Since Monday morning, I’ve been living vicariously through the tweets of the #socialrecruiting summit attendees. I couldn’t watch ERE’s live stream all day, but kept hitting refresh so I could be the first one to view slides and vids from the conference. I started watching Paul DeBettignies’ (@MNHeadhunter) presentation on “Building Community as a Solo Act” because the title & description appealed to me. I kept listening to Paul for a few other reasons.

1 ) His major sarcasm. If scientists identified a gene directly related to sarcasm, it would be traced back to the Midwest.

2) His goal to recruit candidates in the Minnesota area did not require recognition on a global or even a national level.  He focused his efforts on networking within the state and did not set his sights beyond that.  In a world where most want to be a Lady Gaga-esque super star, it was refreshing to learn about his narrow approach. “You’re So Vain” began playing in my head as I realized that being a nationally recognized blogger might not be a realistic goal. My roots are in Wisconsin. I love the following cities in this descending order: Milwaukee, Fox Point, Madison, Up North (kidding). I suppose I’ll stay local and ditch the dream of international stardom sigh…

3) He readily admits to being obsessed with his blog statistics. I created this blog a whole three days ago and if I’m not checking my stats, I’m wondering what they are or denying the urge to check them again.

As predicted, Paul’s blog has a lot of posts about Minnesota that I have little to no interest in…. But I did read one by Dana Larson (@dlarson15). Since Yeah I’m Young – And Awesome too, I appreciate her excluding the term “Gen Y” from her post and hope companies take Dana’s advice when interviewing candidates & hiring employees. Bravo.

Any other #socialrecruiting summit stalkers out there? What did you learn?