I’m getting a jumpstart on the 2009 “Year in Review” articles. Just for fun, I’ve assembled a list of my all-time favorite iPhone apps. They aren’t in any special order and they don’t represent any particular app category. They’re just my go-to favorites. The ones I turn to most often for assistance, information, or thrills. Drumroll please.
Shazam – Even if you’re not an iPhone user, this is the app that you’ve probably heard the most about or remember most readily from the Apple commercials. Hear a song you like? Simply double tap your Shazam app, hit “Tag Now,” and hold your phone up to the music. 9 out of 10 times, Shazam will come back with the song name, artist, album artwork, and numerous helpful links, like “View YouTube video” or “Album Review.” Of course, there’s a link to “Preview and buy on iTunes,” too. The cool factor is definitely there, but the app is darned useful, too.
Maps – It’s not an app per se, because it comes bundled with the iPhone, but nothing beats being able to quickly find out how to get where I want to go. And it couldn’t be simpler. I simply search for my goal destination (in the search box) and then route it from my current location. My built-in GPS gives me a real-time visual of my current whereabouts moving along a nifty map. If I prefer, I can flick on “List” and get written directions. I don’t have a GPS in my car, so this app has helped me more times than I can count.
Doodle Jump – I’m not typically a gamer, but this is an all-time favorite. If I describe it, it won’t sound as fun as actually playing it. Download this game and become instantly addicted. The kiddies love it, too. All you have to do is tilt your phone and fall upward. Trust me. It’s a blast.
CNN – If CNN is one of your preferred news sources, this is a great app to add to your iPhone. It is a well-designed news app that updates content frequently. It puts lots and lots of info at your fingertips, including robust video content, that doesn’t require a wifi connection to view. There’s also a “Live Video” option and a “My CNN” function that aggregates local content from your location. My experience with the “Live Video” option has been positive, even through 3G connections.
Flixster – As a big movie fan, I like being able to find theaters, showtimes, and movie information at the tap of a finger. This was the first and only movie app I downloaded and I still love it. I can effortlessly check showtimes, view movie previews, check out upcoming releases, get ratings and reviews, and lots more. I haven’t tried the Fandango app out yet, so the final jury is still out. But, as of this writing, Flixster has served me well.
The Alstin team will be enjoying more than just left-overs this Friday. We’re extending our holiday through the weekend, returning to the office on Monday.
We hope that you will be rockin’ your elastic waistbands and stuffing yourself silly like we will with family and friends this holiday. Alstin wishes everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.
What were you doing in September 1982? Were you enjoying “The A-Team,” which was one of the top 10 TV shows or the release of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller?” Many things are different today than they were when the jobless rate hit 10.1% in September 1982, including the people that are part of the nation’s labor force. To learn more, check out “Meltdown 101: When Unemployment Last Hit 10%,” in this month’s issue of Alstin Answers.
As VP of Client Development for Alstin, I (happily) find myself on the road a lot, talking to clients, prospects, people in the media, etc.–and I attend numerous industry functions each month. On Alstin’s blog, I’ll let you know where I am and what I’m hearing in the wonderful world of recruiting.
This blog will probably hit right around Thanksgiving, so I’ll make it quick: I’m thankful for the wonderful family and friends I’ve been blessed with, the uber-talented, hardworking co-workers who continue to give it their all during these (still) less-than-ideal economic times and all the clients, colleagues and friends that continue to support us and cheer us on at Alstin Communications. Okay, let’s get back on the road!
Brooklyn, MD: No, that’s not a typo, there’s a Brooklyn in Maryland as well! The November MAHCR (Maryland Area Health Care Recruiters) meeting was held at Harbor Hospital. It’s been too long since I’ve given a shout-out to the great people at the Maryland Area Healthcare Recruiter Association as they’ve made this Philly boy feel so welcome into their great group.
Philadelphia, PA: We co-sponsored the November PAAHCR with our friends at Fox Chase Cancer Center. The topic couldn’t be more relevant: Taking Care of Your Career and Yourself During these Tough Economic Times. The speaker was the wonderful Ford Myers, career expert and author. Ford is the author of Get The Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring and The Ultimate Career Guide. His articles and interviews have been featured in such publications as Inc. Magazine, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, CNN-Money, and he has appeared on NBC-TV, Fox-TV, ABC-TV, CBS-TV, just to name a few.
Conshohocken, PA: A great lunch meeting with our own Mike T. and a very close industry colleague. Again, we’re so fortunate to have built such a strong network of industry allies. These relationships allow us to bounce ideas off of one another, commiserate when things are tough, and share ideas and solutions. Plus, if you haven’t been to the Great American Pub in Conshy, you don’t know what you’re missing!
Pit Stop: Twitter: You may still be skeptical about Twitter (I know I was at first), but the truth is Twitter is a fantastic tool with undeniable benefits for those in recruiting. Of course, we Twitter at Alstin–and we’re getting great feedback on our fun, informative and timely tweets. Click here to follow Alstin on Twitter.
Princeton, NJ: A beautiful day to see our friends at NJAHR (New Jersey Association of HealthCare Recruiters). The topic was Emotional Intelligence, and the ability to understand and use our emotions, and the emotions of others, wisely. Many think that EI is a dominant predictor of success and happiness in life, much more so than IQ or other traditional indicators.
Philadelphia, PA: A five minute walk up Broad to Street to the Crystal Tea Room at the Wanamaker Building for the HR Department of the Year Awards. Again, the last few years have been a tough stretch for anyone who works for, in, or with HR, but it was great to see these wonderful companies honored. Special congratulations go out to Alstin clients Agusta Aerospace Corporation; Advertising Speciality Institute; Aqua America; Movers Specialty Service Inc; and Robert Wood Johnson University!
I came across an interesting post while on The Urethane Blog (what can I say, I like to keep up on the Urethane industry) to an analysis done by 24/7 Wall St. Blog of the 25 most valuable blogs in terms of operating profits and revenue. Value is measured by a variety of data including public sources such as Alexa, Quantcast, Compete, and comScore, estimated CPMs (cost per thousand impressions), and multiples of revenue and operating income.
A more detailed valuation explanation can be found in the link above but what I found most interesting is the sheer variety of the Top 25. From the gossip mongering of Perez Hilton to mega-gamer blog Destructoid to the battlefield of online partisan political leanings of Drudge Report & Huffington Post to the financial content aggregation site Seeking Alpha, there is something for everyone on this list. And who knew they could make so much money?!
The Social Recruiting Summit in New York City on Monday was a great event—from the networking TweetUp event at Bar 657 sponsored by Monster to the final conference session given by Jessica Lee (who slung some mud at Monster ironically – but Eric took it like a champ with his flair for sarcastic wit) I learned a lot and confirmed a lot about what I’m currently doing within the social media space.
It was also great to be able to meet some of the people I’m following on Twitter and meet the authors of articles & blog posts I read all the time (John Sumser, Dr. John Sullivan, Gerry Crispin, Laurie Reuttimann, etc.) as well as meet some recruiters who echo many of my client’s concerns, frustrations, and questions.
As I reviewed all of my notes, I noticed a lot of the questions for the speakers focused around the “How-To’s.” My colleague, Annette DeHaven did a great job of summarizing the “take away’s” from the conference (if you haven’t read it – you shouldn’t miss it!)
The Q&A theme, especially for Social Recruiting Panel with Sodexo’s Kerry Noone, Microsoft’s Heather Tinguely and RSM McGladrey’s Ben Gotkin focused on the details. Most common questions that were asked:
How much time do you spend on social recruiting in your daily routine?
How do you engage your executives/CFOs for budget buy in?
How do you engage your own employees to support your social media messages?
What are you doing about compliance?
Did you outline a strategic approach before getting into social media? If so, what was it?
How do you measure results?
Fred Wilson in his Keynote session really hit the nail on the head when he mentioned that there was a “big area for growth in the industry for creating recruitment strategies and providing a single dashboard/platform” that can manage all social recruiting from one centralized resource.
So…since there is a technology gap within this area, I thought I’d list my vision for “How-To Build a Social Recruiting Strategy / Dashboard” the bricks and mortar way (until someone can create a dashboard that can sync all of the items below):
My New Social Media Mantra/Dashboard Theme: “Complete Transparency. Transparency Breeds Authenticity. Let It Be. Don’t Limit the Dialogue.”
Blogging:
Create a program & schedule to engage current employees (each department/business unit will write one blog post/week.
Feed/link this blog from the home page of my Career Site home page. (Add video (upload on YouTube) and podcasts as well if not available on Career Site).
Sync blog with photos on Flickr.
Twitter:
Set up automatic Jobs Feed under corporate careers channel.
Highlight 3 jobs/day or other job-related news with manual tweets.
RT valuable; tweet original/researched content.
Facebook Fan Page:
Set up schedule for daily status updates & link promotion to blog.
Create Jobs RSS Feed for up-to-minute content from our Career Site/ATS/TAS.
Set a goal to publish link to one newsletter, article in the news, press release etc.
Set a goal to upload one new video/podcast/photo per week.
LinkedIn:
Use LinkedIn for reference/resume checking.
Update my status to promote blog posts and featured job openings (sync with Twitter account).
Create LinkedIn Groups for each business unit/department—encourage employee bloggers and current employees to join and promote the groups to colleagues, friends, etc.
Send out discussion items and Q&A to members of the group on a weekly basis.
Job Search Engine Promotion/SEO
Create a job search engine sponsored job pay-per-click campaign (either on Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com or LinkUp.com). Budget doesn’t have to be huge, monitor results and reinvest accordingly.
Sign up with Jobs2Web.
Internal Promotional Campaign
Establish an incentive campaign to recruit employees to engage in Social Media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Koda.us). (ie. iTunes gift cards to person who has most Twitter followers, etc.). Promote campaign through Intranet.
External Promotion Campaign
Request each employee blogger to find 20 people in their industry/line of business via Twello (or other Twitter directory) and invite them to follow our Twitter jobs channel/join LinkedIn Group.
My Daily Social Media Recruiting Itinerary
One blog post/week; Tweet 3x/day; Check Facebook Fan Page for posts/comments and submit new status update daily.
Use bit.ly to find people who are RT our tweets and RT information about our competitors. Follow these people.
Engage these people to follow our Twitter Jobs Channel, read our Blog and join our LinkedIn Group(s).
Google Reader
Set up Google Reader for key word Twitter searches/news trends/industry trends.
Competitor blogs/news.
Industry News.
If it’s a search or something of interest, get the RSS feed.
That’s a lot to fit on one dashboard, but that’s what I envision being a great resource for efficiently managing a fluid social recruiting campaign. Measuring results and monitoring budgets would be a nice module, too—but I don’t want to get too greedy.
Please feel free to add your notes/thoughts/feedback to the areas I found to be major assets to a social media recruiting campaign – I’d love to hear from you! – Jen Hitchens-Greenfield
The last thing I wanted to do this morning was board a train. Last night’s journey home from the Social Recruiting Summit in NYC via Amtrak, a trip that’s normally just shy of an hour – and I might add a trip that’s even shorter than my daily SEPTA commute into Philly, was four very long hours looooonnng.
The Amtrak crew kept the peace by announcing every 15 minutes or so that we’d be on our way “momentarily” = code any commuter knows is for “we have no idea, this may be a while folks.” It was, but I had a nice seat mate and a new iPhone to keep me busy.
What a great conference. Before it even started, I noted to those sitting around me that in all honesty, this was the first conference I actually begged asked to go to.
As one of Alstin’s professed social media evangelists, I wanted to take away insights, experiences and tips, plus meet some great people. I learned a lot. I did meet some very cool people and I’m so glad I went.
I attended alongside Jen Hitchens-Greenfield, Alstin’s Director of Interactive Services. We came into the city on Sunday. Had a fabulous dinner at Suenos. If you are a foodie go and try their “shrimp stack” appetizer and if you enjoy a cocktail, or two or three order the La Paloma – a margarita made with a grapefruit soda. It’s killer.
I walked into the Social Recruiting Summit yesterday morning and spied a large group of people milling about the entrance and what looked like a packed house inside. Nervous that it was SRO, I was happy to have one of the staff find seats for all of us – even though my seat was a barstool. Not the greatest for those who tower at a whopping five feet like me. But once the presentations started, I forgot that my feet were dangling (I’m kinda used to that anyway) and enjoyed the show.
If you attended and want to add your two cents, please do! If you didn’t and want to chat some more, I’m game. But be prepared, this post goes by way of my train ride – it is long.
My Favorite Take Aways From the Social Recruiting Summit
I learned that he has put venture capital behind many websites he’d like us all to take notice of.
That he posts presentations prior to delivering them online and leaves them open for comment – love this idea for my own/Alstin’s purposes that is for sure.
Targeted FaceBook ads aren’t just for the recruiters – job seekers are using them too and to their advantage.
This is a really great recommendation that I will be passing on to many: Pick three things you used to do and stop doing them. Try three new things.
It’s not as company-centric as it used to be, it’s a people-centric world.
Another break out session from another compelling speaker that I didn’t branch off to learn more from. Anyone have more to share? (I did think Prezi looked like pretty cool/fun presentation software. Will also be checking that one out. )
This was my personal favorite when it came to great tips. (I also hope Master is feeling better, what a trooper.)
Encourage those in a senior manager role or greater to be responsible for establishing 10 new relationships per year (this includes a personal visit to that new contact) that result in at least two hires.
Comcast has a “what not to do” example of a FaceBook Fan Page – don’t jumpstart a FB Fan Page with a message from Legal! Seems obvious, but they did just that.
Play where the fish are – be highly targeted.
In growing numbers, blue collar professionals are using their mobile devices vs. a computer for Internet access – don’t forget to make your career site mobile-ready.
This was an interactive/problem solving session. Here is an insider’s view of what went down.
Susan kicked off her interactive session by showcasing Innocentive. Yep, another great site to check out with an interesting factoid: 50% of the problems solved on the site are by those outside of the sphere of the business posing the challenge.
I know, this is getting redundant. I did not break out for Gerry’s talk. I stayed put (feet dangling) to hear Jessica Lee.
I did find his pre-break out comments jam-packed with great stats including this one: 75% of those dipping their feet into social media have started a FaceBook Fan Page. All well and good, but as many presenters noted – please remember recruiters, FaceBook is not the be all, end all. People engage in different ways.
If you are a recruiter feeling resistance, go rogue. (Can we all maybe find another buzz word for this? One not associated with a nitwit? Was that too political of me?)
Start working social media and show the results to the decision makers – but be cautious and try not to step on too many toes.
It didn’t surprise me, but it was comforting that her personal Twitter account had more followers than APCO Worldwide’s. (I see the same thing with my Twitter account and with Alstin’s.)
In recruitment advertising, a lot of money is spent on things like search engine optimization and marketing, job boards, banner advertising on industry sites, email – etc. Online advertising is key to your ability to drive qualified candidates to your site. Investing in these programs is an important part of your success as it casts a wide net to attract qualified prospects.
Yet too often, the people who come to your site leave without delivering a resume or an application – Statistics tell us that most resume and application activity happens during work hours. So what happens when a boss or coworker walks in, the applicant drops what they are doing and may close the browser.
And what about those who did leave a resume or application? How valuable would it be to have continued dialogue with them after they leave your career site?
Retargeting allows you to recapture their attention, those who applied and those who didn’t, and re-message them by sending them either back to:
Your Career Website
Or redirecting them to:
Your Landing Page, where they could be surveyed
Employee Testimonials, where they could hear from people they would work with if they worked for you
Videos that could talk about the company and tell a story
Industry News – maybe something innovative your company was involved with or an award you won
The point is, retargeting allows you to communicate with your candidates the way you would like to – if you had the time.
It gives you the opportunity to make your advertising investment pay off by building a relationship with the skill sets you hire, now and in the future.
There are 3 different types of retargeting. Site, Email and Creative. All of them involve placing a cookie on the computer of the visitor and delivering an ad to them on other websites. Retargeting is critical to your marketing efforts for one primary reason – a candidate who has expressed their interest in you by visiting your web site is more qualified than one who did not visit your web site. Retargeting allow you to focus your ad dollars on these “pre-qualified”, or “filtered” candidates which will improve your ability to attract the talent you want. Keeping your communication highly relevant by serving ads based on the specific jobs the candidate has reviewed keeps the candidate interested well into the process of sorting resumes and setting up next steps. Your acquisition cost is lowered by targeting only people who have visited your site – 100% target reach.
When your message is served to visitors on lifestyle and information sites chosen by them, your employment brand is associated with their interests and develops a lifestyle affiliation.
Once they leave your site, they are no longer thinking of you – but retargeting allows you to remain top of mind as they move around the net through out the day.
Read more about the details of retargeting at my iOnline Newsletter article. If you have any questions about retargeting, or have experience with it—I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts!
Ryan Star, a new rocker on the scene who is currently touring with American Idol winner David Cook, put a spotlight on the unemployed with his inspirational song + video for his new single Breathe.
The video features several unemployed adults who carry signs with messages that read: “Flight attendant. 34 years experience. Furloughed,” “Good at my job,” and “Sent out 100 resumes … nothing.”
Star says, “When I started thinking of how to represent ‘Breathe,’ this idea made sense because unemployment is the common thread that I have been seeing everywhere I have been touring It just feels to me that people everywhere need to hear a positive message, that things will all be OK and that we are here for one another.”
In the Web World, there are two main formats for graphic files–jpegs and gifs. If you’re not creating web pages, this may not be important to you, but you might find the differences in their approach to be interesting.
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format and rhymes with “Jiff” (like the peanut butter), though most people pronounce it with the hard “G”. The format is limited to 256 colors at a time, so it tends to work better with graphic images (non-photographic). 256 colors may sound like a lot, but full-range color has millions of different hues and values, and a full-color photo saved as a GIF will show banding in gradients and have a pointillist quality to it. For graphic images, you’ll have a very sharp reproduction with nice, crisp edges. Once the file is saved, you can open it and save it over and over and it will always look the same. This is called a “non-lossy” compression. GIFs also have the benefit of being able to show multiple frames for animation.
JPEG is named after the Joint Photographic Experts Group. With a full-range of color, this is the format of choice for photographic images and the one your digital camera is most likely to use. The downside of JPEG is that it’s a “lossy” compression, meaning that saving a file to JPEG format throws away information that you can never get back. You might not notice this in a high-quality JPEG, but a low-quality JPEG will show you that the image is broken down into groups of 8×8 pixels and then approximated. A higher setting gets this approximation close, but a lower one may reduce the 8×8 block to a single color! Even if you save in high-quality, if you open it up and save it again, it will further approximate these blocks, degrading the picture quality each time (so keep this practice to a minimum). Most cameras have high-enough resolution that you can compress them pretty well once or twice without noticing “compression artifacts” on a print-out, but when doing web-work, one has to strike the right balance between file size and aesthetics.
So there’s your education in image degradation. See you next month! – j
Driving up the Northeast Extension for a get-away weekend with my husband and three year old in tow, I spied a billboard for PenTeleData’s Computer Patrol with this tagline:
Our geeks are smarter than their geeks.
“Hey!” I exclaimed, “That’s also a great employer brand!”
My husband’s reply: “No work talk please.” Agreed. No work talk, this is a get-away weekend afterall. I’ll save it for the blog.
So what did I like about this tagline? If you happen to work for Computer Patrol – or want to invest your talent with a “smart” team – that’s a real compelling, feel good (feel confident) message being broadcast to the general public about the people behind the company.
There’s another great series of ads you may have already spied that’s in the same vein and I’ll go ahead and call it like I see it – awesome. I’m not alone with this train of thought on Intel’s current campaign that’s using this tagline:
Sponsors of Tomorrow.
If you want to attract the kind of tech talent that’s going to deliver the next “what’s next”, this message really speaks to them. And quite frankly it appeals to anyone who wants to work for a company that makes a big impact – particularly a company that “sponsors tomorrow.”
There are several ads in the series, but this one (Our rock stars aren’t like your rock stars.) is my particular favorite – if only for the t-shirt and notebook doodles. I love, love, love it.
Have you spied campaigns that you enjoy for the double-duty performance of marketing brand + employer brand? Please share and I will continue to do the same.
I don’t know about you, but I need a dose of good news today. I’m tired of hearing all the negative news stories and terrible stats…so I’ve compiled a list of top 10 articles I’ve read recently that highlight some good economic/recovery/job growth news and make me feel optimistic. While not every article is 100% positive, at least there are some signs of life after this recession. I hope they brighten your day a little bit too…
Top 10 Reasons to be Optimistic about Recruiting in 2010
5) Through the Glass Less Darkly – it’s a good time to remember that when an economy is just coming out of recession, its weaknesses are always more obvious than its potential strengths.
So my friends, look at the glass as half full today…I know I’m looking forward to attending the Social Recruiting Summit next Monday to discuss recruiting strategies and results within social media and I hope to see you there too!
Follow my #socialrecruiting updates on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jengreenfield Or, feel free to post your comments or links to other articles below!
Sometimes I feel like I’m part of a dying breed–not only do I still enjoy the newspaper, but I actually read two newspapers every Sunday: The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. With all respect to my beloved Inky (Sunday wouldn’t be the same without Craig LaBan’s restaurant reviews, Meryl Reagle’s puzzle and some great editorial) when it comes to sections like Arts & Entertainment, Book Reviews and Travel, the Times is unmatched.
Ugh, I groaned. Here we go, another trash piece reducing Philly sports fans to the stereotype of knuckle-dragging louts. I imagined I would be reading about the booing of Santa Claus (which many say never really happened and, even if it did, it was over 40 years ago, so perhaps the statute of limitations has run out), snowball throwing, celebrating injured athletes and more. It’s similar to watching Monday Night Football or any nationally televised sporting event held in Philly–you know that sooner or later the obligatory cheeseteak or soft pretzel shot is coming up–because after all, those are the only two things we ever eat–and we like to eat those while running up the Art Museum steps. Sometimes it seems as if the national media thinks everyone in the Delaware Valley lives in South Philly, wears undershirts, eats scrapple and has ties to the mafia.
This article however, was a bit different. First of all, the author grew up three miles from Veterans Stadium and “punched a hole in his bedroom wall when the Eagles lost Super Bowl XV.” I can relate.
The gist of the article is that unlike New York where a sports team is crowned a champion as regularly as your dentist appointments, Philadelphia is not so lucky, and there’s this weird image “audition” where our athletes are judged and embraced not by their talent, performance and ability to win, but by their demeanor and attitude.
The thing is, and this is tough to admit, the article got it right.
I think a lot of it has to do with the scarcity of championships in this town. If the Phillies had fourteen World Series titles instead of two, or if the Eagles had EVER won a Super Bowl, maybe we wouldn’t be so hung up on the demeanor of our players. I guess if you know the parade isn’t coming down Broad Street, you need to latch on to something else.
How else to explain why we seem to focus so much on the personality of our athletes? Is that why a pudgy, defensive nightmare like Greg Luzinski was more popular in his playing days than Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, who is hands-down one of the best players ever? I was only twelve in 1980, but I remember, and the Times is right: The gold glove star who put up incredible offensive numbers was derided as not hitting in the clutch (somehow those 548 homers never won a game for the Phils) and for being too sensitive and aloof.
Why do we care so much about demeanor? Do we want to cheer on our athletes or date them? Also, while Schmidt was certainly quiet and a bit of an enigma, he was no prima donna; by all accounts he worked incredibly hard on his game–something that “our lunch pail” mentality should have celebrated.
Scott Rolen is another example. I’ll admit he seemed joyless whenever you saw him interviewed, but I don’t think anyone who knows baseball would say that during his time here there was a more hard-nosed guy between the lines. Was it that he didn’t love us back enough?
Playing devil’s advocate, here’s more examples: Curt Schilling? Arrogant jerk! Dave Hollins with his one good year and then out of baseball soon after? Love him! Donovan McNabb? Forget him and the way he gets us to the playoffs every year! Give us Randall Cunningham and his never winning anything despite having one of the best defenses of all time.
What’s funny is how some players seem to magically get a pass–almost as if we were a town of forgiving creampuffs. Pat Burrell was absolutely terrible for two years in what should have been the prime of his career and was heartily supported by fans. If that had been the ultra-nonchalant Bobby Abreau, well, I’m not sure Bobby would be alive today. If you watched the Phillies in the early 90′s (and if you did you should get a medal) you know that Mickey Morandini put up an incredible string of mediocre stats and was adored. Actually, I’m still shaking my head on that one.
I think even before last year’s victory, Charlie Manuel was clearly the better manager than his predecessor, the volatile Larry Bowa (who was my favorite Phillie growing up), but for some reason most fans prefer the fiery, unstable guy who goes apoplectic and into a 2 week spiral if they lose a close game rather than the steady manager the players embrace–and whose calm leadership allowed for the amazing runs the Phillies made at the end of the season in 2007 and 2008.
So what do you think? Is the article tough love for us or another Philly hatchet job?
That’s right. I’m quoting Walt Disney to get this blog started. And although it may be a bit corn-ball and one of the most over-used expressions by career-planners and advice givers out there, I’m still a believer in that philosophy.
Inspiration is everywhere. Seek it out. Take hold and make things happen.
Don’t get nervous. I’m not about to break into a rendition of Kum By Ya or turn this post into an empty self-help read. Instead, I figured I’d share some items I came across this week that pretty much support the whole dream it, do it philosophy.
First up, a blog post titled How I Landed My Dream Job. A recruiter with a 10 year track record in the biz describes how they turned their passion for networking and connecting with people into a brand new, coveted role – leading their company’s social media recruitment strategy. Here’s a bit from the post to give you the gist of it:
Over time, my company investigated social media for our messaging, our ongoing branding, recruitment activity, and as a new channel for us to grow as a company. As this direction was being considered and decided upon, I was approached to help lead our global recruitment social media strategy, implementation, and execution. This truly was a dream job opportunity for me and it is something so new that I am finding myself directly impacting my company’s message into the market. Yes, I did say dream job even though this position did not exist just a few months ago.
Whenever you meet someone – or maybe you are one of them – who truly enjoys what they do to make a living in this world it always comes down to one thing. Passion. And if you are inspired by that passion for something you truly enjoy, with some energy and smarts behind it, you’re on your way.
I was moved by the second item I am about to share and don’t think it needs much commentary. Just a view. (OK all you cynics out there, yes, I know this is an ad. Move past it!) If this blind artist’s artistry doesn’t exemplify “If you can dream it, you can do it,” I don’t know what does. Take a breather and be inspired.
I don’t usually write two blog posts in one day, but given the unusual circumstances of how my day started…I feel the need. I woke to the euphoria that the Phillies won last night against the Yankees (yeah!!!) – I fell asleep before the game ended (the score at that time was 8-2 so I hoped for the best and turned off the TV) . Morning alarm from KYW: final score: 8-6 (not too bad!).
Then I listened on KYW that Septa decided to strike at 3AM. I knew what that meant. Ug. Nooooooo! Long lines, standing-room-only regional trains, people stranded, frustrated, irate, etc. (in a city that’s already known for our lack of patience). My commute wasn’t too bad all things considered – others not that lucky. Annette (our General Manager) had a 3 hour commute, I heard people had to beg, borrow and steal to coordinate rides, companies pieced together “emergency” transportation solutions at parking garages and I saw a lot of bikes on my train this morning. My evening commute is fast approaching and from what I saw this AM in Suburban Station (cones, gates and those crazy poles that make mazes for forming lines) I have a feeling I’m in for a long commute home.
So…while I was working today and in between meetings and emails I read online a few articles about what the whole problem is with Septa and its transit workers. And, I’m getting more upset with each piece of information I’m reading. Average salary of a transit worker? $52,000 NOT including their benefits. Workers want at 4% increase in pay (or raises totaling 11.5% over five years depending upon the article you read) AND they want to keep paying only 1% of their healthcare costs. Uh, hello? We’re in a recession! “Salary increase” is a four-letter word to most of the people I know who are employed—they’re just happy to be employed!
And, on top of it all Septa decides to strike on ELECTION DAY! Brilliant! Whoever gave the “ok” at Transport Workers Union Local 234 for that idea should seriously evaluate their priorities. I mean you’ll “hold off” for the Game 5 of the World Series but not Election Day? Where is the logic in that? And, what kind of message does that send the thousands of transit takers to strike at 3AM and leave everyone scrambling for their morning commute?
So…as you can see my feelings on this issue are pretty strong and I happened to tweet to GL Hoffman (of JobDig and “What Dad Would Say Blog” and founder of a great job search engine aggregator LinkUp.com – full disclosure, I’ve written on their site before) that I felt this odd-ball combination of happy events and crazy facts would make a perfect “Gruzzle.” If you don’t know about Gruzzles, get on board. GL Hoffman creates them and FastCompany has featured Gruzzles and they can be downright LOL funny. So I proposed the idea, he liked it and drew up this formula that I think captures the essence of this debacle quite well:
Septa Transit Workers Strike
So…thanks GL for finding the Gruzzle visual for my rant, let’s hope the Phillies have a repeat, and Septa smartens up to reality!
Too often when discussing social media (Twitter, facebook, blogging) with clients and friends I hear the standard “obstacles” about how/why these type of “social” media outlets are just “time wasters” or “unproductive.” (Or, the real straight-shooters just say, “I don’t get it and I don’t want to get it.”). OK…sure, bury your head in the sand – I’ve always found a lot of success doing that—duh.
I think Dr. John Sullivan’s article provides a wonderful analysis of the ‘nay sayer’ attitude and how we, as recruiting professionals, can combat the negativity and overcome the obstacles put in front of us regarding social network recruiting. And, his recommendations fall under a topic that is always near and dear to my heart – metrics, data, numbers, the ‘proof is in the pudding’ type of information. You can’t argue the facts and that’s what I like the most about his four recommendations.
Locating hidden talent, reducing vacancy rates, college impact, increased communications response, employer branding, and on and on. It makes sense right? And his outline really is a “how to do it” guide for recruiters. The problem for me? I’m not a recruiter. I help recruiters. I work with tons of Human Resource professionals and teams and departments. And, I’m so curious to see if some of Dr. Sullivan’s ideas work (ie. Using your own employees as a baseline for the ability to find top talent or creating a small pilot program or a split sample to gauge results from different recruiting tools). I’d jump at the opportunity to ‘partner’ up with a recruiter to create some test scenarios for using social media to fill specific position(s). I’m envisioning: outlining a goal, giving it a timeline and a small budget and measuring as much data as possible, and of course sharing results. Any takers? (Email me at blog@alstin.com)
Another, relevant article (published in AdAge, so yes, I realize the source is going to report on the topic in a different light) about “Ten Things Social Media Can’t Do – A Healthy Reminder for Setting Expectations” by B.L. Ochman. In this article, it supports my constant mantra that social networking takes TIME and EFFORT (and some blood, sweat and tears). I particularly like #5 “Can’t…be done in-house by the vast majority of companies” because it keeps me working! And, I like working!
We were all expecting to have the World Series wrapped up by now. This full page ad running in our fair city’s newspapers today shows us that the folks over at Macy’s did too.
Through the magic of Macy’s, let’s win Game 5 … and 6 and 7. Go Phils!
(Update: Although Game 5 was quite magical, Game 6 was a different story. Thanks for a great season Phillies!)
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I’m getting a jumpstart on the 2009 “Year in Review” articles. Just for fun, I’ve assembled a list of my all-time favorite iPhone apps. They aren’t in any special order and they don’t represent any particular app category. They’re just my go-to favorites. The ones I turn to most often for assistance, information, or thrills. Drumroll please.
What were you doing in September 1982? Were you enjoying “The A-Team,” which was one of the top 10 TV shows or the release of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller?” Many things are different today than they were when the jobless rate hit 10.1% in September 1982, including the people that are part of the nation’s labor force. To learn more, check out “Meltdown 101: When Unemployment Last Hit 10%,” in this month’s issue of 
As VP of Client Development for Alstin, I (happily) find myself on the road a lot, talking to clients, prospects, people in the media, etc.–and I attend numerous industry functions each month. On Alstin’s blog, I’ll let you know where I am and what I’m hearing in the wonderful world of recruiting.
I came across an interesting post while on 
So…since there is a technology gap within this area, I thought I’d list my vision for “How-To Build a Social Recruiting Strategy / Dashboard” the bricks and mortar way (until someone can create a dashboard that can sync all of the items below):
The last thing I wanted to do this morning was board a train. Last night’s journey home from the 
In the Web World, there are two main formats for graphic files–jpegs and gifs. If you’re not creating web pages, this may not be important to you, but you might find the differences in their approach to be interesting.
Driving up the Northeast Extension for a get-away weekend with my husband and three year old in tow, I spied a billboard for 
Sometimes I feel like I’m part of a dying breed–not only do I still enjoy the newspaper, but I actually read two newspapers every Sunday: The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. With all respect to my beloved Inky (Sunday wouldn’t be the same without Craig LaBan’s restaurant reviews, Meryl Reagle’s puzzle and some great editorial) when it comes to sections like Arts & Entertainment, Book Reviews and Travel, the Times is unmatched.
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
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