Social Media In Recruitment – Where Have The Last Four Years Gone?

Four years ago this week I came up with the idea to run Europe’s first Social Media in Recruitment Conference and quickly registered the domain name SocialMediainRecruitment.com. Having just paid the fee to renew the domain name again it got me thinking… where have the last fours years gone and what has changed since then?

My first conference took place on the 16th July 2009 and both YouTube and Facebook were amongst our speakers.  There was a lot of buzz and interest on the day and I distinctly remember Facebook proudly announcing that they had just reached 250 million members. They now of course have more than 1 billion members!

Twitter was just starting to get talked about, mainly because of celebrity profiles at the time like Stephen Fry, but there were still the predictable comments like “what a waste of time, why do I want to know what someone had for lunch?” and “Twitter will never work in recruitment”.

There were also questions around why would people want to use YouTube as it was “only for stupid videos where cats fall off skateboards.”

Then of course there were are our speakers on the day, including a certain Bill Boorman, who then went on to build a globally successful #TRU Conferences brand. There is even a picture of him in a suit and tie (without a hat!)

Do You Remember How You Felt About Social Media Four Years Ago?

Can you remember how you (and your clients?) felt about social media four years ago and how have your views changed compared to today?

Also, can you remember any classic reasons that people gave you as to why social media wouldn’t work in recruitment? I’m sure there must be some real gems out there!

Please feel free to leave your comments below.

2013 Social Media in Recruitment & Mobile Recruitment Conferences Announced – Two Conferences – One Venue

I am pleased to announce that our Social Media in Recruitment Conference  and our Mobile Recruitment Conference will take place in London on the 11th July 2013.

With Social Media and Mobile being so closely aligned today, we will be running both conferences together at the same venue, together with a new format.

Our confirmed speakers so far include Matthew Jeffery – Head of Global Talent Acquisition Strategy & Innovation at SAP and Bill Boorman, founder and disorganiser at #tru conferences.

New Format

The morning will be a joint conference with a mixture of Social Media and Mobile speakers, together with case studies and best practices. In the afternoon there will be separate Social Media and Mobile Master Class sessions, with the latest advice and practical tips to help recruiters get the most from using Social Media and Mobile.

Social Media

Facebook spoke at our first Social Media conference in July 2009 and they proudly announced that they had just reached 250 million users (they now have more than 1 billion users!).  If you add to that the fact that social media offerings like Google + and Pinterest didn’t even exist in 2009 then you can see just how quickly things have changed.

Mobile

Mobile usage has also grown significantly since our first Mobile Conference in 2010. With 8 out of 10 phones now sold in the UK being smartphones it should be no surprise to recruiters that so many job seekers are now expecting to be able to search and apply for a job using their mobile device.

Social Media & Mobile Expo Area

Delegates will have access to a dedicated expo area during the day where they can talk to suppliers and watch demonstrations of various social media and mobile related products and services.  (Any company interested in being part of the expo area should contact Mike Taylor for the latest stand availability.)

About Web Based Recruitment

Web Based Recruitment ran Europe’s first ever Social Media in Recruitment Conference back in July 2009 and the world’s first Mobile & Video in Recruitment Conference in September 2010. Over the last four years more than 1,000 delegates from 23 different countries have attended the conferences organised by Web Based Recruitment.

If you have any questions about the conferences then please feel free to contact me.

Mike Taylor

Does Social Media Really Only Account For 2.9% Of Hires?

CareerXroads recently released their Annual Source Of Hire Report which looked at the different sources used by companies when recruiting new employees.

As I would have expected, the top three sources of hires were:

  • Referrals
  • Career Sites
  • Job Boards

Referrals took first place as the top source of hire with 24.5%, closely followed by careers sites with 23.4%. Job boards were in third place with 18.1%.

Although Social Media only accounted for 2.9% of the total, in my opinion it does play a far bigger role as job seekers do tend to “discover” jobs through sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. However, if job seekers then go on to complete applications through a careers website or a job board then there could be some overlap in terms of how they found the job?

1997 v 2012

If you compare the results to a survey 15 years ago by the Society for Human Resource Management you can see that employee referrals were seen in 1997 as a very important source of hire (the same as they are today).

Are employee referrals a large part of your recruiting strategy? What level of employee referral activity do you have in your company?

View The Report

You can view the full report by visiting the CareerXroads website here.

Feedback

What is your view of the 2012 results? Do they surprise you or are they what you would have expected? Do you feel that Social Media plays a bigger role than the 2.9% suggests? Please feel free to comment below: