Interview with a Blogger - Dave Martin

Dave has worked for over ten years within Internet advertising and innovative business technology. He spent 7 years playing a leading role in the creation of many profitable web platforms for Johnston Press regional newspapers before founding Allthetopbananas.com. He has recently started blogging on the Official Banana Blogs site

How long have  you been blogging?
For all of 16 weeks!

Why did you start?
I read many other blogs, and frequently discussed views with the authors. It is a natural progression to start putting thoughts out there and inviting feedback. I have a strong strategic, advertising and technical background which makes for some interesting and creative ideas!

What do you do, work related, when you aren't blogging?
Drink plenty of coffee! (I have two young daughters!). I am the MD for the UK Job Search Engine www.allthetopbananas.com. Launching a new product has been a great challenge and we have some really interesting developments planned for 2008. It has been a really enjoyable year, with the future looking like it may be even more fun! I spend a lot of time talking with customers, listening to their difficulties, reading up on industry views etc so I can bring these issues into our business with the view to developing solutions and helping!

Do you think blogging has helped your business?
It has made our views and operation more transparent to our customers and partners which is great. Various business developments have started from the blog being read. I could be doing a better job – time is so hard to find, as is deciding what ideas or views people may actually want to read! The mission for Allthetopbananas.com is “To be the Most Helpful Job Search” and we really focus on the word "Helpful". The Blog has generated some fantastic feedback about recruitment challenges and views about our products. We are launching a raft of new facilities including mobile in Q1 2008. Blogging out some of these thoughts helped flesh out development ideas. Other bloggers have posted their thoughts or analysis on the matter, such as Peter Gold or Julian Stopps over at BORN which has proven very helpful!

What do you feel is the biggest challenge about writing a blog?
Other than the stereotypical answer of TIME, trying to write content in a style that will interest people without appearing arrogant whilst remaining expert! I hope that the industry finds it useful, and that people feed back to me!

What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it? 
Obviously the recruiter blog watch, it bookmarked on my iPod! The BORN podcast/blog is great there is normally something thought-provoking! I keep an eye on Peter Gold's blog as he does some interesting work in retail recruitment. In the non-recruitment space, I read Scott Guthries’s blog but this is really for the Microsoft geek hidden deep inside me! (There is no escape!)

What do you want your readers to know about you?
Representing Allthetopbananas.com, I want our readers to know about our years of background around online jobs and other classified advertisement, our elite expertise oozing from our technical team and overall dedication to really help the jobseeker and the recruiter maximize the benefits of online recruitment.

About me? Well I am open minded and highly approachable. If recruitment / HR people have ideas or frustrations that Allthetopbananas could help with, then please contact us!

If you knew someone was thinking about starting a recruitment-related blog, what advice would you want to give them?
Do not underestimate the time it takes to write blog posts! Try to write posts that are not just repetition of other blogs and always give credit to the source blog post if you are expanding on other people’s ideas and views.

Is there a question you wished I asked you?
Yes there is one ... “Do you think online recruitment is doing all it could for the industry?”, There are thousands (ours included) of recruitment websites, which is great as it gives the job seekers a choice and provides a service, but I don’t feel that the competition is as 'healthy' as it could be. The medium of 'Web' is not being used to its maximum potential, to really assist the recruitment process or the job seeker. For many SME Recruitment Agencies (not all!) the focus on marketing spend is measured by quantity of CVs,instead of quality! In bigger companies, we see huge investment in CV search / filtering within the company. As online job application is so quick and easy compared to the old school postal system, the problem of getting the right candidate is affected by high volumes of unsuitable candidates applying. Instead of helping as much as it could online advertisement sometimes pushes the problem further down the recruitment process! I would like to see the competitive nature of our industry develop better solutions and evolve at a quicker rate. Allthetopbananas.com will be doing its best to listen to the industry and help this evolution!