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It is better
to not be on
the web than
to be on and
not know why

John Sumser

Reality
is more
complex
than
it seems.
John Gall


It's better to
do a few things
really well than
than to do
a lot of things
badly.
If you can't
make the necessary
commitments of
time and energy
to your
electronic
marketing
efforts
scale back
your plan.
John Sumser




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Materials written
by John Sumser
© TwoColorHat.
All Rights Reserved.


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  • Superbowl


    (January 29, 1999) Sunday's commercials tell you a lot. With Superbowl ads coming from both Monster.com and HotJobs, the Online Recruiting Industry is being pulled to a new level. The HotJobs ad has given that company huge piles of publicity and attention.

    The question on the table is "will Superbowl Advertising change public perceptions of the two companies, the Industry as a whole, either, neither or both?"

    The answer, we think, involves two important variables. Courting active job hunters can be accomplished with passive advertising; the "posting" of bland job descriptions works when the candidate is motivated to search through piles of data. Finding passive candidates (industry shorthand for people who aren't looking for a new job) is another story. In an employment environment that is defined by the acute shortage of active candidates, developing aggressive tactics that reach passive job hunters is the key to Recruiting success.

    We see Superbowl ads as a beginning. If site-flipping techniques and advanced Internet Searching strategies are the precision targeted bombs in Recruiting, high profile advertising represents a kind of carpet bombing. While the ads certainly reach job hunters, customers and investors, the majority of the SuperBowl audience is composed of passive job hunters. A memorable, highly publicized ad is very likely to change the overall quality (measured as the percentage of passive candidates) in the job board's database. While it's a drop in the bucket, $5 Million (the rough value of both ads) was the size of the entire Electronic Recruiting Industry just five years ago.

    1999 has to bring more agressive approaches to the mining of "passive" candidates. The Superbowl is just the beginning of a new dynamic that will dramatically increase advertising outlays across our sector.

    - John Sumser, © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.

    Tidbits


    (January 28, 1999) Even though the website is badly executed, FlipSearch offers a somewhat automated tool for site-flipping. If they'd offer a free trial, we'd recommend trying it.


    Several new services have crossed the desktop:

    • Brainpower (great name, the site doesn't always work)
    • GIS-A-Job (British for gimme a job) is now in the US and growing
    • JobListings.net emails job hunters a cc of any email they send (hoping that the boss doesn't read the email)
    • Applicant Smartware is a low end tool for small recruiting shops


    The growth in new services seems to continue unabated. We're looking to see a doubling of online job services in the first eight months of this year. While there may be some ownership consolidations, the number of individual destinations will continue to explode.


    One of the major job boards doesn't own its name! They are currently in negotiations to buy the rights. But, success depends on the current owner's continued naiveté.


    - John Sumser, © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.

    So Dope


    (January 27, 1999) The teenagers in our neighborhood went through a phase last year. The word "dope" was used as an synonym for words like "cool" or "awesome". "That's so dope!" was the highest form of flattery. We enjoyed seeing "dope" things. From what we could tell, they were truly dopey.

    We get tons of email from PR "professionals" who think they're giving us the "dope". What we tend to see is the dopey. Here are a couple of examples of the technique:

    "Just wanted to share with you a message I saw on a message board! I think your readers may find this tool very useful! (I'm not associated with the company, I just think it's a great product!)"
    Or,
    "I wanted to let you know what's going on with XXX company and have attached their latest 3 press releases"
    PR people write Press Releases. Many seem to think that the world sits and waits hoping for a chance to enjoy their tortured, self-serving prose. The theory, as far as we can tell, is that writing and mailing 500 words about nothing constitutes the development of publicity for a client. When we get one of these things, we generally suspect that the company has gotten some money from investors and isn't watching where the money is going closely enough.

    Getting publicity is critical if you want to develop a profitable service in the Electronic Recruiting (or any) Industry. The way you do it is by carefully considering your audience and telling them a story. The story must interest them.

    This principle, caring about your readers, is central to web success. We generally guess that a company who can't write a successful press release stands little chance of developing features that meet the needs of job hunters or recruiters. It isn't always true, but it is a good indicator.

    - John Sumser, © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.

    Standards


    (January 26, 1999) People make funny distinctions. "Our company only works with HR departments, no headhunters allowed." "We sell exclusively to third party Recruiters; if we sold to HR Departments, we'd be competing with our customers." This tired separation between Recruiters who work directly for a company and those who work as an outsourced solution afflicts many in our industry.

    Meanwhile, fully outsourced staffing solutions are gaining momentum. Recruiting has gotten tough as demographics have shifted. More than a few large concerns are turning their staffing problems over to companies that specialize in Recruiting and Placement. Even so, the primitive idea that one set of tactics and ethics are appropriate for in-house recruiters while another set is the purview of external players continues to be widely held.

    We giggle at the sight of companies who imagine that they will set industry standards for job postings while excluding one of these two constituencies. While there is plenty of room for specialized services that serve specific niches, the typical goal of 'global dominance' (the Microsoft wannabes) simply can not be achieved without a broad appeal to all of the players. Unsophisticated views of the market will produce half-useful solutions.

    - John Sumser, © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.

    Microsoft


    (January 25, 1999) Our opinion is pragmatic. A stable (or relatively stable) Microsoft platform allows the more important things to mature. Every time Windows 98 reminds us to download an update, we get happier about having a sole supplier.

    It's certainly not a universal opinion. The government doesn't think so. Our more independent-minded friends don't think so. We, however, remember the stories of the broad introduction of electricity to the United States.

    As electricity began to be installed around the country, there were two competing standards. The General Electric team proposed an alternating current approach which was eventually adopted as the standard. The Westinghouse team proposed direct current (like batteries) which failed to be adopted.

    Until there was an agreed upon standard, the national infrastructure could not be filled in. Without a standard, businesses that needed reliable electricity could not even be formed. The dawning of the electric era depended on the broad acceptance of a single "platform". 100 years later, there were still segments of Westinghouse that grumbled about the superiority of direct current.

    It's not that one solution is either stable or even permanent. It's just that commerce depends on being able to rely on a range of things. If we spend all of our time working the kinks out between competitors, when do we get to use the technology?

    - John Sumser, © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.

    Customized Onsite Consulting


    (Early Winter, 1999) Over the past four years we have had a large number of requests for Onsite Consulting. We are continually looking for new and improved ways to help with your Recruiting needs. We are now offering personal one-on-one Consulting in "Advanced Searching Techniques".

    We've recently added Nicky Gordon to our staff. Nicki is a seasoned recruiting research professional and an acclaimed trainer with extensive hands-on experience solving sourcing problems with the Internet. She will be delivering these customized training programs in which:

    • We will explain how to make a clean move to web recruiting as the principal source of prospective candidates
    • You will receive the tools needed to search the Internet effectively including A CD with over 30 Software Tools to get you started.
    • You get the full benefit of our "Advanced Searching And Sourcing Seminar" without having to leave the office.
    • You gain the knowledge needed to use Spiders and Robots, advanced Search Engine Techniques, Candidate Pool Access and the development of Just-In-Time Sourcing techniques. We'll teach you the skills and tools used by visionary recruiters.
    • You will get a detailed course of action; we will walk you through the steps involved in going from Job Order to Placement.
    • All Examples are done Online specifically tailored for your operation.
    Book your On-site consulting today. The fee for each One-Day Onsite Consulting is $2,500 plus Expenses. We are offering a discount to previous Seminar Attendees, our way of saying Thank You for your continued business. We would like to help set the techniques you've learned into action. Please contact us for more information.

    Contacting Us
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