The other night, Kelly and I were surfing Facebook and we came across a status update from Jessica Miller-Merrell about Empire Avenue… “Empire What?” we thought…

Little did we know, within a couple of hours, we would be wholly swallowed and entranced by this world of social investment.

When we first joined Empire Avenue, we had a few immediate realizations.  For starters, it looked like a virtual stock market for people who participate in the realm of social media.  Second, we noticed that success appeared to hinge on one’s stock value.  Little by little, we started noticing all the small nuances that go in to making Empire Avenue much more than a simple game of buy and sell.

“Whoa!  What’s this dividend thing all about?”

“Why does it take 5 days to firmly establish our social media links?”

“Hey!  People are buying our stocks!”

The simple truth is, it was all very confusing and a bit of whirlwind at first.  But, for some reason, we found ourselves glued to our monitors… reviewing potential buys, roaming through help menus, joining groups and pondering what all this meant to the social space… trying to figure it all out.

You see, beyond the game play appeal, we started to notice a thriving community of savvy investors buying and selling social stock based on research and thought out approaches.  This realization came when we were invited to an internal community called Team Zen.  Before receiving our invitations from Dr. Ron Capps, the group had been researching Kelly’s potential stock value, checking out her different social media locations and contemplating the potential impact of me joining with her.  We were a bit taken aback when we saw the dialogue.

While it may be in the spirit of fun, we were super interested in the fact that decisions about the buying and selling of our social stock were being contemplated based on our activities and overall presence.  While it didn’t all make sense yet, this was one of those “Aha!” moments.

Back to the help menus we went.

As it turns out, your stock value is decided by a number of factors.  Supply & Demand are two important elements and they are driven by the market.  Do buyers anticipate your value to go up or down?  Even more intriguing is how stock prices are based on the health of your social media activity – your “Network Scores.”  This is where it gets really interesting.

When we researched share price value and network scores, this is what we encountered:

Your Network Scores are a series of numbers that describes the degree of your Activity, Audience and Interaction on different social media channels. It forms a large part of your Empire Avenue Share Price calculation every day, along with the buying and selling of your shares on Empire Avenue.

“Activity” simply means how often you use that channel, posting statuses, tweets, comments, photos or whatever other content you might add.

“Audience” is the size of the network of individuals that receives your content.

Most importantly, “Interaction” considers the reaction of your audience to the content you post: the more they comment, retweet, ‘like’, favorite, or otherwise respond to your content, the greater the Interaction portion of your Network Score will be.

How scores are determined

Each social network and online activity is different. Here are specifics on how we look at each network at this time:

• Twitter: Activity on twitter, the audience of your tweets based on your followers and the quality of your followers (bots, for example, are low-quality followers), the reach and quality of your retweets and mentions.
• Facebook: Activity on Facebook through posted updates and comments on your profile, the quality of your friends and their interaction with your postings and comments.
• Flickr and YouTube: Your activity through posting photos or videos, the connections you make with other Flickr and YouTube users, their interaction with you on Flickr and YouTube through comments and favourites.
• Empire Avenue: Your activity on Empire Avenue, excluding the specific acts of buying and selling; user engagement with you on Empire Avenue including how they react to you, engage with you and the success of your advertising.
• LinkedIn: Your connections, actions and recommendations count for your LinkedIn score.

It was at this moment when Kelly and I started to get really excited.  Was it possible that Empire Avenue had assembled an engaging and fun system for judging social media presence in real time?  Was it?

My curiosity was on full-attack, so I started to dig in further.  I contacted their offices and was promptly greeted by a response explaining some of the system nuances.  Shortly thereafter, they informed me that they are hosted by Rackspace (which made it even cooler).  We arranged a time to speak next Tuesday for more clarification and thoughts around their future.

I greeted the next morning by checking out my portfolio of shares and activity on Empire Avenue.  It was a good prior evening of trading.

On my way to work and throughout the day, I couldn’t help but share Empire with a variety of contacts.  Veronica Ludwig (e)VERONICA received the first text and joined the network.  Shortly after, Alicia Arenas (e)ALIARENAS, Phil White (e)WHITE, and others joined in.  At around 11:00 AM, I was having a discussion with Robert Scoble about an upcoming event at Rackspace and decided to mention Empire Avenue since he is always interested in exploring new technologies.  He joined a few minutes later as (e)SCBL – the resulting flurry of activity was wild!  Later in the day, I had a long conversation with Robert Taylor and perhaps reignited his interest – he is listed as (e)ROBOT.

Social Media Evolution

I can’t say whether Empire Avenue is the next evolution in social media grading or a simple blip on the map of new things… the users and overall adoption will ultimately judge that.  But, what I can say is that I’m intrigued with how robust and thought through the product is – from their help menus to their Facebook App.  I’m also fairly certain that their goals are simultaneously fun and relevant.

For some time now, social media has created a buzz that’s resulted in a wide-array of individuals jumping in and exploring the tools.  Interestingly, adopters seem to have chopped Social Media in half.  Some adopted the “Social” piece and others simply saw it as “Media.”  As the new “Media” adopters’ eyes glazed over with dollar signs, we all saw a massive rise in people who claim expertise in the realm based on their abilities to spam the networks.  I get it, but it sure the hell didn’t do any favors for the experience of the masses.

What I see in Empire Avenue is a noble attempt to truly rate and judge social media success.  Let the market decide how engaging and useful someone’s presence is.  If they are doing it “right,” one can expect a higher share value, increased dividends and happy investors.  The spammers will fall into the realm of irrelevance and it will all be on full display within Empire Avenue.

Further, EA is not limited to individuals – it’s open to businesses who want to jump in and test their presence.  I see a potential future when businesses will ask their consultants about share value on Empire Avenue as a way of determining overall success.  This could be a great move towards the much needed accountability in the realm.  Be gone snake charmers!

Bottom line, I’m impressed.  Empire Avenue is fun and engaging.  While there is a bit of a learning curve, I think you’ll find it worthwhile and interesting.  For someone who knows very little about the stock market, it has also been a great learning experience to see market forces at play within a realm that I’m familiar with.  Influence, approach and strategy all come into play with the end result being a very interesting perspective on what really makes social media work.

So, are you ready to join in?  Here is my link for joining (http://empireavenue.com/?t=03oxyhht) – in using it you’ll start out with some extra Eaves (currency within Empire Avenue) and I’ll receive some as well for investing in your shares.  I’m listed as (e)MICHAEL and you can find Kelly listed as (e)KML <– a great stock for sure!

So, what impacts do you think this could have on the realm?  Is this a fad or a new standard in grading success?

Consider this:

How could a virtual stock market of social media impact the marketing classrooms around the world?

How could it improve the quality of content produced?

How could this increase overall engagement and social media adoption?

Could this do away with “social media experts” and reenforce that we are all just practitioners and explorers?

I’m interested in your feedback!

Additional Resources

Empire Avenue Tutorial

Overview by the creators

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s easy to fall in love with social media – recruiting – (insert word of choice).  Let’s face it; you’re able to connect with a bunch of like-minded individuals, the tools are ever evolving, and, if that weren’t enough, it’s a great conversation topic.

I remember the day it clicked for me.  At that moment, it wasn’t about LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogging or any other popular social tool.  It had much more to do with the Internet as a whole – the ability to connect across multiple channels, share content/ideas and collaborate with others.  That’s what made me sit back and say “Wow!”

In the beginning, I had very few people to discuss it with who shared in my enthusiasm.  Alicia Arenas (@aliciasanera) received the lion’s share of my “Wow!” outbursts – she still does.

One thing to know about me is that I get pretty excited when I’m passionate about something – it’s a blessing and curse.  On one side, I don’t usually waste much time contemplating an idea (analysis paralysis).  On the other, being this way requires a certain level of comfort with accountability – things don’t always go as planned.

The first few weeks after my “Wow!” moment were pretty intense.  Late nights, research galore, lots of experimenting – loads of coffee!  Looking back, some of the experiments and questions seem trivial…

“I wonder what would happen if I started a hashtag?”

“I wonder what the best way is to edit photos for Twitter?”

“What the hell is CSS?”

“What is WordPress?”

“Why does Facebook keep changing their system?”

**Bang head up against the table**

“This blog post is dumb… I should start over.”

“I’m really nervous about pressing the Publish button.”

“I should blog more often.”

“How can I measure results?”

“Am I just wasting my time?”

Anyone who has launched a blog knows that it can be a bit of a nerve-racking experience.  I mean… you kind of have to put yourself out there.  Whether you go full life story or limit your blogging to a professional focus – you’re still delivering it openly for the world to judge.

People may say they don’t care, but I don’t buy it… they care.  I haven’t seen any eager volunteers for the crappy blogger award – although, I’m sure most of us “bloggers” have deserved it from time to time.

When I accepted the position with Rackspace® to head up our employment branding initiatives, I was presented with a whole new set of concerns.  It was no longer about me and how I wanted to build and convey my message – there were co-workers (Rackers), customers and shareholders to keep in mind.  Pressing the “Publish” button took on a whole new meaning.

Over the past year, my work has been heavily focused on figuring out how to build and guide a social strategy based on a foundation of authenticity.  It occurred to me early on that sharing anything less than a true picture of reality would be more harmful than helpful in this new and extremely connected world.

The process of fully grasping this approach and making it useful have been extremely interesting, sometimes challenging and, overall, very rewarding.

As I prepare for TalentNet Live this weekend and Social Recruiting Summit next month, I’m reminded of all the many journeys that have led up to now.  I’m excited to share the many lessons I’ve learned and collaborate with all of the other practitioners and eager minds in attendance!

Let us not forget how fun and interesting this can be.  Remember your “Wow!” moment and go share it with someone else who can join in the excitement.

When did it click for you?

Photo Credit, deanmeyersnet

Before entering the recruiting profession, I had a bunch of ideas about what I wanted to be when I grew up.  Looking back, it’s kind of funny to think about all the different careers I thought I would dedicate to.

Here are some of the various options I considered before landing in recruiting:

• Inventor - My family environment as a child was very creative.  Dad loved to create contraptions to deal with common problems (gophers, speeding cars… this is a whole blog post unto itself).
• Police Officer - I applied and was hired to be a Police Officer after college.  I figured out pretty quickly that the structure of the job was too much for me – the lie detector test sure was fun!
• CIA Agent – This is a long story… but, I didn’t go this route.
• Military – I was about to finalize the process, while in college, to join the Marines as an Officer after graduation.  An administrative error on their part made the process complex and frustrating, so I declined.  I think the structure would have been tough.
• Professional Video Game Player – I’ve gamed since I first had access to computers.  In fact, while in college, I helped pay the bills by buying and selling virtual items from Everquest (a MMORPG) on EBay.  Virtual sword anyone?
• Cartoonist – I started to draw when I was little.  By the 4th grade, I started taking cartooning classes at the local community college in Oregon.  Drawing is still a release, just not a profession.
• Musician – When I moved to Argentina at 18, I started playing guitar… fell in love with music and, at one point, considered dedicating myself fully to the craft.
• Photographer – This was a Jr. High hobby that I still really enjoy!  When I was an exchange student to Guatemala at 16, a local photo shop sponsored my photography for the year – which totally helped on my teenager budget.
• Think Tank Member - Hard to explain, but I just thought it would be cool to sit in a room with a bunch of creative folks and come up with random ideas all day.

Yep!  Quite an eclectic mix of career choices.

Why Recruiting?

Recruiting kind of fell into my lap.  In fact, it was about two weeks after leaving the Police Academy in Arizona when I received a call from Randstad.  To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t really thought about Recruiting as a profession.

As it ended up, Recruiting was a great match for my wants, needs and desires at that point in my career.

• Financial Potential
• Helping Others
• Career Path
• Outgoing Co-Workers

It just kind of hit me – “Wow, this Recruiting thing is pretty cool… I can do this!”

The next 6 years were filled with professional adventures and lots of lessons.

Enter “Social”

Then, after launching my own business in 2008, I started to contemplate how social media could compliment my recruiting practice.  Instead of using all of these fancy tools as sourcing methods, why couldn’t we use these channels to share best practices, help candidates and perhaps improve the profession?  Made sense.

Early on in this process, Alicia Arenas and I headed up to Austin in order to spend a day at a Chris Brogan training.  By the time we left the event, I was dead set on embarking down this path.  Chris flung the doors open for both Alicia and I – it was quite a day!

For the next few months, I didn’t sleep much – 3-4 hours a night max!

I found myself rekindling dormant passions for photography, technology and creativity.  Simultaneously, I started learning about areas I had never previously explored… website development (WordPress, CSS, HTML, etc…), video, and social networking tools in all their various forms.

It was an exhilarating time filled with possibilities and new adventures.

What made it all that much more fulfilling was the community I started to encounter… people who had an equal level of passion for the topic.

Before I knew it, the tools had become the topic and different opportunities popped up everywhere.  Speaking, training, collaboration with amazing forward thinkers – just a crazy roller coaster ride!

I remember sitting at Disney Institute thinking, “How the hell did I get here?” and “Is this real?”

As the months progressed, I started to realize that I had somehow merged many of my childhood passions with the professional interests I pursued after college.  Creativity meets Recruiting.  Think Tanks, Photography, Design, Game-Like Social Engines – full circle.  Professionally, I had never felt so fulfilled.

So, blah, blah, blah, I feel happy… now to my point.

Merge Your Career

I’m not going to pretend that this journey has been seamless or easy – it hasn’t been.  It’s required more work than I’ve ever put on my plate at one time.  The good news is, I love it!  And, if that weren’t enough, I pay my bills performing work that unites my passions.  Creativity + Being Social + Travel + Talent Acquisition =

A few weeks ago, I watched a video from Gary Vaynerchuk that made me reflect on my path and what’s happened.  But, it also made me want to jump on a soapbox and yell “Amen!!!”  Gary shares his thoughts on merging your passions with your professional pursuits.  He did it, others are doing it and you (YES, YOU!) can venture down this road too!

So, here you go – check him out!  WARNING: Language in the video is not work-friendly… so, watch it away from the office.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just think about it – hopefully do something about it.  Either way, imagine what’s possible and remain open to opportunities.  You never know!

Have you pursued your passions and made a career out of it?  How did it change your life?

Photo Credit, bgottsab

Blake Mycoskie from TOMS Shoes

I’ve been to more than a few conferences in the past year… in fact, it’s starting to feel a bit like a foggy mess of speakers, social hours and information overload.

I don’t mean that in a bad way, but there does come a point when you start to forget and everything starts to mesh together.

Perhaps this is also the point when the culmination of ideas that one has been exposed to start to mold and become personal – the whole “I don’t know how I know this, but it seems like something I’ve heard of…” shift.

When I saw the roster for the 2010 Human Capital Summit, I was energized with the speaker list.

Human Capital Summit 2010, Tucson, AZ

Unlike many of the conferences I’ve attended lately, this is what I would refer to as an un-unconference – or, in other words, a conference.  Schedules, no cell phone usage reminders and lots of dress-to-impress clothes.  The speakers have written books as opposed to starting online followings (in many cases)… and the participants are from large corporations with big budgets behind them.

Beyond the initial shock that no one was walking around in flip-flops with a flip cam, I settled in to old conference life pretty quickly.  Of course, I didn’t bring along any dress up clothes, so I guess that’s only partially true.  Nonetheless, I sat through the opener and the second opener and the first speaker, etc…

There were some real golden nuggets of information shared today, so I’ll just get right to it.

Geoff Colvin, Fortune Magazine

He was great and I really enjoyed his style.  Starting out with the current headlines, he reminded the audience that the only way our companies will be successful is with the right people.

He stressed that attracting talent should be the most important key competency if we are going to push our organizations to be the best.  Check out his website.

Here is a video I found of him on YouTube.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqdFoLxRn-s

Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Shoes

Blake is the man – I mean, c’mon… the guy started a company that gives as much back as they take.  For every pair of shoes that someone buys from TOMS Shoes, a pair of shoes is donated to a child in need.  Blake has a common sense approach to changing the world and it is quite inspiring.

If you haven’t visited their site already, check them out: Website Link.  You can find Blake on Twitter here.

Here is a cool video with the history of the company.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTQsQUu1Ho8

Jim Carroll, Futurist, Trends and Innovation Expert

I found this presentation to be pretty “in your face” and inspiring.  This may have to do with the fact that I love the topic of innovation… but, that aside, I think that the audience was forced to sit back and say “Wow! I need to change the way I think.”

Boiling down his message, I left with the notion that companies who ignore the speed of change will be left in the past.  To be the future, you have to think about the future.

Check out the video below and perhaps visit his website.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yajhwh5_-k8

Great message Jim!  I enjoyed it!

Polly Pearson, EMC

I’ve wanted to hear from Polly Pearson for a while on the topic of social media/networking within a larger organization.

Polly brought the audience through the steps that EMC took in order to roll-out and embrace a larger strategy.  It was pretty cool to listen to her laid back style for making the overall approach function.  The messages I took away were:  Trust, ROI, Baby Steps and Find A Bigger Bully Than Legal.

Trust your employees to act like adults and make good decisions.

ROI = Risk Of Ignoring = If you don’t get involved with social media, your competitors may… are you okay with that?

Take Baby Steps in getting the organization on board – start with an internal network and let it build towards being external facing.

Finally, if Legal wants to shut you down and is acting like a bully, find a bigger bully than legal to help you along with your cause.

Here is a video of Polly speaking at the Gravity Summit.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CktwxxiNkI

John Phillips, Microsoft & Doug Berg, Jobs2Web

John and Doug definitely earned the Tactical Award for the day!

This was not a conversation about potential methods for using social media in recruiting – nope!  This was a down to the bones, real picture, show you the steps kind of presentation that had plenty of metrics to back up the claims.

First of all, I commend Microsoft for embracing forward-looking methods in recruiting… kudos to John for being able to articulate the business case for use.

Second, Jobs2Web is amazing!  I’m not often left sitting back saying “Wow!” – but this did it.  Really, really, really good stuff… and it’s all backed up with metrics.  Doug Berg knows his recruiting stuff and it shows!

Check out the Jobs2Web website when you have a second – it’s pretty cool!

So, that’s the story for Day 1 at the HCI 2010 meeting.  Lots of information to take in, but it’s been well worth it thus far!

If you are interesting in following the hashtag on Twitter, you can find the Tweet under #HCI10

I have always wanted to visit England, I just never took time out to do so.  Life has a way of making it possible to find excuses… I’m glad that wasn’t the case this time.

Visiting Rackspace

My week started out with visiting my UK Rackspace colleagues at their offices here in London.

Everyone was fantastic and we had a jolly good time taking pictures of the team!

They were also kind enough to give me some tips and hints about visiting the downtown part of the city.  Here is one of the team shots… a bit of fun with hats!  The other shots turned out hilarious as well!

#TruLondon – Day 1

On Thursday, I attended the #TruLondon event at the TwitJobSearch facilities.

The room was packed with Recruiters and HR professionals from all over Europe and the U.S.  The energy was palpable!

Pictured are Bill Boorman of TruConferences.com and Lucian Tarnowski of BraveNewTalent.com.

Over the course of the day, I attended a variety of sessions that I mentioned in my last post.  While I enjoyed them all, the session on Employment Branding spurred my interest the most.

It’s very interesting to learn about the varying opinions and how they may form the future of this topic… both in theory and practical application.

#TruLondon – Day 2

Day two was interesting as well!

With the crowd of day one thinned out a bit, it was easier to chat with different people and take advantage of my favorite “UnConference” benefit… informal sessions!

With rooms full of some of the brightest, most curious and sometimes, opinionated people in our industry, it’s never difficult to start up a conversation… or a debate

Pictured is Jim Stroud “The Searchologist” after having delivered a poem on recruiting… it was pretty funny and brought some meaning to Recruiting Prose

Definitely something your not likely to see at a normal conference… unless of course Jim takes this show on the road!

Outside The Conference

As most people who attend will agree, one of the most exciting parts of coming to a meet-up of this sort is the socializing that goes on after the day (or two in this case) concludes.  #TruLondon was no exception!

So, as you may have guessed, I snapped a few pictures of the event.  You can check out the photo stream above or go directly to Flickr to check out all of the pictures.  Here are some of my favorites:

Laurie Ruettimann and Sarah White

Bill Boorman, Jim Stroud and a joyous crew!

Maren Hogan brainstorming up industry change!

London at night.  In front of Strand Palace Hotel.

As always, I appreciate you stopping by!

There is a ton of content that has been created from this event and ideas are brewing!  I’m sure I’ll be back soon with some digested thoughts about the topics discussed.

A special thanks to Bill Boorman and Geoff Webb for organizing this event!  You guys did a great job pulling in a substantial crowd that was very interested in the topics.  Nicely done!

It was a great first day of the conference!

Bill Boorman gathered together quite a crowd to enjoy the 2nd UnConference of it’s type here in London.

Lots of discussion, debate and, of course, fish and chips, all went in to making today interesting.

I attended a number of tracks today as I wandered from room to room and here are some of the key points that I took away:

1. The ROI discussion is alive, well and all over the board.  Engagement vs. Candidates Attracted vs. Quality of Candidates is still at the center of the debate.  The Tru answer is not yet clear
2. Employment Branding is coming to center stage.  Now that a number of people know how to use these social media tools (Twitter, Facebook, etc…), the question becomes how to use them appropriately to spread the employment brand of a company.  I really enjoyed this session today and would expect for this topic to continue to heat up!
3. HR Technology… or the lack thereof.  While there are plenty of HRIS, ATS and Performance Management tools available for use, many are questioning effectiveness.  Additionally, the topic of social media integration came up.  In essence, the larger the system, the less nimble.  While some smaller software providers are doing great work, it’s difficult for them to scale.  The debate was pretty heated and (as pictured above) Steve Boese and Sarah White were both a part of the team leading the track.
4. The Candidate Experience debate was also in full force with varying opinions on how to provide applicants with an experience they will remember!

All in all, it was a great day and it was interesting to hear the opinions of others outside of the U.S.

Often times it’s easy to lose perspective about how things are done in one place versus how they are conducted abroad.  The systems, cultural norms and adoption rates for various practices and technology differ… and, it’s something we should probably keep in mind.

My guest today was Kirit Sagoo from Rackspace UK!  She is a sharp recruiter and just recently joined Twitter.  I’d recommend connecting with her!

As a final note, I went to the Dr. Martens store in London today!  I’ve wanted to go since I was about 10 years old, so it was a real treat!  I have a pair of interesting boots to wear to tonight’s TweetUp!  I’ll be sure to add photos tomorrow.

Anything  you want to bring up at #TruLondon?

If so, be sure to hop on Twitter and shoot me a message or you can leave a comment.  Simply add “@theredrecruiter (your question)” and I’d be happy to bring it up over here across the pond!

I arrived to London… and what an adventure it was getting here!

From Texas, the flight headed to Dulles Airport.  After circling over the airport for about 45 minutes, the pilot announced that we were running out of fuel… Ummmmmm.

So, we headed to Baltimore where we proceeded to land – and then sit on the runway for about 3 1/2 hours.

At this point I was a bit concerned that I may miss my flight to London, and given the time, be stranded in DC for the night.  All valid concerns as it turned out.

After flying back to Dulles, we were all greeted with some seriously long lines to wait for customer service.  Fortunately, I spotted a little kiosk just for people like me… the stranded few.

As luck would have it, there was another flight headed out of Dulles for London at just after 10:00 PM.  With little time to spare, I was given a boarding pass and shuffled through the airport to board the flight.

Seven hours and somewhat of a time warp later, I arrived in London!  It does feel odd to depart at 10:00 PM and see the sun come up within (what seemed to be) a matter of hours.

London Plans

For the rest of today and tomorrow, I will be hanging out with the Rackspace UK crew.  They are a very inviting bunch and it’s been excellent to meet them in person!

On Thursday and Friday, I’ll be attending the TruLondon conference!  It should be fun!

I’m going to be putting up a photo stream to share some of the experiences I gather here in London!

It’s time for TruLondon!

I’ve never been to London, or Europe for that matter, and I’m really excited!

The very amiable Bill Boorman is hosting the second TruLondon conference this coming week and it’s sure to be an exciting and informative event.

With speakers from all over the U.S. and Europe, the topics span from best practices in HR to the cutting edge of social media recruiting – topics I’m mildly interested in!

If that weren’t enough, on the 18th there is a Tweet Up planned that is rumored to have a red shoe spin to it.  The #truCurrytweetup is taking place the first night of the event and will surely be a great way to meet the various track leaders and help a worthy cause in the process.

Even if you aren’t attending TruLondon, I would encourage you to stop by to be a part of the festivities!  As a small piece of advice, I’d recommend establishing a Twitter account before arriving.

Beyond TruLondon, this week will also have me visiting the Rackspace facility in the UK.  Having spent the past five months working at Rackspace on a variety of initiatives, I’m very excited to meet the UK team in person!  A number of the UK-based Rackers will be joining me for the conference and engaging in the topics presented.

I don’t know what to expect from this upcoming week, but I’m sure it will provide more than a few experiences worthy of blogging about.

As always, thanks for stopping by!  If you have anything that you would like me to check in to while in London, be sure to leave a note below.  I’ll be (hopefully) throwing up a photo stream soon for everyone to follow along with.  The pictures will probably vary from the conference to various shots around London… I’m feeling adventurous!

Anything you recommend for me to see while in London?

Photo Credit, Dimitry B

I recently received an email from a recruiter who is just getting started out with the joys of social media.

One piece of the email went like this:

“… I feel and know I am lacking in the knowledge of social network recruiting.  I have been getting up to speed with a number of blogs, but am intrigued about what some people are writing about Twitter.  I have not explored this option yet.”

Further:

“Honestly, I would love to get some training, but I am just starting back into this and am concerned about start up costs, which is why I have been scouring the internet looking for information.”

Jumping Into Social Media As A Recruiter

There is no way, shape or form that I could provide a comprehensive list of what to study/research if you are just getting started in this realm.  But, I think that there are a few good things to review if you are considering this route.

Here is my response to the recruiter:

“Sounds like you have a vision for what you’d like to do next!  That’s great!

Over the past year, I’ve been engaged in speaking and training around the topic of social media in recruiting, HR and employment branding.  My sources for learning have ranged from studying like a mad-man to making mistakes along the way.

One source you may find useful is Mashable.  Check out this resource section on Twitter specifically:

http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

As social media applies to our specific business, it’s still a work in progress.  In fact, ROI conversations are now becoming central to the topic.

The other activity I would recommend for your learning process is to attend a conference by Chris Brogan – he knows his stuff!  Here is a link to the conferences that he puts on… It will be a ton of information, but well worth it!

http://inboundmarketingsummit.com/

You may want to consider following his blog too!

http://chrisbrogan.com

In terms of an approach, I would start by creating a blog where you want to share information about your skill set focus – become a thought leader on the topic and produce helpful posts for your potential candidates.  To experiment with blogging, you can always get a free site at http://wordpress.com – just to get familiar with how things work.  Eventually, and especially for your business, you will want to develop a self-hosted site.

From there, you build a presence online (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube) that compliments your material… All the while making sure that you maintain your authentic voice.  Be yourself and have fun!

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

Looking forward,
Michael Long
The Red Recruiter”

We Should Make A List!

This question and the answer I provided makes me feel like we should create a list for recruiters who are just getting started.  And NOT a paid list… just a general reference section designed for recruiters who need a hand.

With the thousands of resources available, it must be incredibly confusing for someone just getting started.

Sounds like a project to add to the list!

What other sources would you recommend for recruiters who are just getting started?

What’s your favorite tool thus far?

Photo Credit, Erik Charlton

Magnet, Nebraska - 1915 - Great Grandmother Catherina Magdalene (Kahl) Arp, Grandmother Leona Louise (Arp) Long and Great Uncle Carl Detlof Arp

Back in the mid-90’s, my Dad dedicated a substantial amount of time researching our family tree and history.

I remember this time period very vividly as he would always show up with some new evidence of our past – perhaps a tracing of a headstone from some remote cemetery on the East Coast or a picture that he found in a distant relative’s home… He even went so far as hiring researchers in Europe to explore very specific records that he could not access via the Internet.

Needless to say, he was VERY committed to the project!

While the tangible return of this time investment became a true family tree, the more important return became a lesson that my Dad learned.

He learned that while a person can usually be traced back through time and hung on a family tree, it’s often difficult to gain a true understanding around who they are or how they thought.  I have a feeling that my Dad pondered this for quite some time.

As a result, he committed to something that has become very special to my family.  He has written us kids a letter, almost weekly, since 2001.

In his own words:

“The tradition of writing a letter to my children started in the fall of 2001 when they were grown enough to be scattered around the country.  Having dabbled in family genealogy for some years prior, it occurred to me that generations to come are usually left with knowing very little about their ancestors.  So to leave something behind other than just a dash between my birth date and death date was one motivator, the other was to share relevant thoughts for the times.”

Dad Meets Social Media

Back in August, I decided to build a simple blog site for my Dad.  I wasn’t sure if he would be willing to share his letters openly, but I thought it would be really cool if he did.

For starters, he shares an interesting perspective – one that has been shaped and molded by influences that stem from before my time.  I may not be able to experience history, but I can definitely learn about it from someone who has.

Further, my Dad is a Dad.  I feel fortunate to still have my Dad in my life, but many people do not.  It’s always nice to have the perspective of a contemplative father-figure.  Over the years, a number of individuals have requested to be added to the list of people who receive the weekly letter… why not add more?

Finally, as it aligns with social media, my Dad shares thoughts and contemplates ideas that are, often times, relevant to our world.  While his perspective could stay contained to a short list of email recipients, I think that it’s worthy of being voiced.  Right or wrong… he still has a perspective that others can learn from.

A recent post, and the heated comments that followed, reinforced the relevance of “perspective”.  The potential for different generations to learn from one another is of great value and should be a positive experience.  While not everyone agrees with this… I continue to see the value and it’s evident that others do as well.

So, long story condensed, Dad started posting his weekly letters to his new blog site – http://weekendletter.com.  Here is the link:

For those of you who already have children, consider writing them a letter filled with your perspectives on life.  While I can’t be 100% certain about the impact it will have on your children, I can absolutely attest to how special the letters from Dad have been to me.  Thank you Dad!

What traditions do you keep with your children?

When your great-grandchildren ask about you, will your grandchildren be able to respond?