In a typical football game, each team has 11 players on the field and at least 50 more suited up on the sidelines. That’s a lot of people to manage! The players all need to have highly developed specialties, and football coaches are always on the lookout for athletes who can fill these roles perfectly.

When you’re hiring, experience is very important. However, just because someone has an amazing array of skills doesn’t mean they can fill the right spot on your roster – you need to make sure they will work well with the rest of your first string.

Here are some “office players” you should be looking for to fill out your team, and how you can use social media to find them:

• The quarterback: Of course you need a quarterback! The QB runs plays, touches the ball on nearly every play and is responsible for making decisions on the field. You need to hire employees who you trust to make decisions. You don’t want them running to you for every little thing – hire employees who thrive on autonomy. Strong, decisive leaders will only serve to make you look good as the boss. Quarterbacks are also great communicators. They convey the necessary information to their teammates. How can you find yourself a good QB? One way is to find out how the individual communicates. In addition to interviewing candidates, check them out on social media platforms. Are their LinkedIn profiles clear and easy to follow? Do they have a lot of connections, or are their profiles empty and sad? If a Twitter profile has a decent number of followers; interesting, thoughtful tweets; and a good description, it may be a sign that the individual can communicate effectively in the workplace.
• Offensive specialists: The offensive players on a football team are responsible for gaining as many yards as they can on a play. They need to move the ball down the field without interference. Every office needs go-getters with lots of initiative, no matter the business. People who have the foresight to see how they can gain ground with clients and any project you toss their way are great to have in the office huddle. They are not afraid to try any avenue to gain traction. How can you find them? A good tactic might be to follow their lead and play some offense. Hunt candidates down on Twitter, using keyword searches that relate to a position and/or tweet details to people who might be a fit for the role. Search LinkedIn for the right experience and connect with people who meet your criteria. It’s a great way to find passive job seekers who may be open to opportunities that come their way.
• Defensive specialists: On the field, the role of the defensive players is pretty simple –prevent the other team from scoring. In office terms, you need defensive specialists to keep up with what your competitors are doing. Are your rivals encroaching on your territory? Your office defensive specialists will know their every move. They are experts at reading industry trends, “listening” to what is being said about you, and transforming those findings into strategic insights that shape the way you communicate both online and offline. To find them, step into their skill set. If you’re using social media for recruitment, pay close attention. What types of posts and tweets are working for you? Let the top performers shape your content plan, and reach out with the most engaging posts in your arsenal to help draw in recruits.
• Special teams: In football, special teams assist during kicking plays. While they may play other roles on offense or defense during the game, they have specially honed skills that help the team score extra points. Look for these types of players to round out your office roster. Office special teams players may be great at writing copy in a flash, designing an infographic, or knowing just what to say to soothe an angry client. They’re willing to step outside their role and do what’s needed to get the job done. To find those special teams players, consider expanding outside the major social networks into more niche ones. Looking for a fantastic designer? You might want to check out sites like Faveup.com, where designers show off their work. There are social communities for lots of professions. Even if they don’t have a special network, they may have a Facebook group or forum where you can connect.

When you’re drafting your office team, keep in mind that they all need to work together toward a common goal. What other types of “office players” or attributes are you looking for to complete your roster?

Many companies are making great strides in social media recruiting. This is good – social media is an excellent place to find passive and active candidates, and connect with them on a more personal level.

In addition to talking on social media, are you listening? Listening is a key strategy for engaging with individuals on social media. In order to maximize the benefit, you should follow these steps to listen efficiently.

1. Comb through reviews on social media and job feedback sites.  In addition to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, sites like Jobitorial (formerly Jobvent) and Glassdoor can help you figure out if your employment branding strategies are working. Jobitorial and Glassdoor feature anonymous reviews of your company from employees and potential employees. Jobitorial offers employee perspectives, and Glassdoor gets further in-depth by including salary information, interview feedback and more. Both sites offer rankings one through five.
2. Look for negative and positive patterns. Do employees consistently feel that the benefits are great? Do they think the interview process was lengthy and cumbersome? Are the salaries fair? Track these patterns and make adjustments internally, if needed and feasible. To be even more strategic, check in on specific dates and update your spreadsheet or tracking document to see how things have changed.
3. Use the patterns to inform your employment branding strategy. Maybe job seekers are saying that your four-hour interview process is daunting. Can you change it? Experimenting with it might result in happier job seekers and a better employment brand overall.
4. Take stock of employee reviews and see what can be changed. Are employees from one location all complaining about a manager? Maybe you need to talk with the manager about his/her work style. Are all the employees incredibly happy with the office vacation policy? Maybe this is something that should be touted more to interviewees and potential employees! You can uncover benefits you didn’t even know you had, just by listening.
5. Look at consumer sites, too. If your company offers a consumer service or product, checking in with review sites like Yelp can help you see how your employees are faring. Traditionally, happy employees are happy to provide good customer service. Problems may indicate areas for improvement in your management or training styles.
6. Monitor other social media commentary to get the full picture. Sites like Socialmention and Klout can provide insight into what people are saying about you on social media as well as how you are performing. These insights can give you focus areas and direction for your social media strategy.

To get the most out of your social media endeavors, incorporate listening fully into your strategy! What are some of your favorite “listening” sites?

Earlier this month, Target retail stores and its online site were overrun with activity from customers desperate to own a piece of squiggle-patterned luxury at a bargain price. On Sept. 13, famed Italian house Missoni launched a line exclusively for Target, and everybody wanted in. The Internet traffic caused Target’s website to crash, and the Missoni line was essentially sold out in a few hours. If you visit the website today, you will see most items are listed as “out of stock.”

It’s interesting that even in today’s economy, when many people are tightening their purse strings and have less disposable income, they still turned out in droves to spend on this collection, which, while affordable, is not comprised of necessities. People are even taking advantage of the craze by reselling the items on eBay at outrageous prices!

The consumer enthusiasm was (and still is) certainly driven by hype and Missoni itself, but Target did a lot to ensure that the line would be well-received. Though they made some mistakes , there are still nuggets of information to be mined from this situation – namely, building excitement without creating disappointment. How can you apply the good pieces of Target’s tactics to your recruitment strategy?

1. Create a buzz. Target released news and information about the Missoni collection months before it officially launched. They also included photographs of the entire line and pricing information. People started to get excited and planned their purchases. You can create a similar buzz about job openings by posting the information in several places and heightening the excitement. For example, if you have several marketing positions to recruit for, you can start tweeting and posting about them via social media. Sample post: “I’ve got a few excellent marketing positions coming soon! Limited-time offer, check back for updates! Going live 9/25.” This simple post gets people who are interested in those positions interested in your Twitter feed. They’ll start paying closer attention, waiting for the date when you post the opportunities.
2. Instill a sense of urgency in candidates. Target let consumers know that the line would only be available in limited quantities, for a limited time. You should let candidates know that the job opening will be filled quickly. Set a deadline, and stick to it. This is useful because it enables you to see which candidates can adhere to deadlines; it also lets candidates know that the job is desirable and there is significant competition. (If you’re worried about not getting enough candidates, you can always repost or extend the deadline later.)
3. Follow through on your marketing. Target has made it clear that, despite the high demand, they won’t be ordering any additional Missoni goods beyond additional scheduled shipments. They are sticking to the limited-quantity collection they advertised. If you set a deadline for applications, make sure you also set a deadline for yourself to go through them and respond to people. If you phone interview people, respond to them quickly about in-person interviews and so on. Instilling a sense of urgency but not following through on that promise will only serve to annoy some candidates.
4. Handle the resultant attention with aplomb. Target has been responding to customer feedback, but some customers are still dissatisfied because of delayed shipments and order cancellations.  If your number of applicants is much larger than anticipated, don’t panic. Send a note to each applicant letting him/her know you received his/her application, and that there was a high volume of applicants. Let them know that if they don’t hear anything by a certain date, then they should assume that the position has been filled by another applicant. That should alleviate disgruntled applicants.

In my work as a social media community manager for various companies, I spend a lot of time on the different platforms, and, oftentimes, even my less-than-delicate sensibilities are shocked. It’s no surprise that people on the Internet are ruder and cruder than they are in real life – they feel protected by the lack of face-to-face interaction in cyberspace. Nonetheless, when I see the expletive-laced, all-caps, or just plain aggressive posts some people make, I can’t help but think, “Do you email your mother with that keyboard?”

Not only that, but some brands seem to feel that social media is their own personal sales playground. Companies with carefully executed TV, radio, and print ads as well as eye-catching promotional campaigns think nothing of spamming fans on social media with sales pitch after sales pitch, ignoring questions and customer service issues. They’d never do this in person or over the phone, so why is it OK to be rude on social media? It’s not.

Lately, I’ve been desperately seeking politeness, so I turned to the definitive source – Emily Post. More specifically, an updated version of her most famous book: Emily Post’s Etiquette: The Definitive Guide to Manners, Completely Revised and Updated, by Peggy Post.

The book is dictionary-sized, but it’s definitely a great reference to have in your home for situations ranging from how to behave in the office to how to wait in line at the ATM and how to politely turn down a wedding invitation. Here, I’ve taken some of the tips for everyday etiquette and applied them to social media for businesses.

Standard Courtesies:

The Posts recommend using standard courtesies when presenting the “public you.” For companies and businesses, let’s just consider your Facebook and Twitter accounts to be the public you as well.

1. “Keep your voice volume to a reasonable level.” In social media terms, this means don’t post in all caps, with 10 exclamation points. Your fans followed your page because they like your brand – half the battle is won! You don’t need to sell to them – you need to engage them. Don’t post excessively, and think carefully about whether your post is relevant, fun, and social. Talking loud and often in person isn’t always the way to engage, and it won’t work on social media either. With engagement, sales and/or employee applications will come.
2. “Keep your language clean.” It should go without saying, but many people post curse words, foul language, and even direct threats on public forums like Facebook and Twitter. If your brand’s fans are posting aggressive complaints or foul language, don’t stoop to their level. Many companies find themselves in a terrible position when they unleash their snark on fans. For a primer on what not to do, see Nestle – it caused quite a ruckus last year. It’s hard to tell in writing if you’re being snarky or not. So unless it’s a really strong brand identifier for your company, keep the sarcastic comments to a minimum, even if they’re in jest. The risk of offending someone is too high. In addition, do your fans the courtesy of writing well – grace them with grammatically correct and fun-to-read posts.
3. “Stay courteous.” Don’t hijack other conversations happening on social media with an unrelated topic! You wouldn’t walk up to a group of people and interrupt them with a total non-sequitur. (Or maybe you would – in which case, stop doing that!) Why would you do the same on Facebook? Also, wait your turn. If fans are starting a conversation on social media, wait a while before jumping in. It’s kind of like when you’re in a great chatfest about last night’s TV shows with co-workers – you’re OK with the boss joining in, but when he/she does it too soon, the conversation tends to wither and die. If a brand responds immediately to every comment, it is taking away opportunities for organic engagement and potentially preventing itself from uncovering a brand evangelist!
4. “Don’t automatically take it personally.” If you’re in charge of a social media account for your company, don’t take rudeness personally. Give the offender the benefit of the doubt, and respond with patience and grace.
5. “Take responsibility for your own actions.” Don’t pass the blame. Just as you’d excuse yourself or acknowledge a faux-pas at a dinner party, if you make a mistake on social media, own up to it. If you incorrectly attribute something, make a spelling error, or post the wrong link – whatever it is – it’s best to quickly acknowledge and correct the error.
6. “Don’t ignore or delete people.” I’ve taken liberties with this one, if you couldn’t tell. But really, you wouldn’t ignore someone who spoke to you in public, why would you do so on social media? You certainly wouldn’t block them or magically delete them either! Acknowledge them in some way. (Unless their comment is spam. Feel free to totally ignore spam!)

By and large, Emily Post’s rules for etiquette consist of common courtesies we all know we should be following – whether you’re a company page admin or an individual user. Why is it that so many people don’t? Compared to past etiquette rules, we have it easy. We don’t have to wear gloves, we can address whomever we choose, hold hands in public, and giggle with reckless abandon. (All these were actual admonishments given to debutantes in the 1920s!) Compared to the constricting rules of the past, treating people with basic decency is a snap.

Treat others with kindness, and you’ll be rewarded in social media as you are in your offline life. Good conduct breeds popularity, so post with politeness. Especially when you are trying to attract top talent to work for your organization.

Aside from the items listed above, what other ways do you think companies can be more courteous online?