In yesterday's ERE article Mining Your Community:  How to find great talent without really trying, Kevin Wheeler talks about taking a long-term approach to recruiting by fostering community outreach programs which, in turn, may create a sustainable candidate pool for your company in the future.  Totally agree.  This is step one in building a truly long-term recruiting approach.  Plus, it's just good karma.

But I think the importance here is the definition of the word "community."  Kevin refers to the local community, and that's traditionally how most people think of community outreach programs.  It's some sort of in-person transaction.  Communities have changed though.  No surprise here ... they are increasingly online.  And the beauty of virtual communities is being able to reach more people more quickly, at a lower cost, and with the ability to scale.  The challenge is determining how you can leverage virtual communities to grow your candidate pool of tomorrow.  This may involve creating and fostering your own online communities ... and heck, in the tech space, your company may already have these communities.  It's just a matter of incorporating some recruiter thinking to subtly evolve these communities.  

Those who manage and grow online communities and those who care about recruiting for the future should talk more often.  :)

gretchen