ResearchGoddess

I wanted to share some really exciting news with everyone! After March, I’ll be taking on a new position working with AT&T’s talent attraction team. I’m super sad to be leaving Waggener, but this opportunity is a perfect fit for my vision of social media strategy in sourcing and recruiting. Plus… I’m going to get to work with my buddy Chris Hoyt – aka The Recruiter Guy - and I’m totally stoked about that! I will still be working remotely so I’ll be staying here in Cincinnati.

I am still planning to stay intimately connected to the world of PR, even though I won’t be working directly in it at this point. I have found over the last 18 months so many connections and similarities between PR and recruiting, and I know that gaining this knowledge is going to help me tremendously in my new role. So, for all of you who have taken the time to talk with me and share your knowledge with me, I am ever so grateful and appreciative.

I have loved my time with Waggener! It was truly a family to me, and I hope that all those whom I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know there will stay in touch. Changing companies to me doesn’t mean changing friends – it just means that we’ll have to try a little harder to stay connected Thanks for all the good times!

Of course, I will continue to blog here and be a (loud and opinionated?) voice within my online communities. I am eager to see where this new chapter will lead. Thank you all for sharing in my excitement!

I saw a tweet about Blellow‘s new beta site from Mandi Leman a few days ago, announcing a prize of a free SXSWi pass and a VIP pass to Mash*Bash on March 16th. Since I’d do just about anything to go to SXSW (anyone wanna sponsor me? LOL) I figured I would participate in this beta and check out this new community.

So, for starters – what exactly IS Blellow? According to their website, “Blellow is a San Antonio based bootstrapped start-up” and they believe that “while there are many tools for learning, our best resources are each other.” Basically, this seems to be a community site that encourages its users to post questions and topics and engage other community members to share their expertise on various topics. Sounds OK so far.

So, I registered and set about trying to make my way around this community and check it out. The Groups seem to have a Twitter-esque feel to them. You can attribute  a message to a group or groups by adding a % in front of the group name (sorta like using #hashtags). And replies are designated by placing an @ in front of the username. There are a variety of topic areas, such as Education, Social Media, Business, and Non-Profit, and I started a group called Career Advice – hey, who isn’t looking for a tip on how to land a job these days?

So, having snooped around a little, here are some of the pro’s I’ve found:

• The design of the site encourages users to solve each other’s problems, which is great for getting people to interact with each other
• Threading of messages: when you write a question or statement, you can then actually see the thread of responses
• You can give people kudos for helping out on a query, and it visibly shows how ‘helpful’ an individual user is by displaying the number of kudos they’ve been awarded. (I have zero; I haven’t been too helpful just yet )

Now, for the areas of improvement:

• It’s still quit buggy – when I first signed on, I tried to search for groups and kept getting an error page. However, I notified Mandi of this on Twitter and within an hour, the issue was fixed. So, I’ll put expedient (and pleasant!) customer service under the pro’s as well!
• There is no people search function – you can’t search for people unless you click on their av’s within a group. I pointed this out again, and Mandi told me this was a feature that was in the works. Good!
• When looking at the Group listings, there isn’t anything to visually indicate to you if you’re already a member of a group or not.
• I would love a splash or preview on mouse-over w/ vital stats on each user, instead of having to click through each profile to learn about someone.
• I would also love email and/or text updates for replies and/or private messages. I hate having to constantly refresh my browser in order to see what’s new.

That said, I would opine that Blellow, while still a little beta-buggy, has some potential. As it seems to be predominantly driven by user contribution, ultimately the users will make or break this community. That could be its biggest victory or its hardest struggle. If the community is mostly people seeking answers, but not contributing, it won’t work. If it ends up being mostly people throwing their opinions and “recommendations” around but not asking questions, it’s going to be full of a lot of hot air and big egos. Hopefully, it will find a happy medium between the two! Good luck, Blellow – and I hope I win your contest and get to hang out in Austin. My only challenge would be actually getting there

And on that note – if any one wants a respected blogger to cover SXSW for them, I’m open to sponsorship Seriously. Inquire here!

A guy I respect a lot in the world of PR, and fellow blogger, David Mullen, recently wrote a couple of posts discussing the value of a PR pro. He first wrote “10 Clues Your PR Pro is Nothing But Show“, and followed that up with “10 Clues Your PR Pro is Worth the Dough“. With exception of perhaps 2 of the 10 items he listed, these are all also ways to determine if you have a truly strategic sourcing professional. Here’s David’s list – are they worth the dough:

1. They dive headfirst into your business and industry, and immerse themselves in learning every in and out within both.
2. They ask smart questions.
3. They are strong writers and great storytellers.
4. They proactively sync up with marketing, advertising, interactive and media planning to help create compelling, robust campaigns aimed at achieving your business goals.
5. They challenge you to step outside your comfort zones and try new things.
6. They know what they don’t know.
7. They are resourceful and create solutions to overcome challenges.
8. They listen as much as they talk.
9. They bring creative energy and a positive attitude to the table.
10. They own their mistakes, learn from them and put processes in place to minimize the chance those mistakes happen again.

Revise this only slightly, and you have a list of clues letting you know that your SOURCING pro is worth the dough:

1. They dive headfirst into your business and industry, and immerse themselves in learning every in and out within both. (true for sourcers; they’ve got to know the industry(ies) in which they source or they’ll be labeled a hack pretty quickly)
2. They ask smart questions. (not just the general salary / years of experience / degree or not types of questions)
3. They are strong writers and great storytellers. They don’t rely solely on resume databases and LinkedIn to make connections; they actively engage in the communities from which they source, and develop relationships with individuals.
4. They proactively sync up with marketing, advertising, interactive and media planning to help create compelling, robust campaigns aimed at achieving your business goals. While respecting traditional sourcing methods, they aren’t afraid of embracing new ways of doing things and find creative methods of combining old and new.
5. They challenge you to step outside your comfort zones and try new things. (will appropriately question your specs and ask you to think outside the box on candidate requirements)
6. They know what they don’t know. (no strategic sourcer can know all of the resources and all the answers to every single research question, and a good one will readily admit this and surround themselves with others who can provide answers)
7. They are resourceful and create solutions to overcome challenges. (if one tool isn’t working, they find another one, or find a way to make it work)
8. They listen as much as more than they talk.
9. They bring creative energy and a positive attitude to the table. (they find ways to draw candidates to them rather than constantly having to chase down candidates)
10. They own their mistakes, learn from them and put processes in place to minimize the chance those mistakes happen again. (can’t add much to this )

Thanks to David for being the brains behind this list. I think it’s also good to take a look at the many intangibles your sourcer brings to the table in addition to these items. You’ll find true value in a strategic sourcer who can prove themselves in each of these areas for your recruiting efforts, and also translate this value in other areas of your business.

I’ll end by asking the same question David did at the end of his post: what would you add to this list? Leave your thoughts in a comment below!

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of being invited to speak to members of the Cincinnati PRSA at a happy hour held at BlackFinn. The subject of my presentation was the importance of networking in these tough economic times. I believe very strongly that spending time building up and cultivating your network is more important today than it ever has been before. Here’s why:

A couple of things to remember while you’re building your network: