Blogging As A Recruiting Tool

The following is a guest post from Mike Tiffany, who write at the St Louis IT Recruiters Idea Exchange.

Two Points:
1)   Recruiting today has really morphed into multiple positions:  Sourcer, relationship builder and maintainer.  Sourcing and maintenance have been greatly assisted by good Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
2)   In recruiting, it’s not who you know but who knows you (or can find you), in order to build a large pipeline of candidates.

I believe, a true recruiter’s strength needs to be as a relationship builder with candidates.  This is the skill that is your biggest asset and will be difficult to ship overseas.  This means a recruiter has to be approachable by candidates, and viewed as a subject matter expert in finding the best job for the job seeker.  Blogging fit this bill for me.  I’ve only been blogging for 3 months but have put real billable dollars to the bottom line for my company, Chameleon Integrated Services  in three ways.  Candidates will look up my blog when I send introduction emails, clients have been referred to me from the blog as someone knowing the industry, and other recruiters have contacted me to exchange best practices and splits.

In discussing my experiences and beliefs in recruiting, I am able to communicate how to treat candidates and be more productive as a recruiter.  I have been able to build credibility and trust before I am even approached by candidates and clients.  Last week, I had lunch with a potential client that later sent me an email and had remembered my name because she had read my blog before.

Friend and mentor Jim Durbin of Durbin Media Group has been a real help in getting me going and suggestions for improvement.  I have a bad habit of typing faster then the mind can keep up and my proofing skills have a lot of room for improvement. 

My suggestion for any recruiter thinking about starting a blog is just to close your eyes and jump. You will goof it up!  Don’t worry about it and learn from your mistakes.  Recruiting is going to change greatly in the next 3-5 years as the new era of Web 2.0 grows and your candidates will be there.  If you don’t, I’d be glad to discuss my jobs with your candidates!