Cheezhead

If you make your living selling to HR, you owe it to yourself to checkout HRmarketer’s Trends in HR Marketing: HR Buyers’ Behavior 2007. It’s an in-depth survey on the habits and preferences of “HR buyers.”

A few highlights:

1. HR buyers don’t value traditional print media as a primary source of information compared to other online sources and even less so than in previous years.
2. HR buyers are participating in the growing popularity of blogs, podcasts and webcasts as sources of information.
3. HR buyers place increasing importance on a vendor’s online visibility, including the vendor’s own website and their search engine rankings.
4. When beginning a search to identify vendors for an HR product/service, 42.9 percent “ask a peer,” 26.1 percent use an “Internet search engine,” and 14.3 percent go to a “favorite HR informational website.”
5. Google was “by far the most often used search engine of HR buyers.”
6. When individuals were asked how often search engines were used to find information on HR products, 46.2 percent said “daily,” 35.3 percent said “once or twice a week,” and 12.6 percent said “once or twice a month.”
7. Fifty-seven percent of HR buyers who use an Internet search engine rarely click on a vendor’s sponsored ad, opting instead for organic listings.
8. Organic search results are usually perceived as unbiased and therefore more credible than paid results.
9. Ninety-four percent of HR buyers participated in a webinar in 2006, 43 percent listened to a podcast and 52 percent visited a blog. Twenty-six percent of HR buyers visit a blog one or more times per quarter.
10. The preferred method of communication with HR vendors is e-mail, followed by webinars, telephone and trade shows.

The above is the tip of the iceberg, but it’s the information I found most interesting and relevant. I can’t say I’m too surprised by the results - particularly the good news for SEO - except to say I’m a bit surprised so many HR professionals are reading blogs and listening to podcasts.

It bodes very well for those who pride themselves on appreciating the value of and practicing innovation online. Hopefully 2007’s survey will include insight into social networking, video and the like.