An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

HeatherLeigh — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 03:36:02 GMT

Michael - the issue with spoke, I think is the relative number of people on it. But I like the idea.

Rob - we aren't planning on publishing what we come up with. LinkedIn has been significant for us. So I am going to have to issmiss the idea that it isn't worth the effort. So far, for us, it very much has been.

Ben - I'm going to have to agree with you. They are pretty simple to use to get name, title and contact info and for that, they are quite useful. I won't share numbers, but on my team, social networking (from blogging to linkedin) has had a significant impact. I think think where people struggle with social networking is when they lack the understanding of(or creativity to figure out) how to use them. You have to see what is there and then start to think about how it fits into your core work, versus arriving at a site and expecting your recruiting challenges to be solved. People get distracted by new technology and it leads them down an unproductive path. But when people can see what's there and effectively leverage it for work they are already doing (name gen, for example), that's where there's a huge benefit.

I also think there's a benefit in terms of content delivery and community building but that's less clear cut. It's been on my mind lately, especailly with regard to facebook. I personally haven't had the time to explore some of the smaller players yet.

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

Ben — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:36:07 GMT

One more thing. Rob, you are correct that these sites should not be overhyped, nor do they replace core recruiting skills. I also tend to disagree with the 'open networking' mentality of many on these sites.

That said, there is value there, you can't ignore it, and we are still just in the infancy of online social networking. For as many recruiters that beat-the-drum about how great these sites are, there are many times more that barely touch these sites or have a clue how to use them.

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

Ben — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:30:46 GMT

Rob's hatin' social networking again :-/

Take these sites for what they are. A means of identifying prospects, building relationships, and establishing a brand with TENS OF MILLIONS of people.

Is social networking the 'silver bullet' of recruiting? Of course not. But they are a critical tool in any recruiter's or sourcer's toolkit today.

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

Rob McIntosh — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:44:23 GMT

Oooh, I forgot.

For the uber list of social networking sites that everyone can join and spend all day accepting invitations and then bragging how big their network is, this list on Wikipedia is frequently updated

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

Rob McIntosh — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:40:18 GMT

Heather - Interesting research project and I would be curious to see what you come up with. I asked a similar question on LinkedIn

"LinkedIn as a source of hire.......Hype or Helpful?"

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/hiring-human-resources/staffing-recruiting/HRH_SFF/135397-33141?browseIdx=0&sik=1201296636738&goback=%2Eahp%2Eamq

(Sorry I do not use Tiny URL)

Net/net is from the data that people have given me so far, while LinkedIn and social networking sites are starting to morph into job boards, I still do not see that the results (maybe a few % of your hiring numbers) warrants the frothing at the mouth I see with some recruiters when talking about them as a source of candidates.

Not advocating that you do not spend some time there, but at this stage I would not put to many eggs in this basket unless you want to either leverage as a potential PR tool or give the impression to your hiring manger that your hip to the latest recruiting techniques.

Personally I think social networking sites are passé and we have moved onto cool tools like twitter….Not! ;-)

Rob

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

Michael Policano — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:52:24 GMT

Heather,

I was just introduced to Spoke.com..like a linkedin but you can do searches w/o be in a person's network..It's actually scary the kind of information it has and the corporate logs of employees it lists.

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

Ben — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:51:24 GMT

IMO, these sites are best used for sourcing purposes. Any source that provides me a name, a title, a company and a location gives me all I need. I can make a call from there, or if the prospect is open to it (and they'll tell you on LinkedIn), I can contact them directly through the social networking platform. LinkedIn Groups and Facebook Groups are good for building relationships, particularly with those you already have connections too (i.e. I just created an alumni group for our firm on LinkedIn).

Still trying to figure out recruiting uses for Plaxo, MySpace isn't really the right platform for us (at least for now), and don't know much about Twitter.

One thing you didn't mention, and I'm interested in exploring is creating your own networks. Ning offers some interesting possibilities.

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

HeatherLeigh — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:32:56 GMT

thanks for the info Gautam

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

gautam ghosh — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:22:54 GMT

Some examples on how people are using twitter for business and professional uses

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/01/23/9-benefits-of-twitter-for-bloggers/

re: An Analysis of Social Networking Sites

gautam ghosh — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:26:50 GMT

Oh and Shannon and Julian have some more tips :-)

http://www.exceler8ion.com/2008/01/17/quick-tip-for-sourcing-talent-on-social-networks/

Gautam