Look what else you can do with a blog— Get a Job!

Okay. Guess how many guest bloggers I got from my Valentine’s Day blog. If you guessed zero, then you are correct. So I guess I’ll just keep blogging myself. Lucky me-- According to the WSJ, blogs are the new resume database and the best way to catch a passive candidate.

Ryan Loken, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recruitment manager, says he spends one to two hours a week searching through blogs for new talent or additional information about the candidates he has interviewed. "Blogs are a tool in the tool kit," he says. Since he joined the Bentonville, Ark., retail giant three years ago, Mr. Logen estimates that Web journals have helped him fill 125 corporate jobs. Most of the recruits were referred to him by bloggers and blog contributors, and some were the writers themselves.

Some companies encourage employees to blog because they can use them to recruit others. When recruiter Harry Joiner was hired to fill two positions at Musician's Friend Inc. in November, he used an employee's personal blog to help sell his client's rural location of Medford, Ore., to job seekers. "Candidates were using Medford as a reason not to consider the jobs," he says. "As a marketer, I thought, if you can't change it, promote it."

7 Tips for Making Your Blog Recruiter-Friendly
1. Clearly identify your specialty. Include a tagline in your blog's banner so its theme can be quickly recognized. Also, write a concise "about me" blurb that readers can easily find.
2. Show you're current on hot topics. For example, relate a recent news item about your area of expertise to a project you completed and link to tangible evidence of your work, such as a press clipping or PowerPoint presentation.
3. Provide more information. Include a downloadable resume and if you have a profile on a networking site such as LinkedIn.com, link to it.
4. Exercise common sense. Never write about anything negative or proprietary concerning current or former employers.
5. Omit personal information. Unless it's relevant to the job you want, avoid writing about how much you love Fido or the cute things your kids do.
6. Keep it polished and current. Post new entries at least three times a month to show that you're committed.
7. Contribute to other blogs. Insert an inbound link to your blog to draw more traffic and boost its search-engine rankings.

Once again, I urge you to email me if you have any blog tendencies you’d like to expand upon.

The door is always open. But then again, I might get a new job. LOL LOL LOL

Labels: Blogging, BRANDEMiX

According to an article from Associated Press Internet Writer: "Bloggers Must Disclose Sponsored Posts."

If you're writing about something in your blog that is related to a financial exchange for your blog, like advertising or product placement, then it may be legally necessary to report such. So says the Federal Trade Commission, as that could otherwise violate consumer-protection laws on deception. Keyword: "could."

However, according to the policy of PayPerPost Inc. -- the first major company to enact this change in policy -- if you are giving a negative or neutral review related to that advertising money, no disclaimer is necessary. While not clear as to what "neutral" is, among those advertising with PayPerPost are OfficeMax and News Corp.

Ted Murphy from PayPerPost spoke publicly about his company's new policy noting that some advertisers -- and their advertising -- may be lost, but the "transparency" will be better for the long-term, as the clients they "really want to go after, the Fortune 500, the Fortune 1000" had disclosure obligations as it was.

David Sifry of Technorati also applauds such, saying: "I think that people have learned that without trust, all posts become suspect."

And the relevance of this post to you readers of BRANDEblog? Besides this being a blog, yesterday's post was about the expected surge in online advertising in the near-future. But if bloggers have to be clear about their affiliations, which some may argue to be a violate of Freedom Of Speech, then content may change. If content changes, will readership change? All remains to be seen, people...

Labels: Blogging, Blogs, FTC, Online Advertising, Technorati