I previously wrote in StaffBytes on LinkedIn, and wanted to follow up on that post with a video tutorial on how to use the site to find passive candidates. The following 21 minute video will walk you through the search features of LinkedIn exclusively and how to use them effectively. There is a an option in the video toolbar to go full screen so you can see it better. Hit the square button next to the volume control if you want this. Sit back, take some notes and enjoy. Please let me know your feedback or questions.

P.S. If you want to extend your network, send me an invitation. I am an open networker.

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Shuzak is a “Social Network for Geeks”. I didn’t make it up - it’s right on their website. Shuzak is a site where people gather to talk about Information Technology, Products, Science, Movies and other topics. The site, like most other social networking sites, represents a potential way for recruiters and sourcers to find people for positions. This site happens to be very specific to technology and technical related discussions. While not very large yet in my estimation, there are ways to use the site to introduce yourself, meet other people and recruit. I imagine that more strategy and a tactical approach needs to be taken here - but is another avenue to recruit nonetheless. Shuzak allows for posting of new topics for the community to see, searching other member profiles by key words, and viewing profiles. I found some contact information listed in some profiles. You can add a user as a “friend” if you can’t find contact information, and really want to reach out to them. On Shuzak, there is also a chat room where discussions are ongoing and you can view older postings. Reading some of the older positings on say “java” or “oracle” will help to determine if a user on Shuzak is using that technology or has experience using them.

I ran a quick search on topics currently being discussed on “java” technologies. Here is a screen shot of the results:

I subscribe to a few groups run by Vincent Wright that deal mostly with the LinkedIn community, but give great insight into Social Networks and recruiting in general. There are alot of staffing people out on his lists and I encourage you to take a look at his profile and sign-up for his lists. Lots to learn there. Speaking of which, I saved a post to the group from back in July to put up specifically on StaffBytes. This list talks about social networking places and how there are at least 99 of them identified by the group. I repeat…99! That is a ton of networking potential for recruiters and sourcers. And you thought that LinkedIn was the only one out there didn’t you? 

Here is the list below, check them out:

(1) 43 Things (2) Advogato (3) Amina (4) aSmallWorld (5) Bebo (6) BlackPlanet.com (7) Blue Dot (8) Bolt (9) Broadcaster.com (10) Buzznet (11) CarDomain (12) Care2 (13) Classmates.com (14) Consumating (15) Couchsurfing (16) Cyworld (17) Dandelife (18) DeadJournal (19) OpenID (20) Dodgeball.com (21) DontStayIn (22) Doostang (23) Ecademy (24) eSPIN (25) Facebook (26) Faceparty (27) Flickr (28) Flirtomatic (29) Fotki (30) Friends Reunited (31) Friendster (32) Fr¼hst¼ckstreff (33) Gaia Online Anime (34) Geni.com (35) GoPets (36) Graduates.com (37) Grono.net (38) Hi5 (39) Hyves (40) imeem (41) Infield Parking (42) IRC-Galleria (43) iWiW (44) Joga Bonito (45) Last.fm (46) LibraryThing (47) LinkedIn (48) LiveJournal (49) LunarStorm (50) MEETin (51) Meetup.com (52) MiGente.com Latinos (53) Mixi (54) MOG (55) Multiply (56) My Opera Community (57) MySpace (58) myYearbook (59) Netlog (60) Nexopia (61) orkut (62) OUTeverywhere (63) Passado (64) Piczo (65) Playahead (66) ProfileHeaven (67) Pownce (68) RateItAll (69) Reunion.com (70) Ryze (71) Searchles (72) Sconex (73) Shelfari (74) Soundpedia (75) Sportsvite (76) Studivz (77) Stumbleupon (78) TagWorld (79) TakingITGlobal (80) The Doll Palace (81) The Student Center (82) Threadless (83) T-shirts (84) TravBuddy.com (85) Travellerspoint (86) Tribe.net (87) Twitter (88) Vampire Freaks (89) Vox (90) WAYN (91) WebBiographies (92) Windows Live Spaces (93) Xanga (94) XING (95) Xuqa (96) Yahoo! 360° (97) Yelp (98) Zaadz (99) Zooomr

If you are not currently using LinkedIn for recruiting and sourcing, you have some catching up to do. LinkedIn is a networking site used by over 14 million +  business professionals. This site allows you to market yourself, search and network with former friends and colleagues, post positions, open discussions on hot topics, and of course find and meet new people. The site can be looked at as a passive job seeker network with professionals from a wide range of industries and backgrounds. 

The site has both free and pay accounts. A free account will get the job done, but a pay account opens more possibilities for recruiting and sourcing. Pay accounts let you use LinkedIn’s email system called “InMail” and gets you more search results, as well as letting you make more “introductions” to other professionals. See a comparison of the accounts below:

For searching, LinkedIn offers a good bit of options:

The advanced search features are shown here as an example:

For an example of how a profile looks on LinkedIn - check mine out. I’m always open to networking with other professionals and will accept invitations. A video tutorial will be offered on LinkedIn in the next few days.