It’s strange. Or so we think. How the rise of Social media as a recruitment tool seems to be having the adverse affect on recruitment’s creativity. At the end of the day, social media is just another tool. Another method. Another avenue to attract (and retain) the best people for a business. Like in the old days (sic), when newspaper job ads were never the sole route to attract candidates or market employers – neither is social media.
These days more and more people fall into the ‘technology trap’. This is a new API or widget: “It’s so cool and clever, wouldn’t it be great to use it?” That’s what they say. Agencies sound cutting edge to clients as they talk about augmented reality or Open Graph in Facebook. Yes, shouts the client, I want some of that. So off the agency scurries off to produce the ‘campaign’ in double quick time before someone else beats them to it.
What suffers? The creative execution. No longer king of the pile, it’s slipped down the pecking order. Now Technology is the new ‘creativity’, crafted strategy, design and copywriting forgotten. (After all, everyone can write a blog or a job listing can’t they?) “Look what this does!” is the cry of the day, never mind that the actual creative execution is as clichéd as the idea of borderstyle ad book these days.
It’s Fool’s Gold – at the end of the digital rainbow. Upholding the traditional creative and strategic standards and melding them to the new world is the real skill and value of recruitment marketing, employer branding, social recruiting et al.
Isn’t it?
