The rise of social media is not a seismic shift for recruiters, Jon Porter, managing director of TMP Worldwide, told a Recruitment Society meeting in London.

Speaking on Wednesday, Porter said that while social media sites such as Facebook allowed recruiters to target their brand at an individual, they still had to find those individuals first.

“So does it represent a seismic change? No. But I believe that the market is getting faster and faster, and we are delivering a more and more sophisticated message to a more and more sophisticated audience,” he said.

Geoff Newman, chief executive of Recruitment Genius, added: “There was an element of hype about social media in recruitment, with many people having inflated expectations. I believe it works for technically savvy people — good examples are Cisco and Dell, but it doesn’t work generally.”

Wade Burgess, UK director of sales at LinkedIn, said that the professional networking website had difficulties penetrating blue-collar markets, with LinkedIn usage among such workers at 3-5%. However, he added: “Once it hits 8% penetration it takes off.”