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?

Do you realize…

…one in two job seekers want to find and engage with companies in social?
…80 percent of companies use social media to recruit?
…12 percent of job searches are done via mobile devices?
…54 percent of job seekers are more likely to apply to your job at your company after they follow you on social media?

Yesterday, CareerBuilder’s Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Branding, Jamie Womack, along with CareerBuilder Area Vice President Andrew Streiter discussed these very findings in the featured webcast, Going Social: How to Leverage Social Media In Your Recruitment Strategy. 

In addition to these findings, they also gave practical tips for employers on the best ways to leverage emerging media to strengthen employment branding and recruiting efforts, including…

…the latest tools, trends and techniques for attracting top talent
…what emerging media are and what they mean for your business
…how to integrate emerging media into your current recruitment strategy

Missed the webcast? Download it now at www.careerbuilder.com/GoingSocial.

Keep the conversation going – use #CBGoSocial on Twitter…

During the webcast, participants were urged to join in the conversation by following and posting the hashtag #cbgosocial on Twitter! Visit Twitter and search #cbgosocial and put in your own two cents!

Related articles:

• Think Like a Marketer to Capture Top Talent
• Emerging Media: The Best Ideas You Aren’t Taking Advantage Of
• Why Video? 6 Benefits of Making Video Part of Your Recruitment Mix

The digital beast has arrived, and it is eating recruiters like foodies ferociously eat edamame while waiting for sushi.  Only the best recruiters have discovered the importance of two-way communications and long-term relationships. Just filling an open req may keep you in your job today, but it is not going to get you that promotion or next job or even next client. What differentiates you from the guy in the cubicle next to you or the woman in her basement starting her own company? It is you – your experiences, personality, persistence, network, knowledge and, oh, so much more. After all, clients and candidates will only ask for you by name if they feel like they know you and trust you.

Think of it this way. You reach out to a candidate via email. The first thing that candidate does is Google you to see if you and your company are legit. If that candidate can’t find you with a simple Google search, that person may not even dignify your email with a “no thank you” response. A high caliber candidate wants to know that you know something about him or her, and that you aren’t just sending spam to any warm body you find. Plus, if you are seeking talent in upper management or the C-suite, that candidate is going to want to know that you are good at what you do and not just some middle person doing the dirty work of the “real” recruiter.

So, even if you aren’t sold on Facebook or managing your own page/profile, you can still establish the brand of you. Start simple and small with a Google Profile or Google+ . Create a blog on blogger.com or tumblr.com that is about your industry, recruiting, or your company. For those of you who hate writing long posts, find yourself a Twitter handle and send out some easy peasy 140-character tweets. You could also head to YouTube; with a simple WebCam, you can talk your way into more clients and more candidates.

Just keep it straightforward with consistent naming conventions. Yes, use your full name or the same handle for all your profiles, and use the same photo with each of them so people can always tell when they find one of your official online profiles. Just a few simple steps, and you are on your way to becoming a high-profile recruiter.

Chances are high that any salesperson you have met since 1992 can recite lines, if not the entire script, from Glengarry Glen Ross.  David Mamet’s 1984 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play was adapted to film in 1992 with the likes of Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin giving way to memorable quotes, and providing fodder for film buffs and sales trainers alike.

Despite the origin of the term – whether or not it was Mamet – Baldwin’s character brings the concept of the “ABCs of sales” to new life and gives entrance to modern sales vocabulary in one of the film’s most memorable scenes: Always Be Closing.  

As personal online networks like Facebook grow to more than 500 million users and professional online networks like LinkedIn hit audience levels of more than 100 million, it’s evident that when fueled by technology, connectivity is easier and more accessible than ever.  The agents in Glengarry Glen Ross may not have been concerned with the relationships they were building (or not building) in always-be-closing deals; however, as the economy and job market recover today, solidifying relationships between individuals and organizations is crucial for pipelining future talent.  

Whether your organization consists of five people or you’re part of the Fortune 500, social platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, have opened up opportunities to target and attract new candidate streams that are otherwise inaccessible. Despite your industry, user-generated outlets like YouTube and WordPress have given your audiences the ability to sing your praises or sink your battleship with their reviews of your product, process, staff, and service. 

As recruitment evolves via emerging technologies, how do you make the most of opportunities to push your brand forward? Put on spin on Baldwin’s insightful speech, making your goal to “Always Be Connecting.”

Because everyone has their 2 cents
Just as the adage goes – without being crude – opinions are like certain body parts, and everyone has them.  No matter who you are or where you come from, you will think a specific way about a place, interest, topic, etc. Opinions can be formed through first- or secondhand experiences, education, and –although we might not like to admit it – even stereotypes and biases. 

Sites like Glassdoor.com, Jobitorial.com, and Careerbliss.com provide platforms for past and present employees as well as interviewees to provide reviews of your organization.  If a candidate has a bad experience and feels as though your interviewing process was unprofessional, warranted or not, the candidate has highly popular websites on which to post that opinion.  And with 64 percent of candidates researching companies before even applying to a position, overwhelming amounts of negative 2 cents can add up to serious recruitment challenges, whereas glowing employment reviews can propel recruitment efforts.

Because it’s human nature
In just seven short years, Facebook has grown to be the world’s largest online social network, with more than 700 billion minutes spent on the site each month and a 50 percent daily log-in rate. Despite your 2 cents about Facebook, not many can argue that the phenomenon is akin to who we are as human beings – creatures with a disposition to connect to others, validate our thoughts and perhaps self-worth through those that we know, and possibly even play out our innate voyeuristic and narcissistic tendencies. (OK, so this might be a stretch. But keep in mind that photo sharing and photo viewing are top activities on the site en-masse, and the average Facebook user changes their profile picture more than 18 times a year – three times the amount they did only a couple of years ago.)

Because everyone is a passive job seeker
In the last six months, I have consulted a handful of Fortune 500 organizations that are launching social media strategies aimed at employment branding for the first time.  These organizations have been active in the social space for years, but they are just now beginning to use the platforms for recruitment and employment branding campaigns.  Just a few weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal reported a similar trend in which some boutique firms have conducted almost twice the amount of employer branding analyses than in years prior. 

Regardless of whether people will actually label themselves “active” or “passive” job seekers, it’s safe to assume that at almost any given point in time, everyone, no matter how happy they are with their position and organization, is a passive jobseeker. People are typically taught and encouraged to pursue greater opportunities and not accept complacency. Managers don’t accept mediocre performance, and people shouldn’t accept mediocrity in their careers. No matter how sufficed one might be in their career, opportunities for advancement, increases in pay or benefits, better work-life balances, shorter commuting times, and more flexible hours can all be motivating factors for a happy and high-performing individual to move to another organization. As most recruiters and hiring managers know, talent is hard to find and equally hard to keep. 

As the job market recovers, expect to see more and more companies marketing their organization almost as a product to candidates – a product that is desired, offers value beyond a paycheck and has many other happy customers (in the form of current employees). 

The future of recruitment truly does transform Mamet and Baldwin’s “Always Be Closing” concept to “Always Be Connecting.”  Social media and employment branding are now part of the strategies for pipelining talent post-recession. Note that social media is not going to take the place of email marketing, targeted advertising, out of home advertising, print, TV, radio or any other platform on which your company currently sees recruitment success.  Instead, it’s a supplement – an ongoing effort. Social media takes strategy and helps forms the right path for conversations.  And while it – like people – may not be 100 percent controllable – social media gives your organization and the individuals at your organization the opportunity to create connections. Through it, you can actually show your company’s value proposition as well as give your employees – real people with unique stories – the opportunity to share how they contribute to your company’s success. It’s these stories from these brand advocates that will give life, reason and passion to why they’re working for your organization and why others should, too.  

As a company with a growing employment brand, you’ll be able to participate in online conversations where appropriate, engage current and future employees and enthusiasts, provide a platform of information and education for your targeted audience to discuss topics of interest, and truly begin a long-term and evolving strategy for your employment value proposition.   

How do you plan to enhance your recruitment efforts through the “Always Be Connecting” principle? Share your thoughts below!

Guy Kawasaki is the former chief evangelist of Apple, co-founder of the “online magazine rack” Alltop.com, and the best-selling author of The Art of the Start and Reality Check. In the following interview, Guy discusses his most recent book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, as well as the key to enchanting your employees – even in the face of bad news - and how you don’t have to keep company with rock stars to enjoy life’s little perks (although it certainly doesn’t hurt).

I wanted to ask you first about your previous experience at Apple. In your bio, you describe your role there as chief evangelist. What exactly does a chief evangelist do? I was an Apple Fellow. An Apple Fellow is a position that is not a line position. The Fellow was an engineer and was supposed to sit around inventing the future in the technical sense, but I’m not technical, so I would sit around and figure out marketing innovations. They wanted to ensure the “Mac cult” was still happy at a time when the Macintosh cult and the Macintosh market was seen as imploding. So, I didn’t really have a team reporting to me. I was just supposed to be this icon representing faith and belief in the Macintosh way.

You were one of the earliest adopters of Twitter, and you say yourself in your book that it’s one of the best marketing tools around today. How did you find Twitter, and how did you know it would turn into this phenomenon? Well, the first reaction of any intelligent person to Twitter was, “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.” [Laughs.] And that was my reaction, too.  But the light went on for me when I learned about power of searching Twitter. The first thing an egomaniac like I would do is search my name, right? I saw all these people talking about me, and so I started to get into these conversations with them. The second thing you do is start searching for your product. In my case, that was Alltop, so I started searching for people searching Alltop, and I started conversing with them. That’s when it hit me: “Wow, I can proselytize my product and my personal brand using Twitter. It’s fast, it’s free, it’s ubiquitous…What am I missing here?” Because [with Twitter] you couldn’t be further away from traditional marketing, which was slow, expensive and limited. Hallelujah! I was born to tweet!

There are a lot of stories out there about both individuals and companies running into trouble for things they’ve said or done on Twitter. Have you ever had a bad Twitter experience? I’d say that if you haven’t had a bad Twitter experience – for example, no one called you out, no one accused you of being a spammer, whatever – you’re probably not using Twitter right. It’s just like good marketing and advertising: if somebody isn’t complaining about your advertising or marketing, it must not be good advertising or marketing.  You know, if Mother Theresa were on Twitter, someone would be complaining that she’s not Catholic enough, and someone would be that she’s too Catholic. If you try to make everyone happy, you won’t be using Twitter right, basically.

How do you know that you’re enchanting? In other words, how would someone who read this book and started applying these principles necessarily know that they’re working? What’s the litmus test? Well, pretty soon, you’ll start getting upgrades to first class, and hotels will be giving you better rooms. I have a test at the end of the book, and there’s sort of extra credit section where you can see, “Are you able to get some of these things?” Not that the purpose of Enchantment is to get upgrades to first class, but the world is a more pleasant place if you’re an enchanting person, because you’re making the world a more enchanting place for other people. I think there’s a karmic scoreboard.

What gave you the idea to write Enchantment? I’ve been evangelizing products and services since 1983, and in order to evangelize something, you need to be enchanting. And I wanted to document those skills that make someone enchanting. Now, to be perfectly clear, I don’t think I do everything in the book, but I’m saying, “This is what you should do,” not necessarily, “This is what Guy does,” because I’d be a hypocrite. The bottom line is that [enchantment] is a skill set. I’m trying to teach people a skill set at a very tactical level. I love Malcolm Gladwell, but at the end of the day [after reading The Tipping Point], you know that in order to be successful, you need to tip, but you don’t know how to tip. I don’t spend 200 pages telling you why to be enchanting, I tell you how to be enchanting. That’s because I come from a business background. I’m all about the how.

When you talk about creating win-win situations in Enchantment, you tell a story about Steve McQueen’s first wife working her way to the front of the line at service station bathroom by dropping the names of Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and James Garner, with whom she happened to be traveling. So what’s your advice for how ordinary people (who aren’t in the habit of traveling with an entourage of celebrities) create a “win-win” for themselves in that – or any other – type of situation? [Laughs] Well, there have been lots of studies that show that if you simply give a reason for something, the word “because” is very powerful. So one tip, if you’re ever in line and want to skip ahead (and I’m not suggesting you lie): if you provide some reason for why you need to be in front, people are more likely to oblige.  Or imagine if you’re standing in the line at the TSA, and you go up to someone and say, “Can I go in front of you?” There’s a big difference between that and saying, “Can I go in front of you because I’m going to miss my flight?” I don’t know if that’s necessarily enchanting, but that answers your question.

I want to talk now about enchantment from the employer perspective, because that’s something to which you dedicate a chapter in your book. What’s the key to enchanting your employees? When it comes to enchanting your employees, the most important thing is not money, but to provide what I call MAP, which stands for Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose. Mastery means that you allow your employees to master new skills and to become better at what they do. Autonomy means you allow them to work without being micromanaged. And finally, purpose means to allow them to work at a function that has higher purpose than simply making money. So if you said to most of your employees, “Here, I’m going to let you improve your skill set, you’re going to be working autonomously, and we’re doing something important for the world,” I guarantee you, you’ll enchant them.

Is there a way to be enchanting when delivering bad news? Well, yeah. Part of being enchanting is being honest and trustworthy, so there are instances of delivering bad news, and trustworthiness is everything. Enchantment isn’t about always delivering good news, it’s about being likeable and honest. 

Aside from just learning how to be enchanting, I’d like your thoughts on how to be enchanted. Given the psychological toll this recent recession has had on this country as a whole – we see a lot of people who are disenchanted from their jobs, burned out, depressed, etc. – it seems we could all use a little enchantment right now. How do you allow yourself be enchanted at a time like this? I think most of it is just keeping an open mind. Having an open mind is a quality of being enchanting. It’s close-minded people who don’t allow themselves to be enchanted. And because they’re close-minded, they also won’t be enchanting. Close-mindedness is the opposite of enchanting. And, in my opinion, it’s just easier to live life open-minded. If everything aggravates you, and you’re always trying to force your beliefs on other people, that’s just an aggravating way to live. Life is hard enough without trying to run other people’s lives.

Guy Kawasaki is the author of nine other books, including the international bestseller The Art of the Start, as well as Reality Check and The Macintosh Way. His most recent book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions, comes out March 8. Stay tuned for my review of Enchantment later this week.

GUEST CONTIBUTOR: Co-Authored by Carisa Miklusak and Keshet Lemberg
This post originally appeared on Carissa’s Blog – Making Sense of the Social Media Jungle. An inquisitive problem solver by nature, Carisa Miklusak is an entrepreneur, consultant and speaker by trade. Connect with Carisa’s social media profiles, on Twitter and Facebook or join her LinkedIn Resource Community.

When it comes to finding the best employee for a position, many organizations are now turning to alternate routes. Our complex and competitive business landscape has created an imperative need for a well positioned employment brand. Businesses traditionally relied upon industry contacts, expertise, job boards, and third-party recruiters to uncover the best match, but today the majority of corporations are also embracing social media as a leading recruiting tool.

In order to successfully utilize social media as part of a recruiting strategy, it is first necessary to understand how your target audience is using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites to land jobs. The most obvious reason job seekers use social media is to source companies for open positions. For example, TwitJobSearch is a social media job search engine that candidates rely upon as a resource to find open positions that are not always posted on job boards or company sites. Moreover, job seekers use online media to verse themselves in the culture of a target company. Job seekers study company pages on social media sites to gather insight about the company’s culture via photos, videos, and information provided by the corporation. Companies such as MTV Networks have successfully built their presence on social media sites by encouraging users to ask questions, offer info, and seek advice. Through its Facebook page – MTV Networks Careers – the entertainment leader sparks engagement with users, responds to questions, and posts open positions.

Lured by news, rumors, and trends, people are drawn to online media sites by the appeal of industry chatter. Professionals with social media know-how realize that industry chatter is an extremely valuable resource for gaining new and important information that can make them better candidates in the interview process. Job seekers in search of firsthand user-to-user information can easily connect with current and ex-employees through social media outlets. A directory of people organized by area of expertise, profession, and hundreds of other categories is available to the public on Twellow, the yellow pages for Twitter. LinkedIn provides similar information. Candidates also use social media sites to scope out recruiters and hiring managers to determine if they are a compatible match, and to gain helpful information for potential interviews and conversations. To find excellent advice that is pertinent to a specific situation, job seekers follow and connect with job search experts in the social media sphere. Many such experts exist offering daily advice. Ideas, tips, leads, news, informative articles and best practices can be accessed at the touch of a finger by using Twellow’s job search to find people to follow who send out helpful information. The vast array of social media tools now makes it possible for bold job seekers to attempt to engineer their own opportunities instead of waiting to be uncovered by recruiters and hiring managers. Some follow employees at their target company until news of a fitting open position arises while others network their way into new positions by engaging in strategic conversations with potential leads.

By understanding why job seekers use social media to land jobs, companies can leverage their activity to more effectively and efficiently recruit new employees. When using social media as part of a recruiting strategy, it is important to create a consistent and automated method for uncovering the social identity of job seekers. Sites like TiVo makes job opportunities accessible across major social media platforms so that anyone can post, direct message or update their status. Corporations can benefit from the opportunity to build relationships with candidates in their target audiences by maintaining an official company presence on social media sites. By following relevant people and igniting conversations, organizations can begin to create a healthy level of influence over their brand – a clear best practices in the social media sphere. Moreover, companies can determine what type of information fuels the jobseekers’ interest by listening to the candidates and then provide that content on their social media platforms. In order to avoid an influx of irrelevant offers to their job posts, however, it is necessary for businesses to refine their searches by specifically targeting candidates by location, career interests, and other top candidate profile credentials.

Through social media platforms, companies can connect to talent anywhere in the world and access personal information about top industry leaders. Social media is as valuable resource for organizations of all kinds and sizes to build employment brands and make the right candidate connections. It is equally as productive for job seekers, creating a platform where companies and talent alike can connect directly with multiple stakeholders in their target audience.

There’s etiquette for many things in life, from bathroom use (put the toilet seat down after you use it), to public transportation (don’t clip your toenails or demonstrate your newest yoga moves on a crowded train), to, uh, fashion. However, we all have different opinions on what the proper etiquette is for any given situation (see toilet seat example).

Despite our differing opinions, it’s helpful to have a base of etiquette from which to start. As an employer, you need to know how to play nicely in the online space. Learning the difference between good online etiquette – and lack thereof – will help you avoid the backlash from candidates and even your own employees. With this in mind, we’re offering a few tips and guidelines to start your company on the right track in your social media interactions (or get you back on track).

Everyone’s Doing It

Well, yeah, that may be true – or at least it’s starting to seem that way. Even President Obama has (technically) sent his first “tweet,” via The American Red Cross Twitter account. If you’re still wondering how and when to jump into the social media waters, read our posts on Ten Steps to Getting Started with Social Media and our Top 10 Best Practices for Using Social Media as a Recruitment Tool.

11 Social Media Etiquette Guidelines to Keep in Mind:

1. Be aware.
Be cognizant of everything going on around you in the online space. Set up Google alerts about your company, stay on top of sites like Facebook and Twitter, and pay attention to blog comments. What is your company’s reputation in the online space? Do you know? You should know what people are saying about you as soon as it happens.

2.  Own up to your mistakes — and address them.
Businesses make mistakes, but with news spreading on sites like Twitter mere seconds after an event occurs, more important than the mistakes themselves is often how a business handles the resolution — in other words, how they reach out and communicate the issue to the public.

After two Domino’s pizza employees were charged with delivering prohibited food after posting their actions on YouTube, the President of Domino’s USA, Patrick Doyle, responded quickly and spoke candidly with his own video. A temporary Twitter account, @dpzinfo, was created to address concerns, interact, thank customers, and help to rebuild the company’s reputation post-scandal. Currently, the new @dominos Twitter account is very active and engaged.

3. Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want broadcast to the universe.
Because by posting in the Internet, well, that’s essentially what you’re doing. Refrain from posting anything that you wouldn’t want your candidates, employees, mother, father, kids, or boss to read; remember, as an employee representing your company — or as someone communicating directly as your company spokesperson — everything you do and say reflects on the business. Employers may be more notorious for complaining about their employers, but there are plenty of things higher-ups can do to cause controversy and trouble in the online space.

4. Transparency is key.
Speaking of controversy in the online space, it’s vital to be up-front about your intentions and transparent about who you are when interacting via social media sites (or anywhere, for that matter). Take the example of Honda manager of product planning, Eddie Okubo, who wrote about the Honda Crosstour on Honda’s Facebook page as if he wasn’t involved with Honda himself. He not only suffered backlash from others, but he represented Honda unfairly, creating a negative situation for the company and forcing them to take action.

5. Play in your own sandbox.
The “write what you know” adage definitely applies here. Be current, relevant, and relay company news and ideas in a tone that’s comfortable for your business. Find your own voice, and speak to the things your business knows and is passionate about.  The best way to be interesting and garner followers is to be interesting yourself. Offer original content, respond to others’ comments and questions, and share ideas. And hey — have fun while you’re at it! Social media is meant to encourage relationships — while you should use best judgment, it’s not a prison sentence.

6. Respect others.
It should go without saying, but don’t ever use racial or ethnic slurs, slam others with personal insults and obscenities or engage in conduct that would not be acceptable in the workplace or anywhere else. Remember to be considerate of other people’s sensitivities to certain topics like politics or religion, too.

7. Don’t talk about the competition.
Rather than be negative about your competitors, focus on your company’s positives and work on building relationships with candidates, employees, and customers by your own merits. There’s no need to bash another company; it only makes your company appear petty and defensive — and it may turn people off to your business.

8. Don’t pick fights.
If you see your company represented in an unfavorable light, disagree with someone’s opinion, or think a member of the media, an analyst or a blogger has misrepresented your company, do not get defensive. Check with your leadership to see what their response is, if any.  If they choose not to respond, but give you the OK to do so, be factual and respectful in your response.

9. Keep private information private.
Keep internal e-mail, documents and information confidential. Include a disclaimer when necessary. Remember that public blogs are just that: public. Don’t use a public forum as an intranet.

10. Teach your own employees about social media. As Cristóbal Conde, president and CEO of SunGard, points out in a recent New York Times article, everyone in a company has access to information now; not just leadership. That shouldn’t stop at social media. After all, your employees are likely tweeting and Facebooking away anyway, so it makes sense to get everyone on the same page, encourage learnings and knowledge about best practices, and also make employees aware of any social media policies you have as a company.

“While the decision to post videos, pictures, thoughts, experiences, and observations to social networking sites is personal, a single act can create far-reaching ethical consequences for individuals as well as organizations,” said Sharon Allen of Deloitte. “Therefore, it is important for executives to be mindful of the implications and to elevate the discussion about the risks associated with it to the highest levels of leadership.”

11. Think before you hit “post.”
Bottom line: Before commenting in a public forum, remember that you are representing your company. Join online groups on social or professional networking sites with care, and use your head. The rest will fall into place.

Additional resources to check out:

• Twitter has created a great guide called Twitter 101 for Business; this is a helpful starting point for new Twitter users, or a useful way to brush up on your company’s current Twitter use. Pass it around the office.

• Don’t know how to create a social media policy, or need ideas on what’s right for your particular company culture? See the social media policies of over 100 other companies on Social Media Governance.

Any social media etiquette tips to add to the list?