Someone elses database!

I am listening to Socialnomics (again, tried to read it but the book was too big) by Erik Qualmann

... and apart from doing the usual stuff on about new media and what it is and the same old stories about Dell Hell and the Huffington Post etc - they hit upon something that is really made me think and especially about how the traditional recruitment owner treat their databases and the interactions with new media.

In the old days when I was running business development for Spherion (FSS and Crone Corkhill) one of the core questions on any tender or RFI was what was the size of you database. It was one that you always answered differently depending on what you thought the client wanted to hear. And I am trying to work out what would I write now! I can think of 2 options

Option 1

"Our database encompasses all the candidates that we have worked with on assignments in the past 2 years. Our candidate search methodologies involve searching the whole internet and job board databases via sophisticated search tools. Therefore the size of the database is irrelevant!"

Option 2

"We have invested heavily in building our reputation within our niche market using all the new media sources to create our own networks of skilled XX professionals. By engaging in new media conversations in the social networks we are able to reach the complete population of XX talent."

Option 2 means we you have need to have done your homework and created our own pools in someone elses databases. Then you need to work it and and advertise it and then SELL it.