Category: Social Media Recruiting

May 19, 2013

How To Recruit with Twitter Trends

Twitter is a website that I cannot geek without. I am on it waaaaay more than I should be but if loving Twitter is wrong, I don’t wanna be right. (Hmmm… did I just date myself by quoting that song lyric?) Well, hmm… where was I? Oh yeah! Twitter. One thing I like about Twitter is that it helps me keep tabs on what’s important to the masses at any given time. If you are a power user of Twitter (or a novice for that matter), then you know about “Trending topics.”

Just in case you didn’t know (or care), trending topics let’s you see what the most popular topics being discussed at that very moment on Twitter. Now this is great if you are an infojunky, but what if you only care about what you care about? Is there a way to see what is popular with a certain niche of Twitter users? Why, yes, there most certainly is. Simply go to the Twitter search page and use some of their advanced search functionality. For example, check out the screenshot below.

This is the search string I used –> #lrnchat filter:links include:retweets

What I am asking Twitter is to:

1.) Find tweets that are using the hashtag “#lrnchat”

2.) Return tweets that include links to some website.

3.) Return tweets that have been retweeted

Get it? I am focusing on a niche topic (#lrnchat is a hashtag for teachers discussing the education industry), asking for tweets with links will let me see what websites are hot at the moment and if they are being retweeted a lot, then I know that they are especially relevant. Make sense? I have been looking for a tool that will do this for me automatically, but have not found one yet that I like.

Here are a few suggestions on how you can leverage this trick:

Zero in on passive candidates discussing your industry.
Zero in on popular websites being discussed by passive candidates and see if you can leverage that somehow. Maybe you can pass it on to the next passive candidate you reach out to? (Hey Bob, this article was getting some buzz and I thought I would share.)
Zero in on websites that you might want to tweet yourself with the hope that it will attract passive candidates your way. It works for me. (Smile)

I would love to hear about your experiences with this technique.

Happy hunting!

Jim

How To Find Free Resumes and
Passive Candidates on Google

P.S. If you like this type of thing, you will love my book – Resume Forensics. Just sayin’…

May 1, 2013

Why “LinkedIn Contacts” is good for You (and LinkedIn)

I was getting caught up on my emails today when I stumbled across a new function on LinkedIn. Last week LinkedIn launched the mobile app “LinkedIn Contacts” which syncs all of your contacts in one place. Its been getting some buzz and well deserved, I think. I like the idea of one place for all of my contacts (a la Brewster or the site – ConnectedHQ). However, since I spend so much time on LinkedIn, I find this to be the most convenient for me.

LinkedIn has made it easy for me to keep track of who I am connected to by allowing me to add notes and track the history of my LinkedIn relationships. (You may not have this option on your profile yet, so don’t be confused by the screenshots.)

At the top of a LinkedIn profile is a “Relationship” tab next to the “Contact Info” tab. (As shown below).

On the “Relationship” tab you can add four types of notes:
# A generic note (Which can be anything, umm… thus generic)
# A timed reminder (Get an email reminder with a note tied to the profile in a day, week, month or recurring)
# How you met (Make a note on how you met this person.)
# Tag (Add a keyword that is relevant to this profile)

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No worries about the notes you make. They are visible only to you! For example, only I will see the note about this reminder to followup with her. Umm… unless I post more screenshots about notes I make about her. (smile)
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As you add notes to the profile, a timeline of your relationship history is formed. (As shown below)
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And the best part for me, as soon as I added these notes on my desktop, I did a search and found them on my mobile app. (Very convenient.)
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I like this a LOT! Why? I tend to have a short attention span and might forget how I know you and… squirrel!

I also think this is a good move for LinkedIn. Why? I will be going through my contacts and adding notes and tracking my relationships (for sure) with this app. (I’m sure I won’t be the only one doing this.) Translation, more time spent on LinkedIn gives LinkedIn more opportunities to push advertising my way. But that’s not the only reason why this is good for LinkedIn. It could be another revenue stream. (Huh?)

# Let’s say “Sanjay” wants to connect with people at Microsoft but he has no connections 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. LinkedIn could say (for whatever amount of money) that they could suggest 3 people with close ties to Microsoft based on relationship factors. Sanjay says, “Okay, I’ll pay.”

# LinkedIn sends me an email that says “Sanjay would like to connect with you because you are heavily connected with certain people at Microsoft. Specifically, he wants to talk to you about…”

# LinkedIn does not identify me as the person with the close connections that Sanjay craves. I do not know who Sanjay is unless I agree to help him. At most, I know that he works in a certain industry.

# I then have the option to accept or refuse his invitation to connect. Sure, Sanjay can do that now via a regular introduction but with this LinkedIn function, he KNOWS for sure that he is connecting with someone that can truly help them. (Of course, being able and being willing are two different things but, I digress.)

# The option to get these anonymous intros would be in my settings and I could opt out anytime (of course).

Okay, am I crazy, or could this work? Hmm… forget the crazy question and just ponder with me if it could work. I would love to hear your feedback.

-Jim

P.S. Did you know that I will have a book out soon?