ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

How a conference backchannel can add real value - #trulondon 3

Just wanted to pick up on one of the innovations at the #Tru London 3 recruitment unconference. Bill Boorman - the event organiser - has written a great post on why he likes the unconference model and how he intends to develop it for his events.

In the post he mentions a site created for the Tru London 3 by job search engine Allthetopbananas which featured all the tracks for the event plus the ability for attendees to comment on tracks . . . 

Thanks to sponsors Allthetopbananas we were able to develop a mobile website where attendees could follow the schedule and post 300 word reviews of the session. 55 of the attendees posted over 240 reviews, over a third of the attendees sharing their learning points via linked updates to the twitter stream.

As you can see from the number of comments, this was a great success. And unlike a Twitter backchannel it felt more substantial and more aggregated ie all the track comments could be found in one place. Not only did the site give users the chance to see if they should be in another track (based on live feedback) . . . for example . . .

Discussion is around do companies need to bother with career sites? The funnel of talent acquisition is the real topic. But convesation just is not happening, this I will pop off and see what others are chatting about

 . . . it also provided Bill with an opportunity to see what was and was not working.

This, he told me at the event, enabled him to tweak some of the tracks as he went along. Now that is real-time listening to your customers and acting on what they are saying. Does that ever happen at other conferences?

Moreover, the comments were not just made for the sake of it either (which can happen more on Twitter) - they were useful and added to the conversation around the event.

This backchannel was incentivised, which was a great idea to get attendees giving feedback and adding value to the event. And it is public for all to see - during and after the event.

 

 

Literature festivals: great content marketing for authors

I went to two talks today at Bath Literature Festival - one by Kate Rew on outdoor swimming and one by Zaiba Malik on her memoir of growing up a British Muslim. Both were very interesting talks.

These events are great opportunities for authors to market their content (mostly their latest work) . . .

• They must get a slice of the ticket price to see the talk (£7 today for each talk)
• The whole session is them promoting their latest work - that's why they are speaking
• They get to plug their work and stay behind to sign copies for punters - who can buy it there and then of course

I enjoyed the talks but did not buy the books. I guess a lot of people turn up who have already read the book and want to hear the author talk about it.

For people like me (potential customers) I would suggest offering a promotional price plus links to the author online. This was not on offer. So, although it is great to attend - the event could have got more from me.Maybe these type of events need an overhaul. I'm not aware of any tweeting from it, a Facebook page etc.

PS The Bath Literature Festival website is a nightmare. books. . . digital . . . you must be joking ;-)

Amazon Jobs a jobs board for the future?

Amazon Jobs - now there's a good idea. What a jobs board could look like  . . . well, I think it is :-)

Whilst at last week's recruiting unconference Tru London 3 Amazon croppped up in a couple of discuussions. This got me thinking and the result is this post - this is me thinking aloud so apologies if it it is not well formed.

First, Amazon is the leading cloud services provider so it could run all agencies' applicant tracking systems in the cloud. So why don't agencies just hand over that responsibility to the cloud? Amazon has the expertise that could reallly transform what an ATS could do.

And then there is Amazon's understanding and application of data - again something that could transform the quality of applicant data for recruiters and agencies.

It would also bring its product marketing expertise to jobs - imagine what that could look like.

If this is a simplistic view of what an Amazon Jobs could do for agencies then it is because I am not a recruiter. Apologies NOW.

What could really be a game changer is if jobseekers were treated to the Amazon user experience. I am a big fan of the Amazon user experience, I like the way Amazon talks to me, presents me with relevant content and how it uses data on people 'like me' to refer me to things that might be relevant for me.

User generated content and how it is organised and presented is great. It is subtle, targetted and relevant. If I want more I can find it. So, I am a jobseeker (true, actually) and I visit Amazon Jobs. What do I get?

• Access to the biggest jobs database in the UK - up-to-date, no replication
• An oppoortunity to give Amazon Jobs information that will relate to the type of information I will be served up. Easy to edit and update profile
• Great search and recommendation experience based on other people 'like me' . . . people like you also searched on etc
• Great content that supports the type of job search I am carrying out - and this is a biggie for me. I would expect to see high quality, very focussed content that would help my job search. This is not done very well by job boards right now.

As I said, these are a few thoughts and not well formed. Maybe this type of job board already exists?

The more I think about it the more I think an Amazon Jobs sounds like a good idea.

3 ways good design makes you happy

When connections become relationships

I got to interview some interesting people at last week's recruiting unconference Tru London 3 - you can hear them all in this post.

One comment stuck out for me which I think goes to the heart of how social media connections can turn in to face to face meetings and the start of relationships.

China Gorman, former chief operating officer at the Society for Human Resource Management (the US equivalent of the CIPD) put it succinctly in this interview (listen from 2.45).  

The connections you make on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are connections. I do not think they are relationships until you meet face to face . . . been fun meeting those connections face to face - people I can now say I have a relationship with. I can manage those relationships in a different way.

From the posts I have read from the event it seems that China's sentiment is a shared one - connections online quickly turn into face to face meetings from which stronger relationships emerge.

 

 

Argos and Blogger in top 20 UK websites

Today web monitoring company Nielsen has published its list of the top 50 UK online brands. I can't find the source on the Nielsen site so am taking the finding from a report in The Telegraph.

Top 10 looks like this:

1. Google
2. MSN/Windows Live/Bing
3. Facebook
4. Yahoo!
5. BBC
6. Microsoft
7. Amazon
8. YouTube
9. eBay
10. Wikipedia

No surprises here. But the data compares 2011 with 2004 and this shows three things.

• Search is still king
• Social networks/user generated content sites are in the ascendancy
• Offline brands are making their prescence felt online

To highlight these last two points it is worth noting that Argos is the UK's 13th most popular brand online and Blogger (the blogging platform) is 16th.

#Trulondon 3 audioboos with @billboorman @radicalrecruit @chinagorman @lruettimann

Here are my four Audioboos from TruLondon 3 - thanks to Bill Boorman, China Gorman, Geoff Webb (aka Radical Recruit) and Laurie Ruettimann. Enjoy.

HR, teams and the social media opportunity at #trulondon 3

Really interesting commentary from Jon Ingham on why HR needs to focus on teams rather than individuals.

 

Tru London 3 - aggregated blog posts so far . . .

UPDATE: I'll add more posts as they get published.

Beth Mayes reviews her first Tru experience - Guest post: Oxfam @#trulondon by @KBMayes

Wannabe recruiter Ruxandra Fratescu starts blogging with her view of the Tru London experience - My #trulondon experience

The HR Rockstar asks why we go to conferences - #trulondon and Women of HR

Wise Man Say looks at why Gen Y hates personal branding - 5 reasons why gen Y hates personal branding (And what we're going to do about it)

Boolean Blackbelt's review of the event - #TRU London 3 Recruiting Unconference Review

BillBoorman updates us on the #trugrad project - #TruGrad Guest Post: Ruxandra Fratescu: Why I want to be a recruiter #trulondon

Tru London Radical Rant - what a great video

Etienne Besson (aka HappyEmployee) provides his review in Tru London 3 - a quick recap and here's Etienne's pre-event post too . . . Tru London 3 - Why I'll be there

Louise Triance provides her networking summary from Tru London - Tru London and networking summary

This one slipped through the net - how did I manage that? - John Sumser's excellent round up of Tru London

The Direct Recruiters Blog provides - Musings on #Tru London 2011 - Recruitment and Referrals

I wrote another post about #trulondon. This one is on the comments site built for the event - How a conference backchannel can add real value

Damon Klotz, aka the HRockstar, travelled to Europe for a month and spent three days at #trulondon. Here is his review - #Trulondon - the HRockstar in London part 1

#Tru organiser Bill Boorman has written this great review (and given me some props) - #Tru London thinking: how to break stuff - conference edition

Molly Flatt at 1000heads provides this post on The future of work

Andy Headworth on using Wordle as a recruitment tool - Great tip to recruit the candidate you really want using Wordle

Laurie Reuttimann provides her soundtrack to Tru London 3 

Geoff Webb's great video of Tru London 3

Jobsites post on talent communities - The top 5 thngs you need to know about talent communities

My post on Amazon Jobs a jobs board for the future

The evolution of #trulondon by the Red Recruiter - TruEvolution in London

Bill Boorman on key findings from job board data - #trulondon thinking - location, location, location; job board futures

Nigel Seed starts his blog (was it inspired buy the event?) with a #trulondon review - #trulondon - post event blog

Jorgen Sundberg writes his thoughts on his personal track - Personal branding at #trulondon

Fishdogs, aka Craig Fisher, reviews his scary good moments - My top 10 #Tru London 2011scary good moments

Charlie Duff at HRZone looks at employability in Employability skills - graduates and beyond

James Mayes looks at the influence of live tweeting an event in Influence vs impressions, Tweetreach and conferences

James also looks at a new Twitter app Twileshare: New Twitter app Twileshare. So many uses!

The Future Series: Born of #Tru - Felix Wetzel looks into the future

Mervyn Dinnen on talent communities in his post Recruiting like Radiohead

HR Connexxions provides Five take-aways from Tru London 3

Peter Gold urges you to Adopt a student and help them find a job

The host with ther most, Bill Boorman, looks at #trugrads in My #trulondon thinking and the #trugrad program

Rhiannon Hughes looks at the graduate track - The world of graduate recruitment - please mind the gap

Stephen O'Donnell on why TruLondon worked so well - #TruLondon Imagineering

Geoff Webb, aka Radicalrecruit, gives his assessment (which may cause some eyebrow raising) - A radical in London - notes from Tru London 3

China Gorman's review of and learning points from Tru London - The King of all social recruiting

James Mayes provides his review in a word cloud

The Sourceress has penned her highlights -  #TruLondon 3 - Never Be Untru

Mark Wiiliams, aka Mr Linkedin, gives his review of Trulondon #3 - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly! (My thoughts on TruLondon 3)

Recruiter interviews Rob Van Elberg in its story on candidate relocation.
 

Only two days after the event and there are already more than 20  posts to read - and every single one of them is worth taking the time. Apologies if I missed anyone - the Tru bloggerrati are just getting going. I know Bill is curating them all over on the Tru London 3 Facebook page, so make sure you add yours there.

In the meantime, this is what I have managed to pull together so far . . .

Jamie Leonard reviews his first time at Tru London

Meghan Biro looks at the emerging trends around social media and recruiting in Recruiting: Power of people connectivity

Lisa-Mari Jones aka ITstrategylisa uses a word cloud to reflect on her Tru London 3 experience

Peter Hros, aka HRbeginner, sums up why you will be back in 10 reasons you will never miss the #trulondon unconference again

Does authenticity make your butt look big? asks Heather Bussing over on HR Examiner

Anonymous UK HR director and blogger The HRD on his session with Larie Ruettimann on HR being (or not needing to be) strategic

You can here Laurie’s thoughts on that session in this audio interview.

Co-founder of ConnectingHR Jon Ingham wrote 5 posts in quick time. And they are:

Tru London - be social to compete
Tru London - why I told Kevin Wheeler he was talking rubbish
Tru London - How HR and recruiting can be strategic
Tru London - Why does 95% of what we do on HR focus on individuals (when what’s most important is teams)?
Tru London masterclass: social HR

Nice round-up of key learning points from the Wisemansay blog - Social media and recruitment - 10 lessons from Tru London 3

Laurie Ruettimann in reflective mood with Off the grid Fridays - nostalgia and #trulondon

The social agency Tru London 3 Live blog from Social Talent

Pros and cons of RPO - Tru London Live blog from social talent blog

Andy Headworth’s Social Recruiting Corner takes a look at Tru London

And again from Andy, a great post from a great track on how famous film quotes can highlight some social media myths

My two days at Tru London from Mark Lennard

First impressions from a newbie track leader, Andy Hyatt, head of digital at Bernard Hodes Group - An introduction to the world of unconferences, starting with trulondon

Reflections on Alex Charles’s masterclass from Bill Boorman

 

 

 

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