Blogging value

Tue, 5 Sep 2006 | Updated: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:59 am

With an estimated 40,000 personal web logs created every day, blogging is fast becoming an essential way to show your face to the world.

Yet UK business has been slow to catch on, and only a few household name companies - such as The Observer newspaper and Guinness - have seen the potential.

Blogs by UK recruiters have been hard to find, although there are signs this could be changing. Three months ago, Prospect Resourcing, a specialist PR recruiter in London joined a small group of UK recruiter bloggers when it launched its blog - Prospect Junior Division.

"Lots of our candidates at the junior level use them, and so we thought it would help them to network and to talk to us," explains recruitment consultant Firgas Esack, who came up with the idea.

Esack says that the purpose of the blog is "not to advertise jobs" but to emphasise the "more sociable and friendly side" such as news of parties, or candidates involved in charity work. The blog also gives advice to graduates about PR as a career move.

Esack says the blog is a helpful way of staying in touch with candidates, particularly previous candidates who might otherwise "slip through the net." She adds: "We already use text messaging and MSN to keep in touch with our candidates, so it's a natural progression."

Paul Harrison, managing director of Carve Consulting, helped specialist recruiter Chemistry Recruiter to create the blog, Its Not Good Enough.co.uk.

"The great thing about a blog is that it is dynamic, conversational, flexible medium, and this makes it ideal for recruiters who want to nurture a deeper more personal relationship with the outside world," says Harrison.

Another recruiter come blogger is Robert Brown, managing director of Materials Edge, a specialist materials science recruiter based in Nottingham. The purpose of the blog was twofold, says Brown. "First to put a face and personality to the company and second to be a marketing tool."

However, it's the latter which Brown says has proved most useful. "Blogs are a particularly effective way of enhancing search results on internet search engines, particularly Google. That's their great benefit."

Joanna Hoddinott, a senior recruitment consultant at Havant, Hampshire-based Advance Resource Managers writes a blog on Jobsite, a recruitment website. The blog provides helpful tips for jobseekers on subjects such as interview techniques, which are written from a recruitment consultant's perspective.

Hoddinott also believes the blog helps create a positive view of the industry. "Recruiters don't always have a good reputation but we are experts in our field," she says. "This gives a friendly face to the industry, and spreads knowledge we have."

Although recruitment industry blogs are still in their infancy in the UK, Mike Taylor, who runs a blog called Online Recruitment Marketing, says that anyone wishing to predict the future need only look at the US.

In August, Spherion, a large US recruiter set up its own blog. Monster's blog has been running since 2005. "The UK is between six and 12 months behind," says Taylor.