My Social Recruiting Summit Keynote Talk

Comments (Archived):

1. Great deck. You cover all of it. A big part is “pay attention to your website — potential recruits will spend time on it.” Social recruiting is a two-way game: it’s not just companies finding the right people, it’s people finding the right companies.I was also especially interested by the “Twitter will have something similar (to Facebook’s self-serve ads) in time” line. Most of us knew it was coming but it is, I believe, the first time an insider’s acknowledged it publicly.

   1. To the latter point, twitter is being asked by its users to give them ways to get their messages out. They need to respond to that

      1. Nice way to spin it. 😉 (But you’re right, of course.)

      2. P.S. Slide 10, there lacks a space in the title “Structure ResumeDatabase” instead of “Structured Resume Database”Slide 22, “Tracked.comIs” instead of “Tracked.com Is”(Yes, I’ve just re-read your deck for the hell of it. I really think it’s great.)

         1. That is also a slideshare issue

      3. On Twitter’s search widget page you can search any topic see a live stream of mentions of that word from anyone on Twitter in real time. That’s amazing. You search “JOBS NYC” and anyone who has posted a job in NYC scrolls through. You can also embed to your own site, which I have. As great as that is sitting there and watching data scroll by isn’t much fun for very long. I’m sure they’re working on ways to aggregate and in time monetize that information. I’m not just saying this b/c you invested in them, but I find more utility in Twitter constantly.

2. I believe you left out a space on slide 24. It says “MeetupsAround Specific Domains…” instead of “Meetups Around”. I’m looking forward to the video.oh and… http://www.linkedin.com/in/… 😉

   1. I thought so too. But that’s caused by the slideshare file conversion

3. I love the #34 slide – fit’s most of what you do in business (or life!) actually.

4. Seems like a genuinely useful topic to give a presentation on. The slides look good.I never quite made the connection between things like blog comments, meetups, and other ‘informal’ forms of contact and the potential to feel people out before hiring, being hired, or collaborating in some professional sense.Please post video if possible, thanks…

   1. I hope they video the talk and post it. If they do, I’ll reblog it here

      1. That would be awesome to watch – this deck is amazing Fred 🙂 Lots of people are going to read this. *jumps into share mode*

5. right on Fred!

6. Check title on page 22

7. I think there is still huge scope for improvement, especially for passive hires.The net is all about information efficiency. It’s pure size allows people to find exactly what they’re looking for. But just like in general search, there is still a signal/noise issue with the labour (sic) market. As long as peoples’ skills are still listed as free text, you’ve got the (usual) filtering/structure problems.I see an opportunity for cv’s created from drop-down lists, where people can give each of their skills a rating.That would be a hugely powerful tool for filtering a huge number of candidates down to a highly-focused and manageable group.

   1. Hi David — good thoughts. Structured data is somewhat the Holy Grail for those of us in Online Recruiting. If we could, we absolutely would. Where it gets sticky is calibration (he says his Java is very good. it’s not), enumeration (within the sub-branch of direct marketing are a few dozen different flavors, before too long you realize you’re looking at putting candidates through a 20,000 item structure), change (skills fade, skills are born — how do you handle the addition of “SEO Link Builders” into your framework?), and definition (is Business Development Manager an entry-level copier sales position or a 20-years-experience-required weapons sales position at Lockheed?)Techies.com and JobFox.com have tried approaches to this problem, but I am afraid the panoply of human experience does not yet fit within the confines of a database. May I add to this last point — “thank goodness!” 🙂

      1. This is a common problem with the so-called semantic web. I think methods will emerge which are both intuitive for the user and less ambiguous for the machine.As for calibration, it should be possible to spot unlikely combinations (eg expert in 10 unrelated fields).

         1. I had this idea on stage yesterday at social recruiting for a meyer briggs tool that you point at someone’s blog. Could that work?

            1. You mean the tool would create a psychological profile based on the blog entries? That would be a stunning tool (in many contexts) but, even if this isn’t my field, I don’t see that level of machine insight happening soon.A crowd-sourced widget might work though. “Click here to analyze me”…

            2. Yeah that widget is along the lines of the Hunch widget I’ve got on this blogWhat I was thinking about is a language parser that does a meyers briggs analysis. I guess that’s science fiction at this point

            3. I am somewhat wary/sceptical of such approaches being adopted in a detached, sterile, binary domain. Our personalities, IDs, Egos, can’t be reduced to a series of radio-button choices. If one is being analysed via a fellow, pulsating, human being, maybe …. otherwise, hmmmm. Hence why all so often candidates who ‘tick all the boxes’ turn out to be unmitigated disasters.I’ve known a few psychopaths in my time who initially appeared nothing more than incredibly bright and charming. Perfect. The Perfect Nightmare, as it transpired. I’ve also known a few total introverts who are fascinating, bright/innovative and inspiring. Priceless.Only good old physical, interpersonal interaction can determine the difference.

            4. I was thinking about the widget the other way round.A blogger puts up a widget which allows the readers to crowdsource a profile for the blogger.Given the (in most cases) decent sample size, the results would be both relevant and revealing.

   2. Hi David – please excuse the self-promotion, but had to comment as structuring and rating skills is exactly what we’re doing at skillslog.com – just launched. We’re focussing on building the community, which will include integration with LinkedIn via OpenSocial, but ultimately recruitment is our business model.Slides look great to me, it’s nice you’ve touched on circumstances where people/companies don’t have the network, which I suspect is the case in most circumstances, I’m loving the facebook microsoft ad!

      1. I’m glad you liked the slides. I’ll pass the message on to Fred 🙂

         1. Message received 🙂

8. I think this is a great topic and very relevant area to be addressing. Before they shut down, I thought Snaptalent offered a very refreshing approach to social talent hiring

9. in your previous post on social recruiting you mentioned that job seekers who want to tap into the opportunities afforded by niche communities need to actually work to earn credibility in that community, it cannot really be faked. this i think was a really important point that would be worth including in this presentation, as IMHO i think it is a point that is harder to appreciate for those who are not already immersed in online communities.i thought the images were a lot of fun, especially the dude on the bike.my $.02 fwiw

   1. I’ll make sure to work that in kid. I agree its important

   2. I totally agree that you need credibility in a community. And it applies to all the social media stuff, in a way. You can’t start a blog one day because you need to recruit someone and expect people to show up. You have to have developed that voice and readership ahead of time. You can’t just sign up on Twitter and have anyone notice your stuff the next day. All of these networking and communication channels need to be a part of your strategy from the get-go so that they can grow into valuable assets for recruiting, fundraising, BD, marketing, etc.The challenge is that this implies both a long critical path and a pretty time-consuming process to build up your credibility and network “assets.” The really interesting part is how much more mileage you can now get out of having a point of view and some decent writing skills.

      1. Very good point! Developing social media equity (of which credibility is a vital component) must be part of a long-term strategy and requires ongoing investment. Effective recruiting utilizing social media must be part of an overall social media strategy and vice versa.

   3. Agreed. We’ve all had those awkward instances where people who didn’t establish credibility reached out through a social network because they wanted something – you immediately rule them out. The key point may simply be that you join these communities and keep your eyes open rather than trying solely for a specific goal.

   4. The interesting aspect to this is that several people I know/really respect and who possess some of the best minds I’ve encountered in business/tech, have virtually zero online presence. A lot of people out there are clearly pushing themselves rather too hard on the ‘net and within various communities – the meme/ego aspect to many communities is one to be wary of IMHO and we need to strike a balance between the passive/invisible types alluded to and the blatant self-promoters. Noise/visibility doesn’t necessarily = quality.

      1. Interesting points, Carl. Is there a not a “tragedy of the commons” argument for saying that if everyone just consumed social content, without contributing anything, there would actually be nothing to consume?

         1. Gosh, that’s rather deep and circular for me on a Monday evening at 11pm, with gales and driving rain outside, the dying embers of the fire suggesting it’s probably better to head for the duvet than put another log on the fire, at this time of night with wild weather outside making concentration rather hard (and said weather trying its utmost to get inside). However, I digress ….Sometimes, Social Content/Media all too often reminds me of a Chinese meal. Initially very filling in an immediate-gratification kind of way, but after a short period of time one feels rather empty and consumed by the need to consume something of real substance.Anyway, I think I’ll throw another log on the fire and partake some more of tonight’s Chinese Buffet (who mentioned Warren?) … 😉

      2. That’s for sure

10. Three notes. How big is this being displayed?I can’t tell that Andrew and Eric are Andrew and Eric. Font size and image size. This may change once they are blown up, though. The blog posts are huge compared to the comments. Cut them down as images. and make Eric and Andrew’s comment’s BIG! (Hi Andrew and Eric, you deserve the credit that you get, might as well show it off.)Secondly, My friends’ and I think it is a down economy. While every one of these may be true we’re curious about what happens when people are in transition, or after someone lost a job. I know enough scared students (I just sat in a classroom full of them, looking for first jobs), that the taste of fear is paltable. I have a friend who lost their jobs, and becuase he didn’t get jobs in his original degree (Biomedical Engineering), he’s also running a bit scared.Answering the fear element is a bit absent.And while meetup will answer certain communities…It won’t answer the I don’t know (if you are young), and it won’t answer that certain communities don’t take well to the web. Or are so nichey you still would want a personal introduction…(and yes Indeed is really the biggest game changer. I was told to look for internships there because my college hates their own system…keywording for search is difficult though)

11. Thanks Fred, found it to be very inspiring. I think that Linkedin and Twitter are great ways to find candidates. A web site with a portfolio of work showing a person’s knowledge, skills and accomplishments can also be very effective too.

    1. Yes. Great point. That’s what andrew and eric were linking to in the slides that show their reponses to our posts

12. Those sponsored ads on Indeed make sense. Indeed is an attractive site for job seekers since it aggregates openings from so many sites.Question about the guy who put up the Facebook ad trying to get a Microsoft job: did he get it? I quoted someone on this elsewhere who noted that some recent extreme job hunting stunts have been more successful at getting the job hunters national media coverage than they have been at getting them jobs.

    1. I believe he did get a job at microsoft

       1. Glad that worked out for him.

13. Great post. Esp love the Meetup sponsorship suggestion. An inexpensive sponsorship “hack”, meetups always need space to meet. If you have some, give some.

    1. That’s a great tip. A bunch of our companies do that

14. Nice work! Looks great.

    1. A lot of this was inspired by you charlie. The puppy old dog slide included 🙂

       1. Old dog taught me plenty.

15. Twitter as a recruiting tool is great, but somehow people seem to be largely unaware of this, it’s really not immediately obvious.I’m sure many would find it useful if you could refer the public to a blog post with more in-depth info, or show more about the screening process. Before scoring Andrew you probably followed a process, we see the final result but people will be clueless on how to get started in a way that they can be effective. (i.e. how to get from A to B)For tools like Indeed and LinkedIn this process is more obvious because of the specific purpose of these tools. Not so with Twitter, which is very general purpose.

    1. I see it largely as a way to get the word out about a job opening. I am not sure it can be used for a lot more than that right now

       1. job openings only get you loads of people who fit the basics, the technical skills and a rough idea whether a person is minimally apt for a given position. information overload, wasted plane trips back and forth, unending iterations of meetings flying the wrong people.’reverse twitter openings’ would be what a headhunter or coolhunter should do, searching for patterns of intelligence. I find that resumes en masse are largely irrelevant, time consuming and they don’t say a lot about the person behind it. anyone can write down ‘entreprenurial’ in a resume. in twitter, you can see the good ones in action, perhaps getting out of their way helping other people, leading with innovative thoughts, or outstanding technical ability for example.another example: a real web designer doesn’t need a boss to tell her she should be designing or creating stuff, a natural born designer designs even when she’s without a job. especially when she’s without a job, and letting the world know how great she is.twitter used this way is useful to scan for brainwaves. posting job openings is like posting a brainwave and trying to make noise fit the curve.well, that is if you’re looking for someone to work on a web startup, anyway. not as useful if you’re searching for a fashion model.:-)

          1. Blogs and blog comments are a good source of data about a person too

16. Excellent deck.I would take it even further and say that social media is becoming an integral part of the HR process.So much so that according to recent stats published by Mashable, 8% employers have supposedly fired people for misuse of social media. (here’s the article http://mashable.com/2009/08….

17. You shared sites I have not used. I wish that audio accompanied the slides?

    1. It will today when I deliver the talk

18. I really am going to re-empahize this. I think something that needs to be talked about is college graduates as college graduates. They’re the weird louses of social media (I can say that, I am going to be one)We’re given a lot of wierd advice about social networks and recuiting, and it’s very strange, stressful stage of transition. We’ve been hearing all sorts of things for years, and yet we’ve been inhabiting this world unassumingly for years. The transition is hard on us. It isn’t clear what’s what for us yet, and it usually becomes more clear as we get closer to our first job. I would say it becomes clearer as we get our first “pro-toys” and definitely after we get our first “full time job in a big company”Even then I’m not so sure. One of the interesting things about growing up with social media is that lines are blurry. You made that point, but when you grow up, you want some space to deblur a tad because you’ve changed rapidly. Social media has now kept track of you, so while facebook will have all your college friends to reach out to, will you want to reach out to their photos as well…

    1. Interesting perspective, because there are times that I fall into the college trap myself (only been out a few years). It’s hard to remember at times that social networks are in fact networking tools in addition to places to go and simply be part of a community, and it’s very possible the younger generation may have more trouble adjustng to it. It was beaten into my head in college when Facebook was a new phenomenon that we should only make sure we didn’t do something on a social network that prevented us from getting a job. It’s funny, too, that I contacted a recruiter through Facebook because I temporarily misplaced her card and her response was to laugh at me. The times, they are a-changin’.

       1. Right. I’ve gotten a few bang up lessons here myself. Though I still find all of you strange at times. People find it odd that I will follow and tweet a conference at a college dining table for a dormitory. Meanwhile I find it odd that you will search out jobs on facebook…Why would you do that? That’s just so odd?And for the life of me, I still can’t figure out linkedin. I have it, but everyone I know exists on Facebook, and I go to class with them. I mean people graduate, but even then, the transition is so messy…Without young people establishing identities these tools are really difficult. And sort of useless. My resume is only partially filled out there…I’ve jumped from job to job over a variety of summers…I’ve been the most consistent here in my life, and most consistent picking products and wanting to review them (damn ba), But when you are dealing with someone under the age of 25, that tells you, practically nothing.

    2. This is a great point shana. I’m not sure where you go with this insight but its a big oppty for someone

       1. a 30 year old is much closer to filling his/her puppet of social networking than a 23 year old, even if the 23 year old has a more elaborate puppet from living on the web for longer. Living on the web doesn’t mean knowing what to do. Basically how do you ignore a lot of stuff, including some young inappropriate stuff, as a person grows into his/her shoes, on the web. We’ve extended adolescence, so even though I had my first email account at I think 11?10? doesn’t mean I know how to use it, because the role of email changes as I grow up. Same with any tool. You are just going to see a huge amount of gaffs, even if colleges drill and drill and drill because you are dealing with a bunch of kids and the technology is changing as rapidly as they are.(There was no purpose of me having email at that age, I got practically no email from anyone)

19. Fred, the deck looks great. Great Seth Godin PowerPoint style, as always.It’s amazing how things have changed in this world, and I’m excited to see how this changes the whole nature of job hunting as we move forward.

20. Fred, I’m a long time reader first time commenter. I presented on this subject in September and thought I’d share some links that really helped my presentation.http://www.russellherder.co…http://www.jobvite.com/recr…http://mashable.com/2009/04…http://www.slideshare.net/B… (Slides 30 – 32 and please forgive the shameless self promotion)

    1. Oh man, I’m just seeing this nowI may show this comment off during my talk this morning

21. i think theres also another point — much of the above only really works if you are the type of company that attracts “followers” — ie — a company that builds something boring like ad serving technology isn’t necessarily the type of co that attracts followers to recruit — vs an apple, or twitter, etc. that, because of the nature of the product — has a huge set of followers.

    1. I address that in the talk. The part about buying attention

22. Small world. The photo of the biker was taken by a guy I know on a beach in Norfolk, U.K. called Hunstanton. I spent most of my summer there.

    1. Wow. That’s some coincidence

23. One theme that I was a bit wary of was the idea that niche communities (or open source engineers) can lead to good hires. I’ve found that while there is a lot of technical skill in being successful in these arenas, there also seems to be a tough cultural wall to break down in bringing in someone who is used to a community which works a certain way.Also, I didn’t really see you emphasize that while talent is valuable, the real value, to me, of the social hire is vouching for the integrity and the character of the person much more so than their skill set. I think it’s fair to say that you wouldn’t recommend a friend or colleague who you didn’t think was strong enough, but would you recommend a friend who you knew would constantly butt heads with the VP of Engineering?I’d be curious to see some time spent in a presentation like this on how much energy, effort, money, etc. is saved by preventing bad apples, who are technically literate, product geniuses or whatever it may be, into the fragile ecosystem which is a small start-up. There have to be cases where not doing this have cost a company with which you’ve been associated a great deal.

    1. These are all great points. Fodder for a follow-up talk for sure

24. Lots of great thinking in this deck, and the exciting part of the internet and recruiting is that we are really just getting started. The newspapers are only now dying, and the Web 1.0 job boards “just” replicated their model. Cool ideas — GlassDoor, Tracked, and of course, Twitter, LinkedIn, Meetup (at TheLadders, we’ve sponsored Meetups to very good effect for our recruiting) etc., — are going to make the next decade even more exciting.A few points that I think go along thematically with what you are saying but bear emphasis:1. Social media are fantastic information and communications tools. A question we should be asking is: how do we use these tools wisely and well?Commenter Melih notes: “I didn’t really see you emphasize that while talent is valuable, the real value, to me, of the social hire is vouching for the integrity and the character of the person much more so than their skill set. I think it’s fair to say that you wouldn’t recommend a friend or colleague who you didn’t think was strong enough, but would you recommend a friend who you knew would constantly butt heads with the VP of Engineering?”As tools, we are using social media very well to find candidates, and to find people who worked with the people who worked with our candidates. But to really close the deal, we need to find a way to make social media better at making the art of referencing better. Because I’m not sure we really have. The cold call out of the blue from the nice person in HR at a company looking to hiring Jeremiah, who saw that you worked with him from 2003 to 2005, is not immediately, to my mind, somebody with whom you should exercise your complete and utmost candor. Legal and social consequences loom. We’re finding the information, but we’re not generating the right type of communication.2. And I wonder if you should mention Uber community on the web — Craigslist. Despite its enormous size today, it started as “social media” — Craig sending out his favorite events to his email buddies, and somehow that DNA remains at the core of what Craigslist is all about. Especially with recruiting designers and college graduates, we find it invaluable. I think we all sometimes forget to put Craig in this bucket.3. I agree blog posts and tweets are a great way to get people who are already engaged with your brand. This is the virtual equivalent of the “Help Wanted; Inquire Within” sign: to attract somebody, they need to already be attracted. Which is fantastic. But it’s not going to scale for all the needs of a young company. How are we going to use social media to expand our message, not just repeat it in an echo chamber?4. And, finally, I think it bears repeating: “0” is the number of people you’ve hired in or invested in without meeting them face-to-face. (Even more interesting if the answer isn’t zero — would love to hear that story!) The internet, social media, tweets and updates can not replace the value of sitting across from a human and learning their story directly from them. That’s what we’re all about – we are *social* creatures, and the *media* is there to serve us.

    1. great points Marci didn’t intentionally leave out craigslist or theladdersi might update the deck to include both if i get a chance before tomorrow

       1. Great. Craigslsit is certainly a great company.As for us, it’s an interesting philosophical question: is TheLadders Social Media? Within our walls we are doing very cutting edge product development with recruiter-to-job-seeker one-to-many communication; and many of the ideas are straight from Twitter, etc. But from the outside world’s viewpoint: we’re closed, paid, and curated, which is quite different from open, free, and noisy. Thankfully so. Where do we fit?Good topic for a blogpost for me! 🙂

25. Sharp deck Fred. Hits home on the importance of creating and sharing the great currency – our reputations! Look forward to your post Summit comments on where the many see social recruiting heading…. and the actions at the edge.

26. Love the penultimate slide in the deck. Simple, powerful.It’s certainly interesting seeing how the market is moving away from the personal (physical) networking space to a more virtual one.

27. This is fantastic, Fred. Some really good points/tips. Love the comment “recruiting is a blood sport” — so true! I did wonder about slide #29 “There is no better way to reach passive job seekers.” Actually, I’m not sure there is such thing as a passive job seeker, because seeking is not passive. Generally, recruiters refer to passive “candidates” as potential candidates that must be actively sought and engaged because they are not looking at all. Certainly, the internet is a great way to identify and even access these types of potential candidates but probably doesn’t replace direct contact. Otherwise, what you are talking about is passive recruiting — which isn’t really recruiting.Hopefully, people will make the connection between slide #10 “LinkedIn is the internet’s structured resume database” and slide #12 “How I Source Talent” because starting the sourcing effort on LinkedIn is much more efficient (and infinitely less time consuming) than going straight to a search engine and may even eliminate the need for the latter. One tip for someone with only a few followers on Twitter is to find networking or professional organizations on Twitter and tweet the opportunity to them via @reply (and similarly on Facebook via email) in the hope that they will share this with their members. (I suppose that to send it directly to potential candidates might be considered spam.) Also, adding the #jobs hashtag may generate some referral activity. I do hope that this will be recorded as you mentioned above and shared on your blog. I can’t wait to see it and tweet it!

    1. It was not only recorded, it was streamed live. The social recruiting summit was one of the slickest conferences I’ve attended in terms of their use of social media

28. A bit off-topic: signed up for Tracked, and it looks like a very useful service. I look forward to explore it more.My gripe with it is that I had to create an account from scratch, and now it’s asking me to input lots of information (career, profile etc) that it’s already available in many places on the Internet (Linkedin being one of those, but also Twitter, Facebook etc).I don’t want to create a new profile for a service ever again: I want all my information to be stored in the cloud, and to be able to grant permission to any service I join to access any part of it. As it is, I have maybe 20 different profiles on 20 different services, containing much of the same info and not synced between them. It’s madness.Cheers, Giordano

    1. I agree – the sharing of my meta-data between services is really proving a barrier to joining further identities/communities.This was the basis for the so-called open-identity meta-systems that were touted a couple of years ago but have so far proved ineffective.There is a classic piece on this by Doc Searls back in 2005 that is still valid today.http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8357Lee

    2. I suggested to them that they just import your linkedin. Not sure you can do that with linkedin but its what I’d want to do too

       1. That would be good. If I were Linkedin, I’d allow 3rd party platforms to import and sync user data, as it would be a step in making Linkedin the “business profile” of choice for everyone. I think most users would be much happier to have to maintain a single profile, and Linkedin would clearly profit from it.

29. Just wanted to post a quick note on how I landed my current position as a Web Project Manager/Analyst as it was pretty effective. Long story short: I found the job listing on LinkedIn, applied directly through the company’s online application. When I received the call to make the appointment for the first interview, I asked who would be on the call. I immediately did my research, studied up on them in LinkedIn and quietly followed them on Twitter. By the time of the interview, I knew who they were and what they were passionate about and talked to those points throughout the long interview process. Whenever I had to meet a new person, I tried to find out who they were beforehand and did my homework. According to them, I hit a home run and was deemed the best candidate for the job. I was hired three months ago and was able to punch out of a failed startup in NYC before it tanked. Preparation for any job interview is key, and using social media as a main point of research give you up to the minute insight on a company as well as your potential future boss.

    1. That is such a good and instructive story. Thanks for sharing it!

30. Thanks again for keynoting the Summit, Fred. You were great, and I know that the people in the room (and watching the webcast) appreciated it!

    1. I enjoyed it. I love conferenced that one. And it was a five min walk from my house!

31. You killed it today Fred awesome job! One thing that did not get much coverage and is in need of innovation is referencing once you find candidates. Outside of Linked In and some lesser known like Naymz not much else out there. Down here in DC we also use a confidential closed list serv that includes about 300 DC tech cxo’s that is very powerful mostly becuase people respect it and the community (Mindshare).

    1. Yes. Referencing is hard and so important

32. Placed this comment on SlideShare – sorry.The presentation is good, I think the future of online recruiting involves a conversation. Right now blogs, twitter and facebook ‘talk to’ potential candidates, while in the future, the successful talent company will talk ‘with’ potential candidates. In the same way companies MUST engage with customers using social media, companies MUST engage future, past, and present employees with social media. Sort of a recruiting CRM. No technology out there does this effectively – most are applicant tracking systems – need to change the paradigm to CRM.

    1. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could post that comment on slideshare and it was inserted here automatically? Its gonna happen at some point. The plumbing exists

       1. Penny for every time I start a sentence with “Wouldn’t it be cool” – and I can fund that great idea I just thought of…that is why we have smart folks starting companies and other smart folks helping them…very cool.

33. I wish the large company I worked for would embrace more of these social recruiting tools. I head to campus each Fall to do a bunch of recruiting events for a relatively small candidate pool. It’s a big time spend for prep time and the events themselves. I have a feeling that the same candidates we ultimately want to talk to are the same ones that would be plugged into social media tools as well. These tools can definitely make the process more efficient for recruiters and job seekers.

34. I’m working in a startup named MasterBranch (http://www.masterbranch.com). MasterBranch uses public information to build a profile for developers, right now we analize Open Source and with this information we fill their profile. We plan to add some information from other sites, like stackoverflow, user’s blog, etc.There are many advantages adding this information, first is public, so you can check the quality, and second users don’t need to update their profile.In this moment we are working on the tool for searching inside our database, we hope to have it ready soon. We are going to test it with some recruiters and dev companies, if you are interested don’t hesitate to email me.

35. Yikes I think I missed your presentation, unfortunately I just saw your post in my email subscription. Anyway, great job, hope it went well. I was going to mention that I didn’t see anything about use of video by seekers or candidates.

36. Hi Fred, I was at the #socialrecruiting Summit and I found your presentation to be full of real life examples (and not pie in the sky) of social recruiting strategies. I run The NYC Recruiting Meetup Group http://www.meetup.com/NYCRe…, would you re-present that presentation at one of our upcoming meetups? Our meet up has over 600 members and is focus on best and ‘next’ practices in e-recruitment…Best….Ernest

37. Here’s an interesting example of a Social Networking global brainstorming session sponsored by Mensa. The idea, according to Idea Aid, is to connect people from all over the world to come up with solutions to specific problems such as new ways to raise money so those who can give can do so easily, and organizations can put these dollars toward proven successful solutions that are making an impact toward reducing global poverty. Proven solutions include such activities as educating girls in poor countries, micro-lending, training farmers in sustainable agriculture, and supporting social entrepreneurs.The idea is not to give money but to figure out effective and efficient ways in which to do so.The name of the project is Idea Aid and it will continue through November 21. Their web site ishttp://tinyurl.com/yjessppI wrote about the project on my local neighborhood blog athttp://tinyurl.com/yajp4sl