Top 10 Countdown: Social HR Camp’s Biggest Moments 2015

Last Friday, we christened Red Branch HQ with our first ever conference, Social HR Camp 2015, hosted by Jeff Waldman (@JeffWaldmanHR). Some of the industry’s biggest pros flew in to present, like Rayanne Thorn (@Ray_anne), Crystal Miller (@TheOneCrystal) and Dwane Lay (@DwayneLay). And fortunately, we had some pros of our own from the 402 like Maren Hogan (@MarenHogan), Rob Garcia (@RobGarciaSJ), Josh Berry (@Josh_Berry) and Jason Lauritsen (@JasonLauritsen).

Let’s take a look at the top 10 biggest moments from #SHRC15 I attended!

 

10. CrystalKnows

The audience was in awe, when Josh Berry (Josh_Berry) of VentureTech, opened our eyes to CrystalKnows. Known as the biggest improvement to email since spellcheck, Crystal Knows, is a technology that tailors email messaging to a person’s communication style based on an analysis of their social media messaging.

9. Data doesn’t Lie, People Lie

“Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” – Aaron Levenstein

Dwane Lay (@DwanyeLay), got us thinking about how misleading statistics can actually be in his IgniteHR session. He stated that statistics don’t lie, people lie, and shared with us how data can be misrepresented to paint a different picture. The key thing to remember when dealing with data is CONTEXT.

8. Protected Concerted Activity

Kelli Lieurence, a partner at Baird Holm (@BairdHolm) law offices in downtown Omaha schooled her session attendees on what employers can and can’t do when it comes to setting guidelines for employee social media usage. She quizzed the audience and found that most were a little confused. It all comes down to protected concerted activity, which is a labor policy to define employee protection against employer retaliation. This is a legal principle under the subject of the freedom of association, and it gives employees the right to do a lot more on social media than most think. In fact, if I wanted, I could take our Red Branch Media logo and turn it into a Red Branch Penis logo and post it all over the internet. Don’t worry Maren and Jeremy, I won’t do that. (Ed note: We could technically fire her for that though….don’t worry Shaley, we won’t do that!)

7. It’s time to get rid of stock photos!

If you’re trying to improve your employer brand through social media, you should probably ditch the stock photos. Eric Foutch (@erockfoutch) shared this extremely important tidbit in his IgniteHR session on promoting your employer brand through social media. I’m glad Eric included this in his speech, because I think many employers are definitely missing this memo!

6. Actually, wait… don’t get rid of them forever.

Stock photos still have a purpose in that they can be used to bring your candidate personas to life, according to employer branding extraordinaire, Crystal Miller (@TheOneCrystal). Crystal encouraged us all to think more deeply about our recruitment messaging by creating candidate personas that stick. She advises placing a stock photo to each candidate persona to make them more memorable during the creation of recruitment messaging.

5. FOMO has turned into JOMO.

We’ve all heard of Fear of Missing Out, but have you heard of JOMO? It’s the joy of missing out and it has to do with the feeling of being overwhelmed with social media. Rob Garcia (@RobGarciaSJ) introduced us to this term in his presentation on building and maintaining social relationships and hyper-connecting. We learned about Dunbar’s Number, which is 150, and is the average number of stable relationships one person can maintain at a time. That may seem like a lot, but if you have 2,000 + Twitter followers, chances are you can’t engage with each and every one of them. Enlist in social media management tools like SproutSocial to ensure you engage with as many followers as you can.

4. Don’t treat people how you want to be treated, treat people how they want to be treated.

It’s something you may have heard before, or perhaps, you’ve seen it on an Instagram or Pinterest post, but it never quite resonated with me until it came from Rayanne Thorn (@Ray_Anne). I think everyone can agree, her closing session was powerful. The teary eyes and goosebumps were not expected at an HR conference, but wow… they happened. Rayanne’s closing session was about the merger of your personal and professional lives. She gave endless good advice, but this tip was one of my favs. You can’t rely on treating people how they want to be treated, because not everyone has the same expectations as you do.

3. Confront Your Employees Now!

You can see Maren Hogan (@MarenHogan) more than you see your own family, and STILL learn something from her every single day (I’m not sucking up, it’s true). She’s like an endless fountain of wisdom and youth (okay, now I’m sucking up). Maren shared with #SHRC15 that when it comes to leadership, there isn’t an end goal, it’s just always to be better. Leadership doesn’t just stop, it always improves and one of the ways you can do this is by offering praise, constructive feedback and confronting your employees immediately when something is wrong.

2. How a Real CTA Should Work

It’s something that seems so obvious to me now, but for some reason it just never clicked until Crystal Miller (@TheOneCrystal) said it. CTA stands for call to action, and anyone in marketing knows it’s the most important part of the message. However, Crystal brought up the reward that needs to be promised after the reader/ candidate/ consumer completes the action. I sat in that chair, and thought about all of the call to actions I’ve written in the past year, trying to decide if we’ve even been setting them up in the right way this whole time. If I learned anything today, it’s that everything needs to be improved. The way we tell stories, the way we connect with our audiences, the way we lead and the way we manage our personal and professional lives. Don’t forget to preview a reward that your intended audience will receive, otherwise your so-called CTA won’t convert.

1. Take care of yourself first, you can’t take care of anyone else, until you take care of yourself. 

Not only does this lesson pertain to your personal life, but it also matters in your professional life too. They go hand in hand, and if you can’t set aside time for yourself whether it’s to relax or work on a project you love, then you won’t be truly happy and ready to take on the stresses in your career.

 

Last week’s Social HR Camp 2015 brought many personal and professional life lessons to attendees. If you missed out, you can catch us next year (hopefully)!