tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-567591 2009-07-11T22:51:11+01:00 Discussion and rants about the digital recruitment industry TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83452355c69e2011571f0c155970b 2009-07-11T22:51:11+01:00 2009-07-11T22:51:11+01:00

RECaid Help fo the Recruitment Advertising Industry RecAid was launched in July 2009 by a group of senior managers and leaders from across the UK’s recruitment advertising industry. Formed in response to the plight of former employees of Barkers, the world’s oldest advertising agency, which went into administration the same month, it is designed to help people from the recruitment advertising industry who find themselves in financial difficulty. The immediate aim is to raise £100,000 to help those who were hit when Barkers went into administration. Although the company was bought out of administration, saving many jobs, up to 250 former employees of the company lost their livelihoods and the redundancy pay that they were promised, leaving many facing severe hardship. The fund has been launched in partnership with NABS, the National Advertising Benevolence Society, which will oversee the management and use of the fund. However, the fund will be...

John Whitehurst tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83452355c69e2011571d1bd69970b 2009-07-07T09:51:36+01:00 2009-07-07T09:51:36+01:00

So we may all remember the supreme Ferrero Roche 'Ambassador's Party' TV ad - 'Delicieux'...'excellente.'...'Monsieur, with this Roche, you are really spoiling us!'. Ah - Ambassadors - it's generally recognised that your employee's are/can be the best ambassadors of your employer brand. A lot of my Aunts's and Uncle's worked in Marks & Spencer's when I was growing up - they were lifetime employee's and I remember they were the very best ambassador's a company could hope for- they weren't shy about telling you all about the benefits (and trials and tribulations, of course) of working for what was certainly a premium employer, back in the day in Belfast. It's no coincidence that so many companies are using their staff in their TV advertising - Sainsbury's with their Mum returner to work character - brilliant dual branding ad for the employer and consumer brand. B&Q with all their regional staff...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83452355c69e2011570b117f2970c 2009-07-03T02:09:32+01:00 2009-07-03T09:24:25+01:00

Just wanted to pop a quick post about a little pioneering that's been going on quietly in the job board sector. What with the massive leaps in interface technology on mobiles that have happened over the past couple of years, most notably of course the darling of the sexy smart phones, the iPhone, it was only a matter of time until job boards started trying to really push into that space to further their candidate reach and engagement too. Now I'm sure there are plenty of iPhone job apps out there (if you've come across one then write up a little review below or send it to us and we'll post it in its own right) - but I felt one I came across did a particularly good job in terms of making the most of the technology. That was the one by 1job.co.uk I've had a little play -...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83452355c69e2011571a086a5970b 2009-07-02T12:32:23+01:00 2009-07-02T12:32:23+01:00

We attended the CIPD awards on Tuesday night at the Honourable Artillery Company near Old street. The sun was shining, the location lovely and MediaCom's work was recognised with three gongs. Two for our work for Shell with JWT (Digital and Innovation) and one for The Met Police with aia (Outdoor) - an integrated media campaign that involved a media recruitment first with a digital six sheet. This outdoor recruitment first, was one, in a long line of innovative firsts, planned by Celine Marshall in our team here for the Met Police, and so, we were delighted that this was recognised with an award. It's a fantastic example of how media choice can bring a great creative message to life and make it a real success. The Met police campaign put me in mind of Dave Trott's recent posts on his blog at Brand Republic on Upstream Media thinking where...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-68450397 2009-06-24T17:38:53+01:00 2009-06-24T17:40:32+01:00

I was at one of my oldest friend's Charlotte's Solstice day party on Saturday. It started at 3pm and ended at 3am and was hosted at the commune/shared-housing home that Charlotte lives in in Islington. The day involved a fig tree ceremony where all party goers congregated in the garden, meditated and made a wish for the community and for themselves. Yup - was full-on, tree-hugger, liberal paradise. The sun was still shining when a lady came up to myself and a friend and asked could she have a cigarette, we happily obliged and we got to talking. She was in her fifties, already a bit tipsy and was a journalist - an investigative journalist. She was now teaching a journalism course in a London Uni and as she put it, was delighted to be giving something back to the younger generation after an illustrious career, working for all the...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-68140241 2009-06-15T23:09:11+01:00 2009-06-15T23:47:30+01:00

So for those of you who don't follow @mattalder on twitter (or work in whatever corners of Barkers Matt's cheery demeanor brightens each day, or belong to his close family and are in regular contact with him) you won't know that he's currently hobnobbing with some of the great and most connected of digital recruitment world at the Social Recruiting Summit - being held at the uber webcool venue that is google HQ. Anyway - as part of the stream of tweets coming out of google HQ (which, as I write this with the day only just starting, has me thinking that it won't be long before twitter falls over as a direct result of this event!) Matt sent this: "accuracy of personal info when user has more than 10 connections better than a resume, people don't lie in public" RH #socialrecruiting Now the RH he references is Reid Hoffman...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-68118339 2009-06-15T13:31:18+01:00 2009-06-15T13:47:11+01:00

With the recent launch of Workthing+, the “is it right to charge candidates?” debate was certainly re-ignited (read some of it here on Recruiting Futurology). I wanted to step a little away from that particular cut and thrust and, having tried to give it a bit more time to look at all that’s on offer, give my take on the Workthing+ offer itself. It probably is worth stating for the record though that I have no problem with anyone charging for a service, whatever that may be - I actually kinda prefer that sort of transparency because it allows you to make an informed decision about the value for money you receive, and because you’re paying you are more bought into realising the full benefit of any facility – in short, putting more onus on you to make it work for you. OK – to the site/facility. My first observation...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-67669979 2009-06-05T12:19:49+01:00 2009-06-05T12:20:21+01:00

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-67668249 2009-06-05T10:28:07+01:00 2009-06-05T10:28:07+01:00

Interesting analysis of the US newspaper industry's cost base by Moody's Investors Service (though most of the rest of the report is unsurprising). Written by Moody's vice president and senior analyst John Puchalla, the report contends that publishers spend far too much on producing and delivering a printed paper rather than on creating its content and selling it. Here are the figures behind what Puchalla calls a "structural disconnect": only 14% of cash operating costs, on average, are devoted to content creation, while about 70% of costs are spent on printing, distribution and corporate functions. The remaining 16% of costs are related to advertising sales, a first-class example of devoting too few resources to the principal revenue driver. Puchalla sees this as a legacy of the industry's vertical integration and the result, of course, is that the high fixed costs - combined with high debt among many newspaper companies -...

John Whitehurst tag:typepad.com,2003:post-67410271 2009-05-29T17:31:02+01:00 2009-05-29T17:31:02+01:00

As Alex tells us all about the latest 'wave' of advertising below - I thought we could end the week with some stats from attending the recent EIAA conference (European Interactive Advertising Association). - Total Internet spend in 1999 came to £40m, which was seen back then as massive growth. Ten years later, we're now at £3.3 billion! - Ten years ago the three largest reaching sites in the UK were MSN, Yahoo and Freeserve! (remember Freeserve? and where is Google?) - Today, 45% of our Internet time is spent on just 10 sites, meaning the thousands of remaining domains have to fight it out for our remianing online time. Today our audience are'media multi-taskers' - consuming more than one media at a time - e.g. surfing online while watching TV etc etc In terms of the incredible transformation of the communications landscape, I really liked Evan Williams sentiment, on...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-67396605 2009-05-29T08:10:37+01:00 2009-05-29T08:10:37+01:00

Global recession or not, the pace of internet technology development waits for no economic cycle it would seem. Recently google have announced their latest project – something that’s potentially so big they’ve broken with their usual “release it in beta & then keep working on it” approach and have started drawing attention to it months before it’ll be ready for public release. Google Wave promises to be a “new tool for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year”. Twitter killer? Certainly looks like to me. It’s gonna dent the hell out of FaceBook & other such platforms too you’d have to bet. So what is Wave – well in their own words: A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message,...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-67322137 2009-05-27T15:44:22+01:00 2009-05-27T15:47:19+01:00

Dell have launched Della - a website for women and how their computers can help enhance their lives by looking cute, fashionable and help them count calories. Look above, at how the happy women, sit closely together with their pastel coloured laptops and share laughs, horopscopes and no doubt, are on Cosmo online, gleaning pearls of wisdom on how to make their relationship work. Puts me in mind of one of my favourite Harry Enfield schetches - Women know your limits So, how can I expect to benefit from a netbook as detailed on the Della site? Well, once I get beyond how darn cute they are I can easily find recipe's, count calories, watch fitness videos and ensure I shop successfully at vintage clothing stores. Then there is the accessories section - where I can shop to my hearts content. Oh dear...why are women seen as a specific niche...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-67287287 2009-05-26T19:00:39+01:00 2009-05-26T19:07:03+01:00

Lately, I've been mulling over the reports that newspapers intend to charge for their online content. A futile exercise by Murdoch and the like, long after the dam wall has bust? or justified compensation for valuable content that in fairness should be paid for? It's a tricky one for sure. To pay or not to pay. In terms of recruitment, we blogged about the subscription model on recruitment sites, such as The Ladders a while back and more recently and much deeper into the recession, Matt has got the debate going nicely on his own blog. I read an article from the Observer recently and it made me think. It was all about Charles Percy Snows 'infectious idea/meme' that there exists two cultures in society. Literary Intellectuals v. Natural Scientists - both who had mutual incomprehension and mistrust which had negative repercussions for society. According to John Naughton, today its...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-67272241 2009-05-26T12:02:02+01:00 2009-05-26T12:02:02+01:00

This was in the FT yesterday ... Future of Newspapers some very interesting points ... have a good old read.

John Whitehurst tag:typepad.com,2003:post-66660453 2009-05-11T23:38:09+01:00 2009-05-11T23:52:38+01:00

We don’t tend to plug many conferences on Digital Recruiting but I couldn't let the opportunity to mention mine and Paul Harrison’s double header and double bill coming up over the summer pass by. As well as both speaking at the Onrec conference next month (Paul is talking social media and I’m chairing the panel debate) we are also both doing a turn at the UK’s first, Social Media Recruitment conference in July. Paul will be regaling the audience with his thoughts on how to put a corporate social media strategy together and I’ll be getting my crystal ball out to predict how social media will evolve in the future. Rumours that we’re both in the running for the most overexposed digital recruitment professional of 2009 award are of course completely unfounded ;-) Matt

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-66360841 2009-05-04T20:31:14+01:00 2009-05-04T20:39:17+01:00

It's Bank holiday Monday and in the absence of anything decent of TV, I've put on one of my favourite movies, Gone with the Wind whilst I tip-tap on my laptop. The opening quote of the movie describes the fall of the American old south - Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization gone with the wind..." Simultaneously I've been catching up with the latest news online and came across the article on how The Evening Standard is about to launch an advertising blitz ahead of it's relaunch this month- Evening Standard launches ad campaign to say sorry to Londoners After carrying out market research it found that Londoners have deserted the paper due to it being overly negative, too partisan and anti Ken Livingstone, too national in its outlook and not London focused enough. '...Buses and tubes will carry...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-66353959 2009-05-04T17:57:19+01:00 2009-05-04T18:43:19+01:00

So, I have a little brother and sister who are twins and are in university at the moment. Gavin and Louise are their names, they are the babies of our family and although I may be biased, they are pretty great. They are looking for a paid internship to start in September for a year and are finding it pretty tough to get one. Lou studies marketing and Gavin studies engineering. It's looking like they may have to go to plan B and volunteer for a few days a week at a company and continue to work in their part time jobs to keep them going. It's pretty critical they get experience in the workplace if they are to stand a chance of getting a job when they graduate. And you know, I don't think its a bad thing to volunteer in exchange for really useful experience, especially in the...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-65610259 2009-04-17T15:33:05+01:00 2009-04-17T15:35:43+01:00

This is pretty much a completely lifted article by Sean Carton posted on ClickZ.com, but I just thought it was so well put that I wanted to paste it across. I have taken the liberty of amending it in a few places to make it more UK recruitment industry relevant (talking about TV ads isn't really us), but I think the parallels are so striking overall it holds up. See what you think (oh - and there are some great posts linked to from the article too - so give yourself 15 minutes, get a coffee and have a good read). The end of Advertising agencies as we know them Do we really need advertising agencies anymore? Are we witnessing the great "reboot" of the advertising industry hastened (but not caused) by the current recession? It's pretty obvious to any reasonable person watching the tens of thousands of layoffs in...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-65606777 2009-04-17T14:01:12+01:00 2009-04-17T14:01:12+01:00

Twitter, the microblogging website, is focusing on creating value for consumers and companies before attempting to increase its revenues, but doesn't think traditional advertising will be a "good model", says co-founder Biz Stone. WARC

John Whitehurst tag:typepad.com,2003:post-65450307 2009-04-14T16:44:14+01:00 2009-04-14T16:44:14+01:00

Interesting discussion about the future of the workplace ... very interesting points on how the design of the building helps to attract the right level of talent. http://www.monocle.com/sections/design/Web-Articles/The-Future-of-the-Workplace/

John Whitehurst tag:typepad.com,2003:post-65259901 2009-04-09T11:32:50+01:00 2009-04-09T17:04:11+01:00

So, I was at the SouthBank centre last night attending a talk by one of my favourite writers, Alain De Botton. I've read all his books since one of my good friends bought me the book Status Anxiety a number of years ago for my birthday (take from that, what you will....). The genius of Alain is his ability to articulate and make simple the biggest challenges and issues we face in life, be that love, success, friendship etc. He makes philosophy accessible to the masses. His latest book is all about work called The Pleasure and Sorrows of Work. He noted that if you were to look to art - be that TV, movies, books etc there is very little coverage of our real working lives - something that takes up a huge amount of our time. It would seem in movies and TV that everyone works in three...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-64990655 2009-04-02T15:46:19+01:00 2009-04-02T15:46:19+01:00

When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking - IHT Is Twitter becoming like MySpace - Brand Republic I actually have no real opinion on twitter as I do not use it ... but i thought i would try and get down with the cool kids and post a few links to interesting articles about twitter. I am going back to my hole now, texting people, searching for things and checking email ...

John Whitehurst tag:typepad.com,2003:post-64824787 2009-03-30T09:57:21+01:00 2009-03-30T09:57:21+01:00

There have been some very welcome developments with the UK Recruitment Tweetup over the weekend and we now have some extra capacity. You can read more here or go and register here if you haven't already Matt

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-64717659 2009-03-27T14:27:28+00:00 2009-03-27T17:05:06+00:00

Having just read Jamie's posting on the above, which I think is a great post, pretty much summing up a lot of the evening, I did feel it missed a couple of elements that, from an ad agency perspective, were really key failings on the night. - The winners - what did they do to win? No-one knew, no-one was shown, and it was all a little disappointing/frustrating. - The cost - much as Jamie says, for circa £1800 for a table (which, I believe, is pretty comparable to the RADS/CIPDS) - or £185 per head, it just doesn't seem value for money. We were lucky enough to have a client there, and won our category, but you know normally at these events you feel like you've got value for money - plenty of wine (certainly not just 4 bottles between 10-12 people), entertainment (pre-drinks (which I missed but looked...

Ben Nunn tag:typepad.com,2003:post-64475151 2009-03-22T21:39:24+00:00 2009-03-22T21:40:30+00:00

A quick follow up to the last post to announce that Twitter Job Search will be sponsoring the UK Recruitment Tweetup on 1st April. You can find more details on my Recruitment Futurology blog or just go straight to the sign up page if you want to attend

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-64276605 2009-03-17T19:21:43+00:00 2009-03-17T19:21:43+00:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know that registrations are now open for the UK's very first Recruitment Tweetup. You can read more about the event here or you can just go and sign up straight away here. The only rules are that you must be a Twitter user and connected in some way with the recruitment or HR industry The Tweetup is going to be held at an undisclosed Farringdon bar in association with MyLongLunch and another major sponsor who we are just finishing negotiations with. More news when we have it! @mattalder and @jamieasleonard

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-63906543 2009-03-10T22:51:15+00:00 2009-03-10T22:51:15+00:00

Well - here it is. There was a bit of a ripple in the webosphere about two weeks ago when we heard tell of a Star Trek Spoof video viewable on YouTube from Tribal Resourcing, fetauring the Senior Management team. Unfortunately it seemed to get beamed back up nearly as quickly as it arrived amongst us. But the web has a habbit of Kling(ing)on to tomfoolery and one keen eyed & public spirited citizen managed to capture the footage before it hit warp 5 and so, hoping Tribal phasers don't go any higher than just stun, we thought we'd share and let you make your own mind up about it. Personally - I think if nothing else it shows a bit of personality and a senior management team willing to not take themselves too seriously. And if it doesn't raise a smile (certainly 2nd or 3rd time of watching) then...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-63384635 2009-02-26T17:54:57+00:00 2009-02-26T17:55:45+00:00

We started this week with a bit of a ripple in the recruitment advertising twittersphere from a certain agencies video post - a ripple that despite the apparent best efforts of the generating agency to remove the video almost as quickly as it was posted has left a bit of a phasers to stun kind of afterglow. A few lucky people got to see it and I have it on good authority from one such person that Tribal have produced a spoof Star Trek-esque spoof promo. Im afraid all I can show you is where it clearly isn't (you'll get what I mean if you click on the main video as it comes up "we're sorry, this video is no longer available") - http://www.youtube.com/user/BHTribal1 It seemingly flashed onto the web Monday morning but within an hour or two was gone again. For me it begs the question – how can...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-63231097 2009-02-23T16:19:08+00:00 2009-02-23T16:24:57+00:00

I read the following headline in my digital newsletter today: 'Government slammed for £160,000 digital-czar job posting' Crikey, I thought - is that the price of a job posting these days? - no wonder people are a bit upset - back to the Sunday Times we go.... On closer inspection, the government has created a new post for a Digital Czar to help the government connect with people through the digital social environment - on such things such as Twitter, Facebook etc Is this a grotesque use of public money, as one opponent exclaimed? - well no, I don't think it is. If the role is to genuinely engage the public in dialogue, share information and involve them in the democratic environment, staving off apathy in the process, then it is to be welcomed. Enabling participation and giving people a voice is one of the most positive lessons we can...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-63050411 2009-02-19T11:00:54+00:00 2009-02-19T11:00:54+00:00

I was recently approached by OnRec.com ("The Magazine for Online Recruitment around the world") to contribute to an article. You can read the article here - Using social media and Web 2.0 effectively (with additional contributions from Jamie Leonard, Euan McDonald & Lucian Tarnowski). I thought I'd post my full thoughts here too. How can recruiters use social media and Web 2.0 effectively to engage candidates? The best way to use social media to engage candidates is by first ensuring you understand your target audience. If you have an idea of where they may already be congregating online or what they’re consuming (by way of web content) then it’s a great idea to ‘listen’ to them first whilst you work out what you can bring to the party. If you’re hoping that a couple of tweaked press releases every other month will in any way be engaging then you’re setting...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-63009295 2009-02-18T13:47:39+00:00 2009-02-18T13:48:02+00:00

So, I was reading the Sunday Times at the weekend and had a look at their best blogs article. I was of course, shocked and bewildered that digitalrecruiting.co.uk wasn't on there, but hey ho.... Anyhoo - there's a blog on there on the Advertising world from a copy-writing fella named Dave Trott. I've been reading it ever since and am loving the content and his writing style. Check it out if have a moment - some great content on what a client briefs you and what they actually mean, a fantastic post on whether in design, all elements should be purely functional or should include non essential emotional elements to enhance and complete the full design- the WW2 story of the British colonel, the Nazi concentration camp and lipstick made a real impact. The oft-fricticious relationship between the client facing Account Manager and the internal creative department . This particular...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-62817729 2009-02-13T18:24:29+00:00 2009-02-13T18:24:29+00:00

After having a conservation with someone about student marketing this week, I couldn't help remembering the video below. I first posted it on Digital Recruiting two years ago and I'm pleased to say that, despite some formidable competition, it remains one of my favourite worst recruitment videos ever. However having clocked up nearly a million views maybe bad is good after all! Have a great weekend

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-62697875 2009-02-11T16:45:53+00:00 2009-02-11T16:52:29+00:00

You may have seen a rather nasty post about me recently ... i thought that is odd as I had never met the person. From further investigation I have had to remove the content because not only had they made the comment but it had been linked to to make sure it ws listed highly in the google search results. It is rather sad that this industry forum was used for a personal attack. Sorry as I am a great believer in free speach ... but this was done to play a rather nasty trick.

John Whitehurst tag:typepad.com,2003:post-62695275 2009-02-11T15:49:53+00:00 2009-02-11T15:57:18+00:00

The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) have just released the latest AGR Winter Survey 2009 Phil Lane discusses overall ideas and especially David Lammy’s solutions over in the Barkers Blog But I want to look at a different side … the increase in investment in websites and campus activity vs. the decrease in paper and online advertising. I just want to say – at last! For many years I have seen pointless campaigns running in the media and I am sure no one asked why are we doing this? And if anyone did question the ideas we were hit with the same old response – we have to do it. Do we have to? Campus based activity will always give the best rewards … and back it up with a great search campaign and a well optimised website. Have a dialogue and let people find you. It makes a lot...

John Whitehurst tag:typepad.com,2003:post-62652157 2009-02-10T18:28:55+00:00 2009-02-10T18:32:48+00:00

Last Friday we held a seminar for clients on Obama and his fantastic use of marketing and branding to help bring him to power. One of the speakers was an author, who is currently featuring in our 'Smarter ways of working bookclub'. It was a corker of an event and myself and hopefully our clients found it really useful. The author Ian Leslie talked us through amongst other things, Obama and his teams use of technology (iphone apps etc), social media, the positioning of the campaign as a grassroots campaign as opposed to the traditional top down approach, fund raising and the the Obama logo itself being a symbol of change and optimism. The country, as a result of Bush etc was crying out for change and 'man did meet the moment.' The presentation climaxed with a clip from Youtube, (where else) of the man himself delivering a speech to...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-62093712 2009-01-29T12:38:42+00:00 2009-01-29T12:38:42+00:00

News report from 1981! So much I could write about it but for now I'm going to let you just watch it.....

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-62027356 2009-01-28T11:59:32+00:00 2009-01-28T11:59:32+00:00

*We welcome Richard Tyrie as our first Guest Author for quite a while for this post* Councils told not to use websites to compete with local media Secretary for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, has told councils not to undermine local media outlets by trying to compete for readers and advertising revenue with their own websites and publications. So here we are, still basking in the immediate after-glow of the rousing Obama inauguration speech last week. We heard about his plans for a new era of openness, transparency and trust in government (US government, anyway); a sole focus on policies that were beneficial to the electorate, and the scrapping of policies that were dogmatic and ineffective. Fantastic stuff. Whatever your position on OB, you can’t deny that his inspirational leadership style, and the spirit and substance of his plans (not to mention his oratory skills) will bring about significant...

Guest Author tag:typepad.com,2003:post-61818688 2009-01-23T17:05:11+00:00 2009-01-23T17:05:11+00:00

It’s been a long time since I posted, and I guess that’s because I’ve been a little distracted recently (or have just been a little too busy having fun being a dad) but I’ve now seen a couple of articles today that for some reason seem to have made me feel I need to post. Now I totally understand that a new site/product has to launch itself, and find a way of capturing people’s attention, but I’m struggling with the whole premise that ‘this is the beginning of a revolution in the recruitment market’. Is it not more a case of someone making the logical link between Social Media platforms and job ads, and developing a platform to target grads in this way? I’ve been in this industry for some time now (listen to me – online old fart) and I have to say I’ve seen a lot of ideas...

Ben Nunn tag:typepad.com,2003:post-61650972 2009-01-20T17:29:11+00:00 2009-01-20T17:29:11+00:00

I'm still actually watching it so I'm not going to make this a long post! Managed to take a screenshot of the CNN's streaming video and Facebook integration. Pure genius....if you didn't believe social media was the future now might be a good time to think again UPDATE - Here are the official stats for it (from Mashable) The stats released, as of noon ET: 1. There were 200,000+ status updates through the Facebook integration on CNN.com 2. at that time, 3,000 people commented on the Facebook CNN feed per minute 3. Obama’s Facebook Fan Page has more than 4 million fans and in excess of 500,000 wall posts

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-61594146 2009-01-19T20:09:25+00:00 2009-01-19T20:09:25+00:00

There’s no doubt I was considering myself very lucky to get an invite (even as a late stand in – I’ve never been too proud to be someone’s second option come good) to the RAD awards this year. But thanks to the generosity of Jobsite.co.uk I made the event. I think a bit of pomp & celebration every once in a while does you good, and for me having the RADs in January helps put off any silly new years resolutions for the month of January, pushing them back (if there are any I’m feeling silly enough to make anyway – usually around curtailing of alcohol intake) into the shortest month of the year ☺ I think it’s only fitting (within this particular blog) to keep any observations about awards to those digitally based – and I’m very happy to say that after a some previously negative comments about the...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-61132986 2009-01-12T12:56:08+00:00 2009-01-12T12:56:08+00:00

It's two years, nearly to the day that I posted my first entry on this blog. It was titled 'Putting the RADical into the RAD's'. Two years ago!....where has the time gone? My post wasn't pithy, in fact it could have given War and Peace a run for its money, but I certainly got a lot off my chest and you know, I found it quite cathartic. (good to know blogging is good for my state of mind then). I had some beef with our industrys' awards ceremonies/judging criteria and my view was that the judging of the RAD awards and CIPD's was based solely on creativity and little notice or importance was given to the media/channels used to engage with the target audience or the actual effectiveness of the ad/campaign. As such, this limited focus on creative wasn't a reflection on the best solutions and work our industry had...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-60913012 2009-01-06T00:42:55+00:00 2009-01-06T00:42:55+00:00

So, it was New years eve, eve, 2008. I was running around Belfast with my mummy in tow, trying to find a Star Wars, Princess Lea outfit for my NYE's 1980's fancy dress party in London. The only Lea outfit left in the whole city seemed to be xtra-small size (and I ain't no xtra small,....especially after such festive indulgence). As we drove around, I was using my blackberry to go online and look for other fancy dress shops in the city and surrounding areas. The results coming up on Google were pretty limited....yet we knew there were others out there... Time was running out so we popped into a small haberdashery shop, to look at some material we could maybe use, to alter the aforementioned xtra-small outfit. We asked the lady behind the counter did she know of any other fancy dress shops, in the hope we wouldn't end...

Sinead Bunting tag:typepad.com,2003:post-60343998 2008-12-23T10:33:09+00:00 2008-12-23T10:33:09+00:00

Thanks to everyone who voted for us in Louise's Best UK Recruitment Blog of 2008 , we've made the final shortlist of 6 which is great news. We just need you to vote for us all again now, which you can do here. Just so you all know what you're voting for I thought it would good to remind you of the five most popular posts on Digital Recruiting in 2008. I was going to do these based on traffic but in the brave new world of engagement I decided to pick the posts which had generated the most comments. So in reverse order...... 5 Linkedin and the death of the CV - 11 comments 4 Going Down 12 comments 3 Linkedin follow up post - 13 comments 1 = Some desk based nostalgia and reflection - 14 comments 1 = Social Media an inaccurate truth - 14 comments Massive...

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-60209310 2008-12-19T12:27:54+00:00 2008-12-19T12:27:54+00:00

If you’re reading this then I would think I’m probably fairly safe assuming that you are aware to at least some small degree that for the best part of the last year (in all senses :) I’ve been establishing a business we call 3D MarComms. Well we wanted to get into the Christmas spirit and need your help in doing so. All you have to do is visit our blog, leave a comment with the charity of your choice and then we’ll give the most popular charity £1 per comment left. Go on – it’ll take you all of a minute at most, so click through and give a quid from our pocket. It couln't be much easier :)

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-59797202 2008-12-10T13:22:50+00:00 2008-12-10T13:22:50+00:00

Well, as the song goes – for 2009 it is indeed “a Monster”. A renewed and re-invigorated Monster. On Monday I was invited to the launch breakfast of the new Monster.com look and functionality. Launching from Millbank Tower, the home of the New Labour spin machine and from a job board that was practically there at the start of the Internet (and certainly mastered the art of it’s own brand of Internet hype I’d suggest), I was expecting polish and shine but to have to leave questioning whether there was any real substance. I was pleasantly surprised to actually find quite the reverse. Our starter was a 60second advert which we were told by Monster’s UK MD was made but never aired because the American target audience only ingest 20-30second adverts. Hmmm – was this a portent of what was to come – something made that looked nice but actually...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-59550562 2008-12-05T17:52:57+00:00 2008-12-05T17:52:57+00:00

Yes that's right it's December and that can only mean one thing. I am of course referring to Louise's UK Recruitment Blog of the year competition. Now far be it from me to blatantly solicit votes for Digital Recruiting but you know what....I'm going to So if you've enjoyed our sometimes insightful, sometimes random but never dull prattling this year then we'd love it if you voted for us here

Matt Alder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58969734 2008-11-24T13:55:48+00:00 2008-11-24T13:55:48+00:00

The number of Britons accessing the internet via mobile devices increased by 25% in the third quarter of 2008, according to new research from Nielsen Online. Source: Nielsen Online. Growth in internet use via PC and mobile from Q2 to Q3 2008 Results from the study Mobile Media View, highlight that usage of the mobile internet is increasing eight times faster than PC-based internet growth, rising from 5.8 million to 7.3 million between the second and third quarters of 2008. BBC News is the most popular site, being visited by 24% of British mobile internet users, followed by BBC Weather, Sky Sports and Gmail. This compares to PC-internet favourites Google Search (23%) and eBay (43%).

John Whitehurst tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58837620 2008-11-21T17:13:52+00:00 2008-11-21T17:13:52+00:00

... (that's being held in The Gate in Farringdon) is now nearly here. :) You've probably heard of it already (MLL tend to get themselves heard) - but just in case thought we'd give it a final plug. Now there's a rumour that it might actually be over subscribed for agency types - I don't tend to like believing rumours though, so if you're intrested get onto MLL and tell them just why they "need you" to be there and that you know there's room in one of them famous Gate leather boothes for you to squeeze in with another friendly person. I think they can also squeeze in a further media or two though - so if you're reading this and have something that is pretty new / innovative / not your run of the mill digital media offer and just has recruitment communication potential written all over it...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58695078 2008-11-18T23:26:22+00:00 2008-11-18T23:26:22+00:00

We've been waiting what seems like an eternity for a promised post from our very own Matt "3blogs" Alder about why he felt that the i-phone (of course he had one within the first few days) was indeed a game changing technology. I mean we all have a good idea that it's fun, very cool to have, got some nifty features and is beautifully designed - but what does a user I know find about it that means phones and the way we interact with them will never be the same again? I'm particularly interested at the moment as I've been having my own phone provider related issues (if you've got time to kill you can find out here why I'm gutted to not be getting the G1) and so in an "habitual need for annual technical toy replacement" will likely be ditching t-mobile and deciding between Blackberry Storm or...

Alex Hens tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58661006 2008-11-18T10:30:45+00:00 2008-11-18T10:30:45+00:00

In case you missed it the National Online Recruitment Awards (NORA) 2008 were announced at the end of last week. The debate has already raged (e.g. on the UK Recruiter blog & globally on Cheezhead) about how contentious these awards are (we also took issue with the results last year). Anyway - in case there's any interest out there and the news hasn't filtered through to you already you can pick up all the results here. Anyway - congrats to all winners (it's nice to get an award even if no one can really work out how some of the decisions are arrived at). My focus is looking at Employer activity and I still stand by my comments on the quality of the Best Employer website shortlist (left this in response to Andrew Baird's blog post on the nominations) and in particular the stand out favourite (in a poor quality...

Alex Hens