What makes a good blog?

A poll published last fall by Charlene Li of Forrester indicates that "24% of January yers read the blog, which is twice as often as 12% of Xers Gen (27-40 years) and three times the 7% of Boomers young people (ages 41 -50) who read blogs. "What makes blogs so compelling?

It is not difficult to understand. We live in a sound-bite era. Over the past two decades, people have increasingly moved away from the books long and deep into writing a short, action-oriented pieces. Books like Who Moved My Cheese, which are written in a high school level or below, are very popular. Television has pioneered fueling a generation that reads very little, and watch videos. Hence the popularity of YouTube and magazines such as Discover, BusinessWeek, Fortune and Fast Company. They made the short article almost a requirement. Only a handful of publications with a circulation of small size like The Atlantic or The New Yorker readers in-depth articles offer more than a few thousand words. Do not get me wrong, here. I'm not complaining (well, maybe a little '), I'm just describing what is happening.

That said, the results of the survey by Forrester are not surprising. Gen Y and younger portion of Gen X are the main target for the blog. And, when they are well written, blogs are a powerful way to reach younger employees, candidates and fellow recruiters.

Our industry has a lot of great blogs that are, again not surprisingly, written by Gen X or Gen Y recruiters.

RecruitingBlogs.com recently published the results of annual evaluations of its blog readers recruitment, sponsored by ZoomInfo. Here are the winners of that contest in 10 categories, and I urge you to look at each one of them. All follow the rules for a blog effective that outline below.

1. Overall Recruiting: Six Degrees From Dave

2. Recruiting Blogosphere: Recruiting Animal

3. Third Party Recruiting: Recruiting Revolution

4. Best Recruiting Technology: I, Donato

5. Job Hunting: Wired and Hired

6. Corporate Recruiting: WirelessJobs.com

7. Sourcing / Research: CyberSleuthing

8. Group: Xtra Cheezhead

9. Recruiting Industry: Six Degrees From Dave

10. HR: Gautam Ghosh

Blogs are effective tuned their readers in many ways, including their tone, style, and even their look and feel. But the following four critical elements must be in place for a blog to gain the traction it needs to achieve a high level of consistent readers.

Short and funny

First of all, any intervention should be short. Entries over 500 words are not going to be read, probably not even touched, by the average reader. The best voices are more likely to contain 200-250 words and a lot of gaps and breaks. Occasionally, after a longer period may be effective if the writer is telling a story about something exciting or has the ability to maintain a certain level of suspense. But even then it might be better to break the story over several days to bring readers back. Photos and short videos are also useful. Jim Stroud, a recruiter at Microsoft, publishes a blog filled with humor and funny videos that exemplify what I'm talking about.

Staff

Blog to acquire a large amount of energy when the writer is a real person. Heather Hamilton at Microsoft tested the idea of ​​writing in a natural and honest. Good blogs are not excessively modified or sterilized by the Corporate PR department. They may have errors or disclose personal facts about the writer that lead the reader to feel a bit 'of identity with him or her

Here is a great example from a recent post HeatherLeig ". Marketing more potty humor" "If you do not appreciate potty humor or clever marketing, do not look at this. And, I can tell you that I am proud that this related to me by my mother? Yes, sometimes the mothers rock, although I'm sure they prefer to remain anonymous (and, at this moment, is thanking your lucky stars that has a name different from my last). "

Story Tell a story-based. We are all more likely to engage when there is a personal connection, some incident that arouses interest and engages us in continuing to read. Here's an example of Bob Sutton, Stanford professor and author of the bestselling book The No Asshole Rule .. As I read this, I want to find out what he said and what happens at the end.

Here's an example of Bob Sutton:

"I was listening on a great show the other day of fresh air, in which Terry Gross has interviewed Bob Sullivan, author of Gotcha Capitalism. I started to get pretty upset by the interview, as Sullivan has talked about all the ways that Credit card companies, hotels, and most importantly, the cell phone companies are us' with hidden costs and their sordid practices (listen here). "We all tell stories, relate past episodes, and build relationships around shared experiences. The same goes for writing a blog.

Authenticity

Many blogs gain authenticity simply by their very nature personal. We all tend to believe people who have a face, a personality, and are, to some extent, to our knowledge. But, on the other hand, it is also useful for connecting other blogs, web sites, people who reinforce the message sent. If you look at the example above Bob Sutton, you can view the link for the NPR show and the book on Amazon.com. Blogs really good to use a lot of links and associations to add depth and credibility. In this way, the author constructs confidence. Dave Mendoza, in his award-winning Six Degrees from Dave blog, illustrates all these points. He uses the video very effectively, links in general, uses humor, and introduces the personal information in a way that makes him a real person. Blogging is not difficult, but requires the understanding of these bases. It also requires the author to engage, entertain, and reflect his enthusiasm for the readers.