Initially I was rather perplexed by Rockstar 365 and was surprised to see it keep popping up on CRM MVP’s and other prominent CRM people. I couldn’t really understand what the purpose of Rockstar 365 was, it seemed to me a bit like a better looking version of LinkedIn but which seemed to hold less information in some ways.
but the more I saw it appear on people signatures on forums posts, blog posts, twitter profiles. It kept nagging away at me that I must be missing something, why was it so popular.
So in the end I decided I was going to have a look and try and understand it a bit more.
I search for Rockstar 365 and there isn’t a great deal of information which hasn’t been created by Rockstar 365 but I will say their blog posts are pretty good, interesting and not to long, a nice bite sized snack. I did read a few blogs with people usually saying, check out my Rockstar 365 profile, I’m the best at ….. There are also a few blog posts saying it’s cool and some people tweeting some of their highlights
I have been recently asking CRM MVP’s some Q&A’s and so to do this I have often been looking at their linkedin profiles and CRM Community profiles. I often saw CRM MVP’s had Rockstar 365 profiles.
So I have been looking at quite a few profiles and what has recently struck me is looking at Rockstar 365 profiles is easy and informative. You get the information instantly, you get summarized information with nice to look at graphs. It also only focuses only on the important things for potential employers
- Project Experience
- Total experience in years
- number of projects
- experience using certain technology
- Certifications, how many, what they are
- MVP status
boom it’s all there and it will only take you a minute to go through a candidate.
Here is some of the information from my profile
http://rockstar365.com/benhosking
I have a quick whizz through the site on this video which I have put up on Hosk CRM Dev YouTube channel
On Rockstar you can change the background at the top and you can see I have gone for a classy night sky
Why do CRM MVP’s use it so much
1. I think they are competitive, originally Rockstar use to rank people on certain skills but they changed this to highlights.
2. If you have a lot of experience and CV looks great, why wouldn’t you want to put that data into system which makes it look sexy
3. There are no connections or contacting people, it’s just a method to show your skills and experience off. You also won’t get chased down by recruitment consultants trying to befriend you every 10 minutes.
Rockstar 365 seems to work better if you have a lot experience (e.g. if you are a Rockstar) because it does a great job of summarizing all the data. At the moment they are building up the Rockstar site so if you don’t have much experience there wouldn’t be much to look at.
One of the other reasons I like Rockstar 365 is it’s fun and visual
Comparing LinkedIn with Rockstar 365
I use both LinkedIn and Rockstar 365 and it’s only whilst writing this article that I have been comparing them. There are probably other sites out there but these are the two main ones in my opinion.
LinkedIn is good but when you look at someone’s profile it’s like reading a long CV, it’s all white, it has lots of words and goes on and on. This is good information but when you look at people CV’s you want a summary and this is where Rockstar 365 excels, it summarizes all the information.
I do use LinkedIn and I basically use it as an upto date CV (In fact I don’t know why companies don’t just ask for links to LinkedIn or Rockstar)
LinkedIn is the serious corporate face, Rockstar is the punky/cheeky site. I also appreciate that Rockstar are not trying to be LinkedIn but I will compare them because most people will use these two sites
Where is LinkedIn better
LinkedIn has connections and you can contact people
Linkedin has lots more recruiters
Linkedin has more jobs
you can message people on linkedin
pulse news is good
it has honours (this or something similar is coming to Rockstar 365)
who has viewed your profile
Groups
Where Rockstar is better
it looks better
it summaries the information and presents it very well
Where LinkedIn could do better
recruiters hassling people all the time with inappropriate jobs
it has reached the facebook size and now most people have 500 plus contacts (But they are not real contacts are they)
people (recruiters) keep posting rubbish, like quizzes
Rockstar could do better
you can’t see who has viewed your profile (I like being nosy)
not many companies outside of South Africa and America
Rockstar for Companies
This part of the site seems to be growing as more Companies jump on board and understand the value of it (e.g. 5 percent recruitment fee rather than the normal 10-15). If you are aspiring person you want to work with best people in the your field e.g. the Rockstars or MVP’s etc. If a company has lots of Rockstars employed for them and you look at their profile see that then I think it may persuade some people that it’s a good company to join.Rockstar 365 is good for individual users to put your CV on and have it appear in nice looking format and showing your highlights but what about companies. You may also be wondering how does Rockstar make it’s owners money.Rockstar 365 is a new spin on recruitment, it allows companies to create their company pages for free. The pages you can create look fantastic.
As I am based in the UK I will show case xRM Consultant (UK) Ltd
http://rockstar365.com/xrm#_=_
Companies can also use Rockstar 365 for recruitment. They charge you 8 percent which is a lot less than your standard recruitment fees. It’s offering a way to cut out the recruitment agency middle man.
The way Rockstar 365 helps companies with recruitment is individual users can put in if they are open to opportunities (which isn’t displayed on your profile if you are worried about your current employers finding out), you then put in a salary figure and then if any jobs come up that are suitable I assume you will get notified? I haven’t used this part of Rockstar so I am only guessing how it would work.
The Future for Rockstar
Why will more people use the site?
- Rockstar are improving the site and adding new functionality all the time
- I think more people will see Rockstar being mentioned on twitter and blogs and youtube – like my whizz round Rockstar 365
- I often see people have links to their Rockstar 365 profile, I think this will encourage people to have a look and then create their own
- More companies and users will set up profiles making the Rockstar 365 site more useful
Below are some useful links I found on the Rockstar blog/site
why you should use Rockstar
http://blog.rockstar365.com/2013/05/28/why-we-built-rockstar-365-for-you/
Rockstar Basics
https://rockstar365.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/200047203-Rockstar-Basics
writing good project reviews
http://blog.rockstar365.com/2013/08/29/3-rules-for-writing-great-project-descriptions/
why you should add projects
http://blog.rockstar365.com/2013/08/28/the-most-important-thing-you-can-do-for-your-career-this-week/
Finally they have two really good interviews with two genuine CRM Rockstars
http://blog.rockstar365.com/2013/06/01/meet-scott-1-in-the-uk-on-rockstar-365/
http://blog.rockstar365.com/2013/06/06/meet-joel-crm-rockstar/
Finally I did send Paul Slade from Rockstar a bunch of questions which he is currently working on, so after reading this blog post he will no doubt finish answering them and send them over to me (quick check in spam folder just in case) and then we can get some insider information on Rockstar 365
This was Paul’s reply to my email and although he hasn’t sent them back yet, I love the positive answer
Great questions!
Ill begin crushing these this evening.
Keep ROCKIN’
if you are wondering why I have favourable opinion of the Rockstar site, it’s not because they have given me any money or other incentive (although if they did want to click on my paypal button please go for it), it’s because I like it.
- I like it’s positive nature, showing the highlights
- I like the way it looks
- Summarizing of information is great
- I like the random facts in the highlights, like Leon Tribe holds the record for the highest number of CRM 3 exam in Austraila
- I like the fact its called ROCKSTAR 365
- It’s Fun
- It means there is a potential future where Recruitment consultants won’t be hassling me every week
- It provides a useful introduction for the CRM MVP QA that I do on Wednesdays
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