Google Search: The Asterisk Wildcard and Punctuation

Think you know all there is to know about Google search? I was recently asked a question regarding the use of the asterisk when searching on Google, specifically in conjunction with certain punctuation. This person was under the impression that if you used the equal sign on either side of an asterisk when searching Google, it would function as a multiple word wildcard operator. For example, searching … Read More

How to Bulk-Accept LinkedIn Invitations to Connect

LinkedIn has been making changes to their interface and one thing I noticed back in March is that I could no longer select multiple invitations to connect and accept them all at once from the main inbox page. It took a little bit of exploring the new inbox interface and functionality before I figured out how to be able to bulk … Read More

How I Made 3 Hires with Twitter in 6 Weeks

Article by Megan Hopkins Let’s get one thing out in the open very quickly. I’m a very stubborn person and I like to learn things on my own…even if it is painfully obvious to others. Confessions of a Twitter Hater… My relationship with Twitter started out very slowly and much like my relationship with my ex-husband – I was not a … Read More

How to Search Spoke, ZoomInfo, and Jigsaw for Free

Spoke, Zoominfo, and Jigsaw are websites that contain information on 10’s of millions of people and millions of companies. Each site has their own special method of capturing information on people and businesses. What they all have in common, however, is that while you can register and in some cases even run a few searches for free, you have to pay to really dig … Read More

Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook July 2009 Traffic Data

I’m always interested in the traffic for the “Big Three” social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn), and I discovered today that  www.compete.com just released July’s data.  And here it is! Facebook While Facebook’s been on a tear of growth as it passed the 250M member mark, Facebook only added 117,142 unique U.S. visitors in July 2009 . That seems like a large number – … Read More

LinkedIn by the Numbers – Searching by Title and Clearance

Ever wonder how many executives are on LinkedIn? How about accountants, software engineers, “Big 4” employees, or people with TS/SCI clearances?  Well I did. So I decided to run a number of searches for common titles in information technology, finance and accounting, recruiting and human resources, business development, social media, and administrative support and publish the results for the world to see.  I also … Read More

What Happens When Twitter is Down?

Sometime in the mid-morning I was trying to send a quick Direct Message via TweetDeck to one of my valued network contacts and it didn’t go through. I waited and tried a few more times, and after further failures – I headed directly to Twitter. My Internet connection was good – I could navigate other sites, but when I tried … Read More

Candidate – Recruiter Relationships: Overrated?

What is the ultimate value you provide to candidates as a recruiter? I want you to really think about that question before proceeding. In this post, there will be more questions raised than answers provided. Please take a moment to ensure that you have your thinking cap on and that your mind is open.  Who Defines Value? From the candidate’s perspective, what do you … Read More

Recruiting: Art or Science?

I recently wrote an article for Ryan Leary’s CruiterTalk blog titled, “Anyone Can Learn the ‘Art’ of Sourcing.”Although the main point I wanted to make was that sourcing isn’t all that mysterious or difficult, and that it can be taught and learned with a strong interest to do so and access to proper training and guidance, the post drew some comments … Read More

Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook June 2009 Traffic Data

I routinely check www.compete.com for the latest traffic data for my favorite social media sites and was pleasantly surprised to find June’s data has been released. I will review the June traffic data for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook (aka, the “Big Three”). Twitter Twitter experienced explosive growth from February 2009 to April 2009, going from 7.9M to 19.4M unique U.S. visitors before leveling … Read More

How to Use LinkedIn in Your Job Search

Eariler this month Harry Urschel brought a post of his to my attention where he showed job seekers that you don’t have to have a huge LinkedIn network to use LinkedIn effectively to find a job. I wholeheartedly concur. Not only do you not have to have a large network of connections on LinkedIn, there are MANY ways to leverage … Read More

LinkedIn Search: What it COULD and SHOULD be

Did you know that LinkedIn currently has the ability to deliver incredibly powerful search functionality to its users – WELL beyond what we all have access to now?  What am I talking about? I’m excited to tell you, but quite honestly, I actually can’t believe it’s taken me this long to put 2 and 2 together. Have you ever really watched the video clip … Read More

How to Search Across Multiple Countries on LinkedIn

I’ve recently received a few requests from my European readers (thank you!) to write about how to use LinkedIn to simultaneously search multiple countries to identify candidates. In this post I will do exactly that – show you how you can search for candidates across multiple countries in one search. Although I will be using European countries in the examples, the same techniques can … Read More

Twitter Quitters – Should Sourcers and Recruiters Care?

An article posted on the Nielsen Wire blog on April 28, 2009 claimed that more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month. From the number of times I saw people ReTweet and comment about the Nielsen article about Twitter quitters, it seems that many people are intrigued by and concerned about the large number of people who … Read More

Real Recruiting: Talent Identification AND Acquisition

As you might be able to tell from the name of my blog, I’m passionate about leveraging information systems for finding candidates. Unless you’re running 1 word or title-only queries, you can’t search the Internet, LinkedIn, Twitter, your ATS/CRM, or a job board resume database without using at least the most basic Boolean logic. When I post links to my search-focused articles in … Read More

What is the Low Hanging Fruit in Recruiting?

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know I’m a fan of leveraging every information resource available to me – my internal ATS/CRM, the Internet, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and yes, even job board resume databases (gasp!). Have you ever heard job board  naysayers refer to the resumes you can find on Monster, Dice, Careerbuilder, Hotjobs, etc. as the equivalent of “low hanging fruit?” … Read More

Is LinkedIn Becoming a Job Board?

Is LinkedIn a social networking site, a job board, or a little of both? Most people consider LinkedIn to be a social networking site, or more specifically a professional network service. LinkedIn describes itself as an “interconnected network of experienced professionals.” However, when I take a step back and take an objective view of LinkedIn, I see a great deal of “job … Read More

Don’t Be A Sourcing Snob

Are You a Sourcing Snob? Ask yourself these questions: Is a candidate identified on LinkedIn intrinsically “better” than a candidate sourced from Monster? Is candidate sourced by cold calling inherently “better” than a candidate sourced from a job posting on Careerbuilder? Does it really matter where a great candidate comes from? I continue to see well respected thought leaders in the staffing industry … Read More

Searching Social Media Requires Outside-the-Box Thinking

Non-Standard Descriptors and the Role They Play in Social Media Article by Valerie Scarsellato, Sr. Sourcer at Intel Corporation Co-written by Glen Cathey Sourcing has always been a significant component in the recruiting lifecycle. However, in recent years, sourcing has taken a giant step into the forefront and has become recognized as the solid foundation at which successful recruiting rests upon in … Read More