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Recruitment

Twitterview with EduWEB Conference Director Shelley Wetzel

by Tom Williams on February 25, 2010

in Higher Education, Interview, MicroBlogging, Recruitment, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

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I recently did my first ever Twitterview with Shelley Wetzel, director of the eduWEB conference.  This conference pulls together some of the best and brightest Web developers, marketers, designers and technologists serving the Higher Education market (both working in colleges and universities and serving that market).

eduWEB ConferenceLast year, InnoGage joined forces with Jadu and sponsored the Social Media at the Conference in Chicago.  The idea just kind of hit me out of the blue.  When I shared it with Shelley, she was on board immediately.  Jadu jumped in to assist and the whole thing came off beautifully.  You can read more about that HERE if you want.

Now, onto the Twitterview!  You can view the twitterview HERE (at least for the next few months) Or you can attempt to read it in the blog below….

Remember, since Twitter streams down, you have to go to the BOTTOM first and read your way up.  You’ll see that the tweets don’t always pull through in complete sequential order so you need to watch out for that too.  Enjoy the Twitterview…HEAD TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST AND START READING UPWARDS.

Realtime results for eduweb

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LinkedIn Recommendations - Valuable or Waste of Time

by Tom Williams on January 20, 2010

in Recruitment, Tools, Web tools, Web2.0

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tom-williams-85-percent-complete1My LinkedIn profile is only 85% complete and sadly, it’s going to stay that way for as long as I can foresee.  Why?  Because I don’t have any recommendations on LinkedIn.

Now before you start feeling sorry for me - like I’m some kind of friendless Schmuck who no ones likes, realize that this is largely self-inflicted.  You see, I don’t really WANT any recommendations on LinkedIn because honestly, I just don’t see the point.

why-complete-your-linkedin-profileNow LinkedIn claims that “Users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn”.  In order to get “complete profile” status, you have to have, not one, not two, but  THREE recommendations!  So, I guess I’ll be missing out on all those “LinkedIn Opportunities”…whatever that means!  In MBA speak, I would define that as a completely benign and unmeasurable metric.

When I interview someone and they provide me with a list of “referrals” the first thing I do is resolve NOT to contact any of them.  These are the people who have been hand picked and coached by the prospective employee.  It’s worthless feedback - you might as well ask the prospective employee what they think of themselves!  Instead, I work the back channels and find people who know the person well, but who have not been coached.  Past work associates and/or clients are a much better source of real information.

Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours!

Scratch My Back & I'll Scratch Yours!

I believe the same is largely true about LinkedIn.  One person says “hey, you recommend me and I’ll recommend you back!”  How valuable is this information?  It’s crap.  It means nothing.  Now, I don’t know the circumstances of the situation above.  I’m sure they are both good guys.  Perhaps one received an unprompted recommendation and then reciprocated.  But does this boost the value?  I don’t think so.

Stuck at 85% for the rest of my life

So, I guess my LinkedIn profile will remain at 85% until I die.  But I’m cool with that.  If you want to know if I’m smart, if I do good work, if I can be trusted…then track down my friends, colleagues (past and present) and my clients.  Ask them, don’t ask me.

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Blogging Lessons from MIT - What Companies can Learn

October 6, 2009

The New York Times recently published an article about MIT’s student blog program, which they have had amazing success.  Here is a quick breakdown of the key learnings for companies wanting to capitalize on this success.
1. Use of STUDENT bloggers
Note that it’s not the head of the MIT marketing or admissions program who is writing.  [...]

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KASCAC Presentation - SM for Recruiting

March 23, 2009

I had the honor of hanging out in Kentucky for a brief time last week and speaking to a group of admissions professionals at the KASCAC conference.   My presentation covered the 3 pillars of implementing social media for recruiting:
Start with Strategy and be sure you begin “at the end” with your goals in mind.   [...]

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Stop by the Carnival!

February 26, 2009

Have you ever checked out the Carnival of College Admission?  The Carnival is a great resource of blogs and articles compiled by Mark Montgomery.  Think of it as a very focused Goggle Reader that you didn’t have to create.    The Carnival is updated about once a month with the very best blogs and articles (which [...]

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MyCollegeBlogger in the Press

February 10, 2009

One of my favorite higher ed. bloggers is Karine Joly. I have been reading Karine’s blog “CollegeWebEditor.com” for several years now and it’s always thought provoking and on-point with the latest in Higher Education.
I had the pleasure of spending some time with Karine at the AMA Symposium on Higher Education in Chicago this past November.  [...]

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What drives students to your college?

November 20, 2008

The following is a recap from the AMA Symposium on Higher Education: Princeton Review Session.  Note that the speaker listed 10-15 items in each one, but I only grabbed the top 3-6 due to the slides being advanced.

Major channels students use for college information

College portals
General [...]

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Advancements and Academic Reputation Outcomes on the Web - AMA08

November 18, 2008

This session is put together by Ty Glasgow, CEO and President of BigBad Inc. Twitter was down during this session so I decided to share it through a blog.

To start the session Ty laid out a quick outline of his session in terms of where websites in high education are heading.

Social media
Mobile
User defined Information Architecture
Content [...]

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15 years later…

November 3, 2008

It’s an interesting time in the world of college recruiting. When I was a prospective student, 15 years ago, things weren’t so crazy. Here is my memory of the college application, recruiting and admissions process:

“Grabbing the mail on my way home from high school, I was excited each day when I received another glossy college [...]

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Turning Your Staff into Celebrities

October 28, 2008

NACAC08 was a great experience. I have been following many people in higher education through various social mediums as well as working with institutions across many states. Meeting these great folks in person has made my relationship with them on social media even stronger!
Does your institution have a Twitter account? Does it identify the author [...]

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