Social Recruiting: The Replacement for Cold Calling

By Justin Miller

Article Originally Posted on RecruitingReach.com

A Blog that Caters to the Marketing Aspect of Recruiting

I think it goes without saying that probably the hardest part of the job for recruiters is making cold calls.

Having to make hundreds of calls a day can be a bit daunting on people, especially when only a handful are willing to let you get passed a sentence, and only a handful of those people are willing to work with you on a contingency basis.

It’s a main reason why the turn-over rate is so high amongst recruiting firms; young people with little patience and thin skin. But the cool thing that Biz Stone(Founder of Twitter) Reid
Hoffman (Co-Founder of LinkedIn) and “The King” Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook) has brought us are avenues in which we can rely less on cold calling, and more on pressure-free conversation.

Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are quickly over-taking job boards as places where candidates are going to find their next job opportunity. I get the sentiment that candidates now feel sending their resumes to places like Monster and CareerBuilder is akin to sending it into a black hole, often times never even getting emails back to let them know their information was received.

Why is there a growing trend of candidates on social sites?

Quite frankly, it’s not as if candidates joined these sites to begin their job hunt, they were already members to begin with.

Now as opposed to just interacting with family and friends on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn they are able to engage companies they are interested in working for. Yet for whatever reason, a lot of recruiters seem unaware that sites like these are crucial for the direction their business is moving towards. As more and more things like televisions, smart phones,
and tablets include social applications in their design features, so too must our industry.

Social sites encourage conversation and interaction, this can help recruiters avoid cold calls and embrace joining in on the dialogue. Depending on what each recruiter’s specialty may be there is a group on Facebook for it, or a list on Twitter that applies. Being present online and having exposure can benefit recruiters to the point where people will now come to YOU (what a thought!). But it’s important to not just overwhelm people with job ads and constant pitches. Become a trusted source for a topic, gain a reputation as someone who knows what their talking about and I guarantee you will find success.

Quality over Quantity.

Do you currently use social media for recruiting purposes? Does it work?

Comment Below

Comment by Jerry Albright on December 1, 2010 at 4:33pm: Isn't a key part of this whole social media world being aware of one's personal brand? If so - is this how you would like to begin building your brand here? Seems you're wanting to push this toward what we old people use to call a "flame war" - which surely wouldn't make sense in that you're a social media evangelist......

#interestingtosaytheleast

Comment by Jerry Albright on December 1, 2010 at 4:35pm: PS - I have no time for this one anymore. It's been fun folks!

Comment by Justin Miller on December 1, 2010 at 4:36pm: Thanks for comin' out Jerry!

Comment by Sandra McCartt on December 1, 2010 at 4:51pm: Interesting and definitive. Adios and bye, bye. :)

Comment by Sandra McCartt on December 1, 2010 at 4:55pm: Memo to self: I will never, ever get involved in one of these goofy exchanges about social media with a kool aid drinker, ever again.

Comment by Paul Alfred on December 1, 2010 at 6:58pm: Wooo Justin - why don't you listen and engage - you have 2 Veteran Recruiters giving their perspetives and instead of listening you speak without really hearing what they have to say... How are you going to win Consensus among readers if you have a valid point...

I am not going to get into whether SM works or not works I have written enough on it ... But if you want readers to engage in what you are saying you need to "embrace' dialog not stifle it.

Your approach in being defensive only says publicly that you have some thing to prove... Regardless of whether or not you have a valid point...

Perhaps you should adopt a different approach ...

Comment by Pamela Bovaird on December 1, 2010 at 7:33pm: Some of everyone's comments are valid. And some stuff is not. Justin I was only saying you are a winner because you have found something new that is working for you. At the same time what Jerry and Sandra are doing is working and has always worked so there is no point in doing away with what already works. Adding to it and enhancing it is the key and should always be considered as there are always ways to do something better. This is called evolving. It is not called subtracting. Kudos to everyone in the comments!! I must say I enjoyed reading this blog and laughing at the passion put into it. I especially liked your referral to "Puppy", Sandra. You guys are hilarious!!!

Comment by Sandra McCartt on December 1, 2010 at 9:05pm: I have no idea why but this has gotten so funny that what keeps running through my mind is to tweet. "Take this Brand and Shove it" with a link to all this.

Comment by Justin Miller on December 2, 2010 at 8:47am: At this point it's just bickering, just like how Sandra said she was done with the "goofy exchanges" on this post and just commented again. But since it's my article I wanted to answer Paul's comment.

Paul,
Believe me I know that it seems like I'm just being passive, and I think the only reason I'm doing it is at this point by page 4 no one seems to be hearing what the other has to say. If you see on page 1, every comment that was made I commented with the preface that I understood where they were coming from but I stated my point. It didn't really get ugly until you had the 2 veteran recruiters talk in definitive on how it just won't work because it didn't work for them. And that was my issue, it has worked for my company so I know it can work for others if you do it the right way. Now it's just petty and dumb but to my own fault I'm not helping it. I really just am kind of having fun with it, and if you guys don't want to continue to read my future posts on here that's fine and your choice, but I'm going to keep writing them and comment how I think, because the one thing people tend to forget around here is comments are opinions, just because someone who has been in the recruiting industry longer then me doesn't mean I can't share my own take on things. And for everyone who is saying "this is getting ridiculous" makes me wonder...if it's so ridiculous why are you commenting just to say its ridiculous and dragging it out? Clearly it's a controversial topic and if I want to argue my case, I will...Especially if it's on my own blog, and I welcome others to do so as well, but if you want to try to make your case by alluding to my age to belittle me then expect it right back because I sure as hell am not the only one writing about Social Recruiting and the others that are, are in Sandra's age group. Just look on this site