Lessons of Digital Recruitment History

Nice simple blog post - it does not need much space but has benefit of being 100% true.
It is this - every single objection i hear about social recruiting/social media recruiting
- not proven
- overhyped
- does not work
- only works for tech/geeks/young people
- no case studies
- USA different to Europe
- dont trust the metrics
- can't make any money from it (this is a supplier issue)

Are exactly word for word the objections - people made about job boards and PPC by print publishers or conservative clients.

and we all know how that one turned out.

OME's Social Media Recruitment Advice in as few words as possible

OK - going to try and summarise as concisely as possible - our current advice to recruiters (Sep 2010) on this topic. Please be aware that this by definition is huge oversimplification and generalisation but i wanted to see if i could do it.

1. Answer question - why are you doing it?
2. Do it - engage - don't come up with reason to delay - do something now
3. Its more about time than money
4. Don't outsource too much to people like us - much needs to come from within
5. But let an expert guide you, kick you off, assist where there are gaps
6. Appoint internal social media champion/s and give them external/internal support
7. Measure but accept measurement tools are not perfect
8. Don't try and do everything. Possible priority list may be LinkedIn, Twitter and micro/niche blogs, specialist forums etc.
9. Launch, engage, measure, enhance, review.....

Final Notes

• we have stopped including Facebook ads in this area, targeted cheap effective advertising fits in snugly next to all other forms of SEM and depending on your recruiting needs - if you are not taking advantage of this source - you are missing out.
• there is the massive issue of content strategy which i have studiously ignored above - it is very bespoke to each organisation - and requires more space than this list can provide
• please place any fat proposal asking for £50-70K for social media strategy roll out in the bin - you will be very disappointed