Creating quality blogs as a recruiter

Hi

Having read a number of blogs and discussed with the head of digital media at a large recruitment advertising agency how social media could become a quality recruitment tool over in the UK. I am in the process of establishing a blog on behalf of the company I work for to recruit better quality candidates at all levels.
I am interested in any advice you could give to allow this excerise to work and how to open the network up to more traffic?

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Permalink Reply by Slouch on May 12, 2008 at 9:58am

write posts that will include terms and phrases that the candidates you are looking for will search. I would also on a weekly basis do a roundup of all the news related to the industry you are recruiting in. Don't target your blog towards people looking for jobs.

These things take time and you won't get results right away. You need to be patient and write frequently.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Vick on May 12, 2008 at 10:02am

I would echo what Slouch says but add that the return on your investment in blogs is not an overnight thing. Kind of like meeting somebody in a pub - it takes time to build a relationship of trust, candor and the old adage of make a friend before you make a sale applies. With the right content blogs are great tools for both client and candidate development but I've found the better ones focus on one or the other, not both.

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Permalink Reply by Matt Hewitson on May 12, 2008 at 11:37am

Again echoing the comments of Slouch and Bill, I would argue that you are capturing the passive candidates, which are typically the ones you want. From a recruitment agency point of view, although this process will take some time to set up initially, its a lot cheaper and probably more reliable than the typical advertising methods that agencies follow.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Durbin on May 12, 2008 at 12:44pm

1) Read other blogs - specifically blogs written by recruiters.

2) Keep your focus - write about the industry in which you want to recruit, and keep the information pertinent to the geographic region you want to recruit in.

3) Link out to other blogs, and have a blogroll that defines who you are.

4) Remember the blog is not about you, it's about celebrating and promoting your audience.

5) Use social media to build up a profile around the blog and the blogger.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Edwards on May 12, 2008 at 3:00pm

Thank you all for your input and it concretes my belief in these tools as a great way to develop understanding and awareness in any number of fields.
Clearly I/we are at an early stage with this and want to progress it the right way without falling into the pitfalls of creating advatorial content rather than discussion based information.

I shall look forward to reading your posts in the future and expanding my own knowldge.