Everything that can be counted doesn’t necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. ~Albert Einstein

This is a post for the recruiters among us, or those interested in what we do.  It is relevant to both internal corporate recruiting professionals and third-party search consultants.  It is relevant to managers who need to hire.   It will probably bore the heck out of the rest of you, so move on if you are so inclined.

Today I’d like to discuss this concept of “social recruiting.”  This term has been the rage for a couple of years now, and is meant to describe the act of harnessing the power of web-based social networks to identify and woo talent.

Social media is a powerful force.  It reconnects people from far corners of our lives and can help keep us connected to them.  It makes a very big world seem much smaller and manageable.  Some have even credited social media with toppling dictatorships and fostering democracy because it so successfully unleashes the voice of a people that heretofore has been suppressed.   At its worst, it provides a distraction we don’t really have time for and it feeds our voyeuristic tendencies by transforming us into bystanders of others’ lives —  people we may not have seen in eons.

In recruiting, social networking is leveraged as a platform to reach out to people relevant to a career opportunity.  Twitter, Facebook, BeKnown, Branch Out, LinkedIn are all places where professionals congregate to own a piece of the web.   Employers wisely use these platforms to distribute messages about their hiring needs.  It’s fabulous because a user can target his message to a very relevant subset of people.  These networks are also used to disseminate information relevant to one’s firm, the industry and the professions.  It’s all very useful information.  However, social media is just another distribution channel for your marketing message, and that is all.   When people are listening, it can be useful.  But how long will the audience listen before it tires of the endless stream of self-serving messages?  For how long will your addressees embrace the dopamine drip of perceived “connectedness” before it becomes a pathetic annoyance?

Some of you may not be old enough to remember, but once upon a time Monster.com was anointed THE platform to end all recruiting woes.  In the mid-1990s it was “early adopter” territory.  Early adopters were the people I wanted to connect with back then, and it was a great tool for my needs.  But did you know that by the time Monster.com reached critical success the #1 search term on the web site was “part time?”   Yes, by 2000, Monster.com had jumped the proverbial shark.  It became, due to its Super Bowl ad campaign and mass marketing, about as effective for strategic recruiting as the newspaper employment ads of yore.  Add to this the fact that the market quickly became saturated with online job boards which merely replicate postings from other web sites (a practice which endures today), and you have not only a targeting problem but a credibility issue.

What happens when the world discovers the truth about the social networking platforms?  The truth – besides the fact that they are a major time suck – is that there is little that is truly “social” about social networking.  Because it is FREE, everyone who hasn’t already adopted it soon will. Suddenly, what you already think is an unmanageable influx of information will multiply by tenfold at least. On social network platforms that are segmented for the professional set, this will be especially salient as the economy heats up. How much longer before end users tune out the incredible volume of self-serving messages littering virtual in-boxes?    If you are BUSIER THAN YOU HAVE BEEN IN YEARS do you honestly believe anyone else has the time to listen to your marketing?!?  How long will it take your followers to realize they have opted into nothing more than your advertising?

Let’s talk more about the ‘unsocial’ networks, shall we? How many of us are guilty of being connected to people with whom we have never spoken?  I don’t know about you, but when I reach out to someone in an effort to connect personally it’s with the intent of making that a real connection at some point.  I invite them to call me.  I mean well; but is there enough time to truly nurture ALL of those relationships in the day/week/year/lifetime???   I lament that I probably have too many shallow connections on these sites….  I know I am not the only guilty party. This is precisely the type of promiscuous connecting behavior which will ruin the format for all of us.

My gut instinct tells me that the more we allow shallow contacts and relationships into our lives, the more valuable the actual “real life” connections become.    My ability to successfully get my job done for my clients requires personal contact that cannot be replaced by 1’s and 0’s slipping across the ether.  The internet can be a good way for us to learn about each other.  As Americans, we LOVE its efficiency for communicating, but it is no substitute for breaking bread and building relationships that exist even when we’re unplugged.