From Here to Affinity

Say "social networking" and sites like LinkedIn and Facebook immediately come to mind. But public communities aren't the only online places where people gather.

In fact, exclusive online communities, built around an affinity, such as college attended, offer tremendous opportunities for sourcing candidates.

Affinity Circles, a leading provider of exclusive social networks, explains how private communities differ from open communities in a white paper, "Winning the War for Talent," available for free download at its website.

Although the company acknowledges that public social networking sites have value, it points to the drawback of these venues as candidate resources.

For starters, there is no way of authenticating opportunities or credentials. Consequently, there are issues for both would-be candidates and employers.

"Recruiters will go to LinkedIn and claim they're an alum of a school," says Chuck Taylor, vice president of marketing and business development for Affinity Circles. He points out that for actual alumni, people who spent time and money to attend and graduate from a college, imposters can be very troubling. Recruiters likewise have no guarantee that candidate information is accurate.

Secondly, privacy settings at public social networking sites are limited at best. This means the potential for abuse exists.

Finally, lack of shared affinity and exclusivity mean connections are likely to be driven by those seeking assistance, which may not necessarily result in the best matches.

These points certainly make a case for more specialized social networks, like the ones Affinity Circles builds and maintains. The company current has more than 150 organizations, largely colleges and universities, using its community platform, and Taylor says new organizations are signing up every week.

How do employers gain access to these organizations? Utilizing Affinity Circles' inCircle Recruiting product, employers can establish a branded, interactive presence inside member networks in the trusted community. They can, in essence, enter the circle.

Companies use the opportunity in different ways. Some run targeted advertising campaigns to engage candidates; by selecting criteria like degree, major, industry, function, and/or geographical location, among others, companies identify and connect with network members who are more likely to fit with their organizations.

In addition, a lot of employers hold career fairs. And these aren't the career fairs of old. As Taylor explains, "Imagine being able to have a virtual career fair that never ends."

But the real, essential difference of inCircle Recruiting, according to Taylor, is that it protects people's privacy while promoting opportunity. For hiring organizations, as well as candidates, the difference creates a different kind of connection.

"We call them qualified interested candidates," Taylor says. "We're producing a candidate and not an application.

A lot of recruiters complain about the number of unqualified applications they receive. We give the employers the candidates."

In the last three to four months, inCircle Recruiting has produced for employers 2,500 qualified interested candidates. "What we've been told by our employers is that this is a sourcing tool," Taylor says.

As a Real sourcing Tool, inCircle Recruiting helps employers find candidates they need now, and it assists them in building a talent pipeline they can tap into for future hiring.