Blogging4Jobs

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, transparency is defined as (1) : having the property of transmitting light without appreciable scattering so that bodies lying beyond are seen clearly or  (2) : free from pretense or deceit.

Transparency.  The words sounds good.  The concept sounds nice.  As a consumer, I have access to a company’s business, their strategies, financials, and intentions instantly.  Transparency is all about full-disclosure, being open, and honest in everything we do as a business and personally both good and bad.  While I encourage people and businesses to be real, engaged, and interested providing their audiences with conversations, information, and content, no one can provide 100% transparency and full-disclosure.

It just can’t happen.

Because companies who are transparent provide full-disclosure telling me as a consumer, employee, or world citizen like it is.  But the real-world isn’t like that.  Imagine BP taking full responsibility for the oil spill and fully disclosing their plan or lack of one from the beginning.  How would this effect their marketing campaign, their profit margins, or consumer opinions?  Public relations crisis management would cease to exist.   Or personally, you disclosing your financial problems, failed marriage, drug problem, or family income all in the name of personal transparency.

Are you or your business transparent or is it something else?

What I’m talking about is the Transparency Myth.  The concept of transparency is a word that makes executives and consumers sleep better at night but the fact is that as humans we don’t want transparency.  Wives in reality do not want their husbands to tell them that they really do look fat in that dress.

Because a company who is transparent will openly admit to treating me like I’m a dollar figure on their income statement.  And as a employee, I’m nothing more than a sales figure or productivity rating.  I’m here to tell you that the concept of full transparency cannot happen.  Full transparency doesn’t work in marketing and it certainly doesn’t work with your employees.  Because we all know that honesty is not always the best policy in business.  Because if we truly believed in transparency, we’d tell job seekers more than the standard, “You weren’t the best fit for the position.”  We’d tell them, “We like the other guy better,” or “My boss is a jerk and he decided to cut my budget and I can’t fill the position.”

I’m in favor of a new concept I call Controlled Transparency.  You manage your brand, control your content, and monitor your company’s message both internally and externally.  As a business or person, you provide a controlled message, responding when needed, and providing them nuggets of information without overloading your audience.  A successful controlled transparency model involves engagement, interest, a message that is strategically planned free of dishonesty, pretense, or deceit.

So keep that engagement flowing and work to create a controlled and transparent dialogue that satisfies our need to feel open and honest keeping the consumers, candidates, or clients flowing with controlled transparency.

Photo Credit Ideal Gadget.

Hat tip to William Tincup.

XHR Stacked Logo

I’m not shy to admit that blogging has been the single most important and defining career move for me.  Not because I’ve made millions of dollars because of blogging but because of the opportunities I’ve had and the great people and friends I’ve made a long the way.  Blogging has opened up another world for me.  I now think of my relationships and projects in a global context not limited by state boundaries or oceans.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that when I first started my blog, BloggingforJobs almost four years ago did I think that it would lead to me starting my own business and becoming a thought leader in the HR & Recruiting community.  I created the blog as a way to differentiate myself from other Oklahoma Human Resource professionals while also engaging passive job seekers by providing them job search advice and tips. Honestly, I was looking for a cost effective way to fill my candidate pipeline.  The name BloggingforJobs was purely a spur of the moment decision.

I wrote for over two years with a small, regular readership taking the time to build my brand.  Finally, in early 2009 while on maternity leave, things began to change.  Glamour Magazine called me to interview me which led to several other new opportunities.  I had arrived.  Around the same time Twitter began accounting for 30% of my total website traffic and I made the decision to move to my own domain, Blogging4Jobs.  I wanted to be able to better control my content and design especially since my brand was becoming so important in my personal branding and differentiation strategy.  When I finally made the move, I had to shortened my new name to Blogging4Jobs only because the domain, bloggingforjobs.com was not available for purchase.  (I’m glad I did!)

I’ve been feverishly working on new logos for both Blogging4Jobs & Xceptional HR (my consulting company) that is streamlined and helps people identify that the two are really one in the same.  Building and launching a brand that is consistent and covers all your bases and sends a consistent message is a lot of work.  Most companies look to hire an outside agency to help them with this process but being the ambitious budding entrepreneur that I am, I am always up for a challenge especially when it saves me some green.

In addition to creating several new logos that are consistent with my new message and brand, I’ve had to update newsletter templates, twitter profile pages, and three separate websites that I currently manage as part of the Xceptional HR family (Blogging4Jobs, Tweeting my Business, & JessicaMillerMerrell.com).  And although the re-branding process has only just begun, I’m excited to announce the new logos.

In the coming days and months look for other both large and subtle changes to the Blogging4Jobs and Xceptional HR brands.  I’m thankful for your readership and look forward to having you along for the ride.

Hold on to your hats, folks.  Your HR team is the new face of PR.  Human Resource departments aren’t just cubicles full of paper processing, copy making, policy writing drones, they are the future of your company’s business success.  Ask any corporate human resource professional, and they will tell you that they wear many hats from recruiting, to referee, operations expert, legal counsel, trainer, and now branding, public relations, and marketing experts. Yes, you heard me correctly, Public Relations & Marketing Experts.

• Internal Marketing. HR executives and their teams are the face of the business for the department’s customers, your employees.  They spearhead and execute benefits campaigns, are leaders of the corporate culture, and meet with top executives to develop new employee initiatives like flexible work schedules, tuition reimbursement, employee development programs, and diversity initiatives without a graphic designer to boot.
• Master of Surveys. Effective HR teams use a variety of tools to gauge the temperature of employees past and present through the use of all associate surveys, focus group meetings, and exit interviews much like retail companies like Starbucks or Target do to measure their own customer or guest experience.
• External Marketing. Every outside interaction, your human resource team has with outside representatives, companies, organizations, and candidates is a form of marketing that can be relevant to the business.  Many product driven companies evaluate the number of touches, a company must have before a potential customer becomes a buying customer.  In the competitive world of recruiting and talent capital management, the same holds true.
• Advertising Ninjas. Human resource teams often use outside agencies or consultants to develop video and marketing materials to highlight and promote a company attribute or part of the culture that is attractive to their target candidate market.  But for those who do not, they are often solely responsible for campaign development, execution, and promotion using advertising platforms both tradition and non-traditional including radio, television, community, agency, or organization endorsements, and social media.  HR happens in the trenches, and can’t afford to wait for the PR company on retainer to write a press release or script for a radio commercial.  In most cases, we needed it yesterday and so we adapt.

Take for example the following HR professionals who have already leveraged social media and other forms of marketing and personal branding to develop a market and niche for themselves.

• HR Bartender.  Sharlyn has great content served to her readers in a fun and casual way.   Her website helps her generate conversation, further the HR industry, and is good for business.
• Punk Rock HR.  Laurie is one of the leading HR blogs in the industry and brings a funky and honest approach to what is really on the minds of those in the HR industry.
• Steve Boese.  He is a HR technology expert who along with his co-host, HR Minion have the only live HR Blog Talk Radio Show.
• Upstart HR.  Ben helps to educate HR professionals from someone from with experience in HR but also in running a family business.  He has a passion for helping HR professionals obtain their professional HR certifications.
• HR Capitalist. Kris is an HR blogger who is changing the industry.  A VP in HR and long time blogger, his topics discuss all areas of HR from technology to recruiting to performance management.

With almost 27 Million users in the United States, Twitter is a must for businesses and professionals looking to build their brand, promote their business, and develop new relationships. Reports from companies like Nielsen and others claim Twitter retention is between 40-60%.  Most who log on for the first time find out, “Twitter Ain’t Easy.”

Twitter is not complex but for new users, it can be overwhelming.  There are new terms to understand, etiquette to learn, and third party tools to experiment and consider.  I often hear questions like, “Why are people I don’t know following me?” and “How can I find time to read everything in my Twitter Stream?”

People follow others to learn more about that person.  This form of acceptable “cyberstalking” is a way for others to develop relationships and promote themselves without making the full relationship commitment similar to online dating or chat rooms.  And yes, it is okay not to read every tweet in your stream.  In fact I wouldn’t recommend it.  There are not enough hours in the day.  Focus on a few people or tweets that peak your interest and engage.  It’s like shaking someone’s hand at a networking meeting when you’ve already read their bio.

• Learn & Observe. Take the time to read blog posts, books, videos and engage other tweeps before diving in.  It’s important to remember that what you tweet, how you tweet and when you tweet is a direct representation of you and as a job search candidate, a business professional or personal.  I recommend viewing Twitter in Plain English You Tube Video posted below.
• Be Authentic.  Gear your topic, discussion, and posts to your target audience and be genuine.  Have empathy and be put yourself in the shoes of your audience.
• Use Third Party Applications. Free services like TweetDeck, TweetLater, Ping.fm, and others make your life easier.  With these tools you can create groups of followers, keyword search, post to multiple social media platforms like Facebook, Flickr, and Bebo, and also schedule your tweets or posts.
• Engage, Engage, Engage. Twitter is what you make of it.  Get out there and join in the conversation.  If you have good content, take time to engage others, and have a dialogue, the relationships and connections will follow.
• Be Organic & Patient. Not eat organic but grow your follower count organically and over time.  It’s the best way to develop creditability among Twitter power users.  Avoid following others in large numbers of 250 or more a day.  Doing so appears to others that you are spam.  (yes, these do exist)
• Manage Your Time. As my friend, Shelley Cademy says, “Twitter can be a soul-sucking black hole.”  Use Outlook or other calendar to schedule your time on Twitter so that you remain productive and focused on working, spending time with family, or whatever it is you do.