I've not been a big fan of Facebook for marketing.  Facebook is a difficult beast with low clickthroughs and far more potential than ROI for the majority of marketers, and so when I'm looking for a social media expert, Facebook is about having a profile, not necessarily driving results.  Sure we've seen results, but they've tended to be as a traffic driver for traditional websites.  Lots of folks spend time on Facebook, and thus its natural you have a presence there.  Do some conversion pages - create some groups, and that's about it, unless you have the time and money for apps and contests.

Well, no more. 

Based on my own traffic stats for blogs that range from politics to marketing to fashion to small business, I see Facebook becoming an ever-increasing important aspect of a social media marketing campaign.

This article on Hitwise's estimate of Perez Hilton's traffic was the first clue.  Google typically will deliver 80% of your non Rss traffic if you optimize well, and the revelation that Facebook can outpush traffic is no small one.  You may say that Perez is a gossip, and the only people who want to read gossip are heading there from Facebook, but that's exactly the point.  Facebook is built to keep people in.  When click traffic goes outside Facebook, it's highly targeted.  Those wanting to read gossip go to Perez Hilton.  Those wanting to say, get a job, or buy a product, or watch a video, or learn about a service are also going to self-selecting to be interested.  And they'll be coming from referrals.  Currently, if you have the viral chops, you can drive traffic using your update feeds and getting people interested in joining, writing, and posting content to your pages and groups and updates.  If you have a big network, that can lead to a lot of traffic, but it's entirely based on your network (and their network).  That's some hard slogging, and tends to only work haphazardly.

But now, there's the Facebook search beta, which is rumored to be like Twitter search.  If it's executed properly, which is to say if it actually dredges up content, it could be a tremendous boost for traffic for those outside Facebook.

All of a sudden, those not in your network can find you.  Furniture designers, car enthusiasts, political causes, and job seekers can now search by brand through updates, instead of profiles.  That's huge.  It's a microcosm of what Google and Twitter do, and with the sheer traffic of Facebook, it guarantees some very hot, targeted opportunities for marketers.

I don't see a lot of people getting involved in this.  They're making a huge mistake. This is big.  Much bigger than BING, which is sending me traffic, but not nearly as much as Facebook is.  If I can almost double traffic to every site simply by improving my content to my network, imagine what you can do with a targeted marketing campaign.

It's big.  Gird your loins, and figure out how to build community on Facebook.  6 months from now, the winners will be those with networks in place.

Kennedy Information is having me host a live Facebook recruiting webinar this Thursday at 12:00 CST.  Those who know me and have been through my training before know this is something to add to your schedule - we cover strategy, sourcing, marketing, branding and integration unlike any other trainer out there.

My background in social media and the fact that I run a desk makes a difference in my training.  I'm you.

So check it out, sign up, and join us for the new, new Facebook training

I'm reading through RecruitingBlogs, and yet another uninformed yahoo says social media is worthless for recruiters.  In this case, David Ryan writes

David - try  a basic search string like site:twitter.com "pediatric nurse" + "dallas"

http://twitter.com/susantpreston - pediatric nurse
http://twitter.com/NINTINK - pediatric nurse

How about a pediatric trauma specialist?

http://twitter.com/smedic185

You now have three names to check in with, follow, monitor, look for referrals (for those who don't put pediatric nurse in their profile, or may live in a suburb of Dallas).  If you want to get fancy, you can use more advanced boolean terms and bring up names and companies and compare those to your database or find contact info.  Other recruiters are doing this.

Look, a recruiter of pediatric nurses! - http://twitter.com/NurseJobSearch

You could also check MySpace, where people list their profiles and oh by the way is heavy with health care practitioners.   Got a Stopwatch? 

http://www.myspace.com/nurseypoo5

There's one!   Took .33 seconds. 

Look folks - if you don't know how to use social media to source names - the fault is entirely your own. That you can't find people doesn't mean we can't.  It is a sourcing and messaging tool for recruiters, and the best ones are learning.

Insert Blatant Product Pitch for Twitter Recruiting and MySpace recruiting ..ed)

It took me longer to write this than it did to find those names.  Imagine what I could do with the hour you spent trolling through the job boards.

Here our lovely daughter practices for ESPN 7's new reality series, World's Strongest Baby contest.  We hope the winnings and the promotional tour with Pediasure will pay for our retirement.

Jeremiah (@jowyang) tweets that social media hires are up - and wonders if the economy is picking up.  His regular posts showcasing who is promoted and hired are a boon to the industry, and he's been kind enough to include me on that list. 

Incoming calls and interest from the client side has certainly increased, but the types of positions have a heavy sales focus as of late.  Most calls from from executives who have not been successful finding what they wanted, and are looking for expertise (it helps that I do what they are looking for).

When I first started SocialMediaHeadhunter.com and branded myself as the SMHeadhunter, I wondered about the size of the market.  There's niche recruiting, and then there's tiny crack recruiting - and with social media being, well, social, there's the danger that everyone I would place has a significant presence online. A company can find my candidates easily, so why would they hire me?

The answer is noise.  It's not easy hiring the right person for any job, and even if you know the industry well, we all have significant blindspots.  Even bloggers who have done this going on 10 years don't realize just how big this universe is, and the old adage that you only know who you know is more true now than ever.

In my own town of St Louis, large groups of online folks from Twitter to blogs to Facebook don't realize they're a small subset of a larger group.  There are hundreds of millions of folks online - and understanding how to map out a community and contact the right people is a skillset few have.

So yes, business is on an upswing, but It's hard to draw conclusions to the general economy.  Recruiting is actually harder in a down economy, so we're a poor marker.  And the assumption that social media is a luxury probably contributes to the idea that more social media means a better economy.  It's far more likely that social media hires are a recognition that this tool can cut costs, but only if you have a full-time person.

Steve Weiss of Grindvision gives me some background on how to build, sell, and market iPhone applications.  Steve is a small business social media consultant with a background in SEO, branding, development, and social media.

He's an online video marketing expert, and has actually sold quite a few applications for the iPhone. He also works on Facebook and MySpace applications

One thing to note - rumor is the new iPhone is going to be a different store than the old one. New applications will run differently, and developers have to decide which version to code in.

A white-label social media company is looking for a set of social media engineers to work in Chicago and New York in tandem with sales account executives.  We call them social media engineers because the position is similar to what a sales engineer would do for a large technology firm – you are the expert at identifying client needs and crafting the solution once the salesperson has made the initial contact.

This is a sales and product position.  When you’re not working with the salesperson to craft and land deals, you’ll be using your network to help your salesperson with leads.  When you’re not helping bring in leads, you’ll be working with the corporate office on methodologies, product suite descriptions, and service offerings.

The right candidate is whip smart, an excellent presenter, and possesses deep experience in how corporations function.  A background in project integration is required, and expertise in large project technical integration (database, CRM) is very helpful, but not required.

The position is front-end.  A technical team is in charge of installation, which then hands the project off to a project manager.  Your job is to forecast problems, map out the proper route to a successful integration, lay out the metrics the client will use to measure success, and ultimately help close the sale and prepare for a smooth transition. 

Responsibilities – the key responsibilities for this position include:

* Create client-specific social media strategies utilizing products and services offered by the company.
* Identify key performance indicators and metrics tailored to each client
* Work with Salesperson on new business development and closing.
* Strategize with and educate the client management team and others across the company on incorporating relevant social media techniques into the corporate culture and into all of the company’s products and services
* Create and deliver presentations on the scope and scale of individual projects
* Aid in the development of RFP responses
* Work with salesperson to generate sales leads using social media contacts and profiles
* Develop new product and service offerings with corporate

Experience – the ideal candidate will have experience in the following areas:

* Social media tools and techniques
* Management, Technology, or Marketing Consulting
* Product marketing
* Public speaking and client presentation
* Business development
* Web Analytics

The positions are for the Chicago and New York City markets.  There is no relocation, and very little travel (there may be the occasional day trip to someone in your region if corporate lands a prospect.  This is not a junior or even mid-level position, and it's also not an executive position.  We're looking for practitioners with experience in community management, social media consulting, and corporate sales or project management.

To apply, send an email to socialmediaheadhunter at gmail or contact me through a social media site.  My handle is smheadhunter for most, Jim Durbin for others.  If you're going to call in, be prepared.  You need to research me and this post, and have a good sense of what the job is before you call.  I will be judging you on that call, so make it count.  Salary is base plus commission.