How to stop Google ruining your recruitment business: be interesting
7 March 2013
As the influence of Google exerts itself in all areas of business, and will be of particular concern to recruitment agencies looking to stand out from the competition, digital entrepreneur John Straw says there is one word that can sum up how to ‘beat’ the search giant: remarkable.
Thu, 7 Mar 2013As the influence of Google exerts itself in all areas of business, and will be of particular concern to recruitment agencies looking to stand out from the competition, digital entrepreneur John Straw says there is one word that can sum up how to ‘beat’ the search giant: remarkable.
Straw has worked with multinationals including telecommunications firm O2, and currently chairs the digital advisory board at leisure company Thomas Cook. He was giving a talk last night entitled ‘Google: Is it running or ruining your business?’ at a London event organised by interim management recruiter Alium Partners for its candidates, attended by Recruiter.
Many firms spend huge amounts of money on Google search engine optimisation (SEO), Straw notes, which he says is all very well and good, until they bring in an algorithm change, and you drop down the rankings “Which is a bit of a disaster,” he said, in terms of return on investment, given how much click rates drop off the lower-ranked you are.
Aside from this cost, the problem is that “they [Google themselves] don’t like you doing SEO, they are profoundly against it” and are attempting through various means, including semantic search technology, to reduce its impact.
Straw then addressed “how to avoid the Google problem”, that of search obsession running – or even ruining – your business. “I’m going to give you a single word – lavish affection on it. The word is ‘remarkable’.
“What we can all do now is remark upon something we find notable,” ie share it in so many different ways using our various social networks, email and of course old fashioned word-of-mouth. “It’s a sharing culture”, and businesses must take advantage of it.
“Do something so profoundly interesting that people will look you up on Google rather than looking up your competitors,” he suggests.
An example he gave was an advertising video on Youtube for mail order razor retailers Dollar Shave Club, a Santa Monica, California company that was founded in July 2011.
Put together for the relatively modest sum of $10k (£6.7k), the video “is remarkable” in the true sense of the word, he says – winning awards, garnering nearly 10m views and a creating a lot excited conversation in the marketing arena.
Straw has worked with multinationals including telecommunications firm O2, and currently chairs the digital advisory board at leisure company Thomas Cook. He was giving a talk last night entitled ‘Google: Is it running or ruining your business?’ at a London event organised by interim management recruiter Alium Partners for its candidates, attended by Recruiter.
Many firms spend huge amounts of money on Google search engine optimisation (SEO), Straw notes, which he says is all very well and good, until they bring in an algorithm change, and you drop down the rankings “Which is a bit of a disaster,” he said, in terms of return on investment, given how much click rates drop off the lower-ranked you are.
Aside from this cost, the problem is that “they [Google themselves] don’t like you doing SEO, they are profoundly against it” and are attempting through various means, including semantic search technology, to reduce its impact.
Straw then addressed “how to avoid the Google problem”, that of search obsession running – or even ruining – your business. “I’m going to give you a single word – lavish affection on it. The word is ‘remarkable’.
“What we can all do now is remark upon something we find notable,” ie share it in so many different ways using our various social networks, email and of course old fashioned word-of-mouth. “It’s a sharing culture”, and businesses must take advantage of it.
“Do something so profoundly interesting that people will look you up on Google rather than looking up your competitors,” he suggests.
An example he gave was an advertising video on Youtube for mail order razor retailers Dollar Shave Club, a Santa Monica, California company that was founded in July 2011.
Put together for the relatively modest sum of $10k (£6.7k), the video “is remarkable” in the true sense of the word, he says – winning awards, garnering nearly 10m views and a creating a lot excited conversation in the marketing arena.
