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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4 Responses to “Back to regular blogging — Blogging and the Staffing Industry”
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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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Hi Lisa,
This is a great post. Kudos to you for tackling topics with complete honesty and transparency.
Re: People talking about your blog in conference rooms vs. comments
I just think it is a great statement about the staffing industry. Most staffing people talk a lot about being experts in their field. Yet so few, if any, have ever commented publicly on any website or blog. All online interaction is about taking (sourcing) from the blogosphere, and rarely contributing. I asked all of my potential bloggers whether they’ve ever commented on a blog or any article in an online trade pub and I heard crickets. The norms of the social web are still a couple of years from wide acceptance, and I venture to guess there will still be more consumers of content than contributors.
Re: Current Google Results of staffing firm blogs
“Staffing blog” is exactly how I initially found yours. I completely agree with your assessment of the current state of content on the leading staffing blogs. There is an overt sales pitch within Insource Solutions which is very much a turn off. Frontline Source Group’s blog is just code for “Another place to stick our job listings”. Rather than complain about the bad blogs though, I’m busy working with my team to build a good staffing firm blog. It’s difficult and challenging to get people to say/think something meaningful. When we go live I’ll let you know so maybe you could give us some feedback.
My favorite candidate facing staffing blog right now is Wired and Hired.
RE: Spherion Big Time
I also track that blog and find their content and design to be very well done. It is pretty sad that a staffing firm as big as they are, with as high quality of content can only create a whisper in Google results as compared to other Career Advice sources as you said. It goes to show you how far staffing firms have to go to build credibility and presence in the crowded online career marketplace. Spherion seems to be taking some risks that may or may not payoff long term for them. I’d say that the Temp Life is entertaining YouTube content with good viral value. However, for my firm’s brand we’d never touch that with a 10 foot pole. The stereotypes being spoofed are exactly what candidates would likely perceive to come from the staffing industry in the first place.
I train recruiters on how to use blogs to hire people, but I get far better results from independents and employment software than staffing firms.
It’s primarily because owners and managers can’t get their recruiters on the phone now, and see the computer as a time waster, and not a placement generator.
Also try typing in staffing firm blog, or local recruiting blog, or recruiter blog in instead.
There are over a thousand employment blogs written, and although they’ve splintered, it’s been a growing field.
Lots of people are looking into it. It’s just that most aren’t bloggers, and their blogs rank so low they may never show up in a search.
PERHAPS if there had been blogs back in the early 2000’s, CHIMES could never have gotten away with such questionable hype and deception!