For most of our industry\u2019s history, recruiters reached new business contacts using paper: yellow page ads to touch prospective clients and job classifieds to connect with potential candidates. But then the Internet revolution shifted most paper-based communications online. Job boards provided a better way to find jobs and email made client communication easier. As candidates and clients adopted these new things, recruiters switched as well. Now, a second wave of the Internet revolution is cresting, changing the way people and businesses interact again. Whether you call it Web 2.0, the social web, or whatever, two aspects matter most for recruiters: People no longer want businesses interrupting them, whether with irrelevant emails or untimely cold calls. They want to connect on their terms, according to their timing. People are increasingly turning to their personal and professional networks to help figure out which businesses to work with. You can feel this wave swelling. Candidates can be found without job board ads. Clients don\u2019t reply to emails as regularly. Candidates and clients are changing how they want to communicate again, and the staffing and recruiting agency community will have to adapt.<\/p>\n
Are you Social? LinkedIn is Just the Beginning.<\/strong> Most of us use LinkedIn \u2013 a lot. For many it\u2019s their primary research and sourcing tool. But while recruiting professionals may spend hours per day on LinkedIn, no one else does. Clients and candidates spend their time on Facebook and Twitter. That\u2019s where recruiters will have to be to connect with them. Facebook has over half a billion users now, more than six times the amount on LinkedIn. Half of them log in on any given day, versus only 2.8 visits per month to LinkedIn. The average user spends more than an hour per day on Facebook. If you think it\u2019s all Gen Y, guess again. 30% of them are between 35 and 50 years old, and the 50+ age range is their fastest growing group of users. If you think Facebook is just for sharing photos and finding old flames, you\u2019re mistaken. Let me share a personal story from two weeks ago: I was checking my Facebook wall before heading home when I noticed that an old high school buddy had joined a rapidly growing start-up that was looking to hire sales people and graphic artists. A recruiter responded within minutes, and my friend was happy to engage him since the time was right and the recruiter was already in his network.<\/p>\n And how about Twitter? Sure, it\u2019s intimidating, but Twitter is rapidly becoming the preferred way to share content online. Already, about 100 conversations per minute (per minute!) about jobs and hiring flow through Twitter each day. Recruiters can\u2019t afford to not to be there. Are you found? It\u2019s not Just about Social Media.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you think this blog is strictly about social media, think again. Yes, social media is one piece of the puzzle, but it\u2019s bigger than that\u2026 much bigger. The term \u201cSEO\u201d (Search Engine Optimization) is something that most of us are familiar with by now, but what does it have to do with recruiting? What happens when a candidate can\u2019t find a job, or a client can\u2019t find a recruiter through their social network? That\u2019s right, they Google it- \u201cSeattle marketing jobs\u201d, \u201cNew Jersey recruiters\u201d. Search is what connects people to things they need outside of their network. Why? Because we all trust the results that Google and other search engines will return\u2026but only the top results. Hundreds of thousands of clients and candidates turn to search to connect with recruiters each month. Having a beautiful Website isn\u2019t enough. If you haven\u2019t invested enough time and money into optimizing it for search, you probably aren\u2019t showing up anywhere near the top which means you won\u2019t be found and won\u2019t get any new leads.<\/p>\n Riding the New Wave\u2026 Bullhorn Reach!<\/strong> While your prospect candidates and clients continue to ride the new communication wave, few recruiters have yet to join them. Let\u2019s face it – mastering just one of these tools and then growing a following and reputation takes a substantial amount of time, nevermind mastering all of the different networks. This is exactly why we just announced a new service to help – Bullhorn Reach<\/a>. What makes Bullhorn Reach so unique is its ability to solve so many problems at once for not only recruiters, but sales. In this industry, the three R\u2019s are critical – Reach, Relationships and Reputation. If you don\u2019t have reach, you risk missing out on the passive gems that your clients are drooling for. If you don\u2019t have relationships, you\u2019re likely bad at your job, and if you\u2019re bad at your job, your recruiter\/sales reputation will eventually plummet. Bullhorn Reach harnesses the three R\u2019s through one online service, taking the stress out of adapting to the new communication wave. We are extending the Bullhorn Reach beta to a select number of staffing and recruiting agency professionals throughout the fall, followed by a commercial release this winter. To learn more about Bullhorn Reach and apply for the beta, visit www.bullhornreach.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For most of our industry\u2019s history, recruiters reached new business contacts using paper: yellow page ads to touch prospective clients and job classifieds to connect with potential candidates. But then the Internet revolution shifted most paper-based communications online. Job boards provided a better way to find jobs and email made client communication easier. As candidates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bullhorn-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n