ResearchGoddess

The July issue of The Source is ready! Check it out here: July 2008 – The Source

Also, don’t forget to register for SourceCon 2008! It’s under 2 months away now, September 2nd – 4th in Atlanta, GA. Gather with your fellow researchers and sourcers, meet people you’ve known for years but never seen in person, and learn a ton about tactical and strategic sourcing. Don’t miss out!!!!

Alright, I’m all for making new (meaningful) connections on LinkedIn, but this new site that a friend showed me tonight has taken things, in my opinion, to a sickening new level. The site, called InvitesWelcome.com, describes itself as the “casual and informal version of TopLinked.com [they are both registered with the same contact information]…. another way to show you are open to new connection opportunities.”  So basically, you can either do this for free and be on one big giant list, or you can pay $5/month or $20/year to be on a top list, and you’ll get fresh, new email addresses sent to you to connect with on LinkedIn. There apparently is also a ‘Top Supporters’ list that you can buy your way onto through toplinked.com by purchasing points or something….honestly, I wouldn’t consider a list to be a ‘top’ anything list if you had to buy your way onto it. It’s like those “Who’s Who Among Students” things we used to get in the mail (where you buy your own plaque, trophy, and bound book that honors you), or the mail-order beauty pageant applications that don’t even require a photo for you to be entered in some obscure beauty pageant.

Another thing that comes to mind is those chain letters that used to circulate through the postal system a few decades ago. You know, the ones that say, “Send $1 to the first person on this list, then write a new list adding your name and address to the bottom and remove the first person on the list, then send it to 10 people”, and supposedly you’d get thousands of dollars in the mail within 6 weeks. This seems kind of like that, except instead of sending dollars, you’re sending around your email address.

Though I would imagine several folks from the recruiting community are on the list, I still stand by my original opinion that buying people’s email addresses for this purpose is lame. Some might argue that it’s like buying a database access – well, not really. When you purchase a niche database, you’re pretty well assured that the information contained therein is industry specific. This is just haphazard connecting with people who may or may not be in your industry, and who may or may not be connected with someone who is in your industry. It’s total pot-luck!

Hey, if you’re into this method of making new connections, more power to you. I guess this is cool if you’re a ‘power networker’, LION, or a ‘top-linked’ person. Besides, it IS only a few bucks. And from a business standpoint as well this is profitable, because whoever came up with this is making some pretty easy money! But for me, it seems pretty lame. Lists that call themselves “top lists” should not be something you purchase points to be at the top of. You be the judge and come to your own conclusions about this one…

There is an endless supply of information available to us these days. This information comes at us in all forms – emails, blogs, RSS feeds, tweets, at times I know we all feel bombarded. Come join the latest social network! Check out my new website! Please subscribe to my blog! How can you possible keep up with the latest trends within your industry to maintain a competitive sourcing edge without spending the rest of your life trying to play catch-up with your RSS reader?

I propose looking at the flow of information and knowledge outlets in the same manner that you approach a trip to the grocery store. When some people go to the grocery store, they create a list of items they need ahead of time. This makes the trip quicker – in and out. Of course, there are always a couple of rogue items that get put into the shopping cart that were not on the list (usually your kid sneaks a candy bar or a bag of chips in when you’re not looking). Then, there are those who have an idea in their head of what they need when they hit the store. Usually, more rogue items end up in those people’s shopping carts, right? 

Regardless, you go to a grocery store, filled with thousands upon thousands of perishable and non-perishable items, and you come out with only a small sampling of what was available to you. Why? Because that’s all you need – at the moment. However, those other items that you did not purchase will be available to you the next time you need to go shopping, just in case you need one or two of them.

How is this like our seemingly endless flow of information? Well, the Internet is like that grocery store. It houses all the different portals and networks that we need on a daily basis to have a competitive edge in sourcing. Each of these knowledge outlets is like an item sold by the grocery store. They serve a specific purpose for a specific audience. And the important thing for us to remember is that we don’t have to buy every item in the grocery store (register with every network, read every blog, subscribe to every RSS feed). All we need to do is go in with our list, take what we need, and leave the rest on the shelf, knowing that if we need it next time we go to the store, it will be available to us.

What are some good ways of keeping these things organized? The example I’ll use is RSS feeds. I have about 16 different folders in my reader – one for recruiting blogs, one for PR blogs, one for analyst relations blogs, another for social media, etc. Each one is a specific category that I can choose to read at my leisure. Or, I can collect the blog posts for future reading if it’s not an area of top priority to me. For example, I still have a folder for RFID, which is an industry in which I researched over 2 years ago. Who knows if I’ll ever need that knowledge again? But just in case, I’ve got that folder there waiting for me.

So, remember that you don’t have to buy everything in the store; just get what you need at the moment and know that the other items will be there if you need them. Happy Sourcing!

Thank you to all of you who have already sent support and words of encouragement for my upcoming trip to South Africa this November. Even though the trip is still 4 1/2 months off, I am getting more excited about it each day!

My first deadline is coming up on July 15th – I must have 1/3 of my total trip cost collected, which amounts to $1000. I’ve had good support up to now and I just have a little more to collect to get there! I realize that $3000 total sounds like a daunting number, but EVERY contribution helps. I do mean that – $5, $10, anything that you can spare is so much appreciated. Also, if you cannot help out right at this moment, I will be able to accept contributions up until November, so if timing is an issue there are still 4 months to go! If you are able and willing, please go here to make a contribution online or to find information for mailing in a check.

My goal is to have as many people involved within my network as possible. I’ve worked hard to grow this network for the past several years and I would love nothing more than to put it to work for a good cause.

For more information on this endeavor, please visit my Go Mamelodi! page on my blog, or you can go to the Crossroads site to read. Thank you for your support, and I hope to make my goal of $1000 by July 15th!

Bill Bradley, an editorial assistant at Vanity Fair, asks for ideas on how he can “be more lame and attract more fans” to Vanity Fair’s Facebook page. Because if he doesn’t, his boss says he’s canned. Seriously – check out the article on Ragan. Interesting publicity stunt here, as Bill is using all kinds of on- and off-line methods, including flyers and sandwich boards, to get people to be his friend on Facebook. Whether or not it’s true that he’ll actually lose his job if he doesn’t make his goal of 10,000 friends by August 5th, it’s still and interesting, and slightly cheesy, way to gain more fans for the Facebook page. In Bill’s words, “the surest way to accumulate 10,000 fans is to transform oneself into a class-A stalker…” I’m curious how many researchers and sourcers have been accused in some fashion of being stalkers. hehehe…

So, is this what it’s come to? We’re being forced make friends to preserve our employment? I wonder what’s next, paying people to interview with us? Oh wait, that’s already been done