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Steve Boese

Ding Ding Ding: Google+ Roundup Time

by Michael Krupa on July 29, 2011

I’m too busy trying to keep up on Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter/MySpace/BeKnown/BranchOut to find time to write up my thoughts on Google+. Fortunately many of my Blogger buddies did find time to write about Google+ so I thought I would share some of these posts with you.

Rather than saving the best for last, I’m going to put it right up front with the fantabulous post from Kelly Dingee on how she is TOTALLY geeking out over Google+:

But Google+…it makes me smile. I’m like a moth to the flame with this one, I just can’t stay away. I’ve seen a lot of blogs on how great it is for recruiting because of the core features like hangouts and sparks and circles. Sure, there’s huge potential there, but I think that’s just looking at Google+ in a very surface sort of manner.

Pay attention to Kelly’s post and read EVERY word.  This is one of the best examples of thinking outside of the box for using Google+. She also provides some tips on searching profiles and a link to pimping out your Google+ profile design.  Seriously, you don’t want to miss this post.

On the other end of the spectrum our intrepid HR Technology blogger, Steve Boese, is not sure what to do with Google+.

I kind of like Google Plus, but I also really don’t know what if anything I’ll ever do with it, and that any time I spend there is time I’m not doing something else.

And yet Steve does write near the beginning of his post some of the reasons people will use Google+.

Plus seems to fit nicely into a gap that many users of more established social networks feel exists, making it easier and simpler to share status updates, contents, images, etc. with discrete ‘circles’ of friends and contacts, positioning Plus less of a broadcast medium like Twitter, while offering better (at least ostensibly), control over data privacy, and possessing more potential for meaningful engagement than on Facebook.

It will be interesting to see how long Steve will be able to hold out on Google+. It’s a shiny new object and I know deep down inside that Google+ is calling to him.

Not surprisingly Laurie Ruettimann has chimed in with her take on Google+ and verdict is…wait for it…wait for it…”It’s okay”.  Umm, okay thanks.  Actually Laurie continues on to talk about social media and technology in our lives.  I love her final thoughts.

So what do I really think of Google+? I don’t care. The platform doesn’t matter because I’m pretty sure Google+ can do anything we want it to do.

We should dream bigger.

Rounding out the reviews is Chris Ferdinandi with his I want to love Google Plus (but I don’t) post.

Why not? It’s my least favorite things about Twitter and Facebook rolled into one site. It’s a beautifully designed network that I hate to use.

Ouch. Chris goes on the say the Google+ is too much like Twitter and Facebook and doesn’t solve a problem he has with Twitter and Facebook.  However Chris does give major props to Google on Privacy and data:

I will hand it to Google on this one – it’s a LOT easier to control your privacy and download your data on Google+ than on Facebook, and with more nuance than on Twitter.

Make sure you read all the comments on his post to catch the debate on the post contents.

So what have learned?  As usual if you ask for the opinion of four bloggers you will get four different answers.  What do YOU think about Google+? Leave a comment and let me know.

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To Change or Not to Change?

by Michael Krupa on February 1, 2010

One of our top notch HR Bloggers and HR Technology instructor at RIT, Steve Boese, asked the HR blogosphere if we would host some guest blogs for his students.  I raised my virtual hand as fast as I could and I sure am glad as one of Steve’s students sent me a fabulous guest post.

Today I am hosting a guest post from RJ Nicolais. RJ is just getting into the Twitter thing so if everyone could please follow him and give him encouragement to update his BIO and avatar and maybe add a couple more tweets, that would be great. I don’t want to embarrass RJ by mentioning all the wonderful things he said about my blog but lets just say he will go far in life if he keeps up the compliments.  RJ and I share some similar thoughts about HR and technology and all kidding aside, please give RJ your full attention for this great post about being afraid of change.

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To Change or Not to Change?

I’ve worked at several different organizations throughout my career in human resources and have noticed that they all have one thing in common: they are afraid of change.  Not just any change, but a special kind of change.  As HR professionals, we are supposed to be the “champions of change” and yet have difficulty changing ourselves.  We can take on wellness initiatives and change whole benefit structures (not to mention that we shoulder the responsibility for broader company culture shifts) but when it comes to technology we’re just plain frightened.  I would have used another colloquialism to tell you how I feel about it but that would be inappropriate.

The rate at which “technology” changes and evolves is totally insane – but that is the nature of the beast.  You can learn to accept it and embrace those changes or you can choose to resist and get left the in the proverbial dust.  I should probably tell you that I don’t think I’m really frightened, so I make that correction to the statement I made above.  There are those of us who truly embrace technology changes and get downright excited about them.  So we demo software and the newest (SaaS) solution for HR and we start to drool thinking about how much we can accomplish in so little time.  We may even start to sweat a little when we see the pretty interface we get to look at every day.

Then we talk to our bosses about it and our dreams are shattered.

“It’s too expensive.”  “There is too much at stake in a change.”  “It’s just not possible this year – maybe next year we can talk about it.” Or, my all-time favorite: “What we have now works just fine.” Those are all valid answers to valid fears.  I think that we need to get past those fears.  HR needs to spend the money to get the right solution at the right time.  Get the product that will be the most use to the company right now when growing the business is more important than ever.

Trying to work within the constructs of old software that doesn’t support the business any longer isn’t productive.  Excel isn’t a means to an end.  That is what scares me – outdated software and massive Excel spreadsheets.  It’s the stuff nightmares are made of.

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HR Happy Hour – Happy New Year Show

by Michael Krupa on January 1, 2010

HR Happy Hour – Episode 24 – ‘HR Happy New Year’

Well, well, well. That was quite an HR Happy Hour last night.  For the 2 people that read my blog that were NOT listening in live last night, here is the recording of last nights show.

It was wild and crazy and we all got a good belly laugh at the antics.  And yes we did find out that Laurie Ruettimann’s husband, Ken,  really does exist and despite Steve’s probing he didn’t crack at the pressure to reveal embarrassing things about Laurie.  As usual Steve and Shauna did a fantastic job as co-hosts and Shauna even got to push the buttons on the blogtalk radio control panel. Go Shauna.

Don’t forget to read all the back channel tweets for #HRHappyHour.  They are hilarious all by themselves.  Happy New Year and welcome to 2010.

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