They've been asking about the meaning and influence of Recruiting Blogs.

Not surprisingly, it's busy out there. Most recruiters don't read the blogs. They're certainly not aware of or following the blogswap. They're very busy with placements that are taking longer and costing more.

There's every reason to suspect that the Recruiting Blogosphere is a small Mutual Admiration Society with no visible means of support. If you ask the many (97.5%) recruiters who aren't reading, there's no question that blogs simply are not a part of getting things done. They are busy filling seats.

If you ask the participants, it's an exciting new universe. The perspectives couldn't be more different.

Jason Goldberg (of Jobster fame) raises a range of interesting related issues in his recent piece called "CEOs who blog." Representing a view that sounds much like a participant's perspective, he chides his competitors for failing to blog. He cites a New York Times article that says, in part:

C.E.O. blogging should no longer be viewed as extreme sport. Mr. Schwartz's example shows that blogging fits quite naturally into the chief executive's work week. In an exhortatory piece, "If You Want to Lead, Blog," published in The Harvard Business Review last year, Mr. Schwartz predicted that "having a blog is not going to be a matter of choice, any more than having e-mail is today."

"My No. 1 job is to be a communicator," Mr. Schwartz told me last week. "I don't understand how a C.E.O. would not blog if committed to open communication." (NYT)

However, Gautam Ghosh, the fabled Indian blogging pundit and recently liberated ex-Deloitte HR Manager, rightly notes that some CEOs are actually not all that good at communicating. We know several who would be disasters as bloggers. Actually, come to think of it, there are a ton of reasons that some CEOs shouldn't blog.

There are all sorts of blogs. Blogs for Recruiting, blogs for Recruiters, blogs by Recruiting service vendors, blogs by CEOs of Recruiting services, blogs by CEOs for Recruiting. Each has a rule set. We'll look them over in the coming days.

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