It’s an often posed question, “What would Google do?”. The big lessons I’ve learnt from researching the real Google story, discussed at length at #truAmsterdam are
: Failing is acceptable and often expected. (Think Buzz, Wave, Video and many other Google launches that were launched to a fanfare and closed just as quickly.)
:Google Fail Quickly
:Google Fail Cheaply
:Success Comes From Learning From Failiure
:Google win Big!
Given that we can see the failed projects,we also have to look in awe at the scale of the many successes that dwarf the ones that got away. While looking at Google, theres two things that really stand out, and go some way to point out how these huge successes are the culture and the quality of staff they attract and hire.
I’mgoing tobe blogging in more detail about the culture at google as it looks to the outside world. For now i’m going to look at how Google recruit, specificaly within twitter.
It’s easy to assume that if you are a great brand with a great reputation, people will just find you and however unpleasant the experience, the people will still apply. There are those people who believe that big brands like Google don’t have to work too hard on talent attraction and hiring. They also believe the world is still flat! It’s a dated view normally used as a justification for not being social or to deride yet another successful case study that proves social recruiting is working.
To get an idea of how Google engage with potential candidates, I’ve been monitoring the @GoogleJobs twitter account The account is followed by 76,’062 people and follow 325, and have tweeted 4,179 times.
. The bio for the account reads:
@googlejobs
Life At Google
Have you heard we’re hiring? Join the conversation on our job opportunities, offices, culture and life at Google.
It’s easy to assume that this will be an automated account pushing out jobs in to the stream.
Here are the last 10 tweets from the stream taken at random:
@kennytony Yes, you can definitely apply for multiple positions. You can only re-apply to the same position if it’s been at least a year
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) 11 mei 2011
@creatrixtiara Definitely, we hire people from all sorts of backgrounds. You should search for marketing or design jobs at google.com/jobs
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) 11 mei 2011
@michaelshafrir Could be some jobs in training or instructional design. You should search around www.google.com/jobs!
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) 11 mei 2011
@nthnbrwn Sorry, looks like it was removed shortly after we tweeted 
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) 11 mei 2011
@ayotbag We usually will get back to you within a few weeks if we want to interview you
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) 11 mei 2011
@brandon_queensu Thanks! We’ll get that fixed ASAP!
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) 11 mei 2011
@creatrixtiara You know, there could be similar jobs open in Sydney or CA. You could check at www.google.com/jobs… 
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) 11 mei 2011
Google VP Liane Hornsey talks about our approach to People Operations, which includes the Bureaucracy Busters program: http://goo.gl/lYcJq
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) 11 mei 2011
Have a background in cloud computing & tech industry? Buenos Aires needs a deployment specialist: http://goo.gl/F6Yow
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) 11 mei 2011
http://twitter.com/#!/sussman/statuses/68328203307065344
There are lots of examples that continue throughout the stream that follow the same vein.
The 5 points that really stand out are:
1: This account is run by a real person or people. Personality branding.
2: Questions and comments are answered instantly.
3: Google are quick to say “sorry, we made a mistake.” and the people in the stream are quick to forgive.
4; Most questions are about the application process and how/where to apply. (Much like Hard Rock Firenze.)
5: This is a total ENGAGEMENT account. The ratio of jobs to content and conversation is 1:33
If you are one of the people (like me), who admire Google as a business, instead of wondering “What would Google do?”, when it comes to twitter, this is “What Google do!” Theres a lesson in that, how much of your job channel on twitter is about engagement?
Bill
