The Hard Sell on the Road to RecruitFest

The hard sell
Originally uploaded by steveboese

On the way to RecruitFest 2009, at about 10PM while I was waiting in the parking lot of the Galleria Mall in Buffalo (a longer story), I got approached by three guys in really cheap suits that handed my this DVD. They wanted my e-mail address, asked if I had a job, etc.b

These guys apparently run some kind of multi-level marketing program or something.

My question to them was, is your target market really random dudes (me) hanging out in mall parking lots at 10PM on a Tuesday?

It reminds me of the old Groucho Marx line, 'I would not want to be a member of a club that would have me'.

Weird and random I know.

Social Networking vs. CB Radio

I am hitting the road later today traveling to Toronto for RecruitFest, meeting with the great folks at Rypple, then on to Ottawa to visit my friends at Halogen Software (and do a live HR Happy Hour show).

I am driving so there will be lots of time in the car, and that pretty much means lots of time 'off the grid' and disconnected from social media and networks.

Too bad I don't have my old CB Radio.I could do some 'old-school' social networking in the car.

For those who don't remember CB's check out the lengthy article on Wiikipedia.

CB Radio culture was celebrated in movies, television, and music.

In many ways the CB Radio was the early form of technology-enabled social networking.  The band served many of the same purposes that social networks like Twitter do today, news, ('the bridge is out on I-77'), inside information, ('Kojak with a Kodak on US46'), and pure socializing, ('Breaker one-two, this is Greasemonkey, anyone have their ears on, come back?').

But are today's social networks, like Facebook and Twitter superior to the classic CB Radio? 

The Tale of the Tape:

Feature	Social Networks	CB Radio	Advantage
Primary users	Pretty much everyone	Long haul truckers	CB Radio
Iconic figures	Robert Scoble, Ev, Jack	Betty Ford, Jackie Gleason	CB Radio
Star power	Hammer, Ashton Kutcher	Burt Reynolds	Push
Theme song	'United Breaks Guitars'	'Convoy'	Social Networks
Business Benefits	Connect with customers, prospects, candidates	Find cheap gas	Social Networks
Signature vehicles	Mini Cooper, Smart Car	Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am, Kenworth 18 Wheeler	CB Radio
'Anti-social' features	Multi-level-marketing	Disregard for traffic regulations	CB Radio
Networks fostered by	Friending, The 'ReTweet', 'Follow Friday'	Keeping each other out of jail, Truck Stop parties	CB Radio
Signal the end was near	Grandma is on Facebook	Cell phone technology	Social Networks

Well, it is clear- CB Radio tops Social Networks!

Time to figure out a new handle, I hope it doesn't wreck my personal brand.

Thanks to Jerry Albright for the original idea to write this post.

RecruitFest 2009

This week I am heading to RecruitFest 2009 in Toronto, Canada.

RecruitFest is a non-traditional event that is about building relationships and with a priority on face-to-face networking. It is focused on about taking your online relationships offline, which is certainly a good thing.

Technology plays such a key role in corporate recruiting today, and one of the main goals I have at RecruitFest is to try and get some insights on what the future holds in recruiting and especially in recruiting technology in these areas:

Candidate Experience

How can technology improve the candidate experience while also serving to support corporate initiatives? Most candidates revile the entire application process.  From arcane and lengthy online application processes, to lack of feedback, to a feeling that there are two different 'expert' answers to every job search question; candidates really are having a terrible time.

Corporate Data Analysis

What should companies be measuring when evaluating their recruiting efforts?  And what are the best technologies and strategies to make these measurements possible? Once you decide that 'Quality of Hire' is what you want to focus on, just what does a 'high quality' hire look like anyway? How much of little responsibility does recruiting have when a new hire does not work out?  And how do you pull all of this information together in a timely and understandable manner.

Impact of Social Recruiting

We all know that social networks and social media are influencing, altering, and perhaps fundamentally changing candidate job search and corporate job marketing. But to what extent is this really true? And is it really true only for the largest organizations with significant resources and massive budgets?  Can these tools and approaches really be utilized by small organizations and one or two person HR shops to try and level the playing field in the competition for the best talent.

While I expect to learn quite a bit at RecruitFest, the main reason I am attending is to meet in person so many great people I have interacted with online this year.  I think that is the real value of attending almost any event, and in particular one like RecruitFest.

I plan on posting from RecruitFest when I can and be sure to follow all the fun on Twitter under the #RecruitFest tag.

Getting your HR friends on Twitter? Start Here

The hardest part of getting started on Twitter is figuring out who to follow.  If you are an HR professional, HR student, or job seeker, you will only get so far following Oprah or Ashton or Shaquille.

Not very far actually.

Ashton can't help you with the latest developments in E-Verify.

Shaq is not going to offer to critique your cover letter.

No to get any value at all from Twitter you need to find and follow 'real' HR professionals, recruiters, companies, bloggers, the kind of people you can learn from, engage with, and share your expertise with.

So how do you go about that? Well, a new service called TweepML has made the process of sharing lists of Twitter users to follow much easier. 

Sign up for TweepML, create or upload a list of Twitter names that you want to put on a 'recommended follow' list, then share the list via a link, email, or an embeddable button or widget.

I even did the hard work for you, I created two TweepML lists (since the service limits lists to 100 Tweeps) of HR and Recruiting Twitter folk that I personally follow and recommend.

Click on the links below and you will be taken to the TweepML site where you can easily follow all the names on the list (or just the ones you are interested in) by supplying your Twitter name and password.

HR and Recruiting Peeps - Part 1

HR and Recruiting Peeps - Part 2

Totally easy right? Just think about when you first signed up for Twitter. What if you were given a list of 200 awesome and relevant accounts to follow from Day 1?

Let me know what you think of TweepML, and of the lists themselves.  I can always start list number three with your suggestions.

Enjoy!

Update on Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 9:51PM by Steve

The problem with making these kinds of lists, whether great blogs, Twitter users, or anything else is that no matter how long the list, some great people get left out, either through oversight, error, or system limitations.  I want to mention some folks here that absolutely should have been included on the above lists, and I apologize for that.

JennyDeVaughn - A must follow in the recruiting and social media space

sexythinker - Amanda Hite, the founder and CEO of Talent Revolution, and someone that HR and Recruiting pros have to follow, I think

A Great Big Blog Bundle

I am an absolute slacker in keeping up the blogroll on this site.

But, I am constantly finding and adding blogs to my subscriptions in Google Reader.  So while the 'links' on this site may list 10 or so blogs, I probably subscribe to 100 HR and Recruiting related blogs in Reader.

Thankfully, Google Reader now has an easy way to package feeds into a 'bundle' that can be easily shared in Reader, as well as emailed, or embedded in a blog or website.

This is also a great way to get co-workers, friends, or students started on reading blogs by creating for them an easy way to subscribe to a large number of blogs all at once.

The process is incredibly easy. 

1. In Google Reader, simply click on the link in the left sidebar titled 'Browse for Stuff'

2. Over on the right side of the screen click the 'Create a Bundle' button

3. Add a Title and Description for the Bundle

4. Then drag and drop feeds from your subscription pane over into the Bundle box, you can select individual feeds, or entire folders

5. When finished check 'Add to my Shared Items' to share this bundle inside Google Reader, then click 'Save'

6. Once saved, you can now share the bundle outside of Reader via e-mail, embedding, sharing the link directly, or via an OPML file.

7. To embed the file in your own blog, click the 'Create a Bundle Clip' link, then grab the embed code to copy/paste to your blog or website

Here is a Blog Bundle I set up from the Guests and Callers of the HR Happy Hour Show - Episode 10:

Anyone can now click on the 'Subscribe' link in the clip to be taken to Google Reader to subscribe to the bundle.

I have also set up a 'Great Big HR Blog Bundle' of all the HR Blogs in my Reader that can be found by clicking the 'Blogroll' link on the top of this site.  Now any time I add a new feed to the bundle in Reader, this site will also be automatically updated.

Feed Bundles are a great little feature in Reader and I hope you found this little tutorial helpful.