There is no Social Recruiting

When most people talk about Social Recruiting they mean searching the database on Linkedin. That's not social. It's a deliberate misuse of the term by bloggers who want to announce revolutionary changes that don't really exist.

I've asked many people on my weekly recruiting radio show about this and I know it's true.The next step for social recruiting is searching the database on Facebook.Not much recruiting happens in actual social activities.

Some people also search the participants on Github but then recruiters have been lurking on IT discussion groups since before the internet became open to the general public in 1993, when there were still only bulletin boards.

Inotherwords, there is no social recruiting. If you disagree come on my show and defend your claim. See http://AnimalShowBasics.com

UPDATE: Social Recruiting is short for Social Media Recruiting which means recruiting on Social Media. There is a lot of recruiting happening online by people searching databases but there is almost no recruiting going on via social media. What is social media? Places people gather for exchanges like this one and get to know eachother.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Russell on February 11, 2014 at 11:51am

what doesnt exist?

Recruiting Animal said:

Right, social recruiting is a subset of online recruiting - that doesn't exist.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on February 11, 2014 at 12:00pm

Social Recruiting doesn't exist. No one develops ongoing social relationships with potential candidates via social media like the social relationship I have developed with you via social media.

Recruiters search databases for candidates. They lurk at discussion groups hunting for candidates. But they don't enter into ongoing professional social relationships like those we have on Twitter, Facebook and Recruitingblogs.

People yak about Talent Communities but I haven't seen any and the advice I hear from most people is that you can't create them. You, the recruiter, have to lurk at an existing professional discussion group.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Ala Miller on February 11, 2014 at 2:23pm

What about Social Recruitment? Is that a thing? Maybe on Pinterest?

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Permalink Reply by Matt Charney on February 11, 2014 at 2:36pm

All recruiting is social recruiting. But using social media for recruiting is really just advocate marketing.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on February 11, 2014 at 2:42pm

If all recruiting is social recruiting that means there is no distinct online activity that deserves to be called social recruiting to differentiate it from other forms of recruiting. However, this implies that there is recruiting on social media. But what does that mean?

Does it include sourcing with the Linkedin database? Does it include sending an inmail on Linkedin? Does it include searching the resume banks on a job board?

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Permalink Reply by Matt Charney on February 11, 2014 at 2:49pm

Animal I'm pretty much on the record that LinkedIn is a job board, not social media, so let's go ahead and throw out that argument: http://www.ere.net/2013/08/13/rebranding-job-boards/ | That said, I agree that there is no distinct online activity that differentiates "social" from any other form of recruiting if the purpose is engagement...it's a channel to talk to candidates, but since all recruiting involves talking to candidates, it's just another medium if done correctly. The problem is, it's seen as a lead generation activity and that's how 'social recruiting' is often executed, and it doesn't really work. It's candidate development and nurturing that are the real objectives. Searching resume banks on job boards, actually, is more social recruiting than LinkedIn since you can choose the platform on which that engagement happens. I've found that taking a resume from a database, doing a search through Connectify, Pipl or Spokeo and then following/engaging/connecting on social just does the leg work for making that initial phone call or e-mail actually result in some sort of response. But hell if I know, I'm just a marketing troll.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on February 11, 2014 at 2:54pm

Matt, I tried to draw a difference between online recruiting and social recruiting. You're saying all recruiting is social but you have drawn a difference between job board recruiting and social media recruiting. But social media recruiting seems to be more like general employment branding than recruiting and as you implied that's recruitment marketing not recruiting.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Charney on February 11, 2014 at 2:58pm

This all comes down to word choice, and frankly, in this case I'm anti-semantic.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Alfred on February 11, 2014 at 3:20pm

RA I love you and all but It looks like I have to book my next ticket for the Animal Show... If I write a blog or frame an InMail, create a video or use a slideshare or create a community online to attract passive or active talent - I would say that falls in line with the term Social Recruiting - more so when the strategy works in building that pool of candidates for the long term. On a side note let's not forget that all recruiters must be "social" in order to be good at recruiting offline or on. Utilizing the Social Platforms to attract talent in my books is Social Recruiting. Posting a job on Linkedin saying "I am Hiring" does not qualify in my books ...

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Permalink Reply by Keith D. Halperin on February 11, 2014 at 3:51pm

@ RA: Well-said.

For those who heavily advocate the use of social networks for recruiting, I propose the following experiment:
Starting today, you have 20-30 reqs. of various types. Within 30 days you need to have 1 hire/week on average, and by the end of 4 months you need 17 hires. Finally, you can acquire all the social networks you need, but they're EMPTY- no connections at all and you use only social networks (no LIR) to source and recruit. Your clock starts NOW:

Folks, would YOU volunteer for this? I sure as hell wouldn’t….

@ Chris Russell: "Social Recruiting is many things: sourcing, branding, engaging candidates, and promoting jobs"

Except for sourcing, those AREN'T parts of recruiting. IMHO, Recruiting is "putting quality butts in chairs on time and within budget" I’d LOVE to have a contract where I get paid $95 or more/hr to locate and build relationships with people who MIGHT be interested in applying to the company 6, 12, or 18 months down the road, but I don't see too many openings for that.. Furthermore, as a jobseeker, I’m not looking to develop a “relationship with a recruiter and a company- I want a “hookup” i.e., a job NOW.

@ Paul: Call me the "Anti-Social Recruiter".

Cheers,

Keith