Social Media and Recruiting - Relevance?

I talk to professional recruiters everyday. I am often asked how relevant the social media world really is to a recruiter. We discuss LinkedIn and the prevalance of custom applications being built for the recruiting industry. We talk about the opportunity to connect in mass with great talent, or connect very specifically with that one candidate you can't find - using Facebook and other social properties. But the numbers really speak for themselves. Both B2C and B2B companies are present -quite engaged in Social Media. And this includes your potential clients. If they are there, are you?

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=162856470432792

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Comment by Jerry Albright on September 15, 2011 at 3:08pm: I encourage every one of my competitors to dedicate themselves to exploring the fantastic world of SM Recruiting. And while they're busy trying to squeeze it for everything it's got (which isn't much at all) I'll be happily serving the clients they are not taking care of......

Comment by Jennifer Norene on September 15, 2011 at 3:30pm: Aw! Well said! How do you currently find your clients?

Comment by Jerry Albright on September 15, 2011 at 3:31pm: Clients? Or candidates?

Comment by Jennifer Norene on September 15, 2011 at 3:33pm: Among the world’s 100 largest companies, two-thirds are using Twitter, 54% have a Facebook page, 50% manage at least one corporate YouTube channel and 33% have created company blogs. Overall, 79% of Fortune 100 companies are using at least one social media channel, with the highest use in European (88%) and U.S-based (86%) companies. However, only 20% of these companies (28% in the U.S.) are using all four major social media platforms. 69% of U.S.-based firms in the study have a Facebook page, but just 32% have posts with comments from fans.

Comment by Jennifer Norene on September 15, 2011 at 3:38pm: 300 Million+ “Job” related searches every month

http://www.talenthq.com/2011/03/social-media-stats/

Comment by Jerry Albright on September 15, 2011 at 3:39pm: Interesting stats. I find the term "using" though to be fairly ambiguous.

Of course the world's largest companies are exploring it. Many might find it handy for cattle call roles - or places where they can have employees dedicated to niche communities, etc.

I do not find it advantageous for agency recruiters though.

Comment by Jennifer Norene on September 15, 2011 at 3:41pm: Clients -- to answer your question.

Comment by Tim Spagnola on September 16, 2011 at 10:13am: I see the argument of social media relevance from both sides. Jennifer you share some great data and it is important I feel for all recruiters to at the very least be aware of where potential candidates are gathering/spending time, but for me social media does not translate into placements (Practicing Doctors don't tweet all that much). I am of course just speaking for me because there are plenty of case studies and campaigns that have been very successful built around social media. Now having said that I still daily utilize social media but approach it more as a researching tool. Sure it has allowed me to make some great connections, but because of my use of social media I am learning and picking up new things daily. So in a round about way it does bring some great value to my desk. So to each their own I suppose, but again the numbers are just mind blowing. The Nielsen Social Media report that was released this week is worth checking out.

Comment by Lipton Fleming on September 16, 2011 at 11:36am: This in a round-about way is the age old debate of the benefit of social recruiting, have a look at these infographics:

http://www.freshresources.co.uk/index.php/blog/social-recruiting-in...

http://mashable.com/2011/08/28/social-media-recruiting-infographic/

The benefits out weight the drawbacks and that is down to engagement & feedback. Social is mainly composed of what you put in - you get out and how you interpret ROI.

And as the infographics show the use of social recruiting is widely increasing, so this would suggest that there must be some value in social recruiting.

Comment by Ted Fitter on September 16, 2011 at 11:54am: Jen:

Do you have data on type of social media used for candidate sourcing broken out by demographics [Boomer, Gen X Y etc]? My desk focuses on F500 Sr Business Developers and Sr Sales Managers. For example, in candidate conversations, I hear LinkedIn but not much about Twitter, You Tube or Facebook.

Thanks