Meeting Peter to Hire Paul - Leveraging LinkedIn

Over seven million Canadians are using LinkedIn. Are you one of them?

Recent statistics state that Canada is the fifth largest user of the site that boasts over 200 million members worldwide.

Why would you want to create a LinkedIn profile? Well…..in Canada, recruiters from many diverse sectors are logging into the site to find talent. According to sources, 50% of Fortune 100 companies hire through LinkedIn.

How does LinkedIn work? It has been described as the “professional person’s answer to Six Degrees of Separation” (about.com). This is a perfect analogy, because it is about leveraging your own connections to make new ones.

Recently, while I was waiting to depart Calgary for Las Vegas, the aircraft I was booked on experienced mechanical difficulties, which grounded it for the night. As the airline located an alternate aircraft, we all waited in the holding room. Fortunately for me (I like to think in terms of Serendipity) I sat beside a woman heading to Las Vegas to attend a LinkedIn convention. Kelli Nsofor, a Recruiting Specialist for Compucom Canada Co., (a national IT services and solutions company), was attending the conference to learn more about how she can better apply and employ all of the amazing features of LinkedIn.

In our short time waiting for the aircraft replacement (yes….they had an alternate aircraft available in TEN minutes!) I asked if she might be able to provide some pointers that I could pass along to my readers and she graciously said yes. Thank you Kelli!

What role does a Recruiter play in our social media world?

The role of recruiter has certainly changed due to social media.  It used to be that you looked for candidates by posting jobs in the paper or on the job boards and the only way you networked with candidates was networking events in person.  It was much more “word of mouth”.  Now recruiters tweet about jobs, post on all social media, and network through virtual groups.  Companies have profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, employees tweet about the goings on etc.  Recruiters have become more company/brand ambassadors than ever before.  We are usually the first contact candidates have with the company usually through some form of social media.

What roles does LinkedIn play with recruiters?:

Over the last 2-3 years, the movement has been for recruiters to become more and more dependent on LinkedIn as a hiring tool.  Before LinkedIn, we would search the internet and job boards looking for candidates while we posted the roles on the various job boards and in the papers looking for candidates.  This was time consuming and could be quite costly.  We would push hard on referrals with everyone we met and hope that through one of these means, we found the right person. Now most of my time is spent sourcing in LinkedIn, especially for more technical roles, and working my network there.  The ability with LinkedIn Recruiter to work as an applicant tracking system is helpful.  It allows for storing candidates in categories making it easier to find them in the future decreasing the time it takes to find and reach out to these individuals.

How important is our LinkedIn profile?:

Your LinkedIn profile is very important.  Without it how do we find potential candidates?  If you don’t have yourself posted on any job boards or located on the internet somewhere, or attend any networking events, how do recruiters find you? 

LinkedIn is a great tool that connects you with previous and present co-workers as well as friends and family in a more professional way than Facebook.  It allows for recruiters to reach you and for you to connect with both interest and professional groups.  You can also follow companies and professional organizations that you are interested in.  You can learn more about the organizations and what they do, as well as career opportunities and future endeavours.   At any time you might be called upon as a subject matter expert, to connect with someone in your field or for a career opportunity.  You can customize what you want.

Kelli’s Top 5 Tips for professionals looking to update/improve their profile

• Ensure your Profile is 100% Complete and up-to-date.
• Have a “professional” photo on your profile, not a picture of the fish you caught last summer.  Save those pictures for Facebook
• Practice adding value to your profile.  One of the best ways of adding value to your network is through LinkedIn Updates. If you share relevant and helpful insights, articles, blog posts, presentations, links to videos, or other content, not only are you helping your network by spreading excellent quality information that might help them, but you’re also going to drive traffic to your LinkedIn profile.
• No typos, spelling or grammatical errors.  Please proof read your profile carefully.  It is difficult to be looked at as an “attention to detail kind of person” when you have spelling errors on your profile.  It’s the first impression someone is going to have of you – let’s make it a good one.
• Get involved in Groups and Discussions - This is essential if you want to keep a high profile. This means you will need to ask questions, answer questions, link up news articles and other relevant information (see point 2 above) and you could even moderate a group. By providing value, you will be noticed by others in your industry.

Thank you Kelli for providing such valuable information. Remember….you never know who you might be sitting beside waiting for a plane. If you will excuse me……I need to go and dust off my LinkedIn profile……….

Judy

Why shoot the messenger service?

Do you think cities should be on social media? City of #princegeorge deactivates Facebook and Twitter accounts http://t.co/9e9BYfCTW2
— CBC Daybreak North (@daybreaknorth) July 18, 2013

This morning I chimed in on the above twitter conversation. The City of Prince George had announced its decision to temporarily suspend or render dormant, both their Facebook and twitter accounts. They announced that they are currently reviewing their use of social media and during this assessment phase, they are basically unplugging from social media.

At this point, we do not know if the severed connection will be permanent or only temporary, but over 2000 thousand facebook fans (many of which are probably residents of Prince George) are left wondering, “why?”.

What would be the purpose of unplugging during this time of review? Certainly there are analytics that they can use whilst still being engaged with their community?

Did something happen? (wild speculation abounds)

I am wondering…..will their evaluation delve into what the value of the Social Media engagement was to subscribers? What the consequences of unplugging will be?

I am not familiar with either of the City of Prince George social media accounts, but certainly there would be many of the 2000+ fans who checked the site regularly for information. Where do they go for that information now? The city website? 

Good luck with that.

The success of any social media account is tied to engagement. Engagement is not a one-way stream of information: it is sharing information, providing feedback. It is the realization that you need to give in order to get.

Engage. Inform. Retweet.

Three little words: so very powerful in mastering social media.

Facebook and twitter should not be used simply as a bulletin board to announce the next Farmer’s Market, or Town Hall budget meeting – otherwise you should abandon it in favour of a piece of bristol board and a permanent marker.

Why? Why abandon such an important conduit for communication? A system that can assist you in:

·   Early warning in case of local emergency 

·   Local event/tourism promotion

·   Getting feedback via survey links

·   Authentic, real time engagement on local issues

·   Acting as a portal for the community

Case in point. Can anyone truly quantify the tremendously important and positive role that social media played in the crisis in Southern Alberta?  Mayor Nenshi and his superior command of twitter helped facilitate a Herculean effort by his community following the flooding.

Lots of business owners in flood-damaged neighbourhoods are still hurting. Make a plan to eat and shop there this week!
— Naheed Nenshi (@nenshi) July 17, 2013

@nenshi help High River get info out. #abfloods #highriver http://t.co/QyRqMaWvkr
— TownOfHighRiver (@TownOfHighRiver) July 15, 2013

Don't forget, blue bin collection back to normal this week! Only items IN the bin will be collected, as always. Store extra or depot!
— Naheed Nenshi (@nenshi) July 8, 2013

Followers looked to him for guidance, for assistance, for information.

He informed.

He engaged.

He retweeted.

My question after learning of the City of Prince George decision: Why would any community deliberately sever that important conduit of communication?

Judy

Twombies, Twampires and Twidiots......oh my!

Sometimes I feel like I am glued to an uncomfortable chair, watching a really bad movie…..as if I am an unwilling ticket holder in a theatre of hysteria featuring “Attack of the Twombies”.

Yes….you guessed it…I am reading my twitter timeline.

On a normal day it is a mixture of news from around the world, pithy comments from witty friends (and by friends I mean, mostly people I have never met but feel like I do), annoying automated tweets from jogging apps about someone’s daily jog including the time and distance (you people know who you are), blog post links…..and the occasional Kardashian reference.  But recently…..my twitter timeline has been taken over by Twombies, Twampires and Twidiots!

Darnit people! You see…..this is why we can’t have nice things!

What am I talking about?

“Twombies” are folks who seem normal, but as soon as they log onto Twitter, it is as if they become someone else entirely. They completely lose perspective, their sense of awareness and a will of their own. They say things on Twitter that they would never, ever say at home, at work….in their so-called real life. 

“Twampires” are humans who feed on the misfortune of others – a group primarily comprised of media types around the world. Twampires believe that the volume of information trumps the value and can spin hours worth of coverage from very little information. The recent Boston tragedy created an army of Twampires – many media outlets who forget the rules of journalism: tweeting and retweeting without fact checking, and feeding hysteria.

Sometimes I worry that the Twombies and the Twampires are going to take over…….

Recently we have witnessed first hand of just how powerful and irresponsible social media has become. Honestly…it should come with a warning: Irresponsible tweeting can cause vocabulary leakage and spelling dysfunction, ill advised and misplaced finger pointing, stock market crashes, public humiliation and the loss of potential political careers.

Believe me….would I joke about leakage and dysfunction?

As a self-proclaimed social media junkie, this saddens me. Experts keep telling people: “Tweet responsibly” but many still don’t seem to grasp the concept.

It is bad enough that we have to protect ourselves from Twombies and Twampires…..but there is no kryptonite against Twidiots and I fear they will be the downfall of western civilization.

Twidiots are people who don’t think before they tweet; who think they are funny when they aren’t. 

There is something so……Darwinian about Twitter. I can’t help but think that at some point, a misplaced Twidiot tweet might be responsible for the downfall of Western Civilization: that 140 characters might initiate some kind of launch sequence that could spell disaster.

Don’t be a Twombie, a Twampire or a Twidiot. Remember the rules:

EVERYTHING you tweet or post will remain out “there” forever and ever and ever…..

NEVER tweet in anger. Think before you tweet.

REMEMBER that your personal brand can and will be affected by what is out there on social media. It is very difficult to remain anonymous on social media. Always assume that a picture, comment, or tweet will become available to everyone.

THINK about what your mother, husband, child, employer would say if they knew what you were posting on  social media.

DO NOT contribute to the “theatre of hysteria”. During times of crisis, be careful about engaging on social media. It might be in your best interest to log off/turn off.

QUIT feeding the Twombies. Do not engage with them.

VALUE before volume – think about each and every post or comment you make; ensure that it has value.

REMEMBER to S.M.I.L.E.™ because Social Media Impacts the Lives of Everyone.

Judy