Digital Recruiting

Looking to recruit a strong Account Manager, with excellent project management and digital skills to join the MediaCom team. If interested or know someone who is please email; sinead.bunting@mediacom.com for futher details. thanks.

Technically white-noising out that negative Social Media buzz about you

An interesting piece of spam popped into my inbox over the weekend. It was particularly ineffective because there was no link to click through to (stupid is as stupid does), but still the subject caught my eye because it was something I've not heard anyone talk about but was surely a natural technological solution to what has become, for many, a headache in the interweb space - namely the Social Media catalysed phenomena that is amplified negative brand reach. 

The email was as follows:

"I’ll bet those negative remarks are coming from angry ex-employees, crazy customers or maybe even your competition. But they’re still hurting your sales and reputation, aren’t they? My company can “erase” those negative reviews and replace them with positive ones. And it’s all totally legal and legitimate, even if our approach is a little high-tech. Let me tell you about our “Reputation Protection” program with no charge, no obligation. Just click here."

Now I have no idea whether "Derek Johnson" has any such capability. I also know that when damage is done (perceived or actual) you'll obviously be sharing this with your networks who will, at first or even second level of seperation, give your tale a high credibility rating. But I also know that the internet and technology gives us an ability to partake in networks that are so far beyond our human capability to maintain effectively that anything fed to us by anyone other than our most trusted of contacts will surely increasingly be taken either with a handful of salt or else lapped up like a "Freddie Starr ate my hamster" story spewed out from a tabloid.

So why wouldn't there be some smart technical teams out there somewhere working out ways to run computer based strategies to out "like" what you don't - and vice-versa?

It, of course, doesn't mean that you can start reverting to flogging your staff and "doing a Ratner" as far as your customers are concerned - but I would wager that if someone can get this humanised (and more effectively than some humans can manage themselves - e.g. Sarah Palin) it won't be long before this starts creeping into larger companies black ops PR toolkit. Hell - perhaps it's already there for all we know! :-|

Bubbletastic

if anyone's in any doubt that we're once again living through a bubble being inflated as fast as the last dot com one then you don't have to look too far. There are a plethora of articles written by people far cleverer than I that demonstrate this with proper examples and historic data and graphs n stuff (e.g. "all bubbles begin with a pyramid, end with a pop" - post by broadstuff), but I got passed an email the other day that had been recieved from a recruitment consultant.

I started in Recruitment Advertising towards the end of the 90s and remember the times of VC fuelled excess and tales of boardrooms with real grass on the floor and the like. I remember working on the Vizzavi account where it seemed, to even a junior account manager, that WAP games would never be able to generate returns that would ever sustain the whacking great pay packets and benefits of the staff, let alone the fancy pants break out areas, glitzy head offices & "benefits to attract and retain the best".

Right now even in our niche corner of the economy there seem to be some "interesting" VC investments into businesses that seem, to my admitedly untrained eye, to be signifcantly more style than discernable substance. Anyway - when I read this email I couldn't help think anything other than "here we go again"

"Good day to you Robert,

The sun is shining brightly through one of the large windows of the Digital Agency, Pascal has just finished a highly interesting iPhone app which traces the harmonious reciprocity between day and night, meanwhile Xavier is on the next bank of plexiglass desks tinkering on an app which purports to measure the sleep patterns of the user, plotting the findings on a graph. An iPhone mentor sits by a corinthian pillar, perched upon a copy of Le Corbusier's life works, an icon of stoic reticence, fastidiously watching over the progress of his young charges.

This may sound somewhat bizarre, but I can assure you that this is the reality in the London based Digital Agency that I am recruiting for at this present time. They are an extremely well known agency in the world of digital marketing, who are currently expanding their mobile wing. Currently they are seeking...."

 

I'm off to build me a Corithian pillar in the middle of our modest office and change my name to Alexandros.

:-|

Buying an Audience not Media

7 predictions from Google about where display advertising will be in 2015

 1. 50 percent of ad campaigns will include video ads bought on a cost-per-view basis (that means that the user will choose whether to watch the ad or not, and the advertiser will only pay if the user watches). That’s up from very little today.

 2. Today, advertisers are starting to deliver ads that are tailored to particular audiences. Many are using real-time bidding technology, so that they can bid on the ad space that they think is most valuable. In 2015, 50 percent of these ads will be bought using this real-time technology.

 3. With smartphone growth skyrocketing, mobile is going be the number one screen through which users engage with advertisers’ digital brands.

 4. Today, the “click” is the most important way that advertisers measure their display ad campaigns, but it’s not always the best measure—especially if an ad campaign is designed to boost things like brand awareness or recall. With new measurement technologies emerging, in five years, there will be five metrics that advertisers commonly regard as more important than the click.

 5. Just like most news articles on the web today can be commented on, shared, discussed, subscribed to and recommended, in 2015, 75 percent of ads on the web will be “social” in nature—across dozens of formats, sites and social communities.

 6. Rich media formats work. They enable great creativity and interaction between users and advertisers, but today they only represent about 6 percent of total display ad impressions. Rich media formats will increase to 50 percent, for brand-building ad campaigns.

 7. All the investments that are making display advertising smarter and sexier will help publishers increase their revenues. Display advertising is going to grow to a $50 billion industry in five years.

A brilliant example of "The Long Tail" on t'web

If you've been a long time reader of this 'ere blog then you'll recall previous posts where people (certainly John Whitehurst from very early days) have been telling us about the Long Tail of the internet. Generally they've also gone the step further to make it Recruitment related - which is nice, because this is after all a blog ostensibly about things recruitment in the digital arena (the clue's in the URL). 

Anyway - I'm not going to do that, but I did want to share this article from the BBC I was pointed to. I've cropped it a bit, but you can read it all (and view a video interview with Martin Mcnulty) on the BBC site 

 

Searching the internet's long tail and finding parrot cages

What do you do if you're a successful search marketing agency, running global paid ad campaigns for high-profile clients such as the Hilton hotel group, and you want to expand your expertise? 

Move into the parrot cage business, of course.

This isn't a Monty Python sketch. Forward 3D are part of the Forward group, which in 2009 had revenue of £57m. The group includes companies such as Uswitch and Omio. As well as running paid search ad campaigns for clients, Forward 3D are also responsible for InvisibleHand, a price comparison plug-in for browsers. 

So how did they end up as the UK's largest importer of parrot cages? 

Martin McNulty is the company's general manager. He says, "We've built technology that allows us to process and understand tens of billions of interactions that happen online.

"What do I mean by that? Consumers interact with web-pages, they see adverts and adverts drive them to websites, and within those websites they may or may not choose to transact. "The net effect of this is that we have technology that allows us to profile demand on the internet, and crucially it allows us to profile profitable demand on the internet."

The company wanted to test an idea they'd had to expand the services they offered to their clients. 

So they looked for popular search terms that didn't attract much in the way of paid advertising on Google - working on the assumption that this could signify a gap in the market.

In-depth analysis of massive amounts of click data threw up a lot of pet supplies queries, and in particular parrot cages. They tested the water by buying keywords using Google AdWords, and building a simple ecommerce site using a third-party product, Shopify.

The JustCages website went live - without the ability to actually buy the cages, to gauge demand before sourcing stock. 

Within two weeks it became clear the appetite was there. Orders were fulfilled initially by so-called drop shippers; these are manufactures or wholesalers who will ship goods on behalf of vendors directly to the customer, bypassing the need to hold inventory, minimising risk.

Once profitability was proven, the company developed a more sophisticated website, and ultimately began to warehouse inventory. Just over a year later and they operate 10 niche outlets selling cages and pet homes for a range of animals and fish.

Mr McNulty says that "what we absolutely didn't do was build a beautiful website on day one. What we really did was figure out the demand side first."

The long tail

In the days before e-commerce and the internet, product availability was controlled by the needs of bricks and mortar retailers to invest in stock that was guaranteed to sell. With limited shelf-space and the high cost of holding inventory in warehouses, providing a wide range of niche items with potentially limited appeal to shoppers in a defined geographic area was fairly risky.

The web brought a paradigm shift in retailing. Big online stores such as Amazon, freed from the constraints of bricks and mortar, were able to stock not just best-sellers, but a wide-range of less popular, niche items. And it turned out that some of these harder-to-find items sold well enough over the internet to create a significant revenue stream.

This is the 'long tail', a phrase coined by Chris Anderson, and subsequently laid out in his book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. 

Searching for demand

Despite the fact that Forward 3D's focus remains technology, they are preparing to launch a further 20 niche stores, expanding into the long tail to offer cat trees, dog beds and pet food.

JustShops, the subsidiary, offers over 4,000 products, with a further 2,000 due to be added. It now makes over 26,000 shipments a year which add up to £3.2m in sales.

Mr McNulty says "it's our belief that anyone can come up with an idea; turning the idea into something profitable, that's the hard bit.

"And if you can work through tests in a very quick way that doesn't cost you a lot of money, ultimately that's what's going to deliver the most value for you."

“The key is to fail often but to fail cheaply and to fail quickly."

 

Dilbert nails Social Media Marketing for many Corporates

Location, Location, Location - Facebook Local

I love Kirsty and Phil from Location, Location, Location, I was watching it last night, they have such a great working rapport. Banter but mutual respect..perfect working relationship.

Anyway, seamless and completely tenuous link out of the way. I saw this news article the other day and it reminded of the key topic in the future of the web - the Local Web.

AOL are investing $50 million in 500 new local sites in the USA, with plans to follow suit in the UK.

The importance of locality and geo targeting services was reinforced by Alex's blog post below on Foursquare and the news of Facebook Local and their foray into geo targeting services. Will Facebook becomes Workbook?

Geo location services are about adding value and enriching a users locality experience.

In the UK, the local press really missed a trick, coming too late to the web party to provide any value or build up any user-loyalty to their community sites.

Who is going to fill this void? and there really is a gap in the local market.

Loving Yelp and their local peer recommendation model.

Who will bring locality based insight and services into recruitment?

Is Foursquare the Mayor of Hype Bubble Central?

A little while back there was a bit of a heated debate in the ole twittosphere. You see foursquare, it would seem, is one of those things that’s a bit like marmite – and I’m not exactly in the “love it” camp. I personally find it annoying. Well not it of course, it's just a platform. It's just the way people use it to constantly announce where they are having a meeting, cup of tea or stopping for a poo - and that pollutes my personal online space. Now of course I hear shouts of “get a life” – and you’re absolutely right. I also know where the “unfollow” button is & I’m certainly not afraid to use it (I prefer to try and skew my tweet stream towards quality rather than quantity), but it’s the bubble of hype that surrounds foursquare that annoys me more than anything. It’s like no one has learned anything over the past 10+ years.

So I wanted to put my money where my virtual mouth was. With people shouting (in their professional capacity) that it will be “massive” I wanted to get this into the public sphere (well – the blogsphere at least). But my first challenge is “what does success look like?” I asked across my twitter network, but no one could give me anything solid. So now I’m trying here too. I’m looking for information about what level of usership a consensus of people would agree would signify “massive” and ideally sustainable business success. In the Social Media space we’ve recently seen Bebo go down (a business bought 2 years ago at $850m with 40m users (here’s the Guardian raving about it), declining to a user base of c.12m and sale 2months ago for a reported $10m) – and we all know of other similar massively hyped big ticket failures. And if you’ve had anything to do with digital media then you, like I, will have had to sit through presentations where people tell you why each of those are going to be “massive”.

There are, I’m glad to say, people far more clued up than me writing about why Foursquare is fundamentally limited, but I think that even in this day and age early adopters can’t help themselves getting caught up in thinking “cool” and fast initial take up is anything other than just that – initial and with the potential to quickly become un-cool. Unfortunately the analogy that comes to mind is of a teenage boy when he gets his first computer and unfettered internet access set up in his bedroom beyond his parents prying eyes – let’s say he’s prone to getting a little “over excited”, then quickly losing interest until something else catches his interest and we’re off again.

Now I feel I should also be clear (I can already feel the SoMe playground bristling) and say that I’m sure geo-locational services will become massive, but almost certainly only when a google or a facebook enables it to a seamless part of their offer (TechRadar article on Facebook geolocational moves & The Next Web article on Google Lattitude), because as users we are intrinsically lazy, so (I suggest) we’ll use a product maybe only 70-80% as good as another if it requires 10% less effort to use it. 

Foursquare tapped into the “inner teenager” within many of the early adopters and deserves kudos for seeing just how to inflate a hype bubble so effectively – but the “mayor” thing is surely little more than this years must have boyz toy, consigned to the back of the cupboard by spring and in a charity box by the autumn. My wife has made me aware of an iPhone app called AroundMe – a perfectly good and really simple to use geolocal listing engine (or whatever the correct terminology for it is). It even seems to have a very nifty augmented reality facility (although I’ve barely used it to date and so couldn’t tell you how good that is). I don’t have a profile on it. I don’t want to share with anyone where I’m having a coffee (because I know they couldn't give a toss). But it is a nice and helpful facility. 

Anyway – back to the reason for the post (there was one – promise ;). My offer still stands – if someone can provide me with information as to what “massive” will look like in 12-18months for Foursquare and we can agree on that (as compared against similar information mapped from entities such as Bebo, MySpace & Friendsreunited (remember them)) then I’ll happily put my money where my mouth is – be that in the form of a charitable donation or a meal on me or whatever. 

And tbh, nearly 3million foursquare users spread across the global SoMe bubble growing capitals does not longevity make – it’s the uptake from the people & kids on the street that is what counts long term, and I reckon they’ll tell you where you can literally stick your virtual Mayoral sceptre too. 

Look at your work - now back at this work - now back at your work

Don't you wish your work was a good as this work?!

I do.

;)

Great Casestudy from the OldSpice creative people. Really recommend grabbing a coffee and watching this. If nothing else it'll give you a head start on formulating a response for your next brief from a client that will go something like:

 "we have a very modest and limited budget, with no brand to speak off in a particularly unsexy industry - but we'd really like to do something like the Old Spice you-google social media thing. So we'd like to see what you might do for us that would be "viral" please." 

The Future of Work

We held our first MediaCom Career conference last week, on 'The Future of Work'.

The line-up included Navi Singh at Shell, Mairi Healy from RBS, Martin Tiplady from the Met Police, Luke McKend from Google, Rhys McLachlan our Head of Futures at MediaCom, Sue Unerman our Chief Strategy Officer and myself and MD of Career; Aki Mandhar.

 Our  headline speaker was the worldwide best selling writer/philosopher, Alain De Botton, which was an absolute coup. (there's nothing more surreal than having a 10am conference call on a Friday morning, leading up to the conference with Alain, one of our favourite writers in the whole world!).

Alain was as philosophical and eloquent as always, putting the pressures we place on ourselves when it comes to our careers and work into a much more resonable, rationale context.

It was a good day all round with great content and really positive feedback from our clients, new business prospects and media partners.

Key themes that myself and Aki touched on included; the mobile workforce, cloud recruiting, employee personal reputation management ('Mebay' style), the employer brand being in the hands of the workforce and not the branding department and the need for job boards to innovate if they are to be what we see as the main 'aggregators' connecting employees with projects/employers.

All fantastic stuff that each would warrant its own presentation.Kevin Kelly's philosophy 'To share is the gain' very much underpinned our thinking.

 

Thanks to all who took the time to speak at the event and those who were able to come along.

Much more musings to come on the day and the discussions it stimulated.

Sinead  

 

Lies, damned lies & Adobe surveys

This came up today in a little back and forth on Twitter & got me so agitated that I wanted to air it here too. The micro debate centred around the use of Flash (or at least the exclusive use of flash) in website builds.

Now firstly let me say that I'm a Flash fan and for a long time have been in awe of the experience you can get through flash sites. It annoys me that I can't see them on my iPhone (nor could I if I had an iPad - but I don't, so "whatever"), but at the same time I understand that we can't always have everything on every platform (until HTML5 is here and everyone moves to that of course ;)

In my day I have produced and overseen my fair share of Flash site builds - even Flash exclusive sites (about 8years ago I was responsible for building a multi award winning site for Codemasters where the target audience was Game Developers & the like - so if they didn't have a decent internet connection speed and Flash then that was a pretty effective first sift criteria to fail). So if you're confident that the target audience are absolutely going to have the set up to access the site and you don't care about considering accessibility or SEO (both of which flash comprehensively fails at) then fill your boots. 

But what REALLY pissed me off was a cross the bow shot of Adobe statistics (see them here). If you have a cursory look it's pretty damned impressive. As of June 2010:

Flash player 8 & below has penetrated 99.7% of all PCs in Europe

Flash player 10 has penetrated 97.9% of all PCs in Europe

Now that's all massively impressive. Until you have a little scratch into the methodology. Have a guess how many people they asked? Bear in mind that the UK has an estimated 46.5m people with internet access. (France 42.3m; Germany 61.9m). So go on - how many you reckon? out of a user base of 150.7million people?

1,050

No - not 1,050 in the UK. 1,050 in "Europe" (350 in each of the 3 countries that makes up Europe. Italians don't have the Internet do they?). That's, I reckon, a sample size of 0.0006%. 

FFS - this is one of the worlds foremost software providers conducting research to try prove their global reach across the web. And they gathered responses from 350 people in the UK to give us a 99.7% figure. 350 people who I daresay are about as representative of the wider UK user as I am of 8stone females in their 20s named Alex. But that's a whole other story.

So build sites in flash. Make them beautiful & engaging. Bask in smoothness, trickery and utilise all the cleverness Flash allows. But don't justify your approach (to yourself or your clients) based on a user reach that is effectively not much better than made up data. 

BTW - in a study this afternoon 100% of people thought my opinion in this matter was spot on. *

*I asked 4 people and my dog 

The Google Commute

So, you may have seen on Friday the news that Google has continued its plans to enter the property market, allowing UK users to search for property on Google maps. We are able to drill down on the overlay icon and search by property type, number of bedrooms etc.

The first thought of many recruitment types will have been, is this an indication of future Google plans for another major classified area: jobs?

A Google spokesman stated that the property market made sense as half of all search queries have a geographical component.

The location of where we work is of course important to us. We know spending too much of your day getting to and from work is a major pain and it has an impact on our work life balance.

Research I recall, from a few years ago (maybe from The Newspaper Society) showed that a significant proportion of people wouldn't work beyond a certain radius of where they lived. The locality based insight that a Google job searching tool would give candidates throughout the UK would be significant.

Going beyond the basic locality based insight of Google maps and looking at the further content that such a tool could give jobseekers is where it gets even more interesting....

I really loved the partnership I read about a couple of months ago of Foursquare and The History Channel in the US. It was a great mash-up of a location based tool being enriched by a media partnership. I love history, so being able to get  a historical background on the locations I and my network were checking into in real time was 'right up my street'.

It's along these lines that I see the job seeking experience becoming more insightful and a richer experience. Not only can we potentially see on a map where a job that suits our basic criteria is based, we could see a lot more....

Google earth video of the surrounding area? places to go for a sandwich in the area, people you know who happen to work in the vicinity? sponsored company profiles with staff showing you around the office environment? A tool that rates the company as a place to work along the lines of Amazon, Glassdoor etc.

The possibilties are endless, very interesting and very exciting.

What would this mean for the future of job boards?

Would make it tricky for sure. Job boards will have to continue and accelerate investment in technology and smart media partnerships that provide their users with a comprehensive toolkit that provide genuine, real time insights to aid them in making the best career decisions.

Better still, do we see Google and particular job board partnerships on the horizon?

Perhaps this will be the natural evoltion. Time will tell.

Why?

As children, we constantly asked the rather inquisitive question to our parents; 'but why mummy?'

We wanted to understand why things, situations or people were the way they were. It was a natural fundamental need to help us understand the ways of the world.

After a while my exasperated mummy would respond 'Because, I said so!'

..'oh, ok..hmmn..'

Whilst I may have learnt to just accept certain things, I still want to know why I do the things I do and of course I'm not alone. We all want to know why.

I watched the following talk on TED recently and it made me think about why people, leaders and organisations are successful and inspiring.

Why do people never get Sunday night blues or dread getting up to go to work in the morning?

Probably because they believe in what they are doing, because they know why they are doing it.

Simon Sinek, in what he says is the world's simplest idea, states that successful and inspiring leaders and companies are those, who not only explain the standard what they do and how they do it, they show more fundamentally, why the do it - they provide a purpose.

Apple is a company he cites as one, that at its core, promotes the why proposition beautifully. The why bit is all about challenging the status quo. The how bit is by designing lovely, aesthetically pleasing computers, phones etc The what they do, is make and sell technology devices.

Leaders and organisations who provide people with a purpose, as to why they are doing what they are doing, are those who inspire and attract employees who will work for more than just the pay cheque. They work with a passion because they believe in what they are doing.

Give me your employer brand, give me your values but tell me why we are we doing what we are doing?

I'm Irish, we naturally want to be part of some cause or other, but that trait aside, based on my own career experiences, being part of something for a reason and believing in why I do what I do and who I do it for, is where it's at and why I get up in the morning.

To be sure.

Is this the future of mobile?

hilarious piece from The Onion ("America's finest news source") - and clearly demonstrates a recruitment use too (wonder if Monster paid for inclusion in this? ;)

New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users' Ears

The Flat Fee Debate - follow up, live example & reposing of the question

After the debate the “flat fee” question caused last week (and thanks to all the people from across the spectrum who came and input) I just wanted to add a follow up post from some experiences of this week pertinent to that.

We’ve built/are hosting an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for a client. It's new to them – so there’ll be a period of learning that will need to spread across the company, and meanwhile various Managers and HR representatives will get caught between old practises and the new facility. So things won’t be perfect, but I found this activity particularly enlightening.

The hiring HR Manager engaged a company who aren’t “… a recruitment agency…” but offer a “fixed fee recruitment” service. Now I appreciate where there wasn’t an ATS before then the application process would have been simpler, but let me take you through the candidate journey as I discovered it on one of the sites being used (I hope they don’t mind) - Jobsite. (Others used include: JobCentrePlus; Jobsite; Monster; Reed; TotalJobs).

> Find unbranded job – click apply
> JobSite application form – completed with test text & dummy CV
> Thanks for applying notification
> Automated email from Flat Fee company (no subject line or personalisation) containing a link (non media specific) to the vacancy on the client site instructing you to contact the client if you have any questions as the Flat Fee company are “solely responsible for advertising this vacancy” on behalf of the client.
> the candidate then lands on the job description and then has to complete an application.

So just in case you missed this – let me explain why, in my opinion, this is a terrible experience for all involved

Candidate – well, do I really need to explain that? Hopefully not.

Client
1.    Their response would unquestionably have been greater and most likely of higher quality from using a branded advert.
2.    The drop off must be pretty significant in this process (I’m sure we’ll find out in the end), and what if the best candidates were amongst those?
3.    Their employer brand has certainly not received any of the benefit you’d expect from being seen to be advertising, which would likely also have driven additional traffic to then convert into sign ups to the job by email alerts and befitted in 0 cost traffic for future recruitment needs.
4.    Indeed the employer brand would likely have been negatively affected by such a convoluted application process.
5.    Have they actually saved money at all? Because that’s what drove this route pure and simply – the fact that they could “get greater job board coverage than through buying them individually”. I'm not sure a targetted site or two mightn't have been cheaper anyway.
6.    Any possibility of tracking applicants true source (our ATS has a simple but neat way of doing this) is gone – having instead to revert to a drop down where the candidate guesses where they might have come from back when they thought they applied the first time.

Job Boards
1.    Revenue for carrying this advert is obliterated (unless you believe that having a little of a lot is better than having a lot/all of less)
2.    Any hope of engaging with the client to show them how a branded advert would have worked better (I believe generally to the power of somewhere between 5 and 7) has evaporated.
3.    Value and ability to deliver is judged (wrongly – but it will be all the same) against the few applicants who get through and therefore the Job Board's brand is eroded (which is putting it mildly).

All a bit pants really isn’t it? My main client contact is clearly now aware of this and will be working as best they can to try and raise it internally and influence future activity accordingly with lessons learned. But if I, with my modest client list and within just two weeks of writing the previous post, can give a first hand account of such a set up and experience, then surely this indicates exactly what is ACTUALLY happening in so many instances across this part of the industry.

Is this straight reselling (that would seem to break many job board contracts)? I’d like someone to explain how it’s not.

And if it is then my question of that last post still holds (with a slight revision) for answering: Flat fee recruitment agencies (or at least a distinct, significant and growing percentage of them) are undercutting your business model - how this is viable for you long term?

Value of a BSI Kite mark for UK Online Recruitment?

[by Derek Pilcher - Managing Director -TheLadders]

As an organisation we've been involved in the early stage talks with the BSI around the introduction of a kite mark for the UK Job Board industry. It appears that they have reached out to the Govt Dept (BIS) for funding to support this process. Notable UK online recruitment luminaries are involved on the BSI Steering Committee, none other than Chairman David Hurst of onrec.com.

Nevertheless with all the good intent of this process, I'm a little confused as to the benefits. UK regulations around the jobseeker remain totally in the dark - governed by legislation dating back to 1973. Job Boards are still governed by the Employment Act of 1973 which classifies job boards as Employment Agencies under the guise of providing 'work finding' services and outlining that access to job vacancies has to be provided free. A mute point in today's world of choice to today's consumers.

What value does a BSI kite mark against today's outdated regulations really hold for UK jobseekers and recruiters?

As the world of online job seeking and in particular social networking grows by the day, how will the Govt legislate in this area in the future. Under the surface, all the key protagonists across UK online recruitment, understand that there needs to be, and will be, a full top to bottom review of UK online recruitment regulations, over and above the recent guidance that came as an off-shoot of the Agency Workers Directive - anticipated sometime in the next 18 months.

The key stumbling block appears to be how can BIS 'future proof' any revised regulatory guidance with the pace of technology development impacting and accelerating the efficiency of job seeking and recruitment in the UK. In addition will a Tory Govt be more pro-business whilst a Labour Govt remains staunchly socialist in its protection of the vulnerable UK worker?

How do Twitter, Linked-In and Facebook now feature into the mix against current UK specific regulations. They are all being utilised by recruiters looking to access targeted and relevant candidates segments? Are they to be governed as job  boards? What does the future hold for The Ladders.co.uk, Workthing+, Experteer and now Linked-In with their newly launched Premium model.

From what I can understand from speaking to colleagues across the UK Job Board industry, there appears to be a distinct lack of enthusiasm as to the benefits of a BSI Kite mark in today's world of mis-aligned regulations towards the UK Online recruitment industry…...and that’s being generous!

Derek Pilcher
Managing Director
TheLadders.co.uk
derekpilcher@theladders.com

Flat Fee recruitment – a direct question to main player job boards

I’m intrigued about something (as first posted about on this blog: "Are job boards ruining what could have been a beautiful thing")–  so  want to ask a direct and genuine question to any senior job board types out there on twitter or stumbling across this 'ere blog.

 

Flat fee recruitment agencies are undercutting your business model by selling space on your site to direct clients at less than 10% of what you would charge if they came to you directly – therefore losing you revenue hand over fist on a daily basis. With new proponents of this model jumping into the mix on a weekly basis have you perhaps created a monster or is there a particular reason (that I can’t fathom) that you are willing to see your brand being lined up alongside (and therefore valued comparably to), let’s be honest, non-entity job boards?

 

I am genuinely intrigued and whilst I understand my posting of this may not show me in best light (whether that be naivety in understanding the commercial working of a major name job board or naivety in thinking anyone may be willing to get involved in a public debate on it) I’m hoping someone can help me understand how this is viable for you long term?

thanks

A better, more grown up future for online advertising? I think / hope so

The web is a wonderful wonderful place. But, as we all know, good god it’s crowded and cluttered. Which is where strong brands come in. I’ve long berated the obsession with blatant short termism from any sector – but not least from web publishers who have a knack for panicking about all the cheap knock-off's taking traffic away from them. If you play the long game and stay true to quality and being true to your visitors / readers then the more rubbish that the web hosts, the more people will look for "beacon destinations" (not sure if I've just made that up - but probably not as I think it's quite catchy) . Publishers get caught into thinking they want volume volume volume, not caring whether it’s transient or not. But where the real value comes in any open market is in establishing a brand that resonates with a target audience and breeds loyalty.

Everything about the “standard” income/advertising model we see played out across the internet perpetuates this – ads being sold on the number of views (CPM) or volume of click throughs, and as many slots on a page as you can fit with often scant regard for the user experience. Is it any wonder that we all become "banner blind" (which is of course highly counter productive for the volume merchants anyway)?

What’s most ridiculous is that for however many pre-web decades advertising space has been bought and sold, it was always done on the basis it was largely about “influencing” target audience through brand recognition and/or product recall. Along comes the internet and all of a sudden those considerations are forgotten altogether because you can track a view or a click - an immediate interaction with your advertising message. That’s just nonsense. One proven methodology (and it is proven over hundreds of years) for increasing sales through promoting your product/service in a more gradual influencing manner does not become worthless just because there's a medium with a way to measure a more instant reaction to your messaging.

So with that all said you’ll hopefully see why the following article really resonated with me – not least the “cost per influence” part. Is this where the balance starts to return to the market and exposure to a clear message is valued in at least similar ways, irrespective of the medium? I hope so.

The Ad Network of Creative, Web and Design Culture

(from http://decknetwork.net/)

The premier network for reaching creative, web and design professionals, The Deck serves up tens of millions of page views each month and is uniquely configured to connect the right marketers to a targeted, influential audience.

Well-Vetted

We’re picky about the advertising we’ll accept. We won’t take an ad unless we have paid for and/or used the product or service. Sell us something relevant to our audience and we’ll sell you an ad.

One Impression at a Time

With the exception of “roadblocks,” which we’ll discuss later, there are only thirty advertising slots available each month for the entire Deck. Only a single ad will be shown for each page viewed.
In essence, buying a month on The Deck gives you an exclusive showing on 3.3 percent of all the pages viewed for that month across all forty-six sites and services. And there won’t be Google or other third-party ads diluting your exposure. The Deck ad is the only ad on the page.

A buy in The Deck reaches the creative community on the web in an uncluttered, controlled environment, far more valuable than a standard banner or a single text ad among dozens of others. Current Deck ads are also listed on this page and displayed here.

Cost Per Influence

We’re not selling The Deck based on page views or hits or click-through, but if we were, the CPM for a buy here would be priced well below industry norms. Most media who say “we don’t sell on the numbers” do so because they don’t have the numbers to support their rates. That’s certainly not the case with The Deck, as a group the network serves up tens of millions of impressions each month. All that being said, it’s not about “cost-per-thousand,” it’s about “cost-per-influence.”

The loyal, regular readers of the forty-six sites and services consist of web publishers, writers, developers, editors, reporters and bloggers as well as influential designers and art directors. Plus, the aggregate audience is made up of writers, photographers, illustrators, students, filmmakers, typographers, artists, animators, musicians, coders, designers and many other creative professionals.

In the Details

The thirty ads each month are in rotation across all forty-six sites and services. The ads are 120 pixels wide by 90 pixels tall and also allow for up to 80 characters of text to accompany the image which allows advertisers to make their ads a bit more graphic, so to speak.
Pricing and Roadblocks

The current rate for ads is $7900 USD per ad per month and this rate is valid through June 30, 2010. Additionally, marketers who desire 100% of the page views on the network for a given day or days may be able to purchase a “roadblock” for $7900 USD per day. Roadblocks are ideal for product or service launches and other time sensitive communications like movie openings and conferences.

Are Job Boards ruining what could have been a beatiful thing?

Jamie Leonard recently wrote a great post on "Recruitment Relationships: It's not me, it's you" where he took a tongue in cheek look at the various advertising / engagement channels open to recruiters.

The bit that really jumped out at me was the piece on Job Boards:

"Job Boards

Now 5 or so years into their married , the job board and recruiters are still very much going strong.  Their relationship is one based on trust, equality and understanding, but how long will this marriage last?  Well that really depends on both parties. Relationships relying on honesty and with the market now picking up, the job board market are certainly the one “trying to make it work”. The market is over crowded, to say the least, and recruiters have a lot of other options available.

New and appealing alternatives are appearing on the horizon and things could get rocky for this young married if both parties don’t understanding each others needs, quickly."

Now there's nothing I like more than kicking the bejesus out of an analogy , so I added my following thoughts / observations and thought I'd bring them across here too:

The way I see it is that the Job Boards are perhaps about to get caught out playing away from home – cheapening the beautiful thing that they and Direct Recruiters had been working at (a route to engage and promote themselves to potential applicants) through some ill-conceived extra marital fling: namely the pants down volume deals.

Yeh – sure it felt good for the job boards for a while – like visiting a lady from that oldest of industries for some “on tap gratification” (in this instance numbers of jobs advertised), followed by perhaps a swing in traffic and SEO-sexiness. Win-win surely?

Not really.

Why? Because the job board becomes dependent on this part of their world. But like all too many failed marriages have proven – you can’t keep the two apart (not even if you’re an overpaid footballer or a member of Take That!). It used to be offered to those REALLY big buying Rec Cons, then in a slow month it was offered to tempt some of the smaller Rec Cons, then businesses started springing up (largely from the cash rich Rec Cons) buying up these cheap postings and flogging them to the Direct Clients directly. And so (to complete the analogy) the dark side of the errant Job Boards life suddenly encroaches on the “respectable” part, obliterating any perceptions of value in their relationship.

I think it could also be argued that it’s potentially self defeating in terms of the candidate experience too – because using these broad brush aggregators puts the emphasis on spreading the message wide as opposed to getting the message right. And in a market where there’s so many “non ads” (in terms of content and/or actually existing) from Rec Cons, surely a job board should be showcasing their “real” jobs to candidates. That’s what keeps engaged, builds the brand connection and gets them to come back? No?

Reckon it’s time Job Boards took a good long look at themselves and worked out who they are, where they’re going and what they want out of life – because your partner always finds out sooner or later (doesn’t she Ashley Cole?), and when that happens then you really only do have yourself to blame, whether they walk away because of the superficialness of your relationship (high volume, low quality response because you just went after the easy option every time) or perhaps they decide to have a play away from home themselves (the massive cost disparity sending them to low cost Job Board aggregators) rendering your relationship obsolete as they decide they like the other side of the fence better too. Are Job Boards truly aware of the implications of a double lifestyle?

(Oh – and BTW – this is all COMPLETELY from my imagination and in NO WAY a reflection of my real life! )

Buntika Social Media Policy

So, you've realised that your employees are among the best resources to manage your online reputation but also potentially can damage your brand reputation if not guided correctly.

What to do?

Worry not, by answering twelve simple questions in sequence here at Policy Tool,

http://socialmedia.policytool.net/

you will have a full and legally sound, company social media policy to circulate to employees in a matter of moments. Yay!

Whats more, I got to make up a name for my make-believe company - Buntika - sounds like a fun place to work.

Nice article at mashable on why your company should have a social media policy.

Three years later is this still the worst recruitment video ever?

It's now three years since I posted  what I considered at the time to be the worst recruitment video I'd ever seen to Digital Recruiting. As it is also a year since I last reposted it, I thought it was high time we all took another look.

Now interestingly as I re-watched this, it didn't seem quite as bad as I remembered! With sites like Animoto offering easy to use software which anyone can use to replicate the photo montage style, this kind of rough and ready promo has actually become quite common. It wasn't long though before I realised that I was viewing it with the sound turned off......it only took a few seconds of reacquainting myself with the song to be sure that it is still the worst recruitment video ever!

Matt

LinkedIn discussion - "Measuring Job Boards traffic - which one do you believe?"

Tony Harding started a discission on the Recruitment Futurology group on LinkedIn

He asked "Having worked as a media professional for 20 years it amazes me that their are so many different ways in which recruitment job boards measure their own traffic and as such it means that the only way you can really judge is by actual applications. NORAS, ABC, Comscore , Google - in other words pick the one which works best for your stats - you cant buy media on the back of different scales of traffic as you will never know the correct figure. I would say that applications are the only worthwhile judge, and in short what then happens to them wastage/interview/offer - as clients we really need to savvy up on knowing what these stats are - what do you think?"

Quite a few comments ensued (go have a look if you have access to the group or want to get it) - but I thought I'd bring his question and my response over here and see if any readers of this blog had any thoughts. Well do you? ;)

My thoughts:

Job Board Traffic metrics are so open to varying degrees of interpretation and manipulation (both pre & post reporting) it's a close run thing to being no more, or even less, use than gut feel TBH.

The real reason metrics are needed? To cover the arse of the person who's consulting on or buying the media. People are desperate for certainty in an uncertain world, a fast moving world where so many factors influence response - so it's most often about making sure you've got a few figures to back up your thinking and you're safe from too much criticism if it doesn't pan out.

I've asked many media in the past why they subscribe to NORAS, which IMHO added little more of real value beyond the ABCe certification which they could have got anyway (although top level user activity behaviors are interesting). Whilst they always seemed to agree with my perspective, the reason they paid the extra for inclusion was simply that many clients they sold too took a disproportionate degree of comfort from having a logo to back up their advice / decisions - irrespective of what it stood for and/or the integrity of conclusions.

To twist a well known saying - "there are lies, damned lies and web traffic statistics", which means there will never be a harmonious agreement on which metric is the most valuable or which methodology / traffic monitoring organisation has the most true reflection of reality. It's only natural that every commercial entity when promoting themselves will only want to use that metric which is flattering to them when compared against who they view as their competition.


So the onus lies with the person collating and processing that response - and rightly so. Location, salary, perception of employer brand, time of the year, how you've written your ad, general state of the market, application process - all these things (and many more) affect response (both quality and quantity of), so unless you have in place a facility to report with maximum integrity where your traffic and, most importantly, interviews and hires came from in previous activity, then gut feel is pretty much as good as anything you've got.

And what should you look for in a gut feel assessment of a job board?
- Are any of your colleagues in that function / role aware of it?
- What's it's online (and potentially offline) profile like - where does it generate it's RELEVANT traffic from?
- How easy is it to use - putting yourself in the shoes of the candidate?
- Are there similar roles to yours advertised already? (great if they can provide info on these or similar too)
- And then ask how many relevant people they have subscribed to alerts and / or in their CV database.


The future has to be for recruiters to pick their ATS' with integrity of metrics and MI reporting as a fundamental underpinning requirement, taking responsibility for better knowing themselves what works and what doesn't - and I'm sorry, but reliance on "what media did you come from" drop down options is simply not good enough. (Note - am consciously staying away from pitching our solution here)


And I don't think this is really clients keeping this info close to their chest Wendy - the truth is that it's because they don't actually know themselves because of rubbish ATS. However you also need to be aware that, even where an ATS would allow seamless tracking, the JobServe application set up actually creates such a negative application and (from my personal & previous often discussed) direct client recruiter experience, that your metrics of ROI are going to be as flawed as anyone's (my reasons/experience set out here: http://www.3dmarcomms.com/blog/2010/01/new-year-new-recruit-some-clear-mi/ - which also includes why I found the PPA experience pretty rubbish too I'm sorry to say Nicole).


But, for what it's worth - ABCe was always my preferred "go to" for verified stats when I was advising / buying on behalf of clients.

The truth is, nobody knows anything.

By Chris Muktar (Founder - Wikijob.co.uk)

Let me start by saying I'm a guest writer, so please be nice!

One of the things I have noticed lately is how the recruitment industry has changed not recently but over centuries. In biblical times, I imagine jobs were advertised by word of mouth, then signs for the literate, likely followed by job noticeboards and then local press, finally culminating with the internet in the last decade and a half, and moving towards social media in the next.

One of the most interesting problems we face when trying to sell social media is selling the concept. It's rare that a client actually expects that their social media campaign will generate any applications. Many are just sticking their toes in the water and seeing what happens. We tend to find that companies spend only 5-10% of their budget on new or innovative media, while focussing the remainder of their efforts on the old faithful. Not very adventurous, but very reasonable.

One of the most interesting stories is Milkround, who have been going for twelve years. They are, for the minute, considered to be the central core media of online graduate recruitment. Founded in '97, their struggle is similar to ours. While at WikiJob we are selling social media in the wake of traditional online job boards such as Milkround, they were selling the internet concept as a whole back when print and campus was the only way to advertise, and their struggle was probably even greater than ours. Interestingly, they have risen to change the industry, by providing a default channel and also by reducing the price per application that employers expect to pay.

At the beginning of the millennium, millions of pounds were burned on either advertising on or acquiring the wrong online job boards. Even the large agencies got bitten, and the demise of Barkers was at least in part due to this fact. It seems nobody knew anything, and it was just important to get involved in some way. Fast forward ten years, and I can see a slightly similar approach with social media. At least in our industry, the investment in social media has been more measured than it was a decade ago, with existing online job boards providing a good backbone for any campaign.

It seems once again that people aren't sure what to do. Is it Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn we should be advertising on? How effective are these channels? The message again seems to be that nobody really knows anything, and people just want to be seen to be doing something, regardless of whether it works or not.

Running WikiJob, we've always believed that social media, for the employer, has to be about one thing alone, and that is reducing the cost per application for online marketing campaigns. That means driving more applications and better applications, for less money. It's always been our tact to try and have some substance in an industry that's full of fads and innovative new-waves. Using this principle, we try and deliver better results than Milkround, Target and our other competitors. Most employers and agencies who were tracking their campaigns last year will know we did as we promised. So, we are trying to edge our way into the 'core media' territory. We have a little way to go to shake our new-kid-on-the-block image amongst some people, but we expect to keep and grow all our customers from last year.

Of course, I have no idea what is going to come along next, or what will work in Web 3.0. Probably geolocating social aggregating mobile in-brain job applying technology, who knows. I guess the truth is, nobody really knows anything.

The September Issue - on iPad

So, on Sunday night, I watched the TV premiere of The September Issue -a behind the scenes documentary on US Vogue magazine's Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

Wow! - it was compulsive viewing - I watched it initially thinking of a very stylish friend of mine who I knew would be ideal to work at Vogue.

By the end of it, despite not having a stylish, fashionable bone in my body, I was wishing I had a job there myself!

This was pretty much due to me loving Anna Wintour's right hand woman - Grace Coddington - the Creative Director, who was such a fantastic, talented person, who did these amazingly creative fashion shoots. They were like modern art...am I gushing? yes, I am..see... I belong in the world of fashion.

I loved Coddington and Wintour's relationship of begrudging admiration and respect mixed with wanting to give each other a good slap, their friction and passion for their jobs, obviously results in a great product.

Anyway, it got me thinking of the creativity that published magazines facilitate and excel at.

If we are going toward e-readers and a digital age that supplants published newspapers and magazines, what does this mean for creative spreads and layouts in magazines such as Vogue?

Have a look at the following link of how the magazine Sports Illustrated will look on the new Apple iPad.

Looks like the lovely work of Coddington will still live on. Phew Daarling!

What do you think Social Media is about?

I was recently asked by a journalist/publisher for my input (along with probably everyone else on this blog and 5 of our regular readers - the 6th reader being my mum, and in the nicest possible way they're right not to ask her) about "social media, fad or future?". 

I can't decide whether it's cheeky to pre-publish here or not. I'm sure the final article they pull together will still make an interesting read irrespective of me pre-empting, but I'll probably forget to post this if I don't do it now. The thing I really wanted to do though was ask any of you who haven't been asked to contribute what you reckon? Kinda in a more crowd sourced / Social Media engaged sort of way, which is probably, given the subject, what I should have done in the first place ;)

Anyway - publish and be damned I say - so here's my 100 or so words (there was a word limit, but as per usual I blew that :)

Social Media - Fad or Future?

Social Media will continue to grow in terms of influence and significance across many (& increasing) strata’s of society. As intrinsically social animals we have always come together to discuss matters of the day - Social Media is simply a term for where that happens online in a world where the Internet is ever-increasingly accessible, massively amplifying the volume and reach of such conversations. This forces greater brand transparency (product, service or employer), representing a BIG challenge for most companies to get to grips with. So whilst the speed of change may make the individual platforms “fad-like”, Social Media participation is a primal activity evolving in our increasingly web based world.

What do you reckon (in 80-100 words - ish)?

The iPad - a Friday kinda look

You may have noticed a little buzz this week just past about a certain Apple release. What? You missed it? Well don't worry - I'm sure it'll be beamed to the space station you must be on someday soon.

There's been plenty written about it already - from people who would love it because it has an apple logo on it to people who hate it because it has an apple logo on it and from developers who hate the fact that Apple operates a very closed development environment to those who really believe that apple have once again (as they did with the iPhone) significantly raised the bar.

It's not perfect, no, but then neither was the iPhone 1.0. Anyway, as I say - plenty written, and for my money Mr Fry, who got to be at the launch event, nailed it (as usual) in his blog post - but I still think this spoof is absolutely brilliant. Enjoy :)

The iPad - watch more funny videos

Crowdsourcing Apathy

Ah, election year....the prospect of shiny new change or focusing your current leaders to deliver on past promises they have made...how exciting! or really....it used to be, but not so much this year.

I don't think I can ever recall being this apathethic about a general election. It's a sad state of affairs to be in, feeling that neither party offers any particular hope.

Just as well then, we have something of interest we can watch from our seats of indifference - how each party fayres in their use of social media in helping to get elected. After Obama came to power on the wave of hope and an amazing social media campaign, the bar has been set very high.

So, first to have piqued my interest and get off the starting blocks is Labour.

Just read that Labour are launching a crowdsourcing campaign Change we See

Insead of talking about what they are going to change - 'Yes We Can' like, they are doing a 'Yes, We Did' type scenario.

Well, they have been in power for donkeys years now, should have done something to be fair.

Nice idea...but as with all social media, content is key....will they have the content for crowds to source? -we'll soon see.

Over to Tory HQ.

RECaid Free Training - 18th February 2010

Support for job-seekers in recruitment advertising. For those people in recruitment marketing who aren’t working at the moment but who are keen to keep their skills up-to-date, help is at hand. RECaid, the recruitment advertising charity, is organising a series of free training and development sessions designed to support job-seekers in our industry. 

The first of these training events will run on the morning of February 18th and will be hosted by Global Radio. This will involve a series of three back-to-back sessions designed to help job seekers improve their interviewing skills, widen their industry knowledge and build their digital design and writing skills. The outline below should help you decide whether they’ll benefit you - or someone you know.

Planning Your Job Hunting Process – Frank Hutton The founder and Managing Director of Ad Lib, a specialist marketing, creative and media recruiter, Frank will focus on taking a planned approach to finding your next job. Having recruited for a wide range of recruitment a recruited for a wide range of agencies at all levels across creative, account handling, digital and production. He has been in demand as a speaker and seminar leader. He was an early supporter of RECaid and continues to care passionately for the Recruitment Communications industry. dvertising agencies at all levels across creative, account handling, digital and production, he’ll draw on this expertise to show how you can stand out in a tough market. A former board director with Riley, Frank combines a huge breadth of industry knowledge with a real passion for recruitment communications. 

Best Practice in Website Design – Tsz Wu In the first of two sessions mainly designed for creative and project management job-seekers, Tsz will focus on helping people build their website design knowledge and skills. Tsz is a founding partner of Pink Squid, a recently launched digital creative consultancy, as well as former head of digital design at TMP, work communications and Barkers, plus a long-standing member of the CIPD judging committee. As such, he can draw on a wealth of web design and development experience to help designers make the jump from print to digital. 

Copywriting for search – Andy Rigden In the second of the creative sessions, Andy Rigden, Joint Creative Director at Bernard Hodes will help copywriters and project managers get to grips with the basics of SEO copywriting. He’ll focus on helping people understand the basic principles and the differences to writing for print, as well as providing an introduction to some of the most common SEO writing tools.

If you want to book one of the 30 places at each session, please contact John Whitehurst on jw@recruitmentmediamonitoring.co.uk. The sessions will all take place in the Global Radio boardroom at 30 Leicester Square, London, WC2H 7LA.

The Mobile Age Cometh

So, I'm thinking  of getting an i-phone..they're pretty cool and being able to access the web wherever I want, whenever I want, is a big attraction, especially since my laptop packed up.

Also, being free from the red light of my work blackberry, which doubles as my personal mobile phone will surely be healthy.

I'm not alone in my desire for a smart phone, in fact, it would seem at long last, we just may be entering the 'Mobile Age' - the perennial prediction comes to bear....

Mary Meeker in her presentation at the Web 2.0 event- convinced me the mobile is all set to be the main device for web access.

 
What's more from past analysis of technology computing trends, the mobile age is all set to be TEN times more utilised that desktop Internet computing:

What does this mean for the world of recruitment?

Employers should be considering what role mobile plays in their attraction strategy- how they can use the unique technology and attributes of this device to ensure they are ahead of the competition and engaging in dialogue with their target audience.

The presentation highlights that currently in Japan, 65% of visitors to the countries most popular social media website; Mixi ,come via their mobile handset - a roadmap of where things are set to go.

So many opportunities are available, whether simple mobile banner advertising, to bespoke apps or augmented reality - the possibilities are endless.

Tuesday 9th of February, we're holding the first annual inter-agency pub quiz to support RECaid at the Hoop & Grapes on Farringdon Road

On Tuesday 9th of February, we're holding the first annual inter-agency pub quiz to support RECaid at the Hoop & Grapes on Farringdon Road. Full details will be distributed shortly, but this is to please ask you to sound out people in your agency about getting team together and ask you to publicise the quiz. Agency can have multiple teams and freelance teams can also welcome, so please encourage as many friends and colleagues as possible to be involved. Please let us know if you want to enter a team and for more information you can see the RECaid inter-agency pub quiz on linkedin. 

Delicious Ambiguity

'...some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.'

Gilda Radner

I love a good quotation and I think the above is a good way to look at life and all that it presents us with, especially after a year like 2009 and a rather uncertain world in 2010.

At this time of year, people tend to make predictions about whats going to happen in the upcoming year.

I obviously don't know whats going to happen in the upcoming months, but reading different blogs and research, it would seem a given, that mobile, real-time and social are the key trends in technology, business and communication (more on that to come).

Whatever happens, I hope 2010 is a great year and we all appreciate and enjoy the delicious ambiguity that it has to offer.

Bring on 2010

I think 2009 can go down as a very strange year, at times it has been very upsetting to see so many people loosing their jobs.

But at the same time I have seen people working together and the industry innovating to move through 2010 and to hopefully change for the better.  

I have got to say I have been personally amazed how people have worked together to support people and the industry, RECaid are working with NABS to provide training and careers support throughout 2010.  You will hear more in the next couple of weeks. 

Away from the recruitment specific support, anyone can take advantage of the emotional and financial support, as well as professional and practical advice.  Check out the personal support and career management services. 

Digital Dinner Party - WebSquared

Every now and then you come across a site, a white paper, a new technology etc that makes you a bit excited and you wonder how you can use it or tailor it for your company and clients.

I came across the site http://www.web2summit.com/web2009/ the other week, late in the evening and was on it for a good few hours until I had to go to sleep.

The site details the Web 2.0 summit that happened in October in San Francisco. The summit is organised by the guy who coined the web 2.0 term- Tim O'Reilly.

Web 2.0 has become Web squared - all about collective intelligence, and the web integrating with the physical world. 'The Web is no longer an industry unto itself – the Web is now the world.'

The list of speakers at this conference is like your dream digital dinner party line-up. Pretty impressive. Some great content on here.

LinkedIn Opens up at Last

After announcing it would open up its platform ages ago - LinkedIn finally lets outside developers have access.

All the pro's and con's are detailed here - including the t & c's that they are imposing which may be a bit stifling and limiting.

But nonetheless- really interesting development for our clients. Watch this space.

Mash-Up my Career

So, I read this article today about how you can use technology/sites to map your life history.

I like this idea - overlay your life on a map of places you have visited, schools you attended, where you have lived etc add relevant content, photo's, links to friends etc

Instead of carving your name on a tree (maybe with another name, date and a heart around it) you can create your life history in a dynamic, visual and interactive way - a 3G biography - a personal diary or history.

Surely this is the future of logging your career experience? - a digital, real-time, resume: charting your work history, where you have worked, who you have worked with and examples of campaigns, clients, innovations you have worked on etc? An interface that will bring this to life.

A digital Career portfolio.

Is this the service that job boards can offer to ensure they are still a valid and relevant avenue for future candidates and employers?

An evolution of sites such as LinkedIn?

Surely it is.

Twitter & LinkedIn Partnership Merges Professional with Personal

One of the best pastimes I've read on a CV from a prospective candidate was;

 'reading, socialising and...thinking.

In an evening/weekend they liked nothing better, than to sit down and have a good think.........this certainly put some thoughts into my head.

It would seem that the anouncement that you can share your Tweets on your LinkedIn profile will also provide employers with an insight into your personality, pastimes and what makes you tick. As Biz Stone, Co-founder of twitter states; people are finding:

'the personna they create for themselves on the web is part of their resume in many ways'.

 
This certainly goes some way to blurring the line between your professional social web presence - LinkedIn and your more personal presence - or 'brand' on the web, on a site such as Twitter.

The partnership is great for LinkedIn in terms of making it a more dynamic 'real' time stream of info and super for twitter and its expansion plans for 'putting a little twitter in everything'.

'Real time' insights are what its all about.

Will we get real-time insights on real thoughts and real personna's or up-to-the minute insights on a contrived personal/professional brand?

Perhaps it will be like Big Brother - where after a while, you just don't notice that the camera's are there anymore.....oops.

Its not Y!ou...it's..er....

What's a brand all about?

Well,...employer brands, they are a representation and reflection of an existing, living, breathing organisation and its' culture, no? its actual values, it's reality...it's aspirations to an extent.

I was in San Francisco on holiday recently and the Yahoo  -'It's 'Y!ou' campaign was literally everywhere you went. I thought it was maybe a west coast of America, Silicon Valley-type campaign, but sure enough, when I got back to London and climbed into my cab and had a look around - it was eveywhere to be seen too. I thought...big media budget....hmnn...wonder who has that account...:o)

Seemingly the media budget was in the region of a huge $100 million - certainly it got my attention (on two different continents) but what impact did it make? 

It was interesting to be shown this chart below when I got back to work:

It would appear that for all the investment in the campaign, it's just not having a postive impact on the brand, quite the opposite in fact.

I guess the issue with the message is, it's not telling me anything about Yahoo! and who and what it is - what it stands for. Yes, personalisation is the future, and I like that you tailor your product/company to me...but that's if its relevant to me as an individual person - telling everyone its all about them...well, it just doesn't resonate. Perhaps our tribal instinct gives us a desire to pin our badge to something we identify with - and this goes for both consumer and employer brands.

p.s. nice article and debate about campaign here.

Social Web v. Destination Sites

Hey there, I'm back after a bit of a break - on hols and busy busy at work.

Here's something I wanted to share which is really interesting - its a post noting how traffic to brands destination sites is declining compared to the rising traffic on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Its all about the content and where its being consumed i.e. in the social web and less so at a brands own website.

Is the writing on the wall for a company's website?

Maybe not just yet, but it does reinforce the fact that clients should be engaging with their target audience where they are consuming media - on the social web. A considered, well thought-out social media strategy, where a clients site is integrated is key.

The RECaid Treasure Hunt; Thursday, 12th November, 2009

Follow the trail of Farringdon's secrets and watering holes - two hours of light mental and physical exercise with socialising thrown in.
Compete for prizes against teams from recruitment comms agencies and media.Help raise money for this worthwhile cause, in support of industry colleagues who have fallen on hard times.Thursday, 12^th November, 2009 (from 18:30). £100 per team of 5 (including drinks, refreshments, and treasure).The RECaid Treasure Hunt has been devised by Ri5, and tested and declared fair and fun by experts.To enter please contact Karen Williams (Karen.williams@sabmedia.co.uk) with the name of your team.  Your £100 entry fee will be exchanged for further instructions and incentives.The RECaid Treasure Hunt

One day and two events you can’t afford to miss

This year has certainly been a memorable one and not often for the right reasons. However, despite times being so tough for our industry, it’s great to see that over the last few months so many people have come together via Twitter to network and collaborate on creating a more positive and innovative future. The point the social media naysayers always seem to miss is how much Twitter and other social media platforms actually enhance face to face interaction rather than stifling it. To prove this there are not one but two face to face events running in London on Thursday 19th November that I believe will prove invaluable to anyone interested in innovating their way out of the recession in 2010.

First up during the day we have what I’m pretty sure is the first Recruiting Unconference held in the UK. The legendary @BillBoorman is organising everything and it promises to be a unique and interesting day. I’m hosting / co-ordinating / facilitating / refereeing the “Social Media Circus” alongside keen social recruiter  Wendy Jacob and I’m looking forward to some lively discussion and debate. Bill has provided a comprehensive overview of the day here on the sign up page and I know you’ll be very impressed with the breadth and scope of the agenda

Directly after the Unconference Jamie Leonard and myself will be hosting the third Recruitment Tweetup (#RTU to give it’s Twitter hashtag name) which will be held in a bar at the Unconference venue. Registration for the Tweetup is separate to the Unconference and you don’t have to attend during the day to come in the evening. However as we think you’d be mad to miss the daytime shenanigans,  we’re offering a special discount code on Unconference tickets for anyone who registers for the Tweetup. Here’s what happened at the last Tweetup in July.

Sign up for the Tweetup here

Sign up for the Unconference here

Matt

If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers

I came across (well - was pointed to it from twitter) this fantastic piece. I'm sorry to say it struck soooo many chords with me, but at the same time the satisfaction I got from reading someone else conveying a pain and frustration I've all too often felt compelled me to copy and paste it here for our 4 readers to enjoy too (hoping that at least one of them was involved in website project conception -> delivery).

You can read the original here on DigitalSurvivors.com

enjoy :)

If Architects Had to Work Like Web Designers 

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one.

Keep in mind that the house I ultimately choose must cost less than the one I am currently living in. Make sure, however, that you correct all the deficiencies that exist in my current house (the floor of my kitchen vibrates when I walk across it, and the walls don't have nearly enough insulation in them).

As you design, also keep in mind that I want to keep yearly maintenance costs as low as possible. This should mean the incorporation of extra-cost features like aluminum, vinyl, or composite siding. (If you choose not to specify aluminum, be prepared to explain your decision in detail.)

Please take care that modern design practices and the latest materials are used in construction of the house, as I want it to be a showplace for the most up-to-date ideas and methods. Be alerted, however, that kitchen should be designed to accommodate, among other things, my 1952 Gibson refrigerator.

To insure that you are building the correct house for our entire family, make certain that you contact each of our children, and also our in-laws. My mother-in-law will have very strong feelings about how the house should be designed, since she visits us at least once a year.

Make sure that you weigh all of these options carefully and come to the right decision. I, however, retain the right to overrule any choices that you make.

Please don't bother me with small details right now. Your job is to develop the overall plans for the house: Get the big picture. At this time, for example, it is not appropriate to be choosing the color of the carpet. However, keep in mind that my wife likes blue.

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

While you are designing this house specifically for me, keep in mind that sooner or later I will have to sell it to someone else. It therefore should have appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers.

Please make sure before you finalize the plans that there is a consensus of the population in my area that they like the features this house has. I advise you to run up and look at my neighbor's house that he constructed last year. We like it a great deal. It has many features that we would also like in our new home, particularly the 75-foot swimming pool. With careful engineering, I believe that you can design this into our new house without impacting the final cost.

Please prepare a complete set of blueprints. It is not necessary at this time to do the real design, since they will be used only for construction bids. Be advised, however, that you will be held accountable for any increase of construction costs as a result of later design changes.

You must be thrilled to be working on as an interesting project as this! To be able to use the latest techniques and materials and to be given such freedom in your designs is something that can't happen very often.

Contact me as soon as possible with your complete ideas and plans.

PS: My wife has just told me that she disagrees with many of the instructions I've given you in this letter. As architect, it is your responsibility to resolve these differences. I have tried in the past and have been unable to accomplish this. If you can't handle this responsibility, I will have to find another architect.

PPS: Perhaps what I need is not a house at all, but a travel trailer. Please advise me as soon as possible if this is the case.

Did You Know 4.0 - "Shift Happens" updated for 2009

I blogged the original version of this video way back in 2007. Great to see it updated.....well worth watching

Investors in People

I saw a really interesting tweet today from one of my favourite blogs READWRITEWEB - a blog I really recommend for the latest news and developments in technology and communications.

Jobvite a new start-up venture has secured $8.25m in venture capitalist funding.

'The company pioneered social recruitment with the first on-demand application that enables the whole company to participate in hiring and allows recruiters to tap employees’ existing professional and social networks to increase referral hiring.'

“This recession is fundamentally changing recruitment, pushing companies to become more cost-effective, innovative and strategic. Companies are looking to the technology industry to make this possible,” said Dan Finnigan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jobvite.

Technology, social media and a companies best ambassadors - employee's - sounds like a great combination.

Speaking of which, I've been pretty busy lately - working on the global social media strategies for one of our global clients and a new client who has hired us specifically to do their social media. We've been using our bespoke approach to social media devised by our MBA department - MediaCom Beyond Advertising- who specialise in all things content and beyond traditional paid for media.

Really exciting projects.

THEO PAPHITIS: Millionaire, Dragon, rubbish employer, hypocrite & Social Media dufus

Last week I read an article from the Daily Mail (a link I followed I don’t hesitate to add) from the inimitable Theo Paphitis entitled “Why ALL bosses should copy me and ban Facebook from the workplace”. I think it’s fair to say that it wound me up. REALLY wound me up. It's true that many articles I happen across from that "journalistic (and I use the expression in it’s loosest sense) stable" do, and that why I try to give it a wide berth – but this one got me fired. His key points were:

1. the internet is responsible for “an orgy of self-indulgence and exhibitionism”.
2. Ryman stopped all time-wasting by imposing a “non-draconian” ban on ALL websites that couldn’t be justified as useful for work.
3. The internet has undermined dialogue in so many ways.
4. Online socialising (unchecked) could cause the end of the world – or something like that.

And just in case you were unaware of what sparked this typically Daily Mail one eyed opinion venting by Mr Paphitis, it was the news that Portsmouth City Council had carte blanche banned facebook after discovering that their staff were “wasting” on average 400 hours on the site every month (PTod article here).

Now never ones to let the facts get in the way of a good sensationalist headline, or indeed the sum total of a Daily Mail story, you don’t have to look too hard in other press to see that this actually equates to just 5-6minutes a month PER staff member. But more on that later.

- The Internet is responsible for “an orgy of self-indulgence and exhibitionism”

This was one of the most reprehensible elements of the article for me – mainly because of its un-abashed hypocrisy from someone who profits from participating in a programme that is itself a platform that encourages this very "self-indulgence and exhibitionism".

The Internet elements collectively termed as social media simply provide a more accessible and inclusive window for and onto social interaction for those that are willing to do so electronically. Some people do, I’m sure, delude themselves that this channel for communication (or "egomaniacal drivel" as Mr Paphitis prefers to tar it all as) is the route to fame and success – but I’m sure most people using it (other than those already anointed “celebs” by whatever media powers that decide such things) actually see it for what it is: a way to stay in touch with a social &/or professional circle(s), potentially expanding your horizons and perspective along the way, sometimes to business or personal gain too, but most often it’s just about light hearted engagement.

And don’t even pretend to hide behind the “we’re a serious business programme giving people valuable business insight”. If that’s the case why is the programme the same week in week out, changing only the supporting cast of moron’s, the clinically deluded and the painfully naive, smattered, of course, with the odd sprinkling of genuine prospects? Because you profit directly from people’s hunger to get rich quicker and snatch their 15minutes of fame along the way.

- Ryman stopped all time-wasting by imposing a “non-draconian” ban on ALL websites that couldn’t be justified as useful for work.

So, if I understand this correctly, Theo felt that stopping EVERY website other than those that passed some “Paphitis management check list of suitability” was in some way “non-draconian” – as opposed to putting a block on a particular site/s which may have been discovered to be attracting too much of your employees attention. I clearly have no idea how you define “draconian” Theo – but might I suggest you check the dictionary, because I wouldn’t be surprised to find your staff referring to you as Theo “Draco” Paphitis.

And are you really that arrogant and / or ignorant to think that by putting a stop to what has appeared to you as a visible metric of “time wasting” you’ve done anything to address any time wasting propensity at all? I guess at least now your own staff are more likely to up the circulation of The Mail.

- The Internet has undermined dialogue in so many ways.

You state in your article that you are “never ceased to be amazed at the way people will email each other, even though their desks are only a few yards away” and that “Technological progress has brought linguistic regression”. I guess if you’re taking a very squinty eyed look at things over a short time lapse (very Daily Mail for sure) then it could seem like that, but what about appreciating the sheer volume and speed of interaction that modern communication technology enables and the fact that common human interaction protocols are also having to evolve as this advances?

Sending an email or text gives an instant, clear and auditable record of that engagement. Should it replace face-to-face dialogue (or even voice-to-voice)? It depends on the situation is the honest answer. And sure people get it wrong, but that’s who we are and what we learn from. So don’t give up on us just yet - when you started out I bet it was just phone and Royal Mail.

- Online socialising (unchecked) could cause the end of the world – or something like that.

“In the end, businesses and public services cannot survive if staff prefer to be socialising online rather than doing the job for which they are paid.” We’re talking 6 minutes per employee a month!!!! If you, Theo, or indeed anyone (even the most radical/crazed public sector union representative), can tell me convincingly whilst looking me straight in the eyes that the vast majority of council staff don’t lose more time on cigarette breaks, getting in late, sloping off early, having an extended lunch break, taking a personal call or 6, chatting over a photocopier or generally mopping up after other council incompetence in so many other ways – then you can have the deeds to my house!

Now I’m not going to go the other way and, for the sake of making a cheap point, pretend that every single Portsmouth Council employee has access to the Internet and a facebook account. But even if we assume just 10% of the workforce have that’s still not much over an hour a month – or 15-20 mins. a week.

Are some senior council officials and businessman / celebrity wanna-be’s trying a bit too hard to grab the headlines with misdirected draconian policies and commentary pieces?

What this really told me

So firstly I surmised that both Ryman’s and Portsmouth Council would be a pretty rubbish place to work. Why? Well not least because the middle management can’t tell who’s wasting time and who’s pulling their weight. If they could / did then they’d not judge performance on website logs, but rather by metrics that actually matter and then reward or sack appropriately.

When I was last an employee I probably strayed onto personal business or internet distractions a couple of times a day – but I also arrived early, didn’t smoke (no smoke breaks), generally ate lunch at my desk, generally stayed late, worked on the train on the way into and out-of the office and carried on working late into the night / early morning as the workload (quite often) required. Oh, and I also (I’d like to think) added a level of intellectual input and steering to the business over and above anything that could be judged purely on an hour by hour rate. What would a log looking at my social media access tell you of that?

If there are people taking the Michael within your business then shame on you and your inadequate management and personnel policies for not being able to highlight where that’s happening and take appropriate action against those individuals.

Through these actions you are quite simply, and very publicly, treating your employees like children – so expect them to behave even more as such. I have always worked damned hard, and been rewarded accordingly when appropriate, but if your management can’t sort the wheat from the chaff and you are happy bragging about this managerial inadequacy, then why would I want to work anywhere where I’ll clearly be carrying a load of slackers – because even without the internet then I’m afraid that “not pulling your weight” (might I be so bold as to suggest particularly in some corners of local government) has become a skill set in itself.

Secondly, by closing the door to accessing social media you’re demonstrating, in spades, your ignorance to the benefit social media can bring to your business. Even if we look at the tiny world in which I (and readers of this blog) operate – namely Recruitment / Employee Communications – it’s easy to conceive a bottom line benefit you’d miss out on. Let’s go back to my assertion that perhaps there are 450 staff spending 15-20 minutes a week on facebook (potentially within their own lunch time or before the 9am hooter starts or after the 5pm hometime bell!!) and let’s imagine that perhaps 10% of those people actually enjoyed their job (go on – go with me on this). Perhaps they mention how much they enjoy their job to their network (perhaps 100 strong each?) and then maybe a job arises: what-do-you-know – immediate audience of 4,500 who have already been positively engaged by your employer brand from afar.

So whilst I never had you down as a Mail reader Mr Paphitis – it seems to me that perhaps under your broadsheet-esque Dragons Den persona you’ve so lovingly nurtured, you’ve indeed found your true home writing the kind of brainless sensationalist knee-jerk integrity-less hyperbole-laden cr*p that the Daily Mail has become famous for trotting out to whip up middle Britain to sell more hatred based papers.

Only one question remains for me – anyone got any tips on how I can stop my Dad from reading The Mail?!

"The ultimate phone is here" - follow up thoughts

Dear me - where did that last month go?!

Anyway - it was my intention that after posting the original article to follow it up quite quickly with my thoughts on it as a marketing piece, then I looked around and it was Mid August. For anyone who can't be bothered to click through to that original post here's the video:

Matt commented: "I'm all for a bit of stealth marketing and this is certainly entertaining but I really don't think it pulls it off. A phone that has everything and Nova Scotia.....I can't really see any kind of link that would make the humour and the surprise reveal resonate in an effective way "

And I agree - it's indeed a clever and entertaining piece, and I agree that if you look deep there's no perceptible resonance between what's being sold and the execution. But my biggest frustration/disappointment with it as a marketing piece is more in the top level execution than the deeper resonance of message and brand, something more fundamental - and it's pretty much the same thing that was the biggest failing of the viral execution of what I still think is probably the best recruitment specific viral I've seen to date (seemingly a no show at any awards :(  - the BS Recruitment Solutions piece from Zurich.

Here again we see the execution getting lost up its own channel of creativity. I mean you REALLY have to want to find out what this is about to work out where you need to click through to find out where this has really come from. I suggest that, even more these days than ever before (due to the wealth and richness of distraction available online), people are lightening quick to move. Quirky's good. Entertaining's great. But once I get that this isn't a proper phone (or a real Recruitment Consultancy) and have got the general p**s taking concept that may indeed be amusing enough to forward on (or blog about), I'd argue that there's nothing here that's engaging enough to encourage me to seek out and dig further to find out what's really behind this all. I can observe and move on without ever "getting" the real message.

It's wonderful to have a budget to be creative - but at the end of the day it's about the conversion. So whilst it might "spoil the impact" or "ruin the flow" I'd argue strongly that you either need to make it all the more engaging (and I mean actual engagement - not just viewing and clicking engagement) or else have a clear button much earlier on in the viral experience that screams "Of course there's no such phone - but there is a better place - find out more - go on, you know you want to!!!"

If you use up the viewers attention span with your creativity, if you satiate their curiosity through your wit and delivery before it's clear who you are and/or what you're selling, then to hell with how many times people pass it on or how slick it looks - YOU FAIL!

Social network sites lose ‘cool’ image.

Here we go again. The FT delivered an article with the above headline this morning.  I know this, because I was just given a scanned copy by a colleague.

And once again, a big headline with pretty much a nothing story behind it.

Basically, it’s saying that the proportion of 15-24 years olds with a profile on Facebook fell for the first time last year from 55% to 50%, according to the communications regulator (no doubt a spotty teenager they thought they’d ask who was walking by the office). 

I think the key word in this statement is ‘proportion’, because actually, the site (or the medium itself, if we’re going to be fussy here) has become no less popular, but when you read on (in the same article), it continues by backing up the grand claim made in the headline by stating that ‘the number of 25-34 year olds claiming to have a social networking profile grew by 6%, and among 35-54 year olds, it grew by 8%’.  Clearly, that makes the world of Social Networking totally uncool.

So to me, logic dictates that, as more and more people discover the range of options available, finding one that delivers for them, and set up their profile, the ‘proportion’ of a sites overall 15—24 years old – the earlier adopters – will decrease.  Nothing more sinister.  It’s just common sense.

Oh, and then they go on to say – and I quote – ‘The findings are likely to attract the attention of media financiers, whose assumptions of media usage were shattered three weeks ago when the 15 year old Morgan Stanley intern Matthew Robson claimed that teenagers did not use the much hyped microblogging service Twitter’.

To all the ‘media financiers’ that are worrying, have no fear.  I have tried to help out here by undertaking my own research.  Don’t worry, I have applied the now tried and tested ‘research criteria’ that appears to be totally acceptable for the National Press to use as a solid basis for comment when discussing the emerging Social Networking arena – I have asked someone their opinion.

I decided not to waste my time with a ‘focus group’ or any form of ‘old fashioned’ qualitative or quantitative research, as it’s quite clear that the future success of any platform in this space can be determined by the opinion of one person, and so here goes with my findings.

What a crock of Sh1t.

To Maija Palmer, the ‘Technology Correspondent’ who wrote the piece, why don’t you stop wasting your time and (expensive) space writing such inconclusive rubbish, and instead carry out some meaningful research. Or just do something else.

Man, this sort of over-dramatic, underwhelming reporting gets on my thrippenies. 

Harumph.

P.S. To help further explain the validity of this research, I asked a rather 'un-cool' 37 year old chubby bloke I know for his input – me.  That should do it.

Sony Chooses to Capitialise not Censure

A lovely example of how copyright owners can interact with and benefit from unlicensed content users.

The future of copyright and content use was demonstrated by Sony when a Bride and Groom filmed themselves and their wedding party dancing up the aisle to the song 'Forever' by Chris Brown.

The clip uploaded on youtube has recieved nearly 13 million views and 65,000 comments.

Instead of blocking its use, Sony 'added a simple pop-up overlay that offers users a chance to purchase the song from iTunes or Amazon. According to YouTube, in the last week, the year-old song has risen to #4 on the iTunes charts and #3 on Amazon.'

A sign of things to come.

Thanks for coming to the Summer Recruitment Tweetup #RTU

A belated thank you  to everyone who came to the Summer Recruitment Tweetup a couple of weeks ago. Particular thanks must go to my co-organiser Jamie Leonard (now working at The Ladders) and our generous sponsors TwitterJobSearch and 1Job.co.uk

We’ll be looking to do another one in October or  November  so if anyone has any good ideas about formats or venues please get in touch.

For those of you who couldn’t make it on the night this is what you missed…..

RecAid tops £10,000

The wet weather did nothing to dampen the spirits at the Paramount Club last Friday night, when over two hundred people turned out to launch RecAid.  Steve Halford chaired a lively auction, with holidays, drink and a cricket bat signed by the England team among the items for sale: the bat is now very probably priceless.  Andrew Wilkinson, Mark Horley, and three Simons (Barrow, Bolton and Howard) also went under the hammer for varying sums; we will attempt to bring you news of how wise and valuable these investments turn out to be. Full Story on RI5

The RecAid total now stands at just over £10,000, of which £8,000 was raised at the Paramount.  It's a great start but there's a long way to go.  Already there are plenty of ideas for other events and many offers of help, as well as donations arriving at the RecAid website.

To donate online Just giving RECaid

Fancy getting your Chief Executive to do your ironing? Or have a Creative Director paint your house?

Now’s your chance. On Friday 17th – tomorrow night – some of the biggest names in the industry will auction off their services in aid of RecAid, the fund set up with advertising charity NABS to help those hardest hit by the downturn in the recruitment advertising industry. Simon Howard, Andrew Wilkinson, and Simon Bolton are amongst those taking part.

Other Auction prizes are:

Fully paid weekend in Classic British hotel worth £500
Cases of wine   worth £200
Premier League football tickets worth £1,000
Week golf holiday including £250 flight vouchers worth £ 1,500 
All inclusive Safari Holiday worth £3,000
Signed Chelsea football worth £400
And many more….. 

Plus lots of Raffle prizes too!

To bid, you have to be at the fundraising party to launch the fund, which will take place at the Paramount Club in Centre Point from 6.30pm to 1am.
 Tickets are a donation of £10 (feel free to give more if you’re feeling generous). As it’s a member’s club, you need to reserve your place to get in - go to www.recaid.co.uk and click on the link to make sure your name is on the door.