Archive for the ‘twitter’ Category
The Wonders of Twitter at a Conference
Posted by JasonBy Molly Sly (@mollysly).
I’m waiting for my flight at the Orlando airport after attending the Kennedy Recruiting conference. The talk of the conference was social media and how it’s changing the way we recruit. As was stated in one of the sessions, social media has brought about the evolution of relationship marketing. In particular, Twitter was discussed constantly – in lines at Starbucks, in elevators, in the recruitingblogs.com cyber lounge and of course, in several sessions.
On more than one occasion I had to take my Blackberry out to show someone what Twitter was and explain it’s purpose. Twitter is basically a microblog – a moment in time, much like your status updates on Facebook. As the Recruitment Manager for Campbell-Ewald advertising, we have been utilizing Twitter to find talent. In addition, there is a huge network of local tweeps (twitter + people) in Detroit that have Tweetups (meetups) about once a month. Twitter is actually the reason I was able to attend the conference. Jason Buss (@jjbuss) tweeted several weeks ago that he had a guest pass for the taking. I DM’ed (direct messaged) him that I would jump at the chance to have it. I was lucky, or just fast, but either way the pass was mine.
Jason asked me to do live tweets of the sessions that I attended under the @kennedyinfo handle. While normally I would take fervent notes, instead I tried to tweet about some of the highlights from each session. It was a way for people that couldn’t attend to see some of what was being discussed. This was a great learning experience for me on several fronts. I was able to sit in a variety of compelling sessions. I can’t help but walk away more motivated and passionate than when I arrived. I was able to meet some really stellar people like Jason Buss (@jjbuss), Maren Hogan (@marenhogan) and Shannon Seery Gude (@seerysm).
You can see all of the session updates by going to @kennedyinfo on Twitter. For those that attended the conference and are ready to get started on twitter - I have included some twitter 101 information below.
Twitter 101
- Create a user-friendly Twitter ID (@yourname)
- It’s your personal brand.
- Search for people to follow. You can use twello.com which is a directory of tweeps’ bios, or summize.com where you can serarch all twitter conversations. You can also see who’s saying what by doing an @theirname search. You can see who they are following and choose to follow those people as well.
- Follow the social media gurus. You can find out who these people are by viewing twitterati.alltop.com, twittercounter.com and egos.alltop.com. You can learn things by seeing what they tweet about, check out profiles and see who follows who.
- Have a close-up picture – the avatar window is small so it should be a face shot.
Learn the lingo:
- DM = direct message
- @ = use to reply
- RT = retweet
- Tweet = sending a message on twitter
- Tw + any other word = a fun practice is to find a new twist on old words (tworld, tweeple, etc.)
Finally, don’t just lurk around with all the people you are following and just keep track of what they are doing. Start replying to them with the ‘@’ command and start a dialog. Most people are too busy to have a full conversation with you but if someone you are following says something interesting, respond. There is nothing better than getting an @ reply from your followers.
Happy tweeting!
Get a Free Pass to the Kennedy Information Recruiting Conference
Posted by JasonNo ticket to attend the Kennedy Information Recruiting Conference next month in Orlando? No problem.
Send me an e-mail, or direct message via twitter with your interest. Kennedy is interested in providing attendees and “web watchers” live updates, news, and information from the conference via their twitter stream. In return for capturing and posting, you’ll get full access to the conference sessions!
Conference Details:
Kennedy Information’s Recruiting Conference & Expo
November 16 – November 19, 2008
The Floridian Hotel
1500 Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL
5 EASY Ways to Optimize your 2009 Recruiting Budget
Posted by JasonBy Jason Buss.
Amidst rising unemployment, and what some call a recession - or even financial crisis, it’s that time of year to finalize your plans for 2009 recruiting budgets. This post contains ideas on things you can do to cut (if needed) - or optimize your spending.
Once you know anticipated volumes and skills you will be responsible for finding, here are 5 EASY ways to optimize your recruiting budget:
- Job Boards. Take a good, in-depth look at your job board spend, and overall results. Besides the crappy candidate experience, it should come as no surprise job board traffic continues on a multi-year decline. Use this to your advantage - and negotiate. You should be paying a substantially less amount per posting than in previous years. Most of the big boards continue to add new services to offset posting and resume database access. For more ideas on job boards, you can read an earlier post, “What Would Happen if Job Boards Became Obsolete“?
- Campus Recruiting. Most students I’ve talked to this fall have noticed a big decline in on-campus spending, presence, and the number of jobs available. Most recruiters have been talking about a decrease in full-time opportunities, but a significant increase in interns for 2009. Be thoughtful about your approach to campus recruiting, advertising, events, and sponsorships. You can also reference “Approach to College Recruiting Planning and Strategy” and “Tips on Better Preparing Yourself for the Upcoming College Recruiting Season“.
- Use SEO, SEM, Social Media, and Blogs. As the traffic declines with the boards, use search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and social media tools to recruit. These have been a hot topic for a couple of years already, and there is enough proof, case studies, and white papers highlighting success - especially with SEO. No, I’m not talking about a .jobs domain that re-directs to your careers site… On the Social Media front, focus on networking and hiring from sites like Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Plaxo, LinkedIn and others.
- Recruiting Events. Carefully assess your attendance at recruiting events. When you make one-off decisions throughout the year you can typically justify attendance. There are some industries and jobs where an event (such as a career fair) might make sense. The truth (for most) is events have never made the top of the list for sourcing effectiveness. There may be reasons to attend (branding as an example). If that’s the case, your Marketing group can fund the event. Be clear about why you want to be there, and what results you are striving to achieve.
- Get aggressive with sourcing. Reduce your reliance on external providers where it makes sense. Don’t wait for the talent to find you. Sounds easy - it starts with equipping recruiters with the right tools and training.
While there is no “one size fits all” approach, take a leadership approach and maximize recruiting and the value it brings to your organization while not jeopardizing quality.
Networking was never one of my strongest skills. I am sometimes shy when it comes to meeting new people, and as a 23 year old who is just two years out of college, I don’t have much of an address book or LinkedIn network (but I have a ton of Facebook friends). The first stage of building my company, One Day, One Job, didn’t require much networking, for I was trying to get college aged job and internship hunters to visit my site. Building personal relationships can certainly help build traffic to a website, but it’s not the most efficient method. Recently, I have started to focus on the second stage of growing my business — encouraging entry-level employers to work with us as advertisers and consulting clients. For a while I sat around waiting for people to find me. I figured that companies would see the potential in One Day, One Job as a recruitment tool and would throw themselves at us. A few companies approached us out of the blue, but I knew that improving my networking skills could speed along the process. I recently joined Twitter, and I realized how valuable the micro-blogging/social networking service can be in terms of business development. Within the span of 2 weeks, I was able to get meetings with 3 CEOs and one VP of Recruiting (who also happens to be the owner of this blog) through relationships initiated and built on Twitter.
Here’s how I did it:
I Joined
This is self explanatory. Social networks do you almost no good if you don’t participate. You can use them as informational resources, but participation increases their value by an factor of ten.
I Sought Out Interesting People
You need to test the waters before diving into Twitter (or any social network). By finding interesting people to “follow,” you can learn the ropes and proper etiquette while instantly reaping the best informational benefits that Twitter has to offer. How do you find interesting people? You wander around Twitter. I have no idea how I came across each of the 4 people mentioned in the title of this article, but I can ensure you that it was through other Twitter users. If you’re new to Twitter, you can start by following me @willyf and Jason @jjbuss.
I Listened
Pay attention to what other people are saying. By learning about them through their tweets, you can determine who are the people that you want to build personal relationships with. After listening for a while, you can chime in and join the conversation by tweeting @ someone to ask or answer a question or make a comment.
I Talked About Myself
Nobody is going to follow you if you’re boring. Everybody has something interesting to say, so talk about what you’re passionate about. You might be surprised at what people find interesting, so be yourself — don’t try too hard. It’s much easier to initiate meaningful conversations when you have lots of followers.
I Interacted
As you follow more people and gain more followers you can start getting involved in more conversations. If you have something interesting to add to someone else’s conversation, jump in! Just make sure that you’re being genuine and not self-serving. The biggest mistake that people can make when using a service like Twitter is asking someone for something before they have built a relationship. That doesn’t mean that you should go through pleasantries just to ask someone for a favor — you need to be honestly interested in the people whom you follow on Twitter if you want to build meaningful relationships.
I Took the Relationships Offline
Two of my meetings were in person and two were on the phone. Twitter is a great way to introduce yourself and build the foundation for a relationship, but it’s not a great tool for in-depth communication. By taking the relationship offline and having face to face (or voice to voice) contact, you completely change the nature of the relationship. It instantly becomes more meaningful.
Why Does This Matter?
Whether you are an entrepreneur like me, a job searcher, or a business professional, Twitter and other social networking services can provide amazing opportunities to meet new people and build business relationships. Although I haven’t yet done business with any of the people mentioned in the title of this blog post, the conversations that I’ve had with each of these people have been valuable enough to make me consider Twitter an essential tool in my networking repertoire. Without Twitter I never would have met these 4 wonderful people (and many more) who are willing and able to help me as I build my business. I’m sure that the relationships that I have developed and will develop on Twitter will be essential to the success of One Day, One Job.
Submitted by Willy Franzen for the August 2008 Talent Buzz blog contest. Willy Franzen is the founder of One Day, One Job and One Day, One Internship.
Keep in Touch
Posted by JasonMost of you would be familiar with this trend. You make some great friends at work and develop this fantastic sense of camaraderie with them when one of them decides to leave and go on to another job. You have a tearful farewell party for them and sign their goodbye card with an endearing message that ends with something like “I hope we keep in touch.” They leave and then you never hear or speak with them again.
There are plenty of excuses why keeping in touch does not happen. Fast-paced living makes it difficult to reach out to those outside of our immediate lives. Often, I feel like I don’t have enough time for my family or time just to be alone with myself. And as a day rushes by, even if I was deliberate enough to include checking up on people on my daily calendar, the task gets pushed back until weeks have gone by. Once enough time has elapsed, the excuse then becomes that it would be too embarrassing to contact them out of the blue, since you have previously been so rude for not keeping in touch with them regularly. Of course every now and then the fond parting words are just polite formalities, as you might be dealing with somebody that you genuinely do not care to keep in touch with—but why be so cynical?
If this pattern sounds familiar, I encourage you to aggressively step out of it. When you say “keep in touch,” really do mean it. Your relationships are VITAL. And in this day and age, there are countless ways to keep your network alive. For some, I have them on my LinkedIn network. Others, I am able to keep tabs on with Twitter. Those closest to me, I make sure to call every once in a while. For many, it’s just a holiday card to let them know annually that they are still on my radar. You never know when a relationship will come in handy, and it is good to practice keeping your friendships alive.
And is it really so bad if you neglect somebody for a long time before reaching out to them? Whenever an old friend calls me out of the blue—even if it is only to ask me a favor–I am invariably elated to be back in touch with them. Why shouldn’t I then hope and anticipate that it would be the same if I allow years to pass before I take initiative? The person on the other end failed as equally as I did, as they did not keep in touch either. So why continue to punish them by maintaining your own silence. Life is too short not to endear the good relationships we are fortunate enough to have. Keep your friendships alive. Keep in touch.
Submitted by Craig Houston, The Careerguyd for the August 2008 Talent Buzz blog contest.
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Recruiters on Twitter
Posted by JasonA quick thanks to Paul DeBettignies for creating a list of Recruiters using twitter. You can see the list created on RecruitingBlogs.com, by clicking here.
I have been enjoying twitter in a variety of ways over the past 5 months, and have written the following posts about it:
- Recruiting, Social Media, and Friends. Twitter Rocks!
- 6 Benefits of Using Twitter as a News, Networking, and Marketing Tool
- Building Your Personal Brand on the Web
If you’re not on twitter, what are you waiting for?
Recruiting, Social Media, and Friends. Twitter Rocks!
Posted by JasonFrom Jason Buss (@jjbuss).
What all started with my first tweet - has continued to evolve into something so much more than answering that simple question - “what are you doing”?
After talking with a good friend earlier this year (@seerysm) about twitter, I decided to give it a try. So I started with a few followers, continued tweeting, networking, and talking with many great people. I even posted a few stories on my blog about twitter, including:
- 6 Benefits of Using Twitter as a News, Networking, and Marketing Tool
- Twitter vs. Plurk: What the Tweeps are Saying
- Social Media and Networking: Ten Twitter Tools
Until… Last night, when I had the opportunity to meet with many thought leaders in the recruiting industry (Don Ramer, CEO & Founder of Arbita; RecruitingBlogs.com founder Jason Davis; and LinkedIn Guru and Six Degrees from Dave’s own Dave Mendoza, and The Recruiting Roadshow’s John Sumser to name a few).
Even more special than that are the stronger relationships, and new friends with those that I have interacted with online for months. A big shout out to @marenhogan, @MNHeadhunter, and @txaggie94).
Other tweeps I met: @ttierney, @jokahn, @recruitingblogs, @jphogan, and @johsumser.
A special thanks for the opportunity goes to Paul DeBettignies, Co-Founder and Coordinator of Minnesota Recruiters.
Twitter and many other social media tools have tremendous benefits. Like most things, you’ll get out of it what you put into it.
Tweet on.
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Building Your Personal Brand on the Web
Posted by JasonBy Jason Buss.
Like it or not, your personal brand and reputation is built in many ways - consciously or unconsciously - by what you do, the sites and tools you use, where you work, your profile, and more.
You likely use social media and social networking sites along with a variety of tools on the web including twitter, plurk, friendfeed, Linkedin, Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, and the list goes on and on. What’s your brand? What you do with these tools and sites, and the output, play a big role in building your online brand.
Here are a few links to several great articles filled with additional tips and techniques - all geared towards building your brand:
- 5 twitter tactics for building a stellar brand
- How to build your online brand
- How to build your personal online reputation
- 49 ways to build your brand using online marketing
- Building your online brand with social media tools
- Schawbel Report: The current state of personal branding
You could sit back and do nothing, or take charge in developing your brand online. What are you waiting for?
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Social Media and Networking: Ten Twitter Tools
Posted by JasonBy Jason Buss - a.k.a. @jjbuss
Social Media and Social Networking are phrases that have monopolized online communities worldwide the past couple of years. New sites, communities, and tools are being created just as quickly in response to the growing demand and use of many popular sites.
Twitter, which has been praised and beaten over the past 12 months, is one example for the growing demand for tools. Some new, some old, here are 10 twitter tools you can use:
Matt (Multiple Account Twitter Tweeting) makes it easy to post to multiple twitter accounts without having to log into each one every time.
TweetDeck, a personal favorite, is an Adobe Air desktop application that is currently in public beta. It aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.
TweetDeck enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets. Once created these additional columns will automatically update allowing the user to keep track of a twitter threads far easier.
Summize indexes Twitter’s public timeline in real-time, threads together associated tweets, and gives you the search tools to dig in.
Other twitter search tools include:
- TwetDir: Search for users by name, location, or username
- Twitterverse: Allows you to search through archived timelines and tweets
- Twittersearch: Search twitter and tweets by word
Other helpful tools to get the most out of twitter:
- RetweetMe: Set reminders or to do items in twitter
- Twitty Tunes: Post what your currently listening to in twitter
- Jargong: Bring the web with you all the time
- jTwitter: The ultimate phone application for twittering
Twitter vs. Plurk: What the tweeps are saying!
Posted by JasonIn the past couple of weeks I have received about a dozen invites to join Plurk. I haven’t joined yet, not because I don’t want to be an “early adopter”, but more so as a result in how much time in the day there is to blog, network, and connect with others. Sure, there are tools to integrate updates, but to actually engage on all of the platforms takes time.
If I had to pick the top 3 tools to connect with others up until this point, I have invested a majority of the effort into Facebook, Twitter @jjbuss, and LinkedIn (both my network and my recruiting blog group). Sure, I have profiles on Plaxo, MySpace, and others too, but rarely visit them.
I wanted to quickly categorize what others are saying about Plurk and Twitter since it has dominated the 140 character updates the past few weeks, besides the obvious Obama and Clinton tweets.
I used summize, and while this is not scientific, I went back the past 5 hours and broke the comments into 2 categories. Here’s a snapshot of loyal to both Twitter, and Plurk:
Twitter:
- @mrwizard14 - Checking out Plurk, but twitter still rocks because of the API and desktop clients.
- @CoachDeb - twitter trumps Plurk any day - even on its’ sickly days (i actually hate tweeting about Plurk)
- @pwbau - re: your plurk about plurking vs. twitter, i have to agree with you Plurk is nice but twitter is better
- @yashoo - really starting to like the feel of Plurk… But twitter is the king when it comes to simplicity and API support
- @matthelm - eh… Plurk sucks. Twitter is better.
- @onlineteacher - Plurk = No Way. Twitter = Way. IMHO. I will be staying here and not migrating.
- @modernevil - Plurk seems to take up a lot of my time, lately. Unlike Twitter, it compels me to read everything everyone posts. That won’t last long.
- @wonderwebby - don’t think I will go back into Plurk unless Twitter dies completely.
- @ColonelMolerat - Trying to persuade Claire to sign up to Twitter. But not Plurk. Because Plurk’s shit.
Plurk:
- @Beonarri - I’ve been using both Twitter and Plurk and I have to say I like Plurk more.
- @sentienlee - It’s official, I’m over Twitter. I will be using Plurk full time.
- @gutterkitty - Enjoying Plurk more than Twitter.
- @reidmix - been trying out pllurk with good results. twitter just isn’t cutting it
- @theSummerDiva - It’s so funny.. Plurk is just hopping…and Twitter… is so quiet.
- @richardlord - Only found one of you on Plurk.. Get Plurking people.. It’s like Twitter.. ‘cept it works.
And… The most best tweet goes to @libmil: I think Twitter & Plurk are the same people, in the same office, having a bet as to whose site gets the most people.
Both have their technical issues. I have gone to Plurk to check it out twice in the past 2 days and the site has been down. We all know Twitter has had some issues too. I will likely give Plurk a try, but in the end for me it is more about engaging with your network vs. a one-way update, and finding a balance.
Other great posts on Plurk vs. Twitter:
- Plurk & Twitter: 2 Very Different Communities
- Twitter vs. Plurk: Who Wins?
- I Like Plurk Better Than Twitter, But Should I Even Bother?
Which do you prefer?