Sirona Says

Don't worry, blogs ARE like the Duracell Bunny!

As part of some research I am doing for a client, I am interviewing many gen Y'ers across the whole of the UK. One of the questions I slipped in was to do with social media and which sites people used. I included blogs in that list (obviously) and, I expected there to be many saying 'yes' to my 'do you read blogs?' question.
How wrong I have been!!

So far, I would say that 2% covers the amount who have so far answered yes to that question!

Now this has got me thinking. Especially when I probed a little further and discovered why they don't read blogs. I would say the most common response has been, "why do I need to blog, I have Facebook (in England) and Bebo (in Scotland - just got to say that everyone uses Bebo in Scotland!!, Facebook - you have some work to do up there!) to communicate with people.
Twitter faired a little better in the usage stakes, but it certainly hasn't been prolific.  uuuhhhmmmm - are blogs and micro-blogs reaching the mainstream out there? ............Are they really?

Richard Dennison on his blog Inside Out, asks a similar question about social media in general - Time for a Reality Check. One of the many good points he delivers, is that if blogs could speak, they would be quoting Mark Twain: “… reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.

Then today, I read a good post by Denise Wakeman, on her blog that also questions why people are wrong to even contemplate giving up blogging. She cites an article on Wired that it's time to stop blogging -- that somehow blogging has run its course, it's too impersonal and other tools have made it unnecessary. Wired reckon that using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, makes blogging unnecessary.
I really like Denise's defense of the blog. "Your blog is the hub and foundation of your business communication. It's where you drive people from your social networking sites so they can go deeper and more intimately with you." She continues, "Once people arrive on your blog, you have the opportunity to deepen your relationship, beyond the 140 characters available on Twitter.  The blog is where you educate, entertain, engage and enrich your reader."

She is absolutely right of course. Where else could you give your readers, customers, visitors etc the depth of user experience and engagement that you can on your blog?

So, as far as I am concerned, it's Long Live Blogs!!! They will last for a good long while yet......just like the good old Duracell bunny above!!!

What else can you add to blog defense? Why are blogs so great for you?

Are there any recruiters who STILL don't know?

Are there any recruiters or corporate recruiting people out there, who still don't understand the power of web 2.0? 
Well, thankfully, Amitai Givertz has done you a big favour! He wrote this excellent short presentation, succinctly explaining why web 2.0 is so important to the recruitment world. This is a must read!!

Internet Recruiting 2.0 - The Flow Of Information

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: amg management advisors amitai givertz)

If you liked this format, why not view the one that I produced for Slideshare - Social Media is here to stay

No fake stuff - your network must be real to succeed

We are told every day that size matters, bigger is better and that the bigger something is, then the more respect you get! Well, that may well be true in the large corporate world or the porn industry (now there is a synergy to explore at a later date!), but in the networking world, I believe that the phrase 'quality rather than quantity' applies.
Let me just clarify this. In the world of networking it is very easy to grow massive networks of people, and there are loads of people with many 1000's of connections in their networks. But does it mean anything? Are they going to use them? Is it just a status symbol on their Facebook, MySpace or Bebo page?

Seth Godin, the excellent business thought leader, really sums this up very well in a recent video Q & A session he did recently with Tom Peters.

His answer, should make you think before you go mad and join up with 2000 people for the sake of it. 

You might have noticed, that I didn't include LinkedIn in this. The reason being, that this site IS for business  if you want to link with me,just send an invite!) and there is a genuine benefit in having a larger network, as it allows you to have a better reach out to more people. So if you are constantly searching for people, as recruiters are, then having a large appropriate LinkedIn network is acceptable.
Although Seth has a pop at Twitter, I think that is something different because it is a distribution channel that you can control. People choose to follow you on Twitter (you can follow me here) because of what you tweet (say), and the more that is appeals, then the more people will follow you. And of course if they like what you say, then they will probably check out your blog and your website, and even become a subscriber to them via email or RSS. You  can also choose who to follow on Twitter, and it goes without saying, that you follow only those that interest you, so you control what you read.

So, while I agree with Seth on the main social networking sites, I think there are a few exceptions to his theory!

What do you think, can you have a network that is too big?

The Timeline of Internet Recruiting

 

Images are more powerful than words,today's post!
These are taken from an absolutely superb presentation by Michael Marlatt from Cloud Recruiting. He gave the presentation at Sourcecon 2008 in the US, which by all accounts was the best of the show. The full presentation can be downloaded from his website.

Are you still a corporate blogging virgin?

In reading several of Lee Odden's posts today, there was some excellent advice about corporate blogging from a blogger called Valeria Maltoni. She is a Director of Marketing Communications for SunGard and blogs at Conversation Agent.

Currently in the UK, I would say that corporate blogging is definitely in the minority. While many 'experts' are telling the 'non-believers' that social media, blogging and social networking is here to stay and should be an essential part of strategy, still the majority are saying, 'not for us!' As a social media evangelist, I just don't understand what the issue is, other than a complete understanding of the benefits it can bring to your company.
So as a starting point, why don't you (any corporates reading this) dip your toes into the blogging pool? At the end of the day it is at least a strand of social media that you can completely control - you can control the set up of the blog, who writes on it and you can even moderate the responses on the blog before they get posted ( if you are worried about adverse comments).
Admittedly. there is a difference between the corporate blogger and normal individual blogs (like mine), because a corporate blog needs to engage with its community (customers) while at the same time keeping with the company's brand and corporate image. Individual blogs, of course, have no such constraints.

So if you are actually now considering writing a corporate blog, Valeria has some great advice for you to help you think about how to start writing one:

Thought Twitter was a waste of time, Corporate World?

Many people don't get Twitter , the micro-blogging site. They just think it is a load of pants occupied by geeky social networking nerds. I must confess until 'The Sniper ' encouraged' me to give it a serious go, I was the same (you can follow me here).
But Twitter is working and now mainstream companies have realised what a good channel it can be, when used in conjunction with other methods of marketing. But the problem has been to date, that there was no way of tracking your tweets, and understanding their effectiveness.
But a new product called Twittertise allows you to advertise on Twitter and track the success of branded communications with your customers. It will also allow you to schedule your communications on Twitter and using URL tracking technology measure the effectiveness of your traffic driving techniques on the platform.

Twittertise Overview from whalewisdom on Vimeo.

So, has the penny dropped with all you companies out there, looking to reach out to the fast growing twitter population? You can build a scheduled marketing/sales campaign, and then track how well it has performed. Not bad for a micro-blogging site is it?

The possibilities are endless, and for a recruitment this tool will be a fantastic way to engage with all those gen Y'ers, as Twitter can be picked up on nearly every mobile platform with things like Twitterberry, Tinytwitter, twitter for the iphone etc etc and as we know gen Y'ers are never more than 3 inches away from their phones!!

So take the step and incorporate Twitter into your marketing and communication strategy today!!

How to become a new media slimeball!!

I came across this phrase on YouTube, and had to explore further. In my search I found this explanantion by that great crowd at commoncraft - so here is how to become a new media slimeball(- douchebag is american phraseology for a slimeball!).

So are you there yet??

Blimey - a Web 3.0 job advert in The Sunday Times!

I supposed we shouldn't be surprised to see this type of advert in The Sunday Times Appointments, but never the less, it is a little surprising when you consider most companies still aren't even using web 2.0 on their websites!

Obviously the 'client' is a foreward thinking organisation, and wants to stay ahead of its competition, but (this is a question for all you recruiters) how many true web 3.0 people have you actually come across?

I think it would have been better to gain some excellent PR and competitive employment branding, by using a branded advert, rather than the 'blind' advert that they have used here. I wonder how many more of web 3.0 adverts we will now start to see!!

Did you know Twitter was around in WWII? It was, honest!!

For those of you who have no life outside Twitter here is a very funny video charting the rise and fall of Twitter, highlighted of course on Twitter, by Amybeth Hale aka @researchgoddess.

If after that your appetite is still there for Twitter, then why not follow me!

Whoever said that social media should stay out of the workplace?

Social Media at work is here to stay and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!! With such a vast amount of generation Y'ers starting to appear in the workplace, this is something companies are just going to have to accept. If they don't, then they will certainly miss out on recruiting a large proportion of this generation, who see social media as a key tool in their work life.

In the process of having to revamp my website ( thank you Microsoft for that), I have put together a presentation about social media at work - "Social Media is Here to Stay", utilising that great tool Slideshare.

Social Media Is Here To Stay

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Also worth looking at is "Social Media in the Workplace", which is a great report by Peter Gold, with self explanitory content!!