ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

Why it pays to curate content

This is an example of the value of curated content but before I start let me clear up the misleading title - no one paid me for the curation I am about to describe. It would have been nice but I actually wanted to do it anyway.

Also, let me get the downside of curation out of the way now and that is that it takes a lot of time. You can pull feeds of tagged or hastagged content but if you want to hand craft the content ie put it into a new bog post with headline, link, image and them let people know about it then it takes time. Be warned.

Oh, and I am awaiting access to Storify - I hear that could be good for this type of curation. I also did quite a lot of this sort of thing at Reed Business Information (where lots of my former colleagues do this kind of thing) where we used tools such as Coverit Live to curate content.

The curation project I am talking about here is this post that aggregates all the blog posts from the Tru London 3 recruiting unconference. All I have done is pulled together all the posts that have been written about the event (last count 52).

NOTE: if this event had NOT had a hashtag this piece of curation would have been a nightmare. As it was I followed the tag on Tweetdeck and double checked what I pulled from that with a Google search. 

Taking the time to create such a post brings these main benefits:

Good search rank

Your efforts will be rewarded with high placements in the search engine results page  - especially if you are curating event content and lots of people write about it. I curated posts from the Tru London 3 recruiting unconference. Search for 'Tru London 3' in Google and this is what you get.

Add value for other readers/writers

You provide value for those who attended the event, those who blogged about it and those who did not attend the event. You have all the content in one place. Looking at the referrals to the post I see it has been bookmarked in Delicious. By adding a line about the post your including you are also adding a filter - a help to users to let them know what that post is about.

Provide content for other services 

You enable others to use the links to help them produce newsletters or ebooks or whatever else they might use them for. You will get credited for your efforts (and complain if you don't) which is good for you - your efforts have not gone unnoticed. Far from it, you get known for the person who is helping create more value from the content

Build connections

You can provide commentary on your curation project via Twitter or other channels - see below for an example tweet. This enables you to build up connections and reinforce relationships (if you are already connected/have met face-to-face).

This is a straightforward example of how you can approach curation. It does take time but it does add value for others and anyone can do it (who cares enough to want to)- it is especially useful for events.

 

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.

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.

 

 

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