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.