A new Norman Broadbent social media subsidiary specialising in candidate generation uses “influential language techniques” to encourage candidates to apply for their clients’ vacancies. 

Social Media Search (SMS) charges clients £100 per hour for the candidate generation services of a five-person research team, which is split between Glasgow and India. Clients send SMS a job specification to initiate a search. A search for candidates to fill the jobs, usually office roles in the £20k to £100k range, typically takes about two hours, with up to 40 candidates generated per role.

About half the clients receive the information and act on it themselves. The other 50% ask SMS to approach the candidates on their behalf.

In such instances, SMS founder Adam Gordon told Recruiter: “Getting candidates to apply requires strong influencing skills. We use a specific methodology.” SMS uses “influential language techniques” based on neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) skills to “optimise the likelihood” those spoken to will apply for the vacancies, he said.

Founded in 2009, SMS is one of two digital-focused services in which international executive search firm Norman Broadbent recently acquired 51% ownership. The other is WinningWork, a so-called “concierge service” which helps senior professionals enhance their online profile. Gordon, whose background is in recruitment consulting and recruitment communications, retains the minority ownership. See ‘Contracts/Deals: Norman Broadbent invests in three new business ventures’.

Gordon said that he sees the greatest business opportunity for SMS, which is based on “the fact that the world is a more transparent place than every before. It’s easy — although still time consuming — to identify people for your vacancy”.

Speaking about the creation of SMS, Gordon said: “I noticed in-house recruiters spending too much time on the candidate generation and struggling for time to do the qualitative work. We created the service and took it to an Edinburgh-based FTSE100 company who trialled it to support their in-house recruiters. It worked and they continued using the service.” Clients include FTSE100 media and financial services companies.