Using Technology to Position Yourself as an Expert
As an executive recruiter working in your chosen niche, you have a tremendous amount of knowledge and expertise that you can share with both client companies and candidates. This expertise can definitely serve as a selling point in your dealings with both groups of people. In the past, recruiters had a relatively limited number of ways in which they could display their knowledge and highlight their expertise. These ways dealt mainly with their marketing efforts and what they exhibited during the course of the placement process.
The evolution of technology has changed that to a large degree. Do you realize that the first viable email application was created in 1971? Today, email is a critical communication tool in both our business and personal lives. The Internet also plays an important role in just about everything that a recruiter does. First, it was Web sites. Then it was social media sites (MySpace, LinkedIn, FaceBook, etc.) in which the vast majority of recruiters now participate. We can’t forget YouTube, which was established in 2005 and allows anyone to share video footage. But one of the best ways to share your expertise is through blogging.
Blogs are here to STAY!
A blog can be considered a Web site tool where an individual maintains current, relevant comments on a variety of topics, both business or personal. Pertinent links and/or videos are often incorporated in that day’s blog and the blogs are displayed in a reverse-chronological order. Many blogs also allow readers to leave comments in an interactive format that becomes part of the blog.
The first blogs were actual created in the late 1990’s and were manually coded as HTML applications. But they were not actually prevalent until the mid 2000’s. By 2007, there were more than 100 million blogs on the Web offering a mind-numbing amount of information about everything. Today, blogs are being created so frequently that there is not even an accurate count for the number of blogs in existence… but many experts believe it is in the billions.
Why Blog?
From a recruiters perspective, blogging has become more and more prevalent, not only as a way in which to draw visitors to your Web site, but also as a way in which to position yourself as an expert in your field. Below are some of the benefits associated with blogging on a consistent basis:
- You’re setting yourself apart from your competition as an expert within your field or niche.
- You’re engaging in what is termed “inbound marketing,” which means that you’re enticing prospects to come to you for information and guidance, instead of reaching out to them through traditional outbound marketing.
- You’re increasing your chances for referrals, since prospects are more likely to forward blog posts of interest to their friends and colleagues.
- You’re increasing traffic to your Web site, which in turn will help improve your Web site ranking with the major search engines.
- You’re educating prospects—company officials and candidates—about important changes within the industry.
- You’re establishing communication through “comments” with potential clients or candidates.
- You’re increasing your placement revenue based on your business model for direct or contract placements.
Be an Expert in YOUR Field
In the world of contract staffing, rules and regulations change on a constant basis, at both the state and the federal level. Staying up-to-date on all of these changes is critical for any back-office service provider or legal employer. Communicating this information to the applicable parties is just as critical. As an example, the COBRA subsidy plan has changed three times under the current administration, and it’s done so within a short amount of time. It’s difficult to keep everyone informed, but a blog is an excellent way to communicate these changes as they happen and let everyone know how they’ll be affected by them.
As a real example, the Top Echelon Contracting blog (blog.TopEchelonContracting.com) posted a blog article on March 22nd titled “Labor Secretary: DOL Misclassification Investigations Will Increase.” This blog post described Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis’ perspective on the issue of wrongly classifying regular employees as independent contractors and the government’s crackdown. “The WHD (Wage and Hour Division) will increase its number of investigations, continue to train investigators in the detection of workers who have been misclassified, and focus them on industries in which misclassification is most prevalent,” Solis said in the interview that was originally published in the Federal Employment Law Insider.
Issues such as this one need to be monitored on a constant basis, and blogging about them is a great way in which to communicate your knowledge about them. As a back-office service provider, Top Echelon Contracting is constantly staying on top of changes such as these in order to continue serving its customers at the highest level possible. Being an expert in our field is our goal… and blogging about these issues is how we position ourselves as an expert within the world of contract staffing.
How about you? Do candidates and company officials know how much of an expert you are? How many more phone calls would you receive if they did? How many more placements would you make if they did? Sure, blogging can be a time-consuming endeavor, but in this day and age of online technological advancement, you almost can’t afford to do it.
Just about every recruiting firm has a Web site these days… but not every recruiter or every firm has a blog. Differentiate yourself from the competition and let the world know that you’re an expert in your niche.