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My 2009 Predictions for Social Media & Recruiting

There are so many recent tools that people want to get us to use these days that I’ve decided to publish my list of predictions for 2009 and Social Networking.

1. Yes, Social Networking is here to stay. Not a shocker of a first prediction but when even my semi-retired 62 year old Uncle has a Facebook page for his Barbershop Quartet, it bodes well for more and more Internet users over the age of 40 embracing social tools and utilizing them for promoting themselves on the web to further their careers.

2. It doesn’t take enough money to build social applications for there to be any competitive advantage for newcomers other than a few lines of code. As a direct result, the biggest networks have or will raise enough investment money to give them time to find workable revenue models. The tiny social networks will find their niches and targeted advertising revenue will follow. It’s the medium-sized services, the latecomers to the Facebook era, that are going to fall by the wayside, being snapped up on the cheap by acquirors or simply going out of business.

3. Social Tools & Networks will have to find a way to earn money. There wasn’t really any significant money (let alone profit) earned by the biggest players in 2008. If these companies are focusing on Recruiting as an industry where they want to make in-roads they’re in for a rough year. While American Workforce has weathered storm comfortably, many of our competitors have made significant cut-backs. Corporations are also slashing their internal recruiting budgets and headcount. It’s not a good time to be selling in the recruiting space and we’ll see virtually all of the companies who tried to get our attention in 08 disappear in 09.

4. The Web 1.0 companies that have a loyal following will make the leap into the next evolution. Whether or not they’re successful will take a while to manifest itself but I expect to see the likes of Monster.com and others making significant changes that allow their users to do a better job of passive seeking. In fact, Monster just announced some significant changes that point them in this direction (I swear, I’ve had this blog post in the works for 3 weeks). According to them, nearly 90% of the consumer-side interface has gotten revamped.

Tags: 2.0, american workforce recruiters, barbershop, cutting recruiters, earning profit, facebook, lay-offs, predictions for 09, recruiting budgets, recruiting trends for 2009, ruby on rails, social applications, social media, social networking, using social networking tools to get a job, weather the storm, web 2.0

12 Jan 09 | Networking, Recruiting | Read on | Comments (0)

Social Media: Can it help you land a job?

In recent weeks we’ve seen the sheer number of resumes that arrive on a daily basis increase exponentially. Because the job market has continued to soften and analysts are predicting a potential increase in the Unemployment Rate to possibly as high as 9%, more and more job seekers are asking us, “What can I do to improve my chances of landing a new job?”

Tim Hayden, the Founder and CEO of GamePlan Marketing is both an advisor to American Workforce as well as a close friend. While at dinner with him last night we devoted a significant amount of the conversation to the topic of Social Media and Social Networking. There are so many people who are marketing themselves as “social media experts” and virtually all of them agree that they can’t agree on anything.

One aspect of social networking has become abundantly clear in the past months and years: it might help your ability to land that job but it can definitely destroy your chances if you’re not paying attention to your online reputation.

Jeremy Toeman wrote a tremendous Blog Entry a couple of weeks ago that I don’t think I could have written any better. Some snippets for those who want a short version:

SMART MOVES:
*Comment (thoughtfully – don’t just suck up) on a recent blog post. No need to leave a comment on all the blog posts, but one or two is a good move.
*Send a Tweet to the company’s twitter account (or individual’s) before/after your interview. There’s no “rule” to the content, but a cleverly handled message can be impactful.

DUMB MOVES:
*Don’t “friend” someone. It’s perfectly fine to add anyone you meet as a LinkedIn contact, but unless you know, for sure, that someone treats Facebook “friends” as a list of anyone/everyone they’ve ever encountered, don’t cross this potentially bad line.
*If you felt the guy/gal you interviewed with was “a total tool”, that’s just fine, and you can tell your buddies in person and out loud, as opposed to in writing. Emails have a way of getting forwarded.

Also, based on our experiences at American Workforce, here are a couple of other added bonus items you can look into:

1. Follow influential people who are tweeting about the industry that you’re in. Being able to carry on conversations about lots of topics because you’re well-rounded isn’t a bad thing while job hunting. Some of the people I follow: Nan Palmero (a Blackberry Power User and marketing junkie), Kristen Doyle (a freelance writer but more importantly a woman with a cult-like following of Moms around the country) and Peter Shankman (the creator of Help a Reporter Out-HARO).

2. Avoid wasting the time of others who show you the respect of “following you around”. There’s nothing worse than having someone who links their Twitter account to their Facebook account and chooses to share a little too much. You likely know examples of these people – the ones who tell you that they’re having coffee, and now they’re relaxing, and now they’re thinking about what to eat for lunch, etc.

Tags: 9%, @gameplanhayden, @nanpalmero, dineanddish, facebook, gameplan marketing, get a job, HARO, help a reporter out, how to use social media to get hired, jeremy toeman, kristen doyle, land a job, live digitally, nan palmero, peter shankman, sales by 5, skydiver, social media, social networking, tim hayden, Twitter, unemployment, unemployment rate

10 Dec 08 | Employment, Interviewing, Networking | Read on | Comment (1)

Generation Y: You’ll Need Them

Great post this week from a woman named Penelope Trunk. She’s the self-named Brazen Careerist and a column writer for the Boston Globe. She writes a lot about Generation Y and I think that she’s touched on a very interesting topic today that employers need to pay attention to. She’s got a great BLOG for further reading as well.

High points from her recent post:

*Gen Y wants to constantly be learning. If they’re not learning, they’ll leave. “This is the generation that is steeped in SAT tutors, Spanish tutors, and private soccer coaching. So they expect to be learning every step of the way for their whole life.” If you’re not challenging them and helping them learn as an employer or manager, they’ll leave!

*Gen Y wants to work as a team. They grew up playing soccer, they attended the prom in large groups. This isn’t a generation of kids that played out on the playground by themselves.

*Hiring women costs more than men. For the first time in history, women in their 20’s are out-earning men and rightfully so. Get used to it.

*Gen Y is getting more done than you can possible imagine. Don’t be intimidated when they run circles around you while listening to their iPod, sending a text message and tweeting all at the same time.

Christina Harbridge, the founder of Allegory Training in San Francisco, is all over this topic as well. As a coach on public speaking she’s shared with me some remarkable things in the last few times I’ve seen her speak or had conversations with her. Some harrowing examples that scared me as a 30-something who considers himself pretty “hip”:

1. Young people today, when asked how often they check their email, said ‘Pretty often! At least once a week.’
2. It used to be considered rude to send text messages with your phone during a meeting. Today, the next generation need the distractions to stay focused.

This generation is moving into management positions quickly. Are you prepared to add them to your team and challenge them enough to have them elevate your company?

Tags: allegory training, blog, blog.penelopetrunk.com, boston globe, brazen careerist, check email, christina harbridge, facebook, generation Y, harbridge, harbridge-law, ipod, penelope trunk, SAT Tutors, soccer team, Twitter

28 Oct 08 | Employment, Retention | Read on | Comments (0)

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Generation Y: You’ll Need Them

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