Currently browsing Mike VanDervort

Like many other HR professionals I found myself unemployed during one of the worst economic crises this country has ever seen.  It has been a rough eight months of uncertainty – leads that didn’t pan out and hopes crushed – but I kept my head up and moved forward.  Luckily I recently landed myself a new job!

A lot of people have asked me what I have done to keep myself busy over these past eight months.  I worked a few jobs to make sure I could pay my bills, but  I didn’t stop there.  I knew that I had to do something to make me stand out from a crowd of thousands of other highly qualified HR professionals who are in a similar position.

With that said I decided to capitalize on social media to develop my personal brand.  (You hear a lot of great information on this topic by Dan Schawbel on his “Personal Branding Blog” so check him out if you can.)  What could be more perfect than an avenue to market yourself to a multitude of people across the globe?  Best of all…it’s FREE!    I started with Facebook.  Policing your profile for inappropriate comments, pictures and information from friends is essential!  Also, consider taking precautions by making your profile private or limiting what the public can see.  These are easy options available to you under the “settings” tab.  You never know when a potential employer could be viewing your profile.  After tackling a cleanup of my Facebook profile I began to share it with professional colleagues.

LinkedIn was a bit easier to set up as it is a professional networking site, whereas Facebook is considered more personal with professional networking becoming more frequent.  Your LinkedIn profile is essentially an online resume that you can continually tweak.  Know that there are limits to the amount of information you can include in sections of your profile, meaning characters.  You don’t need to put everything on your profile, just enough to make you look enticing to a potential employer.  If you have positive relationships with past managers and colleagues see if they will leave you a recommendation of your work.  Include a picture but make it professional and make sure you can actually see your face – crop it if necessary so it is a head shot.  Join common interest groups and contribute to conversations.  Lastly, solicit feedback from other HR professionals but be able to take constructive criticism!

Out of all the social media applications out there I must say that Twitter is my favorite.  It takes a while for most people to get the hang of Twitter but when they do it’s a breeze.  You need to ask yourself some questions before you take on this application.  Why do you want to use Twitter?  What kind of persona do you want to maintain?  For me, I decided I would use it mostly for professional purposes.  I believe the most important portion of your Twitter profile is your “one-line bio.”  This is what defines you and what most people will look at to determine whether or not they want to follow you.  Include things that are important to you.  For example, my one-line bio currently reads “Creator/Editor of HRGumbo.com, blogger, HR pro, social media nerd, Prez Big Bend SHRM, Tech. Dir. HR Florida.”  You need to be selective as you have only 160 characters to get your persona across.  Tweet – a post on Twitter is commonly referred to as a tweet.  You’ve got 140 characters to say something – pose a question, make a statement, recommend someone, link to your profile on LinkedIn, etc.  Develop your own rules for who you follow – you don’t need to follow everyone!  I follow people who are in the HR field, others who have common interests like philanthropy or people from where I have traveled/lived.  Just because someone follows you doesn’t mean you need to return the favor.  I currently follow 323 individuals and no I do not know most of them.  However, at one point or another we connected or I found something they said to be interesting, making them worth following.  If you are not sure who you should follow, feel free to follow me or look for recommendations via #followfriday. 

The idea is to create a buzz around who you are and what you do.  Take the initiative to explore these social media applications.  Don’t just sit back and watch, get involved.  Share your opinion to a discussion in a LinkedIn group.  Become a fan of a organization on Facebook.  Follow an HR blogger on Twitter and retweet (repost) something they said you find interesting.   

With a strong reputation in the business community as my foundation I have been able to develop a personal brand in the world of social media.  Although I may not be some big named business guru I am learning and helping to educate others while working my way up the ladder.  My last piece of advice is to connect with successful HR colleagues that have gone above and beyond like Kris Dunn of The HR Capitalist or Mike VanDervort of The Human Race Horses.  Use resources like Fistful of Talent to read about hot HR topics, learn other viewpoints, share, comment and discuss.  Reach out and ask for advice, it can’t hurt.  I reached out to HR pros like Michael Long of The Red Recruiter and Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR to ask for advice and to share ideas.  It has paid off and these friendships that I have developed may come in handy along my career path.  There are so many resources out there available at your fingertips.  Find some way to make you stand out above all other candidates and make the most of your unemployment!

What would you do to make the best of unemployment?  How would you or do you make yourself stand out from the crowd?  Please share your suggestions!

BEEP…BEEP…BEEEEEP! Snooze. 

That would be the sound of my 5:00 am wake-up call and me not wanting to get up!  Luckily our rooms were equipped with a coffee pot and supplies – just enough to get my caffeine fix before starting another long day.  After getting the #SHRMFL hashtag started with some early morning tweets I dragged myself to the conference center.

I made my way through the hustle and bustle to a session I have been waiting for for quite a while – “Blogging and HR:  Can the two peacefully coexist?” – where I finally met a few idols of mine for the first time:   Kris Dunn, Jessica Lee, Michael VanDervort, Laurie Ruettimann and Michael Long.  The coolest part of all of this is that they knew exactly who I was thanks to my presence on Twitter and Facebook – quite an honor.  Next up – general session.

As the doors opened at 10:00 am sharp for the first general session, attendees were greeted by members of ZANCOS, a stilt walking and power skipping percussion ensemble from SeaWorld Orlando.  These guys rocked the audience who remained on their feet cheering throughout the entire performance.  It was truly spectacular.  Attendees were welcomed by the conference emcee, Wendy Chioji, former anchor of NBC’s WESH 2 News in Orlando, FL.  Her debut as conference emcee last year was a huge success and it is great to have her back for a second go-around with HR Florida.  After a message from Carol McDaniel, 2009 Conference Chair, HR Florida President, Kitty Fields introduced a recorded welcome message from Governor Charlie Crist, whose poignant message regarding the economic impact of the recession on the state of Florida was well received. 

Next up was  a keynote presentation by Dr. Christine Dumas, a lifestyle, consumer health and fitness reporter, and author whose stories are featured regularly on NBC, Weekend Live on Fox News, the Sirius Stars Network, Oprah and The View.  Dr. Dumas kept her audience engaged as she spoke about transformational health care and its impact on the workplace.  At the conclusion of the general session attendees were ushered to the sold out expo hall for lunch and networking with over 150 exhibitors and sponsors.

Later on that afternoon was the official “Grand Opening Reception” for the expo hall – complete with live entertainment, drinks and tasty hors d’oeuvres!  If you didn’t get a chance to try some beef wellington, you don’t know what you were missing (as I drool thinking about it).  Onlookers watched as Jeff Civillico performed a vegas style act, complete with juggling and audience participation.  Jeff did an awesome job!

Bloggers: (L-R) Kris Dunn, Mike VanDervort, Michael Long, Laurie Ruettimann, Jessica Lee

Last but not least I made a stop at my favorite conference event so far - the official HR Florida State Conference TweetUP!  A big shout out to Mike VanDervort of The Human Race Horses for setting it up for us.  At last count we had over 30 attendees, including our celebrity blogging panel and a few new friends.  I had a blast meeting fans of HR Gumbo and sharing experiences with them.  It was pure gratification to see all the hard work I have put in developing a social media presence for  Big Bend SHRM, HR Gumbo and HR Florida pay off.

As chapter president for Big Bend SHRM I am a voting member of the HR Florida State Council.  This year I am also volunteering as one of two Technology Directors that manage the council’s presence in social media.  On top of that I volunteered to be a member of the 2009 conference team.  Needless to say I love it all!

Roger loves stuffing bags!

Today was a long day for us at the HR Florida State Conference.  It began with me waking up at 5 am not being able to sleep because I was thinking about all the prep work left to do!  After a few hours of web updates, posts on Facebook and tweets I headed down to the conference team room to grab my radio and hit the conference center floor.  First big task:  stuff over 1,300 conference attendee goodie bags, with help from members of our incredible conference team filling in for missing volunteers.  After 3.5 hours, a few dozen paper cuts, a slice and dice from a pair of scissors and some much needed coffee and pastries, a cheer rang through the hall as the last bag was stuffed and ready to go!  With the bright green bags piled high we dispersed and found other tasks to tackle.

At this point I made my way up to help out in a pre-conference session, “Social Media + HR” presented by Kris Dunn from The HR Capitalist and Fistful of Talent.  The session was packed with 30 HR pros eager learn what Kris had to say.  We were also graced with appearances by two other fellow HR bloggers Jessica Lee from Fistful of Talent and Mike VanDervort from The Human Race Horses.

Kris did a phenomenal overview of why social media should be important to you as an HR pro, including answering the question “Who cares?” – “Your customers, your candidates, your kids, your employees and people who want to give you money as an HR pro!”  Kris thoroughly covered tidbits on Google Reader and its importance to an HR pro with a drive to learn.  Attendees had their laptops and followed his every move – slowly getting the hang of it. 

Next came a detailed look into Twitter.  With the help of Jessica, Mike and myself Kris was able to lead attendees to creating their own accounts and tweeting for the very first time.  This caused quite a few smiles across the room - that turned into lots of excellent questions.  By the end of the session everyone seemed pretty content and proud of themselves – maybe even a little less scared of social media!

As attendees began to flood the hotel and registration area I headed off to a technical rehearsal for our general sessions followed by a meeting with the registration team, making name badges for our blogging panel and finally dinner.  No sooner did I set my napkin on the table I was out the door to review pictures taken by our wonderful photographer from Jobing.com for our following day’s presentations.  I can’t forget helping the HR Florida secretary prepare gift baskets for our silent auction benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation and the SHRM Foundation.

Last but certainly not least I made it back to my hotel room just past midnight to right this update and head to bed.  Another early day awaits me but I look forward to each and every second of it!