Social platforms are awesome. Twitter, Tmblr, Facebook are awesome means of sharing thoughts and opinions and information and they are a killer tool for self promotion and personal announcements. If you have a Twitter account, you have access to the mass audiences inside and outside of your personal network and your industry. And for recruiters, you have the greatest tool available for identifying the talent that your firm’s desperately need, and the voices that your mission requires to be heard.

And here’s the truth… LinkedIn and other “social recruiting” sites are fading. If unemployment wasnt so high I can’t imagine LinkedIn’s stock trading over $10.  I fancy myself a pretty well networked guy and I went a full year w/o updating LinkedIn and think I actually made more meaningful relationships by NOT being on the site. Instead, I directed my attention onto active, vocal individuals in the blogosphere who were making statements (most bsaed in expertise – some not) and standing by their convictions.  The mere presence of a recruiter in a social network can give a “yucky” feel to many people so I had to be perfect – meaningful in my statements, accurate in my assessments and willing to demonstrate character even in the most inconvenient of situations.  Social platforms have reminded me of how important a good recruiter is – and perhaps what I love most about these social platforms, in terms of recruiting, is that they are forcing recruiters to be recruiters, again.  Enough of these shuttle bus drivers taking active candidates from one job to another and calling themselves headhunters.  HAVING A CAREERBUILDER DATABASE DOES NOT MAKE YOU A RECRUITER.  And the “sourcer” that emerged (which was really just a way of saying inexpensive recruiter, because we still measured them by hires) has no place in a world where every candidate is standing up on a platform every day and yelling “here I am!”… this is about professional recruiters taking aim at the voices and points of view that they believe will help advance their company cause, and taking action.

And in this day, you better believe in what you are doing. Especially if you are hunting for specialists.  And you better know your business. People are not fleeing for 5% raises and a chance at a cooler business car or bigger title. They are looking for opportunity to be part of something great and they are looking for a company ambassador with pride and energy to contact them with a unqiue career and company value proposition. If you dont have that to offer, please stick to the job boards and stay off the social waves. If you have what it takes, more power to you. And call me or drop me a reply. We can actually network..

It’s 7am.. let the hunting begin!