The last couple of days, we’ve spent some time talking about how the dynamics of Facebook are changing.  From a recruiting perspective, these changes may be difficult to leverage in your efforts to source candidates.

However, don’t throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water…  Social networks (both online and traditional networks), from a word-of-mouth perspective, can be a power component of a sourcing strategy.  More specifically, gaining access to the social networks of your existing employees multiplies your sourcing efforts.

EE = (1-N) X (R/P)

I want to point out an article written by Raghav Singh in the Electronic Recruiting Exchange last week.  Singh figured out a way to measure the effectiveness of a hiring manager’s social networking candidate sourcing efforts.

“Like prospectors during the gold rush, recruiters everywhere are flocking to social networks in search of hires.  But like the experience of many during the gold rush, getting results is not easy.  Reaping the benefits of social networking requires engaging with those networks.  There’s plenty being written about how to do so, but to know if what you’re doing is working, consider the following metric:

EE = (1-N) X (R/P)

Where:
EE = Effectiveness of Engagement, expressed as a percentage

Engagement, in this context, means getting ready access to employees’ networks, regardless of the mechanism for doing so.  Virtually 100% of employees have social networks and connect to them using different means (networking sites are not the only way to do so), but only a certain proportion of employees may be willing to give an employer access, by either making the contacts available or agreeing to forward job postings to them.

N = The proportion (%) of employee networks that an employer or recruiter has engaged with.
R = The average number of qualified referrals received per month per employee
P = The average number of postings accepted by employees to their networks per month

So if an employer is engaged with 10% (N) of employees’ social networks, and on average each employee accepts 3 (P) postings per month, and produces 2 (R) qualified referrals:

EE = (1-10%) X (2/3) = 60%

If the same results are achieved by engaging with 50% of employee networks, EE = 33%

Engagement is more effective the larger the number of qualified referrals received for the same proportion of employee networks an employer is engaged with.  However, this is not a bottomless pit.  Research shows that beyond a certain threshold of postings, the volume of qualified referrals starts to flatten out and even reduce.”

Before you gloss over this and nod off like you did in math class, take a minute to plug some of the numbers from your own organization into this formula.  It’s not as hard as it looks.

Try tracking the effectiveness of your engagement (the EE %) over a few months and see what happens.  If the resulting percentage is consistently low, then you are missing a major pool of the most qualified candidates available. 

It should cause you to ask yourself some questions:  Do your existing employees not trust you enough to give you referrals?  Are the job opportunities you’re pitching compelling enough that people would naturally want to share them with others in their network?  Are you afraid to ask your existing employees for their help?

Metrics help illuminate problems and find solutions that are not otherwise obvious.  Get your calculator out and give this a try!

As the demographics of Facebook skew towards an older crowd, will the catalyst that allows businesses to better engage the Facebook masses change?  There are some people who think so.

Jefferson Graham wrote an article in USA Today last week that highlights two ways that businesses are now engaging customers via Facebook.

1.  Fan Pages – Fan pages are free Facebook sites that allow a Facebook user to “follow” a company.  Originally, these pages were created for celebrities (ex. You can identify yourself as a fan of Shaquille O’Neal), but companies soon joined suit and created their own fan pages. 

Some small businesses have had success with these pages.  Graham highlights a nightclub in Hermosa Beach, CA that has a “fan base” of 650 Facebook users.  The nightclub sends its fans frequent information regarding specials, discounts, and events.

However, while there are more than 100,000 small business fan pages on Facebook, not many companies are successful at using this method to promote business, (although the article does highlight several exceptions).  The common thread for success with this strategy is consistently offering something of value to the end user.  If you expect people to engage with your business out of goodwill or to gain a sense of community, you’ll be disappointed.  It’s like feeding a stray cat…If you continue to feed it, it’ll stick around. 

2.  Targeted Advertising – This is where it gets interesting.  Graham reports:

“Advertisers can now choose pay-per-click ads similar to Google’s auction-based ad program, bidding on words and paying when someone clicks on their ad, or traditional ads based on ‘impressions,’ or the number of times an ad is presented.”

That’s not too exciting in and of itself, but think about the information Facebook has about its users—much more than Google could produce in a random internet search.  

“Marketers increasingly are gravitating to Facebook because they can advertise to a targeted audience, says Emily Riley, an analyst at Forrester Research.  She says marketers can pick and choose consumers based on public information they share on their Facebook profiles, such as the city they live in, the college they attended, their group affiliations and their fan pages.

‘You can literally find a book lover in New York who is a fan of Stephen King,’ says Riley. ‘That is gold for a local book seller.  Brides tell their friends they’re engaged, and wedding vendors can run ads specifically targeted to them.’”

This type of targeting is remarkable (and a little scary), but must be applied correctly if it is going to benefit a given business.  The types of products and services that are easily promotable in Facebook are those which are transactional in nature.  More specifically…the things that you can buy over the internet after viewing an advertisement.

This is where the demographic changes will have the largest impact.  Older users are able to buy a much wider range of products and services, and they have more money to spend.  Also, they feel less awkward about buying things within the framework of a social network.  After all, they did not get involved in Facebook for the same reasons younger people got involved.  Therefore, they will not feel the same level of annoyance when someone tries to market to them.

Where does this leave the hiring manager or recruiter who is trying to leverage the power of Facebook in their business?  With regard to soliciting candidates, it would be difficult to apply either of the two previously mentioned methods of engaging Facebook users… However, social networks are a natural support to traditional word-of-mouth marketing.  This will continue.  But, unfortunately, marketing on a large scale basis to candidates via this channel will probably remain uncomfortable and expensive.

Over the last couple of years, there has been a large number of marketers, business owners, and even recruiting professionals, who have been trying to figure out how to leverage social networks to their advantage. 

It’s been an awkward exercise.  Business professionals are attempting to take a tool that was created (and became wildly popular) for a specific purpose, and manipulate it in a way that will produce a result that is much more self-serving.  The participants in these social networks sense this, and often turn a deaf ear to these sorts of efforts.

However, change may be on the horizon… Not because the young people in these social networks have suddenly become tolerant of marketing messages, but because the make-up of the networks is changing.  Take a look at what the San Francisco Chronicle reported last week:

“Long a hangout for college students, the social-networking giant has morphed into a virtual parlor for the middle-aged, according to a new study.

People 35 to 54 are now the biggest age group on the Web site, accounting for 28.2 percent of all U.S. users as of July, according to iStrategyLabs, an online marketing firm.  Following close behind are 24- to 34-year-olds, who represent 25.2 percent of users.

The 18-to-24 age group accounted for 25.1 percent of users, down from 40.8 percent in January, the study found.  Those 17 and under made up 9.8 percent of the Web site’s users, down from 13.5 percent.”

The shift in populations using these networks is remarkable.  Notice the research documents this change has happened “since January.”  On the surface, it would appear that there has been a major exodus of young people from the network, but this is not the case.

“The findings reflect a major evolution at Facebook, which until January was dominated by young adults, some of whom famously festoon their profiles with photos of beer bashes and belly buttons.  Although their numbers continue to grow on the service, younger users have been overtaken by their seniors, who are joining at a faster rate.

Since January, the number of new users between ages 35 to 54 grew 190 percent, to 20.2 million, according to the study.  New users 55 and older grew 590 percent, to 5.9 million.”

Tomorrow, I’ll share some more regarding how businesses are already using this shift to their advantage… It doesn’t take long for people to innovate on these types of changes.  In the meantime, don’t be afraid to invite your parents to be your friend on Facebook – It may not be long until they’re showing you how this social networking thing is done!