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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on July 18, 2008 at 12:07pm

Thank you, Josh for pursuing the discussion. But I suspect you might be wrong about what people will tolerate anywhere.

For instance, right now, if we started calling eachother names and went on and on, there might be a guideline no matter how wonderful our content is.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on July 18, 2008 at 12:07pm

Animal, just to clarify - hey, I'm not saying promoting a show is bad (and I'm only one little person, anyway!). Your show is a bedrock in our industry, a familiar "landmark" in our larger community of Recruitment (not just RBC, but all the nodes of our world, like ERE, HireCentrix, Workforce, HCI, etc.). Please don't think I meant anything else - if anyone knows me, I may come across funny or nutty, but I do that for entertainment value most often.

What I was honestly referring to is promoting classes or products. I want to see RBC and all other networks do big things (built on the right kind of foundations with someone like JD maintaining the integrity of the network as it grows). For the networks to grow and for us all to benefit takes capital . . . and what better place to grow organically by getting that capital from advertisers than investors? :) In other words, maybe an org pays like $500 to advertise a class for a week - at $100/head, the org breaks even on adv costs at 5 heads. They get positive ROI, RBC then gets some capital to do a show or hire someone, and putting a price-tag on items weeds out the coat-tailers, etc. Hey, that's a good deal and everybody wins :)

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on July 18, 2008 at 12:10pm

Animal, great touche' :) You're spot on with that. There is no room for name-calling or sticks and stones.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on July 18, 2008 at 12:11pm

Josh, maybe those same people who plug their offsite activities are also supplying the free content on Rbc which already generates its advertising revenues

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Permalink Reply by Slouch on July 18, 2008 at 12:24pm

Hey joshua, there a few companies right now that pay good money to advertise their message to RecruitingBlogs.com There are a number of others that want to but the challenge right now is figuring out how to incorporate it all. I'm working on a job description for someone that will be the first full time employee. part of it will deal with the things you bring up.

I'm not prepared to censor vendor participation in the forums unless it is much too aggressive and it has happened before but not often.

Sometimes when I see people promoting things, I'll send an email to understand how the person posting it is benefiting from the dollars that would be gained through a successful sale but only because it is not clear to me and I think there has to be clarity in how people sell things on this site.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on July 18, 2008 at 12:25pm

Rayanne I just left you a ridiculous voice mail message because I was thinking off the cuff and your stupid voicemail system didn't let me delete it and re record. I hate doing that when I'm cold calling and I have because some of the big 4 firms have the same ridiculous practice. Anyway, I said what I had to. No need for more on that topic although you're welcome to call in on Wed and discuss it on the show.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on July 18, 2008 at 12:30pm

Sounds like an argument from someone trying to get something for free :P My boy, Biggie was right. Stay with me and you'll see what I'm saying.

Mr. Want-to-Advertise-For-Free: "What do you mean I have to pay? I mean, I made 3 posts yesterday! How could you do me like that, man???"

Quasi-JD: "Well, we have 10k members, so if you share some insights in your posts and videos, that helps you develop some business, right?"

Mr. Want-to-Advertise-For-Free: "Yeah, well . .. that's true, but I should be able to advertise for free, anyway."

Quasi-JD: "Are your classes free for network members? Or do you make free placements for your clients? I want you to be successful, we don't live in Free-Land."

Mr. Want-to-Advertise-For-Free: "I see how it is. I don't want to be your friend, anymore."

Quasi-JD: [thinks to himself that Biggie was right, "Mo Money, Mo Problems""

Animal, Diddy knows best: "More money, more problems - it's just the way it is."

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on July 18, 2008 at 12:39pm

Hey Josh. You're wrong.

You're saying that posting an article with a byline is the only way anyone should put his name out there. That's a fair trade. Free article for Rbc's ability to earn revenue off the eyeballs that come to see it.

But if this site wants to be a hub it has to let people put their flyers on telephone poles. And you know what? That's part of the reason people come here, to find out what is going on. So Rbc makes money off of other people's small self promotions as well as their articles.

Now, some bozo posted his entire executive recruiting marketing brochure on my page the other day. That's different. It's harrassment. I rewrote it with him as a janitiorial supervisor instead of a big executive. But not everyone would want to be bothered.

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Permalink Reply by Slouch on July 18, 2008 at 12:47pm

I am not against vendors plugging their stuff as long as it is not too aggressive. there is a place in the forum section to do it and if I see stuff that belongs somewhere else, I move it.

I agree that it can be valuable information and it does create inventory that can be sold.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on July 18, 2008 at 12:52pm

I think we've circled around to near agreement if we break down some of our ideas and points --

Bylines are ok, and expected . . . entire executive recruiting marketing brochures are too much.

I think our only semantic difference may be how to treat the middle ground; the 'gray area', the 'flyers on telephone poles', as you suggest.

In fact, it is this gray area that is of such delicacy that perhaps the way the gray area is handled is the difference between winning and losing a business game in the social networking world?

Could the gray area be the variable revenue that so many brick-and-mortar institutions try to increase? If we're a burger world owner, and we know that we're increasing sales by 10% year over year . . . what would happen if we also marketed the higher margin add-ons, like shakes or soft ice cream? Could we see a higher aggregate growth rate than our accepted 10%? Even a growth rate of 11% is actually 10% greater than the accepted year-on-year 10%. That would be big, my friend - real big. I think that's a reason why Starbucks brought our boy, Howard Schultz back :) [Yes, he's making tough decisions now, but SB will be back with a vengeance . . . after the smoke clears.]

Through our conjecture, I think we've honed in on the real social networking challenge today - handling the gray area. Some may say a debate led us here, but I believe it's more a brainstorm with opposing viewpoints presented.

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Permalink Reply by Paul DeBettignies on July 18, 2008 at 12:57pm

My only frustration has been individuals "welcoming" every (most) new member with a solicitation. That bothers me. The first few days new members are being asked for splits, sub contracts, job orders. Not a great welcome in my opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on July 18, 2008 at 1:00pm

Those are real business opportunities. As long as they are direct communications rather than marketing brochures and don't close with How Can I Help? what's wrong with that? But Josh thinks the platform should charge a commission.

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