Recruitopian Footnotes [July 9, 2009]
It seems the politicos at The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) have teamed up with JobTarget marketeers and are set to publish a 2009 Job Board Savings Book.
Apparently, you can use the coupons at over 1,000 niche, diversity and regional job boards that are slashing up to half the price on their job postings, all to help make the world go round. Think of it as cross between an economic stimulus package and a licked-to-go Green Shield Stamps program.
In times of economic collapse it is only natural that the industry’s leadership should bandy together and step up to the plate. Rewarding good behavior [buying postings] and facilitating commerce [direct marketing] is not a bad thing. To the contrary, it is a good thing. And programs like this are quintessentially American, aren’t they?
Some time ago my wife was suffering from a persistent abdominal pain. A kind neighbor who learned that medical science had failed us for years came over to lay hands on my missus and pray with the family.
Our apostolic neighbor got to work and in no time was possessed. She began uttering some unknown prayer that was only coherent to God and herself.
While it seemed quite possible that everyone else in the room was being transported to a higher place, I found myself being teleported to the Appalachian foothills where one imagines spirits of a different sort give voice to an equally unintelligible, if not distilled, form of incantation.
Somehow, in my befuddled Hebraic interpretation of what was going on I confused the “charismatic church” with the “charismatic me” and foolishly decided to apply the lessons of the day to some healing of my own.
Without going in to the pathetic details of my amorous overtures — or my completely missing the point with the snake metaphor — suffice it to say, getting lickered up, and my own very clumsy “laying on of hands,” resulted in my waking up the next day with a thick head and a lip to match. Go figure.
I was in conversation with a client the other day. We were talking about low-impact blogging as a possible way to reconcile the “wanna blog but don’t have time” and “yeah, I wanna optimize my site” disconnect.
As part of my illustration that the disconnect can be reconciled with relatively little effort we jumped online to look at ways I had addressed this problem in the past. We looked at my Quote for the Day, On the Radar, Recruiting by Numbers and other experiments, managing to cover everything from SEO blah-blah-blah to reputation yada-yada-yada in the space of about 20 minutes.
I’m sure the conversation would have been more fruitful had many of my illustrations not been frustrated by a series of recently vandalized pages, courtsey of Jobster. Clicking through a series of blank pages is hardly a good first step in getting a reticent client to part with more money, is it?
Ho-hum…
Okay, call me old-fashioned, a stickler if you like, but I happen to think publishing in the recruiting space comes with some social and corporate responsbilities. Don’t you?
While Jobster still has employees on the payroll it would serve their brand — not to mention Recruitopians and the community at large – if someone took a moment to monitor who is submitting what on Recruiting.com. Today, Filipino Hot Babes, tomorrow what – incest, donkey-love?
And another in the series, Food for Thought
I remember many years ago when subliminal advertising was being used for the first time, at least that we knew of, there was a hullabaloo about it in the U.K. when I was growing up. The concern was this Kremlin-inspired technique was nothing more than a cynical attempt to take over the minds of Coronation Street’s already gullible audience. Right, as if.
Well, its Christmas Eve. It seems everyone is at home googling this and googling that.
A larger number of visitors than usual are flocking to this ever so ‘umble blog today. To read my learned works? Nah, its that Kingsbury fellow!
Being a contrarian has historically been a mixed career move. On one hand, it may get a statue put up in your honor. On the other hand, it will likely be erected on the spot where you were hanged, drawn, and quartered before a cheering crowd of thousands.
An impromptu addition to my Food for Thought series…
Mon asks a recurring question on my Hungry Blogger post:
I am wondering whether blogging makes a noticeable difference to your SEO. I have been blogging for my company for a few weeks and have no idea whether i am causing any real differences. Are we appearing higher up in google? No idea, but am having a bit of fun while i am doing it at least.
There is plenty of stuff online that will help you understand how to make the most of your blogging, get some Google juice.
Here are a couple of resources you will find helpful, sites you might want bookmark if Google itself isn’t good enough:
You should look up Michael Specht — he is an Australian blogger like you, closer to home if you want to try and make a human connection. I don’t know what platform you are using but here are Michael’s earlier experiences trying to get some lift off a WordPress platform.
Have you considered joining a community like RecruitingBlogs.com where asking these types of question will get you a more varied response? If not, you should.
Yeah, yeah, yeah…I could have answered Mon in the post’s comments but I need the juice, you know, to gargle with!
Well, well, well. What do we have here? Recruiting.com 2.0, eh?
Having a strong sense that recruiting bloggers are unwittingly making Jason Goldberg and Jason Davis fabulously rich simply by thinking about their blogs, I shall start to suppress conscious thought and coherent writing on mine. I have no problem with Jasons Goldberg and Davis becoming fat-wallet media tycoons – I aspire to being one myself – but, if I am going to work hard to create original content, they are going to have to work just as hard to understand it, capitalize on it. Oh, I know, the favors of communal love are reciprocated if I want to attract more readers and/or monetize my driveling blog. But I don’t. It seems the more I want the privacy of my very own weblog the more people want to see what I’m up to. I think it must be the Recruitomatic-Lavatory- Webcam syndrome. For some reason there are people – but not you of course – who want to observe me struggle with a thing, like making sense of what this new-fangled Recruiting.com is really all about. How odd.
In my research for this post I came across this from Steven Dutch who teaches Natural and Applied Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay:
A Note to Visitors
I will respond to questions and comments as time permits, but if you want to take issue with any position expressed here, you first have to answer this question:
What evidence would it take to prove your beliefs wrong
Beyond writing my blog posts and hitting “publish” I freely admit I don’t know much about what goes on on the backend of my blog. As a result, not only was I blissfully unaware that I had disabled comments on my patient Blog Swapper’s recent guest post, Exotic Fruit, but when its author – Yvonne “Viva” LaRose – drew this to my attention - not even believing it could be done – I assumed she was as clueless as me. When I went to leave a comment myself I noticed it said “Comments Off” and I realized Viva was right and I was wrong. By way of karmic retribution – believe it or not – it took me an hour to figure out how to enable the comments, fall on my sword, and devise a plan for inviting you to please re-visit, re-read and comment as you like.
Yvonne has graciously forgiven me. I hope anyone frustrated by not being able to participate with a comment on her post will forgive me too. No sour grapes, please. Comments are still moderated!
And, the Blog Swap continues.
By what authority who knows, but the Recruiting Animal says…
“You want readers, dumb it down. “Ten tips to a great resume” should get you a few. “Three things you should never say in an interview.” “What do you do if your candidate is cute?” Start writing these – even in your bizarre quirky style [the pot calling the kettle black] – and I guarantee a following.”
Recruitomatic asks, “Will this work?”
Three Ways to Clever Recruitment Blogging
1. Find a source you can trust and “borrow heavily” from it. If caught plagiarizing, distract everyone with a clever product launch.
2. Quote anyone who falls into category one at length to avoid being accused of plagiarizing yourself. Appear well connected to make it all look innocent. Launch a new blog with a clever name.
3. Realize options one and two will not sustain pay-per-click advertising. Invent a clever search engine to legitimize your use of everyone else’s content. Go to the top of the class.
Technorati says…
Recruiting Animal – dumbing it down since March 29, 2006 – ranks 99,625 with 69 links from 27 blogs.
Recruitomatic – mixing it up since June 10, 2006 – ranks 92,306 with 151 links from 29 blogs.
Hey, who needs readers when we have eachother?
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