The Perfect Fit

Marketing Headhunter Gets Smarter with Twitter

I'm starting to embrace Twitter more and more enthusiastically, as I use it more and become comfortable with it.  I'm an advocate of continuing education and staying abreast of industry news, trends and new ways/ideas for doing something.  I'm finding Twitter to be extremely helpful in that pursuit.

I still read about six or eight trade and professional publications a month.  That has always been my way to know what was going on, hear about new ideas and the like.  I'm starting to find that the lead times for publication make that media almost dated by the time it's published.  Even weeklies like AdWeek and Ad Age print content that I've already seen or actually read through with all the electronic updates I now receive.

I created my Twitter account maybe two or so years ago with the username @HeadhunterBob (I encourage you to follow me!).  I had no idea what to do with that account for the longest time, yet I kept having people follow me.  I couldn't figure it out, I'd never sent one tweet, yet I had followers!

Over the past few months, I've started tweeting more frequently and I'm feeling very good about that for two reasons.  One, I feel like I'm "giving something back" . . . I've been told that followers appreciate the content of my tweets and enjoy reading many of them.  Second, I read more . . . a lot more.  I now read articles from literally scores of sources, including blogs, and articles of others I follow on Twitter.  It's enlightening.  I feel like I have a much better idea of what's going on, much sooner.

I'm sure you know that Twitter now integrates with the LinkedIn update box in your profile.  You can send tweets right from LinkedIn!

I tweet about issues related to recruiting, employment, employee retention, employer culture, marketing and advertising trends, etc.. In short, content that should be of interest to most in our marketing/employer/employee communities.  There are several other applications that have grown up around the world of Twitter, that I've found very useful.  I'd like to share some of those.

The most important is probably Tweet Deck.  Tweet Deck pushes the tweets of those you follow.  On Twitter.com, you have to refresh the page to see new Tweets.  Tweet Deck also allows you to follow several of (your own) accounts at the same time, as well as notifying you of any "direct tweets", or mentions of your username.  It's flattering to be "re-tweeted" and Tweet Deck tells you when that happens.

TweetChat is an application that lets you use the #(hashtag) to find people to follow in particular categories of interest . . . in my case, marketing, advertising, media, etc..  Twitter itself has an advance search capability that isn't so easy to find (you could look for users in your city).  If you'd like to tweet a photograph, use Twitpic.  Twellow is a directory of public Twitter accounts, with hundreds of categories and search features to help you find people who matter to you.

The last tip I have goes beyond Twitter.  It's a preferred method for shortening urls.  The reason it's preferred is that bit.ly tracks the number of times a particular url that you've sent has been clicked.  It's very cool and far superior to tinyurl, for example.

Go to Twitter, create a username and profile and get out into the Twitterverse!  It's fun and you'll actually learn something!

For those of you already using Twitter, do you have any stories of it's benefits?

SEO Training At Buzzhound in St. Louis . . . Superb!

I had the opportunity to attend a workshop on SEO training yesterday.  It was presented by a new local company called Buzzhound.  I was looking forward to the training for two reasons.  I thought I would be able to put additional knowledge to work for the benefit of my website, this blog and in general, my online marketing efforts.  Additionally, I thought it important to keep up with the principles of online marketing.  It's obvious that online/digital marketing is a huge growth area for the future of marketing and advertising.  SEO is fundamental to and the foundation of every company's online presence (or certainly should be).  I want to stay as current as possible.

It took less than 15 minutes for me to be impressed with the presentation and to realize that the two presenters were experts on their topics.  I assumed that would be the case.  What I wasn't sure of, is how they would present the materials.  I wasn't sure how complex the material would be or if I had enough basic knowledge to be able to take advantage at all.

The presentation was incredibly well organized.  It was presented in a straightforward, simple and logical way.  Each of us was given our own computer, already set up with all the documents, tools, links, etc. that we'd be using during the day.  It was slick, it was efficient . . . and it was effective!

It was obvious from the conversations with the other eight participants that they were as excited as I was to be "finally" reaching a level of understanding about how SEO works.  What's more important, is that I believe every one of us walked out of the event with a clear idea of how to improve each of our own websites.  There were some marketing professionals in attendance as well.  It was obvious that they were excited about what they were learning and how they could take that knowledge and add value to their clients.  They mystery of SEO was removed.  We were able to see "behind the curtain" and realize that there are simple tools available to help a website's SEO.

I was also impressed with how organized the presentation was and the support materials we were able to take back to our offices.  Buzzhound provided all of the tools used for key word development, website page ranking and overall site "health", analytics and more.  I think part of the real value of the workshop was having the ability to see someone using these tools.  You can read and/or hear about this stuff ad nauseum, but to see how simple it is to use the tools made all the difference.  In fact, SEO concepts are not all that complex or difficult to understand.  The presentation made sense, so it was easy to learn and understand the material.  The Workbook we all left with has even more detailed than the presentation itself.  I know I'll be able to successfully refer to it for answers, when I have questions later.  Buzzhound even gave us a jump drive with the documents we created during the presentation and the tools/applications and links we used for the tools.

I want to recommend this training.  I think every professional company should send (at least) one person to this workshop.  I think the money spent is well worth the value received.  I don't know how anyone can be serious about enhancing their web presence, or marketing communications without starting with SEO.  It's the most fundamental essential, after having a website at all!

Looking Ahead to "Communicating" in 2010 (And Beyond!)

In the worlds of recruiting and staffing issues, Kevin Wheeler stands out as an experienced practitioner and commenter on current and future trends.  I have a great deal of respect for him, and have learned a great deal from following his thoughts, especially on recruiting.  Yesterday, he posted an article on what he thinks trends are in the coming year.  I thought they had value beyond specifically recruiting, and want to share them.

"Every year I try and predict what trends and topics will dominate our thinking, conversations, and technology in the coming year. Last year my three predictions were pretty much on target: Simplicity in sourcing, the rise of social networks, and internal redeployment. I am not sure how much redeployment actually took place, but it must have been significant as key positions remained filled even when external hiring was slow.

Sourcing remains a topic that I am interested in. It seems to me that the need to conduct in-depth Internet searches and apply Boolean logic to searches is no longer relevant in the majority of cases. Cold calling and other traditional methods of locating people will never go away, but are less significant. Two occurrences have changed the game. The first is social networks whose mass adoption, personalization, and ease of use have put them first in the sourcer’s toolkit. Second, jobs are being redefined and replaced with an emphasis on broader skills and on the ability of candidates to take on a variety of roles. This opens the door to more candidates, except in narrow technical areas where specific skills and training are required. A third minor factor is the recession and the short-term surplus of candidates. This will evaporate as Baby Boomers retire and more people start to work for themselves, but this will be an evolution over the next five years.

I don’t need to comment too much on the importance of social networks. This past year has proved their efficacy as sourcing tools as well as sales tools to motivate and engage candidates. What is going to change this year is the emergence of proprietary networks for specific industries or even for specific organizations, if they are large and employ a lot of people. The Facebook’s and LinkedIn’s will face competition, in a way, from networks that are designed for a specific type of person, role, industry, or geography. These more general networks are already offering this, in a way, through interest groups and pages for specific organizations."

Are You Ready For Your Next Career Opportunity?

I had a candidate apply for an Account Supervisor position yesterday.  My client is in Dallas and I know this candidate is overqualified for an Account Supervisor level position.  It's not unusual for those who have been without a job for several months to start aiming a bit "lower", just so they can get employed again.  I responded to the candidate and pointed out that the position was in Dallas, and that perhaps he'd missed that.

I thought his reply to me was pretty interesting, and shows some of the frustration not only of those who are currently out of work, but also for workers who are employed.  They're looking too (see my posting "The Next Six Months . . . Emerging Employment Trends") . . . The market is just starting to turn from being one of Employer driven, to the candidate having a bit more leverage.  It's not as easy to find that leadership candidate as many think.  As I've written and Tweeted before, it's never easy finding top performing leaders who fit into a particular company culture, and have the same sort of vision of and goals for the future.

Here's how the candidate replied to me:

Thanks for the information on Dallas position. I assumed that there was not relocation available. That seems to be the case with most jobs nowadays. I've been looking for a couple of months now. There are some opportunities, but even more people looking for them. It's tough enough to be competing against some of the quality of communications professionals out of work, but you still have to compete against those looking to change jobs. I sometimes wish that those with a job would take a break from looking, then that way those of us without one could compete for the open positions. I've run into that a couple times already.
 
Thanks also for keeping in mind for any positions that come up.

I'll just say once again that it's important for every employee to "manage their career".  You need to be ready for a change, should you identify the right opportunity.  You should have your resume and portfolio current, and ready to present.  You should have your online profile(s) in order and up to date.  You should make sure that every tool you have to sell yourself to a prospective new employer is ready to go at a moment's notice.

It would be very unfortunate to miss your next great promotion and/or career opportunity, because you're not ready for it.  Are you ready for a phone call from a recruiter tomorrow? 

The Next Six Months . . . Emerging Employment Trends

I had the opportunity to listen in on a webinar last week, presented by Kevin Wheeler founder of The Future of Talent Institute and respected author and lecturer on employment and recruiting issues.  He made some very insightful comments about where he thinks the employment market is headed, especially in the near term of the next six months.  You can listen to the entire webinar here.  Here are some of the highlights I thought you'd find interesting, with my thoughts interspersed.

We all know that the unemployment rate is currently 10.2%, suggesting that there are loads of potential employees on the market.  While there are in fact too many hard working Americans who can't find a job, there are still going to be shortages of potential employees in many highly skilled positions.  Why?  Because as a result of downsizing, layoffs and the like, many top performers (especially in the marketing community) have decided to start their own businesses.  "Self employment grew seven times faster than wage and salaried employment from 2002-2006."  We're becoming a nation of entrepreneurs.  There are currently over 4% of contract workers, the highest number in years.  Another illustration is www.elance.com has recently passed the $200 million mark for freelance work delivered. 

Women are overtaking men in the workforce.  Manufacturing and construction jobs are down, traditionally employing men.  At the same time, healthcare jobs are up, traditionally employing more women than men.  Women are graduating from college in much higher numbers than men.  Women are moving into more management roles, and as a result will change the culture of work substantially.

Kevin points out that there is a rising "culture of sustainability".  There's more thinking for the future, more thoughts of "sustaining" . . . everything.  Growth rates will slow, including spending.  There will be more savings, the idea that "simple is good" will prevail, "just enough" will be enough.  The focus will turn to Reuse/Recycle/Retain/Refresh . . . instead of more and more, newer and newer.

"The idea of Retrain/Redeploy/Refresh will be the hallmark of employment."  One of the things employees want most from their employer is "training" or "education" . . . professional growth which supports personal growth and happiness in the workplace.  Employers will take existing employees and train them for the future, rather than replace them.  There could be more promoting from the inside (even if they're not the "perfect fit") re-training where necessary.  Retraining will be much more commonplace.  Barriers to internal movement (either upwards or laterally) will be removed.  E.g. Internal candidates will no longer have to "apply" for a position as if they were an external candidate, thus removing a "barrier".

Employers and recruiters will seek fewer, better candidates.  There will be more effort (assessment) to find great cultural fits, then training the person for specific skills.  Once internal recruiters have determined that the right candidate is not within the company, outside recruiters will be used more frequently to find those exceptional performing candidates.

Technology obviously is going to play more of a role in recruiting and hiring.  Kevin believes that social communities will develop and flourish in narrow vertical categories.  There will be video "everything", including as it relates to an employers online "brand identity".  There will be virtual tours, online interviews, video assessment and simulations to help determine degree of fit and skills.  Both employers and employees (candidates) will build online identities and then relationships.  Resumes will be replaced with "Profiles".

The idea will be for the best employers to "attract" the best employees through effective communication of a culture that's supportive and nurturing for the long term.  I started telling my clients years ago that they need to spend more time and effort retaining existing employees. 

The workplace is changing.  Savvy employers are planning for the future, and how to identify and hire those employees who can help them succeed in the future.  Savvy employees are participating, communicating and growing . . . always.  Being content (and complacent) is not enough.  The world's changing, we all need to find a way to keep up with it.

"The End of Advertising As We Know It"

I just ran across a rather compelling white paper written by IBM researchers talking about the future of advertising.  The article was in an article written by Michael Gass on the Social Media Today blog.  To see the original posting, click here.  While parts of this research are not revelations, there is deep and wide research presented for you to draw your own conclusions.

The next 5 years will hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50 did.

Gass wrote, "The information for this post is from an IBM global surveys of more than 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising experts … the report is titled, "The end of advertising as we know it.”"

Imagine an advertising world where ... spending on interactive, one-to-one advertising formats surpasses traditional, one-to-many advertising vehicles, and a significant share of ad space is sold through auctions and exchanges. Advertisers know who viewed and acted on an ad, and pay based on real impact rather than estimated “impressions.” Consumers self-select which ads they watch and share preferred ads with peers. User-generated advertising is as prevalent (and appealing) as agency-created spots.

Based on IBM global surveys there are four change drivers shifting control within the ad industry:

   1. Attention – Consumers are increasingly in control of how they view, interact with and filter advertising in a multichannel world.
   2. Creativity – Thanks to technology, the rising popularity of user-generated and peer-delivered content, and new ad revenue-sharing models (e.g., YouTube, Crackle, Current TV), amateurs and semi- professionals are now creating lower-cost advertising content.
   3. Measurement – Advertisers are demanding more individual-specific and involvement- based measurements, putting pressure on the traditional mass-market model.
   4. Advertising inventories – Will be bought and sold through efficient exchanges, bypassing traditional intermediaries.

There is no question that the future of advertising will look radically different from its past. The push for control of attention, creativity, measurements and inventory will reshape the advertising value chain and shift the balance of power.

Keep in mind … this change will also will also impact ad agency new business practices.

To Download the complete IBM Institute for Business Value Study

To Download the Executive Summary

The Social Media vs. C-Suite Challenge

Are agencies providing the kind of relevant use of "social media" that they would have us (the public, consumers and their clients) believe?  I don't think so.  Apparently, clients agree.  There's a new study conducted by RSW/US, the "Survey of Social/Digital Landscape; Marketer and Agency Perspective" (download the pdf).  In the September 21 issue of Adweek, Andrew McMains brought up the question in his article, "Social Challenge", New Study shows social media disconnect between shops and clients.  Mark Sneider, President of RSW/US said of the results of the survey, "marketers aren't satisfied with the level of support they're getting."  He went on to say, "Just talking the talk" is not enough.

While the vast majority (over 75%) agency executives believe that they're "cutting edge" in guiding the use of social media for their clients, only 38% of the marketers acknowledged "getting the support they crave".  Interesting.  These results remind me of a previous  blog I wrote several months ago, "CMOs And Digital Marketing Disconnect".

Online marketing is a difficult thing to do well.  Virtually every client or prospect I talk to admits that they're own company's (whether agency or consumer brand) marketing effort is weak, or incomplete, or "not where we'd like it to be".  Everyone would like to have a new, better website that more effectively communicates who they are and what they do.  They'd like to be incorporating social media, the way they know it should be incorporated.  There's rarely the time or resources devoted to an agency's  own marketing effort.  It seems incongruous . . . perhaps it is.

The need to educate clients and ourselves continues and will never end.  It would be great if there were more outstanding resources for both client and agency to learn more about social marketing (online marketing) trends and tactics.  Clients care about results, as should agencies.  Finding ways to prove value from the agency/consumer perspective is not easy and is a continuous task, always needing refinement. 

The internet has replaced traditional media as the prime source of business intelligence for executives.  Agencies should be leading by example about the most effective ways of presenting a company on the internet.  They should be making a visit to their site compelling, dynamically informative, and motivating for the visitor.   It just doesn't seem like that happens enough.