If you really think about it, social networking sites automate what recruiters have done on their own for years: collect data about people, and find out who they know. Today’s social networking sites store and maintain this data for us. This makes it easier to keep track of our contacts, but because this data exists in the public domain it can be used by the competition.

Leveraging employer alumni networks with Yahoo! Groups
I use LinkedIn on an hourly basis during the day and link only to recruiters that I know personally or to those who come highly recommended by someone I know. I do have one exception. I will connect with anyone that has ever worked at Heidrick & Struggles regardless of whether I knew them or not while I was there. Why do I trust them to access my network? I trust them because we have something in common that will always be a constant – we are both Heidrick & Struggles alumni. It’s like being part of a global fraternity or sorority, but without all the hazing and keg parties.

In 2003, Scott Levine of Silicon Valley Human Capital setup a Yahoo! Group to help him keep track of the 30 or so Heidrick & Struggles alumni that he met and networked with after he left the Menlo Park office. Today, the H&S Alumni group has nearly 200 members in 15 countries and it didn’t cost him a dime to create or maintain this group. Yahoo! Groups are easy to setup and the site is maintained by the active users. The group’s most active members are primarily independent search professionals, boutique recruiters, or in-house executive recruiters. They share job leads, position descriptions, and candidates.

Several months ago I met a VP of Marketing that had a great background, but I wasn’t aware of any searches at the time that would have been appropriate for his experience. He contacted the large search firm partners he knew, but didn’t find any roles that he wanted to pursue. So I asked the group if anyone had a need for a VP of Marketing with Telecom experience. Six members of the group asked for his resume. I got an email a few weeks later from one of them thanking me for the introduction and wanted to let me know that the candidate had been hired by her client.

The H&S Alumni Group is not a unique idea. Scott saw how much the global management consulting firms (Bain, Booz, and McKinsey) appreciated their alumni and created his group in their image. Current and former search folks from the other large executive search firms have approached Scott for advice on how to create their own alumni groups. Visit http://groups.yahoo.com and search for groups that may have been created for any of the companies for which you’ve worked. If it is a private group, click on the email address of the list owner and request an invitation to join the group.

Establishing your own social network groups
If no alumni groups exist for your previous employers, and you want to create your own, it takes only a few minutes to setup the basic site. Scott Levine’s only rule when he first established the group was that you had to be a Heidrick alum.

As more members joined, other “social norms” materialized to ensure that the group remained a useful and relevant tool. We store key documents in the FILES section and the POLLS section is useful for gathering information about our members. You can also contact Scott Levine via LinkedIn for advice on how to best leverage online tools for alumni group management.

Web 2.0 creates more powerful networks
An independent search professional or boutique firm recruiter can take advantage of alumni groups because it gives the impression that they are part of a larger firm or entity. Social Networking and Web 2.0 sites are all about individuals creating content and working together. By adding the Alumni layer on top of the platforms available, you can create a much more powerful network for you to leverage and build upon.

The best part is that these groups can be built and maintained with very little time commitment. Also, be sure to check with your former companies to see if they’ve built their own sites to keep in touch with their alumni. If you’d like them to create an employer alumni group, ask them to look into Conenza and SelectMinds.

Chris Murdock is a Sourcer with Yahoo!’s Internal Executive Recruiting team and former Associate of Heidrick & Struggles.