Talent Connect Through the Eyes of a Customer

Editor’s Note: This post is the first in a series on Talent Connect 2010, LinkedIn’s first customer conference for Hiring Solutions customers.  Stay tuned for more perspectives and highlights from panels, presentations and keynotes held during the conference.  Kicking things off is Marie Norman, Senior Manager, National Recruiting at Esurance Insurance Services, Inc.

Since the customer event hosted at LinkedIn’s headquarters in Mountain View in March, we’ve eagerly anticipated LinkedIn’s inaugural Talent Connect customer conference.

This year’s conference did not disappoint; no detail or expense was spared. From the conference registration process to the opening remarks, to the impressive lineup of speakers, the overall event was a smashing success!

As a longtime customer of LinkedIn’s recruiting services and networking tool for the last five years, we took great pleasure in meeting the talent behind the company that makes it possible for all of us in our field to link up, network, and find our next great candidate!

The event was jam-packed. Event participants had the option of attending a variety of workshops. Any famished recruiter would salivate at the sight of the agenda packed full with fascinating topics and interesting speakers. I mixed technical, hands-on sessions, such as the Power User Training and Extreme Talent Search with Recruiter, with workshops with more a strategic emphasis, such as Leveraging Social Media and LinkedIn to Enhance Your Employment Brand and Woo Passive Candidates and Being at the Center of Global Growth: Using LinkedIn to Influence, and then Execute on, Strategic Expansion Decisions.

In all, the key takeaways for me and for our organization include:
•    SOCIAL NETWORKING! SOCIAL NETWORKING! SOCIAL NETWORKING!  (Did I get the message across?)
•    Make connections to your product in your recruiting efforts to increase brand awareness
•    Leverage the use/ideas of your employees
•    Develop a specific and strategic approach in taking advantage of free messaging through group, open link members, and your first degree contacts
•    Add the LinkedIn profile links of your recruiting team to your company web page —  a very clever idea!
•    Quantify the LinkedIn ROI to key business stakeholders so that more can be allocated to this source
•    And, last but not least, establish a reputation as a RWF (Recruiter Worth Following)

Needless to say, many of these tips are already going to good use.  LinkedIn really hit the mark and delivered. For now, one thing remains: the countdown to Vegas in 2011.  Looking forward to seeing many of you in October.