What I want from Tweeples in 2010 – That means you!
Twitter kinda summed up a lot of 2009.
There wasn’t any earth shattering product announcements, no conference that changed the way we look at the world entirely and no single thing that got as much discussion or produced as many “lists” as twitter did. We (for the most part) didn’t know what we were doing or how it should be done. We were learning as we went and were making a lot of mistakes in the process. But you know what? At least we were trying! We’ve had a year to get this under our belts – we’ve seen each other make mistakes, have some amazing wins and be really annoying at times. We’ve watched as people struggled to figure out just how much they were and weren’t comfortable sharing and others determine if they were comfortable on it at all. We’ve seen pictures of cats and kids and dogs in sweaters. We’ve watched romances blossom…and fizzle. We’ve built networks and relationships of people that are equally as geeky as we are. And honestly, we’ve had a lot of fun doing it.
But now, its time for us to move on a little from our tweeting adolescents….So I ask - what was your role in 2009? Were you an influencer, educator, connector, friend, entertainer, voyer or just noise in the background?
Ok, honestly, I don’t really care what your role was in 2009 – Focus on your role in 2010 and read some of my suggestions:
Here are my top 10 resolutions for all the tweeters I know:
- People – DO NOT put “Please RT” in your tweets. If it is interesting, I will RT. If it is interesting and you ask me to RT, I won’t cause that’s just how I am.
- The authenticity debate ends. No one is actually authentic unless you see what they do in their own house all alone when no one is watching. You are who you are.
- #FF AKA #FollowFriday will actually have different people every week. I get it, you have friends on twitter. What else you got for me?
- People start RT’ing more frequently. If you see something great – RT it – it might introduce us to someone we don’t know.
- Don’t just tweet a link. It makes me angry. I want to know what I am going to be looking at.
- Stop the stupid “influencer lists” Everyone is influenced by different things – who are you to tell anyone else what they are influenced by
- Engage people. Its simple – but talk to people that follow you on occasion. You’ll be surprised what you may have in common.
- Meet people offline. Believe it or not – there are still these things called phones. Apparently some people even have them that aren’t cellular. I think they are called boomers.
- While we are on that topic, Can we get over the generational issues debate on twitter? Unless of course you are part of the #genYunconference
- You will send me brownies from @ftbrownies or other goodies – cause these last few weeks have been delish
PS. Don’t stop being personal and sharing all the fun things that I really do love! I kinda secretly do like the kitty pics. 
2009 – A Year in Review
All I can say is WOW 2009 was simply amazing for me professionally and I owe so much of it to the brilliant people I have met and learned from this year!!! It would be absolutely impossible to list each and everyone of you by name – but the ones that are important and have really made and impact and difference know who they are.
Sooo…Here’s to 2010 and hoping to get to meet even more of you next year!!
So, in the tradition of end of years lists…here are a few…
The favorite blogs I’ve done – based on feedback/email/etc
- Want a new job? Stop being so Nice. Seriously. I hate it.
- Maybe I have a fear of commitment, but...
- Revolutionary Road Recruiting
- Why I’d Rather work at Starbucks (An 8 Year olds take on your Employment Brand)
- Is your Reality Meeting your Dreams?
Favorite Post Conference Blogs
- What Happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay there. (which lead to I got me some Joel Cheesman love)
- I’m huge on Twitter
- ERE – Behind the scenes
- NY goes Social
With that…here are some of my favorite pictures from conferences in 2009…
Kennedy – Vegas (Umm…no pics from this one!)
ERE – Florida (See all the pics HERE)
HR Technology Expo (See all the pics HERE)
Recruitfest (See all the pics HERE)
Kennedy/OnRec – Chicago (See all the pics HERE)
Social Recruiting -NYC
Are you a top 25 digital influencer?
Don’t worry, I’m not either…Congrats to everyone that did make it!
Check out the full list here – some GREAT names on the list! http://ow.ly/N9rm
It is a part of the John Sumser legacy of educating us on who we should be paying attention to and is on his new site HRExaminer.com!
In Life, Timing is Everything
Timing can often suck in life. Timing is far more than about being at the right place at the right time – it is about having every other additional factor involved in the situation lining up exact as well. Bad timing is often the excuse people give when they look back at their lives and play the what if game.
There is no where this can be expressed more directly (from a work perspective) than through the Job Seeker/Recruiter relationship.
1. Job Seeker – Contacted a local recruiter because they needed a job. Recruiter says they would be ideal, but has no openings right now. Timing Sucks.
2. Recruiter – Gets contacted by ideal candidate but has no job to offer them. 6 months later ideal job opens up and can’t remember ideal candidate. Timing Still Sucks.
Just another simple example of how timing can suck in life – This past week I was in Boston. On Sunday night I missed out on the Blogging4Jobs Webshow because the internet went down in my hotel 1 hour before show time. On Tuesday I was in meetings from early morning to late at night and I missed out on a webinar that I REALLY wanted to see sponsored by Avature (Recruiting CRM tool) and hosted by the ever brilliant Susan Burns on Talent Pooling. (Did you miss it too? Watch it here)
Anyway, IMO, Talent Pipelining is all about fixing poor timing in life. Well, at least in recruiting. It’s something I have been wondering why its use wasn’t more widespread for years. It never made since to me that companies wouldn’t utilize talent pipelining tools (standalone or built into their existing ATS product) that can help them hire BETTER people FASTER and for LESS MONEY!!! Seriously, can someone explain to me the downside of this? How?
I have a candidate who wants a job with my company. I have no job to offer. I add them into my pipeline/pool/crm/whatever. I keep them in a folder/file/whatever and send marketing emails keeping them liking my company. I have a job to offer. I let candidate know. They apply. We hire. Everyone is happy.
Moral of story: Bad timing is what creates missed opportunities that will forever make you wonder about the what if’s of life. We can reduce the number of what-ifs with regard to candidates if we pipeline/CRM/pool them for the future. The end.
PS. If this all makes since to you and you STILL aren’t ready to do it because it means that you have to be on the early adopter (not really, but I know a lot of you think it is) side of things – go back to 2006 and read this and see what I really think of people/companies afraid to be 1st.
Check out new blog I found…
Ok – I’m in Boston and haven’t had a chance to see the city – but I did get a new MacPro laptop, met some great industry people and ran across a new blog. Since I won’t have time to blog at all until I get back check out Jason J Davis‘ new blog HRThinkTank.net – he is a super smart guy who really gets it in this space. Glad to see him starting to blog!
Stability in Change #FitnessFriday
I think it is a natural human reaction to like stability and familiarity – especially in the face of change. Latching onto something that is known and predictable brings a lot of comfort when the rest of your life seems to be moving and changing too fast for you to really analyze and gain control. Think back to when you were a kid and held onto your teddy bear when you were scared or tired. The more the familiar and stable changes – the more that 1 item of comfort is there to help you get through and adjust. I used to see that need to connect like that with something or someone was nothing more than a weakness.
This past 12 months has been one of the most evolutionary years of my life. The prospect (and reality) of turning 30 made me really evaluate my life, career and self and really decide if I was who I wanted to be. It made me question everything I ever knew and make decisions outside of the fear of change. The results of which created an amazing amount of change and the need for something stable in my life. I turned to the gym. I made it my stability – my focus – my place to clear my head. It was where I could think about everything or nothing or come up with solutions that I hadn’t thought about before. It was where I really revamped my drive, focus and determination all while rediscovering a passion for life that went beyond what I was gaining in the gym. The great thing is that it didn’t even have to be MY gym – it was anywhere, anytime I could steal way to invest in me… It was the action of working out that created the stability through change that I needed. I didn’t love it or even enjoy it most of the time. In fact, there were time when I would go for a few weeks without stepping foot in it. But I always went back – because I could mentally notice the difference when I didn’t.
The next 12 months will even more full of change than 2009 was. This time I am going into it prepared, excited, in way better shape and ready for it!
PS. If those things don’t matter to you because your life is figured out – I also managed to drop 30+ pounds this year…so, take motivation off that!
Now…
What I did this week
- I did cardio – I have ran/jogged/fast walked in a variety of combinations roughly 7 miles this week.
- I did targeted weight training at the gym – 2 days on legs, 1 day on upper body
- I cleaned my basement – ok, not all of it – but it was a start – it took a lot of moving and organizing and calories
- I painted – my shoulders and arms got quite a work out from my 5 wall painting extravagana
Songs from this week
This week has been an odd little week on the ipod – A lot of the songs were songs that reminded me of something else – high school, college, a funny story – familiar songs, I guess. BTW – there will NEVER be christmas songs on this list.
Sampling of my playlist this week
- When I grow up – PCD
- Sixteen – No Doubt
- If you seek Amy – Britney Spears
- Temperature – Sean Paul
- Candy Shop – 50 Cent
- American Boy -Estelle
- Tik Tok – Ke$ha
- Crazy Love – Pepper
SXSW Here I come!!!
Ok, Breaking News…More details to follow – but I am SUPER STOKED to have just found out that I will be doing a session along with David Peck at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive this spring targeted to job seekers and hr pro’s that will be there titled “Using Social Media to Score” – we’ll be talking about linkedin, twitter, facebook, mobile and whatever else we feel like!! With more than 2500 submissions for slots – I was honestly not expecting to actually be going!!!
Want a new job? Stop being so nice. Seriously. I hate it.
You know the candidates I’m talking about – the one’s that send you emails “Hoping you have a great day!” or that send 40,000 confirmations before a meeting to “make sure it is still a good time for your valuable schedule” or the ones that shoot off the thank you emails for you responding to their email. Its kinda annoying. There. I said it. I admit, I may be the only person that feels this way – but it is something that has bothered me since my very first recruiting gig.
There is a difference between friendly and being nice to the creepy level. This past few months has really kicked up the creepy.
So – if you want a job here are my top 3 tips -
1. Don’t facebook stalk me. I accepted your friend request, but I don’t need to chat with you all day long (I have a job) and you don’t need to send me emails asking if I am mad at you. We aren’t dating (and if we were and you did that we wouldn’t be for long)
2. Don’t send me random emails with pictures of kitties hanging from a branch that say “hang in there” because you “know how hard finding the right candidate is” All you do is make me angry and wonder what you know about recruiting when you have never done it.
3. Don’t act like I am brilliant. I am not. I am just like you. Laughing when I say something remotely funny or telling me how much my blog has changed your life is weird. Its a blog and thats not true.
If you have done any of these things – chances are, I have put you in my creeping me out file folder in my mind. Unfortunately, there is a lot of people in it so you have company.
NYC Goes Social #socialrecruiting
It could have been the the fact that I found a guy at FAO Schwartz that was so corporate (I didn’t even ask for the shot!), great dinner Saturday night with a small group of people I admire in this industry, the Monster Social/Tweetup Sunday Night (see below), the onslaught of social recruiting discussion at the summit on Monday, the the 6 hours of business planning meetings that followed Monday night or the fact that I did most of it not realizing I had pneumonia, but I am exhausted and am glad I have an excuse to stay in bed the rest of this week and relax. Will this post ramble. Yes. Sorry.
To start, I have to say a huge thank you to the ERE crew for putting on such an amazing event and a huge congratulations to Laurie Ruettimann for being a gracious and entertaining chairwoman. I also have to say a HUGE thank you to HRMDirect for encouraging us to attend and to Elaine Orler with Talent Function for letting me test out her laptop mini (just one more time) so I could live tweet.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the morning keynote and am pretty disappointed about it, but here is what I did see live and some thoughts on in…
Overall lessons learned from my Tweets
Failing via social media because you are doing the same old style of work makes YOU suck, not the technology
Sometimes you have to be common sense smart
If you want to have a solid social media strategy – drive transparency & enable conversation
Most companies aren’t social media recruiting they are social media sourcing
Social Recruiting is a “boatload” more than posting jobs per @johnsumser
Resisting social media in 2010 is like resisting a website in 1997 (Which I saw was actually used in another conference this week)
Not everything is about today’s hire people!!! Think pipeline!!!
Content should be relevant to the jobseeker not just what the “pros” think we should do
#monstersocial – WOW! Seriously, WOW! From finding a uber cool location in the meat packing district to the DJ, the Vin Diesel look alike bouncer, free pac-man, the bartenders who made custom drinks to match your outfit (or mood) or the chocolate covered bacon. Again, Wow. And it gave me a chance to wear a little sparkly dress.
While it was quite the social, there was a lot of shop talk going on still, people were talking about how they were using social media in their own lives – both professionally and personally and how the line between them had really evolved. I stumbled upon conversations on the evolutions of job boards/applicant tracking/performance management/software, conversations about how to engage candidates more effectively (and if you should care to) and discussions about the droid vs iphone.
In back rooms ( the back rooms were very cool) the mood was more mellow, the setting was more intimate and the noise levels were low – it was where conversations turned into discussions. Topics floated around other conferences and the rapid evolution of the conference world in the last 18 months thanks to social media and New York itsself. There was one lengthy and passionate debate about the value of recruiting CRM, their place in this industry and who was leading the way and why. It was really interesting to hear peoples thoughts sans filters 
All in all, it was an amazing event – lots of great conversation, tons of laughs and some fantabulous dancing with Maren Hogan, Jenny DeVaughn (once most everyone else had gone home).
On to the main event – #socialrecruiting
Social Recruiting Panel - The social recruiting panel was filled with big name people (Kelly Dingee, Ben Gotkin, Kerry Noone, Heather Tinguely) from big name companies talking about what they were doing with social media. IT was a neat concept – I wish it would have been a little more interactive and got down into the how’s more than the should’s. I would also love to see a similar panel that included some smaller/mid sized companies that were doing social media the right way. I love hearing about what Microsoft, Sodexo, etc are doing but the reality is developing a social media strategy with an well known, established corporate brand is different and in some ways a lot easier than doing it from XCY Widget Maker with 500 ee’s.
SRS Quick Hit’s – Carmen Hudson (Tweetajob) got up in her typically, funny style and got things rolling before her breakout discussion and John Sumser (of everything and everywhere)- I think we all loved what he said, but the real winner (at our nerdy crew table) was the presentation software he was using. Prezi.com It was awesome and was a great lead into his unconference session
Social Recruiting from 30,000 Feet – This was by Master Burnett who rivals our own Afton Funk for coolest name ever and took a lot deeper look than I would have anticipated from the title. It was really a quite enjoyable session
Then we got a look at what Talent Camp would have been like if there would have been 300 people at it and it was held in a comedy club. There was some doubt on how it would work out, but as usual, Susan Burns (who happens to have been last SRS’s chairwoman) pulled it off and IMHO was the session that got a ton of involvement. I know of one major company who had a few, um, non believers there – who told me later that it was that session that drove their non-recruiting people that required buy in, to get the buy in.
Finally, we come to the last sessions – I had to choose between Gerry Crispin and Jessica Lee – considering my laptop was almost out of juice, I stayed near the plug and sat in on Jessica Lee’s session on bashing monster social media for smaller companies. It was an interesting session to say the least, I feel like I know Jessica know (even though I don’t) and think we have way to much in common to ever actually speak to one another. It would be a dangerous mix. Anyway, the most entertaining portion was when she happened to mention they were stopping the monster contracts and then it kinda went downhill from there. I was proud of the restraint held at the table full of monster people behind me when comment after slide bashed them (although Eric Winegardner did retort quite nicely and professionally in a way that only he can) and felt a little bad at the comparison of free skype to Hirevue (Not even close to the same thing – its like saying I don’t need to have dinner, they give me free crackers while I wait). But seriously people – not all jobs are right for all job boards – I get it. Those of you that don’t have likely never worked in a small company before. We’re cheap. Seriously, like priceline cheap. All in all – her message was awesome – you don’t need a huge budget to move mountains (or sumo wrestlers) in this space. You just need innovation and engagement.
#SimplyHiredNetworkingReception
Very, very nice wrap up to the event – huge turn out, lots of ongoing discussions from the day and a bit of a feel of the last day of school for a lot of us who “conference” regularly and have grown accustomed to seeing the same people every few weeks.
Also, just have to say that it was so great to finally meet the Redhead. I was confident that @therecruiterguy had been making her up and photo shopping her into pictures.
That’s not my Name! #fitnessfriday
I am sure in the 50′s I would have been fine accepting of being one of those women who were called Mrs. (Insert Husband’s Name). But it is not 1950 and I don’t like that. I also don’t like being called any other thing that you associate me with. Why? I don’t know, I have issues, I guess. Anyway, last weekend – we headed back to Idaho – where I am from and where my individuality complex started. When I first moved there, my family owned the pizza place in town and I was always referred to as “Kelly’s Daughter” then when I switched high schools I was “the girl from Cd’A” then I started dating Brady and I was always referred to as “Brady’s Girlfriend” then when we got married I became “Brady’s Wife”. We also went to one of Brady’s family reunion where I was continually introduced as “Brady’s Wife” as the point of reference to extended family. I prefer to be introduced as Sarah.
Anyway, being in Idaho gave me a lot of chances to work out and blow off the steam of annoyance of people not calling me by my name.
What I did this week
I hiked and hiked and hiked some more…From early am walks with my daughter along the river front to watch the sunrise to hiking through the woods and climing rocks – it was my perfect type of exercise!- I did cardio – ran a 8 minute mile on the treadmill and elliptical’d until I was bored.
- I did targeted weight training at the gym and around the house mixed in with my real life
- I cleaned. Yes, I will say it – cleaning is hard work. Ok I don’t do the hard work part of cleaning, but I pick up after the kids and run the stuff up and down the stairs
Songs from this week
When I am feeling like I don’t want to be at the gym and need to get in a bit of a sassy mood – I play Ting Ting’s “Thats not my Name” in my ipod when walking up the stairs to take my place on the gym floor. No other song can grasp me in quite the same sassy, bit%#y mood and make me feel like I want to kick a** now and take names later. And while I know the premise behind the song is totally different than my name complex, I still like it and after my multiple introductions as “Brady’s Wife” there was no doubt that this week that was my song of the week.
Sampling of my playlist this week
Other than the Ting Ting’s – played homage to being back in Idaho…
- Ting Tings – That’s not my Name
- Sell Out – Reel Big Fish
- Toadies – Possum Kingdom
- G Funk Intro – Snoop Dog
- No Doubt – 16
- No Doubt – I’m just a Girl
- Pearl Jam – Jeremy
- White Zombie – More Human than Human
