In an article in today’s Wall Street Journal (Firms Invest Big in Career Sites),  a new trend is outlined in which companies are finally linking three critical branding elements – their internal culture brand, their external marketing brand and their HR recruiting ‘talent brand’ – to successfully create new and innovative online and social media recruiting models .

The article describes how these companies have done this through the creation of multi-function corproate career websites and utilizing unique social media strategies through popular sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The trend of  investing in smart online recruiting efforts is laudable and wise.  Companies wanting to  control and direct recruiting messaging through social media, online blogs and other digital connections makes sense and is also expected from younger job seekers – an important target market who will soon be replacing retiring baby boomers.

From my perspective, connecting innovative marketing to the HR recruiting efforts is way over due.  All too often the marketing and internal communications departments of a company exist in silos.  Smart companies know that HR recruiting provides another critical marketing touch point to highlight and promote their corporate brand and as important, the investment into  innovative ‘talent brand’ marketing efforts creates a value promise that attracts targeted professionals and creates an ’employer of choice’ brand message.

On the flip side, companies who separate their HR recruiting efforts from their external branding strategies are most likely going to dilute and devalue their multi-million-dollar corporate brand investment.

What do you think?