And the first step of the first stage is…….

1. Stop What You Are Doing

Right now, please. Because I’m saddened to report there’s a good chance you’re fucking things up. It’s true the social web is distinguished by having few ‘rules’ governing behaviour; but it’s equally clear that there are widely held ‘values’ that recruiters often do not understand, and frequently contravene. It’s not our fault – we come from a culture where the predominate mode of online public discourse is posting job adverts; it’s going to take us a while to learn that whilst you can distribute jobs this way, it’s generally not the way to go on the social web.

We’ve all seen examples of this – the LinkedIn status updates ‘Now looking for yada yada yada’ (in Prague, usually). Or the tweets that don’t have any Human in them, just Job Title, Link, #hashtags #jobsearch #ITJobs #hire #etfuckingcetera.

You already know yourself that this does not work.

Perhaps what you don’t know is how bad this actually is for you. You can’t grow your Twitter following, add any new Fans or generate any positive buzz for you or the company you represent. And those 500+ LinkedIn connections you have? Because of your chronic overshare, half of them will have hidden your status updates without you even knowing about it. So the first thing we need to do – before we do anything else – is stop ‘bad recruiter behaviour’. Diving in is great – but there’s really no point if all you’re going to do is piss in the pool.

2. Know Where You Are

Yeah, I know – introspection is for wimps. We, in the recruitment industry, pre selected for our thick skins, and thicker skulls, rarely ‘do’ introspection, and if we ever did, we’d have it hammered out of us through daily drilling on dialing 9 for an outside line. We crack on, move on, make another call – right? It’s an approach that works when the methods are established, there is evidence for results and all you have to do is get better at doing the task. It does not work so well when you are trying to learn something new.

The first step towards knowledge is to know what you don’t. So recruiters – companies and individuals – need to lose the introspecto-phobia and understand where they are in the social web, in terms of knowledge, assets, resources and time. The answer may be that you know nothing at all. Good. At least you know that. But it is from that point that you can plan for what you need to learn, and budget for for it accordingly.

This may be uncomfortable stuff for many recruiters, trained as we are to always go go go. But having already stopped what we’re doing, it makes sense to take a good look round before starting off again.

3. Know Where Everyone Else Is

Ace recruiter

You’d be surprised where they aren’t. Some of the biggest recruitment companies in the UK have close to zero social media presence. In 2011. How is this possible? I think it must be very rich people in charge of very big businesses being overly satisfied with how fucking very rich they are. Only a theory. For you, this is not an excuse to fall back, but an opportunity to step forward. Basic market analysis will tell you where the opportunities are and how quickly you need to move to take advantage of them. Needless to say, the settings on that speed dial range from ‘now’ to ‘NOW!” to ‘too late’.

You can think of it like this; for recruiters, the social web is still pretty much virgin territory. It’s panning for gold in California in ‘49. You don’t have to have the biggest pan, or even be any good at looking for gold. There is just this ridiculously unfair, and permanent advantage in getting there first.

4. Know Where You Want To Be

I guessed you were panning for gold. Maybe you were more of an oil man. Whichever is the case, the steps we’ve taken so far should reveal to you what it is you want to do. Being A N Other Recruiter selling ‘a great service and even better CV’s’ is unlikely to put you ahead. Those of you who read my blog (Happy Mother’s Day Ma!) will be aware of my feelings/thoughts about vertical or horizontal markets – pick wisely and head for them, aim to be the best connector in that sector or specialism. For those of who you criticise this idea fuck you, understand that there are many ways to specialise other than strict technical verticals. You can specialise recruiting for a broader range of skills in a smaller geographical area. You can focus on a particular size of company, or companies within a particular supply chain. In fact, you can do anything you please, but make sure that it’s a niche that you can deliver and have a chance at becoming the best at delivering for. You will find that social channels work best when your target audience is narrow, but deep.

5. Know What Good Looks Like

Confession: I stole that line from Roger Philby. If you want some real insight, get off this blog and read his. Know What Good Looks Like. This is about understanding what success for you – recruiting superstar – is going to be on the social web. What do you want to achieve? And what does that look like? Without a vision of that destination, the risk of being distracted and going off tangent increases substantially. And that’s not forgetting the morale factor that will keep you going when the going seems tougher than is worth it. And make no mistake, Social Media is tough. Even Twitter itself accepts that the typical pattern of usage is sign up, get excited, don’t see the point & then leave.

You can go down many levels of detail and / or quantification in describing your success on the social web. It could be a simple follower/friend/connection count. Maybe it’s a %age of referral business generated by Word of Mouth amplified through social channels. Or maybe it’s just that fuzzy feeling you get when you realise that you really, truly get it.

Conclusion
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am generally an act first, regret-in-your-own-good-time type of guy. But a little bit of thinking, research & visualisation before you engage in the social web can save you time, labour and money. Not to mention avoiding mistakes that can seriously damage your brand and derail everything you are trying to do.

Want to know more? You know what do

Wise Man Say helps agency & in-house recruiters understand how to use social media to find candidates & acquire clients. Strategy, Implementation, Support & Training. Call on 020 7 739 9358 or email on hung.lee@wisemansay.co.uk

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