Social media, blah blah blah. Sick of hearing about it, but it’s not going away. To me, social media is about building relationships and community, simple. I use Twitter, but I was stupid and wasn’t as picky as I should’ve been initially about who I follow. And I haven’t been as diligent about setting up lists and weeding out the stuff I don’t want, or the people I don’t at least know a little (again, need time to do that). There’s still some good stuff out there, but my feed is overloaded with a lot of junk.

This is where Buzz comes in. I follow people on Buzz I really want to keep up with on Twitter or in my Google Reader (because you tie your Twitter account and Reader into Buzz). You’re not limited to 140 characters and you look at those selected tweets whenever you want, on your time, without needing Twitter lists or feeds or whatever. Check out my Gmail account below. Buzz is just another part of your inbox, and tells you how much activity is in your “Buzz”. If you get a response on a “Buzz” that is yours or that you commented on, you’ll get an email notification. Obviously, the caveat here is that you need a Gmail account, which not everyone has. But most people do, especially in IT.

As you can see from the 2nd screenshot below, and as mentioned above, you can connect up to 6 sites (at this time). Picasa, Google Reader, Twitter, Flickr, your Google chat status, etc. And you can see (from my buddy Lyle’s recent Buzz) the types of conversations you can have. It’s much more user friendly than Twitter, and a bit more collaborative.

Personally, I’m in Gmail quite a bit, so it’s right there without having to go to another app. As I’ve stated, time is short these days, and as you can see with some of the screenshots, I have so many applications popping up stuff, how do I keep track of everything? If they figure out how to really integrate Twitter (so tweets can come from Buzz or Gmail or whatever), and add Facebook and LinkedIn functionality, I’ll never leave Gmail. Anyways, I’m a rookie to Buzz, but I’m excited to see what else they come up with. So far, I like it a lot and feel I’ve had some really good conversations with some of my fellow Buzzers.

A few days back I saw the first ever job posting on Indeed advertising for a “Talent Community Manager”. (Kudos to Deluxe for taking a huge step forward in recruiting and leveraging this opportunity). Using social media for recruitment takes time, technology and people and they “get that”

Considering Facebook alone as over 300 million users, ½ of which log in to their account in a given day it would not be surprised to see other organizations follow their lead and take advantage of this untapped source of finding and engaging candidates.

Being that this is a VERY new type of position to any industry, let alone recruiting I can imagine how finding someone to fill such a position would be challenging.

Social Media Communities – It’s Not a Waste of Time

In addition to the enormous challenge of finding someone who can successfully build, manage and engage members of a community how do you convince the powers that be that social media is more than a big playground? The way I see it, there are a few different ways social media tools can be used in recruiting including;

• Finding candidates
• Building relationships with potential candidates
• Enhancing your employment brand

I don’t think many would argue with the above bullet points but how do you create a business case for allocating resources?

Measuring the ROI of Social Media used as a Recruiting Tool

Measuring the effectiveness of social media is another challenge because it means that people need to shift their way of thinking from quantitative to something more qualitative. That said, below are some ways to measure your social media success:

• Career Site Traffic – The more people coming to your career site and specific job postings the more people that are applying for your jobs. A free analytics tool like Google Analytics will help you track referrals. If you are sharing links to specific jobs on Facebook and Twitter, URL shortening tools like Bit.ly and Traceurl can measure click through rates.
• Influence – The greater influence you have in social media, the bigger your reach and of course audience and the more visibility your organizations employment brand gets. Your Twitter influence can be measured with tools like Twinfluence and Twitter Grader. Facebook has a similar tool that lets you measure the influence of your business pages.
• Buzz & Chatter – Are people talking about your organization? What are they saying? With any luck their talking about your career opportunities, what interviewing is like and how great your company culture is. Other important things are how often people are linking to you or mentioning you on Twitter. In addition to the tools mentioned above, you’ll want to use Google alerts to monitor both positive and negative buzz.

Social media is more of a long term investment; results won’t happen overnight. Simply creating a Twitter account and a Facebook business page won’t cut it – You have to take time to get to know people, the RIGHT people, listen, contribute and be transparent.

At the end of the day social media is an opportunity for your organizations to have engaging conversations with potential & current employees. Don’t be left behind.

Feel free to post a comment if you are actively engaging in a social media strategy, I’d love to hear what’s working and not working for you!

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Lately I have noticed a flurry of LinkedIn invitation activity. What bothers me is not the amount of invitations being sent or received but how users are going about the invitation process. So I’ve put together this brief blurb on LinkedIn invitation etiquette.

I do not mind receiving invitations from people I have never met (even though LinkedIn says you should really only accept invites from people you know.) If I feel that a connection would be mutually beneficial, in most cases I will accept. However, what irks me is when I receive inmail from someone I have never met requesting that I send them an invitation. I know you only receive a certain number of invitations from LinkedIn and it is NOT OK to request that I use one of mine to connect with you if: I’ve never met you before, have no clue who you are, and you have already used all your invitations. This is just poor form and will promptly get your message deleted.

If we don’t know each other, do not send a blanket invitation request. If you just send the standard invitation I won’t know who you are or why you want to connect. When I want to connect with someone I do not personally know I find a common link and then tell them about it. For example, I have not met all the other great professional resume writers out there but I want to make connections and learn and grow. So if I find someone’s blog that I really enjoy reading I’ll request to connect and tell them. I’ll say I really loved your blog, it’s very informative and I would really like to connect. In almost all cases the other person has accepted my invitation.

I have also connected with tons of recruiters. I connect with them because we have a career path that runs along the same track. We’re both trying to help job seekers, we just help them in two different ways. It is always a good idea to connect with people in similar industries who you could potentially partner with later down the road.

Don’t waste invitations on people that could really have no value to your job search or career. (Especially if you do not know them.) If you are in one part of the world and they are in the other, both in completely different industries, and the chances of either of you being beneficial to each other is slim to none – do not waste your invitation. Remember, you only get so many and when that one great connection comes along that you just HAVE to make – you want to make sure you have an invitation to send.

Scout out the right people and ensure you make connections ‘with a purpose’. Don’t just frivolously throw invitations away to connect on a whim.

Remember proper etiquette when sending invitations, let the ‘invited’ know WHY you want to connect and even what you can bring to the connection. The idea is that connections will be mutual beneficial and not just a one way street.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

My tip; ALWAYS disclose the bill rate. A former colleague/consultant of mine that went independent mentioned this on a post I wrote earlier. I’ve always done it, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. But after thinking about it, and talking to some other colleagues, it’s a rarity. In today’s consulting environment, people are going to find out their bill rate anyways, so why not disclose that before submitting to a client position? The way I look at it, they’ll appreciate the openness, and if they don’t like the margin you’re taking, they’re probably not someone you want to work with anyways. Do yourself a favor, open up your books to any incoming consultants. All parties will benefit from the information.

Flexibility/Adaptability

Huge huge huge part of being a consultant. Flexibility on commuting length, hours worked, clients worked at, technologies worked on, etc. You also need to be able to handle new situations, people, and technologies. If you only want to have a commute less than 15 minutes or only want to work with the latest and greatest technologies and projects, find a warm comphy place as an employee somewhere in corporate america, and just stay there. Consulting changes daily, and you have to be able to adapt to different challenges.. If I had to pick one area that was the biggest factor in consulting success (besides technical knowledge), it’s this one.

Team Player

I love working with good team players. The ones that really get a charge out of mentoring and helping others. They always make a project or job more fun, and really take a lot of stress out of the every day intricacies of working for “the man”. Good team players don’t have much of an ego, they typically stay under the radar, and are usually the quiet type. They make others look good, while not always taking the credit.

Looks (grooming, etc.)

Ahh yes, superficial us. But it’s so true. I don’t care what you say, good looking, well manicured people always have an easier time. Didn’t you see that episode of 30 rock? Now, there’s a fine line here too, especially in the software development field. Beautiful people are few and far between (no offense), but make sure you’re at least dressing appropriately for your situation. Shower, shave, use deodorant, don’t over do the cologne or perfume, and don’t dress like you just woke up under a bridge. Simple grooming habits go a long way.

Interviewing skills

Face it, some people interview great, and some people loathe interviewing. It’s a skill ALL consultants need to be able to master. Ultimately, you’re a product, and you’re your own sales person. It’s definitely something people take for granted, and something that needs to be rehearsed and practiced, just like anything else. If you can’t sell yourself, it’s going to difficult being a successful consultant.

Hunger for continuing education

Not everyone needs to go home and build their own network or web app, or whatever. But, the most successful ones do. You’re not always granted the luxury of working with the latest and greatest technologies, so how else are you going to learn it? By yourself, on your own, by either taking classes or from real world experiences. If I’m looking to hire people, one of the questions I ask is “how do you keep up with technology”? If the answer is “I don’t have time”, you’re probably not my guy.

Professional connections

This is all about the old saying “it’s not what you know, but who you know”. Oh how true that is. It goes back to the relationship piece. As a consultant, you’re meeting tons of new people, especially if you’re active in the local community at user groups and conferences. Make sure you keep in touch with those connections, you never know when you might need them. Use LinkedIn HEAVILY! It’s the easiest tool to keep in touch with past colleagues and managers.

Stay tuned, my next post will be the “Consultant Blueprint” quiz.

I know I say this A LOT, but I’m not perfect. I’ve made these same mistakes, but I make a diligent effort to help people out, no matter what the circumstance. After seeing people struggle to find jobs, it’s made me realize how much it hurts and how difficult that process can be, especially nowadays. If you’re a recruiter, please, please, please, make this one little effort. Respond to the candidates that you have interviewed or that have interviewed at your employer. I don’t care how big of a company you are and how busy you are, that is just simply common courtesy. I was a little disappointed to learn just how common this is. Simply ridiculous if you ask me, and something that takes so little time to do. If you’re afraid of hurting feelings, it hurts more by not responding.

A good example. We’ve all known or met a consultant that’s frickin’ brilliant, but when their end date is up, so are they. They don’t get extended. Feedback is always fine on these people. The client will say, “solid performer, I’d probably hire him again if the need arose”. But, they hop around on 6-9 month contracts, and never run into a real long term gig. These people are definitely employable, but they’re not going to get extended time and time again. They’ll continue their careers hopping from one gig to the next, making a decent living. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. But when really looking at it, it’s simple to understand why they don’t get extended often. Technical skills are only one piece of the puzzle. The may have an ego that’s tough to stand, or have a negative attitude towards everything. Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not perfect. And most people are in the same boat. But, if you’re going to be an “A” player in the consulting industry, you should read on and take bits and pieces from my “Blueprint” and incorporate them into your consulting toolbox.

Presentation Abilities

It’s all about personal branding these days, and being able to present your ideas and thoughts to clients with presentations in relation to your particular field is essential. Consultants that are heavily involved with user groups throughout the metro, or participate regularly at workshops at some of the local conferences always get noticed more. Clients and recruiters tend to drink the koolaid if you’re well spoken and can speak intelligently in front of audiences.

Political Acumen

Oh we all know how this can play. Some people just have that knack for being able to play the political game. And ask yourself this, how many clients have you been at where this is not an essential skill? If you say none, you’re nuts. Corporate america is political. Heck, mom and pop shops are political. Get to know the right people, and make sure you’re visible to those certain people. I know it sucks sometime to kiss ass, but it will help your chances of surviving. I’m sure you’ve worked with people that don’t really accomplish much, but they always know what to say and who to say it to. Unfortunately, most of the time those are the ones that keep getting extended. Play the game, become buddy buddy with the right people.

Technical Proficiency

This is obvious. You need some sort of technical competency to be marketable. Although, I do know people that don’t have any, and still remain employed. Key is, they’re not consultants! This is a very general category, but can be defined in many ways. Keep up with technology if you can. Read blogs, get involved, spend personal time brushing up. A lot of times your current client isn’t using current technology, well you better use your own time to learn the current technology, or else you run the risk of becoming obsolete.

Leadership Competence

Being able to lead a team is another piece of the puzzle. Not all people are leaders. And that’s fine, but people are drawn to leaders. That includes client managers and recruiters. I think leaders are just born. In fact, I consider myself a pretty good leader. I have a knack for being able to rally a team to a common goal, in a positive way. If you’re a leader, great. If you’re not, well you’re not. Hopefully you make up for your deficiencies in other areas of the blueprint.

Client Relationship Etiquette

Get to know your client/s. Pretty simple. Know them personally, not just professionally. A little ass kissing never does any harm, does it? But this is really more about maintaining relationships. Since the consulting industry is so relationship driven, it should be a priority to keep up with all of the current and past client relationships. Show some personality!

Communication Skills

Being able to speak, read, and write clearly is one of the biggest factors to marketability. If you can’t speak clearly, you can’t interview or interface with the client clearly. You can’t write? Your code, documentation, and emails will scream 6th grade arithmitic. If you can’t read, well that just sucks for you.

Attitude

This is so underrated in my opinion. I’m typically a pessimist, and I’m trying to get better. But working with negative people really drags you down. Those are the people that spread rumors and live on bitching about their jobs and co-workers. Their negativity spreads like cancer, and ultimately starts affecting others attitude and performance. You need to be able to shrug off situations at work, and grab positives from everything you encounter. A negative attitude will make it easy for a client to cut ties.

My next post will detail out the other 6 intangibles for consulting success; Flexibility/Adaptability, Team Player mentality, Looks (grooming, etc.), Interviewing skills, Hunger for continuing education, and Professional connections.

Twitter/Hootsuite

I’ll start by saying I think Twitter is great. I was a skeptic, but I’ve learned a ton from the people I’m following, and I’ve really worked hard to share valuable information to the people that keep an eye on me. Problem is, I can’t keep an eye on Twitter all day, it distracts me too much that it takes aways from the tasks I have on my plate at work. Granted, Twitter relates to work. But, it’s a small part and I have more important tasks to get accomplished most of the time. I know Twitter is a two way street, you have to interact with your tweeples. But how can you do that consistently when you’re following hundreds? It’s tough. I’m slowly using Twitter less. I have to, and I think I’ve gotten less and less out of it as time has gone by. I think it’s true as most things, you get out of it what you put in. The less you put in, the less you get out.

But in order to at least try and keep up with Twitter, I researched a lot of 3rd party apps to help me try and automate some of my tasks……some. I have my personal twitter account, and one for the company I work for so I needed an app that allows for multiple accounts. After a bunch of research, I found Hootsuite. At this point, it’s great….that can obviously change but it has some really cool features (it just needs an iPhone app). I’m still in the infancy for that app and for the corporate twitter page. But scheduling tweets, an RSS feed function, groups (with 2.0 release), and so many other features, it’s awesome. So for an hour in the early morning before I get to work, or for a bit late at night, I go through my google reader and read blogs and sites with relevant information for my industry. If I find some posts/stories that are worthwhile, I schedule those tweets throughout the day and week. So I’m kind of done with my sharing. I also use that time to see what the people I’m following are up to and try and RT anything that I’ve read and enjoy and think would benefit the people following me. I’m VERY picky who I follow, make sure you’re going to get something from following them. Since I have been picky, I’ve really learned a ton….I’m following some really smart people and not getting bogged down by all the crap out there. So by scheduling these tweets, it leaves me more time to interact with my tweeples throughout the day.

As mentioned above, there’s a neat feature of Hootsuite, it basically has twitterfeed (RSS) functionality built right in. Our corporate site is based on Wordpress, so everything is an RSS feed. New blog posts, new news and events, and new job opportunities are all fed automatically into the corporate Twitter page (and some on my personal page). Again, this leaves me more time to interact, which I’ll admit hasn’t been my strong suit. I also have this set up for my personal blog, whenever I post something new, it posts into my personal Twitter account.

Digsby

I use Digsby for my chat client and for “popping up” recent tweets, Facebook updates, and LinkedIn updates. If something pops up that I’m interested in, I want to jump on it right away, and a little box that pops up in the lower corner of my laptop is much better than sitting on Twitter/Hootsuite all day. It’s a solid tool, but I use it mostly for my chat client (which works great).

Blogging

Speaking of blogging, I suck at it. I’m still not sure why I started a blog, but I’m trying (so you have to at least give that to me). This has been tough to find time to do, because this is not done on work hours as well. So, this means personal/family time has to suffer. If you have kids, you know how crazy things are when you get home from work. It’s great, I love it. But, there’s no way anything productive is going to happen when they’re awake. The only reading I’m doing is frickin’ Dora the Explorer books. So, I find an hour every so often after my kids are sleeping and I try and put something semi-intelligent on my blog. I then refine it the next night. I typically try and throw ideas and post topics out out on Wordpress whenever I think of something, and then build on those ideas slowly. Wordpress has a solid iPhone app that lets me do that when I’m on the go, so I don’t forget. My rule on my blog is no more than 1 post per week, no less than 1 per month. So far I haven’t lived up to that, but we have a newborn at home so give me a break.

Facebook

I use Facebook a little differently, but I’m still open for suggestion here. I don’t have all my tweets posted automatically to Facebook. The friends that follow me are typically closer than my tweeples. So I post select posts/stories to my news feed and update my status a bit more “personal”. I also have a corporate fan page setup, that I have mostly automated with RSS-Connect, but I do post pictures and some other odds and ends manually. I don’t spend a ton of time on Facebook during work time, it’s more for the later hours after my daughter goes to bed. I think it’s an extremely under-rated recruiting tool, and much more effective than Twitter.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has apps now, so my profile gets updated with new blog posts whenever I post something new. Hootsuite also has Ping.fm integration, so I set up a trigger to update my LinkedIn status from Hootsuite. Since it does have Ping.fm integration, you can update all the available accounts with Ping…which is a lot. But for me, I want Facebook to stay different and Friendfeed is already linked up with Twitter anyways (for now).

OK, holy crap. That seems complex. I’d really like to know how others handle the craziness of Twitter and other social networks. What applications are used the most, how much time do you really devote to Twitter and Facebook? I’ve talked to a few professionals out there, but want to hear from more. Please pass this on, let’s see how everyone is accomplishing this.

I have a true commitment to my employer, and I have an internal drive that never dies. I think with all the technology we have strapped to us at all times, it’s tough to escape. I remember when I was a bit green in this industry, and didn’t care as much. I’d take my vacations and completely disengage from everything work. It was fine and great and all that stuff, but what sucked was coming back to an inbox so bloated it would take me an entire day or two to attempt to get through it. And the biggest issue; a week away from candidates, hiring managers, and clients can leave a hefty dent in your wallet if you’re paid on commission. You hear people talk about stress, and the need to take vacations. A recent study by Towers Perrin argues Employees Stress can add to Perfomance Risk. I agree, a little. But what’s more stressful, missing out on a placement or two (or more) and taking a significant hit to your book of business, or being available at times even when you’re on vacation? I guess I lean towards keeping my book of business built up, but that’s just me.

So how can you refresh while maintaining your book of business?

The key trend I’ve seen over these 10 years is the flexibility and understanding from most employers. Most understand recruiting is not an 8-5 job anymore. If they don’t, please educate them! It’s a job that you get done whenever you can, whether that be closing a candidate at 7 at night, or meeting a candidate before he goes to work at 6:30 in the morning. You do what you need to do. But likewise, employers need to understand and remember that extra time you put in (even while you’re on vacation), and allow you that flexibility to take a day off or an hour off here and there when it’s slow. Worse case, they better credit you those hours spent working on vacation. Make sure to talk to your manager, ask them for that flexibility. Most will not have an issue, as long as you’re delivering results and bringing in revenue. If you’re not producing, don’t ask.

I think it’s important to use those hours/days to do something you really enjoy. Go play a round of golf, hang out with friends, take a 3-4 day weekend and venture somewhere away from home, or whatever else you like to do. I find it’s essential to do things you really enjoy when you’re taking those extra few hours. If you’re just going home and mowing the lawn or grocery shopping or some other mundane weekly chore, you’re not going to get that refreshed feeling. When you aren’t meeting candidates/employees for lunch, go take a walk outside, go for a run, something to rid your mind of work for a little while.

Now on the other side of the coin, if you’re the type the NEEDS an extended vacation, there’s a few important steps to do before taking one. For the few weeks leading up to a vacation, you should work extremely hard to put together a detailed, lengthy hotlist for the sales organization and for whomever is filling in for you. The few times I have taken a vacation away from work, I made sure the sales folks were completely aware of all the available candidates I had for each particular skillset I was responsible for. It helped, but I rarely made placements because I wasn’t there pushing the envelope. In my experience, the person filling in for you or looking out for your book of business wasn’t particularly concerned about helping you when they still had their own responsibilities to worry about. Keep that in mind.

I always looked at vacation hours spent working not necessarily as a negative, as long as my employer saw the effort and value I was giving them. America is burnt out, we see it all over. People work too much, and don’t take enough time for themselves. But put things into perspective, you don’t need to take a 2 week vacation every year. A day off here and there, a long weekend every once in a while will typically suffice. In fact, it makes me cherish those afternoons off a little more, and I get to take a few more afternoons off compared to taking 2 straight weeks. Remember, your employer or employees are contacting you because they need you. That’s a good problem to have these days. I’d be scared if I didn’t get called. As soon as you’re not needed, well, you’re not needed.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this.

Being a recruiter, you talk with multiple people on a daily basis, you interview people on a weekly basis, and you hire people monthly more than likely. All of these situations require you to give feedback. Now whatever kind of feedback you give, that’s up to you. Sugar coat it, make the negative into a positive, etc. But, in all of the above situations, feedback helps these people. Yes, whether it’s great feedback or crap, it’s information that candidates and employees can use to better themselves professionally and personally. Do you tell a candidate that failed an interview miserably because he/she chewed gum and talked too much? Absolutely! Do you tell an employee that he/she is pissing off the client because he/she is cursing frequently? Absolutely! Now I know there are “HR” rules to comply by here, especially in a corporate setting. But, if nobody tells these people what they’re doing wrong, how can they get better?

On the flip side, I’ve had potential candidates get angry with me because of some negative feedback I’ve given out. I ran into this study recently, Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. I found it interesting, and accurate at the same time. The most humble people in my mind, have almost always underestimated their knowledge, taken any kind of criticism, and possessed those true “consulting skills”. And the arrogant, well read the study. There’s always a fine line, because I’ve dealt with many extremely smart employees that had large egos and consistently delivered. But, in all cases I’ve dealt with, by far the most valuable employees were the ones that had very little egos and were always eager to hear what they could improve on.

I know of a bunch of IT consultants that tell it how it is. They’re great, they deliver, and most projects they’re involved with are successful. But, everyone on their projects complains about them. “They’re too brash”, “they’re control freaks”, etc. There are better ways to, as I said, “sugar coat” things, but why? People are scared of their deficiencies, and when someone points them out (to improve them), they turn against you. So it brings me to my conclusion, we all need to accept criticism from our peers and find a way to turn these negatives into positives. I’m definitely not humble and it’s always been tough for me to accept criticism, but I’ve learned to find positives in whatever junk gets thrown my way.

Love me or hate me, I’m who I am, and I’m ultimately trying to help you when I give out feedback.