One of the most important things I've learned in nearly four years of building and managing content-focused online communities for businesses--first, as co-founder of Social Media Today and its sponsored sites and now as proprietor of Human Capital League--is how important it is to find the right corporate partner.  When it comes to social media awareness, there are basically three kinds of companies out there right now:  those whose leaders don't see a lot of value in social media and are frankly intimated by what they view as a potential loss of control of the message; those who think it might be valuable and are gingerly dipping their toes in the water; and, finally, those that really, really get it. If you're lucky enough to work with the latter, you can produce magical results.

All of which is prelude to the happy news that Human Capital League now has a corporate sponsor that "really, really gets it."  Led by founder and CEO, Sue Marks, described by Horse for Sources as "an all-tweeting, i-pad-wielding, champagne-supping, serial entrepreneur," Pinstripe, Inc. has rapidly grown into one of the largest and most successful  human resources and recruitment outsourcing companies in the country.  (In fact, Pinstripe is now the second largest pure play RPO firm.)

An early and ardent adopter of social tools, Marks has more than 5,000 followers on Twitter, 1,000+ connections on LinkedIn, several hundred friends on Facebook and writes a regular blog.  To emphasize the importance of social marketing to Pinstripe, Months ago she told an industry gathering:

Social tools and platforms have become increasingly prevalent, and their adoption has the potential to transform the way many companies conduct business today. And by conduct business, I mean listen to customers, shape their brand, advocate positions and see business opportunities before their competitors do. Still, too many C-level executives I speak with are waiting on the sidelines. They are overly concerned by the perceived risks and unclear ROI, but I believe this is a burning platform for the c-level. Not unlike email and the internet a couple of decades ago, social media platforms will allow early adopters a significant window of opportunity to ‘outthink and outsmart’ their competition.

As someone once said of Liza Doolittle, "By george, I think she's got it."

I'm looking forward to working with Sue and Michelle Krier, Pinstripe's Director of Marketing and Social Media, to make Human Capital League the most vibrant and useful community for workplace professionals on the web.