LinkedIn Officially Connects to Microsoft Outlook

According to Bianca Male with the Business Insider, LinkedIn just announced the release of an application that will incorporate your professional network into your Microsoft Outlook account.

According to the LinkedIn blog, "As soon as LinkedIn and Outlook are connected, Outlook will start bringing in information about your LinkedIn network. You should then start seeing profile photos and LinkedIn activity for any connection that e-mails you."

The greatest benefit of the application seems to be that it automatically adds contact updates to a special "LinkedIn Contacts" folder, making it easy to stay on top of your connections' information.

You can read more about the release on the LinkedIn blog.

Or check out their video on how to connect your LinkedIn and Outlook accounts:

Building a Community One Cupcake at a Time

This is a guest post by Chernee Vitello of Whiting Consulting. I had the opportunity to spend time with Chernee in person at Recruitfest. Her dedication to her clients is inspiring. I'll get to see her in a few days at the Social Recruiting Summit and Tweetup in NYC. Enjoy these insights from Chernee:

I have been in the recruiting business for the past 14 years and have seen the industry that I love evolve in many ways.  I often think about, more specifically, how I used to reach candidates.  It started with just the “home number.”  Then, it migrated to reaching them with email until finally we came to what I thought was Utopia:  The Cell Phone!  Even though the fundamentals of what makes our business successful, building relationships, remains constant; the evolution of the tools we employ are what evolve now faster than ever before.

What social recruiting has given me is the opportunity to build a strong community. A community that consists of clients and candidates and which allows me to understand what is happening in their lives both professionally and personally. It allows me to network and connect with a broader range of people than ever before. It helps me in my research and speeds up my process in identifying target talent for my clients. 

I am a people watcher by habit. My husband always teases me when we go out to dinner that I am in 14 other tables’ conversations vs. my own. Social Media is a great way to “people watch” in a virtual setting. This past week I was in NYC, and had a great time connecting with folks there. When I visit clients I always like to bring a little something to say “thank you.” 

Because of social networking, I found the perfect little thank you: Crumbs Bake Shop. I remembered a posting for one of my dear clients who mentioned a cupcake that she loved. I love cupcakes too (really, who doesn’t?) and it peaked my interest. When I went this week, I looked up the old posting, found the name of the bakery, researched where it was, and went there 4 times in 24 hours and brought wonderful treats to my clients and friends, and found a couple of new friends on the street as well!  It turns out that everybody loves cupcakes!

I never would have known about Crumbs Bake Shop and known what cupcakes my clients like if I did not build a community within social media.  It helps make our business more personal and allows us to build on our relationships with one another, continuing to make them stronger, better and more productive.

About Chernee Vitello:
Chernee Vitello is the founder of Whiting Consulting, a boutique recruiting company, based in Upstate N.Y.

Recruiting for the past 14 years, her mission is to add value-based recruiting to the companies she hires for. Hiring talent that will make an immediate impact on your business is her priority.

You may follow Chernee on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cvitello.