Question for the marketing and finance readers out there...
OK, great feedback one whether to have 2 blogs or one. I'll be making changes to my blog over the next couple weeks (time for a new style anyway, don't ya think?). One blog it is!
Another thing I've been thinking about is how my feeds are organized. I'm working on a project to direct market to our ideal recruiting targets (more on what our target is later...this is the result of all that analysis I was blogging about before). Of course, we want people to opt-in to hearing from us. So I'm starting to reach out to people and network with them, ask what kind of info they want from me, encourage them to stay in touch, etc (this includes you guys, by the way). I'm a little worried that they will think I'm a bit of a nut when they get my e-mail because it's so hard to explain what I do and many, many people have very low expectations of recruiters, based on some bad experience they have had in the past. Anyway, initially, we were thinking about direct e-mail and possibly some cool collateral if we can figure out what "cool" is to our target audience (my interpretation of cool is something that gets their attention, supports our brand and that they won't throw away the minute they get it...something they might even share with their own network).
Blog readers are definitely a subset of my target. But still many of the people I want to reach out to aren't that familiar with blogging (except maybe hearing about it on the news). So, while I would like to push info out to people by RSS, I will still need to send out the same info by e-mail. So here are my questions...you guys were so great to provide all that feedback before (and honestly, a lot of it was so sweet and flattering, that I am probably going to keep going back to look at the comments...reminds me why the heck I am doing this):
1) We've identified some specific areas of interest for candidates in marketing and finance (we call these pipes, by the way...I'm sure I'll eventually use this term without explaining so best to explain now): hot jobs, events, career news and tips. What am I missing? Even if it's not something that is on my blog right now? What do people want to hear about from me...especially the folks that aren't actively looking?
2) How much is too much? Lots of stuff in your blog aggregator is different than in your inbox, right? How often do people not actively searching for a new job want to think about career planning?
3) Here's the tough question: most recruiting outreach takes place in person, via phone or e-mail. Is it too much of a paradigm shift to really deliver career related info regularly via RSS feed? Are people in career-planning mode when they are browsing their bloglines account? If most of one's network are on e-mail but not RSS, is sending out info via RSS really limiting their ability to send it out and share with others?
I get why RSS is important...I'm just not sure that the people that would receive my info via RSS wouldn't be better served by receiving in their e-mail instead. Part of it is about peoples' comfort zones but it's also about making sure that what I send out has legs. Thoughts?
Comments
- Anonymous
February 28, 2005
RSS is pretty inexpensive to add to most sites. It looks like HR-related blogs like BostonWorks have the RSS feeds ... if that is any indicator. That said, it is kind of hard for me to get in the mindset of looking for jobs via RSS ... kind of weird, but now that you mention it perhaps I'll open my eyes more to see if it makes sense for people thinking about career planning.
I may not have mentioned this to you before, but the first time I visited your site was because you had a post on management consulting that turned up on Google. It peaked my interest since there is very, very little information on management consulting in the blogosphere today. Your post gave me some insight about how Microsoft thought about carrer tracks for past/current management consultants.
I don't know if you have any stats on how many people come to your site via RSS, but if you haven't tried Feedburner, that might be something that interests you. It can provide you with detailed metric information about number of people, bots, etc. getting info via your feed. It would probably take awhile to get people to shift to the new feed, but if you are going to start a separate feed for your new blogging stuff, this may be a route to go for the new feed.
For my blog, most people come in direct or via Google. I just migrated blog platforms like 5 days ago so trackback is another path (but it is new to me). Only like 5% of traffic comes though RSS. As far as I can tell, RSS traffic is primarily from people who want to start a longer-term relationship with my blog.
Anyway, good luck. I subscribe to your blog via Wizz RSS reader in Firefox. - Anonymous
February 28, 2005
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
February 28, 2005
What would catch my interest is real world stories. Maybe blog about a success story and detail how someone found your blog or newletter and how it all come to pass. I'm not as concerned about the actual job details as I am the employee behind the job and how you found them and what they are experiencing as an MSFT employee.
My current employer asked for a writing sample and I sent them to my blog even though they had no idea what a blog was at the time. I'd like to hear how others are using their blogs to network and locate new opportunities. You're in a good position to pass some of these experiences on to others.
Keep up the good work. - Anonymous
February 28, 2005
As the persons you likely want to target are interesting in expanding their knowledge and learn, of course they are in planning mode when they open their rss reader. :o)
Just some quick thoughs: I think distribution via rss is less painfull than email plus: it is much easier (and more acceptable) to "read a blog" instead of recruiting topics via email. RSS allows easier categories - you post one thing and it will pop up in all categories related to that. Where each has a feed.
Now making several different email letters from that is much more difficult. Besides (I don't know if this is different in the US): most emails named 'from Microsoft' go directly into spam filters these days.
Having a blog and feeds for it has the additional advantage of being archived and searchable later.
At the moment, you 'are' Marketing jobs @ Microsoft. Perhaps it is time to have a group blog (or several connected) for the recruiting topics you and the company are interested in?
Nicole - Anonymous
February 28, 2005
Hey, you know I support the idea. If you were to offer me the choice of RSS, email, or both I would potentially take both. As I've noted, I would actually prefer to receive it in RSS, for reasons of browsing, location, functional area, etc.
What about an area for "insider news". I know you can't divulge confidential information, but people tend to be quite appreciative of any advantage they can gain in applying for a job. Maybe it would belong in "tips", but "insider news" sounds much cooler and more helpful to me.
I know of people who "read" hundreds and thousands of blogs a day via RSS. The beauty of an RSS aggregator is that you can easily muck through a bunch of blogs, so I wouldn't worry about over-informing people.
FYI - you win one "paradigm shift" point. Grrrrr. :) - Anonymous
February 28, 2005
Heather,
One other thing you might want to try to offer email updates through Bloglet. Not sure what blogging platform you are using, but perhaps something else for you to consider.
http://www.bloglet.com/ - Anonymous
March 01, 2005
For your first question, given that I am not actively looking in the finance/marketing area, I would like to hear about the culture in that type of a job. I think the pipes cover most of the things that a person planning a career in that field would be looking for. On the other hand, for someone who is not looking but interested in watching the field may want to know what the mindset of people in a finance/marketing job is, and how they approach problems. At least, I think I would like to hear about that.
I also wanna tackle the hard question.IMO, RSS vs. email discussion is here to stay for a while, and I think the best approach is to go with both. Yeah, emal is easier to share but with the pace of the things today I think RSS tools will be able to provide more functionality. I do not think currently most people are in job searching/career planning mood when they are using bloglines but I think it will be a part of the search soon. Finally, yes, I think it is a big paradigm shift if you to really deliver career related info regularly via RSS feed, but unless a provider goes along with such a shift it is harder for the ones on the other side of the road to shift their paradigms.
Finally, unfortunately, I believe RSS aggregators are becoming more like an inbox with many unread items and for someone looking at the feeds regularly it may be as intimidating as email. I think it all boils down to how you manage mass amounts of information more than how this information is delivered to you.
Just my thoughts:) - Anonymous
March 01, 2005
On your blog you had many tips and discussions for me about how to use various outreach channels, e.g. (simplified:) resume spam is bad and blogging is good.
Apart from spam, what I might dislike about about email is the author's expectation that I will take the time and answer.
If you reach out via email, you should provide good incentive to reply. I'm not sure if there is enough in the "pipes" you listed.
Somebody mentioned learning here. That's an incredible incentive. I'd always miss out a free lunch for a free training session. - Anonymous
March 01, 2005
Interesting that you posted this question today and I saw this blog entry which discusses some of the trade offs between email lists and RSS:
http://www.flashesofpanic.com/panic/000771.php - Anonymous
March 01, 2005
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
March 01, 2005
Heather, a blog is still a blog. So does email. As you mentioned "...till many of the people I want to reach out to aren't that familiar with blogging (except maybe hearing about ...). To entrench your efforts, why don't you make use of non-digitalized pro org meetings e.g. chamber of commerce, so-and-so company's dinner, to create an impression first. Blogs and emails can followup as communication tools. - Anonymous
March 01, 2005
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
March 01, 2005
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
March 02, 2005
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
March 02, 2005
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
March 02, 2005
If the goal of the blog is to attract people to jobs at Microsoft, you might consider placing links for Marketing/Finance jobs towards the top of the nav bar. Even though it is likely that a new reader will seek those links out, it (may) become less intuitive for returning users to browse jobs, and more intuitive to browse content.
Do you want potential candidates to view your site, then go to the careers at Microsoft site, then contact you about positions they are interested in? That would seem the most efficient process, but a process doesn't really seem to be specified.
Just a thought. . . - Anonymous
March 02, 2005
Hmm, great points Sean. .text doens't allow me to arrenge the links but I am sure there must be a trick. I'll have to think more about how to make the process clear. I thikn it will also alleviate concerns of some people about whether it's OK to contact me diurectly given that many, if not most, recruiters don't give out their contact info online. Maybe the first link could be about process (the WIIFM for blog readers) and then I can do the breakout of marketing and finance. Thanks so much for your help! - Anonymous
March 02, 2005
Heather, the interviews would be cool. It peels back the curtain a little and let's us see what it's like to work at MS. And yes, let someone else do the "fluffy PR" stuff. :-) - Anonymous
March 18, 2005
The comment has been removed