LatinOcean – Digital Marketing Consulting » Social Tools – The worst that could’ve happened to Recruitment?

Social Tools – The worst that could’ve happened to Recruitment?

December 1, 2009 at 3:48 am · Filed under Marketing, Search, Sourcing, best practice, linkedin, recruitment, twitter

Maybe…

In a recent post, @greg_savage reported that he had asked attendees of an RCSA event/roadshow for a quick show of hands about social tools usage. The results:

a) 80% of recruiters have a LinkedIn account, whilst only 20% were using it ‘actively’
b) there was a very low take up of twitter (5-10% have a handle)

You know what? If there were more ‘active’ recruiters on LinkedIn, or more consultants moving into twitter, the ‘damage’ might be even bigger.

What damage?

I went to @coffeemornings last Friday; I spoke to four peeps that had been approached by recruiters on LinkedIn that they had not heard from – let alone met – before; these peeps ranted about these recruiters effectively cold calling them, to either connect and then be referred to other LinkedIn members, or do the usual tyre-kicking (you happy in your job? kinda thing).

Some recruiters are using new(er) tools and combining them with old practices and old thinking. Big risk.

And big opportunities.

Recruiters that notice that LinkedIn is not a resume database or a Yellow Pages for candidates, will score; they will give themselves room to develop their brand as individual professionals and that of the firms the happen to be working for.

Recruiters that feel the disconnect between social tools and the ‘let’s put bums on seats’ way of recruitment, and are courageous enough to re-energise their practices in the eyes of clients and job seekers, will come on top.

Big risk. Big opportunities.

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Kevin Wheeler

New technologies are frequently misused until w beegin t udnerstand how they are different from the old ones. Social media is no different. When we use LinkedIn or Facebook the way we use job boards or a database, we are bound to think they are just clumsy ways of doing what we are already good at.

The challenge is to learn how to use the differences in these tools to our advantage. To do that requires a new set of skills and habits that younger people often (but not always) have "built in" probably becuase they haven't learned any other way. For older folks,we have to re-learn, experiment and accept some lost time and energy in the process. But this is the price of learning. The investment will pay back many fold over time.

So, yu are right that misusin these tools may be worse than not using them at all - unless we are willing to learn and improve by getting feedback, making changes in our work habits, and honing new skills.

servantofchaos

Agree Jorge. There are huge opportunities, but they require new ways of thinking. You can't use old techniques in these new, social (and socially transparent) mediums.

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Social Tools – The worst that could’ve happened to Recruitment?

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