What is a Talent Search and how do I make one?

Modified on Sun, 27 Nov, 2022 at 8:06 PM

A talent search is the best way to find new freelancers for your publication.

How to make a Talent Search?

A talent search is the fastest way to find talent and should be made when you need new or more freelancers. We recommend filling out the prompts asked on your search as thoroughly as possible to get the best results from Contently's Intelligent Talent Recommendations feature. This is a way for you to search our talent network on your own. The only people in the publication that will be able to see the talent request are the owners and managers.

What are Intelligent Talent Recommendations (ITR)?

Intelligent Talent Recommendations are system-generated freelancer recommendations based on matches between your publication's Content Strategy and freelancers' skills, preferred topics, and past bylines.

For ITR to function, your publication must have a documented Content Strategy and have created a minimum of 500 words of English-language content in Contently.

How to make a talent search

Click "Talent" in the global navigation bar then click "Create Talent Search"

Best practices for talent searches

We recommend the following best practices to get the most from talent searches:

Always create separate searches for different types of content formats. This helps ITR find freelancers with the right set of expertise. For example, searches for blog writers should be filed separately from searches for white paper authors, even if the subject matter is the same.
Only select a specific language or location if it is absolutely required for the project. If not, please provide more details in the description section.
Include content examples whenever possible in your searches. Content examples should be links to articles, blog posts, e-books, etc., rather than links to homepages.

What do I do if none of the recommended freelancers are a good fit?

Ten freelancers will show up on the Talent Recommendations page, but more will populate as you invite to team or dismiss (click the x on the right) freelancers. We recommend that you thoroughly comb through the ITR recommendations and if you find that none of the freelancers recommended are a match, click “Custom Talent Request."

When making a "Custom Talent Request", you'll be prompted to select your reason and provide additional information. This will send the request to the Creative Marketplace Team (formally the Talent Team) so make sure you include as much detail as possible. They will be able to hand-pick some freelancers for you and staff them directly where the ITR search results populate. You will see a "Staff Pick" badge on the freelancers that have been recommended by the Creative Marketplace Team.

The Creative Marketplace team will only get involved if you make a custom talent request, so make sure that if you need handpicked freelancers, to ALWAYS choose this option.

There are four types of talent requests that ITR will NOT fulfill and should be submitted as a "Custom Talent Request"

The following talent requests will be handled by Contently's Creative Marketplace team. You will receive an email notification once the requests have been fulfilled.

Requests for on-location talent ("Needs to be on location" is selected in the talent request)
Requests for non-English-speaking talent (a language other than English is selected in the talent request)
Requests for copy editors
Requests for specific freelancers

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Questions? Contact your Customer Success lead.