Never in the history of online recruiting have there been so many new tools for employers/recruiters to tap into to attract and recruit talent. Social media has taken the web by storm and those that recruit are beginning to take notice.
Last year I introduced the social media recruiting starfish, a map of the major tools that serves recruiters in this new media. It was a a big hit with those in the know. But times have changed and new sites have emerged so I thought it was time for an updated version. You can download it right here in PDF format.
It is my contention that social media, done right, can greatly reduce a company’s reliance on the major job boards, and in some cases eliminate the need entirely. The ‘big 3′ may not like that theory, but they cant ignore the truth about what’s happening online. There are now dozens of great new tools (many of which are free) to find the talent your firm needs.
The starfish now includes tools like Entice Labs’ TalentSeekr product which puts your job in front of the right audience. John Sumser calls them a game-changer. Jobvite is also getting a lot of buzz as a way to make referrals a major pipeline. Facebook employer pages are popping up everday (see E&Y). A recruiting channel on Youtube is a no -brainer. Just ask a company like Deloitte.
Twitter is now a viable means of recruiting as well. I’ve heard multiple stories of how people are discovering jobs via the micro-blogging service and landing them. Companies like Intel and Sodexo are very active in this world. In fact Sodexo has a presence on nearly every major social media platform there is and they actively promote them on their career site.
My point is that if social media is good enough for these name-brand companies, it’s good enough for the rest of you. Whether you have ten employees or ten thousand, social media works because it humanizes your company. So I challenge you to convince the powers that be within your organizations to adopt a social media recruiting strategy. Start small, do a podcast or write a blog. But just do something.
Your candidates are out there waiting to hear from you. Now is the time to talk to them.
Let my starfish be your guide.
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April 27th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Chris,
Keeping with the starfish analogy where its many arms pulls food into it’s mouth located in the center…what goes in your center?
In other words…what are all these social media outlets feeding?
Career website? Recruiter’s Outlook? Voice mail? ATS?
I’ve heard smart people say that each “arm” or outlet should live on its own. Use Linkedin to manage your Linkedin network, use Facebook to manage your Facebook network, Ning to manage Ning…and so on.
I happen to totally disagree with that. I’ll stick with Mother Nature’s design…many arms that feed one mouth.
Curious as to your thoughts on the many marketing tools that you use/teach…what’s your recommendation?
April 27th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Totally agree Chris. Great article. The problem we are seeing is that effective social media optimization is an acquired skill and, in many ways, a jungle for recruiters. At Zumeo, we understand social media and help companies leverage this technology by focusing their outreach. We take the burden off the recruiter, build and promote their employment brand, and drive relevant traffic that increases their talent pool.
Social media is the sole marketing plan for many large blogs and startups (Alltop, Mashable, etc.). If it can be used to launch a business, then it can also be used to attract, engage, and recruit the right candidates.
Good stuff…
April 27th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Good introduction to the vast array of social media technology / services that exist. I would consider including some of the Twitter-related job search engines (TweetMyJob, TwitterJobSearch, etc.) only to show the relevant growth of services around Twitter itself (and microblogging to a broader degree.) It’s all still “Twitter” but still interesting to see the expansion on that front.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
It’s a simple summary of the social media offerings. Nicely done, Chris!
April 27th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Sean – Great analogy. I’d say many of those arms feed the career site (of course I’m biased in that assessment.) It might not be possible to have a perfect “career site hub” for all recruitment marketing efforts, but certainly is achievable to a better degree than what exists out there today.
Fact is, if you don’t have a place to convert people intelligently and easily you’re losing out on all the work you implement extending those arms. And I don’t believe the ATS (the ultimately repository of those applicants) is necessarily the right “career hub” concept.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Great Article Chris and thanks for the update. Shaker also has the capabilities to offer Virtual Career Fairs to job boards or even direct to companies.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Sean I think most of these sites are an extension of your brand as employers. You can certainly integrate some of your existing content (i.e jobs) but each channel should have a dedicated resource to maintaining and managing the communication with candidates. The ultimate goal is establishing relationships with prospective candidates. That means taking part in conversations with them wherever that may be online. Just dont make each arm a replication of your career site, thats not what the candidates want.
April 27th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Chris, your starfish shows no acknowledgement of the move to mobile recruitment. Mobile Recruitment is a growing tool to any recruitment outreach strategy for organizations.
There are 265 million mobile users in the United States. 240 million of those users have text-enabled devices. 65 million users have both text and web-enabled phones. People are more mobile than ever.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Hi Chris,
I like the idea of the starfish to group together the different technologies. However, I think we’re all too easily falling into the trap of thinking we need to fill vacancies rather than finding good people with the right skills for the organisation. This, in part, is due to the traditional job board model i.e. pay us to put up a job advert and people (not necessarily the best ones) will respond.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could turn this industry upside down? Let’s have “people boards” where we give control back to the people (users) looking for a job or thinking about it. They can promote themselves how they want to and recruiters can find them for free using “talent tags” that the users specify themselves.
April 28th, 2009 at 7:25 am
It’s a cool summary of Social Media!
I agree Sean’s comment that tools are just tools. Trying or using all these tools is definitely impossible for most recruiters or companies, so it’s important to pick/use one or two weapons which can maximize the result.
A survey of how productive of these tools (social media) among the recruiters would be more useful.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Gary yes mobile is up and coming, but its on the fringe of recruiting right now and I wouldn’t consider it social media, its more like its own technology.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Chris,
Thanks for the updated map. You are right about the different ways Recruiters can use social media cost effectively. However, sometimes when there is too much choice people can get confused and end up using none of them?
That’s why I have just announced today the UK’s first Social Media In Recruitment Conference to help Recruiters understand what Social Media is all about and how it can be used in recruitment.
http://www.socialmediainrecruitment.com/
Mike
April 28th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Hey,
How do you feel that websites such as glassdoor.com or vault.com fit into the equation? Seems to be an appropriate place for recruiters to be since job seekers are utilizing these resources to learn about companies from their peers.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Chris,
Great updated map. It would be really good if the map had an added dimension for a rough ROI of each method, maybe even when compared with conventional online recruiting methods such as job boards.
For example, we all know how much a job board ad costs and can calculate the ROI, but measuring the ROI of using social tools is much harder to equate, as it’s all down to people-hours invested and has a very different, sometimes brand orientated, return. The investment in people-hours required to run a video channel on YouTube is obviously higher than a twitter account, but does it bring a better return?
I’d be keen to know if there are any creditable statistics out there that measure the ROI on using different social media methods for recruiting. Anyone in the know?
Julian
April 29th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I think the holy grail to utilizing social networks or “social media” for corporate recruiting is to get inside a “network” or inside “the world” of the type of professionals you are looking for…just not with “recruiter” written on your forehead. A Google adsense campaign ran by a recruiting department would be one kind of example…a small example.
I would also love to see the utilization of “social networks/media” when it comes to the best recruiters a company has…their employees. We see study after study that tell us the most hires and the best hires come from employee referrals.
Not to get all “army” on anyone, but most recruiters act like “snipers” that go out into the bush alone and hunt down their pray…one by one by one. Or they post a job and “carpet bomb” candidates…or maybe its the recruiters that get bombed with all the “lacking appropriate skills” resumes.
Think “special forces.” They commonly refer to themselves as “force multipliers” because the engage and teach the natives and then fight with them when necessary.
What if recruiters directly enganged their fellow employees by “co-partnering” or going into battle side by side…on an ongoing basis.
Besides taking reqs and submitting resumes for review, I rarely hear of direct interaction. What if a recruiter created a facebook page regarding the engineering department and posted about the engineers…or partnered with a dept manager in helping them build the manager’s Linkedin profile? I’m betting HR would be too afraid they would “lose people” and that’s a shame…because they are already out there.
Just thinking out loud…
April 29th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Chris,
Great starfish graphic! Thanks for the update. Please keep the updates coming as recruiting is changing so fast. You mention Deloitte, Intel and Sodexo in your summary and it would be helpful to get updates about more companies who are doing this well.
Susan
April 30th, 2009 at 1:38 am
Not only Social Media is working, but also Video Employment Platforms like http://www.mayomann.com or http://www.vault.com provide a great service that’e been used by big Fortune 500 Companies like Microsoft. They all need to find new people and Videos are a great way to get your foot in the door before you made it to the door.
April 30th, 2009 at 6:37 am
Chris –
Great post. I truely believe that social media will soon replace job boards as well. Regarding twitter, do you have a tool you like best for searching for candidates. I find it a great tool for branding and exhaning ideas, but hard to search.
Best –
Chernee
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Great synopsis of where social media fits into an organizational recruiting strategy, Chris! I have selected your post for inclusion in my weekly Rainmaker ‘Fab Five’ blog picks of the week (found here: http://www.maximizepossibility.com/employee_retention/2009/05/the-rainmaker-fab-five-blog-picks-of-the-week.html) to share your post with my readers.
Be well!
May 27th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Hey Chris,
nice overview. I agree, the job boards are in trouble and so far I’m not convinced they get it or care.
Sean – I like your thinking.
My 2 cents. Let’s not all get too fixated on the tools/networks/gadgets/doodads. Sure, they’re cool and present never before possible ways of connecting with people. However, in one sense that’s the problem. What I’m seeing a lot of out there is taking a job board approach to social media. In other words, social media and its attendant applications and tools are just seen as another channel to broadcast jobs. Yes they can be used for that, but that is barely scratching the surface of what is possible.
My opinion; its not about the tools. Oddly, its also not about the jobs – at least not at first. Its about making connections with relevant professionals on a much different level, in a much different way. Whatever social technology or “arm of the starfish” to use follows from understanding the crowd you’d like to connect with or engage. Not the other way around.
So understand the people you’d like to gather around your brand, learn about where they naturally connect with each other, stop recruiting for a moment and go just connect with them. Be the ball. Then once you understand what makes them tick, their natural habits and places online, then pick your tools, your methods, and gradually introduce opportunity. Like Sean said above, “take the recruiter label off of your forehead”.
Understanding the tools is important, absolutely. Yes, matching someone to an open role is the end goal, or at least one of the end goals (others could be branding, referrals, future opportunity, employment brand champions, et al). But if you’re going to build a house, you don’t go to your toolbox and say, “ok, I’m going to start with a hammer, because I really like hammers, and everyone is talking about how great hammers are. Did you see that Shaquille O’Neal and Ashton Kutcher are using hammers?” I think not. You’d look at the landscape of the lot you have to build on. You’d decide the design of your house from there. Considering your budget you’d think about materials, and the timing given the season. In short there’s lots of forethought before actually starting. Then you say ok, given my goals, materials, budget, here’s the tools I’m going to use. The one directs the other.
Its easy to get worked into an enthusiastic froth about social media and then just apply the same old job board mentality, I’m guilty as anyone of that. We can all think bigger. I agree with Chris, lets get away from job boards as our only method, so logically, we shouldn’t apply job board mentality to these new areas.
June 25th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Fine if you want to mention Deloitte as your YouTube channel example, but I think Electronic Arts (EA) does an even better job because their channel (also available on their Facebook company fan page — it’s easy to add the YouTube channel as a tab now) includes recruiting videos as well as game-oriented videos that were developed by people like the talent they want to attract, which will appeal even more to the target talent.
@Susan Ensey – you wanted another example, look at Inside EA on Facebook.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:15 pm
HI Chris – would like to get your permission to share the starfish diagram with my recruiter-coworkers during a training session next week. Not sure if I needed permission, but thought I’d ask. Will definitely give you credit and drive them to your site. Great diagram!
Mary Anne