Social recruiting has been a buzz word for some time now but perhaps the time is right for this approach to recruiting to really take hold.

For many Recruiters Social Recruiting extends as far as searching for profiles on LinkedIn. But is this really social recruitment, is it any different to searching a Job Board? In reality Linkedin popularity in the recruitment industry is significantly due to its similarity to a job board. Everyone likes LinkedIn Profiles because they look like the CVs we have been used to for all these years. Unfortunately LinkedIn profiles are not CVs, they are often incomplete, out of date and void of all important contact details.

LinkedIn made a subtle change at the end of last year that heralds a change in this static document. Now at the top of each profile is a section called Updates. This appears to be an attempt by LinkedIn to become more social and try to allow its users to start conversations and properly engage. At the same time Skills were introduced where for the first time your profile can be automatically filled with what other people think of you rather than just what you say about yourself.

For anyone used to other social platforms, Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter etc this will be nothing new. These are platforms designed around the users stream of conscious. Perhaps Twitter demonstrates this idea in its purest form. There are no profile pages, here, just an open conversation with the world.

In my opinion these streams of internet conversations are massively exciting. Where a traditional LinkedIn profile may resemble a CV this constant conversation may be more like an Interview. These streams of consciousness can provide massively useful information not just about prospective candidates but what they do, where they work, who they know and a whole lot more.

My next webinar is on Sourcing and I’m delighted to be joined by Katherine Robinson @TheSourceress. Katherine is a former SourceCon Grand Master and a world class expert in all things Sourcing. The webinar is on Thursday the 11th April more details here www.intel-sw.com/blog