Twitter, oh how I love thee

I have said before, and I'll say it again, Twitter is my favorite social network.  I love how I can just pop in, see what's happening, comment here and there and then get out.  I recently was gone for a trip to San Francisco and missed a lot of the goings on - as tends to happen when you don't have a really cool mobile device - but as soon as I came back, my twitter friends greeted me with open arms.  On the trip a photo of me was taken that I really liked so I decided to update my profile pic.  I contacted Animal, my official profile pic consultant, and recruiting friend who lives in Toronto, and once posted, I got lots of praise from the crew.  Mind you, many of these people who commented I have never met in person.  It's amazing.

 

As someone who works virtually for CoolWorks.com, a niche job website featuring jobs in great places like national parks and resorts, etc., I tend to be alone a lot except for the company of my darling kittens, so I really appreciate having a bunch of like-minded individuals I can tap when I need a boost of people power.  Since I joined twitter in early 2008, I've discovered that it is great platform for connecting via common interests, and being social by nature, it gives me the lift I need when I work solo from home.

Earlier this year, I was fortunate to participate as a speaker at the Seattle Cool Twitter Conference and met some great people including Bob Fine, the founder and idea guy.  Like most of my Twitter followers/followees, I had never met anyone at this conference prior to my arrival.  When we got there though, we discovered that all of us had many things in common.  We were ahead of the curve, willing to take risks, and hopeful for a more connected and futurstic world.  Each had their own reason for twittering, but we all agreed that at least we were doing it.

In two weeks on Friday, October 23, I will speak at the Vancouver Cool Twitter Conference where I'll share how you can connect with other people on Twitter.  My presentation focuses on how to get your foot in the door, ease your fears about breaking into the conversation, and get you connected properly.  It's easier than you think.

I am happy that Bob wants me back.  Plus, I hope that we'll get more of a chance to chat since he quickly skedaddled after the one in Seattle.  His world tour schedule is amazing!  And since it seems that I am always (ha!) at the conferences that include the number three (3), it looks like I'll be joining the show next in Melbourne, Australia.  Bob, feel free to add me to the exotic location stand by list. : )

I hope to see you in Vancouver home of the 2010 Olympic Games.  I can't believe that they're almost here!

David Letterman Doesn't Understand Twitter

And the story continues. I love how he says when you do not understand something you make fun of it and ridicule it and that's what he's doing. Thanks to my new twitter/facebook friend, Carrie Bugbee, who lives in Portland for sharing this.

Kevin Spacey teaches Letterman about Twitter

Brilliant.

Follow Friday for #SHRM09

The purpose of this post is to collect twitter call signs of those folks I know and those I hope to meet at the SHRM conference in New Orleans.

The easiest way to see them all and get the daily buzz about SHRM 2009 is by searching twitter by the hashtag #shrm09. For those that are not familiar with hashtags, they are simply a way to organize thoughts or people on twitter. You can hashtag anything - #jobs #coolworks #obama. Another cool feature of twitter is the ability to save searches on the right navigation bar so you can easily find what you're looking for again.

• @lruettimann
• @CincyRecruiter
• @sharlyn_lauby
• @SHRMcoo
• @Frannyo
• @benmadden
• @AustinLavin
• @MikeVanDervort
• @thelance (Your HR Guy)

As I learn of more people going, I'll add them to this list for your benefit and mine. Also, check out LinkedIn for a list of conference attendees. Happy Friday!

Even More Networking Goodness

This is more of a cool, personal post than the last one. This week I got to hang out with an Internet personality, Cheezhead, aka Joel Cheesman. And why is this cool? (......works). Well, just a year and a half ago, I had no idea who he was. Here's a brief time-line of our history.

March 2007 - I joined CoolWorks.com and was introduced to Google Reader and the Cheezhead blog about recruiting and SEO.

June 2007 - I actually meet Joel and photographed him in action at the annual SHRM conference in Las Vegas.



Time rolls on and I keep reading his blog. We become friends on Facebook, we follow each other on Twitter, and then one day....

October 2008 - I get a message via Facebook that he is coming to Seattle to do a presentation for a client and wants some sightseeing advice. I offer up some best of Seattle options and suggest meeting for coffee. He says sounds good, but he'll check with Ms. Cheezhead, who is joining him on the trip. And so, a tweet later and text from Joel, we end up meeting for drinks at Anthony's on the Waterfront. Good times.

Another day passes and we meet up again for lunch at a Seattle hole in the wall place called Salumi, operated by the Batali family, and talk shop. While standing in the long line to get our tasty sandwiches, we chat about how cool it is to be able to know people around the country, who work for entirely different companies, but are tied together through like-minded interests via the 'Net. In some ways, it's just crazy, and in other ways it's indescribably cool.

Anyhow, I am pleased as punch that I got to hang out with them and show them an insider's look at my town. My tour guiding skills are still serving me well. Thanks, Gray Line!

Now, I can't wait for another opportunity to hang out with the Cheez at some HR or recruiting conference or maybe on a visit to Cleveland!



The bottom line:
Social networking ROCKS!

Follow Me On Twitter

I must admit that I am in awe of bloggers like Punk Rock HR and Cheezhead, for example, who can write everyday and sometimes more than once in a day. For me, in keeping up on Staffing Center requests and the various advertising needs of clients, I am lucky to get one posted once a month sometimes twice. I suppose that's one reason I like Twitter so much. There isn't the pressure of coming up with a full post, but I can share my thoughts and goings on in a brief, sometimes thought provoking manner. And by thought provoking, I mean, trying to condense a thought to 140 characters can be challenging. Plus, I can share other blogs I've read and videos and keep up on politics and HR trends by following other people.

What's funny to me is that when I took the job at CoolWorks.com and was exposed to RSS and Google Reader, I was amazed that all I had to do was click the little orange RSS icon and magically all of the articles I wanted to read came to me. I would go to my Google Reader and spend an hour or so getting caught up. Fortunately/unfortunately, I now follow so many bloggers and news sites that it either takes me much more time than that or I end up clicking the "Mark all as read" button to be free of the guilt of not being able to stay caught up.

Again, this brings me back to Twitter.

• Twitter is short and sweet.
• Twitter is fun.
• Twitter is instant.

I can follow some of the same bloggers and news channels, but I can scan the headlines a whole lot faster to get to the nitty gritty of what I want to read. I also get to know a little bit more about the people I follow. I can tell you who the coffee drinkers are, who takes the train home, and who loves their kitties as much as me. Even better than that is the fact that when I go to my next big conference, I'll actually know people so the face to face connection will only solidify the networking relationship.

So, do you Twitter? If not, you should. Okay, well, you should at least check it out. Feel free to follow me on Twitter and get the gist of it. If I was an internal recruiter today, I would be willing to give it a try to find a new stream of applicants. Twitter is a free and quick way to expose your open jobs to a new audience and a fun way for you as the employer to show that you have a personality and are interested in being authentic and known in the social media world.

If you don't want to take my word for it, here is a video of lots of other Twitter users who LOVE Twitter. It's a bit long, but you get the idea. Give it a try. You just might like it.

Web 2.0 (Two Point Oh)

I've been saying to Bill at Cool Works that I feel a blog post coming on so here it is. In college, I would consider myself a procrastinator, "one who gets paid for crastinating" according to the B.C. cartoonist, Johnny Hart. I always got my papers in on time, but I would tend to write them the night before they were due, and usually stay up all night to do it. Mind you, I did well in school and I attribute this to my procrastinating, well, at least a little bit. Once I knew my topic, I would mull it over as they say, write a few notes as brain-childs occurred, but generally would tie it all together at the last minute. I don't necessarily recommend this method to anyone, but it always worked for me.

The topic on my brain these days is Web 2.0. I would like to state for the record that when I was an HR professional working in a HR department, I did not have time to really ponder such things. There was always some fire to put out, a file to copy, a benefits orientation to give and a million other little requests and tasks that filled my days. However, I really wish that I would've known then what I know now. Isn't that the way it often is?

First, here is a definition of Web 2.0 for you HR folks still in the trenches from Wikipedia.

Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.

Since joining Cool Works a year ago March, I have officially immersed myself in Web 2.0. I blog. I am on lots of social networks including ours, My CoolWorks, My Space, Facebook, LinkedIn, and I also participate in two wikis. And last but not least, I am now on Twitter and find it an amusing way to share whatever I'm thinking or doing at any given moment.

Now, here is a question for you. Do you use these tools? First off, do you consider them tools? I can understand and appreciate those who opine that social networks are a time suck and a major waste of time, but there are also others who have actually increased their audience and traffic, by utilizing them. Personally, I lean more toward tool than time suck, but I do try to be aware of how much time I spend on this stuff. I'm sure my husband would say way too much, but I have been making connections with old friends, others in my industry and am gaining a greater audience for Cool Works, my photography and my favorite social causes.

So why should you pay attention to Web 2.0? Well, for one, this is where the world is going. People are spending more time on-line and the younger ones out there, your future workforce, are very active on social networks and make decisions about where they will work, eat, hang out, go to school, travel, etc., by paying attention to their many friends' experiences, both good and bad, with companies, etc.

Earlier this week, I attended a brainstorming session for Washington Business Week, a local non-profit that puts on business camps for approximately 2500 high school students each summer. I was one of those lucky students back in 1989 at Central Washington University. When asked whether or not Washington Business Week should attempt to contact its alumni and maintain a relationship with them, the predominant response from the attendees of this meeting was that they would be "insane" not to. And, in fact, if they wanted to be around in 20 years for more high school students, their very sustainability depended on connecting with their alumni. Maintaining a relationship with their natural constituency was the best thing that they could do to ensure their survival and growth.

So how can you join this new web chapter?

• Create a profile on Facebook or MySpace or LinkedIn.

• Add a group for your company or a business profile or both.

• Reach out to your staff and alumni and get them to join and participate. Tap your fans!

• If you're really bold, create your own personalized social network using Ning.

• Twitter about your hiring process, job fairs, recruiting trips.

• Share upcoming events, listen to your staff, and engage in the conversation.

There really are a million ways to connect with people and move forward with the Internet and I am certainly not an expert in any of them, but I am learning more about them and myself all of the time. In future posts, I'll be more specific with things that you can do to get started, but for now, I just want to get the point across that Web 2.0 is important, it's revolutionizing how the world works and if you want your company to be around in the future, get involved sooner rather than later.