User Submitted!
Home > Articles
119

Does Blogging Mean Anything? - John Sumser

Posted 92 weeks, 1 day ago by Jason Davis.

Twister_6_1As part of the Recruiting Blogswap, John Sumser has written this:
---------------


Blogging: Does It Mean Anything 


(August 10, 2006) It's a privilege to have the chance to be published on Recruiting.com. I have watched the evolution of Jason's operation with the rest of the audience. I am hopeful that this grand experiment will end up becoming an enduring institution in the Recruiting Industry. Jason Davis is a great connector of people and ideas. Jason Goldberg is an extraordinary patron for the venture.

So, the real question has to be, "Does all of this BS about blogging actually amount to a hill of beans?" "Does anyone, other than other bloggers hoping to get some traffic for their ventures actually pay attention to all of these great buckets of eyewash." "Is anything interesting really being built here?" "What is the enduring value of this explosion in commentary and opinion?"

Here's the kicker.

I'd like to hear from people who don't have blogs or some other axe to grind. If bloggers and blogging provide real value, then we should be able to coax responses from some folks who have received that value.

From my perspective, the vast majority of comments on postings come from other bloggers. I think that obscures the question of whether or not anyone else is actually getting something out of this. If you are a blogger, I beg your indulgence. Please don't respond to this posting in the comments section.

Let's leave this one posting and its comments in the hands of people who just read the blogs. Please.

Now, readers, could you let us know what you get from reading the recruiting blogs, what you don't get and what you hate most. It's really important. I simply can't recall seeing this question asked before.

Many of the more cynical observers of this space see blogging as an interesting form of broadcast media. That means that they believe that blogs are useful tools for shaping dialog in and around the business. If that's true, readers are nearly irrelevant. If it's not, we'll see a different story in the comments.

So, gentle readers, how about a little feedback. Do blogs provide you with value. If so, what.

john at johnsumser.com  

Jason Davis's blog

Recruitomatic
Wed, 08/09/2006 - 4:25pm

I'm confused. If we are not to leave a comment here: "Please don't respond to this posting in the comments section. Let's leave this one posting and its comments in the hands of people who just read the blogs. Please."

...where are we to reply to the tease: "So, gentle readers, how about a little feedback. Do blogs provide you with value. If so, what." Am I try write a post about blogging and comments and backtrack here? Does Mr. Sumser know what he is asking? Is this a trap? www.dissertationen.unizh.ch/2006/frischknecht/diss.pdf Daggit! There I go getting too intense again, making readers click and wearing out their printers! Imagining that recruitment blogging can be seminal, didactic, entertaining, political, polemic, wrong.

You got me, John! I went for it, hook, line and sinker!

Amitai

turtle
Wed, 08/09/2006 - 6:53pm

As a blog reader without a blog, comments like the previous one would be an example of what I hate: Comments and posts that are insular and cryptic and comments that totally miss the point of the post they're commenting on.

As for the value of blogs, I've only been reading them for a few months but I've seen references and links to lots of valuable information about recruiting. I personally prefer to read entertaining stories and opinions about what the job is like so I read Your HR Guy and Magic Pot o Jobs mostly. I also like links to interesting trends and articles that I may not hear about otherwise.

It seems like a lot of bloggers in recruiting and in other fields are posting mainly for the benefit and comments of fellow bloggers. Nothing wrong with that, but it is nice to see the opinions of readers being solicited.

I don't know if a lot of non-bloggers will comment. We probably have less understanding of the value of comments while the bloggers seem to live and die by the number they get.

curious recruiter
Wed, 08/09/2006 - 6:56pm

As a blog reader without a blog, comments like the previous one would be an example of what I hate: Comments and posts that are insular and cryptic and comments that totally miss the point of the post they're commenting on.

As for the value of blogs, I've only been reading them for a few months but I've seen references and links to lots of valuable information about recruiting. I personally prefer to read entertaining stories and opinions about what the job is like so I read Your HR Guy and Magic Pot o Jobs mostly. I also like links to interesting trends and articles that I may not hear about otherwise.

It seems like a lot of bloggers in recruiting and in other fields are posting mainly for the benefit and comments of fellow bloggers. Nothing wrong with that, but it is nice to see the opinions of readers being solicited.

I don't know if a lot of non-bloggers will comment. We probably have less understanding of the value of comments while the bloggers seem to live and die by the number they get.

Recruitomatic
Wed, 08/09/2006 - 7:21pm

Curious Reader and Turtle, I make no apologies for being insular and cryptic or for the fact that you may have overlooked one of the aspects of this space being a social networking of ideas, perspectives and even off-the-wall nonesense. Your preference for bloggers like Your HR Guy suggest to me that if that his subject matter, insights and style is where your primary interest lay. If that's the case you could not have picked a better blogger.

Enjoy.

Recruitomatic
Wed, 08/09/2006 - 9:13pm

Of course, Tiffany's Magic Pot of Jobs too.

Doug
Thu, 08/10/2006 - 12:54am

I love the blogosphere. Being Blogless, I find blogs entertaining, informative and inspirational. I have gathered more ideas and strategies from reading blogs the past few months than I have gotten in years of corporate BS training. I honestly believe the free flow of idea and opinion in an open atmosphere (blogging) is revolutionizing mass media communication and is building wide networks of like minded people...We live in a VERY COOL age.

Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com
Thu, 08/10/2006 - 5:25pm

The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an article on this topic yesterday. See http://www.startribune.com/535/story/603230.html .

Amy
Thu, 08/10/2006 - 6:25pm

I think that blogs provide very useful information. I have never actually responded to a post before, but since you are asking for an opinion, I read the ones on this site because I am in the HR field, and am looking for a position. I find it informative to find out what employers are looking for, so that I can be sure to avoid those types of blunders. Sometimes the topics can be common sense mistakes (like making sure to include your direct phone number, rather than making people go through a directory to reach you), but the information is always a good way to double check to make sure that you are doing (or not doing in certain cases) what you are supposed to be. In my mind, it is like making a checklist of stupid mistakes to avoid, which, will in turn increase the likelyhood that you will impress the recruiter.

It also helps me to find things that I can use to guage the candidates that I have competing for an opening with my organization.

Anonymous
Tue, 02/27/2007 - 9:19am

PSS

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <font> <img> <span> <p> <br> <br/>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
More information about formatting options