Interview with a Blogger - Dom Sumners

Online Media Thoughts is Dominic Sumners' blog. Dom has over 15 years experience in recruitment advertising both on and offline.  He is a former director of VNU Business Publications, ThirtyThree Advertising and, most recently, was the UK Sales Director of Fish4Jobs.  What I like about Dom's blog is that it gives a good insight into the type of person he is and the sort of business he runs.  He says what he thinks.  In the main he's not overtly controversial, but he certainly doesn't sit on the fence.

How long have  you been blogging?
I started blogging in October 2006

Why did you start?
Two reasons; 1) we advise people on website interactivity – freshness of content – Web 2.0 – so it seemed sensible to practice what I preach. and 2) I seem to have an opinion on all elements of online – and this became a great outlet to share views and let off steam. It means my colleagues at OME don’t get all my tirades and diatribes. They seem very happy I am blogging.

What do you do, work related, when you aren't blogging?
I am a Director of OnlineMediaExperts – the UK’s first online recruitment ad agency – we are just about to have our first birthday!!

Do you think blogging has helped your business?
Definitely – it was not the prime intention but it has generated some interesting traffic for our website – clients tend to look at it before contacting or meeting with us. I like to think it demonstrates we know what we are talking about but at worse it demonstrates that at least we have a firm grip of the issues around online recruitment

What do you feel is the biggest challenge about writing a blog?
Not being dull – not posting in order just to have something up there – I want it to be conversational and interesting – and yes I don’t always achieve that goal.

What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Joel Cheeseman’s is clearly the best in the business and I do like the traditional Ad Agency blog/forum.  They are sort of competition and I don’t agree with most of the opinions on there but that’s the whole point of this sort of interactivity isn’t it??

What do you want your reader’s to know about you?
When I blog at 9.30 pm on a Saturday night – it’s not because I am the saddest man in recruitment – I promise – its just Match of the Day is not on yet and I have finished my dinner and…..

If you knew someone was thinking about starting a recruitment related blog, what advice would you want to give them?
Do it, don’t think about it too much.  Don’t try and see both sides of the argument (who wants fairness and blandness, you aren’t the BBC) and make your style as natural and as possible – its not a proposal document.

Is there a question you wished I asked you?
A question I was asked the other day by a UK PLC – “is the online recruitment market really saturated now?”.  Answer “completely and utterly unsaturated” we are still in the incredibly early stages of migration of recruitment to online methods of attraction – the possibilities and commercial opportunities are still endless.