Social Software

Computerworld - Headhunter Matt Ocken was looking for references recently for a vice president of engineering he was considering recruiting for a client. He knew of a CIO at one of the companies on the candidate's resume, but he couldn't get the man to return his calls. Then he tried Visible Path, social networking software his firm had implemented four months before. In no time, he had the needed reference.
Social networking technology helps connect friends, business partners and others using a variety of tools such as search and data mining.
Ocken's firm, Kindred Partners LLC, deployed Visible Path to enable its employees to gain access to a network of professionals who have relationships with other Kindred Partners staffers. Through this "trusted relationship network," Ocken, who is managing director at the executive search firm, found the name of a co-worker who knew the CIO he was trying to reach. That connection helped him get through.
"The return rates on cold calls are exceptionally low, but the likelihood of the individual calling you back if it's a warm call [meaning someone has given you an introduction to the person you are calling] is dramatically higher," says Ocken.
Social networking is gaining lots of attention as a promising but still-nascent technology for recruiting, akin to online job boards of 10 years ago. There are few statistics on how many companies use social networking for recruiting or how many hires or referrals have resulted from its use, but Lisa Rowan, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based research firm IDC, says the technology could gain wide acceptance. "As individuals increase the seriousness [of job searches] and use every tool available, they will use [social networking] more," she says.
A Natural for IT
The technology is used across a variety of industries and for a variety of job positions, Rowan says. But it may be most popular in IT, because IT professionals are more comfortable with technology than people in other fields.
Moreover, it can be useful for finding software engineering-type employees who might be less inclined to form networks than extroverted sales and marketing types, says Mike Ahearn, human resource partner at Boston-based venture capital firm Greylock Partners. Ahearn uses Contact Network from Contact Network Corp., also in Boston, for his IT recruiting efforts. He says it's a good way to find people who aren't actively searching for work and may not otherwise come up on the recruiter's radar screen.
Social networking applications are deployed across a corporation to comb through e-mail folders, contact databases and other