I am getting worried about Recruiters.

Yes I am getting worried about some of the Recruiters that I have seen on Twitter and other Social Media channels.

They are incredibly passionate and enthusiastic advocates for Social Media Recruitment and they seem to have few reservations about its limitations. Indeed so enthused are they that they spend a lot of their free time talking about it, tweeting it, communicating with their friends about it and reposting articles and blogs about it. It has become their “hobby”.

I just wonder whether some of this enthusiasm is misplaced?

I just wonder whether whilst it interests the hell out of them they are forgetting that their target audience perhaps don’t share that enthusiasm?

2 things to consider…

In my mind the initial popularity in things like Twitter and Facebook was largely in part because it was all a bit anti-establishment. It was an opportunity to converse with other people without filters etc and it was a bit of fun. Is everyone going to be that keen on Recruiters operating in this space or is it going to be as much of a turn off as Cold Callers ringing you during X-Factor and trying to persuade you to switch energy provider? I suspect that there are a lot of people don't want businesses etc encroaching on their "free time".

Everyone now sees LinkedIn as a Recruitment Tool. LinkedIn itself is encouraging it through the introduction of the "Apply Through LinkedIn". This means that any and every Recruiter uses it (ad nauseam!). So with this in mind surely LinkedIn is losing its status as a pool for Passive candidates? I would imagine a really Passive candidate logging on to it less and less every time a Recruiter, who they have never heard of, wants to link in to them because they are a "Friend".

Don’t get me wrong I am not doubting the value of Social Media in recruitment campaigns but I do worry that if you over commercialise this space then you risk disengaging the very people that you are trying to communicate with.

Next Post >

Comment by David Palmer on September 15, 2011 at 10:59am: Funnily enough I was just writing about this today reference Twitter. I liken it to people trying to get to me about diets or travel... I feel slightly offended.

Comment by C. B. Stalling!! on September 15, 2011 at 11:11am: Linkedin is a tool that I can live with out. Pick up the phone and call candidates!

Comment by Charlie Davenport on September 15, 2011 at 11:23am: I'm amazed at how many consider themselves "recruiters" because they can tweet and post to Linkedin.. Social media is a great place to learn of someone, but if you are a recruiter, you then pick up the phone (or shoot a direct email) and actually "talk" to the person.. and actually find out if they are a "match" to a position that you actually have...

I, too, worry about the reputation Good Recruiters are getting from the Database Builders out there claiming they are recruiters.

And here we are sharing this on social media :-)

Comment by Andrew Boyle on September 15, 2011 at 12:04pm: fantastic article Jon really hits home on the thoughts of alot of recruiters I know

Comment by Nate Fischer on September 17, 2011 at 10:14pm: Thank you. I was speaking to people on twitter (other recruiters) the other day as they were saying how mobile was going to be the next big thing. And I chuckled and said, until everyone and their mother uses it, and people ignore their text messages as well.