A survey released last fall by Forrester’s Charlene Li indicates that “24% of Gen Y read blogs, which is double the 12% of Gen X (ages 27-40) and triple the 7% of Young Boomers (ages 41-50) who read blogs.” What makes blogs so attractive?
It is not difficult to understand. We live in an era of sound quotes. Over the past two decades, people have increasingly moved away from long books and deep writing toward short, action-oriented pieces. Books like Who Moved My Cheese, which are written at a high school level or below, are very popular. Television paved the way by nurturing a generation that reads little and watches a lot of video. Hence the popularity of YouTube and magazines like Discover, BusinessWeek, Fortune and Fast Company. They have made the short article almost a requirement. Only a handful of small-circulation publications like The Atlantic or The New Yorker offer readers detailed articles of more than a few thousand words. Don’t get me wrong, here. I’m not complaining (well, maybe a little), I’m just describing what is a reality.
Given this, the Forrester survey findings are not surprising. Generation Y and the younger portion of Generation X are the main target audience for blogging. And, when written well, blogs are a powerful way to reach younger employees, candidates, and recruiters.
Our industry has a lot of great blogs, again, not surprisingly, written by Gen X or Gen Y recruiters.
RecruitingBlogs.com recently released the results of the annual recruitment blog reader ratings, sponsored by ZoomInfo. Here are the winners of that contest in 10 categories, and I urge you to take a look at each one. They all follow the rules for an effective blog that I outline below.
1. General Recruitment: Six Degrees of Dave
2. Recruitment Blogosphere: Recruitment Animal
3. Third Party Recruitment: Hiring Revolution
4. Best Recruitment Tech: Me, Donato
5. Job Search: Connected and Hired
6. Corporate Recruitment: WirelessJobs.com
7. Sourcing/Research: CyberSleuthing
8. Group: Cheezhead Xtra
9. Recruiting Industry: Dave’s Six Grades
10. Human Resources: Gautam Ghosh
Effective blogs cater to their readers in many ways, including their tone, style, and even their appearance. But the following four critical elements must be in place for a blog to gain the traction it needs to gain a high level of consistent readership.
short and funny
First of all, each post should be short. Posts longer than 500 words won’t be read, probably not even skimmed, by the average reader. The best entries will most likely be between 200 and 250 words and contain lots of blank spaces and breaks. Occasionally a longer post can be effective if the writer is telling a story about something exciting or has the ability to maintain some level of suspense. But even then it may be better to split the story into a few days to keep readers coming back. Images and short videos are also helpful. Jim Stroud, a Microsoft recruiter, posts a fun blog full of humor and videos that exemplify what I’m talking about.
Staff
Blogs gain a lot of power when the writer is a real person. Heather Hamilton at Microsoft pioneered the idea of writing naturally and honestly. Good blogs are not over-edited or sanitized by the company’s public relations department. They may contain errors or reveal personal facts about the writer that lead the reader to feel some identity with him or her.
Here’s a great example from a recent HeatherLeig post: “Marketing plus petty humor.” “If you don’t appreciate puny humor or clever marketing, don’t watch this. And can I tell you how proud I am that my mom recommended this to me? Yeah, moms are great sometimes, though I’m sure they’d rather stay in the anonymity (and, right now, she’s thanking her lucky star that she has a different last name than mine).”
Based on stories Tell a story. We are all more likely to get involved when there is a personal connection, some incident that sparks interest and hooks us to keep reading. Here’s an example from Bob Sutton, a Stanford professor and author of the best-selling book The Idiot Rule. As I read this I want to know what he said and what happens at the end.
Here’s an example from Bob Sutton:
“I was listening to a great show the other day on Fresh Air where Terry Gross interviewed Bob Sullivan, the author of Gotcha Capitalism. I started to get pretty agitated by the interview as Sullivan talked about all the ways card companies credit bureaus, hotels, and especially cell phone companies ‘get us’ with hidden fees and related sleazy practices (listen here).” We all tell stories, recount past incidents, and build relationships around shared experiences. The same applies when writing a blog.
Authenticity
Many blogs gain authenticity simply by their personal nature. We all tend to believe in people who have a face, a personality, and who, to some degree, we know. But on the other hand, it is also useful for linking to other blogs, websites, people that reinforce the message posted. If you look at the Bob Sutton example above, you can see the links to the NPR show and the book on Amazon.com. Really good blogs use a lot of links and associations to add depth and credibility. By doing this, the author builds trust. Dave Mendoza, in his award-winning blog Six Degrees from Dave, illustrates all of these points. He uses video very effectively, links extensively, uses humor, and introduces personal information in a way that makes you a real person. Writing a blog is not difficult, but it does require understanding these basics. It also requires the author to be involved, have fun, and reflect his enthusiasm back to the readers.