In a time when recruiters desperately compete for talented candidates’ attention, building communities could be a way to stay ahead. 

The job advertising market has ballooned into a multi-billion dollar industry, which has, perhaps unsurprisingly, drawn the attention of tech giants Google and Facebook towards technologies that make it easier for people to find jobs, as well as build massive, on-demand databases of skills.

Meanwhile, many companies are finding it increasingly difficult to market their open requisitions to the right audience. Too often, hundreds of under-qualified candidates flood recruiter inboxes with applications, or worse, job postings are left open for weeks, failing to yield promising applicants. In both cases, the amount of resources thrown at finding the best candidates only continues to increase.

However, successful hiring teams are combating these challenges by proactively building communities of people with common interests and skillsets ahead of demand. This expedites the hiring process and nurtures relationships with talented professionals for future job opportunities. The question is…where do you start?

To answer this question, we spoke with Hung Lee on our Hiring Success podcast. Hung is a recruiter and influencer in the Talent Acquisition (TA) space and—as the creator of the Recruiting Brainfood newsletter—knows a thing or two about building communities. After all, his TA bulletin circulates to over 14,000 subscribers every week. Find out how Hung’s newsletter found success and why candidate community building is a must for the modern-day recruiter. 

Listen to the full episode—featuring a thought-provoking conversation with Anita Grantham of Pluralsight—over on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

How did Recruiting Brainfood start?

In the beginning, there was no strategy behind it. It was a vague idea inspired by the fact that the internet got so noisy and so big that it was very difficult for me personally to find the great bits of recruiting content as a consumer. I knew there was great stuff out there, but it was swamped by everything surrounding it. I started bookmarking articles and eventually, I realized that I had collected a bunch of great content. I was getting value from this and thought if I were to share it with others, maybe they could get value out of it as well. The Internet got too big and Recruiting Brainfood was my attempt to make it smaller.

Was there ever a moment where you doubted the newsletter would find success?

Not a single person read the first newsletter. I had no subscribers, so no one actually received it when I sent it out. I was a bit worried, but I went back to the drawing board, did more promotion, and when I pushed out the second one a few hundred people were reading it. I would gain around one subscriber per week and it would be the most exciting moment ever. At the same time, growth wasn’t the primary objective. The foundation was built on providing interesting and useful content for recruiters, and I think that is what made the newsletter a success. If I was looking for immediate wins or immediate audience then I would have bailed a long time ago. It did take about half a year before people started to pay attention, but then large numbers of people began signing up, reading it, and talking about it. 

Why do you think that it takes six months of consistency before people are really willing to give you the time?

When you are promoting content, the goal is to create an audience. You are asking people to spare their time for you, which—for them—is very precious. The first thing is to clearly signal that the content is around to stay. A newsletter or any type of series isn’t a one-time event; anything that is subscription-based is not a single purchase or transaction. 

This is why consistency is crucial, which then directly translates into trust. The same is true of human behavior. If you had a friend where you couldn’t predict their mood or behaviors between Monday and Friday, it is quite difficult to imagine a long-term relationship with that person. A good friend is someone who is going to be solid and predictable in some respect that you can rely on. This builds the foundation of that relationship and that is the key to audience building—they need to trust that you are going to be there.

A quote you often use in conferences or presentations is “Attention is the currency of the digital age.” How does it relate to recruiting?

It refers back to this idea that we are all in a permanently distracted state. The folks listening to this podcast right now, I guarantee you, are also looking at least one, maybe two different screens at the same time. When attention becomes scarce, it becomes valuable. Right now there is real competition for candidates’ attention. If you manage to get someone’s attention then that is the opportunity. That is when you can have a solo conversation or communicate—opportunities emerge from that. 

Without that attention, you can’t start a sales process, a relationship, or a plan. As a result, there is substantial competition between recruiters for candidates’ interest. Companies utilize ad notifications and other marketing tricks but it creates chaos, this huge noise. It is actually much more powerful if people step towards you rather than if you interrupt them. 

How do you think you can reach out without adding to the noise? 

Recruiters who need to interact with candidates can employ two broad techniques. The first technique is what I call the ‘stand out from the crowd’ technique. This is when you send personalized emails and make sure you follow up. Other strategies include sending a rich media message instead of a text-based email, which is the predominant way in which today’s recruiters try to interact with candidates. My view of it is that these things might be incrementally effective, but overall they contribute to the noise. At some point, every time you reach out you add to the cacophony, which ultimately pushes that technique towards the end of its effectiveness. 

The other broad technique is to create a type of community or audience where people willingly seek you out. Once you have that, then you realize that you don’t really need to rely on marketing tricks to have a conversation. A good example was when you wanted me as a guest on this podcast. There was no need to send me a long email with arguments as to why I should be here. A short email or text was all that was necessary because we already had built a relationship and already had some social capital.

The future of recruiting is going to rely on recruiters who are able to build strong relationships with large numbers of candidates before the need to hire. One of the major problems we have in recruitment is that it is a very transactional relationship. Recruiters have a role they need to fill in that exact moment and that is the only reason why they are interested in speaking with the candidate. 

This relationship is not reciprocal because recruiters are not there when candidates need them. However, I do believe we’re heading towards more equitable relationships between recruiters and candidates. The expectations of recruiters are beginning to change with the increased use of recruitment marketing and candidate relationship management tools, but there still needs to be changes in how recruiters are compensated and measured in terms of performance. In the future, we will see skilled recruiters who are judged on their ability to build communities of talented people interested in working at a particular company or a specific position.

Learn more from leaders like Hung lee in the next part of the podcast series where we find out how to master talent attraction with Celinda Appleby, the Global Talent Attraction Director of Visa

There seems to be no end to the “Talent Community” discussion these days; but, as you scroll through page after page of articles in Google search results, one thing is noticeably absent:  Where are the articles about why they’re good for the job seeker?  You know, the TALENT in the Talent Community??  Little has been written to explain what the benefits are to being an active participant in these forums/networks and how to get the most out them.

What is a “Talent Community” anyway?

Talent Communities are a re-branded form of the online social communities that have been around for years.  Online social communities can cover just about any topic: sports, gaming, products, etc.  Most job seekers are already members of at least one. As Talent Community Strategists design their own communities for their companies, remember that the content should serve the talent.  People frequent those communities because they share a common interest on the topics covered and it gives them a chance to learn from each other and demonstrate knowledge.

Leveraging Participation and a Chance to Shine

During the planning phase, Community Managers spend a lot of time ruminating on how to get members to participate.  This largely revolves on adding content that generates conversations.  The best communities provide an opportunities to rally around a common goal for improvement by providing a project, educational opportunities (webinars, chats, etc).  Here’s some of the questions they ask themselves and plan around:

• What kind of content will provide the most value, be relevant to purpose, and generate conversation?

• What kinds of conversations will your members expect ?

• How do you get internal stakeholders (employees) to interact with external stakeholders (candidates)?

You can best leverage your participation as an ‘external stakeholder’ member through asking those same questions for yourself.  Start discussions and add content that fit with the community’s ongoing theme and purpose.  Chances are, you are in the community as the result of an invite; so the community wants you to participate.  Ask thoughtful questions of current employee members and interact with the content they and other members provide.  Sharing news articles, policy/law changes, and new technologies that affect your role or the business is a great way to differentiate yourself and leverage your participation into that of a valued, respected member of the community.

I Just Want a Job

Here’s the downside of the talent community platform:  it’s not an “instant solution” for either side.  Just as Talent Community Managers/Recruiters are told not to expect their community to be a viable source for gauging talent for a minimum of 90 days; so is it for the job seeker.  When you join the community, you are new – like a stranger at a party.  Even if you met someone who invited you – such as interviewing and then being invited after – at best you’re an acquaintance.  It takes time to build trust and maintain the consistent visibility necessary for people to recruit you because of your participation in a talent community. Keep your engagement levels thoughtful, strong, and consistent; network with the others in the community (inside or out) and over time, you’ll see a payoff.

Again, the rules for inquiring about a job are very similar to that of advertising one. If all you ever do in a community is consistently repeat “I Want a Job” or “Hire ME!” then you’re likely to be tuned out.  A good rule of thumb is to put in 100 pieces of content (responses, new questions, etc) and then use a 1:15 ratio:  for every 15 interactions you have, you can either let people know you’re looking or ask specifically about a job opening.

Talent Communities are extremely exciting for the HR / Recruiting space right now and so if you haven’t already been invited into one, be patient:  it’s coming.  Since a lot of your interaction as a job seeker will depend on how the Community Manager set it up; it can be tricky to give hard and fast rules of engagement.  But regular interaction, thoughtful content, and helping others by participating in their discussions will go a long way to building a positive name for yourself in any community you’re in – and shows just another talent:  good networking.

Crystal Miller creates great Talent Marketing and Social Recruitment Programs at M3 Talent Consulting in Dallas. As an advocate for proactive social media in recruiting, she works as the Co-Host of #TalentNet weekly Radio Chat on Twitter/Focus w/ Talent Net Live. Crystal believes, “Candidate first.” 

One of the most common questions I receive when discussing social media for recruiting and candidate engagement beyond return on recruitment investment  is, “How do I manage it all?”  Social media is a tool to communicate and build relationships similar to email, the fax machine, or telephone.  Like building a community through any communication tool, social media recruiting requires training, preparation, and most importantly, boundaries, in order to be effective.

When recruiting and developing relationships with job seekers, time is money.  While the average US Facebook user now spends nearly 16 hours a month, recruiters can develop effective relationships on the big three social networking platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) without spending a large time investment.

Social Media Recruiting Best Practices

• Your Target Audience.  This is key in areas of marketing and sales.  In order to be effective with your time and money, you must know and understand who your target audience is.  When it comes to social media recruiting, this is no different.  This means asking newly hired employees questions, researching on the web, and the willingness to experiment with different websites and communities.  While this idea may seem obvious, it makes no sense to spend hundreds of hours building a community and creating profiles and groups on LinkedIn targeting construction workers if the platform demographics are college educated, white collar males, age 40 and above.  Yup, it has happened.

• Engagement Not Sales.  The beauty of social media recruiting is the power of transparency in the conversing and influencing that occurs online within the social networks.  Companies, individuals, and professionals must establish a sense of value within the community you wish to grow with.  Focus on value with quick messages and resources from your blog but mostly from the websites and blogs of others.  Social media and the information contained with these community is done with a pay it forward mentality.  Many of these messages can be scheduled in advance using social scheduling tools like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, freeing you up to focus your efforts on building relationships.  And by building relationships, I mean picking up the phone and meeting those influencers for coffee.  Take those online connections offline focusing on helping them instead of just helping you.

• Inserting Yourself Into Conversations.  When it comes to social media, it’s a community with cultural norms and expectations that are unique to the ecosystem like any other. To develop a stronger talent pool, know the norms. By doing your research up front you begin to understand how relationships are built and who the key players are within the community.  To focus on building professional relationships, start by closely following 15-25 influencers online, and then, inserting yourself into the conversations.  This includes commenting on their blogs, tweeting them directly, and sharing their content through the various online channels.  Building these relationships upfront allows for creating favor in advance.  And calling in those favors when you need them.

Building a talent community on social media takes time.  It is not a 2 week or 3 month process. Like a community in real life, the process is ongoing. By researching up front, creating structure and focusing your efforts, you can maximize your time spent when it comes to whatever your end goal is when it comes to recruiting and building talent communities online.

Photo Credit Impact Hiring Solutions with modifications by David Smooke

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a HR consultant, new media strategist, and author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. Jessica is the host of Job Search Secrets, an internet television show for job seekers.