We all know that you (yes YOU) have a MySpace or a Facebook, have talked on Skype, or even used Netflix! It's okay... you have just become a victim of............ "COMMUNITAINMENT"!!! There is a new trend in town... and investment bank Piper Jaffray is here to tell you allllll about it!
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"The User Revolution," a 425-page report on how the internet is becoming a more consumer-controlled environment, explains the movement of consumers from merely exchanging information to using social media to facilitate the exchange of content, ideas, and entertainment. This combination of communicating entertainment to a community has been coined "Communitainment" by Piper Jaffray senior research analyst, Safa Rashtchy.
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Check out the full report here (let me know if the link doesn't work anymore) ------->
www.shoptocook.com/Articles/UserRevolution.pdf# |& p, ]$ ` i0 E
How does this help me, the recruiter. There's more!!! There's waaaaaaaay more!
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What does this have to do with recruiting you ask?
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Well, "communitainment" has to be every recruiters dream! Websites, like MySpace, FaceBook, Friendster, Wink, LinkedIn (and the list goes on), all offer companies, employees, and the unemployeed, a means of reaching out to the public like never before!
- u& D, F. o, f) TIt has never been this easier to not only reach out to a potential candidate, but also build a relationship with individuals. Social websites like MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook offer an inside look into the lives of individuals (all can be limited with privacy controls, so I have no quams with reading about last night's binge drinking or that "[user] is getting over a hangover" - thanks to Facebook Status), LinkedIn provides both a professional profile and an outside reference for each person, and Wink searches the user database of the above social websites and more. As invasive as these websites can potentially be, they will never go away as the consumer continues to become more involved, demanding instant communication, entertainment, and relevant content.
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I cannot stress the importance for a recruiter to use this consumer-controlled demand to find the right candidate. Let's delve deeper into some more web applications that are examples of "communitainment." Doostang plays off the idea of a network connecting similar people; Jigsaw provides a point system to people that input contacts into it's online database; Craigslist (one of the original online communities) offers consumers a marketplace to sell/provide goods, services, body parts, etc...
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We now have an inside look into the lives of millions of people. Recruiters must embrace this idea of "communitainment" to relate to the consumer and find the next greatest bull, the stuck lame duck, or job hopping rabbit.
) O/ c. c% d) I( v( Q2 u* z9 dThis idea of "communtainment" can be taken much further... I tend to over analyze things so each of the following, will be discussed in their own entries... here we go....
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"Communitainment:"
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1) will make a career in recruiting as sought after as a model/talent scout or A&R rep.
8 B$ h4 V2 N) \0 ~2) plays into the idea that the online/interactive space is so incestuous.
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