Is "talent marketing" feasible for real-person SNS communities?

" Talent Marketing " is a profit opportunity for SNS communities?

The author presents a very insightful concept: human resources. Indeed, real-person SNS communities have a large number of active users with real identities. For the platform and advertisers, these users are the most valuable resources. Can these resources be converted into human resources? Is talent marketing feasible for SNS communities?

I think it may not be feasible.

Firstly, to consider whether talent marketing is feasible, five questions must be considered.

First, what is the primary and main demand of SNS community users?

Second, how many users in real-person SNS are directly associated with talent marketing?

Third, does talent marketing in SNS communities rely on platform advantages or user resource advantages?

Fourth, how efficient is the recruitment process in real-person SNS communities?

Fifth, if it is feasible and efficient, does this mean that recruitment websites should all adopt a community structure?

For the first question, taking Xiaonei (a Chinese SNS) as an example, the focus of Xiaonei users' behavior lies in making friends (including contacting existing friends), regardless of whether they are in their senior year, freshman year, or high school students; this point remains unchanged. Deviating from this focus does not bring returns by integrating well into the community. Although there are people looking for jobs, can such a niche behavior bring mainstream influence? Would Xiaonei add products to satisfy this small part of the users and guide a larger portion of users? The answer is obviously no. I always believe that any activity conducted in an SNS community must meet the primary needs of the majority of users.

For the second question, among Xiaonei users, those seeking jobs are mainly seniors. If we subtract non-online job seekers and other major recruitment分流groups from the senior users, how big is the market? Clearly, the market is rather small. Moreover, campus recruitment operations are seasonal. Once that period is over, everything will become quiet. This is the difference between recruitment websites and the SNS communities mentioned by the author conducting talent marketing.

For the third question, if Xiaonei were to conduct talent marketing, would it simply add a feature or create a new product? I boldly guess that it would definitely create a new product and then integrate it with the community platform. Adding a niche product to a mature community is clearly inappropriate, so only the method of dual-platform integration can realize the recruitment process. Therefore, the advantage of real-person SNS communities conducting talent marketing does not lie in the platform but in user resources. Since the advantage lies in user resources, the key is how many users in real-person SNS communities contribute value in the direction of talent marketing? However, this is a niche and highly seasonal product, so what advantage do real-person SNS communities have?

For the fourth question, here are the two elements discussed above: First, among the vast majority of mainstream users, users with job-seeking needs belong to a niche group, and non-core behaviors cannot have a significant impact. Second, campus recruitment has too strong seasonality. Few people, limited time, can efficiency be high?

For the fifth question, the current model of recruitment websites is relatively successful. Whether recruitment websites will move towards community-based models in the future, I think this is foreseeable, but it is certain that the community-based form of recruitment websites has its own unique characteristics, rather than the existing SNS socializing model.

Any community product and activity should follow one principle: "It should adapt to the mainstream needs of the majority of community users." Talent marketing might be an opportunity for domestic SNS communities, but it will take a long wait to reach maturity.