Why Social Recruiting needs to fail

I was going through some old folders on my laptop the other day and I happened to come across my very first digital recruitment media plan which I wrote for a client way back in 1999. Even though a lot has
happened in the last 11 years I still remember this particular project
fondly. This might seem quite strange when I tell you that it was an
abject failure from both mine and the client's point of view!

The client needed to recruit four permanent software engineers and was keen to try something a bit different. The Internet seemed the perfect solution and we enthusiastically recommended a campaign
microsite and online "traffic driving campaign". After five weeks the
client had received two applications both of which were unsuitable.

Once everyone had got past the initial and somewhat hysterical "the internet doesn't work" reaction, we were able to unpick what had gone wrong with the campaign. Rather than give up on digital the client
worked with us to adapt the site and the media plan. After some
considerable effort and a bit more trial and error, results improved
and some (but not all) of the roles were filled. However more
importantly the learnings the client took from these early mistakes
went on to form the backbone of their overall online recruitment
strategy. A strategy which was to save them hundred's of thousands of
pounds over the next few years.

The reason we persevered, despite a very disappointing start, was because everyone involved realised that enormous growth of the Internet was going to change everything and the client wanted to be surfing this
wave of change.

The current situation with social recruiting is very similar. The uptake and growth of social media is off the scale but there are currently very few good case studies to show us exactly how it will
work for recruitment. I'm hoping the reason for this is that there is
more failure out there than there is success at the moment. Only by
failing a few times do you get the chance to create and refine a
strategy for long term success. Many will give up after the first set
back, history is telling us that those who stick with it may well be
reaping the benefits for years to come

Comment by Alasdair Murray on March 10, 2010 at 12:29pm: I found this about Twitter interesting http://themetricsystem.rjmetrics.com/2010/01/26/new-data-on-twitter...

Those numbers wouldn't convince me if I were a media buyer, and even if it was free I wouldn't be straining at the leash to advertise on such a flaky medium. Another stat I read earlier said 75% of activity on Twitter is generated by just 5% of its account holders and that there is "significant user abandonment" - now, bearing in mind it's meant to be flavour of the new decade, should we be hearing stuff like that? I have a feeling that sites like twitter are going to be in danger of over-hyping and under-performing, which in itself will drive people away. A bonafide recruitment medium? Not for a few years yet methinks - and that's only if they don;t start charging business users.

Comment by Paul Alfred on March 10, 2010 at 12:38pm: @Alasdair ... I really feel that folks don't spend enough to learn how to effectively use SM Tools. Twitter is a conduit to push eyeballs to a particular info site. If you happen to have a Blog or a Website and your are promoting/marketing a product or service you can generate interest by driving traffic to that site based on "Useful info" provided to a surfer .. Converting that surfer to a buyer is the trick.... Utilization of Twitter takes time and lots of work - perhaps it might be fair to say not the kind of time your average Recruiter would want to invest. LinkedIn is a different kettle of fish ....

Comment by Stephen ODonnell on March 10, 2010 at 12:40pm: That’s a very old laptop you have there Matt.
I think it’s safe to say that there will be many inept, half-baked and cack-handed attempts to use social media in recruitment. Recruitment of all kinds is a competitive sport, and everyone is looking for an advantage. Those who succeed will probably keep it to themselves initially, but we can all learn from everyone elses mistakes.
Failure can be a good thing, if lessons are learned.

Comment by Alasdair Murray on March 10, 2010 at 1:00pm: Paul, I agree. Twitter works well for me because I use it in a way that promotes what I do and drives relevant people to my site. However, many are shouting from the rooftops about how Twitter et al are going to kill off the job board. Most rtecruiters can;t even write a decent ad that sells so they can pile as many cut and pasted job descriptions as they like on social networks, they'll still get sweet FA from it and abandon it thinking that social recruiting doesn't work. Certainly I think the jury is very much out and it will take a while before a verdict is returned but were I doing my previous role of advising clients on recruitment advertising solutions, it would be with some trepidation that I put Twitter or Facebook on any schedule. Linkedin possibly, but again, not convinced that it reaps that many rewards. What's lacking is allure, enticement and general quality of job post/ As I just postged on Twitter A JOB DESCRIPTION IS NOT A SALES TOOL, IT IS A CHECKLIST OF DUTIES. Recruiters everywhere please note.

Comment by Peter Ceccarelli on March 10, 2010 at 1:45pm: Here's the deal. If you have a great employment brand (a company where most everyone would love to work for, but find it difficult to get into), and that company has been written up for being leading edge, a "best place" to work, etc., or a company that is well known for being a great place to work in your community, AND you have a great employee referral program, then social networking just might work for you. But then so do the other traiditional methods that have been around forever.

Those of you who mention that SN should just be an additive to your other methods......I completely agree with you. SN is about having deep roots in the industry that you specialize in. SN is about cultivating relationships with candidates over a long period of time (okay......I'm an old-timer who's been doing this for a specific industry for a long time), but it works. It also helps to scratch other recruiters backs from time to time. Throw them a bone (a great candidate that you can't use, but possibly they can) because that comes back to you in spades later too. It's all about relationships, using Linked In as a sourcing tool, and the other obvious ones (Monster, etc), because regardless of what the SN purists say, they work. And they have always worked and that's the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. Relationships that are developed human to human. Email to email. Phone call to phone call.

BTW........if you have a great referreal program that recognizes and appreciates the referral, regardless if you're a corporate recruiter, or work for a staffing agency, or you're alone as a 3rd party, referrals typically should be a minimum of 20% of your hires. If you're doing great they should represent 25% of your hires. If they're any lower than that, then you're focusing on channels that don't pay off in the end. So why bother?

Comment by Mike Hanes on March 10, 2010 at 2:12pm: Great post. I have a couple of quotes on www.thesecretofsuccess.com that deal with how failure leads to success:

"It is important to acknowledge a mistake instantly, correct it, and learn from it. That literally turns a failure into a success. Success is on the far side of failure." T.J. Watson 1874-1956, Founder if IBM

"Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have." -- Louis E. Boone

"The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it." Debbi Fields, Founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies

FAILURE SEEMS TO BE NATURES’S PLAN FOR PREPARING US FOR GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES...http://budurl.com/gzdy

Mike Hanes
ProVisionTech

Comment by Mike Hanes on March 10, 2010 at 2:14pm: One more: http://budurl.com/3s3l

Comment by Matt Alder on March 11, 2010 at 4:19am: Thanks for the comments everyone.

@Alasdair I'm not sure what you're trying to prove with those Twitter figures, this isn't about advertising and you can't actually put Twitter "on a schedule" at the moment anyway there is nothing to buy. At no point do I say social recruiting is going to replace anything that already exists so I'm not sure why you think this is such a black and white argument

As I said to you on my other blog everything depends on whether as an organization you want to be a leader or a follower. There is no value judgment as there are companies who are comfortable in either role.

These things always play out against the classic tech adoption curve and we're still at the early adopter stage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_lifecycle

It’s no coincidence then that the early adopters of social recruiting (who I know for a fact are having success) are tech companies like Microsoft, Unisys and Cisco. Innovation is in their corporate DNA and that’s why they are first to properly experiment

Comment by Alasdair Murray on March 11, 2010 at 5:02am: I didn't say that you said it was going to replace anything Matt, but there are plenty of people who ARE suggesting that Twitter and the like are set to replace the job boards. The figures were just to highlight what a shaky proposition at best twitter is for recruiters. Fine if you're a household name like the names you mention above because there's a certain in-built urge in a lot of people to aspire to work for household names in their industry, but if you're E L Wisty & Co of Romford I would suggest that you could try Twitter a few times, it wouldn't yield results and you;d come away vowing never to try it again, free of charge or not.

I appreciate that Twitter can't be scheduled as such at present (though who knows if they will start charging) but even as an add on saying to the client they may as well try twitter as it doesn't cost anything is still a recommendation I should imagine many account handlers would want to make with some level of confidence. At the moment i feel we are at the same stage we were with online in i9ts infancy i.e. IT related roles tend to work (and are possibly a banker if you;re a Microsoft, Unisys or Cisco), but not a lot else.

Comment by Gerry Crispin on March 11, 2010 at 10:31am: Jonathan- good quote. Edison also had a few of the best.

"I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."
"I've not failed. I've just found 1000 ways that don't work."