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Permalink Reply by RecruiterGuy on June 4, 2008 at 11:39am

My LinkedIn is sacred. I know that many recruiters simply spam out invites - but you won't find yourself on my LInkedIn contact list unless we've met in person, spoken, or one of us has communicated to the other why we should be networked - and we both agree.

Sorry - no "hey add me to your LinkedIn list" posts here.

Cheers to another recruiter for not pushing LinkedIn down the MySpace path.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on June 4, 2008 at 11:46am

Appreciate the confirmation RecruiterGuy.

I've got a solid "database" of "contacts" but can see absolotuely no reason to give them to fellow recruiters. Recruiters I know and love.

If I Link with all my clients - then link with my recruiter associates - what have I done?
Can you imagine stopping by another recruiter buddy's office and grabbing his rolodex? Really? No way!

I can't see why any person who knows the real value of a "client" would publish their client list to unknown people throughout the world.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on June 4, 2008 at 1:24pm

Thanks Darlene! See - that's what RecrutingBlogs is all about - helping the helpless (me).

Have a great day!

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Permalink Reply by RecruiterGuy on June 4, 2008 at 1:26pm

I don't use LinkedIn as a client list but can understand your concern in that regards if you do. There are several privacy settings in LinkedIn if that is the reason you're looking to keep it much more tightly woven. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Leary on June 4, 2008 at 1:41pm

This is all true, but keep in mind that the value of LinkedIn is truly maximized when you have a vast, but targeted network. Simply networking only with those who you spoke with or know, is like only recruiting candidates that live in a 20 mile radius and not 21...

You are canceling out an entirely respectful and meaningful audience. Take Recruitingblogs for example. You would not be in contact or even have the ability to be in contact with the majority of the members if not for Ning. Do you know everyone here?

Though I completely understand your view... Networking is "open minded" and cannot be done successfully if it is approached narrow minded....

Just my .02

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on June 4, 2008 at 1:53pm

Thanks Ryan.

For the purpose of fully exploring the topic here - are you saying I should NOT hide my contacts on there? As it seems that would meet the definition of "open". So again it gets me back to my question - why show the world my list of contacts?

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Leary on June 4, 2008 at 2:11pm

Jerry,

First, please do not take the posting to heart. I am just typing as if I am speaking to a group and not to you directly…

I absolutely would not hide them. When you look at the true value of social sites like this; what do you get? Why do you use LinkedIn, Ning, FB etc.? If everyone hides their contacts recruiting web 2.0 style would be pretty tough, virtually impossible. In today’s world of recruiting and technology overall, it is not who you know, it’s about who knows you.

It wouldn’t be fair to expect others to give you anything you need, if you give nothing to them? Plus, are your contacts that priceless? It’s one of those things that some people just don’t like to do, but it’s those same people that cannot make the connection when needed, which will ultimately hurt them in the end. Now, I am not saying that by growing your network to 40K and is manageable by any means, however when you have a network at 40K, you will find anyone or anything you need. (True value of networking)

For instance, on a daily basis I receive resumes throughout the day from people in my network. I may not be able to use them, but I store them. Sound familiar? Most recruiters I know horde resumes like no tomorrow in the hopes that they can use them one day for leads, candidates etc. (me being one of them) If you treat your network the same way, it eventually pays you back 20X’s, running itself and generating an ROI for the time spent.

I hope this explains it a little more.

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on June 4, 2008 at 2:16pm

Jerry,

I absolutely 'hide' my contacts. I don't see any reason to let other recruiters browse through my list. However, know that even when you 'hide' your contacts they're not hidden in a search, they will still come up if they match the search parameters. I am pretty open about who I connect to as you never know who they know. Plus, I have over 1300 direct contacts, who'd want to browse through them all anyway. :) Pam

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Permalink Reply by Joe Mal on June 4, 2008 at 2:18pm

Working for a company I see how important contacts are for the networking of its business but there is a question that I have not figured out yet; what is the best way to get in contact with your contacts? So many forms of communication (E-mail, phone, letter, text) I still have not figured out the best way to do so. If anyone has any ideas that would help me let me know!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Leary on June 4, 2008 at 2:21pm

It seems as though this is a great topic and it struck a nerve among others. Let me ask this to everyone.

- What is the value of hiding your contacts?
- What does this accomplish?

Isn't the purpose of social networking to network? Even though the contact comes up in searches, the point of sharing is to network. How can you justify searching through other networks when you hide your own? It's a little hypocritical, and frankly stingy.

Sites such as these are to be open and help one another. The only reason we are chatting here is because Jason created an "open network" with Recruitingblogs.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Leary on June 4, 2008 at 2:22pm

Many Many ways. Lets connect offline. I can help you with this. Send me an email and we can go from there.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on June 4, 2008 at 2:30pm

I can see you are passionate Ryan - a fine quality in this field. But my question was pretty simple: why should/would I give everyone my very valuable contacts? What am I actually doing when I say "Here are my contacts"? What license or value of referral does that give the next guy?

When he/she says to one of my contacts "Hey - I know Jerry - so now I know you" what value does that bring?

Tons? Little? I'm just not positive I want to give my database out that easy.

As to why I would expect to sort through your open contacts and hide mine - I'm not. Mine are currently open. But with request after request from people IDK wanting access to them I just had to ask the group here.

Why should I give you all my contacts? Just having fun here - so please take my question as intended.

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