Oh no… They’re coming! Self Proclaimed Experts in the Social Recruiting Space that have never recruited a day in their lives. THAT’S RIGHT! I SAID IT!!

With all the hype about social networking, everyone wants to now get on-board and join the biggest flashiest trend of Social Networking. Those of us that have been in recruiting have seen many recruiting revolutions. Remember when every sales person thought that they could be a recruiter? Yes, sales is a key element, but in a different way. I am seeing it every day…It’s a complete takeover. Who owns what? Does marketing own it? Does the recruiter own it? Does the Web Strategist own it? Do we create a Community Manager? Well, enough is enough! The recruiters who are excellent recruiters have been doing this prior to the Social Revolution. We were networking way before it became a bright shiny object.

Think back to the days of “recruiting yester-year”. Before Facebook… Before Myspace…Before Twitter… What were we doing? We were cold calling, finding web communities to post, generating referrals and much, much more. If anything, the new sexy tools have just given us yet another avenue. I think back to 2005 when I was running a team of 13 recruiters and we were looking for 700 people in the state of California in less than 7 weeks. I knew from the moment the project fell into my lap that we had a whole heck of a lot of networking to do. We turned over every rock, every place, anywhere we could think of to get the word out to find the right candidates. We used all avenues and were successful. Our networking skills led to a national contract.

Social media is another avenue, a very important avenue might I add, but we know how to do this. The recruiters that have been here… we know this space. We have done this for a long time. So why are the people who have never recruited now telling us how to do it? We know this space, right? Yes some of these areas play a key role and I myself am now in Marketing on my own team called Digital Recruiting and it makes sense to drive the appropriate messaging, select the right tools, etc. but again, the have you "done it" factor is key. That brings me to my next topic…

How to Identify Someone Who TRULY KNOWS Social Networking AND Recruiting?!?

When I say Social Networking AND Recruiting, I mean both. Not one or the other. In my humble opinion, you cannot be a Social Recruiting Expert and have never lived the life. So here’s my list for a true Social Recruiting Expert!

1. You have been a recruiter
2. You are an innovator of change and embrace technology
3. You understand the nuances of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ziggs, Google, etc.
4. You might have your own blog
5. You have implemented recruiting strategies that deploy both traditional and social methods
6. You understand the importance of utilizing ALL channels, not just one or two for recruiting
7. You actually use the social sites you are promoting in an expert fashion
8. You know the importance of Job Optimization/SEO
9. You explore new recruiting technology and give it a fair shake
10. You never say…Oh ask (INSERT NAME) I don’t know recruiting as well as him/her.

There are more, but I will stop at 10. If you have determined you ARE a Social Recruiting Expert…KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! If you have determined you ARE NOT a Social Recruiting Expert, it’s OK, please defer to the experts and stop pretending to know everything.