We’ve been involved in plenty of recruitment of community professionals for clients recently.
Here’s a simple tip, build a profile of the kind of person that would be the perfect fit (or kinds of people) long before you need somebody.
Now go out and attend events (Lithium Linc, CMX, Community Roundtable, Jiveworld, OCTribe, Community Breakfasts etc) and begin meeting people. Yes, you might know most of what’s discussed already, but the connections are invaluable.
Better yet, apply to speak at events. Share publicly your successes and what your community is working on. Evangelize your community and make it a community others want to work on.
Look out and regularly add people on LinkedIn and Facebook. This is the one time where sheer quantity of connections can be useful.
The difference between posting a job ad and hoping someone good applies and reaching out to 30 people you would like to hire and another 20 who might know somebody is huge.
This takes up time initially but can save you so much time in recruitment (and replacement) later.
