WorkPuzzle

What the Mattress Industry Can Teach You About Millennial Generation Hiring

In the past couple of years, I’ve written several blogs on the advantages of seeking out and hiring young people.  In theory, replacing an aging sales force with a new generation of young agents makes sense.

 But, as many of your have told me, theory and practice can be miles apart.  There is often frustration (perhaps on both sides of the hiring equation) around turning young talented individuals into productive agents.

What may surprise you is that you’re not the only one struggling with the issue—other industries are experiencing this frustration as well.   The case study we’ll discuss today comes from the mattress industry.

Mark Quinn, a Segment VP of Marketing with Leggett & Platt, writes a popular blog called Q’s Views, on the mattress sales profession.  In a recent article, Mark does a great job of putting his finger on the Millennial Generation issue:

“Technology has simultaneously been the Millennial generation’s best friend and worst enemy. While they have grown up with social media and iPhones, they’ve also lived under the specter of Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Systrom, and Mike Krieger.

…Seeing Facebook and Instagram make these twentysomethings into billionaires has upped the ante for what young people expect out of life—and their careers.

It’s easy for inexperienced professionals to get caught up in the Zuckerberg example—he didn’t finish college and didn’t spend 80 hours a week working his way up in a traditional corporation.

With a lack of context, it’s tempting to believe we’re all destined to be exceptions on the level of Facebook.  That’s just it—these guys are exceptions and not the rule.”

Because many individuals from the Millennial generation approach work from this perspective, many real estate hiring managers have given up on this group of candidates. 

Mark takes a different approach.  He believes that some simple career coaching early in the hiring process can help some young people focus on the realities of building a true career.  In turn, he reaps the benefit of bringing young employees into his ageing industry

Here is what he tells his young candidates:

“Your best bet—if you plan to have a career that spans more than 10 years—is to find your niche and strategize your vertical move from there. While you can make wildly zigzagging moves across industries, remember one thing: What you skip over is often what you need in order to be successful later.”

He goes on to outline five steps that tend to make people successful in the mattress industry: 

1.  Learn the basics.   I learned the basics. I took people I emulated to lunch, and I replicated the basics of what they did. The basics are overlooked by many starting out, but they’re called basics for a reason. If you aren’t good at them, don’t plan on being talented at much else.

2.  Develop your own strategy. I tried to swim upstream whenever possible. While other trainers focused on the products they were selling, I took speaking classes because I wanted to be the most dynamic person in the room. My strategy was to give the salespeople a skill and help them make more money. They were teaching spec; I was educating them on sales, which is a skill that would benefit them no matter what industry they worked in.

3. Have pure intentions. I genuinely wanted to help people – hence, my focus on developing people’s skills. If you’re trying to provide information, you’ll be somewhat successful. If your intention is to help people find a new approach to doing things, you’ll create ripples that last a lot longer.

4.  Put in the effort. Many people fail to follow through and end up disappointing those around them. If you say you’re going to call, pick up the phone. If you can learn from someone who works on Saturdays, use your day off to enhance your days on.

5.  Be memorable. You can be memorable for being the guy who never met a 3-hour lunch he didn’t want to take – or you can be memorable for doing things no one else does. Call a customer on his birthday, remember the names of his children, and send him a fishing article when it reminds you of him. He’ll remember you, simply for remembering him.

Of course, all of this advice does not track directly to the real estate industry—that’s not the point.   This case study illustrates the importance of setting expectations early in the hiring process and painting a picture of the future. 

If you become effective at cutting through the initial layer of self-centered nonsense, you will find that some of these young people have the capacity to be your next top performer.

---

Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Post-Social Recruiting: Peter Weddle’s Epiphany—Part 2

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday weekend and you’re back at work with a new sense of energy, ready to make the push towards the year end.

In the short week before Thanksgiving, I pointed you to an article that I found insightful and promised to follow-up with some thoughts this week.  The article was written by Peter Weddle, and you may want to re-read it before reading today’s post.

The question I left on the table before heading off for the holiday was, “How does Peter’s insights on social recruiting apply to the real estate industry?”   Here are some thoughts:

1.  Social recruiting via public social recruiting via public social networks has peaked and is now in decline.  

Peter makes this point several times during his discussion:

“The current incarnation of social recruiting has been stimulated and structured by social media sites. The way we socialize with candidates is governed by the format, functionality and focus of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. These sites enable us to promote our brands, advertise to and connect with large pools of professionals in a wide range of industries.  These interactions have effectively defined social recruiting as a fleeting and thoroughly functional relationship. Basically, we're saying to prospects: "Hey, we're a buyer of talent, you're a seller of talent, let's do a deal."

I would further argue that the real estate industry has not largely benefited from this stage of social recruiting anyway.  The concept works well when a uniquely talented individual is needed to fill a distinctive job position,  but few people wander around wondering what a real estate agent does—especially if they are already a real estate agent for a competitive company.  Also, since real estate companies are always hiring, the need to get the word out concerning a “fleeting”  or difficult-to-fill job opening is inconsequential.

2.  Social recruiting is becoming the creation and ongoing development of individual allegiances between the employer and a group of candidates.

Peter calls the shift, “Post-social recruiting,” and he makes the following observations concerning its potential:

“Post-social recruiting means interactions with prospects, candidates and applicants that make them feel at home with and thus committed to an organization. It gives employers a way to forge an enduring bond - a psychological rather than simply an electronic connection - with select talented populations.”

As we’ve mentioned in the past WorkPuzzle discussions, private social networking technologies are empowering both companies and candidates to make this shift.  New tools and best practices are starting to emerge that will make this a reality.

For real estate hiring managers, this change should be welcomed.  Once a few minor technology hurdles are overcome, the skills needed for proficiency in this arena come naturally to most managers.  Why?  Because they are the same skills that once made them good agents.  Think about it--building allegiances among a large group of prospects with the expectation of transactions developing over time is very similar to post-social recruiting.

3.  Discount real estate brokers have created a huge “career support hole” among experienced real estate agents.   This hole can be filled by online career communities inside the framework of private social networks.

If you’ve been inside the real estate industry for a while, you may have not noticed what has happened to corporate America in the last two decades.   Peter describes it this way:

“In the early 1990s, economic conditions and competition forced employers to change the way they dealt with employees. They could no longer afford the expensive overhead of managing workers' careers, so they jettisoned both the career ladder and the gold watch. They still employed those workers, of course, but each person was on their own when it came to managing their career.

In the two decades since then, individual workers have had no place to hang their career hat. No homestead where they can get the practical and psychological support they need and deserve. Professional societies and associations have long served that purpose for a person's field of work, but nothing has existed for a person's career.

 And now, the potential exists to correct that situation and, in the process, create a formidable, new talent acquisition strategy. Post-social recruiting involves using social technology to create true career communities - not today's posers that are actually databases of candidates - without the expensive overhead of traditional corporate career support. These virtual "careersteads" nurture allegiance among talented workers and that bond, in turn, transforms them into genuine employment prospects.”

If you think about it, something similar has happened to the real estate industry in the last five to seven years (and perhaps during previous downturns as well).  There has been an exodus of experienced agents from full-service real estate firms to discount brokers who offer better commission splits, but very little support for those agents who joined these firms. 

Here is a chance at your own epiphany:  The opportunity exists to engage these “support-starved” agents who are now working for discount brokers in a cost-efficient manner through the framework of private social networks. 

If these agents can get the career support they're missing from a single local source, they will eventually build trust and allegiance to the person providing that support.  At the end of the recruiting process, attraction will always work better than promotion.  This is the essence of attraction.

---

Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Post-Social Recruiting: Peter Weddle's Epiphany

Hopefully, you've made it to your local supplement store, and you're well equipped to stay healthy as we head into the holiday season (see last week's discussion if you're confused on this).  Enough of the fun stuff--now it's back to work!

Last week I ran across an article written by Peter Weddle that I found profoundly insightful.   I reference Peter's work from time to time not only because his observations are instructive, but also because his viewpoints are based on the broader recruiting industry (not just the real estate industry).  

In this article, he weighs in on the impact that social networking has had and will have on the recruiting industry.  I don't want to spoil his writing by chopping up what he wrote.  So, I am going to republish the entire article below and then draw some conclusions for real estate recruiting in our next discussion.

So, here you go:

Post Social Recruiting, by Peter Weddle

"For the past five years, social recruiting has primarily been implemented in two ways: data mining pools of talent and networking with prospective candidates at social media sites. While such techniques will continue to be important, the thrust of social recruiting in the future will shift to a far different kind of activity: building and leveraging individual allegiance at employer and staffing firm sites. It's the next phase in the War for Talent - the era of post-social recruiting.

The current incarnation of social recruiting has been stimulated and structured by social media sites. The way we socialize with candidates is governed by the format, functionality and focus of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. These sites enable us to promote our brands, advertise to and connect with large pools of professionals in a wide range of industries.

These interactions have effectively defined social recruiting as a fleeting and thoroughly functional relationship. Basically, we're saying to prospects: "Hey, we're a buyer of talent, you're a seller of talent, let's do a deal." While it isn't the most alluring of propositions, the fact that it is aimed at a cohort of the workforce not easily reached by other media - so-called passive job seekers - has made it an important addition to our recruiting capabilities.

The word "social," however, means something very different from fleeting and functional relationships. Dictionary.com defines the term as "pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club." Translated for our purposes, it is the creation and ongoing development of individual allegiance.

That's post-social, at least as we have to this point understood social recruiting, but truly social if we intend to use social technology on a large enough scale to address more than one-off requirements.

Post-social recruiting means interactions with prospects, candidates and applicants that make them feel at home with and thus committed to an organization. It gives employers and staffing firms a way to forge an enduring bond - a psychological rather than simply an electronic connection - with select talent populations.

Why is it the future of social recruiting? Because of the past. In the early 1990s, economic conditions and competition forced employers to change the way they dealt with employees. They could no longer afford the expensive overhead of managing workers' careers, so they jettisoned both the career ladder and the gold watch. They still employed those workers, of course, but each person was on their own when it came to managing their career.

In the two decades since then, individual workers have had no place to hang their career hat. No homestead where they can get the practical and psychological support they need and deserve. Professional societies and associations have long served that purpose for a person's field of work, but nothing has existed for a person's career.

And now, the potential exists to correct that situation and, in the process, create a formidable, new talent acquisition strategy. Post-social recruiting involves using social technology to create true career communities - not today's posers that are actually databases of candidates - without the expensive overhead of traditional corporate career support. These virtual "careersteads" nurture allegiance among talented workers and that bond, in turn, transforms them into genuine employment prospects.

Careersteading for Talent.  A post-social community is not a network of active or passive job seekers. It is not a one-off interaction based on a specific opening. Rather, a careerstead is an ongoing relationship that employers and staffing firms establish with prospects (i.e., people who haven't even expressed an interest in working for an organization) as well as with candidates and applicants.

Its purpose is not near term sourcing, but rather, long term interactions that help to promote the career success of those who participate. That effort, in turn, develops and sustains individual allegiance, and it's that bond which generates recruiting benefits. These benefits include:

1.  A heightened viral effect, because those who participate feel safe and supported enough to tell their peers about the community. The allegiance community members feel toward the organization encourages them to champion participation in it to others in their field. 

2.  A heightened employment propensity, because those who participate feel as if the organization has their best interests at heart. The allegiance of community members encourages them to work for the organization as many times as possible throughout their career.
In effect, a careerstead is a highly focused, self-sustaining talent generator that exclusively serves the recruiting interests of a single employer or staffing firm.

How do you create such a community? Not with questions and answers on a Facebook page. And, not with job postings in a LinkedIn group or on Twitter feed. No, the only way to establish a true careerstead - one that scales the power of social technology to address all or most of an organization's talent requirements - is by breaking all the rules we've learned to date about social recruiting. I'll talk more about that in my next column.

Stay tuned for part two of this discussion.  If you have some thoughts you'd like to share now, you can join us in the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC) discussion group.

---

Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

The Infographic Craze: The Revenge of the Non-Technical Majors

As Dave mentioned in his last post, we've been covering some technically heavy topics in the past couple of months. I thought I'd follow his lead and share something that is a little less serious, unrelated to our normal charter, and (I believe) very interesting.

The topic: Infographics. 

If you’re not familiar with this phenomenon, an infographic is a computer generated picture that boils down a lot of information into a single page.  Because the presentation is graphical, the mind is able to soak in much more information from a small space.

There are several infographic sites on the internet, but one of my favorites is visual.ly.  On this site alone there are hundreds of infographics on every topic imaginable—and some of them are truly amazing. 

For fun, I picked one infographic that I thought many of you may have an interest in digesting (pun intended) as we head into the winter months. 

As we all try to stay healthy this time of year, there seems to be a myriad of nutritional supplements available and even more information on how each one could possibly cure a common aliment . 

How could a person possibly boil all the information about such a complex topic onto a single page?   Here you go:

This infographic has become so popular that the author doubled down on his creation and built an interactive version. The interactive version connects the supplement bubble to the research studies that guided its representation on the infographic. 

You could spend years reading through all of these studies, and yet this person has graphically boiled the information down to one page.  If you walked into your local GNC with this document in your hand, you’d probably spend less money and make better decisions.

Are there applications for this technology in the real estate industry?  Perhaps.  If you think about it, a real estate transaction is very complex and the process is typically not understood by the consumer.  Maybe this will get your creative juices flowing on how you can serve your customers more effectively.

Or, maybe you’ll just know what supplements to choose to keep from getting sick this winter...  

---

Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Content Rules: How Becoming a Micro-Publisher Can Make Your Real Estate Office More Successful – Part 2

Last week, I highlighted a book called Content Rules, written by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman.  Content Rules shows how any small business, even a local real estate office, can harness marketing power by becoming a micro-publisher.  You may want to read Part 1 of this discussion before continuing, to avoid missing anything.

 There are great benefits to becoming a content provider on the internet.  For example, Mike Volpe, a VP of marketing at HubSpot, recently reported companies that blog (i.e. produce content) generate 55% more website traffic when compared to companies that don’t. In addition to more traffic, companies that produce content recieve 97% more links coming into their sites.

 Despite the obvious benefits of micro-publishing, most companies are hesitant to commit to regularly producing content. The question we often get from owners and managers is, “How could I possibly do this? It seems complex, a little overwhelming, and a lot of work!”

 Yes, it is going to take some work—there is no way around that.  But, the complexity can be reduced if you start the process with a plan and a set of principles.  Complex Rules has published a simple framework that can help anyone get started down the path of micro-publishing.   There are 11 of these best practices in the book, here are the best six (in my opinion):  

1. “Embrace being a publisher” – Put your quality content online: blogs, videos, podcasts, email newsletters, ebooks, white papers, tweets, webinars, photos and images.

2. “Build momentum” – Set a clear goal. Make sure your content includes triggers that compel users to take actions that will eventually result in buying your products and services. Content itself does not sell; it sets up the sale by giving useful information.

3. “Speak human” – Adopt a natural voice online. Don’t put on airs. Avoid jargon, such as “impactful,” “synergy,” “proactive,” “end-to-end,” “win-win” and “leverage” used as a verb. “Write the way you talk.”

4. “Share or solve; don’t shill” – Your content’s purpose is not to sell, but to educate and inform. This engages people and causes a favorable reaction to your firm. To illustrate: The Pampers division of Procter & Gamble produces online “Welcome to Parenthood” videos. The videos don’t sell diapers; they inform new parents about babies, and cover topics such as “potty training,” naps, etc...

5. “Do something unexpected” – Customers love it when you or your firm does things differently. To gain attention, surprise your online visitors. This works well for B2B firms that want to stand out from their competition.

6. “Play to your strengths” – You don’t have to produce the web’s most entertaining videos, podcasts, or blogs, but you must publish some type of quality material online.

To wrap up this discussion, I want to connect micro-publishing principles to recruiting. It is self-evident that publishing great content will help your real estate office be more successful at satisfying customers and selling more real estate. But can it also help you recruit experienced agents more successfully?

 Yes it can—because attraction is always more powerful than promotion.

Experienced agent recruiting is dominated by promotional activities.  Cold calls, direct emails, staged networking events, etc. are the tools that most real estate managers are using to recruit experienced agents.  Like the direct mail companies who soliciate new card customers, this strategy does produce some results when executed with a high level of persistence.  However, both candidates and managers often get weary in this process.

If you think you can outlast your competitors in the application of these promotional activities, go for it. But you better hope they don't find out how to attract agents to their cause.  If you think about it, Apple didn't become the most valuable company in the world by promoting their products.  They created something compelling and figured out how to attract people to it.  

By becoming a successful micro-publisher and providing great content in your local community, you position yourself as an attractive thought-leader. Successful real estate agents want insightful information and they want to be connected to intersting and  influential people.  If you become a source for compelling information, you’ll have agents congregating around you.  That is every hiring manager's dream.

---

Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Content Rules: How Becoming a Micro-Publisher Can Make Your Real Estate Office More Successful

A few months ago, I acquired a summary of a book called Content Rules, written by Ann Handley & C.C. Chapman.  Our company subscribes to getAbstract, a business book summary service that helps me be more selective about the books I want to spend time reading.

The summary of Content Rules caught my eye because it makes the point that the marketing of products and services is increasingly becoming connected to content creation and management.  The getAbstract summary put it this way:

“On the Internet, a brand new start-up, even a one-person shop, can compete directly and quite favorably with the biggest Fortune 100 companies – as long it offers superior online content.

Today, consumers find the products and services they want by using search engines. Your goal is to create engaging, compelling, and memorable content –blogs, videos, podcasts, and websites – that people like, link to, and pass on to others. This can help your material show up on the first page of search engine results – even ahead of material from huge corporations.”

As a real estate company, have you ever thought of yourself as a content provider?  If not, maybe you should. 

Of course at a basic level, the primary benefit a real estate company offers a consumer is relevant and helpful information concerning the process of buying and/or selling homes.  In this role, you are providing content. 

However, there is a tendency to want to consolidate this content production role under large corporate-powered platforms.  While this is of some benefit, if you stop there you’ve left yourself vulnerable to competitors who leverage the concept of micro-publishing.

As you know, real estate is still a “local business” in most parts of the country.  And on a micro-level, a local real estate office has the opportunity to become the real estate “domain expert” for a local community or neighborhood.   How is this done?  By becoming a niche (real estate/ your specific community or neighborhood) content provider on the internet.

Content Rules gives several (non-real estate) examples on how this can be done.  Here is one I thought was interesting:

“As the new director of instruction at Reynolds Golf Academy in Greensboro, Georgia, golf pro Charlie King badly needed to bring in golfing students, but he had a very limited marketing budget.  King turned to the web to build his clientele by showcasing the Academy with quality online content that would attract golfers who wanted to strengthen their games. He presented useful golfing tips and explained that golf is not as difficult as it may seem. King believed that his expertise and humor would draw golfers to his online activities and thus, eventually, to the school.

In February 2008, King launched his blog, “New Rules of Golf Instruction,” offering free lessons via blog posts and videos. In March 2009, he published an ebook, New Rules of Golf Instruction, as a free download from his blog and Reynolds’ website.  Golf magazine’s website ran an ad-libbed video featuring King teaching a satirical lesson showing angry golfers “The Proper Way to Throw a Club” into the water. The video went viral; at 1.8 million viewers and climbing, it is continuing to generate hits on the Academy’s website, providing great publicity and great fun.”

[Note:  Charlie's video was moved to Golf.com (a site owned by Sports Illustrated) because it got so popular.  To view it, cut the paste the following link into your browser address window:  http://www.golf.com/video/proper-way-throw-your-club ]

Do you think the average golf pro at your local country club is a marketing expert?  Probably not.  If guys like Charlie King can do this, so can you!

The key to playing this game is to turn yourself into a content provider that produces quality content.  What’s quality content?  It’s content that your target audience would not only find interesting, but also helpful and sometimes entertaining.  

Here is a quick checklist for the content your produce.   Quality content is always…

True – Never deal in false messages. As author Annie Lamott teaches, “Good writing is about telling the truth.”

Relevant – Your message must be purposeful and must matter to your audience.

Human – Don’t write about your product; write about how people use it.

Passionate – People will not care about your products unless they see that you do. Use the strength of your feelings to engage them.

Original – An unusual story or a “fresh perspective” captures readers’ interest.

Surprising – Being a bit unexpected is interesting; being shocking is a way to go viral.

In our next WorkPuzzle, we’ll cover some additional guidelines for becoming a content provider and show you how this applies to recruiting. 

---

Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Tidemark Online Community: Dipping Your Toe Into a Private Social Network

Over the last few weeks, we’ve focused significant time and dialog on the topic of social media. In the process, we’ve attempted to give you insight concerning an up and coming business trend—the widespread use of private social networks for business applications.

If you’re new to the conversation, you may want to read a few of the previous posts on this topic.  Visit WorkPuzzle and scroll back through the discussions over the last month or so. It won’t take long to catch up.

In my personal conversations with readers over the last few weeks, I've noticed there still seems to be a little confusion and concern about how all this “private social network stuff" works. If you are confused, don’t feel discouraged.  Emerging technologies will always feel awkward and intimidating at first, but will later seem less frightening and even routine (you probably don’t get concerned about opening up your email, right?).    

How do you get over the initial awkwardness of new technology? One way is to join a private social network as a user before running a network (a virtual office) by yourself.

 And that is exactly what we are offering you today. 

I'd like to personally invite each of you to join the Tidemark Online Community as a way of “dipping your toe” into the concept of a private social network.

I promise you, joining is relatively painless (it takes about 3 minutes to create your profile) and you can control your involvement and privacy. By joining our online community you’ll experience a little bit of how we do business at Tidemark.

Now keep in mind—Tidemark is not a real estate company. Some of the issues that we work on in the virtual office do not directly translate to the ideal real estate virtual office. However, by joining and participating in our private social network, you’ll start to see how becoming a community manager of a virtual real estate office could work for you.

To get started, click on the link below. We look forward to seeing  you on the virtual side of Tidemark.

Join the Tidemark Online Community

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

RecruitingSocial: The Manager’s Role in a Virtual Office--Part 1

The rationale behind RecruitingSocial is that experienced agent recruiting will be much more effective (in general) if you allow competitive agents to become involved with your team before you ask them to leave their current broker. 

The traditional recruiting model of coaxing individuals to make a change from a position of dissatisfaction (i.e. “You’re unhappy with your current situation, come work with me and life will be better…”) will always be an uphill battle.  A person has to be in a lot of pain to make a change under these circumstances.

A better way is to initially let candidates experience and gain benefit from your organization as part of their normal business activities--this makes conceptualizing a change seem much more natural.  In essence, you’re encouraging competitive agents to test-drive (become involved in) your organization before making a new commitment.

This involvement is called collaboration, and it is something that is very compelling to the up-and-coming generation of agents.  You will also find that it is interesting to seasoned agents who are embracing new technologies to remain competitive.

As Dave mentioned earlier this week, the best place for this type of collaboration to happen is in a virtual office.  While physical offices will remain an important part of any real estate company, collaboration that includes a broad range of participants will not typically happen there.  Technology has equipped conversations to take place outside the physical realm, and this is where the water is flowing downhill.

A couple of questions we’re starting to hear frequently as we share ideas about virtual offices powered by private social networks are…

1.  “What is the manager’s role in the virtual office?”

and

2. “With all the responsibilities the manager already has, how can this significant responsibility be added to an already full plate?”

To answer the first question, I believe it is important to understand the reason a competitive agent would potentially be interested in collaborating with your organization--especially if that collaboration happened inside the safety of a private social network.

Master Burnett, a social networking thought leader at BraveNewTalent, recently documented the following trends concerning how talented individuals are now using social networks in the workplace:

• Social Networks are becoming the new “meeting places” for even local citizens.
• Social Networks are becoming the backbone of the modern support system.
• Social Networks are where content gets discovered.
• Social Networks are where discussions happen (whether you participate or not).
• Social Networks are where perceptions are formed, vetted, and cemented.

Let these discoveries sink in for a few minutes...  

If this type of information is really starting to flow between individuals in the real estate industry along social networking pipelines, there is a huge advantage to becoming a significant node in this information exchange.  You’ll never be the center of the information exchange (social networking doesn’t work that way), but your goal should be for your private social network to become an important meeting place for these discussions to take place.

So what is your role as a manager?  The best analogy I’ve heard on this topic is to think of yourself as a gardener.  What do gardeners do?

1.  Gardeners plan.  How do you want your social network to look when it is full grown?  What groups and topics would make your social network interesting?  What areas would need more of your personal attention than others?  If you start small, how do you plan to expand the boundaries of your garden?

2.  Gardeners plant.  With an initial framework in place, think about how to seed your groups and discussion so they can get off to a good start.  This can mean getting advocates (perhaps existing agents or staff members) to take responsibility for certain groups and discussion topics.

3.  Gardeners weed.  In every social network, there are discussions that need some moderation and oversight from someone in charge (remember this is a private network that you own).  While the idea is not to be authoritarian or heavy-handed, it does help to have someone shape discussions when they become unruly.

4.  Gardeners harvest and replant.  Every discussion eventually has a natural end.  Someone needs to be responsible for pulling the plug and re-starting discussions that are relevant and interesting.  Without constant replanting, the whole network dies.

Now for question #2 -- How can the typical over-worked real estate manager make all this happen?  

We’ll have to put this off until the next blog.  I will tell you this—it is not as hard as you might imagine, and many real estate managers are a natural fit for the tasks required to be successful at this.  Stay tuned… 

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

RecruitingSocial: The Need for a Private Social Network

As mentioned in the last post, Tidemark is in the process of pre-launching RecruitingSocial—the new social media recruiting tool that has been under development for the past few months. 

As we constructed this tool, one of the business trends that we chose to take advantage of was the introduction (and now aggressive growth) of private social networks for business applications.  

As you may know, there has been a “land grab” for technologies that equip businesses to build and maintain private social networks.  In June, I wrote a detailed blog on this topic.  If you don’t remember this discussion, you may want to re-read it  before digesting the rest of this article. 

In the private social networking arena, there are more than 50 companies that are all competing for attention in this (now) crowded business demographic.  As you might imagine, each company tries to differentiate itself with a unique approach and focus, but the over-arching theme is arming businesses to harness the promise of social networking technology. 

The alternative to focusing on a private social network approach, is to attempt to build tools that help managers make sense of and navigate the major public social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  There are some outstanding companies that have consultancies focused on this model.  One such company is Social Media Examiner.  It is amazing the number of good ideas this company generates in the area of marketing businesses on public social networks.  There is much to learn. 

In developing RecruitingSocial, one of the early decisions we had to make was whether to put our emphasis on a private social network approach, or on public social network methodologies.  Both concepts have advantages and disadvantages, and both methodologies have compelling examples of success. 

We ended up choosing the private network approach because we believe this gives the individual real estate manager a way of building a platform that he/she can optimize for recruiting success.

So where does that leave public social networks in this process?  We believe that these environments are best used as support mechanisms for a manager’s private social network.  

Although we didn’t realize it at the time we conceptualized this model, there were other thought leaders who were heading down the same path.  One of the individuals who does a great job of articulating this philosophy is Michael Hyatt in his best-selling book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World:

“A good social media strategy has three components: 

1. A Homebase.  This is a digital property you own and control.  It is where your loyal fans gather.  It can be as simple as a blog or as complex as a self-hosted community.  Regardless, it is where you direct all internet traffic.  Why?  Because this is the place where you can best sell your ideas or products.  You control the borders and determine who has access. 

2.  Embassies.  These are places you don’t own, but where you have a registered profile.  In other words, you have a regular presence on someone else’s property.  You engage in conversations with those who congregate there.  Examples would include Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, or even other blogs you follow.  You generally need a “Passport” (verified credentials) granted by the site owner to maintain residency or participate in conversations. 

3.  Outposts.  These are places you don’t own nor have a regular presence.  Instead, you simply listen into conversations about you, your brand, your company, or topics that interest you.  For example, I have search columns in HootSuite that monitor mentions of both my name and my company.  I also have Google Alerts that monitor the same information wherever it may occur on the Web. 

The bottom line is that all the social media tools available fit into one of these three buckets.  If you are just involved in social media for the sake of entertainment, you may not need a homebase.  But if you are serious about building a platform, that’s precisely where you need to start.  From there you can set up embassies and outposts.” 

RecruitingSocial has been designed to be the “Homebase” for the real estate manager who wants to develop a social media platform for engaging competitive agents (candidates) in their local market.  

Sound overwhelming?  It would be if you had to conceptualize and build everything yourself.  That’s why RecruitingSocial was built—to simplify the process of building and maintaining a social media platform for your office. 

In the upcoming blogs, we’ll discuss the details of how all this works. 

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

RecruitingSocial: Pre-Launch for WorkPuzzle Subscribers

As you know, we’ve spent the month of September exploring the impact that social media is having on the real estate industry.  Most of our thoughts have been pointed at recruiting and the potential that exists for those who become proficient inside this new paradigm.

During these discussions, we’ve hinted that Tidemark was in the process of developing some new tools to help our clients and other leaders in the real estate industry make an impact in the world of social media.

Today, we’re proud to announce the pre-launch of “RecruitingSocial.”  Like HiringCenter and TalentPipeline (the other products Tidemark offers), RecruitingSocial has been designed specifically for the real estate industry and will focus on helping managers become proficient in the use of social media for recruiting and other business purposes.

At this point, our intentions are only being revealed to WorkPuzzle readers.  The public launch of RecruitingSocial will not occur until later this month.

We’re offering a pre-launch among WorkPuzzle readers because many of you have had a hand is shaping this product.  I won’t go into detail, but we’ve been in numerous meetings and online conversations where we hear things like, “Can you guys help us with social media?” or “Why don’t you guys develop something that is in alignment with social media.” or “We like what HiringCenter does, but aren’t we missing a big part of where candidates spend their time?” etc...  We can’t promise that we’ve addressed every issue that has been brought up, but we have listened to much of your input.

So, first of all, thank you for urging us to go down this path and trusting us with your thoughts and insights.  In return for your efforts, we’d like to spend the next couple of weeks discussing what we’ve created and how RecruitingSocial can have an impact on your organization.  Also, we have some fun in store for you along the way.

More to come in upcoming WorkPuzzle discussions…

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.