I'd always heard that great executives should always alocate 1-2 hours per day to read an get informed. The reality, is that like many, I was always TOO busy... But now there's NO excuse! You can now download NewsGator that runs in your Outlook 2003 - so if you aren't too busy for e-mails you can't be too busy for blogs. It's actually like tapping into the brains of all the people that could answer all your queries, all your fears and in the meantime you'll stumble across great ideas and sometimes quite inspiring stuff.

Blogging really kicks off when you start to interact with your consumers. We moved our web pages for Paradise Garage to the blog format and we jumped from 250 unique visits to over 1000 but the greatest move only started to take effect today as we replied to our first comments and not very favorable at that - but they were actually very tuned in. They should be - they are straight from our customers!

It's the beginning but it's all about gaining their trust and we've sat for hours looking at a comment wondering whether to remove it - once we had some basic rules - applied to life - opinios are fine, personal attacks not - it was easy. I was VERY surprised however to see these stats on the post in eMarketer.com titled "Executives Not Quite Hot to Blog".

Jen Fitzpatrick, Engineering Director, has represented Google at many events for women and having been asked the pretty much the same thing, and working for a company that can do these things, what better way to show women what working for Google is really like…
[watch the video]

Google, like many few companies, looks at the detail – every bit of it. Whereas most companies would be proud to have a recruitment video with this feel to it, Google go further. The following is the accompanying explanation of why they made the video and at the end even get to pitch their Anita Borg Scholarships – all through “the ever so natural, ever so pure” Ms. Fitzpatrick. I think it’s slick but highly effective and I guess I’m jealous because I have no idea of what it’s like for a man to work at Google…

If you ever wondered what makes companies great - its people! And want to know how to attract, recruit and KEEP the very best people? Watch this video, pack your stuff at work and go find a real job. If you are a recruiter - shame on you. Pack YOUR bags and give your job up to someone more passionate about people.

I've always hated hearing the phrase "people are our biggest asset" for three reasons:

1. It was usually used by those who had little to no regard for the people working for them - their responsibility under their watch - and what a responsibility

2. Assets are static - they are buildings, they are machinery and they are not people - people can be a financial plus, do have a huge value but they are everything by static.

3. Ass-it... need I say more (totally unnecessary but something urges me on to leave point 3 - so there).

Having watched the Google Recruitment Video - what a SEXY place to work -live - work - whatever they do there...