One of the problems with social media discussions is that the instantiations of these things can be very flashy indeed. Cool web sites, mutlimedia everywhere, even a full Second Life experience.
But, for me, this stuff is a business tool, not an rich entertainment experience, or a branding exercise (yet).
And I'd like to share with you preliminary results of an excellent experiment run by our HR team to try out SL as a recruiting tool.
The Idea Was Simple
Let's use Second Life to run an online recruiting fair.
At that level, the equation for me is -- hey, if your target demographic is people who happen to hang out on SL, and you can do it professionally -- sure, give it a shot!
The results -- so far -- were mixed.
Our HR Team Did It Right
They consulted with TMP, a group that was promoting this sort of thing and had some expertise. They joined with other companies that were doing recruiting.
They invested in making the whole experience very SL-friendly -- cool buildings, nice avatars, lots of rich media, even a free HoverCraft if you went. And they promoted the hell out of it.
Going in, there wasn't much you could have done better.
And There Was A Ton Of Interest
We got all sorts of media pickup in the process. Unfortunately, it was more about the curiousity around SL more than anything else. All sorts of people (?) dropped by to see what was going on.
A certain breathless email went around corporate heralding its success, how cool it was, all the media pickup we got, etc.
But I didn't see the bottom line: how many interviews did we have, what was the quality of the candidates, and how does this compare to more boring (and well known) alternativves?
You see, I'm curious about social media as a business tool.
Well, it's too soon to tell, but the results weren't that spectacular. It's not that it was a failure or anything, but I don't think the results clearly said "hey, this is a better way to do this".
Especially when one factors in the cost. Oh yes, that ...
Now, there was probably some benefit in PR from this. But that's our PR guys call as to the value of this, not the HR guys. And I'm sure that our brand was helped by this. But that's a brand marketing function, not an HR function.
So I'd resist any justification based on anything else than its intended purpose -- find qualified recruits at a lower cost than other alternatives.
So, I don't think we'll make that standard -- but I'm really, really glad we tried -- because things have a way of changing over time.
Maybe we were a bit too early on this one, but when SL (and similar experiences) mature over time, we'll know what we're doing.
Final Thought
I think that I'm going to have to be the voice of reason with certain lines of thinking over the next few months or quarters. Yes, all this stuff is cool.
But it's a business tool, folks.
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