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Blog Post: 13 Essential People Management Skills - Your 2023 Guide to Leadership: When I took my first people management job, a mentor told me, “Just remember: everyone is terrible at managing people for at least two years.” While it was reassuring to hear that I had some…; Added by Phil Strazzulla at 9:02pm on April 3, 2023

Topic: Transcript Talent Talk Cafe: Week of Jan. 12th - A conversation on blogging and best practices: great conversation - enjoy! 3:00pm Susan Burns Welcome to Talent Talk Cafe! 3:00pm Susan Burns Quick note before we begin 3:00pm Geri Kleeman hi all 3:00pm Susan Burns You can click on the coffee cup above the chat screen to pop the chat out and make it bigger 3:01pm Lance Haun Good afternoon all 3:01pm Susan Burns Hi Geri! Hi Lance! 3:01pm David Benjamin Hello 3:01pm Susan Burns So our topic today is recruitment and blogging - as an opening question, I'm curious how many of you are actively blogging? 3:02pm Susan Burns HI David! 3:02pm Lance Haun I am 3:02pm Kari Quaas Hi Susan - I am. :) 3:02pm Tracy Tran Ditto 3:02pm Ben Gotkin Hi Susan and everyone else out there in Chatland today. You know I am 3:02pm Becky Metcalf me too 3:02pm Susan Burns Great 0 Hi Kari, Tracy, Ben and Becky! 3:02pm Sarah White i am starting back up in Feb 3:03pm Susan Burns How many of you are blogging for professional - talent attraction purposes and how many combine professional and personal? 3:03pm Ben Yoskovitz Afternoon everyone. 3:03pm Susan Burns HI Ben! Hi Sarah! 3:03pm Becky Metcalf combo 3:03pm David Benjamin I am actively blogging, just started a month ago. 3:03pm Kari Quaas Combo 3:03pm Maren Hogan Well does personal include ego? 3:03pm Tracy Tran Mine is combined. 3:03pm Lance Haun combo-ish 3:03pm Ben Gotkin Professional only, for the company 3:03pm David Benjamin combo blogs, seperate sites 3:03pm Lance Haun mainly personal 3:04pm Sarah White mostly professional 3:04pm Susan Burns If you answered combined - is it within the same blog or do you manage multiple blogs? 3:04pm Tracy Tran Same blog 3:04pm Maren Hogan trying to manage multiple 3:04pm Maren Hogan not suceeding 3:04pm Susan Burns Hey Maren! 3:04pm Becky Metcalf maintaing multiple, but I do try to incorporate both personal and professional. That's the point for me. 3:04pm David Benjamin Multiple blogs. Don't like them combined 3:04pm Kari Quaas multiple 3:04pm Sarah White multiple - i think even on professional, your personality will come out. 3:04pm Maren Hogan Hi Susan! 3:05pm Susan Burns Becky and Tracy - are you blogging for a company or is this our own biz combined with the personal content? 3:05pm Susan Burns Sarah - agree that if your being authentic your personal style will show through 3:05pm Becky Metcalf representative of my company 3:06pm David Benjamin I have different topics I want to address. Some are recruiting, others are not 3:06pm Tracy Tran own biz 3:06pm Becky Metcalf but personal to the point of adding authenticity 3:06pm Susan Burns Is anyone besides Lance, Kari and Ben writing for a company blog - public or private besides your own company? 3:07pm David Benjamin silence :) 3:07pm Ben Gotkin not surprised 3:07pm Susan Burns I thought it would be fund to explore why we blog. What was the movtivation for each of you to begin blogging? 3:07pm Tracy Tran I don't like having multiple blogs because that would make me have different personalities and I do categorize my topics on my blog 3:07pm Slouch hey there. sorry I'm late 3:07pm Susan Burns Hi Jason! 3:08pm Slouch his Susan 3:08pm Becky Metcalf my motivation was to be more accessible to the people I deal with 3:08pm David Benjamin I need to change hosting site so that I can do everything on one 3:08pm Susan Burns David - why did you decide to begin blogging? 3:09pm Sarah White I started to express ideas I was seeing about our industry - the good and bad then some people started to read it. It was more about me expressing myself and less about others reading (wrong or right) 3:09pm David Benjamin provide value, establish credibility, outlet for creative thoughts 3:09pm Ben Gotkin I started writing about recruiting (for other recruiters), but all along I wanted to provide a broad audience an inside view into my organization, and blogging allows you to do that in a highly effective and efficient manner 3:09pm Sarah White David, I agree, for some reason having a blog makes you more "credible" to some clients 3:09pm Maren Hogan I didn't think anyone would be watching and I thought in Omaha, no one else would be blogging, neither of which was true 3:10pm Tracy Tran I was amazed that someone in Thailand read my blog. 3:10pm David Benjamin If the content is good, and you gain a following, then credibility can be established 3:10pm Susan Burns These are great: accessibility, trends, credibility, creative thinking, add value, views into the company 3:10pm Slouch a big reason to do it is so that the likes of google index you and when candidates or clients are doing searches for things, you will come up. Search engines like blogs 3:10pm David Benjamin that too Slough 3:11pm Susan Burns Jason - that was an interesting learning for me in building the Talent Synchronicity site. I decided to move a lot of the content into what will be developed through the blog 3:11pm David Benjamin Slouch, sorry 3:11pm Tracy Tran I think also integration of social media sites. My blog had 5-7 readers, but when I use twitter, it jumped to 30-40. 3:11pm Susan Burns Thanks great Tracy! 3:11pm Ben Gotkin Blog platforms allow you to provide information in a real-time manner. The easy integration of multimedia also makes it a very powerful tool 3:11pm David Benjamin Adding video, podcast to blogs adds variety of mediums 3:12pm Geri Kleeman How exactly is a blog defined? Is it anything where you can type a response? 3:12pm Susan Burns Ben - so true - its really amazing how easy it is to intergrate multi-media and distribute content 3:12pm Susan Burns Geri - interesting question. So a blog compared to what? An article? Website content? 3:12pm Geri Kleeman I guess so 3:12pm Tracy Tran Anything can be a blog: words, ideas, pictures, thoughts. 3:12pm Slouch Geri, it is a page on the web where you can write things without thinking too much about PR and being the fastest and the best 3:13pm David Benjamin From now, I'm just posting pictures and calling it my blog :) 3:13pm Ben Gotkin Susan - It's also easy to drive traffic to other related media, such as your own career website, specific jobs, other sites with content (i.e. Facebook, Youtube, etc.) 3:13pm Susan Burns To add on to what Tracy shared is it also an ongoing process - commitment to fresh content. 3:13pm Kelly Dingee And blogs would typically be hosted on wordpress or typepad, no? And Twitter is the so-called microblog... 3:13pm Susan Burns Kelly - yep - need to distringuish between blog and microblog 3:13pm Ben Gotkin Kelly - Yep, I use Blogger. Microblogs are becoming very powerful too 3:14pm Kari Quaas "Commitment to fresh content" - great description, Susan. 3:14pm Stephanie the fresh content is the part that scares me about starting a blog, frankly. 3:14pm Ben Gotkin I twittered earlier today about participating on todays TTC :-) 3:14pm Susan Burns It does feel that there are higher expectations growing around blog content and it almost feels like some are merging with "traditional" media - articles and so forth as many mainstream publications have started blogs - content lines are bluring 3:15pm David Benjamin Can there be too many bloggers? Sometimes I read blogs and there is so much overlap 3:15pm Becky Metcalf it's so flexible, easy to see the mass appeal 3:15pm Susan Burns Stephanie - I agree! When I was blogging several years ago on HCM Blogspot it was very hard to keep adding something new. With my new blog I'm committing to once a week 3:15pm John Palcisko is it proper etiquette to have original content ot can you comment on a great article ? 3:15pm Tracy Tran It takes time on a blog. When I started 3 years ago, it was more personal, but I keep updating myself to get a broader audience of who I am. 3:15pm Susan Burns David - is it too many bloggers or too many posts by the same person - quality over quantity! 3:16pm Stephanie when starting one, is it best to define what you want from it? applicants, for example, vs more candidate development and long term cultivation? 3:16pm Slouch Stephanie, what are the some of the the things you see as issues with what you do for a living and you must have some ideas how to make it better. That is a good place to start in terms of writing 3:16pm David Benjamin too many blogs on the same topic 3:16pm Ben Gotkin Stephanie - With our corporate blog, we have several contributors, and are constantly on the lookout for stories in the organization, many of which are often already posted on our intranet 3:16pm Slouch yes you need to know your audience 3:16pm Susan Burns John - HI - great question - Yes, I see that alot and as long as you credit the original source and link to the article absolutely! 3:16pm John Palcisko Thanks 3:16pm Tracy Tran I do admit there are a lot of blogs, but find the ones that are trustworthy and you're willing to come back. 3:17pm Susan Burns Ben - I like how your Blog is set up. I also like the model of multiple contributors - one of the things that attracted me to what Lanceis doing on HRM Today 3:17pm David Benjamin I'm looking to write fresh content, something that may not be found everywhere else. It's challanging. 3:17pm Slouch nothing wrong John with taking a few lines or more and saying to read the rest go here. the person you are linking to will appreciate it and maybe link back. it's a slow process but it works 3:17pm Ben Gotkin Susan - It's been a big help. I'm the main contributor, but I don't feel like I have to come up with something new 1-2 times a week. 3:18pm Susan Burns How frequently do each of you post to your blog? 3:18pm Dava Stewart Should ask permission before linking to someone else's content? What is the etiquette? 3:18pm John Palcisko Thanks Slouch 3:18pm David Benjamin Posting a couple times a week. 3:18pm Tracy Tran 1-3 times a week. 3:18pm Susan Burns Dava - its an open web so no, you don't need to but a heads up could be nice 3:18pm Dava Stewart thanks, Susan 3:18pm Ben Gotkin We've been averaging 2-3 posts a week since our launch last July 3:18pm Tracy Tran Always give a Hat Tip when borrowing the story. 3:19pm Ben Yoskovitz Ben Gotkin - can you publish your blog URL in here please? 3:19pm Susan Burns Thanks Tracy - yes, always reference the person or place of the original content 3:19pm Ben Gotkin http://mcgladreycareers.blogspot.com 3:19pm JR Fent I like putting in the link to someone else's content and then sending them a note saying that I did it - make a new friend. 3:19pm Ben Yoskovitz But you shouldn't be afraid to link out - linking is one of the best strategies for generating traffic and awareness. 3:19pm Susan Burns Nice approach JR 3:19pm Slouch Dava, no need for permission as long as you link back and don;t take the entire article. 3:20pm Ben Yoskovitz Ben Gotkin - have you had any concerns that you're running on Blogger vs. another platform? 3:20pm Susan Burns Ben - what are you concerned about Blogger? 3:20pm Slouch it drives me crazy when people do that 3:20pm Ben Gotkin Ben Y - I've used Blogger for a few years now and it works well for me actually 3:20pm Tracy Tran Yes, I always check my wordpress dashboard to see who saw my blog and where did it came from, and I click on the site of the referrer. 3:20pm Susan Burns Jason - what drives u crazy? 3:21pm Ben Yoskovitz Susan - not concerned, but generally Blogger isn't regarded as the BEST platform for blogging. But that's a lot of "technical stuff" if you will that doesn't necessarily matter. 3:21pm Ben Yoskovitz The bigger concern would be the professionalism of it. Ben G has a nice looking design though. 3:21pm Susan Burns Got it - It was the original platform, wasn't it? 3:21pm Slouch when someone takes an article from another blog and posts the entire thing on theirs and then puts a link at the bottom. 3:21pm Ben Yoskovitz Ben G - have you ever thought of using a non-Blogspot domain? 3:21pm John Palcisko will we have access to this entire blog- I read slow :) 3:21pm Susan Burns Jason - agree! 3:21pm JR Fent I agree with Ben. Over the years I actually found that an article manager product was better than blogging. 3:21pm Ben Yoskovitz Slouch - you can't get away from people stealing content. Trick: Link to yourself each and every time, so at least there are links in there BACK to you :) 3:21pm Susan Burns John - you should be able to go back from when you logged on but its not always reliable 3:22pm Ben Gotkin Ben Y - Thanks. We got help from our marketing dept with that - I'm fine with Blogger for now, but we may have an opportunity to try another platform in the coming months 3:22pm Slouch not so much stealing content but rather using other content to populate your own 3:22pm Ben Yoskovitz @Slouch: Ya that sucks. A lot of people do that. Take it as a sign of your growing popularity... 3:22pm Slouch not so much from here 3:22pm Susan Burns New question - What is the most important part of successful blogging: frequency? catchy titles? great format? cool media integration....... 3:22pm Stephanie so if you borrow content, you should be making some sort of commentary on it, not just "reblogging" no? 3:23pm Slouch just in general it is bad manners 3:23pm Tracy Tran Content first, then media integration. 3:23pm John Palcisko something of value Susan 3:23pm Susan Burns Stephanie - if you "borrowing" it may be appropriate to use quotes and then reference source - if your linking - just pointing to the original source and referencing 3:23pm Ben Gotkin Frequency is key 3:23pm Stephanie gotcha 3:23pm Slouch the idea is that you hilight something you think is interesting or your readers will like and let them know that " I thought yoiu would like this and it is about this and here is a little of it and then let them follow the link to the other place 3:24pm John Palcisko so Ben if you put up "crap" frequently" it is good? 3:24pm Ben Yoskovitz Ben G - Frequency or regularity? 3:24pm Susan Burns John - thats a classic line! Thanks for the chuckle! 3:24pm Ben Gotkin ahem, quality and frequency are key... 3:24pm David Benjamin Has anyone gone from having readers and no comments to getting comments? What changed? 3:24pm JR Fent Quality and search engine relevance are the most important to me 3:24pm Tracy Tran Putting badges on my site and my profiles. 3:24pm Ben Gotkin Good question David, I'm curious myself, we rarely get comments 3:25pm Susan Burns Tracy - was that in response to David's question? 3:25pm Tracy Tran yes 3:25pm Slouch most readers do not comment david 3:25pm Stephanie what are badges? 3:25pm John Palcisko I have been asked by my new firm to figure out what to have in a blog so I hear this is the room of experts :) 3:25pm Ben Yoskovitz David - Not all blogs are comment-friendly. And generally I've seen comments drop as people share content or comment in other ways - via Twitter, FriendFeed, etc. 3:25pm Ben Yoskovitz There are ways to encourage comments though... 3:26pm Ben Yoskovitz Ask questions at the end of posts, for example. 3:26pm Susan Burns Stephanie - a graphic element you can add to a page and are hyperlinked 3:26pm John Palcisko why not just have "ghost" commenters to get the ball rolling? 3:26pm Ben Yoskovitz Beg a friend to comment first to get things started (I'm not entirely kidding) 3:26pm Maren Hogan tweetsuite! 3:26pm Tracy Tran @Stephanie - Profile badges that know you have a profile in LinkedIN, Facebook, or Alltop or RecruitingBlogs. 3:26pm Chris stephanie a badge is a widget(?) I think 3:26pm Maren Hogan for comments from twitter, I get a lot of those as opposed to on blog comments 3:26pm Ben Yoskovitz Be controversial -that always helps. 3:26pm Stephanie thanks all 3:26pm Tracy Tran Or What Susan said 3:27pm David Benjamin I get comments in person, on twitter. Will encourage them to write them. 3:27pm Slouch "ghost" comments reminds me of this http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/candidate-splits 3:27pm Tracy Tran Or What Susan said 3:27pm Ben Gotkin Be real, write with an authentic 'voice', no marketing-speak 3:27pm Susan Burns Jason Buss did giveaways on his blog to create traffic and get people engaged 3:27pm David Benjamin It seems that when they can reference their latest blog, more comments are written 3:27pm Slouch when it is hard to see the real reason behind it 3:27pm Stephanie lol @ slouch..classy. 3:27pm Ben Yoskovitz Also, I think you want to leave things "hanging" - you don't need to answer every question in a blog post so that it has "finality" to it. Leave things open ended to encourage people to say, "And? Tell us more!" 3:27pm Praveen Jain Hello 3:27pm Praveen Jain Guys 3:28pm Susan Burns New Question - How do you measure the success of your blog? What are your expectations 3:28pm Tracy Tran People understand who I am and where I'm coming from and ask questions. 3:29pm Susan Burns Tracy - do in your active conversations people are more aware and informed? 3:29pm Susan Burns oops that was so not do 3:29pm Slouch Susan, if it delivers the results you want taking into account the time put into it 3:29pm Ben Gotkin There's a lot of ways you can track traffic - Ultimately we want to create a buzz and drive traffic from the blog to other related sites, such as our career website 3:29pm John Palcisko great link Slouch- called her out and she was quite honest 3:29pm Susan Burns So if what you want is credibility - as was mentioned - how would you measure that? Increase in readers? 3:30pm Kari Quaas If it gives one of our readers an insight they didn't have before, we're happy. Sometimes we hear via the comments or emails later. 3:30pm Tracy Tran Yes they are. 3:30pm Slouch it happens all the time here and I call it out everytime I see it 3:30pm John Palcisko I think you and I will get along fine Slouch- we need more straight shooters in this world 3:31pm Slouch lol 3:31pm Susan Burns Ben - very important point for corp bloggers - moving traffic to main site and vice versa. Are you tracking hires from the blog too? 3:31pm Susan Burns Kari - do you track hires from your blog as well 3:31pm Slouch ask Ben Yoskovits or read his blog. he is the ceo of a funded startup but when you read his posts about his company or opther posts, you don;t feel he is selling something and that is the key 3:31pm Dava Stewart Slouch, is that an example of an "advertorial?" 3:31pm Ben Gotkin Susan - Yes, we use Site Meter to measure traffic, it can tell us where they are coming from and where they are going, among other things 3:31pm Slouch it's misleading 3:32pm Kari Quaas Hard to track since we're not doing the hiring. We just figure more traffic on Cool works, means more traffic to our employers. 3:32pm Slouch sometimes people will say I joined this great network or splits group or whatever and you should join and please use this tracking code when you do 3:32pm Ben Yoskovitz Thanks Slouch :) 3:32pm Susan Burns I have a question specific to the corporate bloggers and then we'll come back to all - 3:32pm Slouch so I ask are you going to make money if I join using that code and if yes, you should say something about it 3:32pm Slouch no problem ben 3:33pm Susan Burns When your company started a blog how easy or difficult was the process? What steps did you have to go through to make it happen? 3:33pm Slouch now ben, if you advertised here, I would have never said anything nice about you 3:33pm Chris Tracy Tran is a micro format the same as a badge or widget? 3:33pm Susan Burns Chris - do you mean micro blogging like twitter? 3:34pm Chris No 3:34pm Stephanie Susan, I am at that stage myself, and having a hard time convincing people that its real work I think. LOL 3:34pm Chris hResume and hCalendar 3:34pm Ben Gotkin Susan - I consider myself lucky, it was rather easy. But I had a boss and a marketing department who supported it, and a legal department who was OK with the guidelines we set 3:34pm Susan Burns Stephanie - are they open to the idea bus suspect of the amount of time allocated? 3:34pm Ben Gotkin It wasn't so easy at my last employer, even though we had a very active internal blogging culture there 3:35pm Tracy Tran I really don't know, I have no idea what micro format is 3:35pm Susan Burns Ben - what were the obstacles last time? 3:35pm Stephanie I think they just resist from a "legal hoops" perspective. No one is sure what is the right messaging maybe? Not too sure. 3:35pm Ben Gotkin Misperceptions and lack of trust. Externally the corp comm model was very conservative 3:35pm Stephanie what legal hoops we would have to jump thru to make our lawyers feel its not a risk. 3:35pm Ben Yoskovitz Wasn't there a post on RecruitingBlogs recently about the legal issues and how they were really overblown? 3:35pm Susan Burns Stephanie - there are some great examples of success and also the cost of resistance 3:36pm Slouch lots of them 3:36pm Ben Gotkin McGladrey has been very supportive of social media 3:36pm Stephanie I know other parts of the company have blogs, so I just need to be more vocal and come at it with more research and data. which is why i'm here! 3:36pm Susan Burns Stephanie - are the legal concerns specific to HR? 3:37pm Stephanie likely, yes. what its ok to say and not ok 3:37pm Ben Gotkin Stephanie - Use it to tell stories. Most of us have great stories that happen in our organization all the time, blogging is a great platform for telling those stories 3:37pm Stephanie ben g - that's exactly how I'm picturing this as a recruiting tool. 3:37pm Susan Burns Stephanie - the funny thing is most of what they are afraid of people don't really want to hear - or its certainly easy to respond to without crossing the line 3:38pm Ben Gotkin Stephanie - Create a clear, common-sense based set of guidelines 3:38pm Susan Burns Ok - lets get back to the big picture - thanks for the insight on whats happening in the corp world 3:38pm Stephanie ben g - do you have guidelines already created that you could share w me offline? 3:38pm Chris not not happening (pulled hair out) 3:38pm Susan Burns What is the "ideal" frequency of posts to keep content current and quality? And, is there an ideal length to a post? 3:39pm Ben Gotkin Sure, send me a message with your email and I'll send you what we use 3:39pm Slouch sorry, related to what I was saying beofre. you can check this out http://www.recruitingblogs.com/forum/topics/502551:Topic:303885 3:39pm Susan Burns Ok - thinking you didn't like that last question...... 3:40pm Susan Burns Here's another: How do you balance transparency, authenticity and any sort of company policy you have to manage around? 3:40pm Slouch Susan. it depends on what you want with respect to your frequency question 3:40pm Slouch three posts a week. one original and then be creative for the rest 3:41pm Susan Burns To engage readers and build traffic 3:41pm Tracy Tran For length, there should be no ideal length. If it's short and to the point, you made your point. Idea frequency. That's a tough one but once a week should be the min. 3:41pm Chris or not look like an affiliated marketing company. 3:41pm Slouch I cant read long posts - even my own 3:41pm Ben Gotkin That's where those guidelines come in. Don't write anything that will put your employer at risk 3:41pm Susan Burns Ben - do you find that gets in the way at all? Seems almost like common sense 3:42pm Ben Gotkin It doesn't actually. We are using this as a marketing tool. Writing anything that could be damaging to the organization would be counter-productive. Common sense it is 3:43pm Susan Burns Any other feedback on what people have found to work in terms of frequency and length to build engagement? 3:43pm Ben Yoskovitz When I started blogging, it was 3 times / week, although I don't think you have to blog that often. 3:44pm Ben Yoskovitz Length is an open debate, but I prefer to vary things. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. 3:44pm Susan Burns Ben Y - how long were you able to sustain that? 3:44pm Susan Burns The 3 X a week 3:44pm Ben Yoskovitz A long time - but I was blogging primarily for myself vs. my company. For a corporate blog I think it's tougher and requires more preparation. 3:45pm David Benjamin 2-3 times a week is ideal, I think. I agree that length is all based on how long to express your thoughts concisely 3:45pm Ben Yoskovitz Blogging your own personal experiences / advice when there's no corporation to think or "worry" about is easier. 3:45pm Susan Burns New question - do you use Polls in your blog and do you think they add value 3:45pm Ben Yoskovitz But there are ways of blogging 3x per week without it taking a TON of time. Just depends on the types of posts, length, how well organized you are. 3:46pm Ben Gotkin Ben Y - You need to be motivated to write. I'll admit I get writer's block from time-to-time, drives me crazy 3:46pm Susan Burns Ben Y - that definitely something to consider as JD said too - have a strategy to make one post pure, original content and the others can be shorter, refer to other content.... 3:47pm Susan Burns Anyone using polls? No?? 3:47pm Kari Quaas @Susan - we have used polls before. 3:47pm Ben Yoskovitz I've used polls occasionally, but you need a certain amount of traffic before you can pull it off successfully. 3:47pm Susan Burns Kari - were they effective or is that why it was "before" 3:47pm Ben Yoskovitz In terms of frequency and maintaining that - think about using an editorial calendar. 3:47pm Ben Gotkin I'd like to try it at some point 3:47pm Kari Quaas They are usually requests for content on the blog or on our social network. 3:47pm Kari Quaas We got a small number of returns, but it's better than nothing. 3:48pm Kari Quaas www.surveymonkey.com is an easy one to use 3:48pm Susan Burns Do you think they can be a good way to drive traffic initially - maybe by incoporating a giveaway or something? 3:49pm Susan Burns Ben - you could give away a free tax return service! 3:49pm Kari Quaas We gave away an iPod on our social network to get people to post photos. It worked well. 3:49pm Susan Burns Just make sure the winner had nothing to do with Madoff! 3:49pm John Mota hi all 3:49pm Slouch it's a gimmick initially. if yoiu want to start a blog and you want people to come regularly, you need to rely on the content 3:49pm Tracy Tran Susan - In the short-term, yes.But content will always win out for the long-term. 3:49pm John Mota has anyone done career coaching? 3:49pm Ben Yoskovitz Slouch: Content wins, but gimmicks help. 3:50pm Ben Yoskovitz I've run a few writing projects off my site that used to generate hundreds of links back. Bit harder to do these days and less applicable perhaps in the HR corporate blogging world - but memes, gimmicks can help. 3:50pm Slouch sure but the gimmicks work when the readers know they are gimmicks 3:50pm Susan Burns So polls and giveaways could be good on occassion to drive content. I think esp for a corp blog with a product connection its of value 3:50pm Ben Gotkin Susan - lol. That would be our parent company, HR Block, which actually does some of that I think on their Facebook page 3:51pm David Benjamin John, I do currently 3:51pm Susan Burns We have 10 minutes left and I thought I would open it up to anything thats on your mind about blogging and engaging talent - what are your thoughts, questions and ideas? 3:51pm John Mota career coach? 3:51pm David Benjamin Part of my consultant biz is career coaching 3:51pm Susan Burns (jonh and david - could you use the private chat until we're done - thanks) 3:51pm John Mota i am part of an organization that is starting up an internal career development practice 3:52pm Stephanie what % of bloggers time is being taken writing and researching? 3:52pm Slouch that is a whole other conversation 3:52pm Slouch lol 3:52pm Stephanie oh..lol 3:52pm Slouch some people can;t stop thinking or working on it 3:52pm Slouch I know a few people like that 3:52pm Kari Quaas Very true. 3:52pm Stephanie I'm sure..especially if other work isn't as busy as normal in this climate. 3:53pm Ben Gotkin Stephanie - really depends on the post, some require more research, some are pretty quick and easy to write 3:53pm Susan Burns Stephanie - I did an allocation schedule for my time each week and have currently allowed 20% for writing and research - we'll see how that works out ;-) 3:54pm Ben Yoskovitz I often write posts in my head for days before I actually write them. 3:54pm Kari Quaas @Susan - so official ;) 3:54pm Slouch good luck with that susan 3:54pm Stephanie That's what I'm looking to do. Put a number to it I guess. 3:54pm John Mota Benjamin - how do we private chat? 3:54pm Kari Quaas @Ben - Me too. 3:54pm Slouch clcik his name on the left and an option will come up 3:54pm Slouch on the right I mean 3:54pm Slouch search his name and then click it 3:54pm John Mota i did - is he notified? 3:54pm Susan Burns It was one of my NY resolutions! I allocated out all I have to do each week so I can quit working on weekends - so, yes -there is a motivator! 3:54pm Slouch if he is watching. no bell yet 3:55pm John Mota oh 3:55pm John Mota thanks 3:55pm Slouch np 3:55pm Kari Quaas @Susan - good motivator, indeed 3:55pm Jenny DeVaughn @Susan If I don't plan, it means that I will just work right into the weekend too! 3:56pm Kari Quaas @Stephanie - I just write when a topic hits me. The key is to keep writing. 3:56pm Susan Burns Jenny - I also found that working from home things were becoming too blended. I now have a difinitive start and end time to my day just as if I was going into an office - I don't touch my computer in the morning until I'm ready to sit down at my desk 3:56pm Ben Gotkin I'm more spur-of-the-moment, as the inspiration hits me, or as I run across something that looks like worth writing about 3:56pm Susan Burns I've gotten in the habit of starting an "idea" list - as soon as something hits my I write it down and make a few notes about it 3:56pm Tracy Tran Same here Ben 3:56pm Susan Burns I also believe you have to trust in what you know - even if you don't initially think you know it, and go with something your passionate about 3:57pm Ben Gotkin I do have 'guest bloggers' lined up for one post each over the next several weeks too 3:57pm Susan Burns Any finaly questions...thoughts...ideas? 3:57pm Stephanie susan, I have the same list going..lol 3:58pm Susan Burns Stephanie - if I don't write it down I forget it - or what I was initially thinking about. There are so many things that inspire ideas and capturing the inspiration is sometimes as important as the topic itself 3:58pm Jenny DeVaughn @Ben, great idea! 3:58pm Slouch Thanks Susan for this 3:58pm Ratnesh anybody has idea about granite analyst 3:58pm Susan Burns Great suggestion Ben! 3:58pm Slouch like how to cut rock efficiently? 3:58pm Susan Burns I've been building my interview list 3:58pm Stephanie LOL @ slouch 3:58pm Susan Burns Well that all for Talent Talk Cafe today! Thanks so much for joining the conversation and sharing your experiences and ideas 3:59pm Jenny DeVaughn Thanks, Susan! 3:59pm Susan Burns Cheers to great blogging success for all of you! 3:59pm Slouch great session 3:59pm Ben Gotkin Thanks Susan, another great TTC 3:59pm Stephanie this was wonderful! thanks all. very helpful!!! happy blogging 3:59pm Slouch I am available if anyone wants to ask me questions about blogging or stuff like that later. I have been doing it a long time…; Added by Susan Burns at 10:21pm on January 14, 2009

Topic: Talent Talk Cafe - Chat Transcript for Community Moving to Action Part 1: e asked - What happens if you build a recruitment strategy that begins by first establishing a deliberate community focus. This week we explored moving to action and integrating social media into your recruitment strategy: Setting expectations. Building a compelling case for internal support. Anticipating community management time requirements. Evaluating and reallocating resources to establish a foundation for success. Following is the Transcript from Talent Talk Café June 24 - Making a Case to Integrate Social Media Into Your Talent Strategy Susan Burns Hi everyone! Its time for Talent Talk Cafe! 3:00pm Susan Kang Nam Hello Susan ~ I am here to learn from you and everyone! 3:00pm Slouch Hey Susan, Sharyn, Chet and The Talent Hunter 3:01pm Susan Burns Our topic today is Moving to Action to integrated social media into your recruitment strategy 3:01pm Susan Burns Hi Jaosn, Susan, Sharyn, Chet, Talent Hunter and Dave! 3:01pm The Talent Hunter Hello Susan 3:01pm Chet Volpe I'm all ears... 3:01pm Susan Burns Hey Jason - can u move the chat to center so its bigger and easier to follow 3:01pm Slouch its in the center for me 3:02pm Chet Volpe me too 3:02pm Susan Burns got it - just refreshed and its there for me too - fab! 3:03pm Slouch try refreshing your screen 3:03pm Susan Kang Nam same here.. Susan Burns So in the last couple of weeks we defined what community is and what happens if u build a talent strategy beginning with a first intention of community 3:03pm Susan Burns The main challenge now is building internal support so there are resources - mostly time, to invest in building community 3:04pm Slouch Time is what you need Susan Burns Do we want to open this up by addressing the first part around setting expectations for time - how can you get support to allocated 10 hours a week to focus on community 3:05pm Susan Burns And, what is the value in doing that 3:06pm Slouch ask with a nice smile? 3:06pm Susan Burns That's a start Jason ;-) 3:06pm Susan Burns Let me ask another question - do people feel they already have the time to invest in building communiities? 3:07pm Joshua Letourneau do you mean 10 hrs of a 40-hr week? (my corp recruiter friends pull a 40 - anything over that is not incentivized) 3:07pm Susan Burns Hi Josh! Yes, to allocate time into the regular workweek 3:08pm Joshua Letourneau hi 3:08pm Chet Volpe time is the double edged sword - if you don't invest you don't get anything back, now it's just a matter of roi... 3:08pm Susan Burns So Chet - would you see value in reallocating 10 hrs/week to build a community that would produce an ROI to you down the road? Chet Volpe yes, but I might not start with 10 hours a week, maybe build to a comfort level that leaves a good balance of getting everything else done as well. 3:10pm Slouch I think you need about 10 hours a week to make it a worthwhile place for potential candidates to come 3:10pm Susan Kang Nam Curious to know - how would you measure that time well invested = hire? would 10 hours be enough? 3:11pm Slouch that time includes thining about it as well, not just working on it 3:11pm Chet Volpe Susan, do you have an example? 3:11pm Chet Volpe site that is 3:12pm Susan Burns Susan - thats the other part of the equation: 1 - what r your expectations....how soon do you want to see roi and 2 - what type of support can u get to cover off other work 3:12pm Susan Burns Chet - what r u looking for an example of - time invested to roi? 3:12pm Scott Godbey Susan it seems to me that roi would not happen immediately. Have you found that to be the case? 3:13pm Susan Burns Scott - absolutely - that 3:13pm MN Headhunter (a little late, sorry) I think the issue is who you are. If you are a big, known company brand management is a lot easier than if you are a little dude like me in Minneapolis 3:14pm Maren Hogan It seems that community has to valuable and to be valuable most companies look at it as having to be very broad brushed 3:14pm Susan Burns i'm getting delays and missing feeds - sorry 3:14pm Ben Gotkin Hey Susan! 3:14pm Chet Volpe yes, a social network site that is working for someone that has the time invested and is showing the roi. MN Headhunter General Mills by sheer volume of who goes to their site can get a community up and running in weeks to 2 months. for me, 6 months 3:15pm Maren Hogan so if they have to be broad to be useful (current definition not mine) then it's really asking a corp to take a leap of faith 3:15pm Susan Kang Nam I think it's getting that support you will need to cover off other work maybe a challenge and to get validation for spending time to build this community first hand.. 3:15pm Slouch Hi chet, I always point to wirelessJobs.com as a targeted community built by Dennis Smith. He makes placements from it 3:16pm Joshua Letourneau the notion of ROI is (in most cases) overblown as the return can often be as qualitative as quantitative (i.e. perceptions of the "employment brand") 3:16pm Susan Burns ok i'm back - some tech problems - Hi Ben, Paul and Maren 3:16pm Maren Hogan not only the decision makers but for an internal corp presence? current employees would have to be involved as well 3:16pm Slouch I know he's happy with the effort he puts and what he gets out 3:16pm Susan Burns Susan - that's exactly it! 10 hrs is really the min to invest in moving something forward 3:17pm Joshua Letourneau example: Facebook E&Y group (grew to ~5000 in a very short amount of time) 3:17pm Maren Hogan what does up and running mean though? Is it really a community? I've never been so I am honestly asking. . . 3:17pm Maren Hogan hi susan--paul, who doesn't know about that "aw shucks lil guy from mn?" 3:18pm Slouch I think that the time is a real issue because you can;t get immediate results - Takes time. but people start noticing right away and that is important too 3:18pm Susan Burns What are some of the "value" basis ideas that would get someone internal support to invest that 10 hours/week Josh today, E&Y Careers is pushing over 15k members 3:18pm Susan Burns And, set expectations for 6 months 3:19pm MN Headhunter Hey Maren, but that's my point the time it to took me to get here and the time Josh points out for E&Y is very different. It's easier for bigger companies 3:19pm Susan Burns Josh - how long did it take them to get to 15K 3:19pm Scott Godbey Well there are immediate benefits in terms of creating brand awareness. I don't think it's wise to underestimate what that can mean to business both short and long term 3:19pm Maren Hogan easier to set up but wondering how useful the comm is there--member number cannot be the bar? 3:19pm Ben Gotkin We are preparing to launch an alumni initiative here at McGladrey, one that will have benefits beyond just recruiting 3:19pm The Talent Hunter You have to have an identifiable brand and enough traffic to organize a successful presence, right? 3:20pm Susan Burns Maren - community will build overtime through nurturing 3:20pm MN Headhunter I look at a Best Buy with their 3,000,000 resumes last year. It should take little effort to get a community started 3:20pm Ben Gotkin This will be led by recruiting, but I've had to tell the recruiters involved that this will not be about recruiting at first 3:20pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter - exactly one of the benefits of pursuing a social strategy - it can be a brand equalizer 3:20pm MN Headhunter Ben, great call Susan Burns Ben - great point on setting expectations for the recruiters as well 3:21pm Ben Gotkin It will be about building community and delivering engaging content 3:21pm Ben Gotkin Benefits for recruiting, business development, etc is a by-product 3:21pm Maren Hogan Ben have you found that people are more open to that in the current economic times? 3:21pm MN Headhunter Ben, please as you guys get into this document it if you can share 3:21pm Joshua Letourneau susan, i don't really know - i think they're into it for a year now (but they grew to 2000+ members in about 48 hours . . . yeah, 48 hours!!!) 3:21pm Susan Burns Ben - how have you allocated support to free up recruters time to engage 3:21pm Slouch its not about recruiting at first. you are correct sir Susan Kang Nam Ben - that's true.. 3:21pm Maren Hogan I've had clients want to set up employer branding, retention intiatives and internal communities that are in the midst of a hiring freeze 3:21pm Susan Burns Josh - that's a great story 3:22pm Ben Gotkin Maren - not sure, but alumni programs are pretty standard in our industry, we are a late-comer 3:22pm Joshua Letourneau jeez, talk about "first mover" advantage! 3:22pm Scott Godbey It is in a way Jason. Recruiting is about building contacts that can be utilized later down the line. It's just not the immediate gratificaiton but nothing in recruiting is. 3:22pm Susan Burns Maren - so is that for internal communities and external 3:22pm Ben Gotkin Susan - We have a central team that will help, and will get help also from Marketing and the field Maren Hogan yep--completely closed to idea about 8 mos ago 3:22pm Susan Burns Ben - how many hours/week r u investing to build/develop communities 3:23pm Maren Hogan now clamoring for it. maybe $ and resources come from a different place? Not sure 3:23pm Slouch Chet, of course it is about Recruiting just you can't expect to hire anyone right away 3:23pm Scott Godbey Ben, think it's wise to involve marketing. Having community consistent with overall brand is crucial Susan Burns Maren - retention probably gets more than recruiting 3:23pm MN Headhunter I have seen the title "Community Manager" pop up recently at a few Minnesota companies. I am hoping that means they are thinking not only about this but having it be managed properly 3:23pm Ben Gotkin The alumni program is our #1 effort right now, I'll spend a bulk of my time on this in the coming months 3:23pm Susan Burns Re community managers - Check out Jermiah Owyang's blog w/ list of roles by company Maren Hogan Kind of? It's not a community but the interface at standoutjobs.com makes it feel like one 3:25pm Ben Gotkin A link? I'll probably have a link to the blog after we go live 3:25pm Joshua Letourneau yeah, great suggestion, susan - every brand impression with candidates should include a link 3:25pm Maren Hogan so that's a semi-yes Susan for clarity 3:25pm Slouch I don;t think you need a ton of people in a talent network, you just need good candidates who understand the value of what the community brings and over time you can set up that community to foster certain community participation which ultimately=hires Susan Burns Ben - yeah a link to even drive traffic to your blog 3:25pm Jason Gorham three words for you....seo, seo seo 3:26pm Jason Gorham for the blogs 3:26pm Susan Burns Jason - and overtime that community will attract more people through conversations and there will be organic growth 3:26pm Joshua Letourneau in my eyes, the real value of the community is the OD element - imagine the pot of gold you'd be sitting in in terms of talent market intel 3:26pm Susan Burns Hi Jason G 3:26pm MN Headhunter In the few ads I run I include blog, Rss feed and Twitter addresses 3:26pm Ben Gotkin I think we see our talent networks being much stronger at the college level. We do alot of early ID efforts that will drive in traffic to our community-building efforts 3:26pm Susan Burns SEO - absolutely! Another very cost effective way to drive traffic Jason Gorham hello 3:27pm MN Headhunter Ben, outside of your industry who does this well? Who else is doing this? 3:27pm Susan Burns So, if we go back to securing internal support - do people feel they can get what they need or are there obstacles 3:27pm Jason Gorham you can get a blog indexed quicker in a search engine than a typical website 3:27pm Ben Gotkin Paul - how are you using Twitter to build community? I showed it to my boss on Friday and he wasn't sure what to make of it 3:27pm Joshua Letourneau well, to steal from my (not) girlfriend Giovani of Ning . . . the point of the community is also viral expansion 3:27pm MN Headhunter Ben, it's not a bout building a community but participating in a general conversation 3:28pm MN Headhunter for me The Talent Hunter From a corporate perspective, I think this proposal would receive a lot of static 3:28pm MN Headhunter that builds followers, name recognition, awareness 3:28pm Joshua Letourneau just twitter out every update with a tinyurl back to the community/blog/social network 3:28pm Maren Hogan I heard the other day that it is less about content now than conversation, hmmmm 3:28pm Jason Gorham Correct static 3:28pm Susan Burns Ben - Twitter is a great example of joining the conversation first, moving to community and then engaging to get hires... 3:28pm MN Headhunter Talent Hunter yes, Ben who else is doing this that you know of? 3:28pm Jason Gorham it's all about value now 3:28pm Susan Burns Also re Twitter - its a biz conversation first before a recruiting conversation - 3:29pm Jason Gorham With so many sites...social networking etc how will you provide value? 3:29pm Susan Kang Nam resistance.. The Talent Hunter Of course, a lot depends on the resources available within an organization and their level of edge-y thinking 3:29pm MN Headhunter Josh, yes but many poeple get ornary with the links only. Too self promotional, not adding valued content 3:29pm Susan Kang Nam Jason G - that's what I am curious about as well. 3:29pm Ben Gotkin Paul - don't know of many, still bleeding edge 3:29pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter and Susan - what do us anticipate as the objections Jason Gorham If you build a community...site or recruiting drive...go with one idea 3:30pm The Talent Hunter resource allocation, afterall time equals money 3:30pm Susan Burns Jason - re noise w/ sites - the opp is in finding a niche and energizing it - and giving people a voice 3:30pm Jason Gorham and with that one idea drive around that 3:30pm Chet Volpe . 3:30pm Joshua Letourneau well, if the community is for recruiting, then the 'product' (job) better be HOT - people will reject a meatball sundae like a bad kidney! 3:30pm The Talent Hunter 25% of time spent on a new project equals 25% less expected performance of core competencies\ 3:30pm Jason Gorham if it's college what makes you difference? Maybe you go green, maybe you have ipods etc 3:30pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter - what would u need to deliver re ROI to get the investment time needed Jason Gorham roi = cost per hire 3:31pm Susan Kang Nam I just have value questions about it.. at the end of the day, it's the result.. so how to show it..etc.. 3:31pm Jason Gorham or employer of choice 3:31pm Joshua Letourneau susan, maybe i'm old school, but great recruiters and talent acquisition pros will MAKE TIME to do this as opposed to trade off other things, right? 3:31pm The Talent Hunter you would need evidence that it has worked in the past, or show a documented timeframe of ROI to even be considered a viable avenue, IMO 3:31pm Susan Burns Could roi also be future - time to hire, reduced advertising costs, higher quality.... Joshua Letourneau p.s. remember that the notion of return can be qualitative as well (not just quantitative) 3:32pm Susan Kang Nam Talent Hunter - agree 3:32pm Ben Gotkin ROI probably starts with #hits on your community site, time spent on site. It is challenging to track as a source though, ask Microsoft 3:32pm Maren Hogan I agree with that! I almost got "community time" yanked but finally, two months ago, we started seeing real results. I even took a pay cut to focus in on it. 3:32pm Susan Burns Josh - I think many will but I've also seen great recruiters that are pulled in so many directions they never get a block of quality time Susan Burns Maren - how long had u been investing time before seeing it tip to a plus 3:33pm Slouch Maren, did you take a pay cut before you started seeing results or after 3:33pm Susan Kang Nam Maren - really.. hmm. 3:34pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter - Paul can give u the ROI - 6 mo to hire via blog, 10 days via Twitter, 2 months via mySpace - did i remember that Paul? 3:34pm Maren Hogan it was over six months susan, maybe 7? I was learning too. Maren Hogan Before, like four months before. They lovin me now tho! 3:34pm The Talent Hunter for his sized organization...what is size and reach 3:34pm Susan Burns 6-7 months is not bad at all - how many hours/week? 3:35pm Maren Hogan oh the four months was how long before results I took the pay cust, to clarify 3:35pm Joshua Letourneau candidates go through periods of 'progression' (cold,warm,hot, etc.) . . . so the community is a way to maintain conversation with them 3:35pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter - can I call u TH during the chat ;-) Susan Burns Paul - r u still there? 3:35pm Maren Hogan probably (does blog writing count here?) >15 3:35pm The Talent Hunter absolutely...or confuse everyone and call me Mike 3:35pm The Talent Hunter 3:35pm Slouch Josh you are right. that's key 3:36pm Ben Gotkin Josh - BINGO! Our blog and our alumni network will serve that very purpose 3:36pm Susan Burns Josh - YES!!! absolutely - community ensures people stay warm and can then be moved to hot much more quickly 3:36pm Susan Burns Thanks Mike! he Talent Hunter i believe that creating an online community is a lot easier and quite possibly more effective from a TPR standpoint than from a corporate standpoint 3:36pm Susan Kang Nam Josh - definitely 3:37pm Maren Hogan if you work contract (which do) there is also the roll-off time to consider 3:37pm Slouch not everyone is in a position to change jobs now and having a place you can stay in touch and deliver a message while letting them network is a good thing 3:37pm Susan Kang Nam TB (Mike) - TPR? sorry getting use to all this lingo.. 3:37pm Susan Burns Mike - is i was a corp recruiter today its would be one of my top 3 prioritse and would move resources to make it happen 3:37pm Slouch third party recruiter 3:37pm Joshua Letourneau sometimes a warm candidate can get hot when they read a success story - my thought on communities is that they can serve as subtle infomercials 3:37pm Susan Kang Nam I meant TH (Mike) 3:38pm Maren Hogan which is why RSS feeds WITH VALUE are awesome (part of comm, not as replacement) 3:38pm Susan Burns Oh - there were lots of typos in that last note ;-( 3:38pm Susan Kang Nam Jason - thanks 3:38pm Susan Burns Josh - yes, that and the viral aspects build a lot of momentum 3:38pm Maren Hogan We gotcha SusanB 3:38pm Joshua Letourneau every marketer i know LOVES an infomercial - it's crazy people like us telling us that we can be rich and lose a bunch of weight just like them 3:38pm Susan Kang Nam lol 3:39pm Joshua Letourneau ok, i went off on a tangent - sorry! 3:39pm Susan Burns Depending on your company's brand there is lots of value that could even extend beyond recruiting which in turn adds more value to the recruiting team 3:39pm The Talent Hunter susan-i agree that it is the wave of the future, but i also think that an Amarr Garage Doors will have much less success than a Lowe's Home Improvement 3:39pm Susan Burns Josh - maybe there's a "will it blend" for recruitment! 3:39pm The Talent Hunter 3:40pm Joshua Letourneau an infomercial probably isn't the best analogy . . . but there is something there we could use 3:40pm MN Headhunter I think the reason a TPR can do this is we do not need permsission from so many layers of mgmt. But time to build community is much less I expect for a large company 3:40pm Susan Burns Mike - depends on what Amarr Garage Doors brings to the table? The other big key - what differentiaties...what adds value...what engages...what energizes 3:41pm Maren Hogan Wow, it's almost over and we haven't talked about alcohol once. We are maturing! 3:41pm The Talent Hunter MN - agreed 100% Ben Gotkin Alot of podcasts and corporate videos are 'infomercial-like' 3:42pm Susan Burns That's the part art part science question of community - What do people want, who is talking to them, who is engaging them in conversation - listenting to them Susan Burns Also, many big companies have stubbed their toes while testing the waters - they try to PR it or marketize it and its bit back 3:44pm Joshua Letourneau the 'smaller' niche org (like Amarr) may wind up the winner here . . . perhaps not on quantity of hires, but perhaps better match or QOH.?. that would be a great case study 3:44pm Maren Hogan you know, I just really disagree with that. I think the true (forgive the namby pambyness of the word) "essence" of community has to be created by someone passionate about it MN Headhunter . 3:45pm Maren Hogan And whether it's a one man shop, or small business or large corp, the time to engage is the same there just might be less people to do it 3:45pm Susan Burns WalMart had their PR agency - Edelman - writing their blog - bad idea, esp when its not done so visibly 3:45pm Joshua Letourneau maren, good point. and i could be wrong here, but one thing i've observed about today's 'community' versus those of the late 90s' are about user empowerment 3:45pm Maren Hogan sorry this is kind of directed at Paul because I sort of feel your pain. I think you are right in that the communty stuff (website, chat function , blah, blah, print junk) is 3:46pm Ben Gotkin Walmart used a PR agency? too funny 3:46pm Joshua Letourneau giving 'them' the ability to create content, upload video, etc. (i.e. youtube.com/dunkindonuts) 3:46pm Maren Hogan easier to set up but the engagement will take the same amount of time 3:46pm Maren Hogan and I think engagement is far more a community element than the "stuff" 3:46pm Susan Burns Ben - yes - google Edelman and Wal-Mart - wasn't a pretty site. They've learned and are now letting employees blog 3:47pm MN Headhunter Yeah, I think about how much time I have put in for me and wonder if I did it for someone else what kind of footprint that could be 3:47pm Joshua Letourneau sorry, i meant today's communities are more about user empowerment than simply the creators 3:47pm Joshua Letourneau it's like handing someone a paint brush as they walk into the sistine chapel 3:47pm Susan Burns Josh - YES, and its those companies that will listen and allow people to be heard that will win 3:48pm Slouch MN, your efforts here make a huge difference 3:48pm Susan Burns Oh, I like the paint brush analogy 3:48pm Maren Hogan yeah but if there were someone else doing the "work-work" stuff and you did the comm building and socnet stuff, it would seem like less but you have to do it all so it feels like more 3:48pm MN Headhunter What I mean is, if in the beginning I was spending 15 hours or more for my little brand. What 15 hours could do for a big company. I have to think a Best Buy would have huge returns 3:48pm The Talent Hunter MN - i agree with that 3:48pm Slouch im not retracting my statement 3:48pm MN Headhunter Jason, I appreicate that. And this is an examnple of how a community should be. How it should start, evolve, content, etc The Talent Hunter they have the established brand and customer base 3:49pm Maren Hogan Of course they would, it's becoming increasingly valuable AND that's why so many people are hiring social media managers or the other thing you said earlier comm mgrs 3:49pm Joshua Letourneau paul, i agree - a huge brand isn't starting from ground zero, so 'velocity' is easier to achieve 3:49pm MN Headhunter absolutely 3:49pm Ben Gotkin Paul - You bring up an interesting point. So few large organizations have embraced this, but they would probably stand to benefit the most if done correctly. 3:49pm Susan Burns So have we made any headway in helping to create a compelling case to get time/resources and set expectations for an ROI? 3:49pm MN Headhunter I have always believed it harder to start with no reputation than it is a good/bad pone 3:49pm Maren Hogan oops gotta go, read transcript later! thanks everyone! 3:49pm Joshua Letourneau p.s. hey, there could be some major liability with the larger brands too, though 3:50pm Susan Burns Thanks Maren - great contribution as always! 3:50pm Susan Burns Josh - there is risk but more if they don 3:50pm MN Headhunter Josh, yes and I do get that barrier 3:50pm Joshua Letourneau there are a lot of people that love to 'bash' an employment brand with the huge retailers (i.e. walmart) 3:50pm Susan Burns oops - more if they don't engage - then someone else creates their brand Susan Kang Nam Joshua - how so? 3:50pm MN Headhunter But they will anyway so why not put out the good stuff to combat it 3:51pm Susan Burns The "talk" will happen with or without the company's involveent but without they are sure to lose Joshua Letourneau p.s. i agree with paul that the larger brands have immense advantage in the early stages 3:51pm Ben Gotkin very true Susan 3:51pm The Talent Hunter Josh - i can see the community backfire, people going ther to slam the company...at that scale it would need to be actively monitored 3:51pm Susan Burns At least if they "play" they can share their story and if done authentically over time it will quite the other voices 3:51pm MN Headhunter I think it is worth the risk 3:51pm MN Headhunter should not shock anyone I said that Susan Burns Additionally, the community will help to quiet the disconnected - again, if the company is acting authentically 3:52pm Joshua Letourneau susan kang name: WalmartSucks.org 3:52pm Ben Gotkin I was very encouraged at our firm recently when our Marketing director said that he would be OK with some negative comments on the blog, as long as they are not damaging or inaccurate usan Kang Nam Joshua - got it! 3:52pm MN Headhunter I think to engage and address them is a good thing 3:52pm Susan Burns Josh - #2 facebook fan site for Deloitte is "Deloitte is why I drink" - it was #1 but is now #2 becuz Deloitte started to get more involved 3:53pm MN Headhunter but not some PR release person but an actual person who is passionate about the company Susan Burns Ben - that's great! 3:53pm Ben Gotkin We'll address and engage regardless, but you have to moderate some to prevent unnecessary bashing 3:53pm Joshua Letourneau paul, great point - i just read an article about starbucks blowing it because they didn't respond and engage! 3:53pm Ben Gotkin Susan - that's my favorite Deloitte site ;-) 3:53pm Susan Burns Was that with their new MyStarbucks site to collect feedback? 3:54pm MN Headhunter Seems to me people say bad things whenever they can. Might as well pu some good stuff out there too Susan Burns Ben - I thought it would be ;-) 3:54pm Joshua Letourneau susan, i need to check that out - will be back to your email later 3:54pm MN Headhunter Ben, will you be in Mpls again? 3:54pm Ben Gotkin Was just there last week for a quick in-out 3:54pm MN Headhunter where's the love/ 3:55pm MN Headhunter ? 3:55pm Ben Gotkin Hopefully next time I'll have more of a chance to get out 3:55pm Slouch lol 3:55pm Slouch lets not go there 3:55pm The Talent Hunter hmmm 3:55pm MN Headhunter (my bad) 3:55pm Susan Burns Question for all of you about next Chat unity site - sound good? 3:56pm Susan Kang Nam ouch.. 3:56pm The Talent Hunter definitely 3:57pm MN Headhunter A case study would help and something others can look at 3:57pm Ben Gotkin Anyway, Paul - one of our Mlps recruiters was at your last Roundtable, said he had a great time 3:57pm Susan Kang Nam sounds good Susan & Jason... 3:57pm Ben Gotkin Susan - sounds good 3:57pm Susan Burns Paul - lets talk about the case study - r u around later today? 3:57pm Slouch Susan, we can send out details late or early this week about where and when 3:57pm Susan Kang Nam I would be interested in reading more case studies - agree with MN 3:57pm Slouch we can build a private talent community and I can let a targeted group of people know about it all in the same industry 3:57pm Susan Burns Absolutely Jason - lets figure out the details and then we can send all the info 3:57pm Slouch we can develop it over time and I can bring real orders into it 3:58pm MN Headhunter today, no. But if you are up for a later night conversation, yes. 3:58pm Slouch to be filled of course 3:58pm Susan Burns Paul - perfect - I'll give u a buzz 3:58pm MN Headhunter Susan, you sure you want to chat with me 2 days in a row? 3:58pm Susan Burns Sounds great Jason! 3:58pm Susan Kang Nam For Defense - I would recommend Bill Murphy highly... 3:58pm Susan Burns Paul - I'll take the risk! 3:59pm N Headhunter you are a saint 3:59pm…; Added by Susan Burns to Talent Synchronicity at 5:33pm on June 24, 2008

Blog Post: Why Do We Stop Imagining?: Added by Mark A. Leon at 11:34am on December 24, 2010

Topic: More Resume tips: ece that makes them look like desperate job hunters. The objective of your resume is to land an interview, and the interview will land you the job (hopefully!). 2. Back up your qualities and strengths Instead of creating a long (and boring) list with all your qualities (e.g., disciplined, creative, problem solver) try to connect them with real life and work experiences. In other words, you need to back these qualities and strengths up, else it will appear that you are just trying to inflate things. 3. Make sure to use the right keywords Most companies (even smaller ones) are already using digital databases to search for candidates. This means that the HR department will run search queries based on specific keywords. Guess what, if your resume doesn’t have the keywords related to the job you are applying for, you will be out even before the game starts. These keywords will usually be nouns. Check the job description and related job ads for a clue on what the employer might be looking for. You can read more about resume keywords on the article Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness. 4. Use effective titles Like it or not, employers will usually make a judgment about your resume in 5 seconds. Under this time frame the most important aspect will be the titles that you listed on the resume, so make sure they grab the attention. Try to be as descriptive as possible, giving the employer a good idea about the nature of your past work experiences. For example: Bad title: Accounting Good title: Management of A/R and A/P and Recordkeeping 5. Proofread it twice It would be difficult to emphasize the importance of proofreading your resume. One small typo and your chances of getting hired could slip. Proofreading it once is not enough, so do it twice, three times or as many as necessary. If you don’t know how to proofread effectively, here are 8 tips that you can use. 6. Use bullet points No employer will have the time (or patience) to read long paragraphs of text. Make sure, therefore, to use bullet points and short sentences to describe your experiences, educational background and professional objectives. 7. Where are you going? Including professional goals can help you by giving employers an idea of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there. You don’t need to have a special section devoted to your professional objectives, but overall the resume must communicate it. The question of whether or not to highlight your career objectives on the resume is a polemic one among HR managers, so go with your feeling. If you decide to list them, make sure they are not generic. 8. Put the most important information first This point is valid both to the overall order of your resume, as well as to the individual sections. Most of the times your previous work experience will be the most important part of the resume, so put it at the top. When describing your experiences or skills, list the most important ones first. 9. Attention to the typography First of all make sure that your fonts are big enough. The smaller you should go is 11 points, but 12 is probably safer. Do not use capital letters all over the place, remember that your goal is to communicate a message as fast and as clearly as possible. Arial and Times are good choices. 10. Do not include “no kidding” information There are many people that like to include statements like “Available for interview” or “References available upon request.” If you are sending a resume to a company, it should be a given that you are available for an interview and that you will provide references if requested. Just avoid items that will make the employer think “no kidding!” 11. Explain the benefits of your skills Merely stating that you can do something will not catch the attention of the employer. If you manage to explain how it will benefit his company, and to connect it to tangible results, then you will greatly improve your chances. 12. Avoid negativity Do not include information that might sound negative in the eyes of the employer. This is valid both to your resume and to interviews. You don’t need to include, for instance, things that you hated about your last company. 13. Achievements instead of responsibilities Resumes that include a long list of “responsibilities included…” are plain boring, and not efficient in selling yourself. Instead of listing responsibilities, therefore, describe your professional achievements. 14. No pictures Sure, we know that you are good looking, but unless you are applying for a job where the physical traits are very important (e.g., modeling, acting and so on), and unless the employer specifically requested it, you should avoid attaching your picture to the resume. 15. Use numbers This tip is a complement to the 13th one. If you are going to describe your past professional achievements, it would be a good idea to make them as solid as possible. Numbers are your friends here. Don’t merely mention that you increased the annual revenues of your division, say that you increased them by $100,000, by 78%, and so on. 16. One resume for each employer One of the most common mistakes that people make is to create a standard resume and send it to all the job openings that they can find. Sure it will save you time, but it will also greatly decrease the chances of landing an interview (so in reality it could even represent a waste of time). Tailor your resume for each employer. The same point applies to your cover letters. 17. Identify the problems of the employer A good starting point to tailor your resume for a specific employer is to identify what possible problems he might have at hand. Try to understand the market of the company you are applying for a job, and identify what kind of difficulties they might be going through. After that illustrate on your resume how you and your skills would help to solve those problems. 18. Avoid age discrimination It is illegal to discriminate people because of their age, but some employers do these considerations nonetheless. Why risk the trouble? Unless specifically requested, do not include your age on your resume. 19. You don’t need to list all your work experiences If you have job experiences that you are not proud of, or that are not relevant to the current opportunity, you should just omit them. Mentioning that you used to sell hamburgers when you were 17 is probably not going to help you land that executive position. 20. Go with what you got If you never had any real working experience, just include your summer jobs or volunteer work. If you don’t have a degree yet, mention the title and the estimated date for completion. As long as those points are relevant to the job in question, it does not matter if they are official or not. 21. Sell your fish Remember that you are trying to sell yourself. As long as you don’t go over the edge, all the marketing efforts that you can put in your resume (in its content, design, delivery method and so on) will give you an advantage over the other candidates. 22. Don’t include irrelevant information Irrelevant information such as political affiliation, religion and sexual preference will not help you. In fact it might even hurt your chances of landing an interview. Just skip it. 23. Use Mr. and Ms. if appropriate If you have a gender neutral name like Alex or Ryan make sure to include the Mr. or Ms. prefix, so that employers will not get confused about your gender. 24. No lies, please Seems like a no brainer, but you would be amused to discover the amount of people that lie in their resumes. Even small lies should be avoided. Apart from being wrong, most HR departments do background checks these days, and if you are buster it might ruin your credibility for good. 25. Keep the salary in mind The image you will create with your resume must match the salary and responsibility level that you are aiming for. 26. Analyze job ads You will find plenty of useful information on job ads. Analyze no only the ad that you will be applying for, but also those from companies on the same segment or offering related positions. You should be able to identify what profile they are looking for and how the information should be presented. 27. Get someone else to review your resume Even if you think you resume is looking kinky, it would be a good idea to get a second and third opinion about it. We usually become blind to our own mistakes or way of reasoning, so another people will be in a good position to evaluate the overall quality of your resume and make appropriate suggestions. 28. One or two pages The ideal length for a resume is a polemic subject. Most employers and recruiting specialists, however, say that it should contain one or two pages at maximum. Just keep in mind that, provided all the necessary information is there, the shorter your resume, the better. 29. Use action verbs A very common advice to job seekers is to use action verbs. But what are they? Action verbs are basically verbs that will get noticed more easily, and that will clearly communicate what your experience or achievement were. Examples include managed, coached, enforced and planned. Here you can find a complete list of action verbs divided by skill category. 30. Use a good printer If you are going to use a paper version of your resume, make sure to use a decent printer. Laser printers usually get the job done. Plain white paper is the preferred one as well. 31. No hobbies Unless you are 100% sure that some of your hobbies will support you candidacy, avoid mentioning them. I know you are proud of your swimming team, but share it with your friends and not with potential employers. 32. Update your resume regularly It is a good idea to update your resume on a regular basis. Add all the new information that you think is relevant, as well as courses, training programs and other academic qualifications that you might receive along the way. This is the best way to keep track of everything and to make sure that you will not end up sending an obsolete document to the employer. 33. Mention who you worked with If you have reported or worked with someone that is well known in your industry, it could be a good idea to mention it on the resume. The same thing applies to presidents and CEOs. If you reported to or worked directly with highly ranked executives, add it to the resume. 34. No scattered information Your resume must have a clear focus. If would cause a negative impression if you mentioned that one year you were studying drama, and the next you were working as an accountant. Make sure that all the information you will include will work towards a unified image. Employers like decided people. 35. Make the design flow with white space Do not jam your resume with text. Sure we said that you should make your resume as short and concise as possible, but that refers to the overall amount of information and not to how much text you can pack in a single sheet of paper. White space between the words, lines and paragraphs can improve the legibility of your resume. 36. Lists all your positions If you have worked a long time for the same company (over 10 years) it could be a good idea to list all the different positions and roles that you had during this time separately. You probably had different responsibilities and developed different skills on each role, so the employer will like to know it. 37. No jargon or slang It should be common sense, but believe me, it is not. Slang should never be present in a resume. As for technical jargon, do not assume that the employer will know what you are talking about. Even if you are sending your resume to a company in the same segment, the person who will read it for the first time might not have any technical expertise. 38. Careful with sample resume templates There are many websites that offer free resume templates. While they can help you to get an idea of what you are looking for, do not just copy and paste one of the most used ones. You certainly don’t want to look just like any other candidate, do you? 39. Create an email proof formatting It is very likely that you will end up sending your resume via email to most companies. Apart from having a Word document ready to go as an attachment, you should also have a text version of your resume that does not look disfigured in the body of the email or in online forms. Attachments might get blocked by spam filters, and many people just prefer having the resume on the body of the email itself. 40. Remove your older work experiences If you have been working for 20 years or more, there is no need to have 2 pages of your resume listing all your work experiences, starting with the job at the local coffee shop at the age of 17! Most experts agree that the last 15 years of your career are enough. 41. No fancy design details Do not use a colored background, fancy fonts or images on your resume. Sure, you might think that the little flowers will cheer up the document, but other people might just throw it away at the sight. 42. No pronouns You resume should not contain the pronouns “I” or “me.” That is how we normally structure sentences, but since your resume is a document about your person, using these pronouns is actually redundant. 43. Don’t forget the basics The first thing on your resume should be your name. It should be bold and with a larger font than the rest of the text. Make sure that your contact details are clearly listed. Secondly, both the name and contact details should be included on all the pages of the resume (if you have more than one). 44. Consider getting professional help If you are having a hard time to create your resume, or if you are receiving no response whatsoever from companies, you could consider hiring a professional resume writing service. There are both local and online options are available, and usually the investment will be worth the money.…; Added by C. B. Stalling!! at 11:21am on October 21, 2008

Blog Post: 7 Best Practice Strategies for Virtual Campus Recruiting: Hiring graduate talents is one of the biggest challenges companies face today. That’s why hiring teams are steadily adopting virtual campus recruitment efforts in today’s digitized…; Added by Ngan Pham at 8:46pm on February 13, 2022

Blog Post: 15 Must Read HRTech Stories From Summer 2020

The pandemic has led to an increasingly unique situation for the workforce. Unemployment rates remain high. Remote working is the new normal. The reliance on technology grows by the day.

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Topic: Transcript - Talent Talk Cafe: Week of Nov 10th - Suzy Tonini on Competitive Intelligence: ollow and would appreciate any feedback to know if its something that we should continue to do. So, sit back, grab a coffee and enjoy the conversation! Don't forget to join us and participate in the live Chat each week on Tuesday's and Thursday's at 3pm ET / 12pm PT. Susan Burns Hi Everyone! Stick around for Talent Talk Cafe with Suzy Tonini - topic is compeititve intelligence. Starting in 5! 1:59pm Irina Shamaeva Hi 1:59pm Suzy Hi everyone 1:59pm Maureen Sharib Hi Suzy. 1:59pm Maren Hogan Hey Suzy! 1:59pm Suzy Susan will you be the emcee here please? 1:59pm Susan Burns Hi Irina - Hi Suzy - Hi Maureen - we'll begin in a few 2:00pm Slouch Hey Suzy, Thanks for spending an hour with us 2:00pm Dorothy Beach CI was whart caught my eye 2:00pm Irina Shamaeva I'm Suzy's follower on twitter - enjoy it, very informative 2:00pm Suzy Hi Maureen, Irina, Maren and Jason-nice being here virtually 2:00pm Susan Burns Hello Everyone! Its time for Talent Talk Cafe! Our special guest host today is Suzy Tonini from Deloitte 2:00pm Amybeth Hale Hi Suzy! 2:00pm Susan Burns A couple of things and then we'll get started 2:00pm Suzy Hey Amybeth! 2:01pm Suzy So I'm just going to say one big group hello 2:01pm Susan Burns You can click on Chat in the blue nav bar to pop the chat out and make it bigger and easier to follow 2:02pm Susan Burns Also, if you haven't already heard......drumroll.....Talent Talk Cafe is now on twice a week - Tues and Thurs with 6 fabulous new voices and another one to be announced soon! 2:02pm Susan Burns Our guest host today - Suzy Tonini - is a wealth of information! I learn something from her every week thanks to all her fab tweets! 2:02pm Suzy Cool beans! Can I ask a few questions to your group then? 2:03pm Susan Burns Take it away Suzy! 2:03pm Susan Burns Hi Amybeth! 2:04pm Amybeth Hale Hello Susan :D 2:04pm Suzy BTW:Tweets are 140 chat msgs on Twitter in case you dind't know that by now. One of my fav tools for gathering CI. OK for you TPR'sdo you add value by providing CI to your Clients? If so, what do you provide and what tols do you use? 2:04pm Suzy excuse lame spelling 2:04pm Susan Burns What are TPRs - exscuse the lame acronym knowledge ;-) 2:05pm Jeff Gauthier third party recruiters 2:05pm Susan Burns Thanks Jeff! 2:05pm Suzy Was that too big of a question....?Yes, Third Party Recruiters/Agencies etc 2:05pm Shannon Myers yes and no 2:05pm Eric Gilson We provide CI information regarding salaries to our clients. We use the phone as a tool to gather the information. 2:05pm Jeff Gauthier as a tpr, we share salary/offer info as appropriate from competitors 2:06pm Shannon Myers Agreed more info as related to marketing the position - salaries, benefits, etc 2:06pm Suzy So you wouldn't provide org charts of sorts as an added value? 2:06pm Shannon Myers with names or just to show structure? 2:07pm Suzy well, names are always juicier;-D 2:07pm Jeff Gauthier we would be more inclined to keep that to ourselves 2:07pm Irina Shamaeva We get paid on a contingency basis. I wish we were also paid for providing CI 2:07pm Eric GilsonIt's not that I wouldn't, I just don't currently 2:08pm Kay Hi All, can sombody tell me how do i remove a blog? 2:08pm Paul DeBettignies I share who is hiring, laying off, new products, news not yet out in the community 2:08pm Maureen Sharib I think it's a BIG income area that sourcers can tap into (if they're so inclined). 2:08pm Shannon Myers I think more CI is offered depending on relationship you already have with a client and whether it is for a new position you are recruiting for or more general 2:08pm Kay I mean I posteda blog a couple of days ago now I want to delete it from my page 2:08pm Susan Burns Hi Kay - you can write to Jason through his profile. This is a scheduled chat so they'll be focused on set topic 2:09pm Suzy OK- for corporate recruiters then-is there a CI function w/in your company and do you gather primary research info (phone) and disseminate back to your team and leadership? 2:09pm Kay oops!!! 2:09pm Suzy Thanks Maureen- good point 2:09pm Suzy Paul- that's good stuff you are sharing 2:09pm Dorothy Beach No CI function and yes primary info is given back to team 2:10pm Paul DeBettignies (but I do keep theorg chart to myself) 2:10pm Maureen Sharib CI could be a direct link between recruiting and business devt with outreaches to devt and marketing. 2:10pm Irina Shamaeva Suzy, we work with 2 of your competitors and our relationships with them are good very structured. 2:10pm Irina Shamaeva good but 2:10pm Dorothy Beach Most companies aren't organized to receive much from Recruiting( 2:10pm Suzy Dorothy-can you expand on that thought? 2:11pm Maureen Sharib Most companiesdon't tHINK about what information recruiters and sourcers come across on a daily basis... 2:11pm Paul DeBettignies or that it is as valuable as it is 2:11pm Maureen Sharib Zakly 2:11pm Susan Burns Often recruiting doesn't offer up the info to the right people though - they have to take the lead sometimes 2:11pm Dorothy Beach I meant as far as CI is concerned. 2:11pm Susan Burns If you have the knowledge but don't share it ....who would know to ask? 2:11pm Suzy Yes- so in essence a structured CI function that works hand in hand with recruiting would be ideal, correct? 2:11pm Maureen Sharib They don'tknow howtohANDLE the information for the most part - how toact on it - a lack of criticalthinking IMO 2:11pm Paul DeBettignies yes 2:12pm Irina Shamaeva Yes 2:12pm Eric Gilson I guess that we do provide information on some of our clients competitors. Which verticals or horizontals consulting firms seem to be hiring in. But I would hope that they would already know who they are competing with out there? 2:12pm Suzy Eric- you'd be surprised 2:12pm Paul DeBettignies I know of a big company here in Mpls that calls it the rumor mill. They ask recruiters to pass on any information they ehar about to the VP operations 2:12pm Dorothy Beach No place in an ATS that can capture it and then be serached for - it miiht be illegal to even put it in there? So where to put it? 2:12pm Maureen Sharib My thots zakly Suzy! 2:12pm Susan Burns Suzy - how do you see CI intersecting with workforce planning? 2:12pm Eric Gilson SAP for example.... 2:13pm Suzy Paul- well, that's innovative! 2:13pm Maureen Sharib Illegal? 2:13pm Paul DeBettignies nothing formal, just pass it on 2:13pm Suzy Susan- can you maybe rephrase? 2:13pm Maureen Sharib Big audience today Suzy! 2:13pm Suzy HA! Thanks Maureen 2:14pm Susan Burns As you see CI working closely w/ the recruiting function do you also see it working closely with the workforce planning group or person? 2:14pm Eric Gilson How do you use and distribut CI internally Suzy 2:14pm Suzy Dorothy- hmm...yes, good point. ATS might not be the spot for CI-perhaps a newsletter? 2:15pm Suzy Eric- that's for me to know and for you to find out:-0 2:15pm Dorothy Beach I am thinking of risk for a company to let that out - advice on how to handle that kind of info? 2:15pm Susan Burns Suzy - are sharepoint sites being used too? 2:15pm Dorothy Beach Adding this info to a Sharepoint site that has hiring manager access? 2:15pm Suzy Susan- I see CI being used pretty much in all functions of a company. Yes, I've heard of internal Sharepoint sites being used 2:16pm Shannon Myers I would think some CI would be vital to attracting/retaining talent and has to be discussed somewhere 2:16pm Susan Burns what about CRM? Could it be set up to manage the info as well? 2:16pm Suzy I would like to hear fromothers on Dorothy's question...? 2:16pm Irina Shamaeva Suzy, we talk about CI and hopefully we all understand it similarly - but would you mind saying a definition, or listing items? 2:16pm Dorothy Beach You mean CRM like Salesforce that others have access to? 2:17pm Suzy Irina- competitive and business intelligence- what your competitors are doing, hiring, firing, planning on doing, salaries, benefits etc 2:17pm Dorothy Beach Before I forget there is Paul Houston - from SCIP - who specializes in Recruiting and CI 2:17pm Susan Burns Dorothy - yes but access can be protected if needed/desired 2:17pm Irina Shamaeva Thanks 2:18pm Suzy Paul Houston- well check him out- I too am amember of SCIP 2:18pm Suzy Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals 2:18pm Suzy So how does your company leverage CI to source candidates? 2:19pm Suzy And- when does gathring CI become unethical, in your opinions 2:19pm Dorothy Beach Right now it is the simple stuff - layoff reports, industry reports, analysts reports ... 2:20pm Susan Burns Suzy - do you like what LI is doing with the corporate beta project - is it a good CI resource? 2:21pm Irina Shamaeva We know the competitors and what they are good at so look for candidates there; know when they are about to layoff or are being acquired etc 2:21pm Paul DeBettignies I found staying within my ethics is simple. I always ask people, "what do you know" 2:21pm Dorothy Beach If you go to a new employee and he/she is apporached about their last company but doesn't want to talk about it - the recriter/CI person might push for info too hard - then it might be unethical 2:21pm Paul DeBettignies rarely have to dig further although I may be missing the "really" good stuff 2:21pm Suzy I like what LI did very much- it's not 100% but it certainly gives you som good basic data to work off of 2:22pm Susan Burns Curious - if your working with a prospect that easily offers up info - how do you feel about presenting them to a client? 2:22pm Susan Burns the person that is who just disclosed a bunch of proprietary info ;-) 2:22pm Dorothy Beach Not sure what the corp beta project is? 2:22pm Eric Gilson I would coach him to be a little more tight lipped 2:22pm Suzy I like yuor approach Paul-keep it simple 2:23pm Susan Burns Dorothy - click on a company name in someones profile and you'll see 2:23pm Suzy Agreed with Eric 2:23pm Dorothy Beach Oh you mean the link for company info - yes very interesting and could be expanded 2:24pm Suzy I'm curious- oes your company try to obtain CI from new hires and is that process established? 2:24pm Susan Burns Good question Suzy! 2:24pm Suzy This would be for corporate recruiters 2:24pm Dorothy Beach Not established - 2:24pm Eric Gilson If I was internal, I was ask each new hire for a list of the best people he/she has worked with over the last few years. 2:25pm Eric Gilson every hire 2:25pm Suzy Good one Eric 2:25pm Dorothy Beach Corporations have a hard time just getting employees to put profiles into the address book! 2:25pm Susan Burns When I've seen it done its more informal and inconsistent but should be an established part of the on-boarding process like asking for referrals 2:25pm Dorothy Beach It seems it takes a lot to get info from new employees - maybe because they stress about on-boarding. 2:25pm Amybeth Hale When we hire new people, we use that opportunity to get referrals for hires 2:26pm Shannon Myers Dorthoy - LI is using data from LI users and updates from Capital IQ to be able to show who is where coming and going if you click on some of the companies - still in devp't 2:26pm Amybeth Hale and often in that process we discover good CI nuggets :) 2:26pm Susan Burns Amybeth - how are the CI nuggets shared 2:26pm Amybeth Hale Such as if our competitors do investment hiring, if they've recently had hiring frosts, or perhaps certain areas of their business where they are ramping up (potential new client gains) 2:27pm KarenM / Hirecentrix.com question, does anyone ask if there the candidate signed any non disclosures before asking questions? 2:27pm Suzy That would be a good question, Karen! 2:27pm Susan Burns Karen - would also expect that has come up prior in the hiring process 2:27pm Susan Burns or previously ;-) 2:28pm Dorothy Beach Oh yes, especially in an Exec Search Practice and if the search is confidential 2:28pm Suzy I would asume any self-respecting hiring manager/recruiter would do that 2:28pm Jason C. Blais How much time and how often do people engage in CI activity? 2:28pm Amybeth Hale Precisely. Those things are determined going through the hiring process to begin with. 2:28pm KarenM / Hirecentrix.com another question, then, the candidate has said agreement, and they expose information, what would you do as the recruiter or hiring manager? 2:28pm Suzy Jason: it can be a full-time job or it can be an extension of your recruiting -ask probing questions 2:29pm Susan Burns Amybeth - can u share more about how the info gathered is put to use.....shared with key people..... 2:29pm Eric Gilson My HM's have shot a guy down for this when the info shared was actually public knowledge 2:29pm Jason C. Blais (sorry I'm late to the table- I was at an HR meeting acquiring CI from Corp HR Prof's and Consultants) 2:29pm Susan Burns Suzy - can it overlap with a sourcing strategist role too 2:29pm Eric Gilson yeah yeah 2:29pm Susan Burns So, Jason - you have lots of new CI to share with us then ;-) 2:30pm Suzy Susan- yes indeed Sourcing and CI should go hand in hand 2:30pm Amybeth Hale I'm just a simple researcher. I share what I learn w/ my manager and let him decide what to do with it. 2:30pm Susan Burns Amybeth - u underestimate yourself ;-) 2:30pm Jason C. Blais (reading my ethics and morality book now, trying to determine whether it's okay to share, and if so how) 2:30pm Eric Gilson How about TPR using CI to attract passive candidates? 2:30pm Suzy Amybeth: you are NOT just a simple researcher @:^) 2:31pm Dorothy Beach You mean Eric about the company they are in? 2:31pm Susan Burns Seriously Amybeth - I could see u developing a secret insights book each month that goes to the Board! 2:31pm Eric Gilson "I hear that your current company lost that account or is about to...." 2:31pm Eric Gilson yes 2:31pm Suzy To Karen's point: what would you do if candidate has NDA and exposes info anyway...and the answer is? 2:31pm Jason C. Blais I'd like to hear more about what is done with the CI once you have it- white papers? Meetings? Strategic implementation? newsletters? 2:32pm KarenM / Hirecentrix.com jason that is a good one, and also to add to that, what does your company do to protect themselves if they become privy to info they may not have 2:32pm Suzy Jason- I beleive all of the above would be an ideal mix 2:32pm Susan Burns Suzy - re last Q - (a) shouldn't ask out of respect but (b) if they share I'd say bad hire! 2:33pm Suzy OK- one of MY fave topics- what tools do YOU ue to uncover CI?? 2:33pm Susan Burns Many companies have written policies stating that the information can not and should not be used and its grounds for separation 2:33pm Amybeth Hale When we are made aware, either through a tip or a public press release, that a target company has started rounds of layoffs, the other researcher and I set about looking for individuals who work for that company, gather their contact information, and pass it to our recruiters or do initial outreach to them. 2:33pm Dorothy Beach Yes, what is professional in manner? Especially if candidate is to go to a high position 2:34pm Jason C. Blais If there are public layoffs, isn't it appropriate to contact the HR at the location and offer to help with career transition? 2:34pm Susan Burns Suzy - before we go on - wondering if it would be helpful to discern between CI that is appropriate to collect and share and CI that is not appropriate to collec and share 2:34pm Dorothy Beach Now see I have gone straight to the outplacement companies to ask what titles for example are being released 2:34pm Dorothy Beach What the timing is 2:35pm Susan Burns Jason - YES! 2:35pm Dorothy Beach Usually someone in HR in the targeted company that is laying off will tell you which outplacement firm they use 2:35pm Dorothy Beach The onlycompany I haven't been able to get that from was P&G 2:35pm Dorothy Beach But I got it from other sources 2:36pm Suzy Well appropriate is A)anything that is on the internet (for the most part) is fair game and can be shared and B)inappropriate- I guess I don't know since I've never gone there! 2:36pm Dorothy Beach so one should search th einternet before disclosing? 2:37pm Susan Burns So, is information shared during conversation appropriate if its simply offered up and there is not an NDA 2:37pm Jason C. Blais we work with ouplacement firms, to provide "online job hunting tips" to those outplaced. Often they haven't searched for a job in quite some time. As a job posting service, we know we have had exposure to a group from a certain background, and our sales calls other companies to sell access ot our RezDB. Is that commonly agreed to be appropriate? 2:37pm Irina Shamaeva Suzy - what is you get somebody's password to a closed source? 2:37pm Susan Burns I guess there is also a fine line between legal and ethical. Recall hearing of someone getting a hold of a doc online that should not have been available - do you use it or not? 2:38pm Suzy Irina- that sounds un-ethical to me if I hear you correctly 2:38pm Jason C. Blais A little bird told me? 2:38pm Dorothy Beach It seems to me Susan that happens less and less often 2:38pm Amybeth Hale Who's the one to determine if the doc should/should not have been available? 2:38pm Eric Gilson I use Jason's line 2:39pm Suzy Jason & Eric- and that actually flies as an answer? 2:39pm Dorothy Beach so how does one reveal sources of information that might be delicate? 2:39pm Eric Gilson example: A candidate tells me the name of their best Client Partner. I ask if I can use the candidate's name when contacting them. They say no. 2:40pm Jason C. Blais:-! not exactly. Though sometimes the value of the information will bend people's sense of ethics..s 2:40pm Susan Burns AMybeth - in the ex I shared - it was part of an SEC filing for a financial inst - full org chart with names and titles 2:40pm Jason C. Blais ..so i try to avoid those situations as best as possible. 2:40pm Jason C. Blais susan- wow. 2:41pm Suzy And Susan- how did you know it wasn't supposed to be up? 2:41pm Eric Gilson I don't come out and say a birdy told me, what I tell them is that their name was given to me by a individual that I am currently assisting in a confidential job search. 2:41pm Susan Burns Suzy - don't know for sure but it was requested with the filing and I would expect the company did not anticipate it to be an accessible document 2:41pm Eric Gilson Your name came up as someone who is very good at what they do. ALl I can say is that I will offer you the same level of confidentiality that I offer all executives that I engage with. 2:42pm Maureen Sharib full org chart with names and titles That's unusual in an SEC filing. ALL the employees? 2:42pm Dorothy Beach A SEC file not accessible? 2:42pm Eric Gilson and yeah. That works everytime 2:42pm Susan Burns May be more common now with SOX - not sure 2:42pm Jason C. Blais I'm trying to build more CI into our company. I am a member and on the board of HR associations. I attend trade and chamber activities. I build trust and gain info and insight. 2:42pm Susan Burns Maureen - not all but a lot! 2:42pm Dorothy Beach Ohhh - something to look into... 2:43pm Susan Burns Suzy - I think we got off track - you had another question for us 2:43pm Jason C. Blais I become very wary of handing that intelligence to our sales team, as I don't want to burn bridges. We need the info, but have to be tactful on how we use it. 2:43pm Suzy Jason- that sounds like a very good path you're on 2:43pm Irina Shamaeva Someone told me recently that examining source code for web pages is not right, you agree? 2:43pm Jim - medXcentral jumping in late again.. sorry. 2:44pm Amybeth Hale Isn't source code considered to be public domain? 2:44pm Suzy My question was: what tools & techniques do you guys use to gather useful CI? 2:44pm Eric Gilson The telephone 2:44pm Amybeth Hale I love press releases personally - online paper trails. One usually leads to several others 2:44pm Suzy Irina- why is that not right? If anyone is able to view them... 2:44pm Jason C. Blais In a previous life, I worked for a travel broker that guaranteed loweest rates. 2:44pm Maureen Sharib I have allowed my thoughts to wander -my mind to drift - here: If a corporation is a public entity then doesn't the "public" (who holds stock) deserve to be privy to the employee info? I know it's a pipedream...a fantasy...but it sure would be nice! :) 2:44pm Jason C. Blais There was a whole dept devoted to calling all our competitors every day and filling a spreadsheet with rates 2:44pm Dorothy Beach Usual stuff - SEC filings, websites, blogs, LinkedIn sometimes, etc 2:44pm Susan Burns Twitter, LI 2:45pm Irina Shamaeva Say on zoominfo you can view source of your results and emails will not be truncated, easy to get all at once, like cheating 2:45pm Suzy Maureen- nice dream for sure!! 2:45pm Susan Burns Maureen - guess it comes down to intention. Transparency is very good but protecting assets protects the shareholders as well 2:46pm Jason C. Blais Old school but effective. Now there is much more activity on the web, but it's become less reliable. Published info, particularly on the web will always be tainted with spin.. 2:46pm Suzy I'm sure RSS feeds are used as well-I like to be on top of things and disseminate to my team ASAP 2:46pm Susan Burns Ultimately - if ee are happy, engaged and taken care of they won't leave. if they want to leave its only a matter of time 2:46pm Jason C. Blais Suzy, do you think more people should have access to CI tools like RSS feeds, or fewer? 2:46pm Susan Burns RSS is going wild - although I heard it may peak at 11% usage 2:47pm Susan Burns Suzy - do u by that # - 11% of Internet users will take advantage of RSS 2:47pm Suzy Jason-it takes a certain type of info-maniac to really stay on top of things, but yes people should have access to RSS feeds by all means! 2:47pm Suzy I know- not that many RSS users kind of boggles my mind- just gave a webinar on setting them up etc 2:47pm Jason C. Blais I mean to say: will productivity suffer from analysis paralysis? Too much time in research, not enough time in action? 2:48pm Maureen Sharib Is there a single most important piece of CI? 2:48pm Susan Burns Jason - good point - comes down to roles and structure to take advantage of it 2:48pm Suzy Jason-that is why Internet Researchers such as Amybeth and I are of great value-let us do the legwork 2:48pm Susan Burns Maureen - do u mean of the data collected or of how its used? 2:48pm Dorothy Beach Yes, how to manage it all - I think you have to try enough venues to understand what gives most pointed info and then cut out all the rest 2:48pm Maureen Sharib The data collected. 2:49pm Susan Burns Suzy - this really emphasizes the importance of how a recruiting/talent function is structured. Much more sophisticated to then previously 2:49pm Charles Bretz Suzy, any tips orbest practices for compiling and sharing your CI - what about storage and access 2:49pm Suzy Thanks Susan- very true. 2:49pm Dorothy Beach Goof Q Maureen - is there such a thing as a single best CI site/blog/whatever? 2:50pm Amybeth Hale Jason: agreed w/ Suzy. Professional researchers know what to do with the mountains of information that would be daunting to most people. It's good to have people like us on staff to filter through these important bits of information. 2:50pm Jason C. Blais In our business, I am the funnel for info from blogs, associations, networks, RSS feeds, etc, for the higher level strategic data collection. We turn that data into seminars accredited by HRCI, offer the seminar, build trust, get leads. 2:50pm Maureen Sharib Or what piece of CI is most valuable? Any opinions? 2:50pm Jason C. Blais However, our sales managers spend a % of time on sales CI... 2:50pm Suzy Charles- well hello there! Ideally, a corporate social networks comprised of RSS feeds, blogs and wikis would be the best way to disseminate CI- IBM has something really good up and running w/even a Twitter like function 2:50pm Susan Burns If someone is on IE could you try and copy the chat stream and send me a doc. I can't get it with Firefox or Safari 2:50pm Dorothy Beach So would a CRM typically used by sales people be a one stop shop? 2:50pm Jason C. Blais Charles- I'm interested in the same- storage and dissemination 2:51pm Amybeth Hale Suzy, do they use Yammer? 2:51pm RecruiterGuy Video for my friends here on RBC... http://www.recruitingblogs.com/video/recruiterguy-the-what-before 2:51pm Amybeth Hale Yammer not has groups you can moderate w/i you company. Great way to get info quickly to large, or small, groups of people 2:51pm Susan Burns Dorothy - to some degree - yes, what biz dev and sales is putting into the CRM it could be very informative 2:51pm Jason C. Blais Susan, I can capture this stream on Firefox. Highlight the first line. Then hold the shift and click on the last line, copy paste 2:51pm Maren Hogan oh good I was gonna say that Chris just put up a really cool post on slicin g and dicing the RSS feeds you get 2:51pm Suzy IBM uses something proprietary called Beehive I beleive-I've tried Yammer- it's OK 2:52pm Susan Burns well thank you Jason! 2:52pm Susan Burns Jason - still can't get it but I'm on a mac - is that why 2:53pm Susan Burns Suzy - is beehive avail outside of IBM or proprietary in dev and use? 2:53pm Suzy Maureen- as far as best piece of CI-all relative to your company... 2:53pm Jason C. Blais I'll get it at 4... though I only came in at 3:12, so missed some. I'll send it to you 2:53pm Charles Bretz I can copy and paste the thread. who should I send it to? 2:53pm Suzy Susan- Beehive is their internal twitter tool 2:53pm Susan Burns thanks Charles - talentsynchronicity@mac.com 2:53pm Charles Bretz You'll have it at the end 2:54pm Susan Burns You data junkies (me too btw) may also be interested in a new book called the Numerati on how companies, esp IBM, are using data to make a lot of decisions about team structure and project deployment - some good internal. Not sure how much may be CI related but possibly Suzy Thanks Susan- will look into it 2:55pm Susan Burns Suzy - do you have any closing thoughts or last questions 2:55pm Amybeth Hale Numerati was recommended to my by a prominent analyst relations professional as well. As you are the second person to recommend it, I guess I should go buy it :) 2:55pm RecruiterGuy Susan seriously?? By BAker? 2:56pm Suzy BTW- I thank all of you for being here and chatting and I hope it was all worth your while 2:56pm Susan Burns You can read an excerpt of the book in BusinessWeek - or Newsweek - forget which one 2:56pm Eric Gilson Stay happy Suzi. Thinking about you guys! 2:56pm Jason C. Blais I'm glad to know that CI is blossoming and i'm on the right track! 2:56pm Jason C. Blais THanks 2:56pm Suzy Thanks Eric- it's gorgeous out here and you need to come visit 2:56pm Eric Gilson Keller was last night! 2:56pm Eric Gilson I didn't go 2:57pm Susan Burns Suzy - this has been a great chat! Thanks much for all of your insight! I know this was a tough day for you with the loss of your dog and appreciate you spending time with us 2:57pm Suzy Aww-thanks Susan- it was a good distraction 2:57pm Susan Burns Thanks everyone for joining Talent Talk Cafe today - lots of great insight about CI, the value it brings and how to navigate some sensitive areas…; Added by Susan Burns at 1:16am on November 14, 2008