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Blog Post: From Angry Birds to Hog Heaven

From Angry Birds to Hog Heaven

Presented by: Doug Douglas – National Engagement…

Added by Doug Douglas at 4:57pm on May 9, 2012

Blog Post: Campus Recruiting Technologies to Adopt to Win the Campus Recruitment Battle: A 2020 article by …; Added by Ngan Pham at 3:33am on April 5, 2021

Blog Post: CAREER REINVENTION: Career Reinvention: Making the Most of Your 50s and 60s…; Added by Mandy Fard - CPRW, CMRW at 6:44am on April 9, 2023

Blog Post: Sourcing: The Hunger Games Edition

Sourcing: The Hunger Games Edition

Presented by: Doug Douglas – National Engagement Manager at…

Added by Doug Douglas at 5:03pm on May 9, 2012

Blog Post: The Net / Net of Net Geners

The Net Net of the Net Geners

Presented by: Doug Douglas – National Engagement Manager at…

Added by Doug Douglas at 5:01pm on May 9, 2012

Blog Post: Can’t Always Trust Expert Advice: Added by Steve Levy at 2:39pm on November 30, 2014

Topic: Meet Larry Gonzales, 20 Year Veteran "Blessed To Give Blessings": te Photography, Cooking, Good Wine, Reading Interests: College Football, Art (Impressionist, Old Masters, Roden's sculptures), World History Favorite Music: Everything from The Beatles to Hendrix to Opera to Lady Gaga Favorite TV Shows: CSI Miami, Csi Vegas, Leverage, Love Saving Grace!, Burn Notice, Damages, Discovery Channel, ESPN, Favorite Movies: Casablanca, All About Eve, Citizen Kane, Trading Places, Errol Flynn Movies, James Bond, The Princess Bride, Jason Bourne, Tombstone, Armageddon, Army Of Darkness Favorite Books: James Patterson, John Sanford, Of Mice And Men, Osterman Weekend, Dostyesky, Dante's Inferno, The Prince, The Art Of War Favorite Quotations: The Proverbs of Solomon: "The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all, is the person who argues with him", "Youth is wasted on the young", "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" • Office/Cell Number 408-838-0637 • Personal Email Larry Gonzales is actually a colleague I worked with when I consulted at Palm. Unfortunately, as a virtual sourcer I never had the honor of meeting Larry face-to-face, but his reputation then as it remains now was well established as a 20+ year veteran of the staffing industry. I was well informed of Larry's formidable resume - a man of all seasons: experienced in the design, implementation and administration of recruiting strategies, staffing planning, and process improvement programs. Larry has managed a recruiting departments, including budgeting, metrics reporting, and recruiting technology. He has a broad working knowledge of HR practices including compensation, performance management, diversity, branding, and employee retention. Larry is proficient in federal and state employment practice regulations, applying and interpreting employee-relations policies, Affirmative Action, Diversity Hiring, EEO-1, VISA Processing and employment law. His Specialties include the following: Mobile Device Engineers, Human Factor Design, Media Designers, Mobile TV, PC-TV, Embedded Software Engineers, Home Entertainment Solutions, RF Engineers, CDMA handset, Risk Management, Sarbanes Oxley Compliance, SAS70, Specialized areas of finance (AML, FAS109/123R, SOP97-2, and SEC Reporting), Sales/Business Development, and Product Marketing. Q&A with Larry Gonzales Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. Larry: I am fortunate to be married to a beautiful and wonderful “Texas Girl”. My wife and I were born and raised in Texas and regardless of how long we live in California, we will always be Texans! Our fourteenth wedding anniversary is coming up next week and I thank God for blessing me with such a great partner in life. I have been involved in charitable fundraising since I was in Middle School. Although the charities and my levels of participation have varied over the years, I feel it is important to give back. My minister always reminds us that “We are blessed, so that we can be a blessing”. I am a cancer survivor. I was diagnosed with cancer in January 2003 and through the efforts of prayer, positive attitude, and the fantastic physicians at Stanford Medical, I have been cancer free since May of that same year. After my full recovery from chemo and radiation, I focused on supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through TNT. I decided to train and participate through Century Bike Rides. I hope to become a mentor next season and help train (mentally and physically) new participants to the program. I am an avid reader of fiction/mystery along with many business periodicals. Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Larry: I have been in the staffing industry for over 20 years dating back to index cards, real cold calls, and ruses. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Larry: Like many of us, I never expected to go in to the recruiting. I had been working for AT&T, designing and selling telecom systems for the transportation industry. I primarily handled air transportation to include airports, airlines, and airline sales offices. I was referred to a “headhunter” that was looking for someone with my background. When the opportunity did not materialize, my recruiter asked me if I would be interested working for her company. I told her that I would rather be a “pimp, than a headhunter”. Famous last words! Needless to say, the reputation garnered by headhunters in those days was less than respectable. She nurtured the relationship and had me meet with the owner of the firm, which was based out of Atlanta. I also meet with all (12) of her colleagues in the Dallas Office. I found myself drawn to the group and to the challenge the job represented. About 90 days later I ended up working for her firm. Since then my experience has included agency, professional services, corporate, and RPO environments. I have held individual contributor, director, and managing partner roles. Regardless of title and responsibilities, I have always been a hands-on contributor. I am a person that gets easily bored, so the ever changing world of technology has been my salvation. To be successful you have to stay abreast of technology trends, understand the industry and known how it applies to business. This requires research and a certain amount of trial and error. Typically, experience helps you shorten your ramp up time to production. You have to continually learn to excel. One of the keys to my longevity is that I always try to specialize. I choose the hottest or up and coming technology and become a subject matter expert. Through the years, I have supported specific software and hardware technology. I get involved in SIGs, Alliance Groups, and conferences. I do not want or expect to be everything to everybody. A “Jack of all trades is a master of none”. However, my experience allows me to talk intelligently across many disciplines. I am equally adept at discussing the hardware design of mobile devices to financial audit and SOX compliance. Right now the mobile device industry is still very strong and within the Silicon Valley area you have a large mix of industry leaders and start-ups. Even with the high unemployment, almost all of my candidates have multiple offers. Find your niche and work it. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Larry: Moving to San Jose in January of 2000 and suffering through the highs and lows of the dotcom era probably affected my life the most. I relocated from Texas and had never really gone through a downturn in business. The economy in Dallas was very diverse and not dominated by any one industry. Even the oil and gas industry represented only about 10% of the total employment population. So when one industry stalled, you had others as backup. 2002 was a rough year. You saw many recruiters leaving the industry (for the mortgage broker industry!) and we see what inevitably happened to them. You also had a large group of recruiters that held on to the belief that they were actually worth the outrageous rates they were being paid before the bust. They would not even think about going to work for less than they were previously making. I find that arrogance is a very ugly trait. I think that it is a combination of at least 3 of the 7 Deadly Sins (Greed, Vanity, and Pride). I think most of us in the recruiting business learned or reinforced our idea of the value of humility. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Larry: I often recall the story about the headhunter that got me in to this business? Her name is Dee Jabaut and she exemplifies all that is good in our industry and in life. She is a valued and loyal friend and everything that I would hope to be in life. She is a consummate professional, wonderful parent, always gracious, diligent, charitable, and patient. Six Degrees: Tell us about your position, (responsibilities, size of your staffing organization) : Larry: I have spent the last three years primarily in an individual contributor role. My responsibilities have included project management, client manager relationship, sourcing, recruiting, and new business development. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Larry: Without firsthand experience, it would be hard to designate who has the best recruiting practices. If you look at the top 25 in Fortune’s Best Companies to “work for list”, I had heard horror stories about some of their staffing organizations. Regardless of the success of the company, I think that the overall candidate experience is vital to managing employee branding. Whether or not the candidate is hired, what they tell their circle of influence is ultimately important to the future of their recruiting. I think that this is even more magnified with the advent of applications such as Twitter and Facebook. I think that it would be a healthy, although not practical exercise, to make corporate recruiters interview externally at least twice a year. This would remind them how it feels to be on the other side of the equation. I also feel that the true measurement of recruiting comes 90-180 days after the hire. Measuring employee and manager satisfaction, employee performance, and attrition are key metrics. There are definitely some companies that stand above the rest, companies where employee and customer loyalty rank high. I admire companies like Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods, Frito Lay, Qualcomm, Ernst & Young, and Boston Consulting. (B) In what aspects are they superior? Larry: Branding, internal and external. Treatment of employees, quality products, and customer satisfaction. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Larry: More tech firms innovate in Silicon Valley but sell overseas! Companies that focus on mass market (China, India, Africa, and South America) are finding greater success. “In down economic times, every company should be thinking: Do I have my balance right? Instead of spending so much money on marketing in some of these depressed markets, some of that should be diverted to parts of the world that are not as negatively impacted.” These markets have typically been ignored. Successful examples are companies like Telegent Systems, Ruckus Wireless, UTStarcom, and Legend Silicon. Six Degrees: Tell us about your broader involvement within the staffing industry: Larry: Outside of local SIGs and affiliations with IEEE (The Consumer Electronics Society and The Antenna and Propagation Society), I have been regretfully reticent. I have been focused on international recruiting to include EMEA, Africa, India, APAC, and South America. I do plan on attending the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next year. Six Degrees: Can you detail how the recession has affected your particular industry niche? Larry: I am fortunate that my current client has not been greatly affected by the global economic downturn. We have been actively hiring for the last 14 months and have aggressive hiring goals throughout 2010. Six Degrees: Aside from simply the generic term “Networking” what specific efforts have you made on your own behalf, or on behalf of colleagues to broaden your opportunities. Larry: Over the last three years I have intentionally built out my Linkedin network by industry segment, targeted companies, and international exposure. That foresight has allowed me to actively search for my current needs. It is an evolutionary process or one might say intelligent design! It is better to be in a revolutionary rather than reactionary mode. Six Degrees: Given your own Trial and Error experiences as a Networker, what advice do you have for your peers on what NOT to do? Larry: Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Most people are willing to help you achieve your goal if you ask politely. Aristotle stated that “man is a political animal, meaning an animal with an innate propensity to develop complex communities”. By nature we want to help people, preferably if that help doesn’t require a great exertion of time and energy. Using Linkedin as an example, if you use the route of requesting an introduction in order to present an opportunity, most people will forward that introduction when approached professionally. Granted, the degree of assistance increases with the proximity to the person we are helping. Of course for expediency, you should simply try calling your intended candidate. People are also more willing to help if you are offering value to their cooperation. Whether that is an offer to help a friend, an offer to help them in the future, a monetary offer, or sometimes a simple thank you. Remember not to be demanding or too persistent. I prefer the term, gently persistent while trying to achieve a goal. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Larry: Ideally I would like to secure an opportunity as a staffing director/manager. The best position I have ever had was managing and mentoring a staffing organization. I like being responsible for the overall talent acquisition process. There is a great deal of satisfaction growing your own company. That is the one element missing from project based staffing. I need to find a start-up or small company willing to give me the opportunity to run their staffing organization. Either that or a regional staffing management position for a large international corporation. Recommendations For Larry “Larry is an excellent and very professional recruiter. He is very dedicated, hard working, committed, and driven to results. I’ve had the chance to work with him at Palm as a technical recruiter for my system electrical engineering design team. He was very thorough in his search for potential candidates and has successfully provided quality candidates. He is excellent in identifying good candidates and recognizing their talents and the fit in my team. He is very proactive and follows up with the candidate regarding interview schedule, information about the position, feedback, and negotiating offers. He also is very good in communicating with me regarding progress and updates. He is definitely a pleasure to work with and an asset to a company!” November 11, 2008 Bernadette Lozano, Hardware Development Manager, Palm “I worked with Larry in two different ways. First of all, he was instrumental in getting me hired to my current position at Palm. Larry was in Palm's HR/staffing department but it almost seemed like he was my own recruiter. He always kept his promises, followed up on time, and worked hard to meet or exceed my requests. Even after I accepted the offer, Larry followed up with me and wanted to know if there was anything he could do. This has definitely been my best recruiting experience so far. Secondly, Larry also helped me find candidates for an open position at Palm. I have been very pleased in his abilities to provide me with candidates that matched the job description.” August 25, 2008 Thorsten W. Hertel, Sr. Antenna Design Engineer, Palm “I am appreciative to Larry's consistent and thorough search for candidates during this critical time for our project to find qualified candidates. Larry did an excellent job following up with the candidates to arrange for interviews, giving feedback and negotiating offers. Worked closely with us and he is proactive in returning e-mails and phone calls.” July 13, 2007. Top qualities: Expert, On Time, High Integrity Sameer Haddad, Sr Staffing Consultant, Spansion “I had the opportunity of working with Larry at Spansion, a leading supplier in flash memory. Larry is a seasoned recruiting professional who brought leadership and stability to Spansion’s recruiting team. As a senior technical recruiter Larry’s focus was in the device space, which is a very difficult area to recruit for in the semiconductor industry. Larry established solid relationships with hiring managers, was a valued business partner and was able to consistently met expectations. Larry was definitely a team player and a pleasure to work with.” October 30, 2007 Wayne Widdig, HR Manager, Spansion “Larry supported our Connected home and mobile device business at Motorola. In a short period of time, Larry was instrumental in making several critical hires on a high profile project. I found Larry to be a strong E2E staffing professional. Moreover, the clients (hiring managers) found him to be a valuable asset, identifying highly qualified candidates for hire.” October 23, 2007. Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, On Time Nick Mailey, Staffing Manager, Motorola “Motorola hired Larry through his company i-Hire to do some recruiting for us in the N. CA and S. CA areas. I found Larry to be very professional, have good technical knowledge and deliver great customer service in a timely manner. I would work with Larry anytime.” July 22, 2007. Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity Lynda Harris “Larry is excellent to work with and is results oriented. He is very responsive and professional and knows his business.” July 13, 2007. Top qualities: Personable, Expert, Creative Leo Barnes, Staffing/Business Development Manager. RemX IT “Larry and I worked together to staff one of my projects. I found him to be a joy to work with under demanding deadlines in a high pressure environment.” December 28, 2006. Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity Scott Wright - hired Larry more than once “Larry is a professional in the true sense of the word. He has an uncanny ability to communicate and understand conceputal issues at all levels. Larry gives 110% to ensure the project you are assigned is satisfactory. It has been a pleasure working with Larry and I will be glad to do so in the future.” August 2, 2006 Manoj Goyal, Independent Consultant, Squar Milner Reehl Williamson, LLP “I relied on Larry to staff two critical roles in my company's Marketing organization. Through Larry's diligent search capabilities, his attention to my specific criteria, and his follow-up throughout the negotiation process, I recruited two "anchor" members of our current team. They significantly deepened my team's bench, and both exhibit the capability to advance to higher leadership roles.” January 9, 2006 Kristin Jordahl Hansen “I have had the pleasure of working with Larry over the past year. He is not only well polished but also has a high level of integrity. Larry has proven to be a very effective recruiter and account manager and thus is within the top 2% of producers at our company.” April 13, 2005 Chris Stewart, Account Manager, RemX IT Staffing “I was first introduced to Larry when his company brought a recruiting plan to my organization to help us source hard-to-find technical jobs and fill positions that had been vacated due to the dot-com frenzy. Larry led the effort as project manager and offered workable solutions that allowed us to surpass our hiring goals. Larry gets results because he is a professional recruiter who knows technology and offers exceptional customer service.” October 2, 2007. Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Good Value Brenda K. Brown, MS “As a manager and leader, Larry is someone who is committed to developing your skills and knowledge. He's the type of leader that likes and wants to help you out as much as he can. He's a great listener and is very empathic. I know that he has grown a lot of valuable relationships because of these characteristics. As a Sr. Level recruiter, Larry is the best I know. He's a great networker, aggressive, and is very creative in finding the right candidates.” October 1, 2007 Racquel Cariaso, CIR, Recruiter, eJobs “Larry is always focused on the task, ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done. He's an exceptional leader, as well as a committed team player.” June 22, 2007 Garry King, several, Ejobs…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 11:31pm on August 9, 2009

Blog Post: Hiring at Tiqets — How to build the team behind the fastest-growing Dutch startup: Added by Hagi Trinh at 11:10am on July 26, 2016

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