Listening Is A Form Of Flattery

Here's the bottom line... If you came to SXSWi just for the presentations then you might likely be missing the point.  Were there good panels?  Meh.  Were there one or two discussions facilitated from a stage that were informational?  Sorta'.  But was the good conversation that really made you think something that you'd have found on the agenda?  Absolutely not.

Well, at least for this RecruiterGuy.

Of course, truth be told - I didn't plan on attending the touted conference in the hopes that a session would rock my world.  I was here to bump into the guys that were here to learn something.  I showed up to talk to attendees about jobs with my employer. (hey, it's what I do.)  I showed up to enjoy the offline conversations that take place at these things late in the night and early in the morning - where the real dialogue happens.  And if we're being perfectly honest, while I was hopeful of some nuggets of wisdom in relation to browser hacks and mobile technology, I'm a bit of a free t-shirt whore.

I've been busy lately.  As a result, the paying gig (workin' for the man) takes top priority.  But that doesn't mean that I still don't get to do some cool things from time to time.  Recently in fact, I was asked to present on a Webinar and talk about Converting Leads to Hires via Social Media.  HCI hosted the event with TMP Worldside sponsoring.  Was I excited about it?  Yeah - after putting metrics in place to track every move the teams at my employer make around Social Recruiting for the last year, I was not only excited... I was ready with some data to share.

For the record, I’m a fan of wisdom and experience.  So whenever I can pull out an old dusty guy’s quote you know I’m going to. I enjoyed kicking off the webinar with was Johann Wolfgang VonGoeth's.  (No, not the guy that's famous for his culinary skills and rockin' eats!) Johann was the German dude that founded the whole World Literature thing.  C'mon kids.... reach way back to your early college classes and realize he's the guy to thank.  He said:

"It is not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise."

The bottom line and tie in?  I showed how Mobile Marketing for recruitment is having rockin' results and nailing a Cost Per App that's under $13.  I outlined how the teams at my employer can expect to wrap up the year with over 5,000 applications from Twitter efforts after spending less than $200. 

This morning at 10am, Tiger Woods will hold a press conference from that beautiful course that is TPC Sawgrass.  (have I mentioned I'm a huge golf fan?)  I frequent his official website from time to time and while it's not the best athlete/celebrity fan site, it does serve to motivate me now and again in both my personal and professional endeavors.  Let's face it... Tiger turns people on and keeps them motivated. [insert joke about countless affairs here]  Or at least he did until recently when his personal life hit the news.

So if you're one of those fans that are devastated by his recent infidelities or that think you'll feel better when he does his public apology today (because we know that's what's coming) then I have this to say to you:
Get a freakin' life and mind your own business.

Okay, so we've had Google Buzz for what boils down to a week now.  And we've heard phrases like "what Wave should have been" or "the Twitter killer" or "the best thing in my Inbox."  But on day 7 I think I'm going to assign my own analogy to Google Buzz.  To me - it's like drinking 'social' from a fire hydrant.  Yeah - I said it.  And While I think there are some incredible possibilities here it's another example of how Google has shoved something to the masses to see how they'll react.  The only thing that really surprised me about this move by Google was that Google Buzz doesn't have "beta" stamped all over it.

So here's where I think I come out on this latest social frenzy - and yeah, it's a bit of a mixed review...