Back in the day of the BiG BiLLeR-dom, executive recruiters labored away conquering fire and creating inanimate communities of endless paper stacks and unsightly manila folders . . . and these stacks were full of “members” who never knew they were really community members. The 3-dimensional candidate stack was full of names, titles, written professional history, and phone numbers . . . until the flat file db was born (cutting down from 3-axes down to only 2), allowing community members to co-exist harmoniously side-by-side in a calming sea of 1s and 0s. “Ah yes, those were the days, my Jedi-Recruiter child . . . . “
But wait . . . was that really a community? According to the highly revered Sir Wikipedia, “In biological
terms, a community is a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment.” Could a name be classified as an organism? I don’t really think so. Why not? Well, organisms have “properties of life” . . . (but then, hold on, what about viruses? . . . Ok, reign me back in here – we were onto something!) So, how about the concept of environment? Are stacks and folders an environment? Is an environment real if the names don’t know they’re being held in one? But names don’t have brains, so they can’t know anything anyway . . .
To my point: Doesn’t a community only exist when members of the community acknowledge the very existence of the community itself? Today’s construct of community within the social media context is the alter ego of “The Matrix”, a simulated reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify and subdue the human population.
One thing is for sure – times have definitely changed! With the exponential expansion of social media like Myspace, Facebook, and the viral genesis of social networks like Ning, the notion of community is now the hottest topic to hit the recruiting world since Monster (and then Jobster) were going to put recruiters out of business for good!
So, how do you grow a community? Do you toil for 6 days giving it life and then rest on the 7th day? In my estimation, the challenge moving forward will be to create communities that inspire people to give back . . . and contribute . . . and brainstorm . . . and invite other people back, who are just like them. But even Jason Davis, the Dr. Frankenstein of the ever Borg-like ballooning RecruitingBlogs.com, will admit he didn’t buy the domain and see instant success by uttering, “Let there be light.”
I think it’s about treating the community like a living, breathing organism. You have to till the ground, fertilize it, plant the seed, water it, de-weed it, etc. . . . and continue to tend to it as the plant grows. If I may take a gander, I think the conversation in 18-months will be more about how to secure the community than grow it. In other words, I see the conversation shifting from how to grow the plant to how to create a permeable membrane that only allows in those candidates we want, while providing a barrier of protection from other recruiters who want to swoop in like an eagle and take our eggs away.
Yep, I think we’ll be talking less about plant-growth and more about preventing against those beetles that are chomping at the bit to come munch on our beautiful plant’s leaves. One other prediction? Recruiters will still be in business.
Great posting Josh! The good news in my opinion is that social networking goes way beyond the likes of LinkedIn which is very one dimensional and appears to add little in real terms to engaging between the members. Its more like a directory of CVs where recruiters like myself enjoy going!
Jason however at RecruitingBlogs.com and my own recently created site “Want to be a Big Biller?”, both on Ning, are taking social membership to a new level of creating community withing areas of business interest. Facebook is not quite in the same market as they are very open to the whole world around them. Its the place you go after work or at the weekend….
As long as the members want to interact on subjects of interest in their chose network .I think the timeline for these social networks is endless
Josh -
Interesting concept. Here’s how I think about it in my world… If I had the choice (financial gain non-withstanding) of having 10,000 members in a network, 300 of whom were active, or having 600 members, all of whom were active, which is the more valuable network?
To me, I’d take the smaller network if it was made of people I truly connected with professionally, who were active in sharing their thoughts and interacting, etc.
The main problem at this point is in order to get a sufficient number of people you want at a “0″ acquisition cost, you’ve got to throw the gates open to anyone.
K
interesting
Kris, great point – I agree entirely. 600/600 active is what I would call REAL relevancy, REAL value, REAL dialogue.
300/10,000 is probably more prototypical . . . and to be honest, a 3% ‘active member rate’ is probably aggressive, however I’m just speculating. I mention that because some people join Ning networks only to never return . . . !
What strikes me about the above equation is how the community-member-quantity is sold to advertisers. Some communities exist to drive ad-revenue . . . some exist to create communitites for recruiting purposes (E&Y’s Facebook Group, etc.)
So Kris, I guess the 10k membership would lead quantity-driven advertisers to drool . . . however if we’re trying to develop a community for recruiting purposes, I’d definitely lean toward the 600 active
Quality, Quality, Quality as well as a reason for the members to keep checking back, to stay in touch,I dont think networking will be enough. Seminars, webinars, advice, coupons, give aways, contests, concerts………once you have the network built of solid people, the key is keeping them active and engaged (kind of like employees).
Brilliantly written, add in the exiting workforce, I want to term the contract nation and we are living in very interesting times probably times this country has never seen. Recent US actions portray in history much like the time of the once Ottoman Empire but that is getting off topic of HR and Recruiting. Couple books put out in early 2000 Blur and Digital Capital. I would recommend if new to this space reading in short a time where the HR and Recruiting will blur. It is going to be interesting to how Social Networks (informal networks Influence or in some case disrupt Formal Networks in my experience at times the Organizational structure.
You can say yeah but we are doing XYZ….But do you understand this huge shift and are you engaged as a whole to reuse or just putting your toe in the pool. Me my toes is in and slipping towards the deep end. Glad I spent most of my free time as child in the water…….Look forward to putting faces with names and your work this year –thanks!