One of my clients is looking for a team of SEO and Web Analytics Consultants to work on their global website.  The job is open through a few agencies, but the advantage of working through me is the interview preparation you're going to get ahead of time.

As a practitioner in this field,  you'll be working with the only recruiter in St Louis who understands what you do in in SEO, SEM, and social media.  If you're curious about the details, or just want to get into the queue for future jobs, drop me a line - the database will be up next week to upload your resume directly into my ATS.

I'm posting some keyword fodder below the fold.

The event is set.  May 21st, I'll be hosting a live webinar on Facebook recruiting through hireability. The session is called,

Facebook Recruiting:  A Live Demonstration of Hiring Inside Facebook by Jim Durbin, the Social Media Headhunter.

The explosion of Facebook as a social networking tool is challenge and a mystery to recruiters.  Unlike LinkedIn Plaxo, Facebook users aren't looking to be contacted in a search for jobs.  They certainly don't want to be headhunted, until they're ready.  Jim Durbin, a social media expert takes a look at Facebook from the eyes of an experienced staffing professional, and provides live, actionable training on how to use Facebook to increase placements.

In a session that combines sourcing, contacting, and referral generation, Mr. Durbin shows recruiters how to navigate the tricky waters of social networking.

The event is a paid webinar - the cost is $89, and it will be 1:30 p.m. EST/10:30 a.m. PST, and will cover sourcing, filtering, connecting, reference checking, and referrals in Facebook.  Most training sessions are full of theory - this webinar will be a walkthrough of screens and search terms on an actual job search.

There'll be Cross-promotion at StlRecruiting and my other recruiting blogs Charlotte, Seattle, and KC Recruiting, as well as the social networks  and social media circles.  If you announce the event on your blog, be sure to send me an e-mail, and I'll link to you from this PR5 blog.

Once you're a part of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, eCademy, and all the rest, it's time to dig deep into niche social networks that serve your industry.

Here are four that are indispensable for social media recruiters.

Recruiting Blogs- Run by Jason Davis for Recruiters
Job Boarders - Run by Chris Russell
Jobs In Social Media Run by Chris Russell
Recruiting Network - Run by Craig Silverman for Independent Recruiters

And when you're done with those, it's time to join the social networks in your industry (to find candidates).  Better keep that Ning ID handy.

Great Question at LinkedIn Answers from Walter Pike - asking what companies should look for in a Social Media firm. Is it a PR firm or Ad Agency? My response below.

1) Check the web for their presence. Ask for their social media expert, and type their name into Google.  Look at the company blog.  Is it updated, ranked high, and do people link to it? Are they on Twitter, Facebook?  Look at examples of other campaigns they rate as successful.

2) Ask them what results they've achieved with a campaign.  If they can't tell you, then they haven't bothered to track past campaigns, which means they'll have no experience tracking yours.

3) Don't ask what they can do.  Social media firms should be solution agnostic.  Instead, ask yourself what you want to accomplish, and then ask them how they would accomplish it.

4) You're not hiring them for social media. You're hiring them for marketing/pr/advertising/search, and they're using social media tools to accomplish those goals.

5) Be smart with your budget:  I'd say as many as 80% of "Social Media" experts have never been paid for their work, and that includes people inside very large agencies.  Large agencies have no clue how to bill for this, which can mean you're paying 10X what you would with a small agency or an individual to get the same results.

6) : Don't buy the hype - look for execution:  A large number of followers or friends or subscribers doesn't make you a social media firm or consultant.  Just because you're good at self-promotion doesn't make you good at helping another company do the same. 

7) Look for integration - the best social media campaigns take advantage of work you're already doing and magnify it by putting it online. SMM works best in conjunction with traditional and other online marketing. 

This is what I'm looking for in candidates.  Are they enamored of their tools, or of the results of using those tools?  And in terms of salary - you're getting paid for your background, not your social media experience. It's an important distinction.

First, I've had this sitting in a bookmark for a while, but Marianne Richmond's useful list of links pointed me to a top 100 Social Media Tools.

And then, following TechCrunch on Twitter, this video on social networking is making the rounds.  Be the 10,210 viewer!

Megan McArdle writes on the lack of economics bloggers available, and wonders if professional blogging ultimately will be as difficult to break into as writing for the media.

I'm not sure what this means for the blogging world. It's still largely an amateur medium, but it's hard to see how many new bloggers can compete with someone who gets paid to do it, unless they are independently wealthy or have a job, like journalism or academia, that routinely throws them a lot of bloggable material. Will it become as hard to break into blogging as it is to break into print?

The answer to that depends on how you define blogging. If you mean column writing by someone not affiliated with a mainstream publication, then yes, blogging for dollars will be very difficult to get into.  The reasons listed by Megan all make sense.  Blogging as just writing takes time, and if you aren't payed for that time, it's difficult to create large audiences based your work.

But blogging is more than writing.  It's safe to say that blogging is a subset of the wider world of social media, and while political and media bloggers are attempting to replicate or improve upon the publishing world, the vast majority of bloggers, both professional and amateur, are focused on other niches, and it's very easy to break through.

Momblogs, local blogs, sports and hobbies blog, video gaming and music, state and local political blogs, environmental, marketing, and small business blogging are all much bigger (and more lucrative) than blogging about libertarian economics.  Heck - blogging about American Idol is more lucrative than blogging about the '08 campaign because there's less competition, a bigger audience, and more ad money.

So never fear about amateur blogging taking off - corporations are putting real time and money into social media, and it's relatively easy to get noticed.

But even in the niche of economics blogging, it's possible to step in and assume a dominant position.  Using a host of SEO tricks, social media news submissions, demographic marketing, and clever writing, an economics write could grow traffic and quickly become an A-List blogger.  I train people to do this, and all you really need is passion, curiousity, and  above-average writing skills.  Oh, and a recognition that successful bloggers interact.  They leave comments, send e-mails saying thank you, participate in local and national meetings, network profusely, and above all have a focus for their blogging.

Can amateurs do this?  Amateurs tend to do it a lot better than professionals, if only because they don't have ulterior motives that shine through (that's the problems with corporate blogging - they want the ROI without the work).  The question is why the amateur would do it.   

Megan's piece starts out pointing out the lack of a bloggers she could recommend for economics.  It's understandable, but it's selection bias.  We are all blind, and assume that if we don't know someone in our niche, that they don't exist.  The truth is there are lots of qualified people out there who could write on the topic of libertarian economics, but most of the hiring authorities are looking for a cheap way to absorb the traffic of someone already successful.

Basically, they want you to build the audience to get noticed, and they'll pay you a reduced rate to get in front of that audience.  If that's what we define as a pool of talent, then of course it will be shallow.  The best bargains will be snapped up early, and those that are left will either be profitable on their own or benefit from previous connections.  At that point, paying a  person to be a professional blogger is the only option.  Why should they give their work and reputation away for a reduced rate to a corporation?

The Point (You knew we would get to it some time)

If you are a company or client that wants to hire a blogger, let me make this suggestion.  Don't start with the bloggers.  Start with what you want to accomplish, and list out what you would define as success

1. Is it traffic?
2. SEO?
3. Media Mentions?
4. Blogospheric Street Cred?
5. Establishment of an Online Platform for future publishing?

Once you know what you want, begin reaching out to people (or ahem, headhunters), and ask them who they know who could accomplish those goals. Hiring a blogger should not be the point of your writing exercise. Hiring someone who accomplishes your goals is the point.

If they  know what to do, they can create the traffic you are looking for.  Yes, you have to pay them, but that's not a bad thing for the blogosphere.  It's treating blogging as a separate skill, and not a amateurish subset of mainstream publishing.

I know for a fact I could find someone who fits the bill of what Megan's clients need.  It may not be what they asked for or what they thought they should hire, but I can find someone to achieve their goals.  They may be well-known, or amateur, but they'll be effective.  The question is whether they want a blogger, or a columnist who isn't yet paid for what they're worth.

My friend and fellow recruiter, Harry Joiner, is a great marketer.  And he recruits.  Harry's specialty is placing high level marketing and e-commerce executives nationally with great companies.

He knows how to get his name out where it matters.  He knows how to recruit people.  And he knows what his value to a company represents.

So, it's my job to source and submit the best and brightest candidates and then prepare them for anything in the interview process.  Which is why I will bury my candidates in market research, company briefs, industry forecasts, and the latest ebooks on SEO, SEM, email marketing, affiliate marketing, online merchandising, usability, web development, database marketing, CRM, web analytics, TV 2.0, and more.

And it's not uncommon for me to set up phone calls between my candidates and executives or consultants who have either worked for the hiring company or have an inside knowledge about the company and its competitors.  The exchange of market intelligence can get pretty spooky -- and it almost always amazes the hiring manager.

This is what I'm working to do with social media.  A candidate working with me is not just going to get a recruiter who asks what they want to make and calls three references.  I'm going to prepare you, and I'm going to challenge  you, and when you sit in front of that hiring manager, the two of you are going to have the best interview of your lives.

Otherwise, what are they paying me for?  But seriously - about Harry - he's top notch.  I'd use him.