This Week, In Recruiting - Issue No22

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Open Kitchen: Produce, Publish & Promote? Nope....

I received this message yesterday which inspired me to write about 'Marketing on LinkedIn' as it seems that enough of us are thinking about it for LinkedIn itself to come in and offer tips on how to do it better.

I'm assuming this was a badly targeted ad because I am now proceeding to give you advice on how to do it ??.

Bottom Line Up Front?

We don't understand how information travels through the Internet. Most of us - including professional marketers - are wedded to methods optimised for an era that has already passed. The major shifts over the past 15 years in how we consume information - from the open web to the newsfeed, from the browser to the app - need to be matched by how we produce, publish and promote content.

Let's look at last three eras of the web and see how we have optimised content production for each them. If your content isn't working today, chances are you are 'out-of-era' in your practices.

1. Marketing in Web 1.0

From the late 90's to the mid 00's, we usually consider the first era of the web - Web 1.0. This is when the online world was basically just a digital facsimile of the off line world. The internet was full of static pages, production costs for quality content was high, therefore there was a limited number of truly effective publishers which users paid attention to. And those users were entirely passive consumers of that content - there was nothing you could with the information you read - the choices were just 'read' or 'not read'.

Marketing to this audience was procedurally little different to marketing to the offline world - produce content, published it, then promote it - a sequence of three events, in that order. Time and energy was spent mainly on the production phase, as legacy distribution channels could be relied upon to publish and promote to a wide (and often, captive) audience.

2. Marketing for Web 2.0

Facebook changes everything. The rise of the social web - Web 2.0 - was a revelation, because suddenly everyone was able to not only passively consume content, but actively produce it also. Yes, there were already early blogging platforms, early online communities and early website builders (I think geocities Japan is still going...) but it wasn't until social networking took hold in the late 00's that the ability to produce and distribute information became something everyone could do - everyone became a producer / consumer.

Marketing to this audience became harder because publishers had a lot more noise to compete with but it was still procedurally similar - produce, publish and promote content, in that order, in three separate events. The main difference was that effort shifted from production to promotion as even established publishers had to compete with the massive noise generated millions of micro publishers on social media. At some point, the publishers basically gave up and joined social media platforms to solve the problem of 'getting the message through' - by paying for it - hence the massive ad revenue made by Facebook and other social platforms during this period.

3. Marketing for Web 2.5

In the late 00's something seminal happened. We didn't really understand the ramifications for content production immediately because the changes weren't obvious and weren't initially industry wide. I call it 'Web 2.5' because they were in-platform changes, specific to social networks, but they were still significant enough for us to mark it as boundary when Web 2.0 ended and something else took its place. This is when the?newsfeed shifted from a chronological timeline to ordering by relevancy. Instead of content being displaced in the order of them being posted, they were displayed in the order on whether the platform thought it would be relevant to you. And the platform guessed at relevancy through a combo of biographical (who you are) and behavioural (what you do) signals. This occurred at different times for different platforms but because it 'worked' so well by around late '10's every major social network - including this one - operated this way.

Marketing to this audience is now far less about the content itself, and much more about the engagement ('relevancy') it generates. In fact, switched on marketers recognised that the audience engagement often?was?the content, and that the entire production process was actually part of the show. Hence production, promotion and publication need to become one process, to be done at the same time, in public.

The Marketing Mistake Most People Make Today

Most of us are still doing marketing for the Web 1.0 world - spending way too much time on production. Think about how recruiters use LinkedIn - write a job ad (produce), post it on LinkedIn (publish) and then say 'can you please share with someone you know!' (promote). Three events, in sequence, spending most of the time in the first phase.

It never works. No one shares it. The algorithm (rightly) kills it because it is non-engaging content, simply an artefact which users only passively consume. What we need to do in this latest era of the Internet is the produce content which can be?actively contributed to.

Why do we think LinkedIn polls work so well? The small gesture of clicking on a choice allows the users to contribute to the content and additionally counts as engagement, so the mighty algorithm gives it a mighty signal boost. Now excessive use of this approach this has been rightly called out as the next?form of spam ?(thanks?Dorothy !) but the example is a useful illustration of the style of marketing required for today's audience. These days people don't want 'content' passively consumed, we want conversation we can actively contribute to.

Content Marketing? It's Conversation Marketing

Sometimes when we get stuck in an old routine, it's useful to change the language. If we want to succeed in getting our message across in Web 2.5, we need to be conversational marketers, not content marketers. It's not about pretty design or even high quality content - it's about starting a conversation people want to contribute to.

The good news is - this is actually pretty easy to do. The movement to 'build in public' comes from startup founders who understand that simply operating transparently is actually great opportunity to do conversational marketing. Look at the success of TikTok-ers who simply video their day-to-day work.

This guy literally cleans swimming pools and videos it. ....11 million followers. It's mundane stuff but strangely addictive because 'thep00lguy' is opening up a conversation with you on how he does his work.

Now I'm not 'thep00lguy' (or any kind of pool guy, terrible swimmer) but it is the reason why I livestream rather than pre-record. Have you even heard the production value of?Brainfood Live ? It's terrible. I wish it could be improved, but I don't want to sacrifice the spontaneity and audience participation which make up the best parts of the show. It's also why there is this segment on this newsletter - it's Open Kitchen because it turns out, we do actually want to see how the sausage is made.

So have a look a the above steps; if your marketing isn't working for you, make sure you have optimised your production for the right era of the web. And when you're in the production phase of the content, do it in public so the audience can see it, and maybe have a conversation with you about it. It won't work every time, but it's really not any extra effort.

Anyways, out of the kitchen, into the lounge ??

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What's in the News?

Upwork ?to raise $575M through convertible senior note offering, giving it some needed firepower to stave off not only a bevvy of industry specific marketplaces but also the big whale in the water - LinkedIn -?rumoured ?to be building a competitor service in this space/

UpWork investor press release?here ?- be interesting to see what they do with it, a purchasing spree of aforementioned niche players is my guess.

Contact ?- the creator platform aiming to disrupt the modelling industry - raise?$1.9 million seed round . Perhaps currently most famous for having the backing of Maisie Williams,

Contact aim to generate work for models via the platform rather than through the agent. Mike Butcher with the interview?here

If you are a recruitment service provider or technology business and have any news to share,?comment below,?this is your application to get into next week's addition of This Week, In Recruiting. Make sure to @ mention me so that I see it

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What's On Offer? (New Segment)

No offers? This segment is for free promo, so if you have an offer to the community, here's your chance of audience

Don't make me look like this - no one benefits

If you are a recruitment provider and want to be featured in next week's issue, make an offer to the community and?comment below?with the link and offer details. Don't forget to @ mention me so that I see it

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What's Going On?

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep122 - Gen Z and the New World of Work , Aug 20th, 2pm BST / 9am ET

Super excited to be hosting this show with Nicole Tucker and Rhea Moss, as we dive into the data on the?iCIMS Class of 2021 Report . What does Gen Z really care about when thinking about jobs and employers? We're going to find out by deriving insight from the report and by asking Gen Z directly as they guest on screen with us on the show. If you're hiring for early career talent, don't this miss this. Register?here

TruLondon: The Return , Aug 25th, 10.00am - 11pm BST

Perhaps no other event brings people together like TruLondon. 'The Recruiting Unconference' started in recognition that the best content was never on stage but always in the sidebar with other delegates. So why not make an entire event dedicated to those conversations? Expect the unexpected, but do expect an amazing, high impact day.?Donation only ?- pay what you think you should (￡50 if you can afford, ￡10 if you can't really) I'll be there and so will be some rather well known people....

The Future of Talent Acquisition 2021 , Aug 25-26, 11.00am to 5.00pm ET

Two day-er coming up from HR.com with a decent cast of speakers on topics from future of work, DEIB and Talent Acquisition Strategies for the post pandemic economy. Free to register, so go ahead and pick and choose your session. Bonus: my buddy William Tincup is doing a talk - worth the registration alone folks - do it?here

If you have an event, webinar or podcast going on next week and want it featured on next week's newsletter,?comment below?with the link and event details. Don't forget to @ mention me so that I see it

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Who's Hiring?

Brainfood Jobs Job Board - Employers Tab Update

Featured Jobs ??

Talent Acquisition Manager ?- We Are Move, Remote EU

Talent Acquisition Manager? - Personio, Munich, Germany

New Job Posters This Week

Clear Street, Cloudreach, Sensor Tower, WeTransfer, Crunchbase, Goldman Sachs, BASF, Ticketmaster, Superscript, EY, BuiltIn, BASF, Storybok, TicketMaster, University of Salford, Qonto, Hubspot and Sevenstep - access the full list of recruiter & HR opportunities?here

If you want your job posted on the Brainfood Job Board, click on the link above. Selected the 'Featured' or 'Promoted' tiers if you additionally want promotion in next week's issue

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Who's Moving?

Alia Khattab ?moves up to Director of Talent Acquisition EMEA after serving as Senior TA Partner at ServiceNow. Huge amount of hiring at ServiceNow - one of the organisations in the sweet spot of building technology shaping the changing nature of business - great recruiting opportunity. I should imagine team will be growing too so get in touch if you want to be part of it.

Paul Karrmann , moves to Vice President People & Culture @Zeal Network SE. German tech seems to be on a tear at the moment, not sure if this is sample bias due to my many connections in Germany or whether there is something really going on. I think it is the latter

Sam Merron ?moves to LYTT as Talent Partner after 3 years at bbox. One fascinating company to another, Sam is building up some pretty interesting experience as a recruiter. Not one for the simple web app

Natasha Ouslis ?starts a new role as Associate with McKinsey & Co, after completing her PhD in Organisation Psychology at Western University. Big win for the big consultancy, Natasha is such a smart contributor to the community. Hope that this continues regardless of corp guidelines

Finally,?Nico Dontas ?moves to Typeform after nearly 2 years at Brazilian fintech, Nubank. Looking forward to seeing what Typeform get up to - seems like its time for a significant phase in the survey / sentiment analysis market.

If you have made a senior exec appointment to your business,?and feel the wider community needs to know about it,?comment below?with the details and see it featured in next weeks issue.?Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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What Are You Doing?

Jan Tegze ?has a new book out - and how cool to see that it is nothing to do with the sourcing techniques! Martin's First Day is an illustrated children's book and you can get your copy?here . Superb to see community members branch out and do other things outside of industry ??

Shannon Pritchett , now the Head of Marketing & Community with Hiretual, is conducting a compensation survey for Talent Acquisition professionals. Not sure if anyone really has good data on this, so initiatives of this type are worth getting involved in to find your market worth. You can do the survey here

John Sumser ?is looking for HR / TA influencers / media folks who have knowledge of the recruitment for the US healthcare industry. Anyone fit the bill, or know of anyone who fits the bill, get in touch with John directly.

If you are doing something new,?comment below?with what it is and share a link to where you want people to go. Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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End Notes

That's it for another week.

Sorry for the super long essay at the beginning, I got a bit carried away. I was stuck between writing about this and 'Thought Limiting Cliches'. This was actually easier to produce ??

Hope you enjoyed today's TWIR - let me know what you think - cheers!

Hung

Hung Lee is the curator of?Recruiting Brainfood , and now This Week In Recruiting. Subscribe to both if you are into recruiting or HR or just interested in world of work.