The truth is, nobody knows anything.

By Chris Muktar (Founder - Wikijob.co.uk)

Let me start by saying I'm a guest writer, so please be nice!

One of the things I have noticed lately is how the recruitment industry has changed not recently but over centuries. In biblical times, I imagine jobs were advertised by word of mouth, then signs for the literate, likely followed by job noticeboards and then local press, finally culminating with the internet in the last decade and a half, and moving towards social media in the next.

One of the most interesting problems we face when trying to sell social media is selling the concept. It's rare that a client actually expects that their social media campaign will generate any applications. Many are just sticking their toes in the water and seeing what happens. We tend to find that companies spend only 5-10% of their budget on new or innovative media, while focussing the remainder of their efforts on the old faithful. Not very adventurous, but very reasonable.

One of the most interesting stories is Milkround, who have been going for twelve years. They are, for the minute, considered to be the central core media of online graduate recruitment. Founded in '97, their struggle is similar to ours. While at WikiJob we are selling social media in the wake of traditional online job boards such as Milkround, they were selling the internet concept as a whole back when print and campus was the only way to advertise, and their struggle was probably even greater than ours. Interestingly, they have risen to change the industry, by providing a default channel and also by reducing the price per application that employers expect to pay.

At the beginning of the millennium, millions of pounds were burned on either advertising on or acquiring the wrong online job boards. Even the large agencies got bitten, and the demise of Barkers was at least in part due to this fact. It seems nobody knew anything, and it was just important to get involved in some way. Fast forward ten years, and I can see a slightly similar approach with social media. At least in our industry, the investment in social media has been more measured than it was a decade ago, with existing online job boards providing a good backbone for any campaign.

It seems once again that people aren't sure what to do. Is it Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn we should be advertising on? How effective are these channels? The message again seems to be that nobody really knows anything, and people just want to be seen to be doing something, regardless of whether it works or not.

Running WikiJob, we've always believed that social media, for the employer, has to be about one thing alone, and that is reducing the cost per application for online marketing campaigns. That means driving more applications and better applications, for less money. It's always been our tact to try and have some substance in an industry that's full of fads and innovative new-waves. Using this principle, we try and deliver better results than Milkround, Target and our other competitors. Most employers and agencies who were tracking their campaigns last year will know we did as we promised. So, we are trying to edge our way into the 'core media' territory. We have a little way to go to shake our new-kid-on-the-block image amongst some people, but we expect to keep and grow all our customers from last year.

Of course, I have no idea what is going to come along next, or what will work in Web 3.0. Probably geolocating social aggregating mobile in-brain job applying technology, who knows. I guess the truth is, nobody really knows anything.

Comments

[Matt]

Nice post Chris and great to see another guest post on here. It's interesting as I've been thinking a lot about this recently. For some reason since I started my own business I've found myself refereeing between groups of social media enthusiasts who are frustrated that "things will never change" and some much more change averse groups in recruitment and HR who take comfort in the fact that "things will never change"

The fact of the matter is that things do change and they change all the time. I can tell you that the "norms" of the recruitment industry today...job boards, ATS providers etc etc were the new kids on the block when I got into the industry in 1998. I remember standing up in front of a group of HR Directors back then who told me that I was wasting my time with this Internet stuff as there was no way people would ever apply online for jobs in any sector other than IT.

Fast forward 12 years and guess what I'm hearing the same thing. I was told again last week that no one will use social media to get a job other than people in the IT sector. It would be funny if it wasn't so frustrating!! I also remember trying to sell Milkround in to my clients when it launched and being told that the internet would never threaten the directory market for graduate jobs

The one thing that I've learnt is, no matter how cool and useful the technology, revolutions do not happen overnight in our sector BUT (and this one for all you naysayers) they do ALWAYS happen. It took 10 years for online recruitment to become an established norm but regardless of how many people pushed against it (and there were a lot!) that's exactly what it did. The same will happen with social media, it won't take nearly as long to become established as online recruitment did but it is an unstoppable force and will absolutely get there in the medium term.

[Chrismuktar]

Matt- very interesting you should say that, definitely good to have somebody with lots of experience chip in. It is quite frustrating trying to convince HR departments of our validity as a core media, sometimes it feels impossible. It's so alien compared with the general fast pace of most internet businesses. It seems that even when agencies try to sell this stuff in to clients, clients still say no. Sometimes you wonder why they hired the agency in the first place, and some agencies or account handlers take a really good stance on innovation and finding the next big thing.

Let's just hope the revolution is here sooner rather than later and we can all look back in 10 years time with our pints at the Recruitment BuzzUp and tell everyone, 'we told you so'. :-)

[Ben]

I have to chip in here and say that, much like Matt, I remember the days of banging the drum for online media, only to be told it was a 'novelty' or a nice to have, and again, only really relevant to the IT sector.

The current challenge facing 'selling' social networking solutions is no different. There is a comfort factor in 'what you know' and many times I hear that age old phrase used by people trying to rationalise non-activity - 'no-one ever got fired for hiring IBM'.

It's odd, it's frustrating, and in many ways, demoralising when you can see the breadth and wealth of opportunities this new (is it still new - me thinks not really) platform offers us and our clients, and just like back in the late 90's, we have to work at this and prove the worth before getting broad-level buy-in.

The grad market is a great space to promote this, and with a product like Wikijob, it's great to have something that's strong and well-established to refer to (just like we used to with Milkround all those years ago). For me, the thing with Wikijob is that it's a bit of a pioneer if the truth be known. And it wasn't necessarily set up as a commercial entity at the outset - just a great idea that the end user found really useful (ring any bells with any other brands out there?).

The market will turn, and will embrace the platforms that are available to them - but the timing of this latest solution to recruiters probelms (in terms of a global recession and budget cuts everywhere) mean it is taking its time to establish itself.

As Matt says - and being an old fart I know this to be true - it WILL happen, and we WILL see this in a few years time as a post that we all laugh about, but unfortunately it will just take a bit of time, a few pioneers, and organisations using social networking for the right reasons - which are way more widespread than just getting bums on seats. We just have to, as always, be patient and support our clients in understanding what they do - short and long term - to enter this space and see real tangible results. Tangible results that can be measured in a way totally unfamliar to our sector and what has always been considered the norm in terms of benchmarking.

While not being able to attend the multitude of events taking place currently that are all positioning themselves as the answer to everyone's problems in this space, I am enjoying listening and learning, sharing these experiences with colleagues and clients and chipping away at opinion.

2010 I believe will be a different year to 2009. We are already seeing some great work by a few organisations, and this will help us all to make the case for our clients and your clients to switch their focus and embrace the opportunity that Social Networking affords.

Either that, or it'll be a 12x5 in the Guardian and a job posting on Milkround please.

Great post though - really enjoyed reading it. And to the fellow founder members of the Digital Recruiting blog, anyone remember that fateful day when we all met up and realised we're all having the same conversations with our clients and the media suppliers in a theatre somewhere in London? Seems like such a long time ago...

[Alex Hens]

It’s a good post Chris – and I (as much as anyone else, as we too are flogging a new product in this sector) feel your pain and frustration. I’m afraid though that, as commented on by my esteemed blogging colleagues, the HR fraternity simply aren’t the most adventurous. I can only imagine it’s even harder if you’re trying to flog a new way of doing things to Finance.

But at the same time I find it sometimes helps if you try and step back and try and look at things from their perspective (perhaps set the lights low, put on some calm music (maybe a welsh male voice choir singing Myfanwy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIgW7sMIDMU) and a large glass of red wine (or strong cider ;)).

Firstly, despite everything CEOs feel they must be heard to say in regards to “investing in people” and “people are our business” etc etc, recruitment is generally seen as a pure cost to the business – so it’s always got massive downwards budgetary pressure. So if your in HR / Recruitment, most often try something that doesn’t work and that’s a one way street to ArseKicksville.

Then add to that the noise of all of those people around you who you (over a beer or two) would admit to being cowboys in your space. Or maybe even just those who don’t/can’t really deliver on what they’re selling. Not REALLY. And think of those who went before with full on sales spin and then delivered the sum value of sweat FA. You’ve got a target audience with fingers burned and cynic level set to 11. It’s very hard to tell the BS from the No Brainer – because some of these BS merchants are (as I know you know) particularly compelling if you don’t scratch too deeply (which most people buying this stuff don’t have the time to do).

So keep the faith. I don’t think there’s a writer on this ‘ere blog that doesn’t rate what you’ve done and doesn’t believe you have a bright future. But it’s going to take time and be very frustrating for a long while yet – but it will all be worth it one day IF you can hang on in there, because if you keep doing the right things and growing your brand and traffic, then it is they who will fall away and your offer which will shine through.

Keep clinging and smiling Chris ☺

[Griffithsneil]

Guys, all I can say is keep the faith. Old skool HR are beginning to see the light. They are however needing their hands held and are feeling exposed. It's up to guys like you, and other forward thinkers in our space to keep educating, so that we all benefit from the 'new world' - and quality ideas and thinking cut through and make the industry an interesting place to be involved in.

Good luck to all

[Chrismuktar]

Thanks for your kind words everyone! I'm reassured by your confidence that the market proves good media in time. I can't blame HR for going down the IBM route like Ben says- lord knows I stick to what I know probably more than most.

In the second half of this year, I'm going to be exploring the possibility of repeating what we've done for the states. I'll be interested to know if there's any quicker uptake out there. My initial thoughts are that there will be- I've seen jobs advertised on forums and stuff all over, but I'll be sure to let you know as I found out!

On the plus side, I can say that attitudes have softened massively since we started. Back in the early days, we got angry phone calls from companies demanding stuff be taken down or else. Funnily enough (exactly) these people have returned to advertise. What a crazy world... ;-)