Who to endorse during this campaign season? Recruiting Blogs or ERE? The question’s inspired by various dustups inside the circle and by this post over at Cheezhead. From Cheezhead:
"Too bad I didn’t predict a Jason Davis (former Recruiting.com emcee and current
Recruiting Blogs Pied Piper) – David Manaster (fighter in ERE’s corner) throwdown, ’cause that’s how it’s shakin’ out. Even with ERE being a “network” for many years, “RBC” is currently upstaging the industry old-timer on the buzz meter. Oh, and its growth has gotten a lot of attention too.
But Manaster and Co. aren’t taking the upstart punk lying down. Meet the ERE-owned Fordyce Letter Network.
Both are powered by Ning so the technology is an even playing field. That means the people will decide each one’s future. While RBC is growing at a healthy pace – currently at over 10,000 members strong – the firepower still belongs to Manaster."
Like a career politician still holding out for a VP spot, I really don’t have a vote. Dig into the cast at FOT, and you’ll find vocal supporters and participants in the RBC scene, but you also find activity from the FOT crew at ERE or Fordyce. You’ll also find plenty of people like me, who like and use both RBC and all the ERE products.
And, that’s really the point. The question being asked by many is "does someone have to win"? Probably not, the more interest and penetration of social media in the recruiting scene, the better.
The bigger question I have is unique members and the platform. Ning makes it SO easy to be a part of many, many social networks, that ultimately the concept buy-in it takes to join one is next to zero. Take a look at the Fordyce Network, and you’ll see that most who join are also members of RBC (who, by the way, were probably originally registered at or reading ERE before RBC…).
So, if 10 Ning networks pop up in the recruiting space (hello Talent Bar – 8K in members), and everyone’s a member of all of them, the value is…..? If each network has 100 primary members who deliver activity and content, wouldn’t the network be stronger if they all hit the same site?
Of course, that’s capitalism, and the key is still the content/value delivered, which will ultimately decide the audience and traffic. One will go for more humor, one will be the academic, one will be the equivalent of the Laundromat with beer, etc.
I like them all, but am at the point of Ning fatigue. I’ll join the Fordyce Letter network because it’s from a trusted source. As for future Ning networks? I’m tired, my man. Welcome to America, where there are 54 versions of Tide… whether you are looking for the Sea Breeze smell or static cling protection dictates which one you are signed into today…
So FOT endorses both, and Talent Bar, for that matter.
As for my Ning fatigue, I’m sure FOT mavens like Hogan and Dingee disagree. I think they’re a part of every social network introduced to mankind. Plus, I saw a Twitter post from Kelly earlier this week where she unearthed something like 337 left-handed Software Developers who like Mr. Pibb from a Ning network discussion group. Nice…
Kris Dunn is a Partner and CHRO at Kinetix, a national RPO firm for growth companies headquartered in Atlanta. He’s also the founder Fistful of Talent (founded in 2008) and The HR Capitalist (2007) – and has written over 70 feature columns at Workforce Management magazine. Prior to his investment at Kinetix, Kris served in HR leadership roles at DAXKO, Charter and Cingular. In his spare time, KD hits the road as a speaker and gives the world what it needs – pop culture references linked to Human Capital street smarts.