what you might see on Craigslist is, “I saw that you were at last week’s football game against the Bulldogs. That was an awesome game! Are you going to the game this Friday?”
The difference between a good organization and a great organization is an ability to innovate while achieving the mission. Facebook’s mission is simple, “Give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected by staying connected with friends and family to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.”
This is why we need to leverage Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Craigslist, Pinterest and other social media applications into a significant recruiting advantage we didn’t have in years past.
Social media has unlimited potential, it costs the government nothing to little, is current and streaming 24/7, and is available for everyone to use.
With technological progress and self development on social medial websites, the possibilities for mission success are endless.
Capt. Asher Ballew, USAREC, Sarasota Company
June 15, 2015
Social media allows recruiters to reach out directly to potential leads, providing us a newfound ability to network with prospects and COIs and access and share information.
The digital communications revolution has altered the way U.S. Army Recruiting Command does business. So why aren’t we taking advantage of it across the command? I believe there are two reasons.
First, it’s hard to measure. Our systems aren’t advanced enough to track and monitor internet prospecting. But the greater problem, I believe, is because we aren’t comfortable using it.
Most company-level leadership has little knowledge of communication tools such as posting, tweeting, and instagramming. So when a twenty-five year old recruiter talks about using the social media to recruit, company commanders and first sergeants are either amazed or reluctant.
Utilizing social media gives us a significant advantage over our sister services and allows us to keep pace with the private sector. User generated-content allows us to share ideas for motivation, support others, and helps us learn more about our communities, finding out what’s important to our neighbors.
Web-based communities allow for the sharing of ideas, job openings, and networking. There are multiple social media sites from which to gather and share information. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Craigslist give us additional resources for prospecting that we didn’t have five years ago.
They give us the ability to share information instantaneously. One tweet or post about an inspirational Future Soldier physical fitness session can be shared hundreds of times within a few hours.
We can use share posts about Future Soldier training and each FS’s progress on websites like Facebook, generating curiosity.
Getting the same message out to the same number of people ten years ago would probably have taken weeks, if not months. Social media allows us to gather and share information instantaneously, legally, and ethically at no cost.
Through Facebook and Twitter, recruiters can gather important information on leads and applicants easily and quickly, allowing recruiters to establish a relationship. The idea of bonding and establishing trust through the internet is a strange concept for most adults and our leaders, but not for today’s youth. They establish connections with without ever coming face to face with others. Some even prefer the anonymity of connecting without first meeting.
Teenagers are rapidly-changing individuals and informal analysts, therefore, recruiters need to be able to quickly alter their messages.
How do we use social media at the tactical level? When our center leader or engagement teams are prepping for follow up on hot leads, ace records, or a specified lead, they prefer to blue print some individuals prior to contacting them. This is already an industry standard in hiring in the civilian workforce.
We can stay competitive with our civilian competition in seeking top-notch recruits by searching the internet for information. Gathering information during the recruiting process allows us to quickly establish trust and a relationship, which youth value.
Recruiters are using websites to gather information on leads to establish a relationship based on mutual friends, which is common on Facebook. This is critical, because referencing or linking a known friend establishes an immediate connection to a prospect. Prospects are looking at events their friends might have attended in order to establish rapport through possible missed connections.
This is such a common practice Craigslist established a section for missed connections. An example of what you might see on Craigslist is, “I saw that you were at last week’s football game against the Bulldogs. That was an awesome game! Are you going to the game this Friday?”
The difference between a good organization and a great organization is an ability to innovate while achieving the mission. Facebook’s mission is simple, “Give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected by staying connected with friends and family to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.”
This is why we need to leverage Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Craigslist, Pinterest and other social media applications into a significant recruiting advantage we didn’t have in years past.
Social media has unlimited potential, it costs the government nothing to little, is current and streaming 24/7, and is available for everyone to use.
With technological progress and self development on social medial websites, the possibilities for mission success are endless.