How to Make Piles of Cash in the Magical Land of Social Media Recruiting.

Once upon a time there was a magical land where Recruiters made heaps and piles of cash. Pit rooms, placement bells, residual commissions and 400% mark ups grew on every tree. Every day was sunny and every resume was perfect. Every submittal was a fit too, no questions. Then one day….

Depression 2.0 occurred.

We Recruiters couldn’t pay for afford Starbucks and were forced made to drink the ~~crap~~ brew that is served in the break room.

As Depression 2.0 casted a dark cloud challenged Recruiters, some cowards ran toward sought safety in Government jobs. Other Recruiters were cast out, jobless and roaming the streets are still waiting patiently for Government jobs or anything that pays more than unemployment.

Then something remarkable happened.

The jobless, homeless, penniless Recruiter started spewing the awesomeness of Social Media. Pretty soon, the jobless Recruiters were “experts”. A division between the old Recruiter and the new Recruiter was Social Media. Suddenly, life was sunny! Recruiting was exciting all over again.

The Magical recruiting kingdom was restored! Hi-ho-hi-ho-ho off to work we go! Every day Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIN, Digg, Friendfeed, Stumbleupon, Youtube, Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, Furl, Ning, Propeller, and so forth.

It was like totally awesomeness cheese burger in paradise. Recruiters were happy.

But the Baby Boomers or old wiser Recruiters pointed out one serious problem still remained. We Recruiters haven’t figured out to monetize Social Media Recruiting yet. goldminer

So, here are three things Recruiters must do in order to fully restore 400 % markups in the magical land of Recruiting.

1) Attend RecruitFest 2009

2) Attend ERE Expo in ~~Orlando~~ Hollywood 2009

3) Join Social Media Recruiting Group on LinkedIn.

If you do all these things, you will be doing more than you would if you donated to the Red Cross. So, please give. Donate your ~~money~~ time and knowledge to the rest of us ~~jobless, homeless, penniless~~ Recruiters. I need...(ahem)... I meant... we need your support.

Thank you and God Bless.

Michael Glenn aka Glennlist

Comment by Joshua Letourneau on August 11, 2009 at 8:58am: Geoff, thanks for bringing my attention to this through your FB link.

Michael, this post is not only innovative, but hilarious. It's as if you're poking fun at the ridiculousness as "Social Recruiting" as being the return to irrational margins and "piles of cash".

My experience with social media is that it can suck us in - I used to spend an hour or two a day at RBC alone. So I realized I needed to recommit myself to my work, and when I did, my business increased exponentially. 2009 has been my best billing year ever because I made an active decision to pursue social media purely as a multi-channel strategy. Every Tom, Bob, and Harry recruiter wants to use social media as their new business development strategy ("I'll come in and teach you how to use Twitter!") . . . so what I did was stay 'old-school' in my approach. I say that in the sense that my value prop isn't how to teach someone to use Twitter or create a LI group, but rather, to place key talent at my Clients; talent that makes an immediate impact. The result? Clients love those of us that have stuck to our roots and are now sick and tired of recruiters and staffing pros' that want to teach them social media in an effort to earn search assignments - they want us to deliver results! In other words, sticking to the roots of why we exist in the first place has now become a point of differentiation as every new technology tool du-jour comes out, each more hyped than the last (i.e. MySpace 2 years ago, SecondLife last year, Twitter this year, etc.)

So it's "Hi-Ho, Off to work I go" - I have a candidate en route to Milwaukee and 3 face-to-face interviews occuring in the next 3 hours. That's probably why I was on FB and found Geoff's link back here! :)

Again, thanks, Geoff - this post is great.