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Permalink Reply by Joe on February 11, 2011 at 10:46am

Pam, we must be on the same wavelength this morning.  I was just about to post a new discussion asking this same question.

 

I have been posting jobs on many Linkedin groups since 2006 or 2007, on Twitter since 2007, facebook since 2007.  Although, I have received resumes through some of these, I have not made a single placement through any of them.  The reason that I still post on these is because I keep hearing all of the hype about how if you are not using social media than you will die, more or less.

 

I would like to hear about others experiences.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on February 11, 2011 at 11:12am

I made a mistake early on Pam.  I'm going to guess it is the same one made by many.

 

I've connected with (followed/friended, etc.)  too many Recruiting/HR people.  For the most part this has done me no good.  Sure - I've made friends, etc. but for the most part very little business has been generated from any of this.

 

Targeted candidates are very hard to discern out here.  How are you really supposed to get candidates to see your tweets?  First of all it's hard to identify them.  I wish anyone could show me a reliable way to truly identify WHO these people are.  An indepth search of Twitter user info would be great but there isn't one that I know of.

 

But I'm getting off track.

 

Do I have a tip for you?  Only the one I can share from the mistake I've made.  Ditch all the HR/SM/Recruiting/CareerCoach/ResumeWriter people.  Every single one of them.  Follow/friend only the people you would hope to place.  Cross your fingers and hope they follow you back or accept your friend invitation.

 

Resist the urge to accept invitations from the tons of recruiters who are all trying to do the same thing.  Without this policy your entire news feed/twitter stream/update list will be nothing BUT a list of everyone else's job orders......which is worthless.

Sorry to ramble.....

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on February 11, 2011 at 11:45am

Thanks Jerry, Joe and Morgan. I do use social media somewhat, but would love to be using it even more effectively.

 

One tip I will offer is to put a lot of thought into your own LinkedIn profile. I was pleasantly surprised twice last year when new clients called me with job orders just based on what they saw in my profile (I emphasis my niche focus of product management, and marketing). One of those clients accounted for over a third of my billing last year and I just made my first placement with the other one this week.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Suresh on February 11, 2011 at 1:24pm

I am looking at it as a job board owner..have created groups in my niche on Linkedin. The groups have been doing quite well in gaining new members and I advertise the open positions in those groups.

 

Also, have created Network sites using NING platform similar to this for some of the niche areas, the goal is have indepedent niche networks (Linkedin still has limitations for group ownership)

 

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Permalink Reply by Slouch on February 11, 2011 at 1:51pm

Hi Suresh, I'd love to see some of the ning networks you have built. What are the urls for them? Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Suresh on February 11, 2011 at 1:57pm

Hi Slouch..
Here are 2 that have got some traction over the last couple of years...
BollywoodJobs.com
WeldingMedia.com
The more focussed it is, the better it seems to be.

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Permalink Reply by Slouch on February 11, 2011 at 2:36pm

Thanks Suresh. I'll check them out.

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Permalink Reply by Monali Parmar on February 11, 2011 at 3:32pm

Hi Pam! I think we're on the same boat about the Social Media trend. My Tweets are similar to yours with random job postings and occassional articles or quotes I enjoyed. Can't say I've had any positive results from them.

 

I post some jobs on FB's Branch Out app, but haven't had any luck with it just yet. So far its been just friends and family commenting on how its nice to see that I'm enjoying my work. There is always the option of having another FB account to add potential candidates...but do I really need one more forum to update??

 

LinkedIn is obviously more effective for sourcing and advertising. Some of my strongest candidates have come from my job posts or discussions. I will have to agree with Jerry about ditching some LI connections who can't really help fill the positions. That's been on my to-do list for a little while now; I just can't seem to break ties with these people who I don't even know! Guess its still a numbers game....and wishful thinking that maybe someone has a connection that just might be my next placement.

 

All that said, I really do like where the Social Media trend is taking my sourcing efforts. Sometimes the process seems tedious and slow, but seeing that more and more candidates are online and connected, it is worth the time. My Tweets and status updates may not be helpful to all my connections at all times, but you just never know who is looking for that random job in a random place. I plan on using Social Media as a recruiting tool....not the be all, end all of what I do professionally!

 

Good luck to you and apologies for such a long comment!

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Permalink Reply by Al Merrill on February 11, 2011 at 6:06pm

Hi Pam-

       You always write interesting posts that many of us can relate to for our search businesses. It's clear from reading all the commentary, we all work the search business differently. That said, however, I know some people have said I'm missing something by not recruiting off social networks, but my candidate profile is not going to be there. I'm only looking for the non-active passive candidate who likes where h/she's at currently, with no thought of changing jobs, and the only place I'm going to find them is at their desk. And that for me is not a negative! It's interesting the perception of need that social networking has had on recruiters. Continued success to you. 

    www.mrginternational.net   

    

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on February 12, 2011 at 8:41am

Hi Al,

Thanks for the nice note! What kinds of searches do you focus on typically? I definitely agree that some candidates are more or less likely to be found via social media. However, if your focus is on the passive candidate market, you may want to take a closer look at LinkedIn. I've connected with many great people there who are not active, and have referred me to star candidates that I've successfully placed. So, the real value I see with linkedin is a starting point for name generation and referrals.

 

Another thought to consider too is the impact a site like LinkedIn can have on your client development efforts. It's a way to promote yourself, and your company and to show a prospective client how well networked you are in the space in which you recruit. One of the things I've always highlighted with a new client is that I have a deep and wide network of people to tap into for their searches....not just on social media, but on Linkedin for instance, they can 'see' that the network is sizeable, it's not something I'm saying. Social media liked Linkedin is just another tool in the toolbox, but the bigger the toolbox, the more options you have I think.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on February 12, 2011 at 9:06am

Hi Manoli,

I hear you on Twitter as well. I have my settings so that whenever I post a new search it sends a tweet to both Twitter and linkedin's status update. Interestingly, I get much better results from people seeing the linkedin status tweet than on Twitter.

 

One thing I haven't figured out with Twitter is how you stand out amongst the noise. If you're following a few thousand people, it's really just luck if people actually see your tweet.  Admittedly, I don't spend any time on Twitter anymore for that reason, it's information overload. Plus, I know myself too well, if I were to check in more often there, I'd lose too much time chasing all the interesting links. That's what happened when I first started using twitter and had a cute little twitter app on my desktop that dinged everytime a new tweet came in...not a good thing for productivity. :)

I also agree with both you and Jerry regarding not following hr types. However most of my twitter followers are somehow relevant to the space I recruit in...while on linkedin I've pretty much connected with anyone because there it is really more about the size of your network. I can trace many placements back to linkedin and not a single one to twitter, even though my network there is targeted to my industry.  For me, Twitter has seemed to be more of an overall branding tool, just another way to get the company name out there. Yet I hear some recruiters raving about how successful Twitter is for recruiting....I wish some of them would stop by and tell us what they are doing differently!

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Permalink Reply by Al Merrill on February 12, 2011 at 10:35am

Hi Pam-

 

     Many thanks for your thoughtful note and good advice. I don't view LinkedIn as a social network as much as a medium to share ideas and gain exposure, as you pointed out. A typical search will be a request by another search firm for someone in a senior management role, in a health care niche market such as Oncology, where the client has very tightly focused specific requirements of experience, education, and industry knowledge, often coming from a specified competitive background. Thanks again for taking time to share some helpful thoughts. Continued success to you.

              Al  

pam Clayton said:

Hi Al,

Thanks for the nice note! What kinds of searches do you focus on typically? I definitely agree that some candidates are more or less likely to be found via social media. However, if your focus is on the passive candidate market, you may want to take a closer look at LinkedIn. I've connected with many great people there who are not active, and have referred me to star candidates that I've successfully placed. So, the real value I see with linkedin is a starting point for name generation and referrals.

 

Another thought to consider too is the impact a site like LinkedIn can have on your client development efforts. It's a way to promote yourself, and your company and to show a prospective client how well networked you are in the space in which you recruit. One of the things I've always highlighted with a new client is that I have a deep and wide network of people to tap into for their searches....not just on social media, but on Linkedin for instance, they can 'see' that the network is sizeable, it's not something I'm saying. Social media liked Linkedin is just another tool in the toolbox, but the bigger the toolbox, the more options you have I think.

 

 

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