In the real world people are cautious about what and how they say things.  There is something about looking someone in the eye or hearing their voice on the phone that changes the mental decision making process between what you want to say to someone and what you actually do say.  It is in that situation that your brains decision making process kicks into overdrive and helps you make good decisions not to upset, hurt, offend, etc.

In my real world life, I get faced with a tough decision (or lets face it, an easy one) and I carefully analyze it, weigh the risks, potential outcomes of each possible option, the impact it will have on all of the parties involved and make a educated decision based on those factors.  What wins is the path that seems the most logical.  I rarely make a decision based on emotional drivers.

In social media however, most people just put it out there (me included!!!).  I don’t always think through what I do or say or the larger, longer term impact that it can have.  From a decision making factor it is like taking a few shots of tequila then exposing me to 2000+ people to say exactly what I think.  We forget that much like when we say things in our real life, we can’t really take it back.  In fact its worse in social media because the electronic record is there forever.

The complete opposite tends to hold true for most organizations that are tightly controlling their “branding” – There is so much time spend doing the analyzing of what you should/shouldn’t put out there that they often come across so vanilla that a potential employee doesn’t really know them at all.  Your corporate facebook fan page, twitter accounts, corporate blog, etc  are all an extension of your organization and what you put out there about your organization – both good and bad – needs to be analyzed just like you were saying or presenting it to someone face to face.

When you are sitting in an interview with someone or talking to people at a BBQ – what do you say then (positive) about your company?  When they are frustrated or get a call from a headhunter – what makes employees stay with you?  Its typically not what is on your traditional branding material and on the information you feed out online.

I’m not suggesting you dive overboard and go to the extreme that a lot of us do as individuals – putting things out there that you probably shouldn’t have.  But, I am encouraging brands to move in that direction and be more human.  Be more real.  Be more vulnerable. Show the quirks and the not so positive part while highlighting the rest.

In doing so, you’ll gain the people that appreciate your company for who it is and want to work their regardless.

Just like the people who stay friends with me even when I do (and say) really stupid things.

Ok, Breaking News…More details to follow – but I am SUPER STOKED to have just found out that I will be doing a session along with David Peck at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive this spring targeted to job seekers and hr pro’s that will be there titled “Using Social Media to Score” – we’ll be talking about linkedin, twitter, facebook, mobile and whatever else we feel like!!  With more than 2500 submissions for slots – I was honestly not expecting to actually be going!!!

It could have been the the fact that I found a guy at FAO Schwartz that was so corporate (I didn’t even ask for the shot!), great dinner Saturday night with a small group of people I admire in this industry, the Monster Social/Tweetup Sunday Night (see below),  the onslaught of  social recruiting discussion at the summit on Monday, the the 6 hours of business planning meetings that followed Monday night or the fact that I did most of it not realizing I had pneumonia, but I am exhausted and am glad I have an excuse to stay in bed the rest of this week and relax.  Will this post ramble.  Yes.  Sorry.

To start, I have to say a huge thank you to the ERE crew for putting on such an amazing event and a huge congratulations to Laurie Ruettimann for being a gracious and entertaining chairwoman.   I also have to say a HUGE thank you to HRMDirect for encouraging us to attend and to Elaine Orler with Talent Function for letting me test out her laptop mini (just one more time) so I could live tweet.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the morning keynote and am pretty disappointed about it, but here is what I did see live and some thoughts on in…

Overall lessons learned from my Tweets

Failing via social media because you are doing the same old style of work makes YOU suck, not the technology

Sometimes you have to be common sense smart

If you want to have a solid social media strategy – drive transparency & enable conversation

Most companies aren’t social media recruiting they are social media sourcing

Social Recruiting is a “boatload” more than posting jobs per @johnsumser

Resisting social media in 2010 is like resisting a website in 1997  (Which I saw was actually used in another conference this week)

Not everything is about today’s hire people!!! Think pipeline!!!

Content should be relevant to the jobseeker not just what the “pros” think we should do

#monstersocial – WOW!  Seriously, WOW!  From finding a uber cool location in the meat packing district to the DJ, the Vin Diesel look alike bouncer, free pac-man, the bartenders who made custom drinks to match your outfit (or mood) or the chocolate covered bacon. Again, Wow.  And it gave me a chance to wear a little sparkly dress.

While it was quite the social, there was a lot of shop talk going on still, people were talking about how they were using social media in their own lives – both professionally and personally and how the line between them had really evolved.  I stumbled upon conversations on the evolutions of job boards/applicant tracking/performance management/software, conversations about how to engage candidates more effectively (and if you should care to) and discussions about the droid vs iphone.

In back rooms ( the back rooms were very cool) the mood was more mellow, the setting was more intimate and the noise levels were low – it was where conversations turned into discussions.  Topics floated around other conferences and the rapid evolution of the conference world in the last 18 months thanks to social media and New York itsself.  There was one lengthy and passionate debate about the value of recruiting CRM, their place in this industry and who was leading the way and why. It was really interesting to hear peoples thoughts sans filters

All in all, it was an amazing event – lots of great conversation, tons of laughs and some fantabulous dancing with Maren Hogan, Jenny DeVaughn (once most everyone else had gone home).

On to the main event – #socialrecruiting

Social Recruiting Panel -  The social recruiting panel was filled with big name people (Kelly Dingee, Ben Gotkin, Kerry Noone, Heather Tinguely) from big name companies talking about what they were doing with social media.  IT was a neat concept – I wish it would have been a little more interactive and got down into the how’s more than the should’s.   I would also love to see a similar panel that included some smaller/mid sized companies that were doing social media the right way.   I love hearing about what Microsoft, Sodexo, etc are doing but the reality is developing a social media strategy with an well known, established corporate brand is different and in some ways a lot easier than doing it from XCY Widget Maker with 500 ee’s.

SRS Quick Hit’s – Carmen Hudson (Tweetajob) got up in her typically, funny style and got things rolling before her breakout discussion and John Sumser (of everything and everywhere)- I think we all loved what he said, but the real winner (at our nerdy crew table) was the presentation software he was using.  Prezi.com  It was awesome and was a great lead into his unconference session

Social Recruiting from 30,000 Feet – This was by Master Burnett who rivals our own Afton Funk for coolest name ever and took a lot deeper look than I would have anticipated from the title.    It was really a quite enjoyable session

Then we got a look at what Talent Camp would have been like if there would have been 300 people at it and it was held in a comedy club.   There was some doubt on how it would work out, but as usual, Susan Burns (who happens to have been last SRS’s chairwoman)  pulled it off and IMHO was the session that got  a ton of involvement.   I know of one major company who had a few, um, non believers there – who told me later that it was that session that drove their non-recruiting people that required buy in, to get the buy in.

Finally, we come to the last sessions – I had to choose between Gerry Crispin and Jessica Lee – considering my laptop was almost out of juice, I stayed near the plug and sat in on Jessica Lee’s session on bashing monster social media for smaller companies.  It was an interesting session to say the least, I feel like I know Jessica know (even though I don’t) and think we have way to much in common to ever actually speak to one another.  It would be a dangerous mix.   Anyway, the most entertaining portion was when she happened to mention they were stopping the monster contracts and then it kinda went downhill from there.  I was proud of the restraint held at the table full of monster people behind me when comment after slide bashed them (although Eric Winegardner did retort quite nicely and professionally in a way that only he can) and felt a little bad at the comparison of free skype to Hirevue (Not even close to the same thing – its like saying I don’t need to have dinner, they give me free crackers while I wait).   But seriously people – not all jobs are right for all job boards – I get it.  Those of you that don’t have likely never worked in a small company before.   We’re cheap.  Seriously, like priceline cheap.  All in all – her message was awesome – you don’t need a huge budget to move mountains (or sumo wrestlers) in this space.  You just need innovation and engagement.

#SimplyHiredNetworkingReception

Very, very nice wrap up to the event – huge turn out, lots of ongoing discussions from the day and a bit of a feel of the last day of school for a lot of us who “conference” regularly and have grown accustomed to seeing the same people every few weeks.

Also, just have to say that it was so great to finally meet the Redhead.  I was confident that @therecruiterguy had been making her up and photo shopping her into pictures.

Last night I had the pleasure of stumbling upon a iblog posting about the 21 HR Leaders in Web 2.0 (IE. Social Media, Twitter, Blogging Really).  I was obviously shocked to be included – especially considering if you removed ICIMS – there weren’t even 21 Leader’s Listed.  So – I would love to share with you their list and then round it out with a few others that are must follows for me!  My add’s are in Green

The ICIM’s iBlog List: w/my additions in green

1. Knowledge Infusion Jason Corsello, Jason Averbook and Bill Kutik SW: @bryonabramowitz

2.  iCIMS: Okay, blatant self-promotion here.  SW: Also check out the other ATS/TMS Vendors: @HRMDirect, @SilkRoadTweets, @taleoduncan

3.  ERE on Twitter, Todd Raphael , Scott Baxt and David Manaster SW: @KevinPlantan @DZittel

4.  @lruettimann AKA @punkrockhr SW: And can’t miss our new @cluelessatlove launching soon and totally unrelated

5.  @RecruitingBlogs - @johnsumser @callmeslouch SW: Don’t forget about all the tweeps behind the scenes @marenhogan @jdakers @milesj and all the other stuff they are doing over there!

6.  William Tincup -  @starrtincup SW: My favorite to watch from there on Twitter is the Miss @lallireese – she is about to have a very uncorporate birthday bash and if I was local – I’d totally crash it.

7.  Fistful of Talent:  Jessica Lee, Kris Dunn and Jason Seiden

8.  Glen Cathey AKA Boolean Black Belt

9.  @Recruiter Earth AKA Chris LaVoie .

10.  @PenelopeTrunk SW: This is not for the feint of heart.  She will reveal TMI – But I love it.  Also – check out her new boy toys projects over at @brazencareerist including @brazendan

11. Naomi Bloom

12.   Sarah White – SW: Yup – that is me and I didn’t even add myself to the list!

13.   Recruiting Animal

14.   Steve Boese

15.   Cheezhead, of course SW: I love that it said “of course” like how can you not include joel.

16.   Sharlyn Lauby

17.   Lance Haun

18.   Renegade HR SW: Believe it or not – he has a name that isn’t Renegade HR – It’s Chris Ferdinandi

19.   HRM Today

20.  SW: @EWMonster - He makes me tired just watching how busy he is – Yet always finds times to do really funny, industry related tweeting.

21. SW: Susan Burns – She is always though provoking and professional with a little bit of sass mixed in.  Her constant demand of everyone to look beyond the norm has personally challenged and developed me into being a better thinker on a variety of topics.

22. SW: @TheRecruiterGuy – (I can’t believe I forgot this) – one of the coolest ones around and innovative in terms of video blogging, interactive/mobile recruiting and just being an all around awesome guy!!Basically whatever is coming up in blogging and social media and recruitment – he is already on it.   Don’t forget to checkout his blog too!

There are likely a thousand more I could list off, but I just wanted to modify the original 21 –  Who else (that I am missing) do you follow and see as a leader in Web 2.0 (even though I hate that phrase)

There were a lot of people at ERE Expo that are huge on twitter @TheRecruiterGuy is the only one to wear the shirt that said it!

I am not someone that is huge on Twitter.  A lot of the twitter superstar’s are also bloggers.  Not like I’m a blogger – but like real bloggers that people read and care about.  They have really cool things to say and make you want to learn more.   In fact, I was a bit of a late adopter and didn’t even start using Twitter until May when I got home from Kennedy this year.  So…what is that like 4 month?  Lame, I know.

My first national conference in 2007 was terrifying.  Not only was I attending – but I was called in as a last minute speaker for a general session.  To top it off, I knew NO ONE.  Honestly, not a soul.  Over the years, I have met a lot of amazing people in this industry – people that I have maintained relationships via a variety of channels.  Each one of them has helped me learn and grow both personally and professionally and they likely don’t even know it.   Twitter helped me develop, expand and strengthen a number of these relationships and build new ones with people that I had never known before.

My favorite Punk Rocker, Laurie Ruettimann, had a great blog today about the women of twitter that were there.   Jason Buss had a great blog yesterday on the best tweets of the event.  I taught Mike Greenier from Walmart how to tweet and use Tweetdeck this week (and created a monster).   Overall, Twitter at ERE was HUGE – used to help share some of the highlights of the various sessions, tweet complaints about sessions, locate people for lunch or pool time and share some after hours pictures (ummm…@marenhogan).

If Networking is King, then Twitter is Queen – playing an amazing role in my experience ths time around – giving me the chance to meet and connect with in person people that I have been learning from all summer. I didn’t feel like the awkward geeky girl trying to meet the cool kids (like normal) rather like the awkward geeky girl the cool kids already know is geeky and they accept her anyway.

Guest post by Adam Fields  @Fieldsy4Life

Have you all seen that commercial from Verizon? The one where the kids are making fun of their parents for jumping on the Social Media bandwagon with their kewl new phones? I know you have (if not, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14CKzskjn4s).

That is what most of my friends are like as well. Hell, in my [old] office, people didn’t even want to use Instant Messaging programs. I’m not suggesting you hop on every new SocMed website to pop up (I signed up for Plaxo, not really impressed), but you need to branch out and help establish your personal brand. In my case, I was able to get a great new job from it…

Twitter can be used to help get interviews. Simple as that. You obviously cannot approach it the same way you would a typical “job board”, you have to think outside the box. How do a lot of people get hired? They know somebody within a company. Well, Twitter gives you the opportunity to meet people within organizations and build relationships with them. In addition to making new friends, you can share articles (blog or news) and have conversations that help establish your credibility. If you aren’t a social butterfly, you can at the very least get tips on how to accelerate your job search.

Here is my story. A couple weeks ago I came to the realization (I was more or less told this directly) that I was not a candidate for a promotion any time in the foreseeable future. After smoking a few cigarettes, I realized I didn’t even want a promotion – I wanted a fresh start! Becoming a manager at my previous employer meant I would no longer be a recruiter. I would be more of an account manager and have to do 3 hour conference calls and tell people what to do. I’m more hands-on than that. My reqs are my babies – I do the sourcing and calling – I don’t want to just tell people what to do and how to do it without getting my hands dirty!

I decided to call one of the experts in our field for guidance. I reached out to Glen Cathey (you may know him as @BooleanBlackBlt or via his blog, www.booleanblackbelt.com) because we have had a ton of great online conversations in the past and I wanted to finally get a chance to talk to him live. I told him about my background and what I did and didn’t want to do in my future. This early in the conversation, I had no real intention of asking for an interview because I still hadn’t done enough homework on his company, K-Force. After hearing what I had to say, he started to tell me about the career path for recruiters at his organization. I was all ears. We then both decided to start talking about the logistics of an interview in the immediate future. Glen had a Director in New England give me a call during my lunch break and the rest is history (had to do a face-to-face interview, fill out an application, etc.). I was extended an offer the day following my in-person interview and it was the best phone call I had received in years.

What do you know? I got a new job without going to Monster or CareerBuilder once. I didn’t send my resume to 100 different employers. I simply had a great conversation with somebody who felt that I would be an asset to his team. I am thrilled to be a part of K-Force and cannot thank Glen, Paul, and Abby enough for their time and support.

So what does this mean to you? If you are a job seeker and struggling to find a new gig, you really need to cut out the status quo. Recruiters are inundated with resumes (believe me, I know) and job fairs and networking events don’t really work for 99% of the attendees (based on my experience with in-person and virtual career fairs as a recruiter – this is an opinion, not a fact by any means).

Start by first figuring out what you want to do. Don’t just go on Twitter and post status updates saying “HIRE ME!” If you know the industry you want to be a part of, start doing searches for key players in that industry. Also, tweet tons of awesome material (either your own or link to other sites) to get ReTweeted. ReTweets are FREE ADVERTISING! Don’t forget to @reply other people to engage them in a 1-on-1 conversation (or invite them to follow you to Direct Message them).

Okay this has already been said and done on a million other blogs – time for some Fieldsy exclusive content.

I love Instant Messaging. If somebody you don’t know @replies you or ReTweets you, reply back and ask if they have a Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo, or AIM account. Twitter was never meant to be a chat program, and it certainly isn’t a replacement to Facebook, so use them all together. My latest example is with Jeff Moore (@jeffreytmoore), an internal recruiter for Google. Jeff ReTweeted me which obviously showed up in my @mentions column in TweetDeck. I saw that he was a recruiter and seemed really cool judging by his bio and tweets, so I immediately shot him a DM with my email and asked if he had time to GChat. We shared stories about our backgrounds and working in Boston and all that good stuff. I plan on meeting up with him soon since we work a train-ride away.

See? It really is that simple. Now I am obviously not trying to get recruited by Jeff or force-feed referrals down his throat (I know some pretty techy people), but I am looking to meet new people all the time because I love to talk and who knows, these relationships I am building now could lead to future opportunities for me.

I’ve been to TweetUps and networking events. I have over 1000 connections on LinkedIn. None of it really did anything for me. Facebook has been AWESOME for looking at pictures of people I never intend to talk to ever again – but that isn’t really doing much for my career. Twitter works. What more proof do you need?

Thanks again to Adam for being a guest poster while I am swamped getting ready for ERE, Recruitfest & HR Tech in the coming weeks!  I will be back blogging from ERE on Tuesday!  ~Sarah

In a late night posting (10:49 pm) ERE released an article about the financial results of both Monster and Careerbuilder/  Both job boards saw major drops in revenue in the 2nd Quarter – Careerbuilder by an astonishing 31% but still looking better than Monster’s 37% drop.  On the plus side – even with the loss, Monster still beat analysts expectations.

Want to read more about the details and financial information – Click here to read the ERE article by John Zappe.

After reading the posting a few days ago on the HR Technology Vendors increase in revenues – it makes you wonder a little bit about what is going on with the job boards.  At first glance you can blame it on the basics – economy, high unemployment rates, companies not hiring…But the reality of the situation is that the traditional job board model is likely going to be phasing out in the coming years.

What makes me think that?

1.  Job Board Aggregators – If they can fix some of the ease of use issues they have – sites like indeed.com and simplyhired.com will undoubtedly be the best resource from a candidates perspective.  No more having to search a number of individual job boards and company career site.  Simple. Effective.  From a company perspective, these aggregators run on a more PPC cost model and so for many organization they can be listed on this site at no charge to their company.

2. Social Media -Sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn have become the new place where people can be found.  For companies, the cost to advertise & brand is next to nothing.  New middle-man products (and some ATS’s) that are on the market allow for quick distribution to a number various social media sites for less than a fraction of a traditional job board posting.  With this market (or any market, actually)  you are more likely to reach the passive candidates on this route than the traditional job board.  Why does that matter? Because you can target more specifically and waste less time on people you don’t really care to look at anyway.  (In the slightly further future – it will be transition to mobile recruiting and the interaction via SMS that will make the difference - read my thoughts on that here)

3.  Customer Experience – Just like with our own branding and candidate experience programs we implement in our organizations – the customer experience at some of the other, niche boards is well, better.  They are more responsive and more forward thinking than many of the big guys.  Stop focusing on how to add more sales and revenue – instead look at the value you can bring to the community you are working in.  Building the trust and value in your brand will lead to better sales.

Don’t believe me?  Lets take a look at Jobing. I first came across Jobing.com in Phoenix while I was working on a Consulting Project with a major Financial Institution.  I was brought in to design a recruiting process separate from human resources and roll it out to the various regional HQ’s.  My roll out in Phoenix happened to coincide with the Jobing.com job fair that attracted thousands upon thousands of candidates.  No big deal you are thinking – but at the time, the Phoenix market had close to a 2% unemployment rate.  So, how were they able to do that?  They provided value to attendees by offering interview training, resume review (complete with computers & printers to make new ones if needed) and more.   One thing I also was alway intrigued with by their strategic plans was to build a relationship with one market at a time – don’t try to take on the whole world at once.  It worked.

So – what else is Jobing doing that is keeping their clients coming back and using them as the main resource?  (Hey – Monster & Careerbuilder, you may want to take note)

1. Social Media – I think it is because of the nibleness and entreprenurial spirit of the company – but they adapted social media fast and furiously.  In fact they have close to 1000 twitter accounts – including the CEO @jobing, all 38 of the regional markets they are in, and a variety of other employees.  (I follow @thatpassionguy their social media manager, myself).  In itself – that is no so new and different – but this is:  They have created twitter accounts that tweet out jobs based on location & industry so confidential job seekers can just follow a particular twitter handle and get information real time!  (Ex. @phxhealthcare would be healthcare related jobs in Phoenix)
2. Blogs. Jobing.com offers members of the community the ability to blog on their website – creating a built in market for smaller organizations (the majority of ones that actually hire)
3. Superior Customer Service – They stay individual market focused with a full team at each location so you talk to people you may actually meet.  In today’s crazy online world – it is a unique characteristic.  They also LISTEN to suggestions from both their companies, employees and the candidates as to what they are looking for and then try to implement change QUICKLY.

But, if  you are so inclined – let’s keep up the conversation that the major job boards biggest issue right now is the economy.

It’s true.  I am Sarah White, P.I.M.P, C.I.R, A.I.R.S, B.A and every other thing that ever came along that I can tag onto the end of my name.  Over the last few weeks there have been some lengthy discussions amongst my tweeple (those are my people on twitter) about the value of certifications in our industry.  I have also gotten calls from people asking me to discuss new certifications they are coming up with.  Apparently, now that I have a blog, some people think that others care what I say.  (I know the truth – you are really just looking for typo’s or a link to the poker event at ERE)

IMHO – They are kinda a waste of money and a brilliant marketing plan designed by companies who had training programs set up. I am a HUGE fan of training, but don’t really see the value of the letters on the business card.  Don’t get me wrong – I bought into the value of certifications when I was younger and well, they never really mattered at any point in my career.  Never even been asked about them. But people seem to like having letters at the end of their name so I did what any logical person would do….

I decided to make my own certification – PIMP (Professional in Managing Placements)

If you would like a P.I.M.P. certification here are the qualifications:

1.  You must have made 10 placements in your whole life that you didn’t royally screw up (totally ok if you just kinda screwed up)

2.  You have to refer (on occasion) to HR words like “Full Life Cycle” to make others comfortable, even though you secretly are thinking of slapping them upside the head for making you talk like that

3.  You should manage placements as a transactionary process – time is money

4.  You should refer to your self at some point in time (either out loud or in your head) as a guru, expert, master or the like.  *Note: Superstar is already taken my be, so you can not have that.

5. You should always focus on the end result – the placement – not the how, who or why of the matter.

If you can admit agree to these things and sign up in the comments section you will now be able to add the letters P.I.M.P after your name when you go out to meet with new clients or candidates.  It may spark up conversations that the other ones don’t.  (A little different ring than PHR).  If you become a P.I.M.P you will also be eligible for a cool pimp cup for you gin and juice.

This doesn’t appeal to you?  I didn’t think so… I decided not to be a PIMP myself – check out part 2 of this blog tomorrow on How to be a Killer Madame.  I was much more successful as a madame than a P.I.M.P  and you can be too!

I know it wasn’t my job – But,  I am pretty sure that SOMEONE for got to tell the HR Technology Vendors about the bad economy?  I mean what else would explain the results seen (and published) by some of my favorite vendors in the space.

The twitter wires were buzzing this morning with the links to the 2nd Quarter Results for SilkRoad as well as the results for Ultimate Software, an HRIS system. Both had positive results with Silkroad having its 24th consecutive period of sales growth!  Ultimate Software reported a 14% sales increase vs. same quarter numbers the year before!

Lets combine that with the fantastic results that privately held Talent Acquisition/Talent Management/Applicant Tracking/ATS/Whatever we are calling it now is Companies like HRMDirect and ICIMS and it makes you stop to wonder if we are starting to see the uptic – and it happened 2 months ago!

My thought on why these companies are doing so well and some tips to the rest of you vendors that may be struggling.   Here we go:

1.  They are not the most expensive products on the market – They are not the absolute cheapest.  They are robust products with a great value proposition to an organization so it is easy to actually find the ROI

2. They have great sales pros.  That doesn’t mean that they are smooth talking, high pressure, angry closer types of sales people.  They are consultative – want to provide value and respect your time (not call every day to check in on you and if you made a decision yet).  (I worked w/sales reps from all 3 when I was consulting and always appreciated this aspect of their sales process)  They also give enough information on their website for those of us with fear of forms issues (actually – icims – a touch more info would be great, but love the screenshots!) feel like we know what we are jumping into.

3. They are proactive when it comes to the market – when things need to be adjusted – they just do it.  They don’t feel the need to brag about every single client they sign or every step along the way.  They have taken on social media/twitter and are learning to use it – ahead of the other guys. ICIMS has recently started iblog, HRMDirect’s blog (New one launching this fall) is-  believe it or not actually writen by our CEO.  Himself. Seriously. No help.    They are also on Twitter – learning the ropes still – but on nonetheless – their tweets are not slams on other products (Umm…you know who you are – mystery vendor that will remain unnamed but I see through my tweetdeck search) rather an insight into their organization or the industry.   If you are on twitter make sure to follow these vendors – every once in a while, they tweet something cool. @HRMDirect @ICIMS @SilkRoadTweets

Earlier today, before my breakfast of Excedrin and Coffee (keeps me slender), I remembered a brief convo I had with @animal about Personal Branding. I said most of it is common sense – everything else is “smoke and mirrors”. While it may be common sense to me, I’m sure there are plenty of people who either a.) don’t know that you can use the Internet to market yourself or b.) could care less (the satisfied with stat-quo crowd).

Not to discredit my original assessment, I still feel that there are FOUR basics that everyone can use to increase exposure to their “Personal Brand”. This is not only vital for job seekers, but also for existing employees who are trying to network within their field or perhaps attract new business to their organization.

Facebook

We will get to LinkedIn later, settle down. Facebook is more interactive [than LI] and gives you more of a canvas to really let your personality show. While I already have 700 people from college and high school on Facebook, I am now using it to build relationships with people I have tweeted with on Twitter. I guess that is the tip here – expand your network; Facebook can be used for more than looking at pictures of your ex.

Make sure you change your Facebook URL if you haven’t done so already! Mine is facebook.com/adamelliotfields. This makes it easy to send to people after you have had a good conversation with them.

Common sense: Make your Facebook profile PG-13. Don’t be a square, but don’t make your interests something like this: “beers, blunts, blondes lol”. Remember- you want people to be attracted to your personality first; this opens the door to further conversations about your skills that pay the bills.

LinkedIn

Put down your pens and paper, there isn’t really a whole lot to say about LinkedIn. Let’s go over the obvious: create a profile and add people! Recruiters are using LinkedIn just as much as the other job boards, wink wink.

My first tip here is to join groups based on your interests and then network with people through that group. Simple as that. Also, for the love of God, put your damn email address in your profile. If you are concerned with spam, create an email address likeadam.fields.linkedin@gmail.com, just make sure you check it! I went a step beyond and posted my Twitter name, so you would have to be a complete idiot to not be able to get a hold of me. Facebook = personality, LinkedIn = skills.

Blog

You don’t need to buy a domain and a web designer (although having @smalps as my BFFL really helps). Try blogspot, wordpress, or tumblr. I personally like TwitBlogs.com because it is SO user friendly and seamlessly integrates with my Twitter profile.

Write about anything that is on your mind. Seriously, just be cool and let your personality come through. If you write about an article that is industry-specific, you can definitely get some attention to the professional side of your personal brand that way.

Just have fun with it though, don’t worry too much about the design and SEO at first. If you are a boring person, have a few drinks and then blog. Your blog could even be about getting buzzed and blogging (this could be big…)! Make your blog URL the default URL in your Twitter profile, and make sure you integrate it with your Facebook and LinkedIn pages (they have apps for that).

Twitter

Duh. Create a Twitter profile, add people, post links to cool articles, videos, songs, whatever. ReTweet people you want to get to know better.

Look at Twitter as a party (not a frat party, but like an upscale-apartment party where everyone is wearing designer jeans and drinking wine). Don’t be a soulless sales-person and hand your biz card out to everyone and move on. Instead, spend time to get to know a few people. Use TweetDeck and create a group called “Friends” (or Homies, Peeps, Brothas From Otha Mothas, etc.). This is your “Buddy List”; use it to keep track of the people you interact with on the regular. Twitter is going to be the medium you use to attract people to your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Blog pages.

Well, that’s it. This approach has allowed me to build relationships with some pretty cool people! I just got into Twitter in the spring, and went from not getting it, to being a self proclaimed master. In a few months, you can increase your network and create a name for yourself in cyberspace.