{"id":5118,"date":"2009-03-26T11:02:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-26T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/?p=5118"},"modified":"2009-03-26T11:02:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-26T11:02:00","slug":"recruiting-20-the-new-importance-of-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/recruiting-20-the-new-importance-of-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Recruiting 2.0: The New Importance of Community"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"pg-cinncinati\"<\/a><\/div>\n

This post is really about two different types of \u201ccommunity,\u201d but they are closely connected in the evolving environment of Recruiting 2.0. One is the creation of an online community that attracts and nurtures candidates. The other is the use of location and lifestyle information to attract candidates and nurture new-hires.<\/p>\n

I started this train of thought when an interesting tidbit about Proctor & Gamble\u2019s new website focused on Cincinnati\u2014about which more in a moment\u2014came along at the same time I was reading some updates from the recent South by Southwest Interactive Festival. Better known as SXSWi<\/a>, this gathering attracts both a lot of people and a lot of attention (get the flavor with a CNET roundup<\/a>), and one of the hot topics this year was virtual\/online communities, and the management thereof.<\/p>\n

If anyone is thinking \u201cWhat even is<\/em> an online community?\u201d, there\u2019s a useful explanation\/analysis<\/a> at trusty old Wikipedia. And if anyone is asking \u201cWhat does this have to do with recruiting?\u201d, there\u2019s an interesting discussion<\/a> at EXCELER8ion, which explains that many candidates today have expectations of the recruitment experience based not on what has traditionally been provided by companies, but on the type of experience they have become accustomed to on the web.<\/p>\n

Those expectations include a variety of factors (such as snappy design, quick performance, media enrichment, etc.) that have already been very influential in the development of Careers sites.\u00a0 But an additional–and increasingly important–set of expectations has evolved from the connectivity created by social networks, blogs and articles that allow comments, and discussion forums. In short:\u00a0 Many candidates are accustomed to virtual communities and want to find something similar when evaluating a prospective employer.<\/p>\n

Creating a virtual community begins with putting the online part in place, but continues with the care and feeding of participants. The second part is called “community management,” and a new area of expertise has developed to meet emerging needs.\u00a0 If you want to get under the hood of what a community manager is\/does, check out a couple of community manager blogs: community spark<\/a> and Kommein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In terms of recruiting, the EXCELER8ion post suggests that a community manager can have several critical functions:<\/p>\n