Everyone Uses The Internet Differently

                                         

A couple of weeks ago, a client was perturbed because an email was not returned immediately.  The email was sent to a candidates home email address, as it should have been.  The candidate did not check his email until that evening and responded after business hours.  It gave rise to this post.

Here are my thoughts, comments and preferences:

Some people only check their personal emails in the evening when they get home.  Some do it even less often.  Frankly, especially when actively looking for a job and interviewing, emails should be checked frequently. However, lack of immediate response should not be surprising.

When I was first using Facebook, I was very surprised one day when an active candidate turned down my Facebook invitation telling me that she reserved Facebook only for very close friends and family.  I mentioned it to my daughter, the very successful blogger and website developer, Liz Gumbinner (mom-101, Cool Mom Picks and Cool Mom Tech). She reminded me that everyone uses the web differently.

LinkedIn asks people to only connect with people they know.  I follow that rule and generally do not link to people I have not met. (When I tell that to people who ask to link with me whom I do not know, I generally send them a reply explaining why I have ignored their request; some get angry.)  I will connect with people from out of town or abroad - if they have relevant backgrounds; I often end up interviewing them. I don't make introductions through LinkedIn.  After all, I am a recruiter and get paid for introductions; people who are looking for a job should not realistically ask a recruiter to introduce them to people through LinkedIn.

Anyone can follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I rarely block anyone; except porn and hookers.

People looking for jobs should only use their personal emails.  Using your company email, even for the most senior people, is bad form.  Months ago, I posted about what your email says about you.  Your brand name is your name; your full, readily identifiable name should be part of your email address.  I have lots of candidate who use letters and numbers, and sign their emails with their first name - often, I have to respond and ask them who they are. It is bad form for people to use their work email addresses on résumés (a surprisingly large number of people do this, particularly senior executives). 


There was a time when a ton of people asked me to join things like Plaxo; I steadily refused.  The purpose of those sites was to keep your address book up to date with changes from other people (new phone numbers, changes in email, new address, etc.) Websites like that invade your inbox and send out emails.  I have no desire for anyone to have access to my address book, no matter how private or confidential they say it may be.  

I don’t like getting messages on LinkedIn or Facebook because it requires an extra step in order to respond.  I much prefer getting emails directly, which I can always answer from my Blackberry.

Twitter handles are often obscure.  Sometimes I follow people who have odd names, but in short order, when I see some of those names, I forget who they are, the same way that I can't recognize them if their email address doesn't contain their name.

While I subscribe to Klout, Tumblr, Google+ or Branch out, I don't really understand them or the differences among them.  There are just too many sites to manage, connect to and check.  I don’t understand how these truly differ from Facebook.  Nor do I care. People ask me to connect with them on these sites; sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but I rarely look on them.  I don’t give a rat’s you know what about my Klout rating.  Frankly, I cannot keep up with all this technology and I am not sure why I should (I actually do understand the necessity for Google +). 

Each of us is different.  And I accept that everyone’s preferences towards social media are individual.