transcribed by Bill Cushard (@BillCush) from a speech by Deirdré Straughan (@DeirdreS) from Monktoberfest 2013.

According to Deirdré Straughan, when you have a technologist who blogs, or otherwise communicates well, it is gold for your company, and yet there are still companies out there who forbid their engineers to blog. Forbid. Can you believe that? It is remarkable that in an age of tight talent markets, content marketing, and a culture of openness and collaboration that made Silicon Valley so successful, that technology companies treat technologists this way. The very people who make these technology company so great, are forbidden to communicate with the outside world.

Setting aside the obvious issue that companies do not want intellectual capital showing up on http://anyoldtechnologyblog.blogspot.com, there are plenty of reasons why technology companies should not only allow their technologists to participate in the technology community, but these companies should actively support the efforts to do so.

At Redmonk’s Monktoberfest 2013, Straughan tells us that now more than ever, it makes sense to market technology talent, discussing why it is important and how to do it.

She gives four reasons for why technology companies should be marketing talent.

For their “box office” appeal

Like movie stars draw people to movies, your technologists attract people who want to learn more. These people flock to your organization because of your associate with your technologists.

To get quality tech content

If your technologists are writing blogs, giving talks at conferences, and participating in communities, you have a built-in pipeline of high-quality content that draws people to your company.

To attract, develop, and retain talent

As worried as you might be about other companies poaching your technologists (which you cannot control anyway), marketing your talent can actually attract and retain talent. If you have a rock start technologist, you will have people flock to your company for the change to work and learn from this technologist.

Luster, leads, and SEO

And of course, there is a marketing benefit that results from marketing your tech talent in the form of content marketing and SEO that generates leads.

Convinced yet? If you are, and you now want to learn how to market your tech talent effectively, you will have to watch Straughan’s talk. She’s been doing it successfully for many years. So I suggest you watch and listen carefully.

[subscribe2]