Raines writes, “Blogs are spreading faster than kudzu in the business world. Why? Because, when done effectively, they are a great marketing, sales and public relations tool for corporations or entrepreneurs,” said Barbara Giamanco, CEO of Talent Builders Inc., which helps professionals attract business and increase sales by using social media strategies and tools.

“You know it works when you start getting calls from people you don’t know who want to work with you,” she said. Recently, Giamanco garnered a major corporate client. A friend had referred her, but before calling, he did an online search, and read her LinkedIn profile and her blog, which relates to her core competencies of sales, people development and social media technology. “He liked what I had to say, so before he even met me, I had made an impression as a professional with credibility and integrity,” Giamanco said.

What Giamanco describes are the fundamentals of relationship-based selling. These are the same principles that successful recruiters apply to their businesses, and a blog can be a fantastic vehicle to demonstrate your expertise and connect with others in the field, as well as with candidates and prospective clients.

“The technology has made it easier than ever to start a blog, and with search engines preferring content that is relevant and recent, blogs often top the results list of a search. That can be a business advantage—-or not.”

Cartoon by Hugh

The same rules apply when using social media tools to build meaningful relationships with people. Nobody likes spam and people aren’t interested in “bots” spewing information at them. It’s the difference between the law of attraction and an obvious sales pitch. Developing credibility takes thought and energy. It’s an investment.

Says Raines, “A blog is not a brochure. “One of the quickest ways to fail is to make it an online sales pitch,” Giamanco said. “Nothing turns people off faster than a ‘slick Willy’ hawking his product or services. You want to have a conversation with people and get them to participate.”

Giamanco goes on to say. “People want to do business with people they know, like and trust, but building that relationship takes time. Don’t expect instant results.”

Raines says that you should be authentic when writing on your blog. “Use your own voice and be real,” Giamanco said. “But always treat others with courtesy and respect. If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t say it online.”

Brett Borders recently wrote on his blog, Social Media Rockstar, 10 simple ways to show kindness online, “Some of the top social media “rockstars” come across as incredibly nice people. They’ve cultivated a conscious, polished online interaction style that makes other people feel included, welcome, important and appreciated. An “aura of awesomeness” is crowned upon them, in part, because their fans feel good after interacting with them.”

Be prepared to make a commitment. Blogging requires time and effort to draw readers in and keep them interested and engaged. Once you get started you’ll need to post at least several times a week.

However, it doesn’t have to be as difficult or time-consuming as it sounds if you’re smart about it. There are so many things you can write about, and so many ways that you can structure a blog post without spending too much time. I suggest a healthy combination of several different types of articles.

• Write a response to something you have read. It could be something you read in a book, article, or blog post. I don’t comment on other people’s blogs very often but I do write blog posts in response to what I read and link back to it. (Bloggers like it when you do this FYI. Unless your blog post is horrible or you are launching a personal attack on them but let’s assume that’s not the case and I do not recommend either of these things.)
• Do an email interview with someone. I do these a lot. They’re easy to do for both the blogger and the interviewee and very popular with readers, and I love the fact that unless you are a complete idiot this leaves very little room for misquoting someone.
• Answer people’s questions in a blog post. I do this all the time too. Someone comes to me with a question and I ask them if I can write my response in the form of a blog post and I have yet to have someone say no. Plus even if they said no you could just do it anyway and not mention their name so there.
• Obviously you need to write about original ideas that you have related to your field. I’m just saying that not every single post needs to be one of these.

Michael Kogon, CEO and founder of Definition 6, a leading interactive solutions marketing company, suggests focusing on a subject “that draws from your expertise and is broad enough to interest readers. It should be professional, not your personal musings. No one wants to read your thoughts on the universe, unless you’re Stephen Hawking.”

Five things that I recommend when blogging:

1. Write about things you care about. Tell us what you do and how you do it and tell us how you feel about what you do and why you do it the way that you do.

2. Let us in to your life. We want insight. While we definitely do not want a play-by-play account of a day in the life of your pet snail we do want to know your interpretation of the information you are sharing with us so don’t just say Apple just released the next gen iPhone. Tell us if you bought it and if so why and if not why and do you like it or love it or hate it and why.

3. Put a picture in your blog post. At least one. Some of us are visual and some of us have absolutely no imagination whatsoever and we need to look at a picture.

4. Don’t be all business and don’t be stuffy. If we wanted to read a textbook we would buy one and no we do not want to read about your cat. That is not what I’m talking about.

5. Have a blogroll. Call it what you want but we want to know what blogs you read so we can learn more about you and also if we like to read your blog (?) we might also like to read some of the blogs that you also like to read.

Last but not least, do not forget: Links are good manners! Chris Brogan says, “Links are good manners. They signal intent. They connote sharing. They help your audience connect better. Link, even if it takes a bit more time. Fair?”

Ready to get started? I suggest you read How to get a job by blogging in order to learn how to set up the kind of professional blog that will get you hired. This is an excellent article that walks you through the process, step-by-step, with links to and explanations about the things you’ll need. And then check out and bookmark @Animal’s guide to basic HTML for bloggers.

As usual there is sure to be plenty of controversy and fireworks as well as some great ideas and new tricks to be learned.  So tune in at 8pm Central and get ready for the roller coaster ride of recruiting’s premier forum, #TalentNet…live tonight!

For easy following of the conversation we recommend joining the Twub for #TalentNet.  Just go to http://www.twubs.com and enter the hashtag talentnet, or the abbreviated TNL.  Both tags go to the same Twubs page.  We look forward to tweeting you!

Many human resources executives and business owners are struggling with embracing social media as a communication venue, fearing that associates will expose damaging information.

What they don’t realize is that the conversation is taking place now and it will continue with or without them.

During the discussion I asked, “Do these companies keep their employees in cages or do they allow them to interact with the public?”

If companies choose to ignore rather than participate the vacuum created by their absence will be filled and they may or may not like the result. By engaging in a positive way companies have the opportunity to guide the discussion about their brand rather than allow others to do it for them.

Social media is a dynamic communication and branding tool and companies should be proactive in coaching their employees as to how to use it. Managed well it can be a fantastic vehicle for promoting your company in positive and genuine way. Zappos has embraced social media in a bold way and incorporates Twitter into its corporate culture. Comcast is an excellent example of a company that is utilizing social media to deliver customer service in a whole new way and they are turning disgruntled customers in to raving fans.

We all agreed that while social networking is relatively new and may seem like a big mystery to some, several years from now it will be just as natural as using email or the telephone. It’s simply another way to connect and communicate.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Hosted by Erik Wolf + Stephanie Frost in Atlanta, Georgia, Gravity Free Radio is for entrepreneurs who don’t like being weighed down by old ideas. The weekly show features guests + free advice for business owners.

Stephanie A. Lloyd is Founder and CEO, Radiant Veracity in Atlanta, Georgia, at the intersection of Talent + Social Media. She is a National Careers + Workplace Columnist for Examiner and author, RadiantVeracity.com.

With more than 15 years of experience in corporate recruiting and executive search Stephanie works with hiring managers, HR executives, business owners, and recruiting firms on recruitment and retention strategy including how to better utilize social media for talent acquisition and employee communication.

Additionally, she helps individuals by providing guidance on subjects ranging from the job search to personal branding and career advancement strategies.

*photo by f_mafra

Our featured guests this month will discuss some very timely topics.  Ryan Leary will be tweeting about implementing a social media strategy with your client.  Thomas Licari will discuss bringing recruiters together on a statewide basis with Recruiter’s Associations he has started in AZ, IL, NV, and TX.  AmyBeth Hale will tweet about Social Media for College Grads.  And Jenny DeVaughn will reminisce about her experience at the Social Recruiting Summit.

Sure to be another frenzied event, we are sticking with TweetGrid as our default application of choice to follow the conversation.  Be sure to join us.  We are looking forward to Tweeting with you!

Through Ning niche groups like RecruitingBlogs, TalentBar, Recruiter Earth, Fordyce Letter Network, and others, I have met more talented people in the recruiting business from all over the world than I ever thought possible when I started recruiting back in 1995.  But there is so much going on with all these groups that it is sometimes tough to keep up.  And the place where I ultimately end up hearing about much of this activity is Twitter.

Just a short while ago the founders of RecruitingBlogs and TalentBar announced a coordinated effort to bring recruiters together on Twitter to participate in split placements with Splits.org.  This gave my friend, Susan Kang Nam (@pinkolivefamily), a great idea for a monthly get-together on Twitter for recruiters from all these diverse networks to discuss current issues and events, #splits, and generally get to know each other better all in one place and one time, in 140 characters or less of course.

She asked me to help her coordinate this effort and I told her “Hell no!”  Okay, that’s not true.  It’s nearly impossible to tell her no.  And I have no backbone.  And she threatened my family.  Seriously, I thought it was such a great idea that I enthusiastically agreed, and here we are.  There was much debate on what to name such an event.  Since we were trying to connect networks of talent professionals, I had a brain spasm to call it #TalentNet.  I created a facebook group for announcements and so forth.  You can join it here.  And you can follow #TalentNet on Twitter at @TalentNet.

Please join us this coming Wednesday, April 29th, at 9pm Eastern time on Twitter at #TalentNet to join in the conversation.  We’ll do it again on the last Wed. of each month at the same time.  Network with your peers, exchange ideas, and get the latest news from the recruiting community.  The top Twitterers in the talent world will be on hand.  Remember to tag your comments with #talentnet.  If you are new to the whole hashtag thing, just go to search.twitter.com and type in #talentnet.  It’s that easy.

Susan and I will be on BlitzTime, a call in networking forum, next Wed. at 12pm Eastern to talk about Twitter and #TalentNet.  Now please go join the TalentNet facebook Group and participate in the discussion on Twitter next Wed. night, or Susan may send @Chris Brogan over to your house with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch. 

Seriously, this is going to be cool.  Can’t wait to see you all there.

View original post at my blog on www.fishdogs.com .  And follow me on Twitter @fishdogs .