JournaMarketing

Social media and attracting talent

Anna Farmery at The Engaging Brand blog has some good advice for using social media tools to attract talented employees. Her summary:

You don't need a large budget for recruitment, you need a passion for reaching the right people...

Attracting good people to work for you is no different than attracting new customers, new donors, or any other kind of people. It goes back to connectedness, and participation in online communities. If you're connected, good things will happen (and good people will find you).

Technorati Tags: nptech, nonprofits, recruiting

Should lawyers host their own podcasts?

Kevin O'Keefe, who runs Lexblog, has a few tips for lawyers who are considering whether to add a podcast to their blog. He's got some great advice, including this:

The thing you have to be careful for: it may sound great going in, but then you have a lawyer who is better equipped to write than to be on a podcast. Some lawyers are better conversationalists than writers. Maybe they're better for podcasts. Some lawyers are better writers than conversationalsists. They should stick to writing.

My company does a couple of legal podcasts, both for The Missouri Bar. One is for attorneys, and the other, Law in Your Life, is a look at various legal issues for non-attorneys. I think both shows are great based primarily on one thing -- we have a non-lawyer as the host. Angela Wilson does a great job with both shows, because she's able to clarify things when the attorneys veer off into legalese.

So my advice to lawyers? if you want to showcase your knowledge in a podcast, find a good interviewer who is not a lawyer to produce the show for you. It will free up your time, because you won't have to worry about recording and editing the show. And it will make the finished product much more engaging for listeners.

Technorati Tags: lexblog, law, podcasting

The tyranny of numbers

You want your fundraiser to draw 1,000 people. You want your brochures to be read by 10,000 people. But sometimes it's better to spend your time and money to talk to 100 people who already know you and love you and want to help you.

What's more valuable? Having a better relationship with 100 people who already have a relationship with you? Or having 10,000 people recognize your organization's name because they once saw your brochure? Seth Godin points out that your pursuit of numbers is not all it's cracked up to be.

Many bloggers seem to be on a perpetual hunt for the front page of Digg. Sure, it brings you hordes of eyeballs, but then they turn around and leave. What's the point of that, really?

I think that are plenty of tips you can follow to optimize your offering for this fickle mass group. But it's still a crap shoot. Doesn't it make more sense to incrementally earn the attention of a smaller, less glitzy but far more valuable group of people who actually engage with you? And the best part is, your odds of success are a lot better.

Technorati Tags: nptech, Seth_Godin, marketing

Age of Conversation 2: The Wrath of Khan

Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton are at it again. Last year they helped organize The Age of Conversation, a book about how the Internet has changed communications and marketing. And now they're gearing up for the sequel. They need your help in choosing a topic (before Feb. 3), and they'd also like to have you as an author -- and you can find out how to do both those things here.

And incidentally, I've let the Age of Conversation podcast slip off the radar for the past few weeks -- and I need to pick it up again. If any of my fellow AoC authors read this, and have time for a quick phone interview, I'm looking for the next guest to talk about another chapter from the first book. Drop me an email - the link's over on the right.

New job title: Connections Manager

Mark Goren, in a comment on my previous post about "connectedness," says he thinks we'll start to see more organizations paying more attention to planting seeds and making connections online:

I think we're going to start seeing more companies employ people to handle this sort of thing as they begin to recognize the importance and tremendous value you can get out of connecting with others at different places online.

It got me thinking about what this position might look like. A connections manager should be communicating on behalf of your organization -- but should not be a typical "communications director." Instead, a connections manager is more like a 2-way advocate: an advocate for your organization to the public, and also an advocate for the public to your organization. The goal of this person should be to facilitate the give-and-take between people in your organization, and people outside it. And this person should spend most of his or her time outside the walls of your organization's official communication structure. This position is not about writing press releases, or even primarily about blogging. It's about using a blog (or press release, or podcast, etc.) as a jumping-off point for participation in the broader community of people who share your organization's interests.

What kind of work would the ideal "connections manager" do for your company or organization?

Why your blog is worthless without connectedness

It's getting easier to convince people they should be blogging or otherwise communicating on behalf of their organization online. But going beyond that initial step -- setting up a blog and posting occasionally about your organization's goals and activities -- doesn't always happen. The more I work with organizations who want to improve their communications and PR plans online, the more I see that it's not the act of "blogging" that generates success. It's the connectedness of it.

What's connectedness? It's a willingness to be involved, not only in your own site, but in others. And it's a recognition that even if you're the most brilliant person in your field (and you're not), your knowledge is still dwarfed by the collective knowledge of all the other people in your field. Mark Goren at Marketing Profs calls this activity "planting seeds." And he has some great advice for getting out and increasing your connectedness through lots of different Web services.

The more seeds you plant, the more chances you have of connecting with others. The more people you connect with, the greater the chance that they’ll learn about your website – and want to visit. You’re cultivating your personal brand and allowing people to experience it on their terms.

Go check out the whole post -- it's a good one.

Technorati Tags: nptech, blogging, podcasting

How would you spend your Super Bowl ad money?

Spike at Brains on Fire wants us to think about how we would spend the $3m it costs for a Super Bowl ad.

So what would you do with $3+ million? Hire a community manager and give them something to manage? Invest in surprising and delighting your biggest fans? Create a sustainable word of mouth movement? Create a customer advisory board? Put it back into engaging your employees (especially customer service)? Do some product sampling? Create avenues to have an authentic, open, two-way conversation with your customers? In other words, create something that will last. That has legs. That is, dare I say it, sustainable.

Sustainability is one of the most important issues facing organizations when they assemble their marketing and communications plans. So many organizations look to build a new website with a new look and better navigability -- without giving a thought to providing content that might make the site worth navigating in the first place. So whether it's $3m or $30K, my answer is the same: invest in content. It might mean hiring a staff person, or it might mean working with someone who can assemble freelance multimedia journalists to help your organization tell its story. But providing that content over the long haul will make something sustainable that will build relationships with people far more effectively than a one-time shot.

Happy New Year!

It's not a resolution -- because I stink at keeping those -- but I'm gonna try really hard to blog more consistently this year. To get myself off to a flying start, I'm starting simple. Happy New Year! (And congratulations to the Missouri Tigers for their total domination of Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl!)