My friend and Recruiter Extraordinaire Jenny DeVaughn attended the Social Recruiting Summit at Google (!) earlier this week and she was kind enough to share her experience with us on ERE.net.
I’m sure that after you read her funny and insightful post you will agree that Jenny needs her own blog. I am determined to make this happen and this is the start of my crusade. In the interim please enjoy her review of the Summit.
Cartoon by Hugh at gapingvoid.com
“On Sunday night, the tweetup put the social into #socialrecruiting. We had 50+ guests and motivational beverages. Kathleen Smith with @clearedjobsnet secured the perfect venue. Jobscience was kind enough to cater the food for the party. Their team was a lot of fun too! Those who attended enjoyed lots of laughs, introductions and lively face-to-face conversations. Towards the end of the night, there were a few Captain Morgan poses for the camera. Yes, I have the photos to prove it.
When we arrived at Google, most of us didn’t know what to expect, since Google’s campus is safely hidden in some ordinary city blocks of Small Town USA. We hoped that the day would exceed our expectations. Our group was shuffled to Building 43 to pick up our badges. We found ourselves immersed in a group of new employees (a.k.a. Nooglers) who were signing in for their 1st day of work at Google. @Frannyo and I were tempted to switch groups.
The first speaker, Laszlo Bock, is the Vice-President of People Operations (HR) for Google. He advised us to keep in mind the importance of authenticity and intimacy. By using your own voice in social media, you can build trust and credibility.
The Social Recruiting Summit Chairperson, Susan Burns, gave us a warm welcome and highlighted a very cool application from LinkedIn called “New LinkedIn Members Around the World” that displays in real time all the new members of LinkedIn from around the world. One new LinkedIn profile is created per second. One warning: it’s a potential timewaster and worth viewing at http://newin.linkedinlabs.com. (Stephanie here. <—- CLICK ON THAT LINK)
The keynote speaker, Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn, believes that we should all think of ourselves as a small business. He rhetorically asked, “How do you build up the asset value of your own self?” While he didn’t share any upcoming improvements to LinkedIn’s customer service, Reid was approachable and kind when I met him after his presentation to discuss how the most popular profiles are determined on each company page. I also thanked him for my 15,000+ 1st level contacts on LinkedIn. Then I made a weak attempt with Brendan Shields’ blessing to show a sign saying hi to @marenhogan and anyone watching the live stream who couldn’t be with us in-person.
After meeting LinkedIn’s Founder, Reid Hoffman, I took an official tour of Google. (How many Mondays have you had like this at work? Someone pinch me!) At every entrance or even randomly on the walls, were papers stuck up with tape like on a college campus discussing all types of internal offerings or reminders at Google. We also learned about Google’s Doodle team and how the Doodle 4 Google contest gives scholarships to kids and schools. Googlers enjoy many on-site amenities: 24-hour fitness area, infinity pools with a lifeguard, massage therapists, shuttle, sand volleyball, heated toilet seats, communal bikes, medical staff, creative areas with logos, plenty of whiteboards, four child care centers with 200 teachers, free breakfast/lunch/dinner and complimentary cafes/micro-kitchens stocked with a variety of beverages. My inner geek was thrilled to get a quick peek into life at Google.
The next session I attended was put on by the best mobile marketing duo, Chris Hoyt and Michael Marlatt. They discussed the mobile myths: mobile is just hype, only used by the youth generation and that it is only a device for spam. They also shared that SMS (a text message to your phone) has a 94% read rate. We all participated in a live step-by-step text (short code) demonstration. In mobile marketing, we are only limited by our creativity; however, one must consistently create value.”
You can read the rest of Jenny’s post here and you can learn more from social media recruiting enthusiasts at the Summit on Craig Fisher’s blog here.
Be sure to join my crusade and email Jenny and tell her to please hurry up and start her blog. You can find Jenny on LinkedIn and Twitter. You can also text JENNYDEVAUGHN to 41411. Once she reserves the domain for her new and completely awesome blog 
I will post the link here.
Comments on this entry are closed.