Blogging4Jobs

Call it whatever you like, the grapevine, water cooler, gossip, or the rumor mill.  Conversations among co-workers happen.  As human beings, we are social creatures who crave community, engagement, and interaction.  Whether it’s talking shop about the boss, layoff rumors after a less than satisfying quarterly earnings report, or gossip about Susie in Accounting and her supposed office extra-curriculars, conversations among co-workers are a guarantee. Management has battled with gossip and the grapevine since the beginning of time.

Supervisors are quick to lay blame to wildfire rumors, half truths, and innuendos at the office as being detrimental to workplace productivity and under-mining management authority.  However, a recent study by two doctoral candidates at the University of Kentucky sheds some light on the positive power of gossip in the workplace (Harvard Business Review 9/2010).

Some Points to Ponder

• Gossip improves an employee’s social understanding of their environment. This concept is the basis of cultural anthropology and the concept of micro-cultures.  Workplace cultures and understanding these norms are no different. 

• Gossip is natural. According to a recent study by the University of Kentucky, 96% of employees admit to engaging in gossip at work.

• It’s not all negative. Seventy-two percent of gossip was evenly blended both positive.  Only 7% of gossip was largely negative.

• Negative gossip is a symptom of a larger organizational problem. Just like a fever or runny nose alerting a person to an infection, negative gossip is no different.

• Perception is Reality. Prior to the written word, the grapevine was a form of historical storytelling. Sometimes the spoken word is more reliable than the written word in the workplace.   Visit any break room or smoking section as a covert HR operation, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Just like social media is about engagement and influence outside of a brand’s scope of control, the workplace grapevine to a manager is no different.  Gossip just like social media is an exchange of information between two or more people typically about a third, absent party.  However, managers view this lack of control and democratic environment as a threat instead of a tool or channel in which to diagnose or influence a situation or scenario.

The Solution

Just as in social media, there is no silver bullet to managing gossip in the workplace or via the internet.  One size does not fit all.

Some Thoughts to Ponder

• Conversations require at least TWO people. Managers must be talking to their teams just as companies should be talking to their customers.  After-all employees are our biggest asset and advocate for our companies and brands.

• Don’t bribe or threaten the community. Just as in branding you must be authentic.  People are smart, cynical, and suspicious.  Have conversations, mean what you say and keep your promises.

• Don’t be afraid of the negative. Hearing feedback that is negative about our style as a manager is hard, but it we fail to listen to our audience (our consumers) we risk feeding the beast.  With the internet, nothing is secure.  Your team is not only gossiping at work but also online on social platforms and forums and not just Facebook.  Glassdoor and Forums on Indeed are common sites where employee go to let off steam squarely with in the public eye and with open access. 

• Survey the troops. You don’t have to be a big brand to survey your employees waiting around for your organization to facilitate an employee engagement survey.  Tools like exit interviews and surveys can be created for free using online tools like Survey Monkey. 

About the University of Kentucky study—With Travis J. Grosser and Virginie Lopez-Kidwell, both doctoral candidates in management, Joe Labianca examined the social interactions in a branch of a U.S. company, surveying 30 of its 40 employees about their social networks in the office, whom they gossiped with and how, and how much informal influence each colleague had.  The more staff much members gossiped, the better their understanding of their social environment and the higher their peers rated their influence.

Photo Credit Mushon.

This past March I attended my first SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, TX.  The event was an amazing experience as well as a platform for industry leaders from all over the world to discuss technology, mobile, and social media.   I was disappointed to see or meet only 2 other HR professionals who also attended the conference, and I wrote about my frustrations (We Should Be HERE, March 2010.).   In fact, I believe HR and Recruiters should attend as many non-industry related conferences outside of their scope to help spread the word, learn from others, and talk about the amazing things that the Human Resource Social Media Community is doing because most people outside of our inner circle have no idea.

It’s one thing to talk or blog about it but it’s another thing to actually do something about it.  So in July 2010 I submitted a panel to the SXSW 2011 conference for consideration.  I literally danced in my car late last week when I received an email notification that the panel had made it to the second round of consideration.  The second round consists of voting from website visitors for the various panels that they would be most interested in seeing at the 2011 festival.  The voting process accounts for 30% of total votes.  (Visit this explanation of the Panel Picker process.)

My panel, which I will be the moderator for is called The Sexy Side of HR and discusses how HR and Recruiting is using mobile, social media, and other technologies to recruit and retain top talent.  While the topic and title certainly raises the eyebrows, I am most proud of my panelists who are Joel Cheesman, Blogger & VP at Jobing.com (@cheezhead), Steven Rothberg, CEO of CollegeRecruiter.com (@stevenrothberg), and Carrie Corbin of AT&T Talent Attraction (@thealphafemme).  These panelists are using leading edge technologies and tools to drive our HR industry forward and I am excited to help facilitate the discussion.  You can learn more about the Panelists here.

I (we) need your help.

Voting for the panels does account for 30% of the selection process and is from August 9th-29th by going to the Panel Picker Page. You must click “Sign In” at the top right of the page. Next “click “create a new account” and fill out the simple form. Once you are signed up you will be able to review, rate and comment on all submissions for the 2011 event.

In addition to voting you can certainly follow the Panel’s progress.  SXSW Panel’s are notified in mid November if they are selected.  Be sure to follow @SexyHR, Our Facebook Fan Page, and visit The Sexy Side of HR website to learn more about the panel, our panelists, and to learn more about the 2011 SXSW Interactive Conference.

Just the other evening, On Episode 55 Steve Boese had a guest that reminded me of the first HR Blog I ever read.  I would also be remiss in not mentioning that Suzanne Lucas also started the Carnival of HR.  I am not exactly sure when that was probably about 4 years ago or so. It got me to thinking about how far this whole medium has come in a very short time.  The Evil HR Lady did and still uses a Google blog. Today Google blogs are viewed as somewhat less than feature rich, and when she started blogging, at that time adding pictures to a blog site then was really pushing the envelope.

Now when I compare that to what is going on today, with things like HR Happy Hour and Drive Thru HR (Both on Blog talk Radio), plus video feeds that are used daily in blogs,on you tube, Facebook as well as the other video outlets, it is really amazing how fast all of this technology has come to fruition.  Further, today there is a seemingly endless supply of HR blogs, now, adding me to that list.

This really isn’t news to those of you who follow this, but it did get me thinking about the naysayers. Those of us who are dues paying members to the Church of Social Media know and get that this.  All of this is stuff is fascinating, intriguing and really fun. Mike VanDervort speaking at HRevolution said something about blogging that I took to heart.  Mike said, “It keeps me learning.”  That is about as succinct as it can be.  But…how do we push this to those who are disinterested in Social Media, or to use an HR term disengaged.

All of these tools and things that we (the converted) play with in blogging, social media and the like all have legitimate business purpose, if you know how to use them.  Herein lies the disconnect; they (those who have not been proselytized) don’t understand this. They do not see ROI here..

Today, literally any person can shoot a video and put it up on Youtube. Young children are posting on Youtube. Should not a college educated professional be able to figure this out?  These are employee communication TOOLS, available to everyone. Even a CEO or CFO (maybe with a little help) could record a podcast/audio message and distribute it to the entire Company, that way all employees could hear the same thing from the Company’s top executive. It’s green (no paper) too!  There are many options available that are free for the taking, google blogs, youtube, linkedin groups, Facebook pages/groups.  They are all there for free via the internet AND if you are not using them you are going to be left in the weeds, or said another way. You will be scratching your unemployed a–, trying to figure out what you should have done.

So if you have any friends in HR that are dead set against this Social Media stuff; send them a link to this post, while they still are still employed and have email at work.

Our honest & controversial guest blogger on Blogging4Jobs is Dave Ryan.  Dave has been in HR since it was called Personnel. Dave is active with SHRM in many different aspects.  Dave is also a certified U.S.A. Hockey Official and a frequent speaker at local colleges who speaks about H.R. topics and social media in the workplace. Dave enjoys reading blogs, staying current on H.R. topics, officiating ice hockey, golf, computers and all gadgets electronic. You can find Dave on LinkedInDavetheHRCzar. and on twitter, @davethehrczar.

Photo Credit Godvertiser.

Social Media case studies abound have hit the social media interwebs this week.  Three very powerful and different cases have reared their heads.  It is very important to conduct a SWOT analysis to analyze the environment in everything we do.  As the grey area between professional and personal continues to lessen, what we say offline is impacting every fiber of our lives more and more every day.

As someone who is blogging for Chevy, as part of the Gotta Love Chevy OK Blogging program, I am considering these things every day.  A well executed, communicated, and strategic plan like Chevy’s can go along way.

That’s where a SWOT Analysis comes in.  SWOT is a planning method and acronym that to evaluate the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats involved in projects and decisions both personal and professional. By taking a few minuets to step back and scan the environment and evaluate the impact of a decision on our surroundings, we strive to make a better and more strategic decision.

The beauty about SWOT is that simply an organized way clear your head and evaluate a decision, environment, and process. that can take a little or as long as you like.  And because social media is instant and continuous, a SWOT Analysis can be an extremely valuable, versatile, and effective use of 2 minutes or 2 days of your time.

CASE ONE–Double Shot, Tulsa, OK.

@thedoubleshot.  On Monday, a single, solitary tweet led to a social media firestorm for a Tulsa, Oklahoma coffee shop.  Mothers and supporters of breast feeding in minutes all over the globe tweeted quickly and fiercely after the following was posted from @thedoubleshot’s twitter feed, “Notice: No breastfeeding at the DoubleShot. Thank you.”

Mothers, bloggers, local news media, and websites including the Consumerist picked up the story.  Brian Franklin, the owner of Double Shot has since deleted his original tweet and posted a retraction, yet the damage is done.  Coincidentally, this week is World Breastfeeding Week (Aug. 1-7th).

CASE TWO–#ILSHRM10

Using hash tags and live tweeting from conferences are a great way to virally spread the word increasing your online presence.  The Illinois Society for Human Resource Management felt so strongly about their views on using social media as a form of communication and promotion, that they brought in a team of bloggers to attend the Illinois State HR Conference but when tweets began flying during a HR session on social media, many felt that those microblogging and blogging were being extremely harsh, rude, and over critical.

Mike Vandervort, of the Human Race Horses and one of the Il SHRM conference bloggers weighed in.  “The organization sponsoring a social media squad takes some risk, including the possibility of generating controversy from time to time. The members of the social media team have a purpose, which primarily is the education of conference attendees and the external audience of titter followers and blog readers,” said Mike.

CASE THREE–#tacotuesday. Okahoma City, OK.

Another hash tag controversy.  Late last week, Chef Ryan Parrott, co-owner of the Oklahoma City restaurant, the Iguana Mexican Grill received a cease and desist order from Taco John’s demanding the local restaurant no longer use the hash tag #tacotuesday to promote their $1.00 tacos.  Taco John’s choose to respond via Twitter sending the local social media community (including myself) into action.  In just under 24 hours, 1,100 tweets, a Facebook Fan Page, a Twitter petition, newspaper and television media, and two spoof Twitter accounts have been created (@tacojohnz and @tacojohnspr).

The 452 location restaurant chain, Taco John’s is claiming infringement and violation of copyright.  Instead of quietly settling, the letter has set off a social media firestorm with hundreds of supporters arriving to celebrate Taco Tuesday at the Iguana Mexican Grill this week.  The Iguana has used #tacotuesday hash tag since July 2009 with great success.

The good news is that we can learn from situations and case studies such as this.  When it comes to social media and real time engagement, I recommend clients and companies follow three rules:

1. Analyze your audience. Understand your audience, who your messages and actions will impact.  Anticipate actions, possible outcomes and plan your strategy using tools like SWOT Analysis.
2. Evaluate & filter your content. After conducting your preliminary research, determine your content and different methods in which to respond or promote your message.
3. Engage (or not). Reacting quickly and swiftly either retracting a statement or refraining from posting a message can be more powerful.  Each action and reaction depends on a unique set of situations and scenarios that you craft using your best judgment.

FTC Disclosure:  The Gotta Love Chevy Blogger Promotion is being sponsored by the Oklahoma Chevy Team Dealers.  Three women bloggers (including me) have been provided a Chevy Malibu vehicle to test drive for four weeks.  The program includes weekly fun activities or projects for us to complete.  Bloggers  been provided gift cards in which to complete these assignments.

Photo Credit Worship House Media.

Twitter chats have changed the way people come together and talk about different topics. I remember back in the day when I would sign onto AOL and find a chat room that fit whatever I wanted to talk about. No longer do I have to go to a chatroom, because everything is available to me on Twitter. I personally use the website TweetChat.com because it’s very simple. It allows me to control chat speed, refresh times, and also has smart pausing when I scroll and check out what was said earlier in the conversation. I mainly participate in two different twitter chats, #genychat and #jobhuntchat.

Every week #genychat brings students, young professionals, and others together to talk about relevant topics to generation y. Don’t know what Generation Y is? Take a look at A Brief History of Generation Y.  Conversations have ranged from the catch 22, dealing with needing experience to get experience, to the American Dream. Every Wednesday at 9pm EST you have a diverse group of people brought together to talk about the legacy of their generation.

This week I have the pleasure of co-hosting this hour-long chat with @WriterChanelle. The topic I chose was influenced by local politics. Oklahoma is currently in its election year for the next state governor. I asked around to see what people thought about different candidates and I found out that a large percentage of my friends don’t like sharing their political preference. This was very bizarre to me. You always here never talk about politics, sex, or religion at the dinner table, but why is that? Maybe I was raised to be a little more open-minded about such topics and don’t mind discussing them freely. Politics to me is just an opinion. You support a candidate or you don’t. Why is that so hard to talk about? We will be discussing this subject as well as matters of privacy as it relates to politics and maybe we’ll venture off onto the hot topic of privacy in social media. You will have to tune in to find out and I assure you, it will be a great discussion!

The other chat I participate in is #jobhuntchat. wthashtag.com defines #jobhuntchat as “Twitters best, and only chat for the job search. A diverse group made up of job seekers, recruiters, HR professionals, resume writers, career experts and coaches, bloggers, college students, and other tweeps join in for the chat to bring the best direct FREE job search advice you can find. “ Although I have currently found a job, it’s always a learning experience to hear HR professionals and people just like me sharing stories and tips on how to find a job.

The moderators of #jobhuntchat are @Blogging4Jobs and @CornOnTheJob. This chat offers different questions each week where people freely share advice and horror stories as it relates to the job-hunt experience. If you are looking for a job or want to learn different tips and tricks in the job-hunting world, visit this chat every Monday night at 10pm EST.  Last week the chat collected over 1,100 tweets in under one hour!

I would be delighted to have everyone join me for this weeks #genychat, Wednesday at 9pm EST, where we will be discussing politics, privacy, and generation y.  In the meantime check out this YouTube video with Dave Chappel on politics and sharing who you voted for. Don’t forget to follow @GenYChat on Twitter!

Photo Courtesy of @GenYChat & @WriterChanelle

Blake McCammon, is an intern at Xceptional HR. Connect with Blake on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.  Blake is a recent grad of Northeastern State University with a degree in Business Administration.  During school he created and managed his university’s social media strategy.

Last year, I put together a list of HR Bloggers by state and country.  It was a great opportunity to network and build relationships with other HR professionals and bloggers, and it’s time that I updated my list.  Since I first announced the HR Blogger Project and Directory in 2009, the HR social media community has grown by leaps and bounds.

To give you some perspective, Since Oct. 2009–

• We’ve had 2 (yes, 2) HR Evolution Conferences.

• The 2010 SHRM Conference had over 1400 tweets with the #shrm10 hashtag in under 7 days and almost 100 blog posts can be attributed to the conference.

• SHRM, the leading HR Professional Organization has seen 2 different C-Suite resignations since the HR Blogger Project was first realized.

• I’ve traveled to three different countries and began consulting full time (including TRU London & Recruitfest).

• Blogging4Jobs has posted over 100 blog posts since October 2009. (We will approach 400 in 2010.)

Anticipate some changes to the next HR Blogger Directory.  It will become a resource for both HR bloggers and those that want access to the social media HR community.  We will segment the list by industry and topic of blogging as well as other new and exciting things.  The directory is open to companies, practioners, pundits, and consultants.  There are no limitations.  Recruiters, Resume Writers, and Career Coaches are also encouraged to be part of the list.

Are you on the list?  Check out the 2009 HR Blogger Directory and let me know if you would like to be added to the list or any changes made.  Look for the new directory to be made available later this fall.

What you need to do–

**Email me directly at blogging4jobs@gmail.com and include HR Blogger Project in the email title.  Include your name, email, blog address, industry, state, twitter, and phone number (if you are comfortable) within the body of the email.  I will do my best to add you to the list.  Be patient because I will get a lot of requests, but I will respond to you that I have received your email and will announce when the HR Blogger Directory 2010 goes live.

Photo Credit Visionary Marketing.

I love blogging and writing.  I have said many times that blogging has been the best career decision and differentiator for me personally and professionally.  I’ve always enjoyed writing but working in HR doesn’t typically lend you the opportunity outside of policy and procedure, termination documents, and emails which typically require little creativity or imagination.  Legalese yes but artistry, no.

Blogging has always been more than just a creative outlet and escape from the corporate hum drum, but also a way to provide real numbers and analytics behind what I have known for a long time.  Social Matters. Click throughs, subscribers, comments, and contacts can be measured and shown to directly correlate to my business which four years ago was driving passive candidates to me so that I could fill positions in sales roles and often times at a high volume.  These type of analytics cannot be argued against or ignored especially when you have solid data to support your findings of three years.

And as I have found both personally and professionally, when you put in the hard work and time into something you love, things just have a way of falling into place.  This certainly holds true with this week’s announcement about me blogging for Chevy.  In early June of this year, Chevy announced they were the official vehicle of Bricktown, the downtown area of Oklahoma City.  And since I have an opinion about most things, I tweeted the following upon reading the announcement, “#chevy sponsoring bricktown. they should consider sponsoring my blog #smart.”

Within minutes someone contacted me via direct message on Twitter asking if I was serious about the opportunity.  Of course I said yes and was put in touch with the marketing team who is managing the Gotta Love Chevy Campaign.  Not always but sometimes, when you ask the universe, the universe answers and in my situation, this was certainly the case.

So over the course of the next four weeks, I will be blogging and tweeting about my Chevy blogging adventure.  I will have some assigned tasks to complete along the way.  You can follow my tweets via the #ggok (hash tag) as well as blog posts on Blogging4Jobs and JMsquared.  Blogging4Jobs will provide focus on business posts (like always) while the JMsquared site will focus on things outside of scope like family, baby, and other randomness.  I also encourage you to participate in the contest to win a weekend getaway.  The site will officially be launched next week with details about the contest.  Follow the twitter stream, @chevyok or their Facebook Fan Page.

FTC Disclosure:  The Gotta Love Chevy Blogger Promotion is being sponsored by the Oklahoma Chevy Team Dealers.  Three women bloggers (including me) have been provided a Chevy Malibu vehicle to test drive for four weeks.  The program includes weekly fun activities or projects for us to complete and  have been provided gift cards in which to complete these assignments.

Photo Credit Popwuping.

My co-presenter Robert Capwell of EDI and I led two sessions at the NAHCR conference.  NAHCR is a recruiting and healthcare association, and both of us were fortunate enough to work together and discuss how social sourcing can be used for both social media good and evil.  It was a great session and I was lucky to have a two notable social media HR professionals and friends in the room during our session–China Gorman & Carrie Corbin.

Many of the attendees to our session asked for both the powerpoint presentation as well as the Facebook Fan Page Guide I mentioned during the session which I have linked to this post for those who made it to the conference or didn’t.  Either way, take a look at our presentation, enjoy the white paper, and be sure to check out the video of my half of the presentation.  And thanks again to NAHCR for allowing me the opportunity to present at an exciting conference.

And if you like the powerpoint, be sure to check out my the recorded video of my session.  Get ready, its over 30 minutes long, but it will be almost like you were at the conference tuning in.

Social Media Secrets–Tips,Ttricks and Pitfalls from Jessica Miller-Merrell on Vimeo.

Photo Credit Impact Lab.

It’s no secret that I am a believer in mobile technologies.  As a Millenial/Gen X Cusper and also one of the co-founders of Texting4Jobs (the only text message based job notification platform in the U.S.), I have a vested interest in the use of mobile technologies and also recruiting. So it was a natural fit for me to attend Steven Rothberg, the Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com’s session on mobile recruitment.

Some interesting findings about mobile recruitment and technology that you may be surprised about:

• 94% college students text at least once a day.

• 99.7% of students have cell phones.

• Job seekers spend 9 min. on a corporate phone app vs. 2 min. on a corporate career site and visit app site 20 times per week.

• 85% of college students have smart phones but only 9% are  iPhone users.

In fact, Rothberg mentions that texting is not only the preferred but expected method of communication compared to phone and email.  Because of this, companies who are recruiting candidates and colleges will need to re-evaluate their methods and priorities in which to reach and engage this new and eager workforce.

And while the average millenial only makes three phone calls a day, 81% share photos, 60% play games, and 44% view the internet from their smart phone.

Photo Credit lh3.

Equipped with over 200 billion dollars in buyer power per year, Gen Y is the next generation that marketing professionals must focus on to sustain business. This birth of Gen Y creates a new form of marketing that no longer aims towards Baby Boomers or Gen X’ers. Supercilious marketing gimmicks no longer engage us. We want real time, convenient, simple, and reliable customer service. No longer is it feasible for a company to limit its marketing strategy to the normal 8-5 schedule.

So who are theses Gen Y’ers that are forcing companies to take on new strategies, funnel millions into new ideas, and market to a generation that no longer rely (or trust) on simple advertisements.  It’s up in the air what age range commits to the tech-savvy Gen Y’ers. The general consensus is that anyone born anywhere from 1983 – 1997 can be considered Gen Y, give or take a few years.

A few weeks ago a featured question on #jobhuntchat, a twitter-based job hunt chat co-hosted by @Cornonthejob and @blogging4jobs, dealt with the topic of Gen Y being an age or mindset. Technically I believe it is an age group, but with the advancement of technology and the ability to be connected from anywhere in the world, it has transformed into a mindset. Being a mindset, companies are able to promote their business in a more attractive manner relative to a broader spectrum of consumers.

Gen Y grew up around the Internet, cell phones, iPods, video games, and cell phones. They are tech savvy, multitaskers in the greatest sense of the word, able to talk on the phone while surfing the Internet and watching television at the same time. Facebook is littered with groups similar to You were born in the 80′s If…. I’ve compiled my own very condensed list that references Gen Y.

You know you are Gen Y if…

T.V. is a background noise – I’m not saying you don’t watch television, but besides a few favorite T.V. shows, you are more in-tune with your friend’s recently updated Facebook status, twitter update, or taking down those pictures your friends put up after you got wasted and puked on yourself at the bar – last night.

You’re Socially Conscious – Whether it be political, social, or environmental, you are always looking up the latest gossip on who Paris Hilton slept with this time or which White House scandal happened this time around. For me, I am more environmentally conscious.  When topics such as the BP Oil Spill go viral and Gen Y unites together – something needs to be fixed because Gen Y is able to cripple a brand.

You value the opinion of your friends over ads – When you see an ad online for the newest gadget, you don’t always believe what it reports. You’ll check out your friends to see if it’s something you really like. Have you ever seen an advertisement for an iphone application that costs 99 cents and before you buy it, you want to try it out first? On a friends’ iphone? This is the same principle. This generation doesn’t put a lot of trust in advertisements. They’ve lied, cheated, and bent the truth in the past, so why believe them?

Since the buying power has shifted from Gen X to Gen Y, marketing professionals will now have to build trust and become more reputable in order for this generation to take them seriously. The Gen Y portion of blogging4jobs.com will focus on marketing trends and techniques that have worked. It’ll incorporate connecting with the generation in real time and through the use of branding and advertising campaigns.

If you are in marketing, public relations, business, or any industry that has changed the way you operate due to the shift in generations, what’s one thing that has changed? If you don’t realize the shift in buying power, I don’t think your company will be in business much longer. Look at Blockbuster? They weren’t quick enough.

Blake McCammon, is an intern at Xceptional HR and is also our Gen Y twice monthly blog contributor.  Connect with Blake on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.  Blake is a recent grad of Northeastern State University with a degree in Business Administration.  During school he created and managed his university’s social media strategy while also spearheading a university “Go Green” campaign.

Photo Credit Creative Class

Last week I presented to a group of Restaurant Human Resources Professionals as part of the People Report Summer Camp Symposium in Dallas, Texas.  The event was hands down the best conference I have ever presented at or attended.  I led a session titled,  ”Blogging for Dummies.”

Blogging is an interesting topic for Human Resources and Corporate Recruiting Teams.  An amazing corporate blog can help effectively communicate change to your current employee base while also providing potential candidates a look inside your company and corporate culture.  Recruitment and HR blogs should be managed by their respective departments and not marketing.  Marketing should work hand in hand with their talent team and serve as a consultant or advisor.

For the individual, blogging in my opinion is an absolute must to help define and control your personal brand.  Blogs are a great way for companies and clients to learn more about you outside of your professional resume or social profiles like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.  Blogs can be the difference maker for job seekers and are the Resume 2.0.

My talk’s foundation started with what I call the 5 P’s of Blogging.  Although similar, the 5 P’s of Blogging are different from the 5 P’s of Marketing you might remember from your undergrad marketing class.

• Purpose. Your blog as a corporation, collaboration, or person must have a purpose.  Similar to a corporate mission statement, your blog’s goal must be defined and like any marketing or branding tool must be developed to attract and inform a particular segment of your audience or market that you have defined.  Too often, we start a blog without the proper research or understanding of what we want to write about or who we want to engage.  Developing and defining your purpose is by far the most important step.

• Platform. The decision to create a blog starts with the decision to use a blogging platform or service.  I encourage you to play with some of the platforms before you make this decision.  I say this from my own experience.  My first blog, BloggingforJobs was on a free platform called Blogger before I moved it to its own domain and transferred my blog to another platform called WordPress.  A third and very common blog platform is TypePad which my good friend Kay Stout uses.

• Planning. Hands down your first 10 blog posts are the hardest so it is important for you to plan, research, and prepare for these first few articles.  This is an important part of defining your blog’s writing style, your own style, and setting up the structure surrounding how often, who, and when your blog will release its posts.  If you have a collaborative, corporate blog, I encourage you to work with at least 4 bloggers who will commit to writing at least one blog post every two weeks.  Personally, I commit to no less than 8 blog posts a month myself for Blogging4Jobs and have for the past four years.

• People. Second to Purpose, this is the most important step.  People are the social aspect of blogging.  Ask your entire company to help you promote leveraging their own networks.  Setting up a simple RSS feed or newletter can help leverage your contacts both inside and outside the company as well.  Both these tools allow persons to subscribe to your blog updates while keeping your brand and company at the top of their mind.  Blogging should be a two way conversation and I encourage you to keep the comments open both good and bad.  Candidates realize that companies aren’t perfect and its the conversation and culture that sets companies apart.

• Promotion. Promoting my blog on social networks is a huge part of my blog’s success.  I recommend using social bookmarketing sites to promote your blog like Digg, Stumbleupon, Technorati, and LinkedIn Groups in addition to popular social platforms like Twitter and Facebook.  Your marketing department is key in helping your blog gain momentum and popularity as they are experienced in online press releases with services like Pitch Engine.

Want to bring an corporate, personal, or professional blog to myself and the reader’s attention?  Leave a comment below and recognize them for a job well done.

Photo Credit Farm3.

Earlier today, SHRM announced their Blog Squad for the 2010 National SHRM Conference, and I was humbled to be included along with four other savvy, experienced, and influential Human Resource bloggers.  They are pretty awesome and I highly recommend you check ‘em out.

• David Bowles, Ph.D., co-author of Employee Morale: Driving Performance in Challenging Times and blogger at Morale at Work.

• Rachel Salley, SPHR, an HR consultant and blogger with Musings From the Career Anarchist.

• Matthew Stollak, Ph.D., SPHR, assistant professor of business administration at St. Norbert College and blogger at True Faith HR.

• April Dowling, SPHR, HR Generalist, active member of the Birmingham SHRM Chapter and blogger at PseudoHR.

Most of you are probably aware of some of my very public and recent opinions, feelings, and thoughts surrounding SHRM, the professional organization with whom I have been a member for almost 10 years. (and if you don’t, please read “I Dare You, SHRM. Convince Me.”)  After the blog post, I had a lot of phone calls and conversations with people both for and against.  And because of that and my own personal reflection about change, leadership, the future of the HR industry, and my own voice, I made what I felt was an important decision.  So when I heard about the opportunity to participate in the blog squad, I was skeptical and curious.  Curious enough to renew my lapsed membership to apply for the Blog Squad opportunity.

And so here I am.  SHRM had the guts to look past the snarky comments, strong words, and social media square dance to invite me along for the ride, and I can’t wait.

Photo Credit Wikipedia.

Last week I had the honor of presenting at Ignite Dallas.  My talk was titled, “7.2 Ways to Get Fired with Social Media.”  My talk was very different than most in that I poked fun as the Human Resources industry and went into character during my 5 minute, 20 slide presentation.  In front of hundreds of strangers and live steaming internet, I hung my ass out on the line.

I had a great time and met some amazing people.  The bottom line is that networking and building relationships takes time.  People have to get to know people no matter what the medium whether it’s social media, employees at your place of business, or face to face interaction in a new town or city like Dallas.  That’s really what my talk was all about.  Along the way I talked about social media tools from the point of view of an corporate Human Resource professional like Tweeter, Facebook, Blooging, SSR, and Google.

Take a look at my talk below and sit back and grab some reading materials including your company’s employee handbook and enjoy the ride.

Photo Credit Media Bistro.

I try really hard to not be one of the people who is all talk and no action.  I talk a lot on my Job Search Secrets webshow and this blog about job seekers and professionals encouraging them to get outside of their comfort zone, defining your personal brand, and networking.  I will tell you that I am doing all those things on Wednesday night at Ignite Dallas.

Ignite Dallas is a networking event and presentation extravaganza on steroids.  Myself, along with 15 other speakers will be giving five minute presentations to 500 plus people with 20 slides that automatically advance every fifteen seconds.  Yes, fifteen seconds in the Big D, Dallas.

An event like this is good for a number of different reasons.  I’m putting myself out there as a speaker and taking a chance in a new city where I’m looking to build my network, make new friends, and grow my business. As a attendee, you get to meet some of the most creative and networked people in the city at a cost of only twenty bucks.  Events like Ignite Dallas are held all over the world.  In fact, Ignite OKC is next week and sadly I will have to miss because of travel.

If you happen to be in Dallas Wednesday evening, I’d love to see you.  There’s still time to register for the event.  Great networking, good times, and ME hanging with YOU.  The event opens at 6:00 PM CST and talks start at 7:30 PM.  For those that are unable to make the trip to the Granada for the event, you are welcome to watch the live stream (www.ustream.tv/user/ignitedallas) and tune into my talk and the 15 other brave soles who will also be giving talks on the Granada stage. I’ll make sure to alert the Twitterverse and Facebook folk before I go on stage.

My talk will be “7.2 Ways to Get Fired with Social Media.”  I don’t want to give the secret away but I plan on getting into character during my talk for some HR humor.  You won’t want to miss either an amazing presentation or a glorious disaster.  Either way, I can’t wait.

Photo Credits Launch DFW & GTPC Perth.

Original content that you’ve created or written on your website is in fact your own.  Just last week I came upon a website that was using an article I wrote without giving me proper credit.   During a phone call with one of my clients last week, they mentioned a media company’s website and video interview in our course of conversation, and I decided to take a look.  There beneath her video interview was a copy (including picture) of my blog post word for word with the exception of one sentence.

While this isn’t the first time I’ve had this situation happen before, I was upset.  I work hard to provide interesting and relevant content on my blog and website.  It’s my passion and something I enjoy doing.  Copying someone else’s work without verifying and citing them for the content at the very least or asking to reproduce is like putting pictures of someone else’s children in your office and calling them your own.

• Calm Down. I’m glad I took a moment to breath, calm down, and get my bearings on the situation.  I took ten minutes to clear my head and look at the situation objectively.  This company is someone my client knows and trusts.  I don’t want to jeopardize that.  I have less clients than I do blog posts and for me blog posts are easier to come by than clients.

• Just Ask. That’s in fact what I did.  I choose to call the company and leave a message directly with the contact person listed on the website before following up via email.  Asking them to site you or credit you for the article first is the best way for me to play nice in this type of situation.  I provided them my phone number, full name, and website address.

• Play Nice. Decide whether calling someone out on the carpet outside of a friendly email and phone call is worth jeopardizing your reputation or brand.  How will this one situation impact you financially and also be sure to consider the cost and time if you make the decision to legally pursue the culprit if they choose not to do as you ask.

The rise of blogging and social networks has certainly led to an increase in these types of situations because of the ease of access to information as well as led to an increased awareness of copyright, plagiarism, and content theft.  Blogging typically has zero cost and barrier to entry because of sites like Blogger, Posterous, and Wordpress.  Many internet bloggers, writers or webmasters are not classically trained to cite, list, or credit authors, ideas, or articles as well as blogs appropriately.  It’s the bloggers responsibility to educate and train themselves on the rules surrounding this process.  The best defense is a good offense, so it is important for bloggers and writers who publish online to protect themselves as well.  Either way–here are some resources to get you started.

• Copyright, Blogging, and Content Theft from ProBlogger.
• Blog Plagiarism Q & A from Daily Blog Tips.
• How to Defend Your Blogs Copyright from ProBlogger.
• The 20 Best Free Anti-Plagiarism Tools from The Blog Herald

I’m optimistic that my blogging story will have a somewhat happy ending.  The company representative left me a message over the weekend apologizing and asking that I confirm the correct spelling of my last name.  The jury is still out but look for a part two blog entry to keep you posted.

Photo Credit Pendleton Panther.