Social Media Headhunter

Twitter Used To Boost Local Retailing

The connections you make in social networks are the primary value of spending time in social media. It's not the marketing or advertising that makes you money, it's the people you meet who refer you business, solve a problem for free (or for a fee), and drive attention and traffic your way.

Until of course, enterprising business owners realize that being connected to a community can yield profit.

Enter Twitter as the ultimate traffic driver for retailer. Leave it to a small business owner to do this, but a coffee shop/lounge owner in Houston decided to join Twitter, he didn't realize it would double his traffic.  His store traffic, that is.

For real.

When J.R. Cohen, Operations Manager for CoffeeGroundz (@coffeegroundz) Cafe in Houston, Texas first heard about Twitter from one of his customers, he was puzzled but intrigued. Today, he credits Twitter with almost doubling his clientele and with opening his eyes to a whole new way to build Community.

What's interesting about this is the owner just joined to make friends, and the business aspect happened as a natural outgrowth of his success in becoming a personality online.  Once a customer was comfortable that he would be reached, the customer asked a question about business, and the result was a "slap yourself in the head and say why didn't I think of it" moment. Those are the best ideas.

It makes a lot of sense.  Twitter is basically a texting tool that is online instead of on your phone (and the apps on your phone don't count, as they are online as well).  Individual texting for business is okay, but Twitter adds the personal touch that allows CoffeeGrounds to get a Word of Mouth campaign going.

It's what happens when people start joining networks.  They naturally start to look for ways to use the networks for their own benefits  Using Twitter to order food is  a natural outgrowth of being on Twitter all the time. It's easier than calling and waiting, or calling and talking to someone.  And it beats having to get up and walk up to the counter if you're sitting with a client.

It's a great, heart warming story, and I want to hear more.  As of this writing, over two hundred RT's (ReTweets, where someone copy and pastes a Tweet to send it to their audience) have hit Twitter.  That's a big number.

I'm also heading down to the local coffee store to see if they might be interested in hearing about a new idea I have.

Ways To Connect With The Social Media Headhunter

If you're a client, call me at 314-485-5480, or email me at socialmediaheadhunter@gmail.com

There are three main ways to get in touch with me if you're a candidate.

1) Send your resume into my database.  You can upload your resume, add tags and keywords, and update your profile on this site, and I can see when people have been added and updated.  The first thing I do when I get a new position is go to the database.  What I don't do, what I can't do, is talk to candidates when I don't have a position for them.  If I'm working on a job in Chicago, I can't talk to someone in California, because I'm then wasting my client's time. 

2) Join http://JobsInSocialMedia.com.  This site is for anyone in the social media industry. Other recruiters spend time there, looking for candidates, as do companies.  Writing a blogpost, leaving a comment, or submitting a video case study are your best ways to get found, as you can work with several recruiters, and not just one person working on one job at a time.  You have much better odds, and it adds to your overall search profile.  This is a very good option.

3) Follow me on Twitter.com/smheadhunter, and say interesting things.  I respond best to interesting information I can share with my networks.  If you're part of my community on Utterli, Friendfeed, Skype, or a dozen other places where I use smheadhunter as my handle, I'll know you, and you'll stay fresh in my mind.  Calling me or emailing me doesn't do that. 

I promise you - if you are a fit, I'll find you if you're on my networks.  And I'll treat you with slavish devotion and loyalty.  And when that happens, do you really want me talking to someone else who calls in, or working to make that position work for you?   

Facebook Recruiting Trailer

I've added a snippet of the video we use for Facebook Recruiting training, available at the SMH Cafe.  I'll be adding better video and an introduction, but thought this was a good way to showcase the quality you'll see when you purchase one of the DVD's.

Funny enough, this is an embed from RecruitingBlogs.com, but I've also uploaded the file to Vimeo.com, which I joined through Facebook Connect.

Find more videos like this on RecruitingBlogs.com

One quick note on quality.  Uploading the video to these sites compresses the file, which fuzzes the screen a little.  The quality on the DVD is much higher, and plays through the Flash Projector (good for both Mac and PC). 

Selling Free In A Social Media World

Freemium services were the rage in 2007, 2008, but is anything ever really free?

Mobile post sent by smheadhunter using Utterli.  Replies.  mp3

Twitter Affiliate Contest: Want To Win $100

Will people work harder to earn the chance at $100, or will they take a sure bet and sign up for a smaller amount?  Can Twitter work as a supercharged network for affiliates, or does Web 1.0 marketing still work best?  It's an interesting set of questions, and one that convinced me to try a Twitter experiment.

I just set up an affiliate account using ShareASale.com for my recruiter DVD store.  If you're on ShareASale, simply search for social media and you can add yourself as an affiliate, with links and banners and more. 

If you don't want to be an affiliate, but you want the chance to earn $100, simply write a tweet and use this link to reference the store:  http://cli.gs/ayNyuv

After publishing your Tweet, send me a note, reply, or DM (my twitter name is smheadhunter) and I'll add your name to a list for the contest.

That link contains the affiliate code, so whenever someone purchases from the store after using the link, the account I created is credited.  Once the affiliate account reaches $100, I'll put the names of everyone who tweeted the account in a basket and draw a name live on video (so you can see that I'm being fair).  Then I send the winner a check.  Assuming this doesn't take years to get to $100, I'll repeat over and over.

Update:  Super Grand Fun Prize.  Should this contest rollover 10 times in 2009, I'll add an extra prize of $1000, drawn from the ranks of those who won $100.  Contestants can win the regular prize only once, but if we have 10 winners, one of those people will get a $1000 check.

Possible Outcomes:

The most probable ending is few people Tweet and the account puts only small amounts of money in.  There is the possibility, that the nature of Twitter leads to a large jump in the number of Tweets and ReTweets, leading to a number of winners and of course, more sales.  Should it take off like that, blogposts and other forms of social media would lead to a large footprint all based on that affiliate code (http://cli.gs/ayNyuv).  People not directly involved in the contest could be helping those in the contest, simply by posting that link.  And those in the contest could increase the chances for everyone, without improving their own chances.  Should that happen, I think there'll be a case study in there.  In the end, we'll all win.  My customers will get a great product. I'll sell the product.  Several people will get $100 checks, and one may well win $1000.  All for the price of a tweet or retweet.

Rules and Clarifications:
This contest is only open to users of Twitter.  If the code is used elsewhere, while I appreciate it and so would all of the contest entrants, only the Twitter users will be eligible.  Only one entry per person, regardless of the number of times you Tweet. To win, you must be an active user of Twitter, a resident or US or Canada, and not a spammer.  I know how to identify spammers and those with lots of following and no followers.  I reserve the right to kick someone off the list if they're a spammer, but will tell you if I do and pick a new name.

Facebook Recruiter Training and MySpace Recruiter Training Rock

I'm not one to brag, but the completed Facebook Training for Recruiters.  is something to behold.

There is nothing like it out there, and it's now available for sale at the Store.  Originally, my MySpace Training for Recruiters was a pale shadow of the Facebook training.  That has now changed.  MySpace is awesome in its own right, and I'm putting the finishing touches on it now.

It's rare that all of the currents in your live converge like this.  My wife's development and branding skills combined with my love of teaching, recruiting, social media, marketing, and my own voice has helped me put together a series of training products that I'm really proud of.

And that's something that you can take home with you at the end of the day.  Thank you to each of you that has purchased a disc so far, and consider feedback on this blog.

Social Media Salaries and Job Descriptions

Some thoughts on salaries and titles for different social media positions. Posted over at JobsinSocial Media.com

Mobile post sent by smheadhunter using Utterli.  Replies.  mp3

New LinkedIn Services Will Change Corporate Recruiting

Are you making 10% of your hires through social networks? According to Workforce Management,  William Uranga is, and he's surprised Facebook hasn't caught on.  William is pretty well-versed in social media, but his work is no surprise to third party recruiters, who have dug into the LinkedIn bonanza and made big bucks off the network.

If you're an independent recruiter, LinkedIn is a must. I'm fond of saying that if you're not making $100,000 more of your LinkedIn account, you're not doing it right (which is why I have this beautifully packaged training DVD telling you how to hire using LinkedIn).

For corporate recruiters, and also for recruiters working in third party firms, using LinkedIn can come with hassles.  Owners and Executives are very nervous about allowing recruiters to build networks that leave when the recruiter leaves.  Some are even foolishly trying to get employees to sign statements promising to turn over the LinkedIn accounts if they leave (it's a violation of your TOS, if you do, btw).

Well, with the new services being rolled out by LinkedIn in the next few weeks, that problem is solved.  Using the corporate account called Recruiter, companies already have the equivalent of a TopLinked recruiter completely under company auspices.  The new services promise to solve the problem of how to connect with candidates.  After all, it's not who you know, it's who you can get to respond, right? 

It took me four years to get to 1800 connections.  With LinkedIn's new service, you'll be able to have the same reach as a super-networked recruiter with none of the drawbacks or having to build the network over time.  It's quite the deal. I don't know the cost, although anything they charge is going to be well worth in it hiring costs.  Workforce Management has a story on the proposed new services, which will be rolled out in a few weeks, and I can tell you they are going to be super fat, yo. 

And for those owners and executives nervous about empowering recruiters to use LinkedIn and leave, you now have the solution. Drop the cash on LinkedIn Recruiter, and you'll have the account internally.  As I said, problem solved.

That's My Princess

  I'm in so much trouble.  My wife sent this picture of my daughter.  She's nine months old, and this is what she does in her spare time {gulp}.

Looks like I have a little more work to do.  Anyone got any spare reqs lying around?

I guess it could be worse - she could reading my wife's blog on elite fashion and style.  

Searching For Candidates On Flikr

Jim Stroud, the wonder behind The Recruiter's Lounge, has a short tutorial up on searching for candidates using Flickr.  It's the first in a three part series.

Flickr is a photo sharing site, one of the two most popular, and the reasons for searching on it are 10 passive candidates, and 2) social media savvy passive candidates.  The hit rate might be low on return, but that's true for anyone not on a job board.

One thing to add to Jim's searches, is to have your own Recruiting Flikr account, which pictures and text describing why a candidate would want to come work for you.  While you're at it, duplicate your work on Photobucket and Snapfish.

It will increase your return on messaging, and also serve as a pull marketing component as images in Flickr show up in Yahho and Google related image searches.