Did you just shudder at the thought of mixing your Social Media and work OR at the extra workload it might create? That’s good. Social Media can be scary mixed with your work peeps; however, can we find a way to leverage these communication vehicles for our retail teams and actually reduce our workload while working smarter? I think we can all agree that this is the now and the future. If you are not “LinkedIn”, you are definitely in the minority and missing out on a great resource. This is how we now communicate with friends, family, and our retail families. And it is awesome!

Most of you are using email, phone calls, voicemails, and conference calls to communicate with your teams today. What if? What if you could “tweet” your team? What if you could motivate the troops on Facebook with Status Updates of great performances last week? Newsletters are so last decade. What if you could find great managers and assistant managers by encouraging all of your team to participate on LinkedIn? Recruiting store management would become much simpler.

But how? You love your Social Media for your personal lives but you really do not want to mix that with your work teams. I think it could be accomplished with some easy steps. Twitter can be done through lists or a separate Twitter call sign for work. Facebook can be done the same way. In other words, my work Twitter call sign is DAILYVOICEMAIL while my personal is Tthompson.

Certainly you would want to set some ground rules for when, where, what to publish but how cool would it be!? Your teams will respond enthusiastically. This is how they are communicating away from work so let’s join in the conversation.

Recruiting great people for our teams can be labor intensive and it is a struggle to find the time to keep a network of potential managers warm until a spot opens. Let’s take on Social Media as a recruiting and networking vehicle by starting with LinkedIn.

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STEP ONE

Join LinkedIn! Set up your profile and contact information. If you are already a member, make sure that all of your information is current.

STEP TWO

Build your connections by sending out invitations and joining retail groups. Be sure to include past jobs and networks to enlarge your circle of influence. Add any networking partners that you have worked with in malls and shopping centers or that you have met at various industry functions.

STEP THREE

Increase your exposure by commenting on Group Discussions and recent announcements. Get your name out there!

STEP FOUR

Post updates in the activity block when you open your LinkedIn home page.

EXAMPLES TO POST IN “Share an update”:

PARTY ZONE is looking for a talented Store Manager to take on an exciting opportunity in Atlanta, Georgia. Is it you? Contact me for details.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work for GAP INC., the world’s leading specialty retailer? I would love to share that experience with you.

Store management openings in Texas at FINISH LINE! Interested or know someone who would be? Contact me at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com ^[3].

The items you post here will show up in various spots to include your home page, your connections home page and on daily, weekly, monthly activity emails that go to millions of people. This is incredible free exposure for very little effort.

STEP FIVE

Have your Store Managers complete Steps 1 – 4. Now you have created a real recruiting workforce by countless exposures and retail connections.

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Now let’s move to Twitter and Facebook. These great vehicles can be tapped into as well —even if you do not want to create your own pages for total use. How? You could leverage the users already out there:

Your leader’s pages!

Your malls or shopping center’s pages!

Your center’s developer’s pages!

Your store’s pages!

STEP ONE

Find out what is out there for you to tap into. Survey your management teams to assess what they currently have set up for personal use and any store pages. You will probably be surprised at the exposure you already have available.

STEP TWO

Ask your manager’s permission to tap into their social media vehicles when you have a need to.

STEP THREE

Establish a protocol for providing material to post when you would like to tap into their vehicles. The easiest method would be to give them the verbage via email. Example:

TWEET for stores xxxx, xxxx, xxxx to post Monday, February 7^th: (Tweets are limited to 140 digits) Great opportunity at Philadelphia Apple store for ASM! Contact xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com. Act Fast!

Facebook post for stores xxxx,xxxx,xxxx to post immediately: Great opportunity at Philadelphia Apple store for ASM! Message me privately or comment here. Act Fast!

STEP FOUR

Post similar messages (but be sure to include contact info) on mall/developer pages yourself. Add to your calendar to do every Monday or the first Monday of every month. This could be assigned to one of your managers as well and taken off of your plate.

YES! It really is that simple! And …. it gets results. Tweet and LinkIn your way to no open positions in 2011.

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