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The recent flip-flop by Gap in their choice of logo illustrates the power of the consumer in brand decisions. But really, the consumer has always had this power – the internet and social media has just sped the plow. We marketers love the idea that we’re in control. We carefully craft messages and choose channels to reach our carefully selected target audience, who we track relentlessly.
But really, it’s all an illusion. It always has been. We don’t create brand perception, we influence it through our actions and messages.
Extend that idea to job candidates. You’re probably not thinking about them much these days, between slow economic growth and high unemployment. It’s likely that you either aren’t hiring or that you have a pretty large candidate pool. Supply is outstripping demand.
It’s not going to stay that way. Recessions historically are followed by roughly 5 years of growth, which will create a talent shortage. Also, recent research by Regus and Rasmussen Reports indicate that anywhere from 27% to 40% of people currently working are going to look outside their current company to change jobs. Lou Adler of the Adler Group has predicted a “Hiring Tsunami,”where millions of employees will change jobs during a 6-month period looking for greener pastures, discover that their new jobs aren’t any better than their old ones, and then change again.
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When that happens, your employer brand will become ever more important. Don’t wait until the “tsunami” hits – by then it will be too late to differentiate yourself from others. A few basic concepts that will help with the employer brand:
Simplify. While in the current environment candidates may put up with about anything to get a job, it’s not likely to stay that way. Make it easy to find the careers page on your website. Have a good search mechanism to find relevant jobs. (That makes it easier on you, too, by allowing candidates to self-qualify.) Don’t make candidates retype their résumés into your online job application – invest in technology to do it for them.
Communicate. There is nothing candidates hate more than a black hole. Consider how disheartening it is to apply for a position or send in a résumé and never hear any response. And by the way, the automated “Thank you for applying” e-mail doesn’t count. At minimum, make sure that candidates know when a position closes. Most applicant tracking systems will send that e-mail for you when you close the requisition. On that e-mail template, however, encourage candidates to seek other opportunities within your company. And no, candidates don’t believe that their résumé will be on file and considered for other positions.
Another communication to consider is actually e-mailing job openings to candidates who have applied in the past for other positions. Make sure this is an opt-in list for CAN-SPAM compliance, but these types of updates can have very high ROI. In a previous position at a medical staffing company, I created a direct e-mail campaign for traveling allied health professionals where they received open positions in their skill set and chosen geographies. This campaign had a 30-day ROI of over 1,000%, and an ongoing ROI consistently over 200%.
Demonstrate. It’s great on your careers website to tell candidates what it’s like to work at your company, but to be credible, show them. Profiles of successful employees, employee blogs, video interviews with successful employees, company event videos, photos of your workspaces, insights from senior leadership and any other way you can show candidates what it’s like to work for your company are invaluable. You create great employer brand equity and credibility through these types of demonstrations.
John Cloonan is the Marketing Director at ZeroChaos. Follow him on twitter @johncloonan or email him: john@johncloonan.com
We all know what lipo is – a cosmetic surgery procedure that reduces stubborn fat deposits. So how about a little L.I.P.O.™ of a different kind? I mean LinkedIn Profile Optimization, aimed at cutting the fat from your profile and tightening up those marketing muscles.
If you’ve ever wondered how professional profile optimization is done…well, I can’t spill all the secrets, but I’ll share a few:
Status Updates
You know that little status bar underneath your picture? If you’re not using it, you should be. The best status updates are pertinent to your industry and reach out to people with a message of value. Status updates should be rather narrow in focus and say something more than, “Hey! Look what I did!” Instead, engage others by letting people know about that conference you’re attending or the group you just joined. Ask people if they’re involved as well. “Going to the Chicago SuperConference on June 12. If you’re attending, let’s connect!?” You’ll share a piece of your world and show your connections you care about what they’re doing as well. And by the way, if you have 500 or more connections, you should be updating your status at least three times a week. Reach out and touch someone!
Summary
This isn’t merely a listing of accomplishments or a flat resume. It’s an opportunity to reveal who you are and how you can help. People like to do business with those they feel comfortable with – that’s what networking is all about. Let YOU come through. Highlight your experiences, what drives you, and maybe a little of the journey that got you here so others can know you on a deeper level, allowing you to move from casual acquaintance to someone they “trust”.
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Title
How can people find you if they don’t know you by name? By keyword search. The right keywords bring people to your virtual door. Make sure your title is descriptive; not just your actual job title, but what you can do for others. Think about how someone (not in your field) might look for you on LinkedIn. Use long-tailed keywords to help you stand out – if you’re buried on page 6 of the search results, you won’t be found. The title tag is the single most important string of words impacting optimization, and there is a formula for creating a terrific title. Want to know the secret? Drop me a line: Victoria@TheConfidentCopywriter.com
Recommendations
Remember to ask for recommendations. But to get them, you must connect to people in your industry, people that have seen your work, either side-by-side or serving under or over you. Having your neighbor on LI might be fine for expanding connections, but it won’t be relevant as a recommendation. Make a potential employer or client’s job easier by providing recommendations that are positive, plentiful and pertain to your current position. The more recommendations, the better you’ll rank within your industry.
Groups
Joining groups on LI is imperative to your success. Groups allow you to cast a wider net by permitting you to connect with group members by invite, without knowing the individual email addresses. Groups establish your expertise, let you share your knowledge, make an impression and solve a problem for someone else – all keys to lead generation.
Don’t forget: Optimization + Engagement = Lead Generation. Isn’t that what we all want?
Victoria Ipri is CEO of Modello Media, Inc., an e-marketing strategy firm based in suburban Philadelphia, PA. She welcomes your questions and comments on this forum, or contact her directly at: ModelloMedia@gmail.com
Feel free to connect with the newest members of Green Buzz Agency Marketing department on Linkedin: Jennie Nowers, Brittney Grove, Jared Lee, and Jennie Ryon. Or join the Green Buzz Agency Linkedin Group.
You’ve heard about social media, you know you want to use social media, you have a budget for social media, but you need to know how to use social media marketing to help achieve your corporate marketing goals.
It’s an intimidating field because it’s so new and you know if a strategy is not clearly mapped out social media marketing initiatives can fail. But you can’t ignore it because you want to stay ahead of competitors, retain clients, manage your brand and monitor your space.
So where do you start? Follow these steps and you’ll be on your way to building a successful social media marketing strategy…
Step 1: Define goals and objectives
Clearly map out your corporation’s goals and objectives.
Is your goal to:
- Generate more brand awareness?
- Interact with prospects?
- Monitor competition?
- Monitor and manage your brand reputation?
- Generate awareness of your company’s services or offerings?
- Attract new employees, investors, partners/vendors?
Step 2: Pinpoint where your audience and potential evangelists are sharing information
Listen to what’s going on in your space and identify the thought leaders and ambassadors. Look at who you are currently communicating with and how, as well as with whom you want to interact. This will help you form a basis for everything else you do with social media tools. Identifying your audience before simply choosing convenient tools will lead to a much more successful social media campaign.
To help identify where/how your customers are sharing and consuming information online. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is my target audience on social networking sites?
- Do they belong to specialized groups?
- Who are they interacting with?
- Which social media channels would be best to use for the type of content you have?
Step 3: Audit Resources
Once you have figured out what you would like to do with social media to achieve your corporate marketing goals, you have three options to execute your campaign: use current staff; hire employee(s); or outsource parts or all of your campaign to an outside vendor. You must consider the following when making your decision:
- Do I have existing content that I can re-purpose?
- Do my internal resources have existing knowledge on the platforms, and technologies needed to execute my campaign. How much is their “ramp up” going to cost my department in staff hours?
- What technology (portals, videos, platforms that enable user generated content, landing pages) do I need to develop? Which of these do I need to outsource?
- What monitoring tools do I have available?
- Who is going to fulfill the different social media marketing roles and responsibilities?
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Step 4: Establish a social media protocol
A corporate social media protocol should be developed and employed to help companies feel comfortable about social media participation. A well-constructed protocol can help companies organize and prioritize goals, designate the individuals that should assume ownership of the brand’s online communications, while simultaneously ensuring that these communications broadcast messages that are consistent across all social media engagements.
To begin establishing a protocol, ask yourself the following questions:
- What information do we want to keep private?
- What kinds of information would we benefit from making public?
- What personal social media use is appropriate? Inappropriate?
- How will we measure which rules are helpful and which are not?
- Who are our quality followers? How can we continually engage them?
- Should we have a set of rules for proactive social media use? Reactive social media use?
- How do we respond to positive engagement versus negative engagement?
Step 5: Start using social media
Now that you determined who you want to communicate with, who is going to accomplish your social media marketing initiatives, and where you want to go with the relationships, you can execute your plan.
Step 6: Measure results
You need to measure and monitor all activity. Be sure that you create mechanisms for feedback and input throughout your process to provide opportunities for your community, staff, etc. to share ideas and LISTEN!
Ask yourself these questions as you evaluate your social media efforts:
- Have your networks grown or changed? How?
- Are there new social media roles to explore?
- What worked?
- What can we do differently?
- What should we eliminate?
- How much time is spent on each social media initiative?
- How is social media changing right now?
- Are we ahead of our competitors?
If you want to use social media marketing in your overall marketing plan, you need a sound strategy. If you don’t have a sound strategy, you risk losing control of your brand, reputation, client base and prospects. If you do have one, you will have a huge advantage over competitors, have the ability to enforce or build a loyal client base, position your thought leaders as experts, develop interactive relationships with prospects, avoid potential pitfalls and have an overall stronger marketing plan.
-AJ Gerritson is Founding Partner and Social Media Strategist at 451 Marketing, a Boston-based communications agency that specializes in social media marketing, public relations, and creative development. For more information, please visit AJ’s LinkedIn Page.
His excuse was, “It wasn’t personal.”
Which made her react by demanding, “What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me. It’s “PERSONAL” to a lot of people. And what’s so wrong with being personal, anyway?”
“Uh…nothing,” he timidly backs down.
In triumph and in spite, she concludes, “Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal!”
The dialogue may be from the 1998 hit movie, “You’ve Got Mail,” but it applies most anywhere where business and personal issues struggle to co-exist. Of course, with the dawning of the digital age and the onslaught of virtual technologies that virtually and literally keep millions of addicted users in their bathrobes while blending both their personal lives with their business pursuits every day, there is hardly a difference anymore.
Just what is personal and not business? And what is business-only and not at all personal?
A few months ago, ESPN faced this issue after Ric Bucher, an ESPN NBA analyst, tweeted about how his company was treating Twitter (and all other social media interactions for all ESPN employees). The company’s policy was overwhelmingly restrictive, he claimed, especially since he had difficult separating his personal brand from that of the company. And who can blame him for that? Was he a sports expert before they hired him to be a sports expert or did the company make him into the sports expert he claimed to be? At the end of the day, who really cares? The company may have hired a sports expert, but what they got was a person. A whole person.
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Aside from the act of giving birth or gently succumbing to a natural death, I can think of nothing that doesn’t at least hint at one while appearing altogether entirely the other. And vice versa.
Which is both a dream and a nightmare for folks concerned with branding. Personal or otherwise, nothing is more engaging that an attractive brand. In the world of public relations, it’s easy to find examples of this. Unfortunately, in the rest of the world, it’s disturbingly easy to find good examples of bad branding just by reading the headline news.
And in these times of overlapping personal brand with business ideals, it’s important to start looking at the bundle. Because if you are a potential partner or a potential customer, you will likely want a sneak peek at the entire package before committing to anything worth keeping.
The good news is that there is a simple solution to overcome the obstacle of getting too personal. In business, in uneasy social settings, in life; the key is to remain authentic.
William Shakespeare said it best when he penned, “This above all: to thine own self be true.”
That said, here are a few rules for branding yourself in a world that doesn’t have a backspace.
1. Don’t lie.
2. Don’t be mean. Or stupid.
3. Don’t wear or say anything uncomfortable because you’ll regret it halfway through the evening and the discomfort will outweigh the benefit of putting on such a front.
4. Realize that you are human. Act human. Act humane. Make business personal.
5. When – not if – you screw up, admit it and move on. With a smile. Because even a half-assed smile is better than no smile at all.
Just ask Tiger Woods.
Jennifer Tofanelli writes jeniontherun.blogspot.com; a lifestyle blog on trendy topics, headline news and communication strategies. She offers advice and consultation to businesses, organizations and individuals on how to use social media to build relationships and deliver value. You can contact her direct to discuss freelance opportunities.
As a life long reader of fashion magazines, I use to devour their glossy ads of luxury designers. Like many, I coveted the down time to read my stack of magazines on long plane trips, or on vacation. Recently, while preparing for one of those trips, I noticed my stack seemed lighter than usual and my desire to lug those magazines less. What was going on?
I realized my fashion fix was already being satisfied on a daily basis from a variety of Facebook fan pages and Twitter followings. Many who don’t use social media assume that it is a waste of time. For me and many others, it is an efficient way to follow the things I am passionate about.
On Twitter, I follow magazines and the fashion designers themselves. Of course, I read InStyle Magazine’s Twitter feed, but beyond that I follow a few fashion blogs. One of my favorite blogs, The Glamazon Diaries has great articles on fashion trends, and tweets them to twitter followers. As an added bonus she knows what I like and often will tweet me a link about an article I might personally enjoy on her blog. InStyle or Vogue Magazine can’t engage a reader that way.
I have a handful of designers I shop at on a regular basis, and the fact that they are on Facebook and Twitter builds on my devotion to their brand. One of my favorite designers, Diane von Furstenberg, will on occasion personally tweet. I know she had never been to a basketball game until she went to a Lakers game over the holidays. In real time she posted a twitpic of herself at the game. This tweet had nothing to do with her latest design, or sale in one of her stores. But, I love her and the brand more after that tweet - it is genuine and personal.
Unfortunately, late players to the social media game are luxury brands, which is really no surprise given their sluggish and reluctant entry into offering e-commerce on their branded sites. However, Burberry has taken a different path, and is the clear leader in luxury brands that are manipulating social media. Last year they launched the site TheArtoftheTrench. The site is beautifully executed showing urban settings with all types of people wearing their signature trench coat. The site links users to their Facebook fan page. There the users can comment on the photos and even upload photos of themselves wearing a trench coat. It is their attempt to bring a younger audience to their brand by reaffirming that the trench coat is still a classic item, something a younger demographic is willing to pay more for.
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Other ways fashion brands and retailers can use social marketing tools is to communicate during a crisis. A few weeks ago the New York Times wrote a story about how an H&M store was destroying and throwing out clothes that were returned. As in many breaking news scandals, Twitter lit up with the disgust of this behavior. H&M’s U.S. twitter feed was able to respond quickly, and direct those concerned to a link that this was not their policy. This certainly calmed the crisis down with an immediate response, shortened the news cycle on this story, and potentially reduced the risk of long term damage to their brand.
As a disciple of marketing and a devotee to fashion, I get giddy thinking about all the access to engage fans through social media that fashion and retail brands now have, which helps get the ‘golden goose’ all marketers strive for – brand loyalty.
Kelly Collis Fredrick is the publisher and founder of CityShopGirl, delivering daily discounts and promotions to D.C. area retailers, restaurants, spas, specialty stores as well as ecommerce sites.
