Blogging4Jobs

Last week I presented to a group of Restaurant Human Resources Professionals as part of the People Report Summer Camp Symposium in Dallas, Texas.  The event was hands down the best conference I have ever presented at or attended.  I led a session titled,  ”Blogging for Dummies.”

Blogging is an interesting topic for Human Resources and Corporate Recruiting Teams.  An amazing corporate blog can help effectively communicate change to your current employee base while also providing potential candidates a look inside your company and corporate culture.  Recruitment and HR blogs should be managed by their respective departments and not marketing.  Marketing should work hand in hand with their talent team and serve as a consultant or advisor.

For the individual, blogging in my opinion is an absolute must to help define and control your personal brand.  Blogs are a great way for companies and clients to learn more about you outside of your professional resume or social profiles like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.  Blogs can be the difference maker for job seekers and are the Resume 2.0.

My talk’s foundation started with what I call the 5 P’s of Blogging.  Although similar, the 5 P’s of Blogging are different from the 5 P’s of Marketing you might remember from your undergrad marketing class.

• Purpose. Your blog as a corporation, collaboration, or person must have a purpose.  Similar to a corporate mission statement, your blog’s goal must be defined and like any marketing or branding tool must be developed to attract and inform a particular segment of your audience or market that you have defined.  Too often, we start a blog without the proper research or understanding of what we want to write about or who we want to engage.  Developing and defining your purpose is by far the most important step.

• Platform. The decision to create a blog starts with the decision to use a blogging platform or service.  I encourage you to play with some of the platforms before you make this decision.  I say this from my own experience.  My first blog, BloggingforJobs was on a free platform called Blogger before I moved it to its own domain and transferred my blog to another platform called WordPress.  A third and very common blog platform is TypePad which my good friend Kay Stout uses.

• Planning. Hands down your first 10 blog posts are the hardest so it is important for you to plan, research, and prepare for these first few articles.  This is an important part of defining your blog’s writing style, your own style, and setting up the structure surrounding how often, who, and when your blog will release its posts.  If you have a collaborative, corporate blog, I encourage you to work with at least 4 bloggers who will commit to writing at least one blog post every two weeks.  Personally, I commit to no less than 8 blog posts a month myself for Blogging4Jobs and have for the past four years.

• People. Second to Purpose, this is the most important step.  People are the social aspect of blogging.  Ask your entire company to help you promote leveraging their own networks.  Setting up a simple RSS feed or newletter can help leverage your contacts both inside and outside the company as well.  Both these tools allow persons to subscribe to your blog updates while keeping your brand and company at the top of their mind.  Blogging should be a two way conversation and I encourage you to keep the comments open both good and bad.  Candidates realize that companies aren’t perfect and its the conversation and culture that sets companies apart.

• Promotion. Promoting my blog on social networks is a huge part of my blog’s success.  I recommend using social bookmarketing sites to promote your blog like Digg, Stumbleupon, Technorati, and LinkedIn Groups in addition to popular social platforms like Twitter and Facebook.  Your marketing department is key in helping your blog gain momentum and popularity as they are experienced in online press releases with services like Pitch Engine.

Want to bring an corporate, personal, or professional blog to myself and the reader’s attention?  Leave a comment below and recognize them for a job well done.

Photo Credit Farm3.

“A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures” – Michael Eisner, CEO, Disney

What Mr. Eisner is saying is that the small things matter when it comes to your organization’s brand. Every interaction impacts the perception participants have of your brand.

When the topic of brand comes up in conversation, most people’s minds go straight to the outward, consumer facing side of a brand—the side that customers see and interact with. But that isn’t a complete view of a brand; in fact inner beliefs and culture directly affect the outward actions and performance of a brand. After all, how many organizations do you know of that don’t have a single frontline employee that interacts with customers on a regular basis? I’m going to guess very few.

Let’s take another look at Michael Eisner’s quote. He describes a brand as “a living entity,” that is “enriched or undermined.” What a better way to grow and enrich a brand than by focusing on the people and culture inside the organization? And who better to facilitate an inward focus on brand than Human Resources, the task force in charge of recruiting, hiring, training and coaching the organizations greatest assets—it’s people—to become better teams and leaders?

In most organizations, brand ideology is embedded into some activities more than others. For example, it is standard in most companies to an orientation process, where new hires learn the history of the company and it’s beliefs. It’s in these moments that employees learn the “this is how we do things here” lessons about the brand.

Outside of these few brand centered occasions it can be very easy to overlook the day-to-day processes and the implications they have on the brand. I believe it is in these small day-to-day activities that the most opportunity exists to build the brand into the culture. Ultimately, an orientation may make an impression on a new employee, but it’s the everyday experiences that the employee is going to live. If the stated company beliefs don’t match up with daily experiences, then which perception of the brand is the employee is going to take to heart? You bet! Their own.

While working with clients to help them continually improve and grow their brands, I’ve developed a simple framework to help them fully grasp the depth and complexity of the many ways that their brand is experienced, and also help them improve this experience over time.

I call it the Touch Cycle. It’s a great method for diving in and exploring the many touchpoints of your brand, and learning where you can make improvements.

Here are the steps:

1.  Choreograph Touches

• List all the HR touchpoints large and small.
• To make this easier start breaking down all the activities that HR is in charge of in your organization (trainging, hiring, recruiting, etc.). Now start listing all of the interactions that take place within these segments of HR.

2. Listen and Watch

• Observe how people interact with your touchpoints. Are there any breakdowns in communication? Are they responding the way you thought they would?

3.  Reinforce Behaviors

• Encourage on brand behaviors at each touchpoint.  

4.  Evaluate and Expand

• Take a look at all the work you’ve done in steps 1, 2, and 3. Evaluate the effectivness of the touchpoints you identified in step 1. Determine what’s working and what’s not. Were there any surprises? What insights did you gain from this process?Is value being added at each point of contact, giving people a reason to further engage? Are there touchpoints that we should eliminate? Are there areas what we should expand into and add new touchpoints to the brand experience?

I outline this process in detail on my blog – The Brand Touch Cycle

Use this tool to help you identify, analyze and improve the brand touchpoints of your HR activities. Here are some things to consider during your analysis:

Speed – How fast do you respond to job inquiries or resumes sent your way? How long does it take for an internal issue to be identified and dealt with? In this day and age, speed isn’t hoped for, it’s expected.

Culture – Are you proactively recruiting talent that is passionate about your brand? Or are you just trying to fill a job description?

Empower – How easy is it for employees to send organizational complaints or suggestions your way? Have you built and intranet for collaboration?

Procedure and Paperwork – Are all the forms, procedures and paperwork required of employees necessary? Do they align with the brand?

I hope you will take this as a challenge to explore the internal touchpoints of your brand and continually improve them to grow a better organization, one that employees are proud to work for and consumers want do business with—a strong brand.

Chris Wilson is our guest blogger and is a  Marketing and Brand Strategist and author of the Marketing Fresh Peel.  He is the Digital Brand Strategist at Hester Designs.  Find him on Twitter @Freshpeel.

Photo Credits bsamp & FreshPeel

Your personal brand is an important part of your job search.  Reputations can make or break an opportunity for a new position or a new client or contract for your company or business.   Some small things to consider when managing your online brand:

• Set up a Google Alert. These can be set up easily on Google and will alert you to any websites that list the keywords that you determine.  Consider settting up Google alerts for misspellings of your name, your company’s or your competition.
• Secure your brand. Open up accounts on social media platforms you are not currently a member of even if you do not intend to use them.  This allows you to control your name, your brand, and keep those from cybersquatting.  This also includes setting up a gmail account to secure your name.
• Be bold. Don’t be afraid to get a little crazy, within reason of course.  People remember those that take what I call “calculated risks.”  These are risks that are thought out but do present the opportunity for failure.  People remember people that take chances.
• Be passionate. Love and live what you do and let your online brand show for it.  I promote this website and my brand, Blogging4Jobs and Xceptional HR wherever I go.  Do the same for your name, your brand, and you.

Below is a presentation called, “Brand You” that I gave at a job search class at a local educational institution.  By doing these types of seminars and presentations, I am developing and furthering my own brand.  Be creative and consider doing the same in a way that is right for you.

Photo Credit Think Big Revolution.

I gave a lot of thought about my chosen topic this week. There are a lot of opinions and ideas out there. It is my hope that you have created your Marketing Plan and are utilizing it. When you’re in the job hunt waiting for that phone to ring, no idea really seems too crazy or out there depending on your mood. I’ve kept this in mind as I discuss three ways to job hunt on the edge.

• Marketing Portfolio. Create a Marketing Portfolio with examples of your works, business card, and some personal touches that are truly you and mail it to the hiring manager. Include a letter that asks for the interview and a time when you will follow up with them. I suggest that you either research the business section of your local newspaper or send this portfolio to your newly found network. An example of a Marketing Portfolio for a Public Relations Assistant could include an invitation he created for a local fundraiser gala, several press releases that include the AP style, a brochure that he created, a copy of his business card, and a personal letter that outlines his experience, asking for the job, and when he will be contacting the hiring manager to follow up. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but this Portfolio makes a huge impression. I would be impressed, and even if this candidate was not hired, I would be more likely to refer him to a networking contact. A friend of mine is a radio DJ. He was interested in working for a particular radio station and sent his Marketing Portfolio in a shoe. He made an impression and was offered the job.

• Cocktail Networking Party. Get some friends and networking contacts together and invite them to a Networking Cocktail Party. Host it at your home and choose a theme like the roaring 20′s. Shamelessly plug that you are in the job market and watch the doors open. Ask each of your invitees to bring a friend or contact to help you in the job hunt. Be budget conscious and ask close friends to each bring a finger food dish and drink of choice. Make your own invitations and send via email. A cute and memorable guest gift could be a wine glass with your business card attached reminding your friend or peer why they are really here.

• Place a Billboard Ad. A billboard is a great way to get noticed and grab the attention of a hiring manager when they least expect it. You have their undivided attention for 15 seconds on their daily commute. I’m not talking about breaking the bank and running an ad with a several large high tech television billboards. Those can easily run $10K a mo. I have several billboards right now that are very budget friendly running at $350/mo. each. This doesn’t include the production cost of the banner that covers the billboard, but depending on your negotiating skills, you could work out a deal with the billboard company.

I’ve chosen 3 very distinct ways to give you an edge in the job hunt. Not all ideas will work for you. Use your creativity. Maybe it means stepping up your networking or volunteering at an agency for the holidays.

Next time. . . The Marketing Plan Revisited

Intigued? Well, yes. The 5 P’s are basic Marketing 101. Flashback to Business College and Marketing class with that smelly professor who wore birks and tyedye.

The 5 “P’s” of marketing include:
Product – The products or services offered to your customers/clients.
Price – The strategies you use with regard to pricing your products or services with the goal of making a desired profit margin.
Place (Distribution) – How you get your products or services to your target market.
Promotion – How you communicate the features and benefits and endorse your products or services to your customers or clients.
People – The value your people bring to your business by providing service to your customers and clients.

So you’re asking yourself what does any of this have to do with finding a job? Well, everything.

Product-Refers to you, your qualifications and skills that you have to offer an employer. What skills and qualifications do you have and what are your strengths and opportunities? Focus on the opportunities and how you can make these better. Maybe it means taking a Crystal Reports class at the local vo-tech.
Price-What salary range are you willing to accept? Research the local job market, the unemployment rate, the industry, and top companies you are interested in working for.
Place-Consider the methods to deliver your resume either by informational interview with your top companies, using your network, job boards, or job fairs.
Promotion-Tools used to promote yourself-resumes, coverletters, myspace pages, and business cards. Get these and make them look professional. Realize that these can hurt you too. A racy myspace or friendster page can be viewed by just about anybody. Companies often google candidates. Consider this.
People-What value has your skill brought to previous companies? For example, as a Sales and Marketing Director you saved the company $300,000 in expenses in the first two quarters of 2005 streamlining the sales and marketing strategy for your fitness center. Shout this accomplishment from the rooftops and list it as a bulleted point on your resume. I do this very same thing in my resume and companies have often contacted me because of one bullet point that peaked their interest.
Use buzzwords on your resume. This helps several different ways-1. It gets the recruiters attention. 2. Your resume is flagged as a possible candidate from what I call their buzzword software. The buzzword software then passes your resume on to the recruiter. Very high tech, huh?

You are your biggest asset. Develop a marketing strategy to market yourself.

Next week. . . The Coverletter