Social Media May Have Changed the Game but I Still Like Tradition

It seems every where you look these days someone is singing the praises of Social Media and declaring what a great Game Changer it has become. As you know I am a Social Media enthusiast (ok and a Gadget and Technology Geek too) and there is definitely no way I would be as succesful in my work as I am without the use of Social Media. While SM has had an impact equally what has worked for me in the past can still be as valuable a tool.

For many people SM has changed the way that they work and share information. Not only has this happened for me but I also feel that SM has changed the way that I process and seek out information – not only in a SM perspective but more so in the way I go about my daily life. I think it has made me more inquisitive and open to others thoughts and ideas. I also think if I pulled out my old statistics books from university I could show some sort of positive correlation between my use of SM and my searching for new ideas.

The latest big change we are seeing (big in terms of hype more than substance at this point) is Facebook’s introduction of Places which is a location based services where you can tag yourself and friends. Am I going to take advantage of this introduction of new services? It will be tough since I deleted my Facebook account about a month ago. I deleted my Facebook profile not because of any deep hatred against Facebook or because I am vehemently against Facebook’s privacy settings and policies.

For me, as much as I am a fan of SM – I do not want to be on every Social Media site/platform that is available. I have had people gawk at the thought that I am not on Facebook. One common comment/question is that how can I disregard a site that has 500 million subscribers. Ok there are 500 Million people on Facebook, but as an individual I dont want to ‘friend’ 500 million people. For business purposes it may be a different story, but to me the comment that not being on FB because everyone else is seems to follow the old saying “if everybody else jumped off a cliff would you do it too”. Shouldn’t I do something because it works for me, not because everyone else is doing it. Yes, I get it – 500 million people is a big pool of potential customers but as a personal user I am not after customers. For me FB has not been the most effective SM tool I use and I only have so much time to give to my online presence – sorry FB there had to be a cut off point somewhere.

I think the location based services that FB is offering has some potential and if it is used effectively it could be a great business tool, I also think it has some risks as well which have been well explained on many of the IT news and commentary sites.

So what does all this have to do with the title of this blog entry? Yes, things like Augmented Reality, Geo-tagging and mobile technology all have great potential for business, but for me I don’t need to know that someone I want to talk to is at the movie theatre or at a coffee shop. If I know who I want to talk to then more often than not picking up the phone and “building pipeline” is still a tried, tested and succesful way for me to get the results required of me.

Again I am not bashing FB or SM here, I think they both have their places. Innovation is great it is how we keep moving forwards but there needs to be a balance between “what could be” and “what works”. If you can get the balance right of trying new things and still doing the basics that you need to do to be succesful then you have the balance right. I think we will see some big changes in the SM space in the next few years in some form or another. I think that SM has plateaued to some degree in terms of offerings but I do think it will keep evolving. As much as we are seeing SM change the way business works don’t forget the things that have worked for you in the past, they likely will help you get to where you are going in the future.

 

Social Networking…How Much Talk About it is too Much

Note: I orginally posted this blog entry on the Oracle Recruitment Blog in Dec 2009.

It has been a while since my last blog post – at first I was thinking that it must just be a case of writers block, which sometimes happens. Yesterday though, I had the chance to meet with @sarahatcarve while she was in Melbourne and after talking to her I started to think maybe it is not a case of writers block but maybe we (general online community) have said all there is to say about social media for the moment.

Sarah and I have been talking to each other on Twitter for a while and it was great to finally get the chance to meet her. Sarah runs Carve Consulting in Australia which is a consulting firm that helps organisations realise value from corporate social networks. (taken from webpage). It was great to talk to someone who gets social media/networks and sees the value they provide in a business capacity. As Sarah and I were talking I found myself answering my own questions about why it has been a while since my last blog post. A few things that I mentioned when I met with Sarah:

• I think there is too much hype around Social Media/Networking at the moment – it is great everyone is finally coming around to using these tools, but there are too many “experts” saying the same thing as each other which I think is taking away some of value of what the real enthusiasts are using these tools for. How many webinars can I be invited to about using LinkedIn/Twitter for Recruiting – especially by those “experts” who have just signed up to these sites.
• I think there is too much white noise on some networks – I always feel a bit dirty when I get those LinkedIn invitations to connect with me like this one below that I received recently:

“If we are not already directly connected and you are open to being a 1st degree connection with me on LinkedIn, then please know that I am an open networker, I will accept your invitation and I will not IDK you [insert: if you press I do not know this person on an invite - LinkedIn views the person as spamming you and may cancel their account]

My LinkedIn profile is: http://www.linkedin.com/in/xxx
My LinkedIn email address is: xxx@gmail.com .
Look forward to connecting with you on LinkedIn. JT “

These people remind me of travelling salesman but instead of going from city to city they are going from network to network. They are not adding value to online networks, they are just building up numbers of connections for their own sales reason. I think it is great people use these networks to build business but be open about it. I have over 2500 connections on LinkedIn, but I only invite people I have spoken to or have some connection with.

• A lot of people are starting to use Social networks (this is good) but many businesses or individuals haven’t thought about why they are going online (this is bad). Is to find a job, build a brand, increase sales, increase revenue, etc…. .

  It reminds me of a conversation I had with my sister a while back (she is in marketing) she mentioned that many of her clients always jumped up and down and said they had to create a facebook page as part of their marketing plan. When she asked them why they thought that – they never had an answer, the standard response was always “because it is what everyone else is doing” – it kind of reminds me of when your parents would ask you if your friends jumped off a cliff would you?? People should do what works for them, it is great to try new ways to do things, but think about what you want to achieve before blindly following a trend.

Looking back on the year I think the main focus of many of my blog posts has been focused on using Social Media Tools in Recruitment which makes sense as I am an experienced Recruiter and a Social Media enthusiast. I would like to think that some of the information I have written has helped somebody in their job search.

For those of you who have read enough of my posts talking about the latest and greatest social media tools, next year I am aiming to have fewer blog posts based around Social Media Tools – yes Twitter that includes you!

The feeling I have lately is that there is more than enough talk happening online about these tools. Don’t get me wrong I love using social networks and social media tools – they have helped me in my success here at Oracle, but there is already plenty of information available to help anyone navigate through the world of social media – from the first day novice to the seasoned enthusiast – we do not all have to fill up our social networks saying the same thing over and over about how to use social networks

In my next blog post I want to follow up with a few more things Sarah and I spoke about and talk about some of the things I think will happen in the Social Media space next year once the hype dies down.

 

Social Media Talk: Facebook, Really?? How Has It Become This Popular??

If you have read some of my previous posts over the past few years either here or at the Oracle Recruitment Blog you will know I am a Social Media enthusiast. I use various social media sites everday in both my work and personal life.

I was surprised to read today on Mashable.com that Facebook now Commands 41% of Social Media Trafic.

When I think of the Social Media sites I use most, the sites that jump into my mind first are LinkedIn, Blogging and Twitter. I do use Facebook in both work and in my personal life but on the list of sites I use it probably ranks closer to the bottom of the list rather than the top.

I know Facebook is engrained in everything these days – but really I am not a huge Facebook fan – and I am finding that over the past 3-6 months my interest in Facebook is going down rather than up. From a work perspective – SM sites let me connect with candidates and communities and they help me talk about the things that I am doing here at Oracle. From a personal perspective SM sites let me keep in touch with friends and family both here and overseas in a really simple and easy way.

Sites like LinkedIn give me a great way to proactively talk to both active and passive candidates. Twitter is fantastic to keep in touch with industry trends and keep up to date on the latest trending topics as well as follow conversations about whatever keyword you want to follow. Blogging lets me share my thoughts and ideas with others and while FB does have some great benefits I don’t think the benefits outweigh the negatives of using FB.

I use TweetDeck to keep track of my twitter feeds, the latest LinkedIn updates and Facebook updates. Tweetdeck is a great tool as it consolidates these 3 SM sites for me and I can quickly scan to see the latest news on any of them. From what I have seen from Facebook it looks like 70%-80% of people are using FB to grow their farm on farmville, start a mafia war on mafiawars or read their horoscope, check their love percentage, etc…… In between all these “updates” every now and again you do see a real update from someone who actually has something to say but there is so much “white noise” on FB from all the games and apps that is hard to see the real messages from all the ‘games’ information. I don’t like having to scroll through what seems likes pages of farmville updates only to get one real piece of information.

For me this is where FB’s value really drops off. While I use SM everyday I try to use SM effectively. Sifting through so much noise is not effective and really I am not all that interested in Farmville, MafiaWars or any similar game/app.

But what about Groups and Facebook Ads?? Groups are ok, but I am not sure I would call them SM game changers – yes there is a group for everything out there, but a group whether it is on FB or not is only as good as the community that supports and participates in it. Many of the Groups on FB (and elsewhere) are set up and never used or promoted by the moderator. I have heard that FB ads do have an impact, and I have not really looked at them – the question of cost jumps and return on investment comes to my mind though.

FB does have some benefits, it is a great way to keep in touch with people and a great way to talk to others. I think it would have been interesting to see a different statistic measuring how effective that 41% of Social Media Traffic via FB really is or is it just a case of more people jumping online to play games. To me FB does not equal SM effectiveness, at the moment it is a tool that I sometimes need to use as opposed to want to use.

 

Goodbye LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc….Hello Social Networking Aggregates

I am sure many of you of you know the drill: log onto email [check], log onto Twitter [check], log onto Facebook [check], log onto LinkedIn [check], log onto another social network and another one, etc….. Why hasn’t someone come up with an easier way to manage our social networks and aggregate them into one application.

Wait, not all hope is lost!

Over the past few weeks, I have been seeing many more tools offering social networking aggregation or mash up  services. I think this will be one of the next ‘big things’ that we see in the social media/networking space.

It made sense that sooner or later we were going to require these services and I think it is great that this need has been addressed. With so many social networks that have been created to communicate with each other, it was becoming time consuming and ineffective to log onto each network individually and check to see who is saying what and where.

These SNS (social network services) mash up sites basically aggregate many of your social networks onto one application or web browser. I have had the chance to try a few of these apps and I think we are still at early adoption stage to say that any one application has it right. Some are too slow, some don’t have access to enough networks, some are not available for mac (disgby.com – hope you see this), etc….

Anyway, here are my thoughts on a few of the Social Networking Aggregate site that I have used or seen available:

Orsiso: http://orsiso.com/ - I downloaded Orsiso this week and have started to use it. My first impression is that I like it, it has a nice user interface that allows me to check and see what is happening on my various social networks. It also has a nice feature where you can group your various contacts into 1st Level through to 4th Level contacts – allowing you to keep track of the people you talk to regularly or want to hear from. On the downside – I find that the service is slow, many updates either do not show up on Orsiso or show up much later then when they are actually posted. Out of the 5 SNS Aggregators listed I would say it is my 2nd favorite at the moment.

Google Wave: http://www.google.com/ - I am waiting on a few invitations to come through before I can actually start using Wave – my initial thought from what I have seen is that you can only communicate with other Google Wave users – the tools look great, but it will be a long time before everyone is using wave. Out of the 5 SNS Aggregators listed I have to give it a NA score as I have not actually used this tool yet.

Digsby: http://www.digsby.com - The first thing that comes to mind is frustration! Digsby is not yet available on Mac so when I tried to use it on my home laptop – no luck. Ok the next day I downloaded it onto my work laptop, but because of my firewall protections I can not use it at work. It is too bad, it looks like a good tool, but in this competitive environment, you have to make things easy for people to use – my initial exposure to Digsby has been difficult and I am not sure I will go back unless it becomes easier to use. Out of the 5 SNS Aggregators listed this was my least favorite out of the 5 listed.

Flock.com: http://flock.com/ - This was interesting, Flock is a web browser which integrates your social networking profiles into your web browser. I only had a quick play with it, but didn’t immediately see the value add in it. It was good you could log onto Twitter or Facebook and have that information on a sidebar, but it seemed to defeat the purpose because it opened up a new webpage with every social network you joined. I was thinking if this is the case why can’t I just do this in Chrome or IE or any other Web Browser. Out of the 5 SNS Aggregators listed this was just ahead of Digsby and well below Orsiso.

Tweetdeck: http://tweetdeck.com/ - I have been using Tweetdeck ever since I started using Twitter over 18 months ago. Tweetdeck is getting better as it now has Facebook and Myspace integration. I like how you can create columns to follow the people or keywords you want to and the results come into Tweetdeck in real time without the same delay that happens with Orsiso. Out of the 5 SNS Aggregators listed this is the original one I used and is still my favorite, it is number 1 for me in the list.

If we could take bits and pieces from each of these apps – I think there would be a great all purpose app to use. I think we will see a good app come out that will stand above the rest and become dominant in this space. It will be fun to see who comes up with that app. I think that someone will get it right in the near future and I think it is great because this will certainly make social networking so much easier to manage for many people.

 

Trust Agents by Brogan and Smith – A Review

I bought the book Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith the other week. I just finished reading the book over the weekend and wanted to do a quick book review (this feels an awful lot like my High School English class). I really enjoyed reading this book, there wasn’t any groundbreaking information in it that I was not already aware of, but it did provide some great insights into how we are connecting with people online and more importantly why we are connecting and trusting the people that we connect with. When I am talking on any of my social networks, I think I display many of the traits and actions described in this book. It is great to take a step back and see how my actions impact my communities from a bigger picture perspective. Reading this book was useful as it helped me make sense of my behaviours of how I use Social Media Tools in both my work and personal life.

I love the introduction: Hey I Know You, Have we Met?. When I read the introduction, I was thinking, how do these guys know me so well – I have never spoken to them before, have they been watching me?? My online behaviors follow to a tee, what the typical reader of this book is: Am I a business professional [check], social media evangelist [check], official job title does not match my passion [check] [edit: I changed my email signature ], looking to improve my business on the web [check]. This book is about understanding how the web has become more humanised then it has been and using that humanisation to help us build business online. People that do this as Brogan and Smith refer to them are called “Trust Agents“.

According to this book there are six characteristics of becoming a Trust Agent – I wont spoil the book and give away all the details, but the six characteristics talk about changing the rules of the game (what ever game it is you play), building honest relationships, understanding those relationships and gathering and working with your social networks. My favorite chapter is the “Make your own Game” and “The Human Artist” chapters. In the “Make your own Game” chapter there are some great examples of how people have changed their own markets which really stood out for me – from Radiohead’s ‘pay what you think it is worth’ online release of their ‘In Rainbows’ album to Gary Vaynerchuk and his Wine Library. This chapter was quite motivating and reminded me to not be afraid to try new things as that is what will likely give people their business advantage.

In “The Human Artist” chapter I enjoyed being reminded that even though the technology will change people skills and how we treat others is still what is important regardless of the medium. From a company perspective working in the social media space is the new customer service. What many companies do not realise is that the way we talk online should be the new call centre for companies to listen to. So when we talk about a product or service on Twitter or Facebook these are the “new phones” that are ringing for companies to pick up. These are your customers looking for help – companies should pick up the call and talk to your customers. The only difference is that call is not coming from a phone or a fax machine anymore, it is now happening on various online conversations (conversations that some companies are not hearing).

There was a number of other great topics in this book that really got me thinking and put some new ideas in my head. Was this book worth the purchase price – I would have to say that yes it was. Whether you have an interest in social media and want to find out what “this stuff” is all about or if you are an social media enthusiast – this book will help change the way you communicate online.

This entry was originally publised on “David’s Journal on Tap” blog.If anyone else has read this book, it would be great to hear your thoughts/comments/review. Leave your comments below.

 

RecruitTech Wrap-up: Canberra Australia

On Friday I presented at the RecruitTech Conference in Canberra, Australia and had the opportunity to talk about Blogging from a Recruitment Perspective and go through some of the success/challenges that I have had using our Oracle Recruitment Blog. On one hand I enjoyed demonstrating some of the successes and challenges using a blog because social media is something I am passionate about – I think the positive impact it has had on business and personal lives far outweigh the perceived negative impacts.

From another angle though, looking at the presenter list for this conference I was thinking before I stood up to speak, am I the best person to really demonstrate this?? Many of the other presenters at this conference have been blogging far longer than I have (I am a relatively new blogger – about 18 months) and have covered many topics I have not even touched.

While I recognise with the Oracle Recruitment Blog, the platform is not new and blogging itself is not new, I think the content that we have shared has been refreshing and has helped us add some real value to our community of readers. Content really is king – if a blog creates something that is interesting to people, they will read it and share it with their friends and connections. I will share my RecruitTech presentation online shortly either on my slideshare account or on the Oracle Recruitment Blog, I think presentation may be available on YouTube shortly as well.

As a wrap-up it was a great day and there was some very good presentations focused around the use (lack of use ) of Social Media in the Recruitment space. What makes a good Recruiter has not changed – a Recruiter who can add value to both a candidate and a client and is able to establish and develop strong relationships will be successful. What has changed is the tools that we use to make these things happen. Where once candidates relied on mail (no, not email good old fashioned snail mail remember that) to send in their resumes – now they let people view their profiles on LinkedIn or Plaxo. Where once a candidate used to fax their details to a company, now that same candidate waits for the company to contact them on one of their social networks or keyword search them. I do not think that Social Media tools are being used as effectively as they could be in the recruitment space (in general) yet, however as we see social media tools get further ingrained into our daily and corporate lives we will see more effective use of the technology by clients and candidates alike.

P.S. – thanks to the guys from GradConnection for the TwitPic, it was great meeting you finally. This blog entry is also available at David’s Journal on Tap

 

What Does Gardening have to do with Social Media??

What does gardening have to do with Social Media?? For me, it has absolutely nothing to do with Social Media and that is one of things that I enjoy about it the most. I am sure there are prolific gardeners where the connection between social media and gardening applies, but for me I enjoy gardening mostly because it is not only time well spent with the kids but also for me it has no social networking connection.

Anyone need a Gardener??

Stepping away from the kids for a moment, I spend a large portion of my working week online and using various social networks in my role. My involvement in the Social Media space has grown over the past 3-4 years that I have been using it as part of my role. As I mentioned on the Oracle Recruitment Blog the other week I think it is important to find a work/life balance. Similarly, I think it is important to find a balance between social media activities and other activities as well.  It can be easy to get caught up in all the noise on many social networks – we have seen the statistics of how many videos are uploaded on YouTube every minute or how many Tweets are happening every second. It can be all time consuming. By no stretch of the imagination am I a green thumb (I am actually surprised the kids and I have not managed to kill the garden yet), but gardening for me is a good reminder to keep social networking in perspective and make sure you are spending time on many things not just connecting with people and communities online.

The gardeners and I

From a work perspective this can mean making sure that you do not forget business basics and think business issues can magically be fixed by “social media”. The things that made you successful in the past likely will continue to make you successful in the future – this can be a good work attitude, great sourcing skills or great accounting skills, etc… Social Media/Networking Tools can act as a fantastic tool to the work you do but it is not meant to replace it. I think with all they hype it can be easy to forget this.

Am I a social media enthusiast – yes, but I like to make sure I keep myself balanced as well – it reminds of an old proverb “too much water drowned the miller” – I am hoping to keep myself from drowning!!!

 

Social Networks Despite What People Say About You….I Still Want to Hang Out

Ah all the Social Networks I use [insert network here, LinkedIn, FB, Twitter, etc], we have been hanging out together for the past four (4) or so years and have been on some crazy and fun adventures together. You have certainly helped me bring some great people into Oracle and you have brought some excitement into my day. I have been having some issues with Email lately (see previous post), but I think I want to keep hanging out with you guys. I know there are a number of managers and “experts” who will tell me that I am wasting my time with you and that you are a bad influence on me, but I still enjoy our time together.

I keep hearing from a number of people that you are a distraction to me and that you take up my time when I should be focusing on work activities. Despite what those people say you help me in building our companies employment brand – you provide a great way to share with people not only the things we are doing here, but also share with people what it can be like to work here. I can’t thank you enough for all your support during the times you have helped when I needed to find that “needle in a haystack” candidate.

The way we work is changing, being told not to use you during work hours is like trying to stop a tsunami by putting your hand out. I know that not everybody “gets you”, but just because they don’t understand you doesn’t mean that you are a bad influence. I love that my management team understands you, they let us hang out together because they know the good I see in you. They also treat me like an adult and let me be responsible for my own actions. If you and I goofed off all day long and it affected my work – I am sure they would think differently, but the results you and I have delivered together far outweigh the negatives.

It is through you that I have been able to collaborate with and talk to so many new and interesting people. I have learned many new things through you and you make this world a much more connected place.

I know you are not a “silver bullet” that will magically solve all my recruitment problems, but when times have been tough you have been there for me.

I am interested to see what will become of you in the next few years – I think you will have to consolidate yourself somehow, there are new sites coming up daily – I can’t keep up!! I look forward to more adventures with you and seeing what the future holds for you – if you need to find me I am at http://davidtalamelli.gizapage.com

 

Email…I Think We Should See Other People

Ah email and my inbox my long lost friends, we have shared so many memories together. You have been been a great friend and have provided me with so much information over the years. I think however we are starting to drift apart. Now I know this may sound cliché, but it is not you it is me – you see I think the reason we are drifting apart is that I am still learning new things and exploring new ideas where as you have been pretty static and do the exact same thing as the day I first met you.

I find myself over the past few years being drawn into many more “real life” conversations on various Social Networks – I mean how can you my trusty friend compete with talking to people in real time on Facebook, Skype or Twitter… The conversations that happen on many social networks are in real time and include video, photos and the chance to actually “talk” to people. If a person is not online I can still leave a message for them in the same way I can with you. The chasm is deepening every day.

You are far too engrained into the corporate culture to just pack up and go away, however I find myself using you less each day. I predominantly use you as a tool for people to send me attachments (candidates sending me their resumes) or for me to send attachments to others as many social networks do not yet allow that function. Once I work out a way to receive and send attachments and as more people use social networks regularly as part of their work day I think my reliance on you will decrease even further.

Some of my frustrations come from how unproductive you are becoming. Every morning that I check my dearest email, I have numerous spam emails that I am forced to delete immediately. I also get frustrated when people have “email conversations” with me (you know the type of email that usually consists of one line messages back and forth) – pick up the phone and call me or ping me on one of my online networks – you have become time consuming and less productive then you have been in the past. These things all take up time that I could have spent talking to people.

Using online collaboration tools is becoming easier and there are new tools popping up every day. You are in your current form no longer viable and I feel you must change or I think you will be left behind and have the same fate as what has happened to another previous companion of mine, the fax machine. I remember the days when I used to fax resumes to my clients, I have not done that for over ten (10) years now, and I do not think I ever will again. I think that you my dear friend are heading down that same path.

What collaboration tools do you use?? What is the future of email, will we still be using it in 2,5,10 years, if so in what capacity?? Send us your thoughts and comments.

 

Gizapage.com Where Have You Been all my Social Networking Life?

For regular readers, you will know I utilise many Social Networks in my role here as a Recruiter for Oracle. I try to use about 3-4 networks as using many more can become too much to handle, other wise I would be spending 24/7 of my time trying to manage my online profile. Last week I came across the website www.gizapage.com.

Gizapage potentially could be a life saver to help me manage my social networks. What Gizapage does is that it consolidates all of my social networks and provides links to many of my online profiles and networks. On the top bar you can click on each social network tab and it will take you to my corresponding social network page of that site. Here is a screenshot of my page below:

A benefit of gizapage.com I think of is for those times when you are talking to someone and they ask if you have a profile they can view or refer to – rather than going through all your profiles and trying to remember each webpage – you now simply have to give the one webpage link which provides access to all your online profiles.

This is also good for your email signature. My email signature was getting out of hand, I had links to our blog, linkedin, twitter, etc…. on top of my phone number, title and address. It was getting to the stage that there was too much information on my signature. Now with one webpage link my signature can look much cleaner than with numerous links attached to it.

From my initial look at gizapage, I like it. It certainly makes managing my online profile easier. I like that you can measure statistics on your gizapage dashboard to see what sites are getting the most traffic. I would like it even more if it had the function to update all my profiles automatically when any profile is updated, however I am not sure how that could be done given the variety of social networking sites out there.

I think this is a natural step in the social networking space, it was only a matter of time before someone thought of a way to consolidate all the social networks out there.

My Gizapage landing page can be found at http://davidtalamelli.gizapage.com/.

 

My Five Favorite Recruitment Blog Entries

I have been blogging for just over 12 months now. I created and still contribute regularly on the Oracle Recruitment Blog. Many (ok most of) the blog entries I have created over that time have been about either Oracle, Recruitment or Web 2.0/Social Networking Tools.

I was looking over the list of some of my blog entries over that time and it was good to reflect on my thoughts during that period and see some of the articles I have written. I have decided to write a Top 5 List of my Favorite Blog Entires that I have written from the Oracle Recruitment Blog.  In no particular order:

1) Five Trends We May See in Recruitment – I like this blog entry as I do feel the role of a Recruiter is changing, it is no longer just about sending resumes, or it shouldn’t be anyway)

2) Motivation From Seth Godin and David Carman – I like this blog entry because we truly are responsible for our own actions, in a downturn it can be easy to blame “the market” but ultimately what we do with ourselves is up to us.

3) Recruitment is Becoming an Increasingly Transparent Business – It is great that candidates and companies are much more savvy when it comes to Recruitment Practices – the more transparent any business is the better.

4) The Changing Workplace: No Longer Just the Office you Work In – Hasn’t the working world changed. Business and work relationships are global and virtual, without the technology we use today this was not as possible 20-30 years ago.

5) Recruitment Should About Quality not Just Quantity – Our work should always be about adding value, not just going through the motions.

6) (A Bonus Favorite – I Couldn’t Help it) Perspective Needed When Using the Title “Web 2.0 Expert” – The term Web 2.0 gets thrown around far too much these days, I feel the term has become oversaturated.

I look forward to writing more blog entries and continuing to share my thoughts, ideas and comments with you. If there is anything you would like to see or have a question about please feel free to email me at david.talamelli@oracle.com

 

Australian Computer Society Event: Social Networking in a Business Context

Last night I was one of the presenters on a panel at the monthly meeting for the Australian Computer Society. The topic that was discussed was “Social Networking in a Business Context”.

Thanks to the ACS for organising and running the presentation. Individual thanks to Yasas Abeywickrama, Ksenija Catic and Jeanette Wirt from the ACS for their help and also to my co-presenters Charlynn Miller and Corry Brouwer.

It was an interesting night and I feel we only really scratched the surface of Social Networking and its use. It is such a broad term and the way that an individual or organisation uses Social Networking can vary greatly depending on what you are looking to achieve.

It can be difficult to keep pace in the Social Networking space with the speed of which the technology is changing. There are so many different tools and applications to use and they are constantly being superceded by new tools or apps. I would suggest to use the 3-4 tools that best suit your purposes other wise social networking can consume too much of your time trying to manage multiple accounts and networks.

On the drive home, I was thinking that it will be interesting to see what the current state of Social Networking develops into in 2,5,10 years. Will we continue to use the tools that we use today? Will we still use them in the same context?

Generation Y certainly embraces the technology and tools, however if we think of the next generation that enters the workforce after this – is it fair to assume they will be even more technically savvy or adept in this space?

What do you think will become of social Networking and sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Ning, Plaxo, etc….., how will we use these sites to interact, what will happen in 2,5,10 years??