Recruitment and Social Media
Recruitment is changing all the time. As recruitment companies continue to seek out the best possible candidates, they are more often that not having to tune in to new channels. Since the introduction of social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, recruiters have the opportunity to search large databases of potential candidates, whilst increasing the visibility of their vacancies on social sites such as Twitter and AudioBoo.
These media channels are by no means brand new - they have been used and discussed at an alarming rate since their introduction in the mid-2000s.
And what's more, people have by no means ignored these new channels. Many were proactive and jumped on the bandwagon from an early age, forming 'social media' consultancies to advise organisations on how they can best use the likes of Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace etc.
But what does the future of recruitment look like in line with social media?
Whilst these massive databases of potential candidates and very easily accessible - to pretty much anyone - both Facebook and LinkedIn are incredibly precious of their data and the privacy of their members. It seems that every other week I log on to Facebook to be prompted to add some new privacy settings that have just been introduced.
And if you're thinking how great it would be to pull all the contact details of the LinkedIn members who work in your industry and put them onto your candidate database, you'd better keep on thinking - as it's practically impossible.
Yes, there is technology and software that can scour page after page of search results and put them in a nice spreadsheet for you, but unless you're willing to risk being banned from LinkedIn for breaching their T&Cs, this is highly unadvisable.
Besides, even if you took that risk, the information you can gather is very limited - no address, no email address, no phone number - all you've got is a name, a job title and a current place of work. Now whilst this doesn't provide you with details to contact candidates directly, it does provide you with a perfect name sourcing tool to go away and head-hunt to your heart's content.
As the gap between recruitment companies and social media is continually squeezed, the introduction of social job seeking sites such as iProfile are making a big impact on the industry.
It will be interesting to see how the next decade pans out for recruitment, what the next big social network might be, and how the gap between the two will be bridged.
These media channels are by no means brand new - they have been used and discussed at an alarming rate since their introduction in the mid-2000s.
And what's more, people have by no means ignored these new channels. Many were proactive and jumped on the bandwagon from an early age, forming 'social media' consultancies to advise organisations on how they can best use the likes of Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace etc.
But what does the future of recruitment look like in line with social media?
Whilst these massive databases of potential candidates and very easily accessible - to pretty much anyone - both Facebook and LinkedIn are incredibly precious of their data and the privacy of their members. It seems that every other week I log on to Facebook to be prompted to add some new privacy settings that have just been introduced.
And if you're thinking how great it would be to pull all the contact details of the LinkedIn members who work in your industry and put them onto your candidate database, you'd better keep on thinking - as it's practically impossible.
Yes, there is technology and software that can scour page after page of search results and put them in a nice spreadsheet for you, but unless you're willing to risk being banned from LinkedIn for breaching their T&Cs, this is highly unadvisable.
Besides, even if you took that risk, the information you can gather is very limited - no address, no email address, no phone number - all you've got is a name, a job title and a current place of work. Now whilst this doesn't provide you with details to contact candidates directly, it does provide you with a perfect name sourcing tool to go away and head-hunt to your heart's content.
As the gap between recruitment companies and social media is continually squeezed, the introduction of social job seeking sites such as iProfile are making a big impact on the industry.
It will be interesting to see how the next decade pans out for recruitment, what the next big social network might be, and how the gap between the two will be bridged.
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