Am I riding the right wave?

Good afternoon bloggers and blogger readers. I am new to this so bare with me... I mean I am new to Blogging. Now do not get me wrong.. I believe I am fairly hip to the whole web scene. Long time reader...first time poster.. you know what I mean? I have found the time has come to take my rants on the road per say and get them out there to anyone whom may be listening (reading)... whatever.. =) and hope that this will open up some dialogue to others that may find themselves in ERP or other niche recruitment specialties. It is all about learning form each other right?
I would say I am a pretty tech savvy guy. That is why I like the IT sector so much. I have a family website, post videios of family on YouTube for the grandparents and relatives, Have a MySpace page, facebook account, Linked In and Twitter... did I miss anything? All this new technology seems to be really great and it has really changed how I work. In the last 4+ years the Recruitiong world changed for me. I moved into a niche practice within AIC. www.analysts.com - more specifically http://aiclawson.analysts.com/index.aspx that is the Lawson piece. As we grew our network of top notch consultants, it seemed logical to start going beyond just knowing how to reach each out to each other. The job boards seem to be good spots to go fishing from time to time - but those waters are FILLED with other fisherman as well. I am preaching to the choir I know... LinkedIn then Facebook.. now Twittering seems to be what everyone is talking about. The world is a much easier place to network in then it ever has. How many of you have connected with that grade school buddy? It is crazy! So now - how can you put it to use and make placements. I have found Linked In to be a great start with connecting to candidates - and their friends - and their friends. It has been a great sales tool as well - following employees to their next gig where they are now in a management role. Facebook - less so. I think it helps to create some groups - but it is hard to keep track of and even advertise the group. FB seems more social. Twitter seems kind of cool and I like the mobile aspect - but honestly - I do not want to be inundated all day long with people I scarsely know. best of all - these are all free (at the moment). LinkedIn by far seems to be the best choice for seeing what people do - connecting and maybe even putting them to work. I do believe in Quality of Quantity. I am not sure if opening up your network to EVERYONE has it's advantages.

Do you have any thoughts around this? Any recruiting tools that I am missing? I was speaking to a coleage of mine yesterday and we both agreed you can be super connected and a networking genius - but at the end of the day you still need to connect a candidate with a job - this means calling that person up and getting them intrested and into your process - and then negotaiting a WIN WIN WIN situation.

Anyway... I feel like I am on the Web 2.0 wave...nice view from here.... kind of looks like where I just was though... Is there a web 3.0 that is on it's way - or did I miss it???

Jake

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Comment by Tom Sweeney on March 3, 2009 at 4:00pm: Jake.. good post and Rayanne is right that this is an accurate place to host such a topic. I would agree with the comments from your post that LinkedIn is the best social networking (free one that is) that exists today for niche recruiters. While twitter, my space and facebook are good, I agree that they attract too many people who will not be in the right focus for your professional use. I personally have not found facebook to be useful for recruitment as it is more personal and many people are less likely to share information on facebook or even myspace then they would on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn also offers some corporate solutions (Recruiter, Talent Advantage) which while pricey at times, are exceptional tools, especially if you do a lot of sourcing on LinkedIn.

You may wish to try discussions, browsing or posting in niche job boards or user groups (google hosts many of these) or simple groups found on LinkedIn. LinkedIn recently added a function for each group where you can post jobs. This is useful if you are joining specific user groups (SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, etc).

Good look with your recruiting.

Tom
http://sweens.wordpress.com

Comment by Steve Levy on March 4, 2009 at 6:19am: Jake - mark down 03 March 2009 in your e-calendar as the birthday of your first blog post then on this day each year look back on how far you've come with blogging. What you'll find here is that the entire community - differing opinions notwithstanding - enjoys recruiting (sure there are degrees of enjoyment especially now) and will go out of their way to help others.

Comment to your heart's content but if you're in a relationship be sure to tell your partner that all the time spent chatting with Rayanne, Maren, Maureen, Sus, Sandra, Heather, Claudia, and some guy who goes by Slouch is actually professional time - and that it won't show up on your credit card bill under an unassuming title.

Also, there are nuances of this place - like creating hyperlinks in a post, uploading/embedding videos, using the chat public/private, the daily "shows", BlogTalkRadio with Recruiting Animal, what those damn points mean, how to get Dave Mendoza to write a slobbering post about you, etc.

Sometimes this place reminds me of a large family get-together at Thanksgiving when all the petty little differences gather around the table to stuff their faces. It's still family - at times stunningly dysfunctional - which isn't bad because at the end of the night it's still family. Sort of a cross between, The Munsters, The Addams Family, The Brady Bunch, and Silence of the Lambs...

Back to your thoughts - every wave has a crest and a trough and all social media tools are like surfboards meaning there are different boards for different surf conditions (being that you're in MN my surfboard analogy may be a bit over the edge...how about XC skiing?). The tools are nice but my experience has shown me (and I'm an engineer) is that so many great ones aren't even using these tools.

One of my secret arrows has always been user groups: I've started them, attend them, contribute to them - and without an eye on recruiting. It's all about developing communities of interest; if these turn into candidates or clients, even better.

It's easy and comfortable to talk with other recruiters about tech but more fruitful to hang with those actually immersed in it.

Welcome aboard Jake!

Comment by Recruiting Animal on March 4, 2009 at 6:49pm: I can't believe you got anyone to read that posting without any spacing at all. Ever heard of a paragraph?

Comment by Jake Wyant on March 5, 2009 at 10:45am: You all work pretty fast! I am going to have to keep track of this on a more frequent basis!

Thank you all who have commented. Great insight and some what validating to know that I am right in my current thinking.

Few things:
1. I have been working the LinkedIn discussions areas as well as the new Job area - pretty slick. I do believe I have some justification to management to pony up the extra bucks toi upgrade - and look forward to playing with that new capacity.
2. I am intrested in the hyperlinking in a post and will do some digging as to how that is done. Any one have a tutorial?
3. I am definaltly sold that this is the place to go to collaborate on thoughts and ideas. I will be spending a few nights (after the kids are down) to puruse through many topics (Thanks Rayanne for the links!). I look forward to the reading.
4. There are paragraph breaks - but the way it is allinged it makes it look like there is not. I PROMISE from now on I will hit enter

TWICE to get the paragraph to truely break. (Thanks Recruiting Animal). I am surprised taht you did not slay me for any of my missspellings. This format seems to me more of a Think - then write it type of a forum ratehr then a prepared document. Am I wrong?

Thanks again for all of your gracios feedback, hints, suggestions, and funny banter ( Steve - I am not sure I want to speak with the Slience of the Lambs types!) . I look forward to many more discussions and look forward to reading your blogs as well. It seems tlike this Site has a lott of useful tools and I will enjoy digging into the different aspects.

I see there is a Friends invite above. Is this where I can add "favorites" or most intrested Blog posters?

have a greeat day - Jake