Yep, it's now official. There is a PR Firm out there now selling 10 Facebook 'Personas' on eBay and the bidding ends Saturday, 6/14 at 13:35:29 PDT. Now, if any of you have been following my random rants about the intersection between market psychology (in our case 'talent market psychology') and social media, you'll know I'm not very surprised about this. As I've tossed out there before, the future of strategic talent sourcing (Sourcing 2.0) is less about the Who/Where/What and more about the 'Why'. The 'Why' someone buys a product, service, or the reason they buy the particular role (or to some, employment brand) we're selling as recruiters is more important than anything else . . . another way of saying this is that the 'Who/What/Where' emanate from the 'Why'. If you ask me, I'd even argue that uncovering the 'Why' is what makes a great recruiter.

Getting back on point, here are some excerpts from the eBay auction page:

"I will briefly mention the manner in which I compiled a list of genuine friends for each persona.

Step 1: Develop a persona with an intense interest on specific subjects/topics
Step 2: Integrate that individual into communities/forums based on their interests
Step 3: Stimulate conversation inside communities/forums and interact with other users
Step 4: Establish the persona inside the communities/forums
Step 5: Begin to add friends organically"

"The ten profiles I have are as follows, and can be sold separately if requested:

- Samantha (age 19) – loves music, makes art, and enjoys the outdoors
- John (age 35) – health purist, into yoga, active runner, amateur cyclists, and into healthy eating.
- David (age 23) – Computer programmer, big gamer, into the latest gadgets, and is a blogger
- Michael (age 42) – Intellectual, reads books, enjoys poetry, has a weakness for fast food, and loves his two kids
- Carrie (age 26) – Fashionista, craves gossip magazines, doodles potential outfits, and follows celebrity developments
- Erik (age 29) – Big beer drinker, watches a ton of sports, likes sports cars, and likes to cook
- Holly (age 18) – Big into volunteering, loves reading, loves school, and interested in travelling abroad
- Peter (age 19) – Athlete, big into college life, likes drama and mystery movies, and can’t live without mac and cheese
- Shannon (age 33) – Design aficionado, into exploring a city’s culture, active artist, and
is latched onto her iPhone
- Kristin (age 40) – Live at home mom, loves cooking for her family, wishes she had a new car, wants a vacation to the beach, and is really into gardening"

"Under the right conditions and for a fair price you will receive full control of these personas, as well as associated emails."

Come to think about it, isn't this (in a roundabout way) what unscrupulous recruiters do when they market a fake candidate with a fake resume into clients with the hopes of achieving a job order or search agreement? Hmmmmm.

Yes, it's becoming a crazy social media maze out there :)

Joshua Letourneau
Mg Director
LG & Associates Search / Talent Strategy
BLOG: www.lgexec.typepad.com