Increase Your Social Recruiting Influence

Fast Company started a social media contest called “The Influence Project”. This is a quest to find the most influential person online. It is designed to give credit to those who can generate the most traffic and new profiles from a customized link. Like with any list or contest, it has its critics and fans.  I eventually caved and couldn’t resist seeing where I ranked in comparison to the social media heavyweights that I admire.

From a social recruiting perspective, companies who are experiencing a talent shortage should take notice and value their employees that have influence online.

It isn’t always about one’s volume and reach.  For instance, a VP of HR could have a small network on LinkedIn of 100 trusted connections.  When this person emails a member of their network for an employee referral, the response is swift and the candidate quality of hire is high. Even if you have a large network, it isn’t effective if you lack credibility. Long gone are the days when a recruiter could blast out a job description via email with the subject line, “Who do you know?”

Recruiters with active pipelines of candidates and referral sources have an advantage, if they have positive influence over its members.

To increase your online influence, you must work hard offline too. Take the time to truly re-evaluate your network and to see if you are attracting ideal peers, thought leaders and trusted contacts.  Start moving out of your online networking comfort zone and meet those you value in person. You must be able to make a solid first impression and build trust quickly through your actions, not just your words.

Also, remember to rely on your close friends that will provide you with honest feedback to help you reach your professional goals. The social networks may change; yet, those who have influence continue to be successful.

In the social recruiting world, we have many influencers. Who has influenced you?

Social Integration - Video and Slide Deck

 The 3rd Social Recruiting Summit kicked off last night with another fun tweetup at Crave at the Mall of America. Thank you to LinkUp for sponsoring this upbeat and well-attended networking event.

Below are is the slide deck from my Social Recruiting Summit presentation at Best Buy on Social Integration. I'm grateful for the support from ERE.net, Shannon Seery Gude, VP of Digital & Social Strategy at Bernard HODES Group and Heather Polivka, Director of Employment Marketing with UnitedHealth Group. I was overwhlemed by the support of my friends and family, including my Dad who was in the audience.

Social Integration - Social Recruiting Summit 2010

VIDEO:
Thank you to Jeremy Langhans and Ronnie Bratcher for capturing a UStream video of the presenation too. You can find it here: http://bit.ly/9iKfoe. More ideas and photos will be posted soon!

Social Networking Around the World

Today, I was honored to give a webinar on the global trends of social networking to Avanade. Thank you to Search Wizards for this opportunity.

Many of the global Fortune 100 companies now recognize the value in frequent and continuous online engagement. Some are using more than one platform and learning to understand the existing online preferences of their targeted talent pools. From a recruiting perspective, if you are actively involved in conversations with ideal candidates, it increases the effectiveness of your organization's employer brand strategy and recruitment marketing efforts.

Take advantage of the social networking platforms available globally to highlight the positive aspects of your employer brand and truly interact with candidates.

Social Networking Around the World - Jenny DeVaughn

Using Social Media to Identify and Recruit in Healthcare

This week I'm honored to give a social media webinar for members of the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) of the American Hospital Association (AHA). The webinar is sponsored by Human Resources IQ.

There have been huge strides in the health care industry with respect to social media. Hospitals and medical facilities have looked beyond the strict, historical constraints of the healthcare industry and are leveraging social media more and more every day.

Here is the slide deck from my webinar, in case you missed it:

View more presentations from Jenny DeVaughn.

Risk More to Gain More in 2010

Today, I'm honored to join an amazing team of people at Bernard HODES Group as the Director, Social Strategy. It has been a wonderful first day thanks to my new colleagues, due in a large part to leaders like Kevin Hensley, Vince Vitti and Shannon Seery Gude. I'm humbled by the article about my new opportunity with HODES that was written by John Zappe and published today in the ERE Daily.

You may read the article here: http://bit.ly/JennyjoinsHODES.

Of course, I'll keep on blogging under Social Precision. Please continue to reach out to me for speaking engagements, conferences, on-site training, webinars and step-by-step workshops.

Here is the slide deck for my presentation at the TAG Recruiting Society meeting tonight in Atlanta:

Social Recruiting Boot Camp - Jenny DeVaughn

Follow your true career passions. Risk more to gain more in 2010!

Social Recruiting Boot Camp

My first speaking engagement of the year is delivering a "Social Recruiting Boot Camp" at the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Recruiting Society. Hope to see you there.

Here is the official invitation:
Let's kick off the New Year with one of the hottest trends in recruiting! In part 1 of our 3 part series of Social Media content, Jenny DeVaughn, Chief Enthusiast Officer (CEO) of Social Precision, will help you start 2010 in the right direction.

Jenny will get rid of your social media timewasters and make sure that your social recruiting strategy is in top form. Jenny has been on the front lines and used social media tools to reach her recruiting, business development and career goals. With some consistent and persistent effort, you can also get the social recruiting results you have always desired. This will be an interactive and energetic session that you do not want to miss.

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Recruiting Society's January 2010 Meeting

Tuesday, January 19th
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Mirant Corporation
1155 Perimeter Center West, 1st Floor Assembly Room
Atlanta, GA 30338

Cost:  Complimentary for members and $20 for non-members

Meeting Time:  5:30 - 6:00 PM - Networking and Registration
                        6:00 - 7:30 PM - Presentation

Register online at http://bit.ly/tagbootcamp and walk-ins are welcome.

Start Off 2010 Right with a Social Recruiting Checkup

As we begin another year in our recruiting careers, it is time to assess our social recruiting efforts. Here are some tips as you reflect and refocus your online social recruiting goals:

1. Examine your social media footprint. You can start by visiting Pipl.com to see what information exists about you online. If you don’t like the content that is shown, you have an opportunity to immediately change it. Start commenting on blogs of influencers in your industry. Contribute a post to ERE or Recruiting Blogs. Be a part of Twitter conversations to share best practices. Create a Google profile.
   
   
2. Your social media presence should reflect your passions. Reassess your professional goals. It may be time to hire a career coach to help you identify strengths or skills that you are overlooking. Read, Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk for inspiration.
   
   
3. Update your avatar. I had the same profile picture for over 6 years, until a close friend suggested that I change it. It is important that your photo shows who you are professionally.
   
   
4. Review your online bios. Due to size restrictions, you will have different versions on Twitter, LinkedIn and your company website. Your bio should reflect what makes you special and different from other recruiters, including critical keywords so that your profile can be found. Is your bio a long-winded press release that no one will take the time to read?
   
   
5. Plan your social media activities after you set specific goals. Social media networks are designed to engage. You may start in LinkedIn searching for an IT candidate and 30 minutes later you wind up in an alumni group looking for old friends. In order to combat this, calendar specific functions. For example, from 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM, reserve time to find 10 qualified candidates for your Java Developer opening.
   
   
6. Change the frequency of your social recruiting activities. Social media never sleeps. How often do you update your Twitter or LinkedIn status? When was the last time you posted something to your company’s Facebook Fan page? Set Outlook reminders to ensure that your communication is consistent to your social media communities.
   
   
7. Keep paying it forward to candidates. Conduct a complimentary webinar for your ideal candidates on a subject that they truly value.  Volunteer to speak or review resumes at job seekers groups, like a career ministry to help those who need recruiting resources now more than ever.
   
   
8. Outline your job notification process. When you get a new opening within your company, how do you promote it to your networks? Is there a standard process based on past recruiting metrics or a random series of posts depending upon how you are feeling that day?
   
   
9. Evaluate your accomplishments on specific platforms. Hopefully, you have been measuring your recruiting activities. Review your past placements. Where did your best referrals and candidates come from? When you are determining which social platforms to focus your resources into this year, don’t believe the hype and the propaganda of biased resources. Your best social recruiting platform may be an internal network from employee referrals or cold calling niche online directories of candidates. Remember that your social recruiting strategy is unique.
   
   
10. Add innovative tools to your social recruiting tool kit. It may be time to reevaluate your career website and the candidate’s experience with your online presence. Maybe you should consider incorporating video, jobcasts, Facebook advertising or an iPhone app for potential candidates. Be sure that any tactical choices support your comprehensive recruiting plan.

In the ever-changing world of social recruiting, there is always room for improvement. Continue to engage with potential talent in new ways and measure your results of each social recruiting campaign. Let’s continue to evolve our social recruiting efforts in 2010!

VIDEO: Social Recruiting Summit #MonsterSocial Tweetup

Click here to view more photos from the event on Flickr taken by Alana Lombardi.

Thank you to Eric Winegardner (and his colleagues from Monster Worldwide), Alice Joy with 675 Bar, Kathy O'Reilly, Ernest Feiteira and Kathleen Smith for making the tweetup a reality. We appreciate everyone who joined us for the tweetup. Although I love keeping up with my professional network using social media, it is so much more fun meeting in real life.

Social Recruiting Summit: Lessons Learned

When an event has Laurie Ruettimann as the Chairwoman, a list of unbelievable speakers, attendees from all over the world, quick hit sessions and is located in the city that never sleeps, my expectations are high. The Social Recruiting Summit did not disappoint. Here are a few of the insights that continue to resonate with me:

1. Monster Worldwide should add a new revenue stream: event planning. I spent time organizing the #monstersocial tweetup with Eric Winegardner, Alana Lombardi and Kathy O'Reilly. Each person I interacted with from their organization was exceptional. The 675 Bar was a great venue. The tweetup was also a success due to the dedicated help of Ernest Feiteira and Kathleen Smith.
   
   
2. When discussing social media and recruiting, show me the data! We want to see the actual return on your social media investment. Master Burnett, Fred Wilson and Gerry Crispin provided lots of insights and the true analytical impact of social recruiting.
   
   
3. If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all. Blame it on my Midwestern roots or the influence of my parents. When speaking or interacting in a public social network, I always try to find the good points to comment about people or organizations. In the past, I haven’t always succeeded and I have been deeply humbled by those moments. One can deliver an authentic and memorable message to their target audience by being polite.
   
   
4. The recruiting industry is full of unselfish leaders. I’m grateful to be a part of a conversation with those who are willing to share their experiences and miscues in social media, even in front of their competitors. Also, there are many of our colleagues that work tirelessly behind the scenes, especially the ERE team so that we can attend conferences like the Social Recruiting Summit.
   
   
5. Conferences are more rewarding when we include everyone. I loved the Google Wave started by Chris Hoyt. It was like having a live wiki of the event where we could instantly collaborate and have a document to review or update in the future. ERE also provided the live feed online and posted the #socialrecruiting Twitter stream via Twubs. We could share ideas and feedback with those who were interested in the event, even if they were not there in person with us.

Thank you again to those who made certain that the Social Recruiting Summit was one of my favorite conferences this year. I appreciate the ways you have encouraged me to continue to evolve and learn. Hope to reconnect with my friends, old and new, again soon.

Update on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 2:01PM by Jenny DeVaughn

View the cool Social Recruiting Summit #monstersocial tweetup video by clicking here.

Recruiters: Are Your Tweets Social Media Garbage?

When I started on Twitter, I was guilty of dumping. My Twitter stream looked like a mini-job board of open positions with links for qualified candidates to apply. It is impossible for a candidate have a conversation with a stream of open positions.

Here are some recommendations on how to avoid only dumping your jobs on Twitter:

1. Give value to your ideal candidates. Tweet about recent articles and blog posts that your target audience wants to know more about.
   
   
2. Connect with your potential candidates in person using Twitter. Coordinate and promote a tweetup.  Find a thought leader or author from their industry that you could feature at the event to generate additional interest.
   
   
3. Promote your professional relationships by tweeting about events and newsworthy highlights of your non-profit partners and other sister companies.
   
   
4. Help those who have questions via Twitter. Be sure to respond to each person, especially if they need to be redirected to another contact within your company.
   
   
5. Discover referral opportunities. Build relationships on Twitter with other recruiters who may be willing to refer candidates to you or partner with you on specific seasonal hiring projects.
   
   
6. Discuss competitive advantages of your culture. Any benefits that your organization offers that endorses a positive work-life balance is ideal tweet material.
   
   
7. Highlight loyal employees’ accomplishments or departmental successes of your business. Companies that are stable and doing well attract talent.
   
   
8. Remember your purpose on Twitter. Does your Twitter account exist only to broadcast open jobs and provide one-way communication to an audience of potential hires? Hopefully, your Twitter page is one small tactical piece of a significantly larger recruiting strategy.