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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

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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

Blog Post: How to Hire Employees in 2022 [Step-by-Step]: If you’re an HR manager or a business leader, one of the questions that probably keep you up at night is how to hire employees. Hiring has been on the rise based on a …; Added by Phil Strazzulla at 9:59pm on November 5, 2022

Topic: Meet Mark Berger, Sourcing Guru, Adjunct Faculty at JobMachine: Invite Mark! An $800 fee in 1979 bought a lifetime of confidence to share with others .... Meet our friend and fellow RecruitingBlogs.com enthusiast, Mark E. Berger. Since 1979 he has been a driving force within the staffing community and his accomplishments have been widely recognized. "Mark has been one of my longest standing heroes and influencers in the business of sourcing. His quiet and humble demeanor exudes an unmatched confidence, while at the same time makes him extremely approachable. From when we first virtually “met” before the turn of the millennium, I have remained a loyal and devoted fan of his work. I can offer no stronger endorsement than the fact that I trust him completely and strive to find more ways in which we can do business together regularly.” December 31, 2007" Shally Steckerl, Chief CyberSleuth & Founder, JobMachine, Inc, (JobMachine.net) I should preface my featured article by letting our audience know that Mark and I are fellow travelers within the sourcing community and that we share mutual admiration of our colleagues Shally Steckerl and Glenn Gutmacher. That said, Mark established himself long ago and independently with his SwatRecriting Techniques - so good that it caught the eye of JobMachine and has since joined us as an Adjunct Faculty member since September 2008. In his role as Adjunct Faculty, Mark conducts online workshops for Swat Recruiting and JobMachine customers, covering many of the topics in the JobMachine curriculum. His specialties inclued demonstrating how to maximize searches on Google, Windows Live and LinkedIn, advanced techniques for finding resumes online, and specialized search engine syntax such as the site: command, intitle: and inurl:. Mark has been in recruiting and staffing since 1979. He is currently the proprietor of Swat Recruiting (www.swatrecruiting.com), a firm supporting the technology needs of the recruiting and staffing industry. He has been heavily involved in Internet recruiting ever since there was such a thing and has become an expert on recruiting and sourcing products and services available to the recruiting industry. Mark started utilizing the Internet for candidate sourcing back in the early 1990s by first running classified ads on the text versions or AOL and Compuserve. Then he was an early user of some of the very first online resume databases including Career Mosaic, Headhunter.net, and Online Career Center. In the latter part of the 90s Mark learned advanced techniques to source passive candidates from the Internet using the search engines, primarily utilizing Alta Vista and Northern Lights in the beginning and is now an advanced user of today's popular search engines including Google, Live, and Yahoo. Mark also has a high level of expertise in recruiter databases (ATS’s), including how these products add to the bottom line. Mark has authored the Internet Recruiting column appearing monthly in The Fordyce Letter since 1998 and is a frequent contributor to other recruiting industry publications. He is also an often requested speaker at many local, regional, and national recruiting industry events. Mark is also on the board of directors for the Mid-America Association of Personnel Services Q&A with Mark Berger Six Degrees: Tell us about your home world Mark. Mark: To date, my personal life has been fairly private. I am a simple man with simple needs and tastes that leads a fairly uncomplicated yet enjoyable life. I am lucky to have a great job that I love, get to travel fairly regularly, a wonderful family including three great school-aged kids that I am very close with. In whatever free time I do have I enjoy going to yard sales and estate sales, usually on the weekends. You just never know what treasure you will stumble on next. Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Mark: I started in the early days of IT recruiting, 9/17/79. Back then it was nothing more than recruiting COBOL and Assembler programmers on IBM, Honeywell, Univac, and Burroughs “mainframes”. There was a little Fortran on DEC/PDP’s as well. How things have changed… I was at it pretty much full time for many years, close to 28 or so, until I went into recruiter technology training full time back in 2006. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Mark: I wish my story could be more dramatic but back in the late 1970s nobody even knew what a “recruiter” was. Most of the time people thought I worked for the military. I remember being doing some shopping one day and bumped into a friend I had worked with in a prior job. He just happened to mention I should come and interview with his boss, who was looking to hire a couple of people. I agreed and although I had no idea what I was walking into nor the impact it would have on the rest of my life, I was offered and accepted the job. After my initial 60 minute training session my boss had me make out a bunch of index cards (pre-computer/pre-database) with all the company names I could find, then started to call those companies to solicit job orders. I made my first placement in my third week…and the rest is history. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Mark: Probably that first placement, back in 1979. In this new job of mine, not knowing what I was doing, I did wonder if I was cut out for the task. That first placement, I think for an $800 fee, gave me the confidence I needed to go forward and turn this job into the career that it has been for me. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Mark: In my early days, I never had a mentor. I was always jealous of those recruiters who worked for the very few other recruiting companies at the time that actually had big billers on staff to learn from. The company I worked for didn’t really have anyone like that. I always used to tell people back then that the reason I knew what to do at any given time was because I had done it wrong in the past and was able to learn from my mistakes. Later in my career, I’d have to say Paul Hawkinson, long-time editor and publisher of the venerable Fordyce Letter, nurtured my early role as his Internet Recruiting columnist, starting in 1998. His early vision that an Internet column in his newsletter is only one indication of his broadminded outlook on this industry. These days, if I had to pick a mentor it would be Shally, whom I have known for many, many years. Before his name because a household word in our industry. I saw his JobMachine grow from a small, part-time endeavor to become a national influence in the recruitment/sourcing industry. Every time I listen to him speak, I learn something new. Six Degrees: Tell us about your staffing industry contributions, Mark: Mark: Currently, I am owner of Swat Recruiting (www.swatrecruiting.com). I actually started Swat many years ago but never really had the time to do what I wanted to do with it. In late 2005 I made the decision to change the focus of my career from placements to training, and have never been happier. Although I do miss the placements from time to time, I feel very fulfilled and actually love my job now. Swat is involved in all types of recruiter technology. Anything computer, Internet, software related. We try and assist recruiting organizations integrate technology into their work environment. There are so many choices out there it is overwhelming for some. Swat Recruiting offers many training sessions, mainly on sourcing passive candidates on the Internet, and most have been very well received by the recruiting community. We also work on marketing plans from time to time with recruiting industry vendors, and have a small ATS consulting practice. Six Degrees: What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Mark: Well…I don’t know about companies, but I do have a few “heroes” I suppose. A couple I already mentioned. Paul Hawkinson, who just received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the most recent NAPS conference, has always been someone I have looked up to, and I am very privileged to have been able to get to know him in my ten-year association with him prior to his retirement. Shally Steckerl is another already mentioned. This man is a true visionary in our chosen field and one that is well-respected throughout. It is my honor and pleasure to be as closely associated with him as I am. Donato Diorio is another. This man is a tireless supporter of our industry, and now only develops some of the finest recruitment software via his Broadlook company, he is also very knowledgeable about the inner workings of our industry. I have had the pleasure of knowing him since the early days of Broadlook. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Mark: Lucky for me…the prevailing industry trend is locating passive candidate resources on the Internet, my specialty. As far as this aspect of the recruiting industry has come, I feel like in many ways we are still in its infancy. I think over the next few years networking for candidates will become more and more an accepted way to get those elusive A+ candidates as the pricey resume databases will become less influential. Six Degrees: I know you have been active on the speaking circuit over the years, Mark can you elaborate on where our colleagues can have an opportunity to see you in action? Mark: One thing I really enjoy about my career as an industry trainer is that I do get to travel from time to time for public speaking engagements. I have been to Fordyce Forum, the National Association of Personnel Services national conference, MRI, Top Echelon, and IPA regionals. I have also had the pleasure of working with these groups and others including Kennedy Information, NPA, ASA, and many state and local recruiter associations to get the word out about this technology. For many years I have been a Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) and a Certified Internet Recruiter (CIR). I am also very proud to say I am not an Adjunct Faculty member at JobMachine.net and will be participating on a regular basis in the Webinar Series and be a regular blog contributor. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Mark: My career goals are simple. Not only to learn as much as I can about recruiter technology…to stay abreast of everything new and exciting, but to be able to teach what I learn to others, so they can make effective use of these new trends to make more hires or placements. PART II: “HOW DOES MARK DO IT?” Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit? Mark: In my role as the Internet Recruiting columnist for the Fordyce Letter and industry technology trainer I maintain relations with surely the vast majority of the recruiting industry vendors, ATS, Data/Resume Capture, Contact Databases, etc. People often ask me for my recommendations or favorites, and although I do have them I always encourage people to make their selection based on their own needs, not what I happen to like. Six Degrees: What tools did you first encounter early in your recruitment career? Mark: When I first started in the business back in 1979, we used index cards to sort our companies/clients and hard copy resumes for our candidates. This was way before computers, much less the Internet. This was even before fax machines as we had to make copies of resumes and actually mail them (yes, USPS…with a stamp) to our clients. We had file drawers with folders and tabs for different programming languages and/or job titles and/or hardware. Our job was made much more difficult by the fact that if a person had more than one skill, you either had to make a duplicate copy of his resume and file it in a second folder, or, more often forget that he or she was there. We had to rely a lot more on our memories that we do today. Those were the reasons I was a very early proponent of automation/computerization in the recruiting office in the 1980s, as soon as the PC came onto the market. Then in the early nineties, we tried running classified ads for programmers on the text versions of America Online and Compuserve. Snagged a few here and there. The middle nineties brought the early iterations of resume databases including Headhunter.net, Career Mosaic, Online Career Center, etc. All those have since been gobbled up by today’s big services. Then, in the latter part of the nineties, the term “passive candidate” was first coined, and we learned how to use Internet search engines, back then mainly AltaVista and NorthernLights, to search for resumes. Since then it has been a learning process and then a teaching process the last few years. Six Degrees: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry, and/or at your place of work? If you started that process, outline the problem, your solutions, and the vision. Mark: The problem, if there is one, depends on the audience. If you talk about HR, this is a group of people not typically trained in sales. You can teach them all about sourcing techniques but once they have sourced a few candidates, they may be unsure as to how to make the connection, how to lure that resource into the fold. The solution here is to give that audience a simple, yet reliable way to make contact and get their foot in the door. Most big companies have this problem licked by dedicating teams of people, however, many smaller and medium sized organizations do not have the financial resources or manpower to do this. They have to be more creative. If you look at the third-party group, the problem differs a bit. This is a group that is typically highly skilled in sales, however, lack the patience and/or inclination to follow a thorough sourcing process. This needs to be taken into account when presenting to this group. They need some very easy ways to perform this task. Six Degrees: “Best practice” you are most proud of developing (now or in the past) in your recruiting career? Mark: Probably preaching a process-oriented approach to sourcing. Technique is one thing. You can get techniques from the Google help pages, but it is only when those techniques are integrated with a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach can one expect to say they have done a thorough job of sourcing their next applicant. So many I talk to run one string in one search engine, grab a few resources and call it a day. Little do they know how much they are leaving on the table for those more thorough competitors. Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, -- what inspires you as you continue in your career? Mark: One thing that helps is to try hard not to become frustrated. What goes up goes down but conversely, what goes down goes up. There are always good times and bad times in any business. Ride the wave either way it goes and be in it for the long haul. Six Degrees: What one thing do you ideally hope to accomplish in 2009? Mark: Next year, one of my professional goals is for my training to become more appealing to an international audience. I have had a couple classes to Australians, Asians, and the English. I want to do more of that. I also want to expand my training to include more of the network available to recruiters. There are so many now it is hard for one to know the good from the great. Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug? Mark: Check the JobMachine.net calendar regularly for my webinars. Better yet, sign up to be on the mailing list so you won’t miss the announcements. Six Degrees: How Are You Going To Change The Recruitment Industry? Mark: Simple…learn more…teach more. Listen to Mark in action this Thursday: Free Webinar, Register HERE for "Turbocharged Passive Candidate Sourcing: Best of Telephone, Google & Online Database Research Techniques" with Co-Presenter, Sheila Greco RECOMMENDATIONS “I highly recommend anyone to work with Mark. I've trained with him a couple times. He had a wonderful rapport with trainees at all levels. He is always very responsive to questions, feedback, or simple explanations to my issues. His ability to connect with superiors, clients, vendors, and subordinates is what sets Mark apart from other trainers; he had the balance of truly listening and then approaching issues with candid yet insightful knowledge. Mark has excellent written and verbal communication skills, is extremely organized, reliable and a whiz with any sourcing technology. I have emailed him questions and despite her busy schedule he gets back to me immediately and always with a very positive attitude. I recommend Mark without reservation."” May 27, 2008 Teresa Bustamante PHR, CPC, Research Analyst, Avery Dennison “Mark's down-to-earth writing and seminar teaching style is easy to follow and his strategies are simple to execute. Mark really cares about helping his colleagues and client/students become more efficient and more effective recruiters.” November 25, 2008 Top qualities: Expert, Good Value, High Integrity Ronald Siegel “I had the good fortune of attending Mark's Linked-In webinar. Up until this point, I hadn't done much with Linked-In. However, Mark taught many options one could investigate to help in sourcing passive candidates. While I'm just starting out using Linked-In, I'm hopeful that it will be a big help in my building a solid network & provide another alternative to traditional sourcing.” November 3, 2008 Michael Klass, Search Consultant, Joan Leslie Search Group was with another company when working with Mark E. at Swat Recruiting “I have taken 2 courses from Mark and look forward to taking more. He knows his stuff and is a great teacher.” October 30, 2008 Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Good Value Bill Zajac PE hired Mark E. as a Business Consultant in 2008, and hired Mark E. more than once “Mark is truly an expert in the area of recruiting technology analysis. He breaks down the process to even the most minute detail, and is quick to understand the impact technology has on the recruiting process. While I may not always agree with what Mark has to say, I certainly respect his viewpoint, and it makes for great conversation. Thanks for your commitment to our industry, Mark.” August 19, 2008 Mike Tischer, Channel Manager and Sr. Sales Representative, Broadlook Technologies was with another company when working with Mark E. at Swat Recruiting “I have worked with Mark on a number of Kennedy Information sponsored seminars. He is a joy to work with because he is a true professional who updates his content on a regular basis and has a great ability to reach his audience. Post report analysis prove that he is popular talent. I look forward to working with Mark in the future.” August 15, 2008 Hillary Kyle Holian, Associate Producer, Kennedy Information, Career Management Alliance, IOMA “I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Mark Berger for several years. Mr. Berger is a top notch recruiter and an expert in the application of technology to the recruitment process. He provides a much needed resource to the staffing and recruiting industries through his training programs and leadership. Mark is also a tireless supporter and board member of the Mid America Association of Personnel and Staffing Services. His input and insights have had a tremendous impact on both that organization but also on the many members of that organization.” June 18, 2008 Roger Aistrup, General Manager, Allan James Associates LLC “I've taken 2 classes from Mark and find his work to be very meaningful and thorough on the subject. He not only has a pleasant manner, you can tell he enjoys what he does. He is extremely knowledgeable and detailed in his presentations and materials. I highly recommend his classes!” March 21, 2008.. Top qualities: Expert, Good Value, Creative Marney Reed “WAPS invited Mark Berger to speak to our local membership on February 20th 2008. Mark came prepared to engage our membership on finding passive candidates on the internet. WAPS emphatically endorses Mark Berger for any seminars or webinars in your area. Mark knows his subject very well and the content of his presentations enabled our members to take several ideas and suggestions back to our desk. Mark is very patient and was willing to answer any question our membership had. Also, Mark is very much open to continue answering questions if our members are struggling with one of his techniques. WAPS is happy to endorse Mark Berger for your passive candidate recruiting needs on the internet. February 21, 2008, Terry Rohde, CPC, Engineering Recruiter, DES LLC “From Day 1, Mark has demonstrated his tremendous knowledge of the universe in which he works --- the recruiting and sourcing world. His experience and keen assessment capabilities make him one of the best sources for guidance, especially when it comes to the myriad of tools and methods available on the market today. He is a true professional, and a pleasure to work with!” February 11, 2008 Anne Scofield, Vice President, Business Development, SGA “Mark E. Berger has a very influential and charismatic personality and his online seminars have been a great help for me to do things better that I do every day. I am very impressed with his abilities and grasp of the subject within his domain and I would strongly recommend Mark E. Berger to everyone.” January 11, 2008 Asif Akhtar Nizami, Technical Recruiter, FSD Solutions “Mark has written several articles on my blog (jimstroud.com) and worked with me on multiple projects. I respect his expertise in online recruiting and appreciate the value he brings to the industry.” January 11, 2008 Top qualities: Personable, Expert, Good Value Jim Stroud is a Social Media Development Manager “I have had the pleasure of working with Mark on numerous occasions. He has a comprehensive understanding of the keys to successful recruiting. Mark's clients clearly benefit from his experience and knowledge of the recruiting industry. I enjoy working with the clients he refers because they are focused, informed, and have a clear understanding of why technology is critical to their success.” November 13, 2007 Tammy Wirths, Account Executive, Sendouts was with another company when working with Mark E. at Swat Recruiting “I was introduced to Mark through a management seminar that our owner went to. He showed us all ways to gain access to information that is otherwise not for public eyes-- invaluable in our business! I think it is wonderful that he shares his technical knowledge with those of us who are less savvy in those areas.” November 13, 2007 Denise Gabbard, Search Consultant, GRN Brookpark was with another company when working with Mark E. at Swat Recruiting “In the volatile recruiting software industry, many customers are confused by all the choices & need help to assess their requirements and understand vendor options in a crowded market. I refer people who need assistance to Mark with confidence that he can provide unbiased, professional, and valuable guidance throughout the software evaluation process.” September 21, 2007 Sylvia Dahlby, Chief Executive Instigator, SmartSearch Online “Mark is a consumate professional who is a very knowledgable recruiter, honest and forthright. Then as an owner of Berger-Nowlin, you were fair to all that worked for you, supported and tried to assist the team in anyway you could. It is a natural progression that Mark is in recruiter training. All new and struggling recruiters would only benefit and improve their success by working with Mark.” June 11, 2008 Kevin Fox, Site/Project Manager, Unisys / Berger Nowlin, Inc. “Mark is a kind, capable and caring business owner and manager. I worked directly for Mark and have always respected him and his many abilities. Mark's AIRS knowledge and certification gave him some skills very few recruiters or business owners have. He has always been willing to mentor/train others to be more productive and to lead by example. I would gladly work for Mark again in the future.” March 5, 2008 Jane Bullington, recruiter, berger nowlin “I have known Mark for pretty close to thirty years . Mark has truly made the leap from running a desk to running a company and finally to becoming the "go to guy" for the latest web techniques. The many years Mark has spent on the desk has given him a keen insight as to what recruiters are looking for in tools to make their job mre efficient. I look forward to reading Mark's comments and opinions in the Fordyce Letter as I know they are always right on and I highly recommend attending one of Marks webinars or in person sessions .” November 2, 2008 Ron Sunshine, Owner, ron sunshine associates…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 1:10am on December 8, 2008