I've been pondering for some time how mobile devices like the Blackberry, iPhone, iPad and Windows 7 Phone can enhance recruiter effectiveness beyond what can be done with a phone and a laptop. The always-on instant notifications are a large part of it. Pushing of location-contextual data  on candidates can be another value driver.

Real-time location-based social networking may be the killer apps for recruiters on the road (outside of real-time alerts and the ability to call a hot candidate within seconds of them applying). Real-time notifications to a recruiter of relevant, high-value talent in the same location could lead to a great connection, or an embarrassing and/or awkward moment.

Enter FourSquare (or Gowalla, Rummble, etc.)




My exciting social agenda! Now you know where I shop!

FourSquare is a location-based social networking tool. It can be used for declaring your location at a venue, checking in, seeing which other Foursquare members are there, and sharing tips on locations. There's also a "bragging rights" based points systsem. Points are awarded for new location check-ins, etc. It has been around for about a year. FourSquare currently has approximately 400,000 checkins a day, which is four times as meany as the Tweets on Twitter when Twitter was a year old (from Scobleizer at http://www.cinchcast.com/scobleizer).

The current FourSquare API doesn't support the "hey if there's a Disney recruiter here let's meet!" model. Individual's need to connect to individual's. Authentication ensures access to location data of friends. Other people in the same location as you are listed, but they are partially anonymized, and there is no contact information. This is a good thing; There are privacy concerns. We shouldn't know where everybody in the talent pool is drinking and eating. If we had the equivalent of a facebook "Fan Page" where you could meet people of similar interests, or meet recruiters representing that fan page, that would be neat.This would be especially relevant at industry events and career fairs.

Hopefully someone will create a new location-based social networking tool where you as a member or candidate can declare yourself available to meet with people with networking groups (ala LinkedIn Groups, Facebook Fan Pages or recruiting organizations) for a specific period of time. Maybe I work at Microsoft in Redmond and I'm meeting partners in Cupertino and I'm open to meeting people from Apple; Oh yes that introduces more privacy concerns. And maybe when you meet those people, bumping iPhones together will transfer candidate information ("Oh was that a data privacy statement flashed on your phone as we bumped? No? Never mind"), and start a new relationship.

Speaking of privacy and compliance, I wonder where the OFCCP would fit into all of this? Below is a an example of the talent courtship process using location-based social networking and how it would fit into the traditional recruitment process.

• An app that gave you alerts when you were in a location that was within X miles of candidates that were sought after. In SAP E-Recruiting this could be based on the address of candidates assigned to a high value Talent Group.
• An app to analyze clustering of candidate locations, based on candidate attributes. This could, for example, be used to determine where to hold college career fairs for specific disciplines. This could just as easily be done on a PC, of course. It would just look way cooler on an iPad.

These are not terrible ideas but don't compare to applications where candidates opt-in in real-time to be found. The rate at which things are going, this could be very soon.

Let me know what you think. Am I nuts?

Cheers, Mark