“The social [media channel] isn’t about beauty contests and popularity contests. They’re a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. It’s about trust, connection, and community. That’s what there’s too little of in today’s mediascape, despite all the hoopla surrounding social tools. The promise of the Internet wasn’t merely to inflate relationships, without adding depth, resonance, and meaning. It was to fundamentally rewire people, communities, civil society, business, and the state — through thicker, stronger, more meaningful relationships. That’s where the future of media lies.”
This quote is taken from an excellent article by Umair Haque in the Harvard Business Review, entitled The Social Media Bubble, in which he questions the longevity of the the so-called bubble.
Translate this to the recruitment industry directly, with the newly titled social recruiting, and this is 100% correct. Trust, connection, community and relationships is where the future of recruitment lies.
But to be fair, good recruitment has always been about good relationships, on all sides; Clients, Candidates and Recruiters. I think what social media has added to the mix is community. It facilitates community by easily enabling people to come together in one place – whether that be LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook etc.
Recruiters (corporate and agency) beware – don’t wait around, build your communities now, in your own market sectors (build several if you need to) before it is too late to do so (according to Umair).
If you want an example of how to do this then, take a look at the guys over at Only Marketing Jobs. They are currently THE ONLY recruitment job board that has got the concept spot on. They have worked hard to build and develop a very active group (currently 12,500 members) of their target market – marketing professionals – on LinkedIn, and have now given themselves a fantastic base to build their future business on. This community is the cornerstone of their business.
If you know of any other excellent recruitment communities, it would be great to hear about them.
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