I’m basically a very curious person, so in getting ready for SourceCon, I’ve been getting some questions ready in my head to ask those movers and shakers in sourcing. Here is one I’d like to throw out, it’s something that I need to solve at Broadlook.
Let me give the problem some background:
15 years ago, few people used email. It got popular.
10 years ago, few people used instant messaging. It got popular
5 years ago, few people used SMS or text messaging. It got popular.
Now we have Skype, LinkedIN, Twitter, iPhone GPS, and they are getting popular.
What I am pointing out here is that Contact information is no longer limited to explicit forms of contact information. (i.e. Name, title, phone, email). A few form of contact information is the Implicit. It is important to classify those implicit forms. If they are not classified, they are not recorded. If they are not recorded, they cannot be leveraged. For example, a personal blog is a form of implicit contact information, I can follow the URL to the blog and learn about the person (candidate in a recruiters case) and get the scoop on them.
What are the new forms (actually I prefer “venues” of contact information? Here is what we have so far at Broadlook, if anyone has suggestions for new forms, please ping me.
Contact Venues (not including traditional like phone/email)
1. SMS/TXT
2. Instant message – (different from SMS, as it needs a network, whereas any cellphone can Text another)
3. VOIP – (skype, etc)
4. Blog – wordpress, blogger, twitter (twitter..we consider micro-blogging)
5. Social network – LinkedIN, etc
6.GPS – debatable, but where you are is an aspect of Contact information
7. Domain – The corporate domain, as important today as knowing the company name they work fo
Why am I doing this? The next generation of Broadlook Technologies tools will be capturing all Venues of contact information. If anyone doubts the utility of such an endeavor, take a look at my email signature:
Getting up a 4am tomorrow to beat the Chicago traffic to eventually end up in Cleveland. I’ll be visiting our friends at Main Sequence Technologies, makers of PC Recruiter. It will be a fun road trip and I encourage anyone to call me on my cell 414-899-4204 if you have ideas on the venues of contact information.
In fact, anyone who can convince me of a new venue of Contact Information, which I did not include here, I’ll reward you with a $500 credit towards any Broadlook product (SourceCon attendees only).