Cover letters, they are still a hot topic with recruiters and job applicants. Follow a Twitter chat like HireFriday (#hirefriday or #hfchat) or #JobHuntChat and you will surely hear any number of opinions.

Here is another opinion for you to consider.

If you are applying through an applicant tracking system (ATS), which is mostly likely the case if you apply on a company web site or if a link takes you to a company page, just stick with the resume upload.

I never read a cover letter, unless it comes via email. I see applicants who choose to upload cover letters and I jump right to the resume. I want to see what you have done and how your background is applicable to my need.

The cover letter in an email gets me to open your resume.

Are cover letters necessary. Yes (but not always).

What should you take from this? The importance of making sure you have a well written resume that sells your ability on a position.

Image credit to Adrian Clark via Flickr

I love to read. I definitely have certain television shows that I watch but I absolutely try to read on a very regular basis. Julien Smith has a much more aggressive approach than me on this topic, but I like what I’m putting together.

Creativity and personal development are important to me and something I believe in deeply. Creativity happens almost anywhere but I put something into motion to help me, or hopefully help me. Personal development happens more from external influences or influencers: mentors, coworkers, projects, education and reading.

I actually have a personal goal established for reading. I enjoy business related books but sometimes feel overwhelmed with how much I’m taking in. In my reflection on this I set parameters for me. I alternate a business book with a personal book.

The business books almost always have to do with HR or recruiting or social or mobile or learning or motivation or… you get the idea. The personal books tend to be fiction and let me keep up or catch up on great authors and books.

Plus this method is motivational for me. When I finish reading and learning ** enter subject here ** then I may start reading “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”. This also helps me organize my reading into my priorities for both work and for a great story.

Some, like Julien, may progress from business book to business book and drink from a water hose so-to-speak. Me, I need variety and have found this works very well for me. Plus I am reading a lot of great material.

Ultimately my goal is at minimum one book per month. Plus, through a LinkedIn and Amazon application I am able to share my professional reading with my network. Yes, I said professional reading as I do not feel my network is too interested in fiction (my Facebook friends might be though).

Whatever works best for you, find an activity that will let you grow and have fun doing whatever you decide.

Image credit to Passion2Read

LinkedIn has decided to cut the Twitter cord. According to a message from Steve Levy yesterday:

I thought this day would have been here prior to 2012 but am not surprised at Twitter being removed. The more cross-platform integration, the less unique a message. I suppose LinkedIn is looking for unique messaging for its users. Either that or they want the spotlight on themselves and don’t want to play nicely in the sandbox with others.

In any case if you rely on the Twitter and LinkedIn integration, be ready to work independently on the two sites to convey your messages.

UPDATE: I received this email from LinkedIn on 1/20 at 4:09 PM which adds clarification to this matter (and changes this entry just a little).

We wanted to let you know about a change coming soon to the Tweets Application on LinkedIn.

1. First, we are not eliminating the ability to send updates between your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. You can still go to your Settings page and choose to send either all tweets or only tweets with a #in hashtag to your LinkedIn status updates. It’s up to you. Again, tweets imported from Twitter into the LinkedIn network updates stream will not be affected.

2. At the end of January, however, we will not be supporting the standalone Tweets Application on LinkedIn, that displays tweets from everyone you follow on Twitter on your LinkedIn homepage. As of January 31st, this module will no longer be available.

If you have any additional questions, please visit our Help Center.

Thanks,
LinkedIn

In today’s online information age it behooves job applicants to make sure their online portfolios are not full of land mines.

That being said, there are pros and cons for potential employees when it comes to posting on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and more.

On the one hand, employers can use various social media sites to gain more insight into those individuals coming through their doors for interviews. From the potential employee’s perspective, it is an opportunity to craft a portfolio that shows them to be well-rounded both professionally and personally.

According to recent research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), more than three-fourths of employers said that they do use or are planning to mine social media sites for recruiting down the road. Meantime, more than half the employers responding stated that social networking sites are an efficient tool in recruiting candidates.

In looking at the challenges facing employers who use social media to do background checks keep the following in mind:

• Employers must be careful not to be perceived as using social media in a discriminating or negligent way when it comes to potential hires. As an employer, you may come across a potential hire’s tweet regarding their views on religion. You should not, however, use that lone comment as a reason to not hire someone. By seeing that lone tweet, is the employer now biased one way or another when it comes to hiring that individual? If the answer is yes, the employer can find itself in trouble should it be divulged that that factor came into play in the hiring process;
• There is really not a set of policies and/or procedures in place when it comes to screening someone’s social media posts. That being the case, employers need to use common sense and not paint everyone with the same brush. As social media continues to evolve and find its way into more lives, there will come a time when there is a more set policy in place as it relates to job hires;
• LinkedIn is among the most valuable social media tools an employer can use. The site provides an array of data regarding the qualifications of those seeking work. It also allows employers the opportunity to set up company profiles, current openings available, necessary qualifications to work at the business and more. Unlike a Facebook or Twitter page where an individual may have something a little more risqué posted, LinkedIn profiles give employers a good look at one’s qualifications in many cases;
• Misleading information can lead to missing out on good candidates. While most people use sites like Facebook and Twitter to post personal items and/or share news and notes they come about, it can be also viewed as an escape world, fantasy if you will. If a potential candidate for your company is posting things on a SM site that doesn’t seem to jive with their qualifications and who they really are, do you then decline to interview them? Unless you’re coming across posts that clearly paint the individual as a potential threat to the health of the company, you need to keep things in context and not jump to any negative conclusions;
• Lastly, finding employees who are social media savvy can work to your benefit. As the online information age continues to expand, it only makes sense that employers will want new-hires who have a least some experience and comfort level with SM. While you likely have your marketing team or another department handling your company’s social media efforts, giving others in your company the ability to promote the business through social media never hurts. As an example, the office bookkeeper at your hair salon tweets out or shares on her Facebook account with others the advantages of using your business. Next thing you know, more people are coming to you for their product and service needs.

The bottom line is having employees who get it when it comes to social media is never a bad thing.

Dave Thomas, who covers among other items starting a business, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Image credit to Tenant Screening Background Check

I think I am a creative person. I believe I come up with interesting ideas and have great brainstorming sessions with coworkers and friends and many other people. I think I add value to everything I do.

But I always want to get better, stay sharp and keep pushing boundaries. I know not everything I think or discuss or write will happen. That is just crazy thinking. But I want to keep pushing innovation, my own personal innovation as well.

So, I wanted to do something that would get me away from technology. Maybe step back and reassess what I’m doing and get other parts of my brain working in a more creative manner.

Growing up I loved art, loved to draw. I took art lesions and just had a passion for drawing and doodling. As I got older I began to do this less and less which always bothered me but I always had and excuse or reason not to (sorry Jay Kuhns).

That stopped yesterday. I signed up for an adult cartooning class. The fact that the instructor, Cotty Kilbanks, has previously worked for Warner Bros., Disney and Nickelodeon (to name-drop a few) is pretty enticing as well!

My infinite wisdom is telling me that getting away from technology, getting away from my day-to-day routine will somehow spark a new creative side. I’m hoping just to get back to where I once was actually.

As something new to the HR farmer, I will be sharing a few thoughts along this journey and let you know if what I am hoping to happen really happens. This isn’t exactly the HR or Recruiting orMobileor Social topics that I usually discuss but I thought it could be interesting as well.

Image credit to Invisible Heartstrings

The blogosphere was happy to report some epic failures in large organizations’ use of social media in 2011. As I read through these lists (there were many), I thought, Wow, I’m glad I’m not managing HR there. You see, when something goes wrong in the office, HR inevitably gets called in for damage control. This applies when an organization’s use of social media goes wrong, too. Digging a little deeper into the top social media blunders, I realized that these mishaps offer some great insights into social media best practices.

As organizations begin crafting formal social medial policies, there are certain situations and mishaps for which they should be prepared. Here are the three snafus that stood out to me as having some serious lessons to learn from an HR perspective:

1. Communications Disconnect at Qantas. When launching a Twitter campaign in November, Qantas–the premiere airline in Australia–had a serious breakdown in communications. Amid widespread disruptions in service (the entire fleet had been grounded in October) they attempted to create some positive energy by asking followers to describe their “dream luxury in-flight experience” using the hashtag #QantasLuxury. The problem? The campaign launched the day after Qantas and its unions stopped contract talks. Customers hijacked the campaign’s untimely campaign and used the hashtag to voice serious complaints. When managing your social media presence, these kinds of breakdowns in communication can have serious consequences. As such, establishing clear channels for disimmenating need-to-know information to key players in your management team is a must. Qantas’ mishap is a case in point on the importance of making it easy to quickly distribute key communications, not to mention the value in maintaining a degree of transparency in less-than-ideal times.
2. Kutcher’s Quickfire Backfire. As many organizations are learning, not everyone is equipped to keep small blunders from turning into social media firestorms–even if your “organization” is the brand behind a celebrity figure. There needs to be a process for managing your online presence. CBS’ new “Two and a Half Men” star, Ashton Kutcher, sent out a particularly nightmarish tweet to 8.5 million followers in November  which seemingly supported Joe Paterno: “How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #no class as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste.” Kutcher pleaded ignorance, claiming that he wasn’t up on the alleged Penn State child abuse scandal. He offered an apology via Twitter but the damage was done. When building a social media strategy–be it for sourcing and recruiting talent or for branding and advertising–your plan should ensure your people have a course of action outlined for cleaning up small mishaps before they become big messes. In the end, Kutcher got the message and turned over management of his Twitter account to his PR team.
3. American Red Cross Turns it Around. Some debacles have a happy ending. An employee of The American Red Cross sent out an inappropriate tweet via the @RedCross account indicating that employees were getting “slizzered” on Dogfish Head beer. To the surprise of many (and the joy of a vested few), Wendy Harman, Social Media Director for the Red Cross, was able to turn this around with grace and good humor. The rogue tweet was down within the hour, and Harman responded with a tweet assuring that the Red Cross was sober, adding, “we’ve confiscated the keys.” Meanwhile, they retained the (very embarrassed) employee, and Dogfish Head took the opportunity to launch a fundraising campaign for the Red Cross. Because of their quick and classy response, the Red Cross turned a PR nightmare into a lesson in humility, and has been earning kudos since. This indicates a strong sense of teamwork and unity in the organization. “We are an organization that deals with life-changing disasters and this wasn’t one of them,” Harman told Mashable. “It was just a little mistake.”

Last Year’s Blunders: A Boon for HR in 2012?

While it’s easy to look back on social media snafus and share a laugh, HR professionals have their work cut out for them in the next year. The blunders of 2011 present a great opportunity for HR to step up to the plate and spearhead the design, implementation and oversight of formal social media policies for their organizations.

About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice. On the surface, it’s his job to contribute to the ongoing conversation on all things HR. Beyond that, he makes sure his audience is keeping up with important trends and hot topics in the industry. Focused on offering a fresh take on points of interest in his market, he’s not your typical HR guy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hey everybody, Keith here.

Just wanted to thank you for a great year. It’s been great meeting most of you, many of you, knowing you online and looking forward to next year.

It’s been a fun year. Had my 1 year anniversary with my current company and had a great year.

Redesigned my blog and I wanted to thank Laura from SmallestDecisions.net for helping me out with that, she did a great job.

Really looking forward to next year to certainly continue social.Lotof mobile. Lot of cool things to look forward to in this space and that’s going to be pretty interesting to see where we go. What fun things everyone comes out with and borrows and helps each other out with, it’ll be fun!

Look forward to getting out and meeting more of you than I have. Hopefully it will be a good year to get out there and keep connecting in person which is great.

In short, thank you for everything it’s been a fun year. I really enjoyed.

Wanted to wish everyone HappyHoliday’s and Merry Christmas and hope it’s a really successful New Year for you. Thank you and all the best!

Image from SodaHead.com

A company in Pakistan has blatantly stolen from me. What did they steal?

They started a company called “The HR Farmer” and if that isn’t bad enough, have even gone so far as to even steal my logo!

This is an HR company; you would think ethics would be of concern to them.

Awful business, be aware and be careful.

Social recruiting and mobile recruiting and location-based recruiting. Sound like a conference you attended this year?

If a company is lagging in social then a team starts to swarm and react to the latest trends just trying to get involved and jump into social. If a company has a presence in social, then it tends to continually evolve, learn and enhance their social presence.

Both of these are good activities. You MUST be there and you MUST evolve.

The problem arises when you don’t understand the tools and how they work. Scott Stratten  (A.K.A. @unmarketing) shares a short 2:30 minute video on exactly what is poor use of social and mobile… in his example it is the poor use of QR codes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Poor execution could happen for many reasons:

• Too many hands in the cookie jar
• Differing thoughts on how to use a tool
• Lack of knowledge on the use of tools

Easiest solution is to start slow and grow as you understand the landscape, the tools and where your audience resides.

Just because you are the fastest doesn’t make you the best. Your goal should always be quality in any social campaign.

Be smart, be integrated, do it.

OK, so this is extreme but I found it pretty amusing none-the-less.

Dilbert, November 6, 2011