Been reading some really interesting posts such as Reconverse and others on social vs job boards and launch of Facebook job board (clue its not really a job board)etc and it seems as ever in this industry we are at another big turning point..
Let's declare our credentials first - OME are about (or one of) the biggest buyers of digital recruitment media in UK so i think though we will always be ahead of most of the industry - our stats will be a good indicator as to what's going on "out there".
1. We have been advising/consulting on LinkedIn strategy for 4-5 years but we used to spend a negligible (i am talking under £10K) amount of our clients' cash with them. In 2012 - LinkedIn became our biggest single supplier. Why? well firstly they charge (or charge more) for everything now and secondly it works as a recruitment tool and is increasingly important as a branding / engagement / platform / communication (delete as appropriate).
2. At same time - our spend with the major job board media has grown but this is more about our client acquisition i think than any increased demand from the recruiters. The growth here is less than social, less than PPC as would seem logical given job boards are a pretty mature market now.
3. This spend is under pressure - due to the economy being "delicate" - if we are doing more PPC or want to pilot some small activity in mobile - it has to come from existing budgets.
4. Facebook PPC almost scares me - it is so cheap and has worked really well - largely with our retail and catering/hospitality clients.
So all the chatter - all the cool conversations are about everything else other than boards/postings/CV DBs/HTML emails - does this mean a meltdown or the same thing happening as happened to press. I will reiterate my view which is absolutely not - why?
Press was destroyed as it was so inefficient - it took the recruiter and candidate days/weeks to run an ad and apply respectively. A great job posting (well written, attractively displayed) on the right board (relevant, right audience, good search functionality) works brilliantly. And the candidate can search and apply in 30 seconds from desk, bus, sofa. So there is not a problem that needs to be fixed.
So i think these channels will co-exist (but not happily in terms of commercial pressure and client spend)
* i have been wrong as many times as right - so its just an opinion rather than a prediction!
