BlogTalkRadio
The Recruiting Animal hosted an Internet "radio" show earlier today about recruitment blogging. The Animal, as he is known to his friends, certainly isn't shy about sharing his opinions and was clearly pretty negative about recruiting blogs. A handful of callers, including yours truly, agreed with some of his opinions but tried without much success to straighten out some of his other opinions. He apparently believes the adage that blogs are written by people without anything to say for people with too much time on their hands.
Listen to the show. It is entertaining if nothing else. But there were some really good nuggets of information and opinions thrown out by some people who are pretty active and passionate in the recruiting blogosphere. My opinion? Listen for details, but I'm disappointed that there aren't more corporate recruiters who are blogging but I'm optimistic that there will be far more as Gen Y continues to move into the corporate world and up the chain of command. Once most of the Baby Boomers retire and Gen X'ers and Y'ers replace them, I believe that corporations will understand both that transparency is a good thing and that blogging is a critical piece of that. They'll understand that blogging can be both a recruitment tool by allowing candidates to better understand the people with whom they'll work and a retention tool -- if you're allowed to blog at your current employer and a prospective employer woos you but won't allow you to blog, will you be likely to jump ship?
Steve, Steve,
You made a great contribution to the show (as you did to Jay-Dee's panel last year) but how could you get me so wrong?
1. I think blogs directed at your clients and candidate pool are a great idea for recruiters.
2. There is also a lot of good content for recruiters on blogs by recruiters for recruiters.
3. I've met a number of smart, funny people who are writing blogs.
But I agree with you: there aren't too many corporate recruiters blogging. And there aren't too many recruiters blogging, period.
So the idea in contention, that recruiting blogs have been "empowered", that they are "industry partners" and primary purveyors of viral marketing, is totally wrong.
That was it. No one on the show disagreed with me.
Like you, they just thought they did. The same is true on Bull Doza's site, Six Degrees of Dave.
http://sixdegreesfromdave.com/?p=204
Every writer pays homage to the greatness of recruiting blogs and then, near the end of his entry, quietly admits that they haven't gained much ground.
Thanks for including that picture. It's great.
Regards,
www.blogtalkradio.com/animal