A Recruiter's Goldmine

Web 2.0

By Steve Prentice

“How did you find work on Twitter?” I was asked recently at a networking seminar. “Easy,” I replied, truthfully, “by reading between the tweets.”

Web 2.0 has now reached a stage of early maturity, so much so that to continue to refer to it as Web 2.0 is rather “last year”. It’s now just part of doing business. Anyone who has anything to do with work, from recruiters to HR managers, to actual employees, knows that to be out of touch with social media (its proper name) means operating at a disadvantage.

Social networking comes down to one word: interaction, which is a very different word than that which epitomized the Web 1.0 era (1995-2006), information. People now expect no less than full two-way interactivity in everything they do. More than just interactivity, they expect to be engaged, interested and compelled. This all may sound obvious to some, but it bears repeating for one single reason: human beings are remarkably conservative when it comes to change. Marshall McLuhan said it best when he pointed out how we “drive into the future using our rear-view mirror.” It’s easy to reject as mere child’s play the new forces that drive the trends that in turn drive business.

Ironically, the social media revolution means that things are circling back to embrace and amplify a technique that recruiters and sales professionals have known and practiced all along: networking. But now it’s virtual. And the first virtual network to join is Twitter.

Jump onto Twitter
Fine-tune it. Read what’s hot. Check back several times a day.

“Wait a minute,” you say, “Twitter? That place where people tell the world what they’re eating for lunch?” Yes. That Twitter.
Twitter can be as good or as bad as you want it to be. It all depends on who you choose to follow. If you follow glib egomaniacs who post meaningless tweets, then yes, it becomes a serious time waster. But the savvy recruiter learns how to use Twitter to find and latch onto key resources.

Follow people who have real things to say—people who share links to cutting-edge industry stories, discuss happenings in the employment world, and who can and do recommend other resources.

Follow companies who have embraced Twitter as a proactive PR tool: WestJet, Rubbermaid, Whole Foods, Home Depot, H&R Block, and Starbucks, just to name a few. These are organizations that foster a more modern, flexible approach to business and to employment.

Connect with regular individuals as well—smart, motivated people with ideas in front of them and achievements behind them who know the value of business in the Web 2.0 era. The value of Twitter lies in whom one chooses to follow, and in turn, who chooses to follow you.

Fine-tune Google News Alerts to Aggregate Your Blog Research.
News Alerts, a free tool from Google, takes the legwork out of research. Whatever the subject—an individual, a company, or a concept such as flex-time—search terms can be set up to harness Google’s extensive reach, to trawl all the news releases, blogs and websites it can find, and email a summary back in a neat package.

The question arises: “Blogs? Do these truly have value to a recruiter? Is there science in this?” David Bowman, Marketing Manager at LUCRUM Technologies, an Ohio-based IT consulting firm and developer of a successful social networking platform for employees, called the Future Value of Business, says, “Yes. There are many people in recruiting who want to stop right there and ask what the value of trolling blogs actually is.” He continues, “Recruiting is so much a marketing-related HR function. It takes the same skills to attract great talent as it does to attract customers.” He points out that a company’s blog should not be HR-focused to be successful as a recruiting tool.

It should be a demonstration of the corporate culture—something that gives job-seekers more than they can obtain from the company press kit and main web site. He adds, “That’s key for successful recruiting. A blog lets us beat our chest. It gives interested potential employees a chance to say, ‘This is the company I’m considering working for.’” Bowman points out that blogs and tweets might scare some potential employees off, but he adds: “That’s the beauty of it. If it reflects your culture, then the people who don’t gravitate to the blog would be the ones who would quit later anyway.” He calls it the “power of social media”: to attract great talent that’s a great fit.

Leverage LinkedIn
Of course, there’s the 800-pound gorilla of social networking from a jobs perspective, LinkedIn, which currently boasts upwards of 35 million members. For the agile recruiter, it is a multilevel resource:

• First, there are the connections. The power behind LinkedIn is the people to whom you connect. These are people who you would be happy working with or recommending in a face-to-face situation—valued, trusted colleagues. LinkedIn offers great opportunities for recruiters to meet candidates and clients through the power of a warm introduction.
• Then, there is the huge advantage of performing keyword searches within LinkedIn, to locate candidates with the right qualifications. Though these candidates may not know you, or even someone you’re connected to, you can still read up on their “recommendations”, and ask for an introduction by LinkedIn’s own internal email.
• LinkedIn is also good at identifying people who work at a target company, and how they might be connected to you. This gives you the opportunity to pick up the phone and work that connection in order to get to the decision-makers by warmer channels. Hint: If you haven’t downloaded the JobsInsider feature of LinkedIn you’re missing a hugely powerful connection tool.
• The LinkedIn community is also a haven for sharing ideas, suggestions and resources, by asking or answering questions within the forums, using the polling feature, or simply posting your current status—what you’re doing, what you’re looking for. Every activity that gets your profile and priorities in front of the eyes of other people is a good thing.
• Many companies are actively using LinkedIn to source good people. They recognize that it is no longer enough to simply offer a link on the homepage that reads “Join Our Team”.

Kimberly Ann Race, Search Consultant and founder of CareerofChoice.com, points out that recruiters have to become comfortable with the fact that the best candidates are already networking on LinkedIn, as well as on other social media sites. “Your online sourcing and recruitment strategy has to include much more than searching résumés on one of the major job boards,” she says. “Most of the time, you have to go after top talent, because those people aren’t actively looking for work, but they are networking.” Race, whose Forensic Recruitment™ training program has been used by companies such as Manulife, adds, “Star candidates can be found. They’re writing articles, participating in blogs, networking with their peers; they aren’t always on job boards like Monster or Workopolis.”

Two Essential Tools from LinkedIn:

1. JobsInsider is a free downloadable module that watches as you research jobs and companies and tells you who, within your LinkedIn connections, also works there. Once installed, it activates as soon as you access the LinkedIn Page with your browser. To download, scroll to the bottom of the LinkedIn homepage. It is listed on the “Tools” line.

2. LinkedIn Recruiter is a premium service that allows access to the entire LinkedIn membership to locate and connect with passive candidates more effectively. To learn more, scroll to the bottom of the LinkedIn homepage and click on the Corporate Solutions link.

Facebook: Love It, Hate It—But Don’t Ignore It.
Facebook, too, is an excellent resource for recruiting. It is easy to think that Facebook is for kids when, in fact, it’s a place where people of all ages go to connect. The tax and consulting firm, Grant Thornton LLP, for example, has a strong presence on Facebook. Its main group has over 1,200 members, with dozens of smaller regional subgroups serving Nottingham, Dubai, Houston and India. The wall posts on the main site contain inquiries about opportunities for advancement, suggestions for getting ready for audit season, even ideas for paid sabbaticals. “We are an international company,” says Ingrid Obendorf, Manager of National Quality, who works out of the firm’s downtown Toronto offices. “People tend to move within the firm, which is something we encourage a lot, and Facebook answers the need for a virtual lunch room.” Ingrid points out that Grant Thornton is big on being face-to-face with clients, of course, but also with the bright, highly mobile professionals who have chosen to work there. “It’s not possible to actually always be face-to-face,” she says. “So, Facebook makes the constant connection.” Although the site is new and is entirely employee-led, she sees it as a major opportunity to attract and keep good people.

It is also important to recognize that, with Facebook, we’re not just dealing with 20-somethings and tech-heads. Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, points out some fascinating Facebook numbers: more than 60 million active users; an average of 250,000 new registrations per day since January 2007; active users doubling every six months, with the fastest growing demographic being those 25 years old and older; people spending an average of 20 minutes on the site daily, with Canada having the most users outside of the United States (more than seven million active users).

What this all means is that what is old is new again. Recruiters have always relied on their personal network for the best contacts and opportunities, and the good old handshake is as valuable as it ever was. However, social networking is the mode of choice today, and it must be taken seriously, even though many adult minds are quick to reject its seemingly casual approach. More and more people are connecting online, and they are casting the strands of their personal web across lines and connections with many thousands of other users. Like an electrical force seeking ground, the “current of connection” travels down sometimes improbable routes, and the benefits of these links fall to the observant and nimble.

Lest you think its casual nature indicates a lawless free-for-all, take note. Beneath the friendliness and frankness, there are rules, some unspoken, which dictate proper behaviour. People still have the power to choose who they wish to connect to, who they wish to reject, and even who they wish to work for. Atlanta-based marketing head-hunter, Harry Joiner, found out the hard way. By inviting 4,600 of his closest friends to connect with him on Facebook on a single day, he was permanently banned from the service for overuse. Similarly, groups of avid Twitterers are already writing the rule books of twitter etiquette. So, recruiters must step with due care and ensure connections are made with permission, and individually. The social network is the new fertile ground for finding candidates and employers, but its use revolves around a single key concept, as recruiting always has: the quality of relationships.

Steve Prentice is president of the consulting firm, Bristall Morgan Inc., which has offices in Toronto and New York. He speaks, writes and consults on the art and science of bringing people and technology together in productive ways. (www.bristall.com)