Conversationblog

With a new "war for talent" going on in the marketplace companies are looking for - what they call - "innovative" approaches to discover, attract and recruit employees. One of those tools is blogging.

It seems that "a blog to recruit" makes much more sense, or is easier understood by companies than he whole "social media for the enterprise" concept. I do understand why; recruitment is at the core of most organizations today, has a high priority and is very practical with a clear ROI.

Being a former headhunter (don't ask...), I can say that a blog is definitely a very good tool to complete the HR/hiring arsenal.

My first encounter with an Executive Recruiter who blogged was in France and Jacques Froissant from Altaïde is still posting at a very regular pace. Some topics he covers are:

• news from the industries he recruits for - demonstrating he understands the business environment of his clients.
• the latest positions he's looking to fill - obvious promotion.
• human resources news for Managers - showing he follows the latest trends that impact his potential applicants.

Even government organizations like our own VDAB (Flemish service for employment) are using blogposts as a recruitment tool by having job seekers and people who already have a job blog about their experiences.

The set up is very well done; bloggers are allowed to blog during one month and tell their story; how did they find that job, was it difficult, who helped them etc...

Except... the blogposts you can read on the VDAB Joblog are "reviewed" before they are posted. Although they are based on real blogposts by job seekers they have been re-written to a certain standard the VDAB editorial team handles...

Even if this is explained and made public (in Flemish) on their blog page, it still gives me a feeling of "corporate control". Why not publish the articles as such ? Are all job seekers bad writers..? Authenticity is better than mediocre writing no ?

What do you think ? Should blogposts always be posted as such (authentic) or can they be rewritten for the sake of editorial quality ? Fill in the poll and let us know.

According to the Center for Media & Democracy, "2007 was a year full of spin, manipulation and deception...".

Well now you can vote for the most unethical PR at the 4th Annual Falsies Awards.

"This year, we are asking you to help identify the worst spinners and propagandists of 2007. Please read through the list of nominees below and rank them. You can also nominate additional candidates in our readers' award section." (CMD website).

The list can be viewed here and you can of course cast your vote. Companies like Edelman, Merck, Hill & Knowlton but also US government officials and business leaders are among the nominees. The list contains mainly US stories but is worth reading....

I voted for WikiScanner which allowed the public to see who anonymously edited what in Wikipedia and as such gave a twist to the collective truth & at the same time violated Wikipedias policy. Winner(s) will be announced in December.

Does anyone know about such an imitative in Europe ?

Technorati : CMD, PR, center for media and democracy, ethics, falsies awards, public relations, spin

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Today, on World Press Freedom Day, the We Media global forum in London kicks off.

The forum gathers "the trailblazers of the connected society - the thinkers, innovators, investors, executives and activists seeking to tap the potential of digital networks connecting people everywhere".

At the same time, the BBC, Reuters and the Media Center discuss the findings of their "Trust in the Media" poll. You can see the overall results and specific country profiles on their website.

A good overview is given by reporters from different media attending the forum but I particularly like the no fuzz approach of John Plunkett from the Guardian Unlimited.

You can also watch the conference live and podcasts are coming soon.

Technorati : bbc, edelman, guardian, reuters, trust+survey, we+media, we+media+global+forum

I do not know if you have noticed but I do have a mobile version of this blog through Winksite.

And although I have no reference point for this I do know I had 90 visitors to my mobile blog version since the beginning of the year. Winksite offers an enormous amount of ways to syndicate your content to mobile phones including feeds of course but also rather new ways like generating an mCode (TM).

These "barcodes"
mCodeare recognisable by the cameras of certain mobile phones and take you straight to a blog or a website. The code/image on the right of this text is the code that would lead you straight to my blog if you "scanned" it with your mCode enabled mobile phone.

This leads me to the poll below... Do you read RSS feeds on your mobile ?