One of the keys to success in marketing is taking experiences from other industries and applying them to your clients.  In the last two years, my success in internet marketing, specifically in social media, can be shown in many ways to stem from my time as a recruiter.

Recruiters build relationships to gather information about the market, namely to generate referrals and job orders.  It's a data-heavy experience that depends on the ability to draw information from your network.  Learning to filter important data and make quick decisions from e-mail and searches is a valuable skill for recruiters, but I've found it to be important in using social networks to promote client sites.

Of course, finding information is only half the battle.  Candidates want to know where you found them, and so if you're going to delve into this area, make sure you know how to speak to the people inside the social network.  I want to showcase a friend of mine whose company helps sourcers build those lists from internet sources.  Broadlook is a pretty cool company with powerful software for recruiters, but the president has a deft touch in social media.  Watch as he pulls 4,000 names from a recruiting social network, and then to show that he can be trusted, deletes them. 

It's a good lesson on building a reputation, but it's also a lesson to marketers about the possibilities in social networks.  A first page google or Technorati search isn't enough anymore, and most marketers lack the tools or the training to dig deeply into a community.  With Broadlook, I'm able to apply my training and their software to bring recruiting knowhow into social media marketing.