Cincy Recruiter's World

2 Secrets of Successful "Social Recruiting" Explained

Every day, somewhere out there in our universe, many Recruiters are losing their way in regards to using social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for recruiting purposes. I see the complaints (often ironically aired via Twitter) that <insert favorite social network name> simply doesn't work for recruiting and is only a waste of time. These rants are typically followed by statements extolling the virtues of the telephone - and how "real" Recruiters know how to magically work this ancient device. And I sigh.

<Sigh>

And I continue to think that they're not willing to evolve and learn how to use these tools successfully. 

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Recently, I came across two great examples that explain how I believe Recruiters should approach social networks for recruiting purposes. The first is from Amber Naslund, who writes the consistently informative Altitude Branding blog. In her post - How I Made $100k With Twitter - Amber shares 8 steps she took to make money using Twitter to build relationships and market her services. Be sure to check out the full post here.

In the excerpt below, I've taken the liberty of inserting recruiting-related terms to illustrate how I think the method Amber outlined is exactly the way to approach using Twitter (and other social networks) for recruiting.

The magic in making money <recruiting> with social media isn’t that the site or social network becomes a revenue center <candidate database> itself. I didn’t sell stuff <"recruit"> on Twitter. I gave people access to me and my expertise, and paid attention to when the time might be right to talk business <about opportunities at my company>.

That’s the trick here, folks. Social media is rarely the cash register <candidate Fairy>. It’s communication tools that help form the foundation for healthy business relationships that might eventually lead to sales <successful placements> elsewhere. Whether you’re B2B or B2C.

Twitter was just the handshake that got the conversation started. It required an investment of time and effort for me to spend time there and converse without the intent to sell something <recruit anyone>, and lay the groundwork for trust and relationships. Much like having lunch or going to networking events. I spent time getting to know the people that might eventually be the decision maker for a project that I could be hired for <the potential clients or perfect candidates for positions I'm recruiting for>. And when they needed something like what I did, they often thought of me.

It’s that simple, and yet that complex.

Nailed it. To me, that's one of the simplest and best explanations that I've seen regarding how relationships are developed, business connections are made and successful recruiting is done via social media.

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Second, Andy Headworth of one of my favorite recruiting blogs - Sirona Says - interviewed Super Sourcer/Recruiting Trainer/Social Media Whiz Kid Jim Stroud at the recent TruLondon Unconference asking - "Where will social media recruitment be in 2 years?" Jim didn't disappoint, giving an interesting and insightful answer. (Email subscribers will need to click through to the blog to view the video)

Hint: It's not about being able to find more people folks.

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I think we've got to get more people thinking differently about how to use social networks for recruiting purposes. It's more about relationships and branding and less about having a large network or being able to find names.

What do you think? Do you think investing the time to build relationships and to establish a "personal brand" on social networks is required to successfully recruit? Or is the "old way" still the best way?

The Best Lists? The Ones You Make! (Top 25 Most Influential Online Recruiters)

Today, John Sumser and the good folks over at HR Examiner have unveiled their latest list of Online Influencers - the Top 25 Most Influential Online Recruiters - and apparently somebody left the back door open, because yours truly somehow managed to sneak in!

<insert massively awkward happy dance>

Hey I know it's just another list, and there are always more people left off of any list that should be on it than there are actually on it (and I can think of several folks I would say are missing from this one) - but like any awards show nominee will tell you, it's still nice to be included.

The HR Examiner uses an online reputation discovery tool - Traackr - to measure reach, relevance and resonance in the online world in an effort to keep their lists objective and this one follows the announcement of the Top 25 HR Digital Influencers 2009 released this past December. 

I'm honored to be included on any list along with the likes of Sumser, Steckerl and Sullivan - widely recognized recruiting thought leaders and influencers that I've followed and learned from for many years.

Thank you very much HR Examiner and a huge congratulations to everyone that is mentioned!

11.12.09 HR Happy Hour Blog Talk Radio Show Featuring the Fistful of Talent Crew

If you haven't been paying attention lately, there's a lot of cool people doing some new and innovative things in the HR/Recruiting/Talent Management space and one of those things is a BlogTalk Radio show hosted by Steve Boese and Shauna Moerke (the HR Minion) called HR Happy Hour.

Started as an opportunity for HR pros to chat, vent and discuss the burning issues of the day,the HR Happy Hour has turned into a "must attend" event bi-monthly (sort of) on Thursday evenings at 8 p.m. EST. I've been a guest previously on Episode 10 - The Job Seeker's Show and was also fortunate to be in attendance when the show went on the road recently for two live broadcasts - Episode 17 for the Fail Spectacularly party in Chicago (put on by Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR and Jason Seiden - who's new book Super Staying Power launched this week) and Episode 18 at HRevolution in Louisville, Kentucky this past weekend.

Next up - Episode 19, where the Fistful of Talent crew will tackle Next Gen HR - sharing our thoughts and opinions on the future of Talent and HR in general. As someone who has plenty of opinions, I'll definitely be calling in - and we'll see if I catch any grief for being lame and not posting often enough over at FOT. (I solemnly vow to improve - I promise!)

If you're available Thursday night, you should definitely call in or listen to the show live (or the archive at a later date/time) via the BlogTalk Radio channel. You can also lurk or participate in the smack talk on Twitter via the hash tag #HRHappyHour - (follow that here.) Another way to participate if you're truly snarky (and have been deemed cool enough by the Google gods to receive an invite) is the irreverent HR Happy Hour back channel discussion that goes on over at Google Wave. On the Wave and want to jump in? Leave a comment with your Wave address and I'll add you to the discussion.

With all of this talking, tweeting and waving going on, clearly, you'll want to be a part of HR Happy Hour Thursday night. See you there/here!

Who Should Recruiters Follow On Twitter? 100+ Suggestions

One of the most popular posts on this blog continues to be 10 People All Recruiters Should Follow on Twitter - and two of the top ten search phrases that land people here are "Twitter for Recruiters" and "Recruiters to follow on Twitter". Hopefully, when they arrive here, they're finding helpful content on using Twitter for Sourcing/Recruiting and thanks to a heads up from HR Technology Blogger Steve Boese recently about a new Twitter app (TweepML), I'd like to share a suggested "Recruiter Twitter Starter Pack" of 100 Recruiters/HR/Talent Management professionals that I recommend following on Twitter.

One of the coolest things about TweepML lists is that you can click on one button to automatically follow everyone on the suggested list or view the profiles and select just a few. Users can create lists of up to 100 suggested Follows, so while my list doesn't include everyone in the industry that I follow or learn from, I tried to create a good mix that would be helpful for a Recruiter/HR pro new to Twitter or someone building a network of Talent Management professionals. 

So without further ado, click on the icon below to access my suggested Recruiter Twitter Starter Pack:

Bonus #1: Steve shared two lists of his suggested Follows for HR and Recruiting Peeps (that's 200 people on Twitter) on his blog - Steve Boese's HR Technology - and I'd suggest that you go here and follow his suggestions as well. There's definitely some overlap in our lists, but that just confirms that great minds think alike.

Bonus #2: Follow @badbanana. Nothing to do with recruiting or HR, but a seriously funny dude who makes me laugh every day. And I deal with people here in Cincy Recruiter's World, which means some days I desperately need a laugh!

If you've been a late adopter or a Twitter-Hater, hopefully you're starting to thaw - or at least develop a slight interest in figuring out how to use this increasingly popular tool in your sourcing and recruiting efforts. (If not, you can always bookmark this post and come back to it later when you reach that point... like tomorrow, or maybe next week.)

Who'd I miss on my Recruiter/Talent Management suggestions? Add yourself or your suggestions in the Comments so people can find you here!

Fall ERE Expo 2009: It's a Wrap!

I'm back from attending the Fall ERE Expo 2009 in Hollywood, Florida and I can safely say that it was one of the best conference experiences that I've had yet! It's also safe to say that I suck at "live-blogging" conferences, because I really get wrapped up in learning from the session leaders and interacting with other conference attendees. But apparently I've got some skills at "live tweeting"... (Is there a job where I can get paid to do that?)

So here's a wrap-up from around the recruito-sphere (and HRo-sphere), while I let the good stuff that was shared digest and marinate for future posts...

AWESOMENESS: All conference presentation slide decks and videos are available on the ERE Expo Blog. 

Steve Fogarty - Recruiting Captain and Steve Bonomo - Head of Global Recruiting at adidas covered a lot of ground in their "Impossible is Nothing" Recruiting presentation. The Steve's talked about the importance of employment branding, metrics, candidate experience and asking forgiveness rather than waiting for permission to make things happen. They also discussed their new branded and interactive Careers site and Fogarty does a great job of capturing some of the trends he noted from attending and presenting at the Expo on his own blog - Recruiting Revolution. 

On HRmarketer Blog, Jonathan Goodman summarizes his thoughts and takeaways from the conference including one of the many great quotes shared in the presentation by Tony Blake - Director of Recruiting at DaVita. It's from Michael Foster - Founder & Chairman of the Human Capital Institute: "The next killer app in recruiting is - the recruiter" - ERE Fall Expo '09: The next killer recruiting app. If you're a Recruiter, hopefully, you are at least on version 2.0 by now...

"If networking is King, then Twitter is Queen" declares Sarah White - who was inspired to share her thoughts on how Twitter enhances the conference experience by a photo of Mr. Recruiter Tweeter himself - @TheRecruiterGuy - wearing a t-shirt proclaiming "I'm Huge on Twitter". (indeed he is)

Sarah also recaps her conference experience in ERE Expo - The best HR Conference I have been to yet - Behind the Scenes - which includes a link to some great photos from the event as well.

Jason Buss - VP, Talent Acquisition & Diversity at Ameriprise Financial managed to find 10 tweets from the thousands shared at the conference to capture his experience in ERE Recruiting Expo Re-cap, Twitter Style and he also snagged an interview with Expo Chairperson Kevin Wheeler - Social Media & Recruiting: Do We Have It Wrong? (Stay tuned to Fistful of Talent for my upcoming post/interview with Kevin following his session on What Will 2010 Bring? Insightful stuff from a Talent "futurist"!)

Industry Guru Gerry Crispin believes that the ERE Expo 2009 will be a Tough Act to Follow due to a little giveback (the ERE Charity Poker Classic which raised $10,000), a lot of Community, a lot of Learning and a Trend or Two. Gerry's always way out in front on talent management issues. We'd be wise to pay attention - although sitting next to Gerry at the Poker game didn't seem to help me much. :)

HR Pro Sharlyn Lauby makes a great point in her post on hr bartender encouraging conference organizers to embrace the opportunity to share content freely and allow attendees to actively participate as ERE has successfully done. Sharon states that "It’s time for conference organizers to realize that social networking is a key component of the conference experience. Attendees want to tweet, post photos and videos and share their experiences – while the event is taking place." <I agree!>

Senior Editor at SmartBrief - Mary Ellen Slayter puts her journalist skills on display with her post "Where Social Media Meets Our Biases" and cautions against its use in the employment process: "Prolific isn’t competent. A social media maven, who has figured out how to get their name out there in all these channels, isn’t necessarily a better fit for a job than someone who hasn’t adopted these tools. Someone can have an amazing professional network and not have a single Twitter follower. Social media communities can quickly get cliquish; make sure you use these tools to broaden your networks, not push people out."

Newly announced chairperson of ERE's next Social Recruiting Summit in NYC - Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR - continues the "networking is the best part of attending conferences" theme by giving props to the inspiring Women of #EREExpo. Indeed. We're planning to take over the world soon... so watch out!

Laurie also posted her thoughts on a frequent question that came up at the conference "Should Recruiting Report in to HR?". Granted, this was a conference filled mostly with Recruiters, so when it was suggested during one presentation that HR should report to Recruiting, the audience cheered. For the record, I'm with Laurie on this one.

Leanne Chase of careerlife connection found the secret for connecting with and engaging attendees on the Trade Show floor to garner interest in her company focused on flexibility issues in the workplace. All it takes is some food, a few blow up chairs and a guy wearing your shirt - Tales from the booth at ERE.

And finally, Stephanie Lloyd shares her thoughts and several photos in her post Wrap-up: ERE Expo 2009, as well as a video interview with yours truly, which I'll leave you with below. In summary - thanks to David Manaster, Scott Baxt and the ERE crew - the Fall ERE EXPO 2009 ROCKED - so start making plans for Spring 2010 in San Diego!

Fall ERE Expo: Day 1 - Swanky & Hot

ERE Fall Expo Day 1 - 09.09.09 from Jennifer McClure on Vimeo.

This week, I'm at the 8th Annual Fall ERE Expo in Hollywood, Florida September 9th through September 11th soaking up some knowledge from many of the recruiting industries movers and shakers. If you aren't lucky enough to be here - no worries - because thanks to ERE, you have the opportunity to participate in many of the conference activities through live video streams of several of the sessions starting on Thursday September 10th at 8:45 a.m. EST!

For more information and a schedule of the sessions to appear, go to www.ERE.net or here.

You can also follow along to to see what many of the attendees are saying and doing at the conference via the Twitter hashtag #ereexpo using Twitter Search (even if you don't have a Twitter account). 

I'll be taking pictures, doing some video interviews and blogging about what I learn at the Expo so I can share that with you here at Cincy Recruiter's World and also at Fistful of Talent so stay tuned!

(email subscribers - click through to to see the embedded video in this post)

Using Twitter For Recruiting - Definitely Maybe

If you're a Recruiter who has been resisting the idea of checking out Twitter for finding candidates or for sharing your job openings, you're not alone. But there are several Recruiters and Talent Acquisition pros out there who are finding Twitter to be a fertile new ground for building relationships and accessing potential talent pools that haven't been previously as accessible through other means. So how do you decide which camp you should be in?

Recently, Joshua Kahn - an Accenture Talent Consultant embedded at Best Buy as a Pipeline Generation Expert - responded to a debate (on Twitter of course) among several Recruiters as to whether or not Twitter is an effective tool for posting jobs by taking to his blog - find+attract - and sharing his thoughts. As with everything I've seen from Josh - including his recent presentation at the ERE Social Recruiting Summit - his post on "Should You Post Jobs to Twitter" is spot on. If you're trying to figure out if Twitter is a tool to add to your Recruiter's Toolbox, then check out Josh's post.

Some things Josh suggests considering to determine if Twitter is a viable recruiting tool include:

Ground Zero: Twitter will only be a useful recruiting tool for you if the people you're trying to hire are on Twitter. (duh)

Obvious Point 1: The number of Followers you have on Twitter matters.

Obvious Point 2: "Who" your Followers are matters.

Obvious Point 3: It's important to post jobs during high traffic times and maybe more than once.

Obvious Point 4: Use URL shorteners to track your results and determine if your job posting links are being clicked.

Other important things to consider:

• Use relevant Hashtags to post your jobs.

• Don't have a Job Board mentality with Twitter. Remember it's a social network.

• Add links and code to your Career Site that allow your jobs to be shared on Twitter.

• Enable the community of people who have a vested interest in the job to participate on Twitter. (Best Buy uses ConnectTweet to allow multiple employees to tweet via one account.)

• Follow appropriate Hashtags and Conferences to access potential candidates for your jobs.

Nice "secret sauce" recipe on using Twitter for recruiting by a Candidate Sourcing expert!

What tips and tricks do you think have been left out? Anything you'd add that you've found helpful - or not helpful - in using Twitter for recruiting?

Look Mom! I'm Going to the 2009 SHRM Annual Conference!

Next week I'll be in New Orleans attending the SHRM Annual Conference June 28 through July 1st - and you'll be glad to know that I've already stocked up on anti-frizz products in an effort to control my hair's natural tendency to poof to unflattering proportions in the more tropical climes...

If you've read my Bio or LinkedIn Profile, you know that I spent most of my career as an HR Pro before making a change in 2006 to become an Executive Recruiter/Coach & Consultant. When I worked in HR, every year I would receive the Conference brochures and devour them wishing that I could attend to learn about what was new and happening in HR, as well as to meet some of my peers. But every year, the money either wasn't in the budget, or the few times that it was budgeted, something always came up that prevented me from attending. So I'm super excited about this opportunity to finally make the pilgrimage to the land of 10,000+ HR Pros and also to participate as a Press Blogger!

I'll be tweeting, blogging and vlogging while at the Conference and sharing my learnings and experiences in several places. Kris Dunn, Jessica Lee and myself will be covering the Conference for Fistful of Talent and I'll also be playing the role of "Roving Reporter" for RecruitingBlogs.com and a new website RecruitingConferences.com. I'll link to any shenanigans I post on those sites here on Cincy Recruiter's World, but if you're not already subscribing to these resources - you should be!

At the Conference, there will be a ton of opportunities to learn about all of the areas of "People Strategy" that I'm consistently curious about, including Recruiting, Executive Coaching, Human Resources, Company Culture and Employment Branding and I've tried to select sessions to get my fill in as many of those areas as possible. Here's my tentative schedule so far:

Sunday, June 28th
2:30 pm     Opening General Session with Jack Welch (we're like BFF now that I follow Jack on Twitter)
5:00 pm     Press Briefing

Monday, June 29th
7:00 am     Retention Before Hiring, After Hiring and Long-Term Retention Strategies
10:45 am   Creating a Great Place to Work: Lessons from the 2009 '50 Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America'
12:00 pm   Lunch with Kris Dunn & Jessica Lee
2:00 pm     How Your Web Site Can Be Your #1 Recruiting Tool
4:00 pm     Creating Executive Presence: Thinking on Your Feet
6:00 pm     Yahoo! HotJobs VIP Party

Tuesday, June 30th
7:00 am     Strategic Interviewing Practices
10:45 am   How to Give a Butt-Kicking Presentation
2:15 pm     Employment Branding: Branding Your Organization To Attract & Retain A-Level Talent
6:00 pm     Tweetup at Ruth Chris Steak House

Wednesday, July 1st
10:00 am   Become a Talent Magnet: How to Entice, Endear & Engage Top Talent
11:30 am   HR Blogger Panel: Kris Dunn, Jessica Lee, Laurie Ruettimann & Lance Haun

You should also check out some of the other bloggers who will be attending the Conference. I've linked to their Twitter profiles below, as well as their most recent posts about their Conference plans:

Lance Haun - Your HR Guy: Updated SHRM 2009 Schedule

Sharlyn Lauby - HR Bartender: The Big Easy

Jessica Lee - Jessica Lee Writes: New Orleans...Here I Come!

Michael Long - The Red Recruiter: SHRMing Out With Twitter

Laurie Ruettimann - Punk Rock HR: Social Media, Human Resources & SHRM

Mary Ellen Slayter - SmartBlog on Workforce: My SHRM Schedule

Mark Stelzner - Inflexion Advisors: HR Gone Wild - SHRM 2009

UPDATE: Thanks to Brett Farmiloe of Jobing.com for making me aware of his post 5 Ways To Participate in SHRM 2009 From the Office on ERE.net. Good tips for those who must stay home!

You can catch me tweeting as @CincyRecruiter and follow all "real time" Conference tweets via Twitter Search here with the hashtag #SHRM09. (You don't even have to sign up for Twitter to do so!)

If you'll be attending the Conference, I'd love to meet you there! You can get my contact information by texting JENNIFERM to 50500 (via Contxt).

     

ERE Social Recruiting Summit 2009 - Recap, Resources & Tweets

Despite the challenges created by modern-day air travel (really, how many times in one trip can you be delayed by planes missing a part, having malfunctioning parts or a baggage crew who "forgets" to load the plane?), I've returned safely and inspired from the ERE Social Recruiting Summit held on June 16, 2009 at the Google Campus in beautiful Mountain View, California! Alas, no Google Goats were sighted during my brief stay. Apparently after an organizing attempt by PETA and demands for perks and free benefits, they've been unceremoniously relocated...

Click on the link below to view a brief video recap of my experience:

Cincy Recruiter's ERE Social Recruiting Summary Recap 6 17 09 on Vimeo

I must say that the crew from ERE did a fantastic job of assembling a full day of content with great speakers! They should also be highly praised for live streaming the Conference to allow those who were not able to attend to participate "live" and for many to be able to view the content in the future.

I'm sharing links below to the presentations, as well as some selected Tweets shared by Conference attendees and others in the Twitterverse who were either watching the live feeds or "listening in" via the Twitter "hashtag" #socialrecruiting. Lots of great stuff here. Take some time to check out the slide decks and videos - as well as the links to all of the blogs and Twitter profiles!

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Conference opening video (Evolution of Recruiting) shared by Susan Burns of Talent Synchronicity.

Keynote presentation by Reid Hoffman - Chairman & CEO of LinkedIn - Slide Deck & Video.

@lifeatmcgladrey: http://newin.linkedinlabs.com/ - Shows new LinkedIn users as they sign up. Very, very cool!

@CincyRecruiter: April 2004 LinkedIn had 500k members. Now over 42 million.

@mspecht: Every individual is a small business therefore every individual is an entrepreneur. Everyone will have an online profile

@joshuakahn: LI profiles are more authentic cuz people tend not to lie in public as much. True?

Punk Rock HR's Laurie Ruettimann - Ubiquity & Authenticity in Social Media - Slide Deck & Audio.

@CincyRecruiter: For inquiring minds - @lruettimann is adorable & TINY! Started her HR career as HR Asst at a "cream of the crap" candy co.

@ewmonster: Respect professional boundaries. "Don't tell someone else's story for them- tell your own story." Nice.

Mobile Marketing for Recruitment by Chris Hoyt and Michael Marlatt - Slide Deck

@masterburnett: Worldwide adults 25-34 send more text messages that they make phone calls. Not just youth

@GerryCrispin: mobile benefits: ubiquitous, immediate, private, convenient, actionable. need relevance to community to reach further

IBM Emerging Technologies Evangelist Sacha Chua - The Awesomest Job Search Ever - Video. (also check out Sacha's many awesome presentations on Slideshare)

@CincyRecruiter: Job search of the future ~ when u go to an interview & u already "know" each other. Social media can do that

@MattAlder: This girl is so enthusiastic it's actually scaring me, then maybe that's me just being British

@TheDavidGroup: Sacha Chua: [Employees] are going to be incredible recruiters if they LOVE the company. Boss's take note

No Sacred Cows: Making Sense of Social Recruiting by Joshua Kahn

@Frannyo: BEST Quote of the day "Advertising is the price we pay for being unremarkable." (Robert Stephens)

@lruettimann: @joshuakahn advocates bacon, social media, and having back-channel conversations

@TheRecruiterGuy: @joshuakahn used Facebook page (that was created by FANS of BestBuy) to connect with job seekers AND customers.

@JohnSumser: You don't build communities, you discover them. Most important point of the day.

@CincyRecruiter: It's a post-brand perfect world. So don't pretend that u are & that this stuff isn't happening

LinkedIn Networking - Shally Steckerl - Video.

@shally: Here are the top ten reasons recruiters should create LinkedIn groups: http://tr.im/oAjO

@shally: Answering questions and getting “best answer” helps establish you & your team’s credibility in your area of expertise

@shally: Idea 4 using LinkedIn Events: Create “virtual career day” and invite your target prospects, + u get 2 keep attendee list!

Welcome (Back) to the Community with William Uranga - Slide Deck

@JobVite: getting back to community...the biggest rewards in recruiting will come from building communities

Online Employer Reputation & Social Recruiting - Shannon Seery Gude - Video.

@masterburnett: Never let an agency draft blog content if your goal is authenticity, it shouldn't be marketing perfect

@CincyRecruiter: Have social media guidelines vs social media policies. Tell employees what they can & should do vs shouldn't

@jrl2002: Great point made about looking at your goals & then determine the best tools vs. picking the current "hot" tool of the day

Additional Summaries from Social Recruiting Summit Attendees:

- Australian HR Technology Consultant Michael Specht - Social Recruiting Summit

- Pay-It-Forward Executive Recruiter Jenny DeVaughn - Notes from the Social Recruiting Summit

- Recruiting & Social Media Consultant Paul Jacobs from New Zealand - The Social Recruiting Summit (I'm Wagging My Tail)

- Human Resources Blogger/Writer Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR - Today @ Le Googles

- Jobing.com Social Media Manager Brett Farmiloe's Notes from the 2009 Social Recruiting Summit at Google HQ

- Chris Hoyt - Associate Director of Talent Attraction at AT&T - What I Leaned (and Taught) at Camp

- IBM Emerging Technologies Evangelist - Sacha Chua - Notes from the Social Recruiting Summit

Google, Goats and Recruiting - All In a Days Work

On Monday, June 15th, I'll be attending the Social Recruiting Summit sponsored by ERE.net at Google HQ in Mountain View, CA - and I'm pretty excited about it to say the least! Here's a brief rundown of why I'm jazzed:

1. The Agenda/Speakers - ERE has done a great job of assembling a top-notch group of some of the sharpest tools in the box in recruiting and social media.
2. Keynote by Reid Hoffman - CEO of LinkedIn. Apparently Reid's going to make some special announcements about new features being introduced for Recruiters on LinkedIn. Maybe this will be one of those opportunities to say "I remember where I was when LinkedIn announced..." (or not)
3. The opportunity to meet some of my "virtual friends" in person - many of whom have already been more than helpful to me by providing advice, tips and help via email, social networks or by phone. I've developed some great relationships with some really smart and helpful people in the "talent community" through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook & blogging. However, those relationships become even more solid when we're able to connect in person.
4. The Social Recruiting Summit will be held at Google's Headquarters and part of our day will include a tour. I'm looking forward to checking out some of what makes Google the former #1 in Fortune's 100 Best Place to Work.
5. The Google Goats. Apparently, in an effort to be more "green", Google has hired a herd of goats to keep their campus grounds neat and tidy. There's just not much more in the world that this Farm Girl would want right now than a photo op with one of the Google Goats. (I'm a simple girl - really.)

For those of you that weren't able to snag one of the 200 spots before the Conference sold out, ERE is graciously providing a live video stream of the Conference here. Also, if you have a Twitter account, you can follow @socrecruiting for updates or use Twitter Search and follow the hashtag #socialrecruiting here.

I'll be taking lots of notes and likely have some good fodder for future blog posts. So stay tuned for the really juicy stuff...

Stand Off uploaded by Kevin