Just last night my oldest sat next to me in the car where I was picking her up after the final night of “closed auditions” for the high school dance team. She carried with her an envelope that contained a note from the judges that was the final word related to her hopes of making the team and the ultimate result of a week of auditions that had taken place from 4-6pm every night that week.

Of course I had wanted the answer as much as she did (maybe more) and I asked her if she’d made the team before she’d even had both feet in the car.
“I don’t know yet,” she said nervously. “I haven’t opened it yet!”

As it turns out, she wouldn’t open the envelope until she was in a semi-private location where she could turn on her camera phone and record the experience – for better or worse. Her plan was that, regardless of the outcome, she’d be sharing it with her friends and family that weren’t able to be at the closed auditions, in as “live” a format as possible. They would know (or learn about) the results just like they were there as it happened.

This is certainly something to think about when we explore using video as a technology related to more than just broadcasting and chatting. Trends like this are what change everything. (Keep watching…)

Here is the link to the video she recorded and launched to her network. Needless to say, her phone was lit up the remainder of the night with responses.

Okay, maybe I need a catchier headline for this series but man, I love my+Google Chrome extensions. So much so, that I thought I’d get into the habit of shooting out a quick message each Friday to share what helps me get more out of my time spent on the web. To kick off this new weekly ritual, I’m sharing my favorite when it comes down to digesting video on YouTube.

The “Auto HD For YouTube” forces all YouTube videos to start playing in HD and provides me the additional option of forcing the widened player. This saves me countless clicks when moving from the often defaulted 240p to my preferred viewing preference of 1080p. Of course, 720p is great (as seen in this capture of one of my team’s latest uploads to YouTube) but if given the option, this #RecruiterGuy goes for the sharpest option available.

Here’s the link: http://goo.gl/87PxO
Give it a shot and let me know what you think. I’d love to hear about your favorite extensions or plugins for viewing video.

This week alone I’ve had almost a dozen conversations with people that were either asking me to speak at an event or inquiring as to what events I’ll be attending this year. I love these conversations (they’re of course good for the #ego) but I’ve found that they sometimes end with the same topic and shared feelings about making these selections – regardless of what side of the stage we might be on.

We’ve an interesting array of options related to how/where we spend our time when talking about events in the recruiting industry.

It’s tough.
Too far to the right and you’ve got a vendor that’s selling to you from behind a powerpoint deck painted with “innovation.” Too far to the left and you’ve got someone that’s sharing other people’s work vs. sharing what they’ve actually learned along the way.

Over the last few years I’ve really examined what kind of events (vs. “Recruiting” and “Talent Management”) to attend. Last year I found a strong balance in looking at social media and technology driven events that didn’t have anything to do with #HR or #Recruiting. The wins for this #RecruiterGuy being found in the sharing of new ideas and plenty of fresh faces and great connections with lots of things that were easily tied to any field that works with customers, people and #jobseekers alike.

Have you created your speaking and event calendar yet? Will it be full of the usual suspects this year, or will you be able to break away and take any risks?

While you’re thinking about it, enjoy this little video that I think you’ll appreciate. As a speaker, I literally laughed out loud (at myself) while watching this.
C’mon… you’re in this video somewhere, right? 

So as I take a look at the geography covered by people within my #Recruiters and Recruiting Vendors circles (shown here,) I’m presented with markers on an actual Google map. This means that I can zoom down to even the street level for people who have set their permissions to show where they’re from.

It’s just another reason to realize the importance of managing your circles in a way that helps you to refine how, and to whom, you communicate. This is a powerful tool to add more sorting/filtering to the way you communicate and making sure your conversation starters are relevant to your audience.

An example of this might be the recruiter that has a list of Marketing (or Sales or IT or Finance) leads with whom they share news related to what their company or clients are doing within the Marketing industry. With a sub-circle of “Marketing Southwest Region,” the recruiter can send the announcement of a new Marketing job in Dallas to local talent vs. everyone within his circle of Marketing professionals. The result here is an ideally a reduction of noise to candidates because the message is more relevant than a larger broadcast might otherwise be to people nowhere near the Dallas market.

It’s not fool-proof, but it’s another solid addition to the G+ toolbox that recruiters shouldn’t ignore. Grab it here: http://goo.gl/D2ra2

What’s interesting to me (and that I’m getting around to pointing out) is that whether you’re just looking to expand your network as a member of Google+ or actively #recruiting and #sourcing online, I believe that you’ll find infinite value from the proper care and feeding of Google Plus circles. In fact, if done correctly (and maintained) it’s a fantastic way to filter your Google Plus stream and check the pulse of any company, organization or interest group.

In the event you missed it, I did an article back in August that mentioned my interest in Circles and how I’d be exploring the management of them.
So far, I’ve not been disappointed in the ability to really hone in on an area of interest by filtering my streams based on these circles and simply watching the conversation flow. Of course, being able to quickly see all of the updates from a particular company or interest group is just the start.

The more proficient we get with our filtering, the easier it is to get the latest from fun entrepreneurs, CEO’s, diversity interest groups, active and passive jobseekers and more – these are just a few of my own circles, mind you. You have the ability to filter by profession, seniority, geography, language, etc.

The possibilities are endless!
I’d love to hear how you, or others, are using circles to manage the information stream you’ve found in G+ so far.

• Google’s revenue will be 10x that of Fb in 2011
• People don’t typically “Facebook” stuff for purchase decisions/research
• G+ delivers the social aspect of Fb ya’ love on top of a huge & profitable model

Fb’s great, but G+ certainly isn’t dead and isn’t taking the arse whipping that many fanboys would have you believe. Keep watching these two, folks.

And if you haven’t already started, dabble a bit in G+ even if your 1,015 “friends” on Fb aren’t all there yet. You can still include them in your circles and communications if you’ve their email address. (You do have all your “friends” email addresses, right?)

Something all of us should keep in mind… these two powerhouse social networks aren’t mutually exclusive.  It’s not like saying that if you start to like chocolate, you aren’t allowed to eat vanilla.  So try not to feel like you have to pick one over the other, please.  And after you’ve learned a bit about pages, hangouts, circles and yes, even games, I’d be interested in your opinion on the experience.

It resonates with me on both a personal and professional level and even though I may be using it slightly out of context, because I can’t recall the exact delivery in which it was received or if it was his words or a quote he was sharing, it’s likely to be something of a mantra for me this year.

It was simply,
“Your opinion of me is none of my business…”

I believe that some of us could benefit by remembering this little quote in 2012 as we’re pushing for change, bettering ourselves or just trying harder to be our true selves…
If we spend 2012 concentrating on doing what’s right for ourselves, our friends, our family, (whomever is important to us!) and don’t spend inordinate amounts of time worrying about what others will think and how they gauge us, I promise that we can’t go wrong.

Happy New Year, everyone!

It’s one of the reasons many of the big brands are getting engaged so early (and quickly) with G+. In fact, a recent article on +Business Insider revealed that 45% of online retailers have +1 buttons vs. a 40% count of retailers with a Facebook ‘like’ button.

This is called “social signals” and it’s a good thing…
Being connected means that when you’re logged in, your search results can be impacted by what you and your connections are “+1′ing”.

For example – by adding +PepsiCo JOBS to your circles, you’re likely to find more results from them within searches for “jobs” or “pepsi” than if you were not connected. The implications here are important to think about… So rather than just adding +PepsiCo JOBS to your circles, I might want you to also add +Jim Schnyder, +Katy Jones, +Katie McNab, +Sheila Stygar as well. Because in theory, the more people from my teams/company that you circle, and who share links and post information and content, then the more they ultimately influence your search results.

Think about it. It’s a lot to consider and adds new weight on the shoulders of those that already obsess on how many people follow (or now circle) them.

My recommendation and tactics will remain the same and as transparent as ever, however. I’ll recommend good people and share strong team players that are in these channels – and leave it up to you to decide who to follow and not follow based on your interests and what they’re delivering to you as an individual.

Remember – where we’re serious about connections and communication, it’s not necessarily about quantity as much as quality.

Introducing G+ Notifier (for Windows.)
Once installed, you’ll receive a settings window that lets you select how the system tray’s icon behaves as well as how you’ll receive updates to the app. After these quick (two box) selections you’ll be asked to log into your G+ account (be sure to click on your ‘name+’ to close the window) where upon you’ll find the new notification icon in your system tray.

Clicking the icon will deliver that familiar notification window showing the latest updates and allow you to expand each of them to a full post when clicked.  Easy wins that come to mind might be related to brand page management and quick response times to people chiming in or sharing updates – especially if you’re taking advantage of the new feature that allows multiple admins of your brand pages.

The creators, +Danny Tuppeny, +Adam Jean Simmons, +Andrew Nurseand +Dor “The Configurator” Kleiman, note on the website that they’ll be delivering the app in other languages as well as moving to the Google+ API when/if available. You can also check out their +G+ Notifier G+ page and, you guessed it, put them all in a circle to get updates right to your profile/desktop.

You see, for the past few years I’ve struggled to get (most specifically) my Google and Google Apps accounts to play nicely together in my own workflow. I’ve longed for the day that I’d have the option to merge the two accounts together and I’d be allowed to quickly and easily find that zen place between the two – letting me move quickly between products and applications from that single dashboard and ultimately removing the burden (it’s a heavy one, right?) of needing to move between accounts and login pages.

Of all of my communication channels, this has been the hurdle that I’ve cursed the most because of the potential that I’ve seen and was really never able to fully take advantage of. But recently it dawned on me that this is because I’ve approached my Google account much differently than I have any other social or communication tool… until the launch of Google+, that is.

So now that my “communication channel” has become a “social & communication network” I think that it’s time I took a step back to try to re-define sharing and talking with peers, colleagues, jobseekers, family and friends. I believe that a more holistic strategy is required of myself (and perhaps you?) in 2012 to make the most of the socialsphere we call home.

My basic blueprint is as follows:

• Streamline social footprint
• Revise content & sharing strategy
• Revise workflow (*tiered channels by ROI*)
• Calendar of “key” milestones and checkpoints
• Calendar of “power plays”

With a little planning and some diligence, I’m fairly confident that I’ll get much more value out of the conversations going on within my networks than I’ve previously been able to cash in on – and this is saying something since I value these relationships on several different levels and incorporate feedback received into my personal /and/ professional work and strategies.

2012 will be the year of zen networking and communications for this #RecruiterGuy, friend, professional and family man. I’ll be pushing boundaries just as passionately as ever… but I’ll be using a different set of muscles.