I tried to post as a comment on Cheezhead’s blog but it wouldn’t upload so here’s my 3rd (com)post of the week. It’s about the notion that the new Fordyce Letter Network and RecruitingBlogs need to be seen as opposing each other.
I like Jason. I like David. I provide content to both. Like some others I think a win/lose aspect is less relevant than what these two or any others can accomplish individually. I meet with other recruiters a lot some make a lot more than I do. Most make a lot less. None of that is win/lose and I NEVER run into any of them in the market I work and I really don’t compete against specific people for any given dollar either.
I think these social networks are becoming like what Keanu Reeves said about fathers in the film Parenthood. Something like “You have to take a test to be a driver. You have to get a license to go hunting but any *sshole can be a father.
Absolutely, Jason and David are qualified to be “fathers” in that analogy but I have seen guys on Ning with only themselves as members.
Jason has a base now. David comes in with TFL…They both can ‘win’ plenty if they figure out how to get people to keep coming back. Lots of marketing people talk about niches and sub-niches.
For either of these guys and even others we don’t know yet I think it’ll be about editing and focus.
At the moment, I think recruitingblogs is neat. TFLNetwork looks similar and perhaps a bit more manageable but not necessarily better…but I find myself most often going to the front page of TFL itself because I know that’s where the actual contingency/engaged/retained search for a fee EPF recruiters go. The “winner” will be the person who honors that and then sets up other places for other businesses like research and contract recruiting etc. But who knows,really? Maybe I am just full of crap.. I mean, look where I just spent my lunch hour 
(Written while on a totally unaffiliated blog AFAIK)
I gotta run. I need to go to Ning to set up the CurmudgeonHeadhuntersNetwork.
8 comments
David Manaster Jul 10, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Agreed. There is lots of room for two - and it is inevitable that there will be many, many more - social networks for recruiters. People will eventually gravitate towards what gives them value, and they will find different kinds of value in different communities.
Sign me up for chn.ning.com!
Recruiting Animal Jul 14, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I was planning to blog about this. Numbers are deceptive in this game. We had a huge number of hits on Recruiting.com when it was the primary blog but a huge percentage of them were from Google and many of them did not stay long.
Likewise any network might have huge numbers but the rule of thumb I read about online from the marketing guys says that 10% of those read. 1% contribute and 89% rarely visit at all.
So even though there are numbers on a network another one might come out of nowhere at any time and grab a large chunk of that soft membership if it attracts them more. Of course 90% of its members will be in name only as well.
So even though I ask myself with every invitation why someone is creating a new network a bit of thought tells me that there are still opportunities out there.
Recruiting Animal Jul 15, 2008 at 10:48 am
No clash? I notice today that JD was left off the Forsythe featured members list even though he says that he set up the site.
David Manaster Jul 15, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Animal -
JD is a good guy, and he absolutely created the network on Ning. I am not on the featured member list either.
Your numbers for signups vs. lurking vs. participating sound about right to me. I think that numbers can be used deceptively, but its more about figuring out which of those numbers are actually important and meaningful in any given context. For a social network, is it more important to know how many members there are? How many pageviews? How many messages? Time spent on the site? I have some thoughts, but no real answers.
Social networking is still in its baby steps right now, and IMHO we will look back on this era in 5 years and compare it to when people were using homestead and tripod to host their personal sites back in the late 90s. There are opportunities that we have not yet thought about, and some of the things that we see as opportunities now will turn out to be mirages.
Dave Staats Jul 15, 2008 at 12:49 pm
It’s a strange and interesting world.. Some will see this because they have feeds set up for my blog (ok,maybe 3) Some because they track Animal or David Manaster, some because they track TFL and some more because they track various trackers.
It’s gonna be strange to see who turns that into $ and how. Isolate content? Broadcast content? Aggregate content?
Pay currently free content producers by the click? Like song downloads? It’ll be fun to watch. And I think it’ll make recruiting look simple…
Recruiting Animal Jul 15, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Yeah, but how come I wasn’t on the featured members list?
David Manaster Jul 15, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Because I didn’t want to get in the middle of a huge JD/RA pissing match. Why can’t you two just get along???
Recruiting Animal Jul 15, 2008 at 3:39 pm
He started it.