Will communities take over from unions but with greater power?

As communities get bigger what collective power will they have?  Unions have traditionally been a way for the people to have a collective voice but do they always get the deal they feel is right?  Or do their leaders sell them down the river?  Big debate I know but what if communities get so big they become the voice of the people?

If I were a recruiter would I.....

.....BLOG?

Here's how I see it now. If I were a recruiter I would want my company to have a recruitment blog to help with SEO, company updates, general recruitment stuff etc. Otherwise you end up with an award winning set of blogs a la PwC i.e. one or two posts a year from their young bloggers who do not appear to have the time, inclination or incentive to post more often.

Whereas, give a recruiter a Twitter account and it is easier for them to maintain and allows them to update candidates about specific recruitment activities they as individual recruiters are working on.

Blog = company. Twitter = recruiter.
Both = better SEO and conversations.

Why British business will exploit web 2.0 in 2009.

There is one compelling event already of this year that will result in British businesses utilising web 2.0 and social media technologies.

2009 will demand more than 'expert' knowledge

Knowing how to cook a turkey (because you have a Jamie Oliver cook book from last year) doesn't mean you'll get it right.  And we all know the consequences of getting it wrong!

2009 will not be a place where the know it alls and big mouths succeed.  Anyone can read a few blogs, reports or books on pretty much any subject but it doesn't make you an expert; even though many seem to think it does. 

The last few years have been easy for everyone.  2009 will demand execution of projects or execution of bad suppliers - which are you?

If you feel insulted or picked on by this post then maybe you should think about who you are, what you do and ultimately, what value you really add. 

Learning new skills is part of your growth curve but the opportunity to learn whilst being paid should come because of previous success.  If you are learning at the expense of others, and they carry all the risk, watch out.  It's not the way for 2009. The real experts will succeed in 2009, the hangers on will find themselves with no place to go. 

Let us hope that paying clients, with very focused budgets and people, make more right decisions than wrong ones.  So that put the onus on the real experts to differentiate themselves; bring on 2009!

Don't Facecruit me | I'm in the pub

There is still so much talk about using Facebook to recruit which can be of value if you use it well but the latest discussion I heard was around advertising on Facebook.  I reckon you may as well place a few adverts in the local pub.  Guess what, people in the pub are there to FORGET about work not be reminded about it.  In my view, people on Facebook (or any other SN's) couldn't care less about your recruitment adverts.

BTW: Industry stats are quoting a click through rate of 0.3% of such ads.

Web 2.0 career sites | Is this how they will become?

This site is kind of how I see the smaller/niche/graduate career site looking in the not to distance future.  What do you think?

Graduate recruitment = Generation Y = web 2.0 = NOT!

I sent out a short e-mail today reminding some people about my latest report Putting Social Media in the Workplace.  I had a really good response with a lot of nice feedback and registrations.  I also received an e-mail response back from a Graduate Recruitment Manager of a very successful law firm who said:

"Thank you for your email.  I would be grateful if you could remove me off your database as your services aren't relevant to the field of work I deal with."  Graduate Recruitment Manager

Maybe I did not communicate very well.  Maybe they don't need ANY of our services.  Maybe their flash only graduate recruitment site doesn't need to be found in search engines (what SEO!).  Maybe they don't need to concern themselves with website accessibility.  Maybe the other 8 law firms that DID get a copy of the report are smiling.  Maybe I've just missed the point.........

Gen Y | What do they want? Same as us?

They seem to want more of this but less of that; jobs today for work tomorrow; recognition for their skills for jobs that they'll do that they can't define as they haven't been created (yet).

Ahh the youth of today; sounds just like when we were young!  How time moves on; everything yet nothing changes other than a label but more than we like to admit.

Oh no, is that a wagon I see?