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Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Articles tagged 'LinkedIn'

Social Media, Technology

Game Changer? LinkedIn Messages As Evidence in Non-Compete Case

by on Jul. 1, 2010


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Did anybody else read this most recently emailed NAPS Legal Update for June?

If you haven’t, you should.  Doesn’t matter if you are an owner or a producer on a desk, this could be a game changer, and for much more than just LinkedIn messages and contacts.

In this email which NAPS Legal Counsel Bob Styles typically sends out on a monthly basis, tucked between two updates that didn’t have much application to my desk/business, was the below two paragraph notice about a yet to be adjudicated case titled “LinkedIn Messages As Evidence in Non-Compete Case“:


Did anyone else just feel the ground shake?

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The New World of Social Media Recruiting, Part 2

by on May 28, 2010


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Yesterday’s part 1 of this series detailed the right mix of marketing, PR, and social media for recruiters today.

Now we continue with the right ways to build your social media brand.

6 Steps to Build Your Social Media Brand

  1. Secure your vanity name on all social media sites. As mentioned earlier, the “Big Three” are LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. For a full list, Google: [Social Media Websites]. Do this quickly, before another obtains your name. If your name is gone, a nickname or pseudonym could work. Choose your “handle” with your audience in mind.
  2. Write a professional bio. You might have two bios (short and long), but include your accomplishments, a professional photo “avatar,” and contact info. When writing your bio, think about your unique background and a broad audience. For help, review others’ bios and/or Google: [How to Write a Professional Bio].
  3. Learn how the social media sites work. Each has their own how-to page and lingo. Visit the sites. Observe, listen, and watch what others do and how they’re interacting. If a friend or colleague is an active user, ask for help. You might also Google: [How to Use Social Media Sites].
  4. Build your networks. On LinkedIn, send “Please join my professional network.” On Facebook, send “Be my friend” messages. On Twitter, follow people who seem interesting to you. Many will follow back.
  5. Join the conversation. Post what’s going on in your life. You might find something interesting or have something in common (work life, travel, food, sports, politics, etc.) Post a comment or respond. Engage others by asking questions. For example, “Do you …?” or “How do you …?”
  6. Link your networks. Most sites have areas to connect other sites. This enables “networking leverage.” By connecting your full network, you will maximize your reach and build your brand further.

An Investment in Time

Social media takes an investment in time, like building relationships with clients, candidates, and industry partners. Remember the two parts: “social” and “media.” Both should be integral to your marketing strategy and incorporated into daily/weekly activities.

Keep in mind the 5 Es of Social Media:

  • Enlighten
  • Educate
  • Entertain
  • Empower
  • Engage

When used effectively, social media, marketing, and PR can be very powerful in building your brand and your recruiting business. All increase your name as an expert in your field: people find you; business flows to you; and your revenue increases.

Finally, you can create and manage your own brand.

It’s been said that LinkedIn is like going to the office, Facebook is like going home, and Twitter is like going to the bar. Hope to see you at the party!

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Why Cold Calling is Imperative to Your Success, Part 1

by on May 20, 2010


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Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of a multi-part, weekly series on cold calling. Look for Part 2 next week.

Even if the economy isn’t in turmoil, gaining new business has always been a tricky task in the recruiting industry.

Some say it’s a numbers game. For example: make 100 calls to submit 10 candidates to schedule four interviews to get two hires.

We can argue the stats, but this line of thinking and measurement is perpetuated among recruiting management like a plague.

I can remember a time when my recruiting performance was measured by phone time. That’s right; my employer at the time actually tracked the amount of time we spent on the phone during the day. What this led to, of course, were recruiters and account managers trying to “cheat” to meet management’s expectations.

I’ve got news for you: recruiting isn’t about numbers. It’s about skill. You want more placements? You want to earn more money? You want the respect of your clients? Then you need to master the art of cold calling.

This is a phrase that makes some recruiters cringe. They perceive cold calling as pushy and invasive.

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Nudge Neil: LinkedIn, What Am I Doing Wrong?

by on May 6, 2010


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Dear Neil: I have been trying really hard to take advantage of all of these social networking sites. I like them, but I really am not making much more money from them. Am I doing something wrong?

First, since you are a recruiter, forget about everything else for now until you master LINKEDIN. Twittter, Facebook, and the other sites just do not come close. The more connections for recruiters, the better! The ROCK BOTTOM, bare-minimum to have as a SHORT-TERM goal is 500! The real goal should be 2,500+.

Yes, you need this many, and you need them soon. Just like there is a great synergy once an office reaches, say 30 temps, or you have several job orders in your office consistently, so too works LinkedIn. LinkedIn, being all about connections, requires a strategy, to, well, connect.

Remember, your GOAL is to GET THE CONNECTION!

It is not to sell them your service (yet) nor is it to recruit them (yet). It is ONLY to get them to say yes to your connection request. Once they connect, you can then sell to them or recruit them. BUT DON’T make the common mistake that MOST make, where you send them an email either selling/recruiting or asking them to connect so that you can sell to them!

SIMPLY ASK for the connection and give them a compelling reason why connecting with you is a GREAT idea: show how your network will help them; how you will forward any requests; how you are very connected in their space (or will be soon), etc.

Set up a form letter that you cut and paste for each invitation that you send. Then, take a second and tailor a bit of the message, mentioning something in their profile!

Did you know that if you blindly invite people, your account will get locked after only three “I don’t know Neil’s”? Did you also know that you only get 3,000 LIFETIME invitations?

You can add connections without sending an invitation. Be careful and make the connection request very, very compelling — since you can message almost ANYONE in ANY group that you share with them (very few people turn off the feature not allowing other group members to message them), simply create a similar form letter and cut and paste that and send this to ALL of them.

Hundreds, thousands, you name it!

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Social Networking Strategies in Recruiting On the Rise…

by on Apr. 21, 2010


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As the technology for the recruiting world continues to progress, top talent is more accessible than ever before. The potential for LinkedIn and other social networking sites to play a major role in your recruiting strategy is increased as millions of prospective candidates profile themselves on these sites.

In February 2010, LinkedIn announced that it has reached the 65-million user mark, growing quite rapidly, averaging 300,000 new profiles per month, with over nine million at the director level and above.

It’s not enough anymore to post a vacancy on the major job boards. Employers are typically spammed with many resumes from unqualified applicants. We have still found great candidates through these job boards, so continue to use them as a part of your recruiting mix. But the world of recruiting is changing. More and more, the online focus rests on social networking sites and smaller, specialized job boards.

Ten years ago, applicant tracking systems revolutionized recruitment methods. These methods have evolved and progressed to reflect the needs of recruiters today. We believe that this will continue to happen with social recruiting (which many applicant tracking systems already incorporate). Social recruiting seems to be the recruitment tool of the now and into the future.

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Outsourcing Meets The Recruiting Industry…Finally?!

by on Dec. 17, 2009


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Like you, I can go off about how behind-the-times the recruiting industry is compared to the rest of the world.

The good news is that the last few years have been showing huge progress in regard to technology (from great new front-office systems, to utilizing Web 2.0 networks, to blogs and forums and niche job boards, etc).

However, most of you are still not doing too much differently than you were before. I have heard from many of you regarding the “bonding” lesson and have heard of some good ideas.

However, they still aren’t really based upon any new technology. During my live Owners & Managers Recruiting System seminars, we get into how to use technology a great deal. We focus a lot on state-of-the-art Internet marketing techniques as well as better utilization of Web 2.0.

But there is NO NEED for you to wait! I have outlined the easiest and the best in this article.

Some Background Information

Before I give away this easy tool, a little background is needed regarding time-management. Make sure you read through it quickly so that you can get to the real money-maker.

Any administrative work or paperwork is probably the most overpaid work that any owner, manager, or sales rep could be doing for themselves! If you are an agency owner or manager, do you have any idea how much your are paying your sales rep or recruiters to stuff an envelope, confirm appointments, post jobs to sites, create newsletter content, or work on art graphics? If you are a sales person, then do you know how little money you will make from those little acts?

It is key that we all look at EVERYTHING that we do and then make sure that we either outsource or assign the non HIGH-PAYING work to others. Believe me, there will be A LOT of that! If you manage people, look at everything they ever do and decide how much you should be paying for that sort of work.

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Six iPhone Apps for Recruiters

by on Aug. 14, 2009


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From our sister site, ERE.net, check out a recent article about the best iPhone apps for recruiters on the go.

From “Tweetie” (makes communicating via Twitter easy and fast) to “SearchOnTheGo” (turns your keywords into a full-blown Boolean search string for resume searches, blog searches, PDF and Excel file formats, and more), this is a helpful article for anyone (and that pretty much means everyone) who is addicted to their beloved iPhone.

Another cool app that gets some attention in the article is the LinkedIn iPhone companion for recruiters: “when meeting someone in person, try linking in instantly, instead of exchanging business cards.”

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Bullhorn Live Buzz

by on Feb. 4, 2009


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logo_bullhorn_originalBullhorn Live has been going on all this week in Las Vegas, and the company’s execs have been blogging about the show.

Some highlights:

  • In his blog, Art Papas, CEO and co-founder of Bullhorn reports “unbelievable” buzz at his show. “Despite what’s going on out there in the macro economy, the people here are finding pockets of growth and spending. Most people tell me that while [their] business took a hit in Q4 and January, they feel that they’re well positioned to take share and grow again in the 2nd half of 2009,” he writes.
  • New Bullhorn insider Phil Costa writes in his blog that “LinkedIn has also proven an invaluable tool. Probably no surprise to most of you, but promoting our open positions to my network has turned up a number of good leads. But while I’ve been happy with the results, spending so much time using LinkedIn has led me to the conclusion that there’s a lot more Bullhorn could be doing to expose the power of social networks to recruiters. What if you could navigate your social network from inside Bullhorn? What if Bullhorn could match people in your network with the job you’re trying to fill? What if your candidates or colleagues were motivated to use their social network to help you fill open jobs? These are just some of the possibilities we’re discussing internally.”
  • The company has announced Bullhorn Live Campus, which provides training and preparation courses for new Bullhorn customers. It’s part of the company’s approach to offer a variety of customer training options, including self-paced instruction, virtual instructor-led classes, and face-to-face sessions.
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LinkedIn Launches ‘Talent Advantage’ Suite

by on Feb. 2, 2009


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“Roughly one new member per second,” explains Francois Dufour, LinkedIn’s senior director of Enterprise Marketing.

He is, of course, referring to the rapid growth of LinkedIn, which now tops 35 million members. And due to replies to job postings on LinkedIn having doubled over the last six months, the company has unveiled a “new” suite of solutions for recruiters. It’s called LinkedIn Talent Advantage, which is essentially an enhancement of four existing products and one brand-new product.

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Shally Steckerl – CEO JobMachine.net

by on Dec. 9, 2008


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Shally Steckerl started his career in technical recruiting in 1996 and has experience consulting with and building sourcing organizations at many Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Google, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Cisco Systems and Motorola. From early in his career he has developed techniques that dramatically increase recruitment productivity and allow companies to exploit the Internet. He has been teaching those techniques to staffing leaders since 1998. Shally is a proven leader in the development and implementation of Best Practices in Centralized Sourcing and research organizations.

Mr. Steckerl is the Founder and Chief CyberSleuth of JobMachine, Inc. (www.jobmachine.net) the premier provider of sourcing consulting services and research training. During his time with Microsoft he managed the research arm of their global centralized sourcing and research team. Previously, he consulted at Google where he built a central sourcing organization that produced 100 hard to find female Engineering hires per quarter in extremely demanding, technically advanced disciplines.

The advanced methods he practices and teaches have been replicated throughout many large corporate organizations worldwide. With ten years of experience in all aspects of Recruiting, Shally is capable of assessing, teaching, mentoring and implementing successful global Recruitment methods. Because of his passion for the Internet as a recruitment tool and his continually innovative methods, Mr. Steckerl has developed a reputation as an authority in Internet search, and a pioneer in recruitment research. An accomplished author, consultant and trainer, Mr. Steckerl is a frequent contributor to many industry forums and speaker at leading conferences.

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