Back to regular blogging — Blogging and the Staffing Industry
Alright, I think I’m back for good. Thank you so much for those who have sent well-wishes via e-mail over the last couple of months, and condolences over the last couple of weeks. The memorial can be found at http://lisaamorao.net/al.
I haven’t blogged much in the last couple of months but from the amount of offline chatter about this blog it doesn’t seem like I had a Blog Sabbatical at all. It seems, for reasons I still don’t understand, I have infuriated some people. Please excuse me while I do another housekeeping post.
This is my personal blog, not my employer’s blog. I blog on my own time, on my own computer. I pay for my own hosting. Please see the disclaimer. What I say here should not be attributed to ATR. As a matter of fact, my employer does NOT always agree with what I write here. I consider myself to be extremely fortunate that my employer recognizes my right to my own opinions and sees the value in having their staff openly converse about the industry — within reason, of course.
The technology industry, which most of us in the staffing industry serve, has embraced social media. So many staffing firms claim that they understand the evolving tech culture yet many still do not “get” the social web.
Case in point. It seems a bunch of folks do not agree with what I write here, but they have not posted a comment at all. Some write to me over e-mail, but it seems there are also those who talk about my blog in conference rooms. I blush at the thought, but it doesn’t accomplish anything. You can disagree with me and engage in a conversation under the comments so that the rest of the web community can be enlightened by it. Or…you can talk about it with 10 other people in a conference room. I don’t see anyone benefiting from the latter.
Also, please do not send me hate mail because my blog happens to come up higher in Google search results when people search for your company, instead of your corporate website. Google wrote the search algorithms. I’m just a humble blogger.
On Blogging
Ok, so your staffing firm has a blog. Great! But is it really a blog? Just because you have it on Blogspot or Wordpress and have an RSS feed doesn’t mean it is a blog in the social media sense. A good blog provides ideas and opinions that are up for debate and conversations. It is not the place to put your job listings or worse, tell people how great you are. Sure, you CAN do that on a blog and I know a lot of bloggers who do just that…but you’ll lose your readers quickly.
One thing that really irritates me is that the #1 Google search result for keywords “staffing blog” is this: http://www.insourcesolutions.com/blog/ or this: http://www.frontlinesourcegroup.com/fsg_blog.htm
Yes, it’s on a blogging platform, but it provides very little conversation value. This is not to slam Insource Solutions or Frontline Source Group, but I think Insource Solutions should take advantage of that highly coveted top Google ranking by conversing not just about how good they are and about their job openings, but by recommending best practices within the industry or by talking about trends beyond “we’re seeing more jobs now.” Again, not to slam, since Insource Solutions is the flagship “staffing blog” at least through the eyes of Google, I really would like to see it become more valuable.
Ok. Now on to the good stuff. I think Spherion has a great-looking career blog. The Big Time is content-rich on a variety of topics that are geared towards the job seeker. Unfortunately, it seems to rank low on search results. From a quick web analytics perspective, it’s because there’s a ton of career blogs out there with more inlinks and better authority ranking than The Big Time. I’m adding them to my blogroll…I doubt my two links will help push it up, but I like the blog, so I’ll do what I can.
On a separate note, I am not a big fan of the Temp Life, also by Spherion. Specific comments are for another post, but I can really see a concerted effort to dive into social media. I will make sure to follow Spherion.
Do you have a favorite staffing blog? Are you trying to start one of your own or for your agency? I’m trying to build a blogroll. Please let me know, I’d like to follow and converse.
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About This Blog
Lisa Amorao is currently the Marketing Programs Manager for ATR International, a Silicon Valley-based contingent staffing firm.
Lisa has held roles in recruiting and sales before moving on to her current role in Marketing.
The opinions expressed here are her personal opinions and does not reflect those of her employer or any of its clients.
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