Today’s post is an excerpt from the article HIRE POWER, published in PM Network on July 1, 2010, and authored by Jenn Danko, a writer based in Chicago, Illinois.  The excerpt below was featured in a sidebar entitled A Virtual Foot In the Door.

It’s not all about after-work cocktail hours and lunchtime panel discussions anymore. Project managers looking for career opportunities should also consider heading online to do some networking, says Lucian Tarnowski, BraveNewTalent Ltd., London, England.

“Don’t think of networking as just face-to-face interaction. Your online brand is just as important – if not even more,” he says. “Specific to project management, people skills are important, and being able to communicate that over social media is huge. If you can’t have a one-on-one relationship with a person, the next best thing you can have is a connection through social media- and who knows which of those connections will end up with a job?”

Online networking can be a great resource for information about company projects and potential career leads, too, says Miles Jennings, ProjectManagers.net. Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He knows a thing or two about the subject, having started the Project Manager Networking Group on Linked In. Sometimes who you know can help you with what you know. “Social media is a quick path to network in the profession and learn from experts in the field,” Mr. Jennings says. “Use social media to drive real-world connections.”

Beyond establishing initial contact, you can use social media sites to set up in-person meetings when appropriate. Don’t be shy, either- interact with colleagues on message boards and forums.

“If you are passionate about something and want to be a leader in your field, leading debates is important,” Mr. Tarnowski says. “There’s a big opportunity online to do so.”

And although it seems everyone is atwitter over Twitter, blogging, can be another powerful way to showcase skills and build relationships, advises Jason Davis, Systems Evolution Inc., Boston, Massachusetts.

“Yes, you have to go out and get solid project experience, but the blogging community is allowing people to interact about their experiences.” he says. “It’s allowing people to get involved with other project managers they wouldn’t normally have been able to connect with.”

It can also help those just starting out to gain some credibility.

“Young project management talent can not only get a presence that way but can also build their résumé, and ultimately, their careers,” Mr. Davis says.

The main article was about social recruiting and how companies are using this as a tool to recruit good project managers.

I was quoted as emphasizing the power of community on Twitter – “Primarily, I see the Twitter space as a place to build community within the profession and keep a pulse on the conversation,” says Jason Davis, Principal Consultant at Systems Evolution Inc., a project and technology management consulting firm in Boston, Massachusetts.

6 months later, I still couldn’t agree more.

A Virtual Foot In The Door is a post from: HR Think Tank

Ahhhh, so true.  So true.  Well played Scott Adams.

Dilbert: Beth the New Marketing Manager for Social Media is a post from: HR Think Tank

The original HR Think Tank was designed by myself (with a little header help from Elizabeth Farmer).  I got by on tweaking the options on the incredibly well designed Thesis Theme. BUT, without serious customization, a Thesis site looks like a million other blogs out there using Thesis, and I am admittedly no Matt Cheuvront, who did an awesome job with my charity site, cyclingagainstcancer.com.

So, when Tara Repucci and her team at NAS Recruitment Communications (Andrea Wolny, thank you!) offered (at no cost) to develop a new design concept for my site to give me a unique design while showcasing their work, I jumped at the opportunity.  NAS was great to work with – completely flexible and accommodating, and super professional.

Now that we’re live, I need your help.  I need your thoughts – unfiltered – on what you think about this design.  Love it? Hate it?  I want to know. What would you change?  What’s missing?  What’s your first reaction to the design? I appreciate your feedback!

(P.S. NAS also did an amazing job on Lisa Rosendahl’s blog – Simply Lisa.  Check it out!)

HR Think Tank: New Look, Same Blog is a post from: HR Think Tank

I really enjoy blogging, both here at HR Think Tank and over at Cyclingagainstcancer.com.  Back in February, I posted my answer to the question – Why Blog? – focusing my argument not only the tidal wave that is the ‘Social Media Revolution’ but also how blogging can facilitate connectedness.  I don’t have to tell most of you how important I think being ‘connected’ is in today’s global economy where partnerships and relationships are king.

But lately my blog hasn’t been getting much love.  After all, my last post was on May 4th and as of today my hits per day is about half of what it was in periods of more predictable, sustained posting just 1-2 months ago.  What can I say?  When my schedule gets a little crazy, something has to give.  For me, it’s been blogging.  I still love it, but I love getting on my bike and networking in person too.  It’s baseball season, and the Red Sox need me at Fenway occasionally.

As I have thought more about this, I realize that I do need to get on more of a schedule.  The blogging preachers out there will tell you that you have to post [insert # here] times per week/day/month to sustain a following and stay relevant.  I’m not disagreeing, but that has to mean that you truly care about sustaining a following and staying relevant!  For me, blogging is about starting good dialogue, building a community, and creating relationships.

So, here’s the deal – I’m going to try to get more regular with my postings – at least bi-weekly to be exact.  But there will be times when I won’t post regularly, but I also won’t put up some filler post that I don’t care about just to keep momentum.  I’ll post when I have something to say, and if I need to come back and reintroduce myself to my own blog then so be it.  In times where I go MIA, there’s always this great invention called the telephone and an even greater invention called beer.  Give me a call and we can have a few and figure out how we can put some of this stuff we talk about into action and get some stuff done, eh?

I know there are some strong opinions out there on posting frequency – I would love to hear your perspective.  Have you stopped reading blogs because of inconsistent posting patterns?

Side note - on the topic of creating community and leveraging relationships – if you are a graphic design firm or small marketing shop that has experience building marketing collateral for small companies, let me know.  I’m in the market for your services, and it’s time sensitive.  Contact me here and let me know about your firm.

Hello Blog, I’m Jason is a post from: HR Think Tank

The power of social media is not rocket science – it provides a channel to increase connections and enhance communications by exponentially expanding your reach.  What you do with those connections and your now boundary-less network is up to you – no tool will convince people to buy your services, be your friend, or connect you or your company to clients, consumers, or partners.

However, I believe that if you focus on engaging your community, listening, and adding value where possible, you will find that social media will open doors that you didn’t even know were there before.

My new charity website, cyclingagainstcancer.com, launched yesterday, and it would have never happened the way it did without my community that I have built through my social media presence.  It went a little something like this…

In November 2009, I was reading more and more about the power of Twitter.  I started to think that I was missing a big opportunity to engage with thought leaders in my industry, as well as potential clients and business partners.  I quickly discovered that I was right.  I had already known that my strategy was also to develop a blog – that I had ideas and discussion that wouldn’t fit in 140-character tweets – and conceptually I had developed the idea of HR Think Tank.  Problem is, I knew nothing about developing a blog.  I didn’t know what WordPress was.  Or the Thesis theme, Google XML Sitemaps, or Feedburner.  Enter Michael Long.  Despite the fact that we barely knew each other, Michael stepped up and got me going.  This site wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Michael, and he was in on the call talking conceptually about cyclingagainstcancer.com as well.  He’s a great guy, and there’s a reason he has 17,000+ followers on Twitter – he’s smart, adds value, and he’ll help you out when you need it.

Right around that same time, I attended the #socialrecruiting summit in New York City.  When I committed to increasing my social media footprint, I promised myself I wouldn’t just engage online – where appropriate, I would take the opportunity to meet in person.  That, combined with SEI investigating an increased business presence (both recruiting and otherwise) on various social media platforms, brought me to the Social Recruiting Summit.  It was there that I first started talking to Laurie Ruettimann and Sarah White.  Both are respected thought leaders in the HR and recruitment space, and I am glad I know them.  Increased awareness of both this blog, and of cyclingagainstcancer.com can be attributed to Laurie, who featured me on her Sunday HR Shout Out, and Sarah has continuously gone above and beyond, with one of the many things being the purchase and subsequent donation of a design day from the idesignyourlogo.com team for our logo design.  Speaking of idesignyourlogo.com, they are some great guys – not only do they design some amazing logos, but they also raised money for my PMC, effectively donating over 7 times the cost of the logo in the first place.

With the logo in hand, cyclingagainstcancer.com started to become a reality.  It was then that Veronica Ludwig stepped up huge.  Like with Michael, I had hardly engaged Veronica before she offered to help with design and hosting of the new site.  Lucky for me, she is a great person with a soft-spot for philanthropic efforts and social media.  When Veronica got busy, I turned to Matt Chevy, who blogs over at Life Without Pants, to put my mental concept of the site into a design.  Matt was flexible with our partnership, and was a truly engaging consultant.  His portfolio of work is impressive, and I am happy that I chose him to put my thoughts online to help build the cyclingagainstcancer.com community.

Last but not least, there’s Meghan M. Biro.  I think every one of my readers knows Meghan.  It’s hard not to – she’s engaging, personable, and the founder of TalentCulture, a social community focused on building a culture of innovation, awareness, creativity, and understanding.  That’s what we’re trying to do as well, but around the PMC and cancer advocacy.  Despite being spread thin across a number of other commitments, Meghan stepped up as our first corporate sponsor for cyclingagainstcancer.  It’s very much appreciated.

I’m sure I forgot a host of others, and I am positive there will be many more to add to this list.  Being successful in social media and in business is about the give, more than the take, and as I read back through this post and think about the last 6 months, I find it hard to believe that I have given back half of what I have received from this great community.  I’ll keep trying, and together, we will keep on moving the ball forward.  Thanks for your continued support, and please know that you will always have mine!

Leveraging Social Media Where It Counts: Charity is a post from: HR Think Tank

Over two hundred years ago, a bunch of really smart guys in bad wigs drafted and eventually adopted a Bill of Rights to limit the power of federal government and ensure the protection of what they saw as fundamental liberties of the people.  The freedom of speech became the First Amendment, adopted on December 15, 1791.

To the Founding Fathers, I raise a glass.  Freedom of speech is a great thing.  I’m also a huge fan of the Second Amendment (right to bear arms) in case I eventually have a daughter.  But anyway, I digress…

I am also a huge Dilbert fan.  I like it for the same reason that I think the office is a great show, and similar to why I have Office Space in my DVD collection: I find all three to be really funny because there is a shred of truth in their skits and jokes, and that makes it relevant.  At some point in our careers, there are things about our jobs that really suck.  Sometimes those things are bosses or coworkers.  Maybe it’s a particularly difficult clients, or an annoying policy.  Some of these people and things will be borderline ridiculous, to the point of being funny (like when in my first job my boss asked me to write down on his white board the three things I found to be most annoying about him.  Not a good situation to be in during your first review, or ever).

In any case, you know what isn’t funny? Getting fired. Especially for saying something stupid, including disclosing company sensitive information, on your blog, Facebook, or anywhere else that is public and readily available to your employer.  Say it with me: My employer is monitoring social media.  My employer is monitoring social media. My employer…. you get the point.

In August 2009, Proofpoint released a study that found 18 percent of the companies surveyed had investigated a data loss event via a blog or message board in the past 12 months.  17 percent disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board policies and nearly 9 percent reported terminations related to those activities.  The study also found that there was almost a 50 percent increase in exposure incidents over social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn (17 percent compared to 12 percent in 2008), and eight percent reported terminating an employee for these violations.

There’s a new market out there for companies like Teneros, who is developing software-as-a-service products that automate the process of examining employee activity on social networking sites.  Don’t believe me?  Check out this article on Network World.  As social media continues to explode, companies are becoming more and more keen on keeping their finger on the pulse… listening to the conversation so that they can be quicker to react and proactively impact consumer and employee satisfaction in a positive way.  Your company’s customer feedback is out there, and so is your griping and complaining about the boss who takes credit for your work and pawns it off as his own or your comments about how your company’s vacation plan sucks so you just call in sick whenever you want.  In college?  You are at risk as well.  As you graduate and join the large pool of job seekers potential employers will be ‘Googling’ you, reading your tweets, and checking out your keg-stand pictures online.

So the next time your boss asks you if you are using your proper TPS reports just take your medicine and don’t start ranting on Twitter.  You may have freedom of speech, but you are likely employed ‘at will’….well, used to be employed.

Be Careful, Thomas Jefferson Isn’t Signing Your Paycheck is a post from: HR Think Tank

Nearly every time I tell my friends, family, and even coworkers that I’m on Twitter the SAME thing happens: They look at me like I just told them that I secretly play Dungeons and Dragons in my basement.  Or Farmville.  Or maybe that I run a secret Star Trek book club on the weekends.

Let’s be real – Social Media brings the geek out (see my post on it) But after only being on Twitter since December – I’ve tweeted 1,416, gained 662 followers, and been recognized on 55+ lists – and I’ve become a believer in the impact that it can have professionally.

In addition to all the geekyness and noise – we are talking about an extremely powerful tool that is growing at an incredible rate.  On the twitter blog this month @kevinweil (Analytics Lead at Twitter) detailed the growth using the metric of Tweets per Day: “Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second.”

Friends, family, coworkers – let me tell you that is either a lot of Dungeons and Dragons, serious fake farmers, and a massive Klingon population- or, alternatively, we could be on to something here…

To be honest, I question why most of the same people giving me a hard time about being on Twitter aren’t driving themselves crazy thinking about what they are missing… about the potential opportunity cost of not being connected to people and companies that they otherwise may never have a relationship with.  Think about this for a second – Are you in a job that sells services?  Is your style the “consultative” sales approach?  Do you have a medium to long sales cycles?  Yes, Yes, & Yes and you are STILL not on Twitter?  Beware – you are missing potential opportunities!  Chris Brogan gives you the answer in his book, Trust Agents – page 165 – Twitter is a big time enabler by allowing you to Be In the Relationship Before the Sale.

Still not convinced?  Check out Amber Naslund‘s recent post on how she made $100K with Twitter.  It’s the same idea – Twitter enabled Amber to get connected to people in industries that interested her, and in turn it provided a network of potential clients that she would have otherwise never met.  She talked “about everything from work to cooking to horseback riding to beer and cars and pets and books.”  She was in the relationship before the sale.

So I am diving in – building community, learning, sharing information, and developing relationships.  I’m making friends.  I am not even thinking about sales, but I know that when the time comes and someone needs a good project manager or HR consultant, maybe they’ll think of me and give me an opportunity.  And you?  Well, you might be working the phone or hanging out at the oh-so-predictable business mixer with a stack of business cards.  Or you can join me, try it out – build a network – cultivate leads and watch relationships grow.  Then the next time that someone questions you about twitter you can proudly say – That’s right I tweet…. and you should too!

That’s Right I Tweet… And You Should Too! is a post from: HR Think Tank

Most of you have probably already seen this video (if your browser doesn’t display the video, get it on YouTube here). It’s message is pretty difficult to refute – the Social Media Revolution is upon us.  I mean, the one stat alone that ‘If Facebook (with over 400 million active users) were a country it would be the world’s 4th 3rd largest between above the United States and with only China and India being larger is incredible.  People are getting involved – they’re on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and increasingly, they blog.  According to Universal McCann, 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002 and 77% of internet users are reading blogs.  Are you blogging?  Are you wondering if you should be?

The blog, the future buzz had a great article on the 70 Usable Stats from the 2009 State Of the Blogosphere with some great stats on what motivates bloggers and the impact to their business.  Here are some of my favorites:

71% say they blog at least in order to speak their minds

72% say they blog to share their expertise

53% are looking to attract new clients from blogging

72% of those who are self-employed and blogging are interested in attracting new clients

71% of respondents who maintain blogs for a business report that they have increased their visibility within their industries through their blogs

58% say that they are better known in their industry because of their blog

All great numbers, and good reasons to blog.  I’m definitely blogging for some of these reasons – I’m passionate about organizational culture discussion and the talent side of the business.  I like the idea of sharing my experiences, and I have been pitching my company’s leadership to start a business blog specifically because of some of these statistics.

But, when I really sat down and thought about why I am blogging, here is what I drew up:

For me, I’m blogging because, well, because I wasn’t.  And I felt like that was leaving an opportunity on the table, because in the consulting business, and in business in general, being a good connector is a good thing.  And effective connectors are good at building actionable communities.  Apparently, I am not the only one who feels that way.  When I typed in “HR blogging and connectedness” into Google, I recognized the 5′th result that got returned: Ben Eubank’s Upstart HR.  One of Steve Boese’s HR Technology class students, Carolina Correa, just recently guest posted on Ben’s site about a similar topic, writing “To blog or not to blog is a debate that only finds answers when discussed in the context of finding value, this is true not just for the HR community but just about any profession seeking the comforts of connectedness.”

Well said Carolina. Because within that connectedness is opportunity.  Opportunity to learn, contribute, build relationships, and build a community.  And that’s why I blog.

Thoughts?

What motivated you to start blogging?  Is blogging helping you or your business?  What are people doing wrong out there on their personal or business blogs.  Share your thoughts in the comments section!

(6/17/2010 – Updated the post with the latest Social Media Revolution video with updates statistics)

The Answer to the Question: Why Blog? is a post from: HR Think Tank

A few Friday’s ago I spoke candidly about what I thought about Casual Fridays, and the message was pretty clear: The dress for your company should be driven by your culture, and your culture should be aligned with your business.  When companies recruit and hire good, smart candidates that are a fit for their culture – they should know how to police their own wardrobe to represent the company.

With that being said, if your company does have a loose Casual Friday policy, or if you work somewhere where you can wear whatever the hell you want, check out some of your selections below, with my reviews.  Alternatively, you can rock these at the bar on Friday night.  Do it, and take a picture, and I’ll start a whole new page on my site dedicated to people in Geeky T-Shirts all over the world!

T-Shirt #1 – Social Media Venn Diagram

Geeky in their own right, Venn Diagrams are show logical relations between a group of things.  The guy in this photo alone cracks me up – dude, haircut – ASAP. But anyway, how true is this geeky T-Shirt?  It shows the relationship between Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter to Narcissism, ADHD, and Stalking.  If you missed my post on Foursquare last week, I laid out the undeniable fact that “Stalkers everywhere are rejoicing and high-fiving each other at the sheer joy of Foursquare!”

This T-Shirt is available at Despair, Inc’s website.  Get it.  Love it.  Take pictures.

Tweeter most likely to have this geeky shirt: Chris Hoyt

T-Shirt #2 – Peace – Love – Human Resources

Peace.  Love. Human Resources – Makes you want to just hug it out eh?  It also symbolizes everything that is wrong with HR.  Not too long ago, Sarah White did a post on her blog about candidates being way too nice.  This goes for the HR pros out there as well.  We get it – some of you have to deal with employee relations and other touchy feely employment issues.  For the rest of you, focus on applying Chris Ferdinandi‘s Renegade HR philosophy to Human Resources: Recruit great people, and help them do amazing things that drive your business. 

If you are in human resources, don’t be afraid to mix it up, especially if you are in a systems role – projects don’t manage themselves.  It’s not always about Peace and Love.  It’s about getting the right people.  Delivery.  Protecting the door.  Being overly protective of your company’s brand and culture.  In the meantime, buy this geeky shirt anyway from Cafe Press – also available in pink and neon green – and don’t forget to take pictures.

Tweeter most likely to have this geeky shirt: Laurie Ruettimann

T-Shirt #3 – Darth Vader’s “I Want You for the Dark Side”

Are you a recruiter?  Star Wars fan?  You get the best of both worlds here with the Vader “I Want YOU For The Dark Side” recruiting T-shirt!

That is a great idea for a blog post by the way – talking about the parallel’s between Star Wars and Recruiting passive candidates.  Maybe the HR Capitalist could make that happen.

As of this posting, this product is ‘currently unavailable’ from the Star Wars Shop.  I’m assuming this is because the Twitter recruiter circle has bought them up already.  You know who you are.

Tweeter most likely to have this geeky shirt: Geoff Webb

T-Shirt #4 – Corn On The Job

Blogger Rich DeMatteo has taken the geeky t-shirt to a whole new level with his Corn Heads Community on his blog.  If you read Rich’s stuff, you know that he has a diverse following made up of HR/Recruiting folks, job seekers, vendors, professional resume writers, and students who will soon be entering the work force.  He plans to bring these people together by granting them Corn Head status.  That’s right – get a t-shirt with this fancy logo on the front, take a picture, and wallah – you are a… Corn Head.

Who would do that right?  Lots of people.  Check out the early adopters on his Corn Head page.  Don’t laugh, yours will be there soon enough.

Tweeter most likely to have this geeky shirt: James Oley, Samantha Karol, Sarah White, Samantha Ogborn, and tons of others.  It’s like a cult!

Have a favorite t-shirt that didn’t make the list?  Already have one of these?  Planning to invest in one of these shirts for your high school reunion?  Don’t be shy, let us hear it in the comments section.

#FunFriday – The Best of HR & Social Media Geeky T-Shirts is a post from: HR Think Tank

There is one absolutely indisputable fact about social media – It brings the #GEEK out.  Early adopters, for the most part, will try anything – and trust me, it’s a slippery slope.  One day you are setting up a fancy RSS Reader and the next thing you know….. FARMVILLE!  Nothing like missing out on actual experiences and opportunities to plant some fake crops and raise some computer chickens.  Or perhaps Mafia Wars is more your style – as the video says – what else are you supposed to do while your crops are growing?  But at least these don’t pretend to be useful Social Networking tools.  The latest is the fascination with Foursquare, especially with the recent Blackberry app release.  As a disclaimer, I am on Foursquare, and I am so geeky, I was part of the 5000 person beta release!  But lets be real here, is there any true business value to this tool?  I’m not buying it.  Furthermore, while you are out unlocking your badge and securing your mayorship at the local donut shop, your employees just might be laughing at your twittersream of geolocational goodies.

Bosses and business professionals aren’t the only ones that should think about potential implications of broadcasting their every move around the city.  I would be even less hesitant to use Foursquare if I were a girl.  Yes, I know you pick your friends on Foursquare.  But, after Thursday happy hour you might think it’s a great idea to share with your 6,000 best friends on Twitter that you are at so and so bar or restaurant and realistically you have no idea where that tweet ends up.  Stalkers everywhere are rejoicing and high-fiving each other at the sheer joy of Foursquare!

So, for now, I’ll probably still use it.  I can’t help it, it tugs at that competitive spirit in me (even if I did feel a little guilty for unlocking the “Bender” badge).  But, I no longer have any illusions about the usefulness of Foursquare from a business perspective.  It’s just another way for your followers to know when you are hanging out in Starbucks planting some fake plants and becoming a made-man.

Agree? Disagree?  I would love to hear your thoughts, and what do you think the next application will be that becomes a 3 month trending topic on twitter?

Post Update, 1/24/10 – After thinking about it some more this weekend, I decided to delete my Foursquare account.  Bye-bye Foursquare!

#FunFriday – Social Media Brings the #Geek Out is a post from: HR Think Tank