I have been following Easton Ellsworth’s review of the 10 largest Fortune 500 companies. He has posted a list of his reviews of their ‘business blogging’ efforts so far:
1. ExxonMobil – Yawn
2. Wal-Mart – Ugly
3. General Motors Part 1 and Part 2 – Otay
4. Chevron – Mysterious
5. Ford – Iffy
6. ConocoPhillips – Nonexistent
7. General Electric – Aha!
8. Citigroup – Who?
9. AIG – Barf
10. IBM – Hallelujah!
Of Easton’s list:
- I only know of 2 that are using real blogs (very indirectly) to recruit talent: 1- Wal-mart (Life at Wal-Mart Blog – and there are some fishy things going on here that we will get into later) AND 2- GM (FYI Blog).
- While we know that IBM encourages its employees to blog (within company guidelines) – are there any recruiting focused / Heather Hamilton / JobsBlog equivalents out there for IBM? Maybe I’ve missed it?
- There are some that are blogging pretty well – but are clearly missing out on the opportunity to directly recruit talent from the blog – GE’s Global Research Blog, From Edison’s Desk, is one that needs to add a link to their job search and apply at the very least today.
According to the Fortune 500 Blogging Wiki, thirty, or 6%, of Fortune 500 companies have official corporate blogs (nearly double the number in December 2005). Here is their current list of Fortune 500 Companies that have corporate blogs as of 9/7/06. Drop me a line if you know of any blogs that have been missed:
Few company blogs are from the CEOs (which may be a good thing depending on the chief) and few seem to overtly use their corporate blogs to recruit talented people to join their team. Why are so many Fortune 500 companies failing to take advantage of this medium to engage in online conversations with potential candidates and applicants?
In the coming days I will begin reviewing the spectrum of F500 recruitment blogging efforts – from those that are just dipping their toes into the ‘recruitosphere’ to those that are doing cannonballs into recruitment blogging.
Technorati Tags: business blogs, recruiting blogs, employer brand, employment brand, employer branding, employment branding, corporate blogs, recruitment marketing, talent acquisition, Fortune 500 blogs
EXCELER8ion is where Shannon and Julian Seery Gude write on Social Media & Recruiting, Digital Marketing, Technology, Internet Business, and other Geekiness. 
13 comments ↓
for your company. 10. Public is okay, but its much better in the private parts. 11. Discrimination at nudie bars? You gotta love HR in San Francisco. 12. Get back to work – slacker. 13. It looks like someboby needs an extreme blog-makeover. 14. Sooooo.. They made a hire and paid the wrong placement firm? Doh! 15. Who’s recruiting your people while you’re out recruiting?
Exceler8ion
“Why are so many Fortune 500 companies failing to take advantage of this medium to engage in online conversations with potential candidates and applicants?”
That’s a very good question, especially considering that blogs are ideal if you want to (at least partly) avoid the incredibly formal “show-me-yours-and-I’ll-show-you-mine” exchange that normally takes place between applicant and employer. It’s a highly asymmetric exchange for the applicant, who hardly gets to ask any questions or find out more about the inner workings of the company.
Thanks for the comment Cornelius. I plan on taking a holistic look to see HOW (if at all) these companies are participating in the conversations. I actually agree with what Rohit Bhargava just said in his latest post:
Not everyone HAS to have a corporate or recruiting blog. Frankly, many companies need to make internal changes first before they are really equipped to do it right and make it a productive forum – but participating in the conversations (not just monitoring them) is the crucial factor for me.
OK, first, I lurve that I am a category. I have arrived! : ) Thanks Shannon!
Second, Rohit’s got it right. I was just talking about this yesterday. The conversation is the magic, blogging is just the medium. It’s a highly efficient medium (megaphone versus postcard), but it’s definitely not for everyone. I can pinpoint a number of reasons why a company should not blog (but rather choose a different method of conversing). So recruiters should stop letting people tell them that they should blog but examine *whether* they should and if they do, how to be effective.
Often, I think we get excited about new techology due to novelty but forget to examine whether it’s filling a need (or extending a value proposition). Some things to think about WRT blogging: your corporate culture, whether you have the right people to do the blogging, whether jobs are crafted to allow for blogging, current state of your employment brand (online specifically), whether your candidates are blog savvy. It’s not a simple yes or no answer. And of course, I didn’t have the benefit of considering all these things before I started blogging (hindsight and all). Though I will say that I get pretty excited to find a good, new business or recruiting blog too.
I look forward to seeing your thoughts on more of Easton’s posts about this.
Great thoughts, everyone. This is an original conversation. I’m organizing something a bit bigger and hope you’ll all participate. Look for the annoucnement at my blog soon.
Shannon – Intel has several additional blogs. Take a look at http://www.intel.com/software/blogs
We started this effort around June and have been adding more bloggers as fast as we can recruit them. These blogs are focused toward the software developer audience.
Why Would You Want to Work for Honeywell?…
Honeywell is one of the few large corporations that understands that blogging is both a recruitment and retention tool. Those who understand blogging almost all get that blogging is great for recruitment because of the highly targeted content that it…..
I wholeheartedly agree with your statement Shannon (about participating in the conversation). Finding a way to at least do that, even if NOT through the medium of one’s “own” blog, is a starting point. The blog isn’t the end-all solution.
As an example, I think Wal-Mart would have been better served by participating in the conversation first, before jumping out there with their own blog. Or at least one that has a diff look and feel.
Good stuff, folks!
[...] 11. Discrimination at nudie bars? You gotta love HR in San Francisco. 12. Get back to work – slacker. 13. It looks like someboby needs an extreme blog-makeover. 14. Sooooo.. They made a hire and paid the wrong placement firm? Doh! 15. Who’s recruiting your people while you’re out recruiting? [...]
[...] Unrelated but topical, I found Debbie Weil’s BlogWrite for CEOs, a companion to her book The Corporate Blogging Book. My friend Shannon Seery who writes about social media in the recruiting bubble on EXECELER8ion.com lent me the book before Christmas. I guess I should read it before Easter. Shannon also turned me on to another wiki project in one of her recent posts: Fortune 500 Blog Project. [...]
[...] 11. Discrimination at nudie bars? You gotta love HR in San Francisco. 12. Get back to work – slacker. 13. It looks like someboby needs an extreme blog-makeover. 14. Sooooo.. They made a hire and paid the wrong placement firm? Doh! 15. Who’s recruiting your people while you’re out recruiting? [...]
[...] By Steven Rothberg on Recruitment StrategiesHoneywell is one of the few large corporations that understands that blogging is both a recruitment and retention tool. Those who understand blogging almost all get that blogging is great for recruitment because of the highly targeted content that it builds and the one-to-one dialogue that it facilitates between employee and prospective employee.Tamara N, one of the bloggers at Honeywell, recently posted an entry that reveals that she also understands that blogging is also a powerful retention tool. In Tamara’s entry, she writes that Honeywell is trying to stress its Employee Value Proposition (EVP):What Compels People to Join and Stay with Honeywell:Challenging Work: Opportunity to Make a DifferenceGreat People: Working with Smart People Around the WorldContinuous Learning: Improving Our Skills and InsightsCompetitive Rewards: Differentiating PerformanceCareer Development: Opportunities that Span Job Types, Businesses and CountriesCommunity: Making Things Better Where We Live and WorkIf I were looking for a position that is available through an organization like Honeywell, then Tamara’s blog entry would be music to my ears. Bravo! [...]
Leave a Comment