#truLeeds - the social movement heads up north

It has been interesting to note as Bill Boorman's #tru events have developed, how they have matured. Regular attendees know each other well by now and there was always a danger that we were going to repeat ourselves. But actually each seems different.

At lunch with some of the Graduates Yorkshire crew we discussed this and the way in which the discussions had gone from 'what is' to 'how do we use' to 'how can we get our clients/workplaces/use it better' when it comes to social media, particularly for recruiting purposes.

The first session was a stand up session where participants had to choose a view. Decisive, divisive and a good ice breaker, or as my TrainingZone colleagues would call it, an energiser.

After this I sat in with James who told us about the work he's done with Weightwatchers. Faced with quite a change they needed to go about the way they handled their leaders, who were now employees. And it's funny how recruitment is sales and marketing and brand. Of course we went. 'off track' on key words - did you know that the kind of people who do Weightwatchers apparently are fans of Loose Women? You heard it here first...

I also tried to tackle my social media fear of LinkedIn. But I'm clearly not doing it right, and I'm sorry. Mervyn Dinnen pointed out that most of the under 30s in the room don't really get it, and Etienne Besson, not present (unless you count constantly on Twitter) advised me it's like 'Twitter for grown ups'. How very Gen Y of me...

Recruiters love LinkedIn, for the ability to find people, headhunt skills and make contacts, and HR hates recommendations and the fa t that contacts made on company time will most likely get transferred to another business if their employee leaves. This of course is not new: despite all the online social networking we do today, in the end we love to work with individuals we like and trust. And that's not part of the brand. HR needs to focus on retaining the individuals who make great relationships for their organisations, not on banning social interaction.

I saw Bill last night at theSocial Recruiting conference. He is doing very well and enabling lots of organisations to be more social. His model, he claims, is based on having no agenda. He connects people. That's what he does best. He helps people out. And he reaps the rewards for it now that lots of people want to work with him. That's social business.

The next #truLondon is coming on 1-2 September. I'd strongly reccomend you go along! See Bill's blog for details.