Posts Tagged ‘how to use twitter’

Via Scoop.it – Social Media And Digital Influence

Every now and then you have the privilege of meeting a kindred spirit in your industry.  Truly, that is what Cyndy is to me.  She’s my colleague, my confidant, and my friend.  Cyndy and I met on Twitter (where I’ve met most of my dearest colleagues).  Last week, she interviewed me for her industry website, NasRecruitment.  It was an honor, and a pleasure to be interviewed by Cyndy.  In this post, we discussed the importance of social media, and why Corporate America must embrace it.  I now give you, Cyndy. I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a comment for Cyndy.  It will make her day!

Via nastalenttalk.com

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Strategy. Where would we be without one? Rowing rudderless down a rapid river without a paddle. If we don’t have an object, strategy, and plan our efforts are fruitless. The low rate of return is a waste of time. More importantly, if you are a recruiter, and your recruitment techniques are bad, you risk your reputation, and good standing in the recruitment community. Furthermore, you risk alienating job seekers, and clients which is just a faulty business practice. The the gold-standard recruiters, and recruitment firms this is not news. However; to job seekers it is a validation of how damaging poor recruitment practices can be.

Strategy. If you are a job seeker, and you are not both disciplined, and strategic in your job search planning, you will stall your re-employment, and sabotage your morale. In this economy, the unemployment rates can be depressing, and attitude deflating. If you subscribe to this blog, I consistently challenge job seekers to “think like a recruiter.” Likewise, I challenge recruiters to put themselves in the mindset of a candidate, and cultivate empathy for the job seeker, as well as the client. A recruiter must keep ever present in their minds that your candidate may one day be the hiring manager who will retain your services. Furthermore, the candidate you place, and even those you don’t place will be a treasure trove of referrals.

Strategy. I am a fierce candidate advocate. In addition, Compassionate HR isn’t just the name of my radio show, it is a way of life. I straddle the worlds of career development, recruitment, training and development, and organization effectiveness. First, let me define compassion. The dictionary defines compassion as follows:

“A feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.”

In 2007, I was struck my deep sympathy, and grief in the loss of 2 family members, and in the loss of the family members of dear friends. Compassion, however; does not mean a measly groveling of emotionalism. Rather, it reflects the mindset of equanimity. It acknowledges the suffering all around us, and a willingness to serve to alleviate the suffering that we are able. Compassionate HR, Recruitment, and Social Media is a way of being. It is a method of outreach to my professional community. There are those who would argue too much compassion can get in the way of working with our clients. I beg to differ. Compassion is a sound business practice so long as it is matched with sound pragmatic methods.

Recently, I have noticed an over abundance of pre-scheduled job spamming in the HireFriday, Job Angels, Jobs, and Careers twitter streams. This spray and pray recruitment approach is a joke. It is a fallacy that must be exposed. It is a bad business practice that alienates job seekers, and the average business person in your twitter/facebook network. News Flash recruiters. Nobody cares about your indiscrimanent job postings. Be strategic. Find the right venues for your job postings. Search the new media venues industry relevant candidates, and engage them in a dialogue about the jobs opportunities you have to offer. If I am not a java developer do you think I care to see your java developer job posts? I don’t, neither do most job seekers.

People may wonder: why am I so adamant about keeping the HireFriday twitter stream for candidates only? It is because I was once a job seeker who was turned off by streams that did not post relevant job postings. I’d unfollow companies that posted nothing but jobs. If I want to see job opportunities, I’d follow TweetMyJobs and request industry relevant jobs only. I’d go to a job board, see who’s hiring, then leverage my linkedin contacts to make inroads into the company. I’d tweet to the executives of companies where I wanted to work, and build those relationships. I’d tweet to the recruiters who were credible, ethical, and dignified, and build those relationships. I’d network with colleagues, and take those relationship from online to a face to face meeting, if local, and a teleconference if not.

There are ways to do things. There are ways to not do things. The reason why HireFriday is a success is precisely because it features, supports, and encourages job seekers. Most job seekers might watch the #jobs stream, and run a twitter search for key words that match their job title, but will they follow and watch a stream of just plain spammy, irrelevant jobs? I argue no!. HireFriday connects people to people who can offer contacts, opportunities, and jobs. If it were to become a mixed media of jobs, and people it would lose readers, members, and the job seekers would soon scatter, and disappear. I’ve seen this countless times with other online communities.

Strategy: in order for job seekers and recruiters to be successful in the use of HireFriday, they must connect with one another offline, and find one another online. People ask: can anyone control a twitter stream? I’d argue yes. I do it all time. I do not own the HireFriday stream, our community does. I manage the stream. I watch the stream like a hawk. I consistently post guidelines for job seekers, recruiters, and companies to follow. If I see someone behaving contrary to our community values, thus destroying the integrity of our group, I redirect them, and stop with if necessary.

You see, I am a fierce advocate. I’ve been a fighter of the good fight all my life. I am part sweetheart, and part scrappy terrier nipping at the heels of the big dogs. One thing I have learned is this: if you want to run with the big dogs, you have the aim for the high bushes. I encourage recruiters, and job seekers alike to aim for the high bushes, take a quality strategic approach that will yield fruitful results, and when necessary, take the high road. I also advocate fighting for your rights, your beliefs, and your integrity. In the final analysis, no one can strip us of our dignity, our integrity, and our self respect unless we let them.

Now it’s time for today’s theme song: The Beastie Boys Anthem: “You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party.” I selected this song for four reasons. 1) It’s fun. 2) You gotta fight for your rights. 3) I’m a rebel at heart. 4) If you want to play hard, delay gratification, be strategic, work hard, then party.

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How to be found on twitter:  Marie Journey’s guest post.  Marie is one of the most popular and skilled candidate sourcers in the industry.  Watch this video, and you will hear her story about her own personal journey.  Marie also teaches you how to strengthen your digital footprint.  Like me, she was in transition in 2009, and rose above the recession to emerge victorious.

Unemployment is hard.  HireFriday can help.  In this community you will find people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and help you, and you will also find strength in one another.  What’s beautiful about HireFriday is that you will never feel alone, or forgotten again.  We are here to help you.  As Marie suggests, read Chris’s post.   Chris offers a job aid for how to use tweetdeck and other twitter applications to filter in-or-out the information on twitter that you may want to follow.  In addition, I’d like you to read my “Guidelines for Hirefriday.” It is there I share how to best use this day for your job search.

#HireFriday Job Tips for 2010 by Marie Journey

1. Increase your digital footprint: Ways include being involved in highly visible groups, discussions, blog posts, tweets/retweets for your profession/niche/skill set.  Also, video! Video! Video! Why? Nothing brings you to the top of searches like video…so whip out a video resume, do a video conference, and add video responses to those online communities! Kay Kelison offers detailed insight regarding Video Resumes: HERE
2. Engage people that speak your language!  Good recruiters can recruit any person for any job…given enough time.  For example, I speak tech.  Meaning, I’m a technical recruiter and understand the language, skills, career path for those tech savvy folks.  If you are an accountant, then please focus in on recruiters that have the experience and understanding to do the best job for you in the quickest amount of time. *Stop spamming a person that doesn’t understand you and have a real conversation and connection with those that do*
3. Be clear and transmit your contact information.  No, don’t list your personal information all over the internet!  Do have a dedicated email for job searches.  Do have your profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks that people in your profession use.  Do check your inbox on a regular basis.  When you get pinged by a recruiter for an interview, do list the best method of reaching you and the time zone you will be in at that given moment.
4. If you follow me, then I can DM (Direct Message) you!  On Twitter follow recruiters or people that you would like to contact you directly. So follow @mariejourney.
5. Be a Talent Sandwich!  When networking for jobs let people that mentored you in the past know you are looking and the best information to forward to recruiters.  Also, people that you mentored in the past should be given the same.  Why?  They may get a ping from a recruiter asking: Have you mentored anybody in the past you could recommend OR Is there anybody that mentored you in the past that you would recommend?  Frankly, recruiters may not intentionally shoot high or low on experience and reach out to people that are not interested in the role that you would be. a
6. Do submit your resume as a Microsoft Word Document only and be sure to manually hide grammatical and spelling errors when you save the document.  Just because you click OK or ignore, does not mean that those red and green marks are gone on my end.  It differs per version, but just search Help for “Hide Errors”.  Why not PDF and avoid the hassle?  Tools for recruiting do not play well with PDF.  Want to know why?  Craig Fisher explains HERE
7. If Jim Stroud says it, then believe it.  He offers over two hours of actionable items on how to find a job.  Click HERE
8. Have Hope
9. Have Compassion

10.  Help others via #HireFriday

My readers know how much I love a theme song for each post.  Today’s theme song is “bullet proof,” because when you are out there in the job search I want you to feel invincible.

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