Tutorial Tuesday - Do you like Facebook as a source?

Do you like Facebook as a source?

Some people do, some people don’t. It has what I consider a reasonable search interface and if I were a recruiter, I’d use it, it’s free. In fact I have used it for several special projects I've done for clients. Let's think about where people keep their most up-to-date information, where they post to first when they're online. Yes, I’d prefer to XRay the site to get exactly what I need if I had my druthers, but I do appreciate the privacy features put in place for the users.

Recently I’ve seen considerable growth in the arena of Facebook Fan pages and was wondering how I could use them as a source. I know I could go through the Facebook search interface an hunt and peck for my results but I really wanted to take something else like the FlipSearch command "linkdomain:" and see what it would yield. To test this idea out I thought I would look for associations or organizations that nurses might belong to. And just because I like to cast a wide net and narrow my search I’m going to start with this string on Yahoo:

linkdomain:facebook.com (association OR organization) nurse

I get more than 300,000 results, which really blows me away. As I scan the results I can see that I’m viewing nursing associations that are location based as well as diversity oriented. And I can tweak the string above to find any nursing association I want, located anywhere I want with links back to Facebook.

Cool – but why would I want to do that? I haven’t found a resume. Because, if you’re tasked with name generation, what better way to jump into the assignment than to check out the North Carolina Nurses Association Fan Page. See the events they have scheduled, but better yet view all of their fans. This search process distinctly reminds me of a phrase I heard uttered by Bill Craib in one of my very first training classes back in ’98, “Find One, Find Them All”. So besides being free, sourcing with Facebook could be a great asset in your search strategy.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kelly Dingee on January 13, 2009 at 10:45am

Aw shucks! :)

Maren Hogan said:

Kelly, I continue to be blown away by the way you approach tasks. Your mind is sharp and extremely analytical (a quality that I personally don't possess). I am impressed and proud to write with you!

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Permalink Reply by Kathy on January 13, 2009 at 1:44pm

Hi Kelly!
As a new recruiter and new to social media, I found your blog both helpful and informative. I have been working on facebook and linkedin doing searches and making connections. I love the innovative thinking and will be following your blogs from here on out! Thank you for sharing.
Kathy Olsen
kolsen@talentrevolution.net

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Dingee on January 13, 2009 at 1:47pm

Thanks Kathy...and good luck to you in your new recruiting venture.

Kelly

Kathy said:

Hi Kelly!
As a new recruiter and new to social media, I found your blog both helpful and informative. I have been working on facebook and linkedin doing searches and making connections. I love the innovative thinking and will be following your blogs from here on out! Thank you for sharing.
Kathy Olsen
kolsen@talentrevolution.net

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Permalink Reply by Jim Durbin on January 13, 2009 at 9:53pm

Kelly,

That's a great use for searches, and it's real value comes when you've developed a persona on Facebook and have earned the right to message nurses on Facebook. By the way, if it's nurses, you want, I'd suggest you also put an eye on MySpace. The search strings and the population are very evident there.

One more note on Facebook. It's evolving as a better messaging tool than that of a sourcing one. One of the difficulties I had when developing Facebook training was getting past looking for people and expecting the sparse data in a profile to give you relevant information on the suitability of a person to hire.

Instead, use other methods to connect with candidates you already know who have Facebook accounts. Then market to them in a manner consistent with Facebook, and you'll find that the network effect kicks in as you build a name as the "blank" recruiter on Facebook.

Just my two cents.

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Dingee on January 14, 2009 at 6:48am

Good comment Jim. I never advise for recruiters and sourcers to devote all their time to just one source - there are too many out there. And the great thing about that string is that it will also work with MySpace (definitely agree with you there - AIRS has been training recruiters on how to leverage MySpace for awhile now...)

But easily users could re-write the string like this:

linkdomain:myspace.com (association OR organization) nurse

This morning I gave it a go and got just over 100,000 results.

Best,
Kelly

The Twitter FlipSearch pulls a variety of results, not all nursing associations. But one of themJim Durbin said:

Kelly,

That's a great use for searches, and it's real value comes when you've developed a persona on Facebook and have earned the right to message nurses on Facebook. By the way, if it's nurses, you want, I'd suggest you also put an eye on MySpace. The search strings and the population are very evident there.

One more note on Facebook. It's evolving as a better messaging tool than that of a sourcing one. One of the difficulties I had when developing Facebook training was getting past looking for people and expecting the sparse data in a profile to give you relevant information on the suitability of a person to hire.

Instead, use other methods to connect with candidates you already know who have Facebook accounts. Then market to them in a manner consistent with Facebook, and you'll find that the network effect kicks in as you build a name as the "blank" recruiter on Facebook.

Just my two cents.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on January 19, 2009 at 11:07am

Samurais never went to battle with a single arrow in their quivers; there's a real good reason why this is plural - sources of hire. And these sources are as fickle as the weather - meaning they need to be assessed on a regular basis to determine if they're staying on track.

Nice work KD.

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Permalink Reply by fccc on January 19, 2009 at 11:28am

Hi Kelly,

Absolutely! Facebook is a platform that can be used for many different reasons

regards
Carlos (Carl)

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Permalink Reply by Anne Taylor on January 19, 2009 at 4:46pm

Hi Kelly,

I am new to this. Wondering what the use of "linkdomain" is?

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Dingee on January 19, 2009 at 5:12pm

Hi Anne-

FlipSearching is when you use the command

linkdomain:

on a site like Yahoo.com. Flipsearching works on others but is most cleanly demonstrated on Yahoo - and it produces good results as well. I've used it for a number of years and was originally trained by AIRS. It will search for links to a particular site - some might call these backlinks. You can use the FlipSearch command with any site - not just Facebook. So I could in theory flipsearch these as well:

linkdomain:twitter.com (association OR organization) nurse

OR

linkdomain:linkedin.com (association OR organization) nurse

OR

linkdomain:myspace.com (association OR organization) nurse

Just remember, you put a website following linkdomain: and then add the keywords. I'd be happy to chat with you further, you're welcome to email me directly at kelly.dingee@airs.rightthinginc.com. I'd also like to suggest you check into the AIRS Sourcing Report - it's a free resource and we review tips, tricks, etc. every month that recruiters and sourcers need to be successful in their job.

Best,
Kelly

Anne Taylor said:

Hi Kelly,

I am new to this. Wondering what the use of "linkdomain" is?

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Permalink Reply by Greggory Lawson on February 6, 2009 at 12:07pm

Kelly,

I already use FB and LI, but I had never heard of FlipSearching. Thank you for introducing me to a new skill and a cool new word to add to my vocabulary.

Best,
Gregg