Effective use of recruiting blogs

Gretchen from Microsoft has provided a fantasticreal world example of how to effectively use her blog within a recruiting environment.

Gretchen and some of her colleagues are looking at cold calling candidates to try and attract "passive candidates". So before they undertake the exercise she has decided to run a short survey to find out what the readers of her blog think.

Is it scientific, probably no. Is it the most accurate method of collecting data, probably no again. However, it is easy, effective, fast and a fantastic marketing exercise for Microsoft. I am not sure how many readers she has but, if the comments are anything to go by she has a lot of candidate and recruiters reading. Therefore the feedback received will be real, and honest. Honest you say. It will be honest because due to her blog she has been having a conversation with her readers over the past week, month, year or however long they have been reading. There is a trust that has developed. Yes, she might only get people who like her and Microsoft replying, but I am sure this is not their only benchmark. What the process is doing is instead of launching their new "recruiting product" into the market place they are getting a quick temperature gauge on how it will be received.

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