article by Dr. John Sullivan and Matt Millunchick
I am proud to be an “outside the box” recruiter. I consistently recommend experimenting with new approaches to sourcing, because I have found that the only way to win in recruiting is to get to the candidate first. Recruiting is just like marketing: Once everyone adopts the “new” tool, it loses its effectiveness and its competitive advantage. Take advertising in movie theaters, for example. Southwest Airlines successfully used the approach to reach candidates via a channel they hadn’t erected barriers to until other companies began to mimic the approach and moviegoers started tuning the advertisements out. Candidates are consumers, and every marketing expert worth their consulting fees will tell you that consumers develop barriers to push-marketing over time, limiting the period in which marketers can catch consumers off guard and get their message delivered. As a result, recruiters need to constantly seek out new approaches and then move on when they lose their effectiveness.
Recruiting Outside the Box Takes Courage
The only problem with the approach outlined here is that while nearly every recruiter on the planet says that they want to try outside-the-box tools, most recruiters are mundane, lack the courage to try new things, and are unwilling to invest the time it takes to master a new approach. I’m not sure why; maybe it’s their fear of failure or their thin skin when it comes to criticism, but you can tell which recruiters are open to new approaches by looking in their eyes as a new approach is described. For those who will never succeed in using a new tool or approach, the reaction is always the same. At first they’re excited, then they begin to express doubt, then the excuses start flowing, and it becomes clear to those around that no experimentation is going to occur. I predict most will respond this way to the concept of recruiting on MySpace. To add a user’s perspective and some youthful credibility to this article, I have asked Matt Millunchick, my research assistant at the University — and the next Michael Jordan of hiring — to share his views and research on the subject in this article. He is an enthusiastic supporter of recruiting on these types of sites and cannot understand the resistance from “old school” recruiters.
What the Heck Is MySpace?
Simply put, MySpace and its competitors are online communities that allow members to meet and make friends by posting information and pictures about themselves. Although MySpace is the focus of this article, other communities include Facebook (#2 in market share), Tagged, Bebo, Bolt, and Friendster. If you have a minute, visit MySpace; it’s a fascinating look into the minds of Generations X and Y. MySpace has taken the world by storm, registering more than 65 million digital inhabitants. Its impact has been so strong that some media analysts have relabeled Generation Y the “MySpace Generation.”
MySpace Is a Major Player
To almost anyone under 30, MySpace and its competitors are the hottest thing in networking. The medium is such a powerful communication channel that last year media magnet Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace, a firm barely three years old, for more than half a billion dollars! Online traffic reports show that in January of this year, MySpace had the second-highest number of page views, coming in just behind Yahoo. Five out of the top 10 search terms entered into search engines for the four weeks ending March 4, 2006, were some variation of “myspace.” Compared to other more famous job-specific networking sites like Jobster and Linkedin, MySpace is huge and growing, registering more than 150,000 new users each day.
Who Can You Find On MySpace?
Although MySpace and its peers are designed to be social-networking sites, a smart recruiter will see the potential value right away. Not only does MySpace offer a huge number of participants, but statistics show that the average time a user stays on the site is approaching 30 minutes each day, an unheard of “visit time” for a website. At first glance you might think “MySpace is just for kids,” but don’t let the home page and your own preconceived stereotypes cloud your vision. More than 80 percent of the site’s registered members fall into the core demographic of 16-to-34-year-olds. Note that this demographic includes a large quantity of college-educated professionals with as much as 13 years of work experience. It has a phenomenal number of features and interest groups that represent potential hires, including business-related groups for Best Buy employees, mortgage professionals, realtors, and Web designers, to name a few. Quicken Loans is already using the site for recruiting sales and finance professionals. Obviously you’re not going to use MySpace to recruit the next CEO of a Fortune 100 company, but it’s a superior source for finding hourly employees, entry-level employees, military people leaving the service, college students, and mid-level management. The site is a great source for college students at campuses that you can’t afford to visit. It’s one of variety of tools that I recommend to smart firms that adopt a “remote college recruiting” strategy.
Targeting Specific Groups
Although MySpace is a very broad site, you can easily target specific groups by using networking sites that also target these individuals. Some of these other targets include:
- College students. XuQa is a perfect site for recruiting college students because you can register without a college email address.
