Steven De Poortere is talking about interesting stuff on his ERE blog today, where he explores the possibility of measuring the success of blogging. Interesting concept, as blogging (and social networking for that matter) can be really time intensive for the average recruiter. So what is the ROI for those activities? Visibility, certainly. But how do you measure the value of visibility? I'm thinking that one option might be source of hire data for the individual recruiter. Just as companies calculate source of hire to ensure that budget is allocated effectively, couldn't recruiters use this data to make strategic choices about how and where to spend time in the competition for talent? For recruiters whose companies embrace more traditional recruiting activities (like scouring the job boards for resumes), it seems like this data could build a business case for the value of blogging and social networking. Food for thought.