After fourteen months in the making, my latest project – my new book, Social Media Recruitment – is now published*. And if I say so myself it is a damn good book –ok, I am a little biased 
I had the pleasure of taking delivery of some copies of the book this week, and I am really. The publishers Kogan Page have done a great job on the production side – the many emails back and forth, checking and re-checking, at the end of last year were worth it! What is even better is that Social Media Recruitment is already a No.1 New Release on Amazon based on pre-orders, which is absolutely fantastic.
* Released on order viagra online consumer rx 3rd May, everywhere else on your country Amazon site 28th May, but you can pre-order now.
The early reviews weren’t bad either ( here are just three) ….
‘The definitive guide to social media recruitment. Packed with practical advice and examples, this book makes a compelling case for social recruiting for even the most hardened social media sceptic. A must-read for those new to social recruiting, but with plenty of great content for those who are already social too.’ Gemma Reucroft, HR Director, Tunstall Group
‘Having worked in Recruitment/Talent Acquisition for 20 odd years, the current environment is exciting, fast paced, quickly evolving and for many …scary. Andy gets this, and this book is really going to help you. The vital importance of snaring good people is critical to business success. This book will give you the edge to get great people inside your walls.’Hassanah Rudd, Australia Recruitment Manager, Fletcher Building
‘It’s not often that you find a resource that not only outlines the current recruitment landscape in a meaningful way, but also gives practical steps for Talent Acquisition leaders to take to improve their results. Andy Headworth accomplishes this. Understanding the critical skill shortages in organizations
is a key factor in any recruitment strategy being effective. Andy tackles this with ease and includes case studies to back up all aspects of social media use for recruitment success. Whether you’re starting your strategy from the ground up, or you already have a strategy in place, Andy’s tips and examples provide direction for leaders on all parts of the spectrum.’ Trish McFarlane, CEO and Co-Founder, HRevolutionize LLP
The more I have talked to people over the last couple of months about the book, there has been one question that I keep getting asked – what was it like to write the book? So, I thought I would share some of my experiences on my journey in writing this book.
What it is like to write a book? Here is my story about writing my new book, Social Media Recruitment.
The whole process started with Twitter.
Back in February the commissioning editor from Kogan Page (who had recently joined from CIPD) recognised a gap in the market for a book on social media recruiting. So she set about researching potential writers, starting on Twitter, seeing who was talking about the subject. And of course she found me there tweeting about social recruiting! Then she did what any good research person would do and systematically checked my profiles and content out on every social network I am on. There were a number of factors in my favour – I had previously written a book on the same subject (Smart Social Media Recruitment Strategies), the high quality of my blog content and my social media presence within the industry.
After some emails and conversations I agreed in principle to write the book. Then we had to agree what the book was going to be specifically about and the exact target market I was to write it for. This was a three stage process as it went through three levels of sign-off at the publishers, each stage requiring a slightly more detailed business case, market map and level of detail. 60,000 words agreed and delivery date of manuscript by 1st November was all agreed and signed off. The journey and all the hard work now started in earnest. Timeline is early March.
In the process of producing the business case, I had already mapped out the chapter listings and the breakdown I thought I had wanted in the individual chapters, but as with everything that was subject to change over the coming months. For all you process geeks, I used Evernote extensively for this part of the process.
With the first chapter looking at the rationale for social media recruitment, I needed facts, figures and industry data. Do you know how many reports there have been on talent and recruitment in the last 18 months? From Kellys, PWC, EY, Deloittes and Manpower, to region, platform and industry specific specialist reports, I became a recruitment and talent data sponge for weeks! The first chapter started to take shape.
I knew from writing the first book, that new social recruiting case studies were crucial, and that they always took time to find, get organised and signed off by the companies, so that was a big priority for me. Long hours searching and researching and speaking to people, looking for specific examples of social recruiting, coupled with my knowledge and contacts provided me with a long list of case studies to get started with. My goal was to get recruiting examples across the world, and I managed it pretty well, finishing with case studies from South America, North America, Canada, UK, Europe, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand. Some of my favourites are Earls Restaurants in Canada, Campbells Arnott in Australia, Le Manoir in the UK and Spotify in Sweden. I could tell you more but then you wouldn’t buy the book would you <img src="http://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/72x72/1f609.png" alt="