Business - Written Tuesday, May 26, 2009 by Kevin Morris - 6 Comments

Twitter for Talent: Zappos’ use of social networking to attract and engage employees

At a time when managers and PR departments are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to approach employee use of social media (think: Wall Street Journal), online footwear retailer Zappos.com stands out as one company that just might have got things right.

I first learned of Zappos when I watched a speech CEO Tony Hsieh delivered at the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) about their “customer-centric approach to killing the competition”. Since then, Zappos has received the praise of media, customers and employees alike, even after laying off 8% of their staff. (At the time of the speech Tony had *only* 10,000 followers on Twitter. He is now at 600,000+). One of my favourite parts of the presentation is Tony’s statement that the brand is simply an extension of the company culture, and providing a compelling customer experience completely depends on hiring employees who fit that culture.

One of the keys to that culture is Zappos Core Value #6, Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication. By Zappos opening up and sharing what goes on in a regular day at the company, customers and potential employees are invited to experience the corporate culture without ever making an appearance on the payroll. If a prospective employee likes what they see, they might make a great Zapponian, especially if they share similar values with CVF (‘Core Values Frog‘). Giving prospective employees a sneak peak into the culture of the company might explain why only 3% of new hires take Zappos up on their famous $2000 incentive to quit after training.

I was interested in how Zappos identified and hired people in the first place. I got in touch with Zappos Recruiting Manager, Christa Foley (currently twitter rank #4 at twitter.zappos.com ) to learn how Zappos uses social media to identify and hire quality people, and further encourages new hires to use those tools once part of the Zappos team (430+ employees are listed on the Zappos twitter page). I’ve included some highlights of our conversation after the jump. Continue…