Looking for work? Clear out online clutter

More Americans than ever are daily users of online social networking sites, and more employers are are plugging in, too. A new survey by CareerBuilder.com shows that 22 percent of employers search networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to screen job candidates. Another 9 percent plan to start soon. In 2006, only 11 percent of hiring managers screened using such Web searches.

In the new survey, of the hiring managers who peruse social networks, 34 percent reported finding information there that caused them to pass on a job candidate. More than 3,100 employers took part in the survey.

Areas of concern included:
- candidate posted information about them drinking or using drugs 41%
- candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information 40%
- candidate had poor communication skills 29%
- candidate bad-mouthed their previous company or co-worker 28%
- candidate lied about qualifications 27%
- candidate used discriminatory remarks related to race, gender, religion, etc. 22%
- candidate’s screen name was unprofessional 22%
- candidate was linked to criminal behavior 21%
- candidate shared confidential information from previous employers 19%

But this doesn't mean we should all shut down our social sites. In addition to FB, I know many professionals who swear by LinkedIn, and I have found Twitter to be not just fun but a terrific way to connect with professionals of all stripes in Wichita - online and at weekly TweetUps, where friendships and business contacts are forged.

Indeed, the survey showed that social networking profiles gave some job seekers an edge. Of hiring managers who researched job candidates via social networking sites, 24 percent said they found content that helped to solidify their decision to hire the candidate.

Top factors that influenced their hiring decision included:
- candidate’s background supported their qualifications for the job 48%
- candidate had great communication skills 43%
- candidate was a good fit for the company’s culture 40%
- candidate’s site conveyed a professional image 36%
- candidate had great references posted about them by others 31%
- candidate showed a wide range of interests 30%
- candidate received awards and accolades 29%
- candidate’s profile was creative 24%

My former newspaper colleagues refer to online as a publishing platform. It has unique attributes, but that's what it is: A way to publish, to reach mass audiences. In their view, it can be edgier than the mainstream paper, but it's not boundless. Newspaper editors know what it's like to have to handle phone calls from readers who are angry or upset by what seemed innocuous the night before.

Job candidates might learn something from The Gatekeepers, as editors used to be known. Because the price they'll pay for indescretion might be worse than difficult phone calls - it could be no calls at all.

A new series

I'm excited about seeing one of my big projects on the air! The fall season of "Wichita State & The World" kicks off on Sunday, Sept. 7, with an episode that features Associate Provost David McDonald of WSU and Paul Wooley of the Orthopaedic Research Institute at Via Christi talking about biomedical composites research and its impact on business and medicine.


"Wichita State & The World," hosted by Provost Gary Miller, is a series that examines how Kansas' only urban-serving research university is changing our community, our nation and the world. It's on WSU TV, Channel 13 on Cox Cable.

Episode 1 airs at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, with repeats at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18; Sunday, Sept. 21; and Thursday, Oct. 2.

You'll find more information about this and upcoming episodes at www.wichita.edu/provost.

Rover, Fido or Izzy?

Best friend adopted a shelter dog today - pre-named Izzy. Odd name for a girl, and a golden retriever, we think, tho my friend says "she kinda looks like an Izzy."
That's the fascinating thing about names: They have connotation and undefinable mojo. And they have the power to attract and repell. There is a certain boy's name that I could swear is a marker for ADHD -- I've yet to meet a child with this particular moniker who didn't exhibit the signs -- but it continues to be wildly popular with other parents, so maybe it's just me. Then again, the only Izzy I can recall was a pretty cool character in the novel "Fried Green Tomatoes," so that name is growing on me.

Understanding the risks

I'm a stats junkie, and I love to go to the source whenever there's news about research. The Web makes it easy to go deeper than the headlines and sound bites -- and too often, a little digging turns up the real news: That the reporter didn't really understand what the researcher had discovered. Oversimplification takes a toll.

That's why I like the innovative charts that accompany a paper published in the June Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They provide a broader perspective than most risk calculators, covering 10 different causes of death while differentiating between nonsmokers, smokers and former smokers -- at various ages -- and by gender.

With this method, it's apparent that a 35-year-old male smoker is seven times as likely to die of heart disease as a nonsmoker the same age. Of course, some hardy smokers will manage to survive into their 70s, and by age 75 smokers and nonsmokers have nearly the same risk of death from heart disease. For women who have never smoked, the magnitudes of the 10-year risks of death from breast cancer and heart disease are similar until age 60; from this age on, heart disease represents the single largest cause of death. For women who smoke, the chance of dying from heart disease or lung cancer exceeds the chance of dying from breast cancer from age 40 on (and does so by at least a factor of 5 after age 55). This is especially significant given that cancer risk generally increases with age.

Paper co-author Lisa M. Schwartz, an associate professor of medicine at Dartmouth University, said the the 10-year risk increments of the charts are especially informative. “Often numbers are presented as lifetime statistics, which make the risk look too large, or as one-year statistics, which make the risk look too small. The charts provide the information you need to understand a risk, and whether to consider taking some action to reduce it.”

Buzz kill: The waiting game

The wait is all but over - based on reading the tea leaves, Sen. Joe Biden appears to be Barack Obama's pick for vice president - but the wait itself became news Friday night as the hours dragged on and on and on.

Impatient supporters and journalists I follow on Twitter (and I'm writing about two distinct groups here) had become rather cranky by bedtime. Some, even earlier:
As @jeffbutts Tweeted about 6 p.m.: "Re: obama's running mate. there's suspense. And then there's just plain annoyance. Get it over with."
After a daylong vigil, CNN reported Friday night that senior campaign officials said Obama's choice would not be announced to supporters in a text message until Saturday morning.
By 11 p.m., ABC News was reporting that the Secret Service had been dispatched to Biden's home.
As @nickjungman wrote at about 11:15 p.m.: "I am beginning to feel that I will *not* be the first to know Obama's VP pick. FALSE ADVERTISING!"
By 11:45 p.m., CNN flat-out declared Biden to be the guy.
Minutes to midnight, social media maven @toddblog summed up the feelings of many: "You can't promise that people will receive a text message "first," send a release to the news and NOT send the text. LAME Obama. Lame."
So maybe the promise was too good to be true. An interesting lesson in the buzz biz, nonetheless: Follow through and pay off matter.
PS: And seriously, is my phone network down? Because I still don't have a txt msg, and it's Saturday on the East Coast....
Addendum: It's now 8:02 a.m. Saturday. Bleary-eyed, I reach for my phone and see The Text. Sent at 2:38 a.m. today. Hmm. Shortly after midnight on the West Coast. Ah, well. It's a big country. Maybe the challenge of sending millions of simultaneous txt msgs was bigger than anticipated. Or maybe the campaign didn't want to be blamed for crashing Twitter when the news hit like a tsunami. That would have been a fatal blow to yesterday's buzz.

Buzz update

Just back from WichiTweets lunch, where cell phones vied for space on the tables with the chips and salsa. Several of us kept one eye out for The Txt Msg from the Obama campaign, announcing his vice presidential pick. Some checked their phones a little more than was necessary (obsessively?) considering that when the time comes, a cocophany is sure to ensue.

But the txt did not come over the lunch hour. So anticipation spawned speculation over the timing of the announcement: Before the evening news? During the evening news? During tonight's Olympics coverage? (My money's on breaking in during prime time tonight, though Old School thinking would aim for the start of the network news shows, 5:30 p.m. Central.)

Stay tuned.

PS: Is my phone working? I haven't gotten any txts all day! Better test it....

Building buzz by building a social network

Cable TV pundits are abuzz this morning, speculating on who Barack Obama has chosen as his running mate. Will it be Biden? Sebelius? Bayh? Clinton? Heightening their anticipation is that the news will break via text message.

I imagine that there were plenty of folks debating whether to shower this morning, for fear they might not hear their phones and thus miss The Moment.
Now, in the scheme of American Politics, this 3-second interaction between voter and cell phone is no Gettysburg Address. But there is an intimacy, a sense of inclusion in something important - which the Obama campaign has used cold, hard technology to create.

First came the e-mails: Be the first to know who has been chosen! (Who doesn't want to have and share "inside" knowledge?) Just text VP to a 5-digit number from your cell phone. (What could be easier for the under-50 crowd?)

How did the campaign get their e-mail addresses? Months ago, anyone curious to see the senator speak at an event was asked to RSVP via e-mail. In return, they'd get an "electronic ticket." The tickets didn't ensure entry, but they did allow organizers to anticipate crowd size and collect millions of e-mail addresses from across the nation. Simple and sweet.

Obviously, not everyone who signed up is a supporter - I'm maintaining political independence as I write this - but there's no doubt that Obama's contact lists of potential volunteers and voters is every candidate's dream.

BTW, I just checked my cell phone - again. No txt msg yet. Feeling kinda antsy. Can't recall **ever** feeling this way about a VP announcement. Can you?

Wil U b my VP?

Barack Obama's campaign sent Social Media e-mails Sunday evening inviting folks to "Sign up today to be the first to know" who his running mate will be.

Those who register online at http://my.barackobama.com/vp "will receive an email the moment Barack makes his decision, or you can text VP to 62262 to receive a text message on your mobile phone."

As campaign manager David Plouffe points out: No campaign has done this before.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate John McCain "apparently has figured out the younger generation just fine," according to The Washington Times. The newspaper reported Aug. 8 that in the past two weeks, his "celebrity attacks" have stomped Obama in YouTube hits. You'll find him @ www.johnmccain.com.

This truly is the first 21st-century presidential race.

A long and sociable day

Up early today to make the morning Wichita Tweetup @ 7:15 a.m. in the back room of the Hillside & Central Panera. This was the second get-together for the early birds, an interesting blend of folks primarily with Ad/PR interests, though all Tweeters in the area are welcome. The group is growing, and it was great to see some new faces, including two with Wichita State connections. (The night owls will Tweetup next Thursday @ 6 p.m. in the back room of The Anchor on East Douglas; many of us put both on our calendars.)
Next it was off to meet with the in-laws at the Wichita Clinic and have lunch afterward, because sometimes the most important thing you'll do all day is sit in the radiologist's waiting room and let someone cry, then let them buy you a hot fudge sundae. With pecans.
Afternoon was mostly split between making small talk with new acquaintances, talking about projects with collaborators, touching base with several people via phone, e-mail, txt and Twitter - and focusing on actual work.
Stayed late at the computer to make up for "lost" work time - but looking back on the day, I wouldn't give up any of the "live" interaction. If anything, tonight I crave a bit more. Time to go hug The Girl and The Husband. Maybe I'll just check Twitter first, tho....

Flocking to the Tweetup

Judging from the noise level, Thursday night's Wichita Tweetup was a rousing success. It drew roughly triple the people of the first, thanks in part to the pebble effect: Many of the seven people who attended the first spread the word about the second, then those ripples extended further out....

The result was a lively mix of folks at a long collection of tables, some meeting up with old friends, all making new ones, introducing themselves to strangers and making connections - "tweeting" in the Real World.
That microcosm included people from advertising and PR, the news media, higher education, non-profits, small business, Web design, IT, and beyond.
Conversations ranged from the highly technical to the highly personal to the downright hilarious. You had to be there.
Next is a morning Tweetup, date TBA. We'll keep you posted.