Training Special: Now by Jan 10, 2012: get two or more prerecorded classes and get a complementary pass for this webinar, “Productivity Tools and Techniques for Internet Sourcing”

Join us for a Webinar on January 11

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/818321178

Productive searching for professional peoples on the Internet does not equal learning advanced Boolean search syntax on Google.

To become a Master Internet Sourcer it’s necessary to be an expert at:
– knowing what to search for (which is never just a piece of the job description)
– where to search (search engines, social media sites, each with their own search syntax)

PLUS:
– how to sort and parse search results
– how to cross-reference
– how to contact potential candidates

The last three skills are critical and are often neglected in the hunt for “the best search string” or the best site to search. The good news is that there are tools and techniques that can be applied to make sourcing productive, especially in the stages of processing search results.

On top of that, staying organized and reusing collected information and methods present their own challenge.

So how do you identify productivity tools? The area of sourcing tools is cluttered with misleading marketing messages on some of the tools; persisting under-appreciation of the sourcing function; and the pressure to perform as a recruiting function. What you pay is sometimes not what you get.

Join me at a fast-paced webinar that will go through:
– a wealth of quick short-cuts to speed up your work
– suggestions on ways to save, share with your team members, and manage the volumes of generated information
– descriptions of selected productivity tools, as well as ways to classify and assess existing and future tools.

Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Time: 10AM PST/1PM EST
Duration: 90 min
Price: $79 – includes the slides, a video recording, and one month of support.

Anyone who looks for people on the Internet knows that rarely do we encounter information complete enough to instantly qualify the person as a potential candidate or a potential client. Say, if I am browsing a forum with posts on the desired technology, I see the names of members; there’s a need to cross-reference those names to find out more.

Here’s how to cross-reference names using Chrome.

Taking the tip from Find Everything Using Chrome further, we can speed up cross-referencing and avoid boring and time-consuming cutting and pasting. Let me show you how.

To start with, you can designate the “find everything” search, described in the post referenced above, to be “the default” in Chrome. Then, if you run across the name of a person who is potentially a candidate or a business contact, you can select (highlight) the first and the last name, right-click, and Google that person right from the page you are currently browsing.

This may work wonders for unique names but wouldn’t do well for common first-and-last names. To continue getting relevant results, no matter how common the name is, you can add a keyword or two relevant to the current search.

As an example, I am currently looking for Websphere developers (true story; we need about 20 of them). In the Chrome search engines options, I edit the string for the default search by adding, in my case, +websphere at the end:

Now I can either initiate a search with the automatically added word websphere – either by typing w (w, then space) in Chrome’s address bar, or right-clicking on someone’s name – like Dave Smith – and selecting the “webpshere” search from the context menu. This would search for Dave Smith Websphere on Google:

Of course, you can add words other than websphere, several keywords at once, or something like site:linkedin.com – depending on what’s most likely to help you cross-reference.

If you’d like to have access to several “context” search options, you can create several entries in Chrome’s search engines and switch between them, declaring them as “defaults” as needed. This would be a bit clumsy though. Much cooler would be to install the Chrome extension called Selection Search:

– and define variations of your search, all of which would be available from the right-click menu.

As an example, you can add items that would: search Google for the selection plus a keyword; search Google for the selection X-rayed on LinkedIn; and a search for the selected name on pipl.com:

What I personally find the most valuable in this productivity technique is the ability to narrow down your cross-referencing to particular terminology, thus staying focused on the search.

Speeds up my work many-fold.

Per their rules I can’t copy the content from Technorati; I invite my readers to check out my blog post there, “Why Google-Plus Has No Competition“.

Software Engineers are in high demand these days, at least in some geographical areas like the San Francisco Bay Area and for some “hot” skills like Java/mobile engineering. However, it is not easy to find true software engineering talent anywhere.

Here are some suggestions.

Keywords

• For better search, make sure you know how software engineering terms relate to each other. As an example, Java and JavaScript are two very different skills. A person who is a C++ developer will definitely know C, but may not know some specific C libraries. Front End is like User Interface. Back End usually goes along with Server. Perl and Python are both scripting languages. A person who works with J2EE certainly knows Java but may lack some core Java skills. The Linux operating system is a variation of UNIX.
• Some skills, while being required on the job description, are unimportant, go with the job, and shouldn’t be included in search. I am talking about systems to track bugs, or to track software versions.
• Some skills are hard to search for because the words are so common; an example would be a Windows Engineer. In cases like this use keywords that are specific, such as Win32.

Places. Here are just a few places where you might want to look for developers, when you start getting desperate:

• The search engine Blekko has slashtags for a large variety of programming languages, along with a /people tag. Check it out.
• Browse your local Meetup groups.
• Definitely look on Google+.
• Github has contact info for many folks but is hard to search. Few people know that it allows resume search via its API. To access resumes, hire a coder or use TalentBin.
• Try http://stackoverflow.com/users.
• Look for specific mailing lists, forums, yahoo and Google groups. The logos above give you an idea of what those places can be about.

If all else fails please give us a call at Brain Gain Recruiting!

If you are waiting to start using Google-Plus for sourcing and recruiting, you will soon find yourself falling behind your  competition. Google-plus is still smaller than major social networks but its size doesn’t matter that much. It is also a moving target in terms of its functionality, but that makes it even more interesting!

Here are just a few tips.

Identifying/Cross-Referencing Prospects. If you know someone’s email address, you can quickly identify his/her Google-Plus profile (if it’s there) by adding this person to a circle. You can do this for lists up to ~1,000 people at a time. A Google-Plus profile will have many online references and may contain other email addresses and a phone number.

Communicating. Whether a person is on Google-plus or not, you can communicate with the person by adding him/her to a circle and sharing with the circle. Being added to a circle named, say, “Top Software Engineers” should feel nice to your software engineering prospects, the same as if you add them to a list on Twitter or like their page on Facebook. [Correction: Someone pointed out that at this time people do not see the name of your circle when they are added .]

Integration with Gmail is becoming tighter as we speak!

Keeping Information on Prospects Up-to-Date.

• In your Gmail Contacts you will now see “Connected Profiles” for those who are on Google-plus.
• You can add anyone who emails you to a circle right from your Gmail Inbox.
• If you ever add somebody to a circle, that person stays in your Gmail’s “Other Contacts” tab, even if you later remove the person from circles.

Branding and Advertising Jobs. Guess what will be getting higher and higher in Google search results as the time goes.  It is already happening. So it’s time to create your personal and business Google-plus pages and try to get many +1’s (you will need to provide some good content for that 🙂 ). You may get way ahead of competition that is still using the old-school Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods. We all know that so many people start any new project – including their job search – simply using Google search; if you get there fast, they will find your company and your posted opportunities.

’nuff said (for now).

Irina / Brain Gain Recruiting / Boolean Strings on Google-plus

Recruiters, sourcers, on one hand, and sales, marketing, and business development professionals, on the other hand, perform this function as part of what we all do: find potential business contacts, or find professional profiles along with the contact information.

In the recruiting world we call it Sourcing (or Internet Sourcing, as opposed to Phone Sourcing; I believe this distinction is obsolete though). In the sales world it’s often called “Lead Generation”. But lead generation, by definition, is more of a marketing term, meaning “attracting people to your business and converting them to buyers”.

Of course, what we do is Data Mining – but it’s very specific data mining. I’ve seen the expression “Talent Mining” but, of course, it wouldn’t apply what sales people do.

So what should “looking for professionals online” be called so that both sales people and recruiters recognize it as one and the same? So that we can exchange tools and advice across the industries? I have asked this question on LinkedIn and on ERE.net but most answers were about the recruiting/job filling-related people searching. I am still interested in figuring it out. (“Peoplesourcing” was an interesting answer on ERE.)

In the meantime, please take a look at a list of 20 sites that provide business profiles and contact information. I list sites that are both free and paid;  they are listed in no particular order.

If you are a recruiter, or a sourcer, do you use some of these?

What are some other similar sites would you add?

THE LIST OF 20 ONLINE “LEAD GENERATION” SITES

• Hoovers | Business solutions from Hoovers

www.hoovers.com

Hoover’s proprietary company profiles and industry information.

• Spoke.com – Business Directory, Lead Generation, Find People … [note: I recommend X-raying, not joining]

www.spoke.com

Spoke offers on-demand business to business contact information for sales people, marketers, and recruiters enabling Sales Lead Generation, Business List …

• Company Profiles & Company Information on Manta

www.manta.com

Manta provides free company profiles & company information on U.S. and International companies, including market research reports, business news, and …

• Mailing List – Email, Business, Sales Leads, Consumer – InfoUSA

www.infousa.com

Mailing List – InfoUSA has 30 years’ experience providing mailing lists and email lists to businesses of all sizes. Customize our mailing lists to your business …

• OneSource | Business Information

www.onesource.com

OneSource Business Information: The most accurate source of critical company & executive information.

• Business Profiles and Company Information | ZoomInfo.com

www.zoominfo.com

Search ZoomInfo’s open directory to find information about more than 50 million business people and 5 million businesses.

• Sales Intelligence, Social CRM & Sales 2.0 Solutions – InsideView

www.insideview.com

Products & Pricing · Overview · FREE · CRM+ · PRO · TEAM · Compare Plans · InsideView UK and Ireland Edition · Why InsideView · Customer Success …

• D&B – Business Information—Get Credit Reports. Call 888 480-6007

www.dnb.com

Get insights on the companies that matter. Reduce credit risk & find new customers. Delivering trusted business credit information for over 150 years.

• Email CEO address list CFO president business phone company VP …

www.lead411.com

Lead411 provides business email lists, company addresses, executive emails, and phone numbers.

• ReferenceUSA

www.referenceusa.com

The premier source of business and residential information for reference and research.

• Yellow Pages and White Pages Telephone Directory | Switchboard …

www.switchboard.com

Telephone Directory: Internet Yellow Pages, Internet White Pages – You can find what is generally regarded as the best phone book online at Switchboard.com.

• NetProspex

www.netprospex.com

NetProspex is a directory of user-contributed business contacts verified by our CleneStep TM technology. Quickly find targeted business prospects including …

• CrunchBase, The Free Tech Company Database

www.crunchbase.com

CrunchBase is the free database of technology companies, people, and investors that anyone can edit.

• Company Information – Business Contact Information, Company …

www.corptech.com

Company Information – Put CorpTech company information at your fingertips. Our business information is fast, easy and highly comprehensive…try CorpTech …

• Business.com – Find, Compare & Research B2B Vendors

www.business.com

Online purchasing resource for businesses of all sizes. Find, Compare & Research products and services you need to run and grow your business. Over 50000+ …

• ThomasNet® – Product Sourcing and Supplier Discovery Platform

www.thomasnet.com

ThomasNet.com is the leading product sourcing and supplier discovery platform for procurement professionals, engineers, plant & facility management …

• Yahoo! Finance – Business Finance, Stock Market, Quotes, News

finance.yahoo.com

At Yahoo! Finance, you get free stock quotes, up to date news, portfolio management resources, international market data, message boards, …

• White Pages | People Finder – AnyWho

www.anywho.com

AnyWho is a free service that allows you to search the White Pages by name, or, enter a phone number and find out who owns it using reverse phone lookup.

• YP.com – Yellow Pages, the new YELLOWPAGES.COM

www.yellowpages.com

Find online Yellow Pages business listings, phone numbers, addresses, maps, driving directions and more in the YP.com online directory.

• People Search | Background Check | Reverse Cell Phone Lookup …

www.intelius.com

Intelius helps businesses and consumers alike make informed decisions by providing background check and public records services. People search tools can …

• Jigsaw Business Contact Directory of Business Contacts and … [be my guest]

www.jigsaw.com

Jigsaw is a prospecting tool used by sales professionals, marketers and recruiters to get fresh and accurate sales leads and business contact information.

Webinar is over. Today ONLY:

Pay the webinar price at http://bit.ly/90MIN-Webinar and we will electronically ship all the materials including the slides, the video recording, plus one month support.

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/191923978

It happens to many of us that we locate a person who seems like a fantastic potential candidate or a business lead – however we either don’t have the contact info or it turns out to be obsolete or wrong.

In this webinar we’ll discuss a variety of ways to figure out and verify the email, the phone number, or ways to reach that desired person, or a whole list of people – and do it fast!

Who will benefit: Recruiters, Sourcers, Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Account Executives, and anybody who is interested in contacting people based on their professional profiles. Some experience using search engines would be helpful.

Outline:

Finding Phone Numbers and Email Addresses

•  Search on Google and Bing
• People Search Engines
• Google-Plus
• Membership Sites
• WHOIS
• Email patterns
• Extracting Information
• Verification

Finding Lists of People with Contact Info
Alternative Ways to Reach People

• Messaging
• Sharing
• Inviting

Resources

Title: How to Find Contact Information
Date: Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST/1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EST
Price: $79 includes the slides, a video recording of the webinar, and one month support. (Please wait after registering and you will be redirected to the payment page)

Please note: Current Brain Gain Recruiting retained/contingency/sourcing clients can attend the webinar as guests. Please put #CLIENT in the comments field when registering and skip the payment.

Can’t make the date? No problem. Sign up; we’ll provide a video recording for all.

This is going to be a little bit technical… I am going to talk about pages that often show up in Google search results, when I do sourcing, that I’d rather skip. (If you don’t care to go through the technical stuff, please just skip to the last paragraph, or simply try my new Custom Search Engine.)

Many Internet researchers know that there’s the “surface web”, i.e. websites that can be found by crawling, and the “deep web”, i.e. all the other sites. The Deep Web is much, much bigger than the surface web.

Well, several years ago Google started putting some “deep web” pages into its index as well! Namely, when Google ran across forms to be filled out, it attempted entering random information – as if it were a user – and reviewing the resulting page. If the page “made sense” it was included in the index. Today, we can still encounter quite a few dynamically generated pages; try something like this (add keywords if you like) inurl:index.php.src and you will see that.

In a while after this clever addition to its index Google became somewhat dissatisfied with the quality of the dynamic pages. It comes back to re-index them less often than it visits static pages. However, there’s a widely used trick that SEO specialists have started to implement since, called URL rewriting. It works like this: any (reasonable) search executed on those sites creates a page with a static URL.

Here is an example:

Someone searches on pipl.com for Dave Smith. http://pipl.com/search/?q=Dave+Smith is a dynamic page. A side effect of the search will be a static page with a nice, clean URL:

http://pipl.com/directory/name/Smith/Dave

(I must say that I don’t know for a fact how pipl.com creates its static pages. But I am pretty sure they are generated as I describe.)

Further on, websites with “deep web” content that is “deep” because of membership and login requirements expose their content as well, to attract new users. They do this by providing static links that are visible on the “surface”. As an example, LinkedIn has recently generated a large number of special static pages like  http://www.linkedin.com/title/distributor/in-us-752-savannah – that are converted into people search queries if you are logged in! (Try clicking on this link with and without being logged in).

A seemingly “static” page that will lead you to a query is usually an irrelevant search result. Most of the times it will display a list of internal search results that, in addition to being a list, may not even have your search keywords any more. Why rewritten URLs show high up in search results is a mystery to me!

Here’s my new Custom Search Engine adjusted to not show junk results. I have removed dynamic pages as well as a list of “content farms” that I partially copied from the initial Blekko‘s list. (Blekko is now blocking more sites than any CSE would be able to include…but my search engine has a much larger index.) I have also blocked some sites that we have all seen while looking for people, that promise to find “…everything!“.

If you see sites or site templates you think should also be “banned” please let me know.

Happy searching! 🙂

TheSocialCV (“Organizing the world’s largest real-time global talent pool.”) is also a candidate to be the Dream Software. Not only do they have crawled over 100 MLN profiles (comparable to LinkedIn), their profiles come from dozens of places, are in many languages, and they are applying semantic search process when they crawl.

 While they are based in the UK, they collect profiles from around the world.

(The usual disclaimer: This is paid software, I am not affiliated.)

It was interesting to learn that the word “social” is more than just a pointer to social network profiles. The majority of theSocialCV activity collecting data is based on “social” triggers. They start searching when someone posts a status update. As an example, if a Java developer tweets about some cool Java code, they would scan all of the multiple sources for other profiles for the person and create a new record. The semantic algorithms would distinguish between Java as a programming language, coffee, and the island. (Please note, the task of cross-referencing, especially for people with common names, is very difficult.)

TheSocialCV has another semantic search component, for their own database. You can search for “top law schools”, “top consulting firms”, etc. (I believe Monster.com has these types of searches.) They also have the NEAR operator. This is work in progress, but currently the OR operator is the default (as opposed to familiar search places like Google, Bing, and LinkedIn). NEAR has unusual syntax like this: “web developer” ~3 means web within 3 words from developer.

They have the ability to save searches and to place profiles in folders that can be exported or shared within a team. Saving in a folder currently happens only one profile at a time.

You can currently connect your Twitter and Facebook profiles (more to come) and potentially message your connections.

Great stuff, and a pretty ambitious team!

What made me wonder though, is how updating a status is related to someone being a potential candidate. I definitely expect a candidate for all Social Media Marketing Managers to do that, but what about Accountants or Registered Nurses? If updating a profile (on LinkedIn, especially) can be a trigger as well, that would make it even more valuable, I think.

Of course, their success depends on expanding the coverage, successful cross-referencing/merging records, and making the UI work for us across industries and geographies.

Take a look at someone with a very rich profile:

Here’s the best part: we are planning on a Sourcing Event/Contest on the Boolean Strings Network that will let everyone try them out. Watch for announcements!