Last week brought an interesting example of recruiter activity on Facebook. Aimee Holt of Prime Partnership (a Rec to Rec) has been using Facebook to directly contact potential candidates (who in this case are all recruiters). After an email from her offering me a job (thanks, will keep the details!) I had a quick chat with her to see what her methodology was and how she was getting on.
Aimee has registered herself on Facebook using her company profile rather than her own details and has joined a number of recruitment specific Facebook groups (including "Anyone want to work in Recruitment?" and "I love recruitment consultants"). She has then posted messages on the "walls" of these groups...
"Do you fancy progressing your recruitment career... at Prime Partnership we specialise in moving recruiters up the food chain, for example into executive search, into management or team leader roles or changing sectors to work on much higher fees.
Primarily our Client base sits within the “Marzipan Layer “of Search practices, together with several Top Tier firms as well as Search Boutiques. We have Clients looking for candidates across a number of market areas to work in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai...to name just a few.
If you are interested in finding out more please feel free to contact me on 01932 584477 or check out my profile."
She's also sent direct emails (of basically the same message) to members of these recruitment orientated groups. When I spoke with her she'd sent a couple of dozen emails and had about 15 responses so far. Many people had responded with their telephone contact details so a conversation could be set up and so far she's arranged an interview with one person.
I wondered if Aimee had sent the emails to every member of the groups or if she had been selective in her contacting. She admitted that there had been a couple of people she skipped when she saw inappropriate postings on the group wall. A nice example of pre-screening via facebook.
I expect this sort of utilisation of Facebook is still fairly new (at least in the UK). However, I can imagine it won't be long until it's more commonplace. I wrote a while ago about Sarah Stimson's Facebook group (PR Job Watch) and the rewards she'd already had from that.
Whilst I think it's a creative approach and am looking forward to hearing if Aimee makes any placements from it, my concern is that some candidates may not like to have their "private time" encroached upon by a unsolicited approach (although no different in principal to a headhunter calling you on a Tuesday evening). I also wonder if some social "groups" on facebook may at some point ban the posting of vacancies on their "walls".
What do you think - would you want prospective clients contacting you via facebook?
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