Microspotting and its creator, Ariel Meadow Stallings, rely on social media marketing to attract job candidates who would probably never consider working for Microsoft.

Marketing Manager Ariel Meadow Stallings uses social media techniques to attract job candidates to Microsoft. Photo by Darryl Bernstein.

If an outgoing woman with a wide smile and braids the color of peppermint sticks sidles up to you in a Redmond cafeteria and starts asking about your life, there’s no need to call security. You’ve just attracted the attention of Ariel Meadow Stallings.Stallings is the pigtailed perpetrator behind Microspotting, a corporate blog that profiles some of the most interesting, passionate personalities at Microsoft. Launched last October under the auspices of the Staffing Marketing team, Microspotting feels anything but corporate, reflecting the offbeat, irreverent character of the writer/photographer and the all-around life force behind it.

“I pitched Microspotting as the People magazine of Microsoft,” said Stallings, 32, a veteran blogger who began her current position in February 2007 after a decade of writing for the Web and tech worlds. Her blog is designed to enhance Microsoft’s recruiting efforts by shaking up the company’s corporate image and revealing some of the compelling characters who populate the workforce. The goal is to attract the attention of what Stallings calls “passive candidates”—talented individuals who aren’t looking for employment at Microsoft and never imagined themselves working for the company.

Stallings was one of those people once. “It shocked me as much as anyone else,” she said of her decision to work for Microsoft. “I did not think I would be here. And yet, here I am. And I’m totally enjoying it.”

What’s not to enjoy? Stallings has a 25-hour work week, the bulk of which is devoted to creating content for Microspotting. “I come from a journalism background, so mostly I’m looking for an interesting story,” she said. Stallings finds her subjects through word of mouth, scouring Microsoft-related blogs, or simply spying someone interesting and striking up a conversation. “I’m not a shy person,” she laughed, “but it’s tested the limits of even my extrovertedness.”

Recent postings have included profiles of an SDET who’s a Peruvian rock star, a technical editor who roams Redmond in goth garb, a transgender executive, and a project manager who’s the son of a former Nigerian president. “While it aims to entertain, each profile is also there to share something about working at Microsoft, like the benefits, work/life balance, or the international appeal for technical candidates around the world,” Stallings said.

“She’s done a really good job of finding unique stories,” said Warren Ashton, the group marketing manager in Staffing Marketing. “She has opened up a view into the company that didn’t exist before.”That’s in line with recent changes in the way Microsoft does business, Ashton said. “We are starting to get to the point in a lot of our communications where we’re a little more transparent about what goes on at this company. I think Ariel has tapped into that interest.”

Not surprisingly, some of that interest is coming from within the company. Stallings estimates that about a sixth of her readers are Microsoft employees.

While Stallings’ goal is to change outside opinions about Microsoft, the blogger admits that her own perceptions have changed as a result of her job. “The sheer diversity of this company—I really had no idea. I have met some of the most amazing, fascinating, smart, and passionate people here. It’s forced me to reexamine some of those assumptions about the standard Microsoftie,” she said.

When she’s not toiling away on Microspotting, Stallings freelances for magazines or promotes her first book, “Offbeat Bride,” and its companion Web site, which are dedicated to unorthodox weddings. (Stallings describes her own 2004 nuptials as a “hippie raver forest freak fest.”) She also organizes an event called The Salon of Shame, a Seattle comedy series in which ordinary people stand in front of an audience and read their adolescent poetry or diary entries.

In some ways, Microspotting is an extension of both of these—a chance to reveal the unconventional faces and human stories that might not otherwise get exposed to the world at large. At the same time, Stallings is aware that she represents the company and must maintain a certain amount of discretion. “I might be enjoying security by obscurity a little bit,” she joked, “but I haven’t had any problems.”

Ashton praises Stallings’ ability to flirt with boundaries but never cross them. “We definitely felt like Microspotting was taking us down a new path that we hadn’t been down before, but it was a path that seemed to work,” he said. “It’s pushing the envelope a little bit more than we would have typically done as a company.”