From snazzy one sheets to tightly scripted, carefully rehearsed webinars competition for the billions of dollars in annualized spend in HR technologies seems predicated not necessarily on the actual use case and business impact of the product itself, but rather, on the efficacy of the marketing machines behind those products.

And that’s where content marketing comes in, because building buzz, creating categories or selling solutions requires turning the hype machine to 11, maintaining façade of objectivity (see: sponsored white papers, corporate blogs) which is, in reality, product propaganda that’s more or less paid programming. 

Although the products or the practitioners using them may be slightly behind most other industries, this year’s HR Technology Conference reiterated the fact that when it comes to content marketing, HR Tech has somehow positioned itself on the cutting edge. So you’re going to probably see a lot of these wrap-up posts appear.  As Reader’s Digest’s reign at the top of the circulation charts suggests, it’s more effective to aggregate content than create it. 

And much like the “Top HR Technology” awards on the #HRTechConf conference agenda award product marketing more than actual product efficacy, we think it’s time that the content marketers of the world get a little recognition, too. 

So here’s our picks for the very best in HR Technology Conference content marketing, because, well, this is tough work, and the best in the business deserve a little link love.  It’s the least we can do.

RecruitingBlogs 2013 HR Technology Conference Excellence in Content Marketing Awards:

 Conference Preview Post (Product): Smashfly for “#HRTechConf 2013: The People, the Sessions and Vegas” by Chris Brablc.

Conference Preview Post (Services): The Starr Conspiracy for Winning at #HRTechConf by Lance Haun

Conference Preview Post (Vendor Neutral): Meghan M. Biro for “7 Hottest Trends in HR Technology” by Meghan M. Biro @meghanmbiro #TChat

Opinion/Editorial (Vendor Neutral): George LaRocque for “HR Buyers, Tell HR Marketers Like It Is.”

Opinion/Editorial (Vendor Sponsored): Cornerstone OnDemand for “Notes from HR Tech 2013: It’s All About the Employee” by Charles Coy 

Reporting, Feature (Third Party): Reputation Capital for “#HRTechConf: Recruiting Is A People Business” by Mary Ellen Slayter

Reporting, Feature (Vendor): Smart Recruiters for NextGen Influencer Panel: Mentorship, Implementing SaaS & the E... by David Smooke

Spot Reporting: HRMarketer for #HRTechConf Insights

Short Form: Jessica Miller-Merrill for @Blogging4Jobs #HRTechConf

Conference Wrap-Up (Vendor Neutral): Software Insider for “Event Report: 7 Trends from this Year’s Human Resources Conference ...” by Ray Wang

Conference Wrap-Up (Vendor): Glassdoor for 4 Takeaways from #HRTechConf 2013 by Alison Hadden

Recruiting Blogs Newcomer of the Year Award: RedBranch Media for “6 Tips from an #HRTechConf Virgin” by Eric Foutch

Recruiting Blogs Lifetime Achievement Award: Gerry Crispin for his work in the field of Candidate Experience.  Representative Work: “Employee Referrals: Candidate Experience’s Silver Bullet”

Congratulations to our winners for excellence in content marketing for helping drive our field, and make this entire site even viable in the first place.  Feel free to use this arbitrary recognition in whatever site or RFP you need to get more business – because that, after all, is how the buying cycle works.