How do you decide who to hire as an associate? Sure, you’ve got lots of criteria related to legal education, experience, personality, achievement, etc. Those are good, and I encourage you to evaluate your prospective employees according to those factors.

But when push comes to shove and you’ve got to pick one over another, there is one piece of information that should be applied as the final litmus test. More on that in a minute.

Most of us run small firms. We need people who are good at a range of things. They need to be good speakers, good listeners, good writers, good researchers, and good with people. We need them to be able to handle the courtroom, the clients, opposing counsel, and negotiations. We need them to be able to keep clients happy, and ultimately, we’d like them to be able to generate new business in our community. They need to be effective marketers.

We need a jack of all trades.

It’s not easy to find folks good at all the things I’ve mentioned. It’s especially challenging to find someone good at marketing.

I’d suggest to you that you’ve got to find someone good at all of it. You need players who can take on any position depending on the demands placed on your practice. I’d also suggest that the marketing role is the most difficult role to fill.

So how do you compare two applicants, seemingly equally qualified, and predict which one will be better at generating business for the firm over the long haul?

Is the candidate going to be good at marketing?

I’ve sat in the room doing interviews and, after checking off all the “legal” qualifications, wondered whether the candidate would be good at marketing. “I like this person,” I think to myself. Others in the firm seem to like the applicant. I can easily see the person out in the community at events, volunteering, joining, etc. I’ve got a positive sense about the person as a marketer. I think it might work.

But I’ve been burned before. I thought the person would be good at networking and he or she wasn’t. I’ve been wrong on more than one occasion.

How can it be that I like these candidates so much and see them as prime marketing material, but they are unsuccessful at marketing?

Here’s my analysis:

Marketing isn’t difficult—especially networking. It’s easy and fun. It’s uncomplicated. It’s much easier to master than some complicated card games, like bridge.

So will your candidate be good at it?

Probably not. Why? Because the person doesn’t want to do it. He or she isn’t interested. Your candidate is turned off by the activity of building relationships with referral sources.

How can you tell? You know your candidate isn’t going to tell you the truth if you ask directly. He or she probably doesn’t even know the truth.

How can you tell?

Here’s the test:

Ask your candidates about social networking. Ask them about Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Dig in and ask what they do with social networking. Ask how they use it.

If they’re not on Facebook, walk away—no, run away. Anyone under the age of 80 who enjoys building relationships is on Facebook. I’m not exaggerating: my mother is on Facebook, and my mother-in-law is on Facebook—everyone is on Facebook. If they’re not on Facebook, they’re not building new relationships. That’s a generalization, but it’s also true. Run away.

The same goes for LinkedIn. Run.

After you ask about Facebook and LinkedIn, get a feel for how active they are. Friend them. Check out their activity level.

Then really dig in. Find out whether they’re on Twitter.

People good at relationships are on Twitter. They’re communicating with friends, and they’re meeting new people as they go along. There are lots of ways people use Twitter, and there aren’t any absolute tests. I think, however, that  Twitter usage is a predictor of networking success. Being present on Twitter is a very good sign.

The involvement of candidates on social media reveals their level of enjoyment in building relationships. If they don’t engage in social media, they don’t enjoy social activity. Today, social activity takes place, in part, on the Internet. If they’re not there, they’re not interested.

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If I were faced with two equally good candidates and one was using Twitter and the other wasn’t, I’d hire the Twitter person in a heartbeat. That person likes people, likes getting to know new people, and is highly social. This person is more likely to become engaged with building referral relationships because he or she enjoys building relationships.

Use social media involvement as a test. Obviously, it can’t be more important than the candidate’s ability to do the legal work. It can, however, serve as a very good indicator of marketing success. In our practices, we need well-rounded people, and social media involvement is a valuable tool for checking out your candidate.