ng traditional direct mail campaigns. However, this can be an expensive and time consuming proposition to undertake with regularity. Success may be mixed until you find just the right combination of style and timing.

Moreover, most outreach marketing attempts essentially are competing for a candidate’s attention today. Consider this:

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A “blog” is simply an internet (web) log. Blogs are created for personal or professional use. They may promote a product or service, or merely serve as a personal online journal. There are currently just over four million blogs today, with a new blog born every seven seconds.

The problem of cocooning candidates

Today, we work and live in an era of heightened cynicism and secrecy. Isn’t it much harder than it used to be to call into a company and attempt to speak with a candidate by telephone? Central voice mail systems have grown more sophisticated and guarded. And even when recruiters are able to finally speak with an actual live person, it’s often a reluctant administrative assistant or receptionist. Finally, if you are fortunate enough to be transferred to your candidate, more often than not you are greeted with that person’s individual voice mail recording. It has become de facto practice by many professionals today to simply leave their “do not disturb” function turned on for most of the work day. Later, they will screen and return external calls at their discretion.

To address these changes, in recent years legitimate e-mail and web site marketing was considered a non-threatening (and somewhat successful) way to reach these “cocooning candidates.” These are in fact still viable tools, but there costly learning curves associated with them. Some recruiters have gone back to launching traditional direct mail campaigns. However, this can be an expensive and time consuming proposition to undertake with regularity. Success may be mixed until you find just the right combination of style and timing.

Moreover, most outreach marketing attempts essentially are competing for a candidate’s attention today. Consider this:

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ra of heightened cynicism and secrecy. Isn’t it much harder than it used to be to call into a company and attempt to speak with a candidate by telephone? Central voice mail systems have grown more sophisticated and guarded. And even when recruiters are able to finally speak with an actual live person, it’s often a reluctant administrative assistant or receptionist. Finally, if you are fortunate enough to be transferred to your candidate, more often than not you are greeted with that person’s individual voice mail recording. It has become de facto practice by many professionals today to simply leave their “do not disturb” function turned on for most of the work day. Later, they will screen and return external calls at their discretion.

To address these changes, in recent years legitimate e-mail and web site marketing was considered a non-threatening (and somewhat successful) way to reach these “cocooning candidates.” These are in fact still viable tools, but there costly learning curves associated with them. Some recruiters have gone back to launching traditional direct mail campaigns. However, this can be an expensive and time consuming proposition to undertake with regularity. Success may be mixed until you find just the right combination of style and timing.

Moreover, most outreach marketing attempts essentially are competing for a candidate’s attention today. Consider this:

• Only 2

eptionist. Finally, if you are fortunate enough to be transferred to your candidate, more often than not you are greeted with that person’s individual voice mail recording. It has become de facto practice by many professionals today to simply leave their “do not disturb” function turned on for most of the work day. Later, they will screen and return external calls at their discretion.

To address these changes, in recent years legitimate e-mail and web site marketing was considered a non-threatening (and somewhat successful) way to reach these “cocooning candidates.” These are in fact still viable tools, but there costly learning curves associated with them. Some recruiters have gone back to launching traditional direct mail campaigns. However, this can be an expensive and time consuming proposition to undertake with regularity. Success may be mixed until you find just the right combination of style and timing.

Moreover, most outreach marketing attempts essentially are competing for a candidate’s attention today. Consider this:

• Only 2

nal calls at their discretion.

To address these changes, in recent years legitimate e-mail and web site marketing was considered a non-threatening (and somewhat successful) way to reach these “cocooning candidates.” These are in fact still viable tools, but there costly learning curves associated with them. Some recruiters have gone back to launching traditional direct mail campaigns. However, this can be an expensive and time consuming proposition to undertake with regularity. Success may be mixed until you find just the right combination of style and timing.

Moreover, most outreach marketing attempts essentially are competing for a candidate’s attention today. Consider this:

• Only 2

ng traditional direct mail campaigns. However, this can be an expensive and time consuming proposition to undertake with regularity. Success may be mixed until you find just the right combination of style and timing.

Moreover, most outreach marketing attempts essentially are competing for a candidate’s attention today. Consider this:

• Only 29% of eligible job seekers visit the "Big Three" (Monster.com, Hotjobs.com, CareerBuilder.com)
• The average consumer is exposed to about 3,000 marketing messages per day.)
• 85% of people conducting research are using the internet.)

What can blogging do for you?

Recruiters (or researchers) who seek candidates for open positions, or to profile candidate requirements for the purpose of building a network pipeline, there are two ways we can use blogs:

(1) The first way is to start your own blog and attract top talent to your blog site. This is not an overnight marketing cure-all, and it will require some patience. But cultivating a readership of professionals in your niche field is a highly effective means of reaching candidates who would have never otherwise learned about your career openings. The key to making this work is to learn to attract a specialized readership to your blog, just like a beacon in the night. You don’t need millions of readers…Just hundreds of the right readers.

(2) The second approach is to search other existing blogs and develop contacts and relationships. This is a perfectly legitimate means of networking, as any internet page is essentially public domain information. Based on posting activity and interactions you initiate, you can easily develop in-roads and find more candidates in less time. Let’s talk about both approaches.

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