There’s something beautiful about spending a few minutes talking about tomorrow. I don’t mean innovation, but tomorrow. Thinking about what’s ahead, what’s to come, and how what’s happening now will evolve into tomorrow. And if you’re like most people, and don’t have the time to think, I’ve done it for you.Here are three lessons to consider if you’re wondering what you need to be aware of in terms of preparing your talent strategies for tomorrow.

1) Don’t ignore talent communities. Instead, define what they mean to you.

It’s not about feeding more volume into your ATS. Tomorrow’s talent communities are about creating a filtered, curated network. And in that network you need a way to engage and provide good candidate service, setting expectations about what community members can expect. Look for business value–communities aren’t just about recruiting. They bring business to the company. Use your communities–build them for a reason. Define why you need them, determine the action you want to take and the results you want to see.

Inspired by panelists @fishdogs, @thisislars, @jessica_lee and @cjmdatl.

2) Stop stereoptyping GenY. Tell them what sucks about your company and your jobs.

The talent of tomorrow, GenY is one big mess of stereotyping. As you prepare to recruit the workforce of tomorrow stop with the stereotypes and focus on trends. Determine what your company’s role is in GenY development–we all play a role in turning trends into value. GenY doesn’t want you to focus on work-life balance. They want to know what it’s like to work at your company. Be honest and authentic. Tell them what sucks. You’ll be left with the people that can handle the not-so-great-parts and are actually passionate about the job.

Inspired by panelists @1SHRMScribe, @mattcharney, @PaulSmith, @JVPSaid, and @blogging4jobs.

 3) Stop thinking about what information you need. Ask what information the candidates want.

There’s no doubt, the black hole effect from candidates still an issue. They hate not hearing, not knowing. You can read the latest report here. But candidate experience tomorrow isn’t just about responding to candidates, it’s about asking what they want to know. We’re so focused on the information we need from them, we’re treating it like a transaction and not a relationship. Part of the candidate experience is ablilty to interact and get great answers on both sides of the relationship.

Inspired by panelists: @fishdogs, @gerrycrispin, and @madam.

I don’t need to tell you it’s impossible to be on top of every trend. But we all need a tomorrow mindset–a chance to wonder what will our jobs, our talent and our brands look like tomorrow. Stop, think, and you might just realize that heads down all the time means you’ll be left behind.

Now we’re on to Part II: Creating a Visual Strategy For Results. Now that you know why Pinterest matters to brands, every brand, we’re sharing some strategy tips. Hint: Pinterest is your brand’s gateway drug. Check out the post over at the Evviva Brands blog and then join us for our second live Twitter chat tomorrow.

You can tweet questions, comments, and feedback to @SusanStrayer and/or @Jessica_Read and we’ll be happy to get these answered and responded to tomorrow, Friday April 27 (TODAY!) during our live Twitter chat at 1:30pm EST. Be sure to use #PinYourBrand to join in the conversation.

Study Hall, a production of Foster.ly, is all about collaboration: “Study Hall is a collaborative co-working environment focused on enhancing community between its entrepreneurial members.” So I was excited when Foster.ly decided to blow out the concept to a full day…a #DayofFosterly.

I’m joining the collaboration on the first panel of the day on how to hire right. It’s an area of expertise for Exaqueo and a personal passion of mine. Start-ups often get VC funding, have an imperative for growth and then just start hiring the best talent they can. What’s wrong with that? well, for starters, what best talent means to one organization is not the same for another.

Recently, a start-up came to me complaining that they had a great pool of talent. Problem–they all hated each other. The organization had hired for skill but hadn’t focused on they type of culture they wanted to create and the qualities an employee would have to best thrive in that culture. You can’t just hire someone who can ship code like nobody’s business. You have to understand how they work, what they’re working for and align that with your mission and vision.

Don’t have a mission and vision? Not sure what defines your culture? Then you have to step back even further and get than aligned first. It really all starts with you and your co-founder(s). And that’s what our panel is about–getting talent and culture right from day one.  Join us and share your questions in advance below.

At the kickoff of the last Recruiting Innovation Summit, I put up a slide that said “don’t replicate what you learned today.” Then I did a mini-case study of My Marriott Hotel(TM), the social recruiting game I worked on while I was there. But don’t copy it. Don’t copy anything you see actually. Think bigger picture. What are the lessons you can take away from a conference? What can you tell your boss when you return in 45 seconds to prove it was worthwhile?

Hmm. 45 seconds. I’ve never said anything in 45 seconds or les. But I love a challenge….

Let’s say you’re rethinking your employer brand. You know it needs work but you don’t know where to start? Here’s 45 seconds of boss-worthy strategy you can take away to spur getting started.

1) Know your master brand first.

If you don’t have a relationship with your CMO or marketing, get one. Learn their craft and the ins and outs of your master brand. You can’t create or evolve an employer brand unless you know how it fits into your larger master or consumer brand. Plus you’ll need a good partnership with marketing to make your employer brand work.

2) It’s employer brand, not employment brand.

Sure, the brand is about the employment experience. But you’re choosing to work for an employer and you might have multiple employment experiences within the context of one employer. Focus on the bigger picture first (and #1) and then connect to the actual process of employment.

3) Strive for alignment.

Global company, employer brand created and only used in North America? Nope, won’t work. You’ve got to have a common thread of alignment first, from master brand to employer brand to employment experience. Then, you can begin to differentiate by geography, discipline and level. But align first.

4) Bring in tools and execute last.

Don’t start your brand with product creation. That’s like producing a commercial for cereal before you know what it tastes like. If you’re in the early stages of building an employer brand, you shouldn’t be talking to execution, technology, or social media vendors. Yet. They’ll be more effective partners if you have a strategy in place first.

There 45 seconds to get you started. Now use the best practices to get inspired.

Much of the early press is about how women are using it as a scrapbook-type thing. Boards for fashion or cooking. So I can see how certain demographics think “no thanks.” Ah, I love reviews at face value. But I love thinking ahead even more.

I’ll share Evviva’s thinking shortly, but in the meantime, let me whet your appetite with this: if you’re meeting or learning about me for the first time, wouldn’t you rather be inspired than bored? Wouldn’t you rather a quick glance to see what we might have in common rather than a long profile?

Consider “Things About Me”:

PS: did I mention I hate pictures of myself?

Next week I’m lucky enough to have a chance to share my perspective in two venues. And I hope you’ll join me for one of them!

On Thursday, March 8 at 1pm EST, I’ll be leading a webinar with the great folks over at Talent Technology on the role recruitment marketing plays in employer brand.  If you think they’re one and the same — you better get on this call! We’ll be talking about the role recruitment marketing plays in the employer brand show–it sets the stage and thus, is the all important opening act for the headliner: the actual employment experience.

The webinar is free and you will walk away with a strategy and specific action plans to get started.  Register here.

The following day, Friday, March 9, I’m headed up to the great state of Minnesota to join the fabulous Paul DeBettignies and the Minnesota Recruiters group to talk about the full context of employer brand. If recruitment marketing is the opening act, what other role do recruiters play in the brand? And what can you do right now, regardless of the size of your business and resources, to define, strengthen and deliver on the brand?

The conference starts at 7:15 am CT with breakfast (those midwesterners like to start early!), officially begins at 8:00 a.m. and runs to 12:00 p.m. If you’re in Minnesota, register here.

Then it’s back to Washington, DC to start the countdown to cherry blossom season (or tourist insanity). But hey, I’m mobile and always ready to talk about what employer brand really is.  Reach out if I can help.

Last week the fab @Jason_DFW shared an interesting infographic about recruiters’ use (or lack of) of Facebook and Twitter.  Today, CareerXRoads shared their latest source of hire data and, GASP!, for 2011, only 3.5% of those surveyed used social media to make external hires.

The data isn’t surprising at all, really. As a field, recruiting/talent acquisition/HR is making some major missteps in the way we think about the affect of social media on recruiting, how it is being used versus how it can and should be used, and what the data actually means.  But first, a few admissions.

First, source of hire is dead.

There’s no more accounting for source of hire. There simply isn’t. The thing is, recruiters know this. And yet we continue to talk about it as if it hasn’t changed at all. We admit that with any given candidate, there are likely a minimum of five sources that a candidate can choose or reference.  Whether it’s self administered (the candidate decides, on a survey for example, which source they’ll report), or through direct application (the candidate clicks a Jobvite that came through Facebook), there’s still no telling which sources played into the decision to apply and which was most influential or important.

Second, recruiters aren’t using social media to make hires.

If they’re using social at all, they’re using it to engage, share, research, locate and influence candidates.  But for some reason they don’t see this as recruiting. If they’re not using social, it’s because they can’t see past the immediate process steps for a search they’re currently working on.

So what does this mean for social recruiting? As recruiting and talent acquisition leaders, we need to stop only thinking about the transaction and the process. We need to think about the influence points and inputs along the way.

• What did the candidate think when he read your job description on the job board? Did that make him apply? Maybe. But what made him accept the job? And what were the inputs along the way?
• Why do thousands of candidates follow company career Facebook pages? Why are they asking questions on those pages and interacting heavily with recruiters and employer brand leaders that engage with them?

Imagine sitting with a bunch of marketers in a conference room. They’re talking about their media buy and marketing planning for an upcoming product launch. They don’t focus on one source of purchase for the customer. Sure the process of purchase matters–without it, you don’t sell and you don’t make money. But to drive the purchase, you engage. Personally. And on multiple touchpoints. That’s why marketers LOVE social media. They can better understand the customer through engagement, and better connect, build loyalty and target them this way.

And right now, recruiters aren’t getting that. They’re so focused on process, they only see the role of social in process. And if the new hire doesn’t say “I found the job on Facebook” and the recruiter doesn’t say “I hired the person through Twitter,” they think social is worthless.  I would too. But it’s far from it.

So don’t recruit on social media. Engage. Recruiting is the process. Branding is engagement. Without both, you’re missing the boat. Want to know HOW? That’s the next post. Stay tuned.