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Is your brand self-absorbed?
Posted on April 7, 2017 at 3:45 PM |
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It’s easy to spot self-absorbed brands on social media. What do they look like? It’s not what they look like; it has to do
with how they communicate. · Learn more about us at blah blah blah. · Be sure to “Like” our Facebook page! · Did you catch our latest post? · Hope you enjoy our tweets and posts! · Please RT! · Don’t miss our latest blah blah blah. In addition, they rarely follow-back their audience. Which means it’s impossible to start a direct
message conversation with them. It’s
obvious that they’re only interested in using their social channels for
broadcasting purposes. In defense of the self-absorbed brand we know you are spending a lot of
time and money developing “thought-leadership” content because your strategy is
to be our “go-to” source for everything related to what you do. And that’s great, but your implementation of
that strategy comes across like, well, I think you know. We don’t
care how smart you think you are. If we
don’t like you, and trust you, we’re not going to do business with you. In order to gain our trust and affection you need to shift your focus. · Say “We’d love you learn more about you!” Not, “learn
more about us…” · Say “We are looking forward to reading your
tweets and posts!” Not, “Did you catch our latest post?” · Stop begging for RT’s … if its good content and
we think our audience would benefit from it we’ll pass it on. · Don’t send automated direct messages or tweets
asking us to “Like” your Facebook page. · And for heaven sakes, follow-back your target
market. Did you know that social
rejection activates the same part of the brain as physical pain does? |
Real-Time Talent Mismanagement in Action
Posted on November 17, 2016 at 8:56 AM |
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“We’re looking for a lighter version of you.” In a business recruiting situation, they
probably don’t mean that you’re overweight.
Odds are they’re telling you that they think you’re “overqualified.” And overqualified is usually code speak for
the following: 1. You are too old. 2. You are too expensive. 3. The hiring manager would be uncomfortable
with your credentials. Perhaps even
intimidated. 4. They don’t have the forward thinking vision
to consider expanding the position, or to anticipate their future talent needs. 5. All of the above. Overqualified candidates are rarely invited to interview with the
hiring manager. Their resume or social
profile is screened and the
assumption made that the person would be bored and not motivated, so they would
underperform or leave. As a
result, the standard template rejection email is sent letting them know they
should feel free to apply for other jobs you have posted. Of course you’ll feel they’re overqualified
for those jobs too inviting the process to start over. This is completely ludicrous when you think
about it. No doubt HR has metrics, case
studies or white papers that explain why it’s always done that way. And yet, the overqualified candidate
expressed interest. They initiated first
contact with your company. If nothing
else, don’t you wonder why? For example: · They
want to shift industries. · Move to
a new location. · Travel
less or more. · Achieve
greater work/life balance. · They
just want to make a change. There could be several other
reasons, but you’ll never know because your organization doesn’t have the time or
see the need to have a conversation. And
yet, your sales and marketing organizations may very well be spending large
portions of their time and promotion budgets trying to meet those same personas. Take note; overqualified is also code speak
for: 1. Well known
and connected. 2. Influential
decision maker. 3. Knowledgeable 4. Motivated 5. All of
the above. Why
you should be networking with the Overqualified Are there unique factors you should
consider in this situation? Indeed and here
are just a couple to start: · Before you reject the candidate find
out if there is room to expand the job role in order to take advantage of
his/her background. Also, think carefully
about future needs. This situation may
present an opportunity to bring in
areas of expertise that are not currently represented at your company but will
eventually be needed. Take time to find
out what is really motivating them to make a change in order to validate
additional consideration. · If hiring is definitely not an option
make sure you examine and evaluate their social capital carefully. The last thing you want to do is to set fire
to a bridge that your sales and/or marketing team has been trying to
build. Consider creating a networking
process to introduce the candidate to key employees within your organization. That action will help your employees grow
their social capital, and at the same time soften the rejection and help keep
doors open with the candidate should your needs change. Are you still thinking about sending that overqualified candidate
your standard rejection letter? |
Can Your Company Compete with Radical Trust?
Posted on October 28, 2016 at 7:37 AM |
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Several years ago I heard a story about a shoe repair
shop from one of their long-time customers.
It’s a small business tale about trust with a twist that might surprise
you. Like many businesses, this shoe
repair shop was built on a self-service model.
That model was necessary because the sole proprietor did his cobbling at
night; during the day he held down a full-time job as an employee of another
company. His customers left their shoes
for repair in a converted newspaper vending machine located on his front
porch. Shoes that were ready for pick-up
as well as the money folder were also in the machine. Yes, I said the money folder. Customers dropped off and picked up their
shoes and also left their payment. He
never came up short, of money or shoes. In the last few years there has been plenty of material
written about earning customer trust. However;
you don’t see much written about trusting the customer. Can you earn
trust without giving it? For the
cobbler’s customers in that rural community it appears a key to giving trust
was getting it first. Today we would describe that type of business climate as
“radical trust.” It’s a state of trust
where parties on both sides of a transaction fully recognize the greater
benefits of reciprocal good faith. The
cobbler let his customers into his inner circle by trusting that he would get
paid for his work. He believed that
people were inherently good and let the self-policing reputation-based honor system
work. I suspect for many businesses it would be a scary thought
to implicitly trust their customers. And
yet, without trust most relationships will not move forward. I often think of trust through the following
formula: Trust = (Rapport x Credibility) / Risk Actions that
help develop rapport and credibility, while at the same time reducing risk,
will build long-lasting, trust-based relationships. In marketing,
Collin Douma describes the notion of radical trust as a key mindset required for marketers and advertisers to enter the
social media marketing space. In his
opinion, the tide has turned and now marketers must radically trust the
consumer in order to build the brand. Trust is the
real currency in the social economy.
Does your company trust the customer?
Small businesses typically produce nearly half
of the U.S. private nonfarm GDP. You can’t help but feel that radical trust is an important part
of what holds our economy together. |
We wish you the best of luck in your search!
Posted on September 30, 2016 at 10:09 AM |
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Your
company needs a marketing leader so your HR team is engaged to round up the
best possible candidates. This person
will provide leadership for your entire marketing group, craft your strategic
marketing plan, and report directly to your CEO as part of the executive
management team. Your notice in LinkedIn
draws many qualified candidates; in fact, you suspect there are some who
currently earn more than your budgeted reference range. You can only hire one of them though and you
have a small staff, so you tell yourself that you don’t have time for niceties. That means the majority of the applicants
will receive your boiler-plated HR rejection letter.
From: [email protected] Dear
Candidate,
After
careful consideration, the team has decided not to proceed with your
candidacy for the Chief Marketing Officer position at XYZ Company. While this
position was not a match, XYZ Company is growing and we continue to add new
positions, so please keep an eye on our career site. Thanks
again for your interest in XYZ Company. We wish you the best of luck in your
search! Regards,
The Team at XYZ Company Let’s take a minute to explore this story.
If you have any empathy at all you know that you’d be disappointed
to receive a note like the example shown no matter what position you were
applying for. And from my added comments
it’s obvious I believe that template letters are nonsensical, and in fact could
be disastrous when applied to the executive level no matter the functional area
(Legal, Finance, IT, Sales, HR, etc.).
To make matters worse, a few of the more socially savvy applicants took
proactive steps to attempt networking with some of your senior team members. Alas, your senior team is socially inept and they
completely ignored the engagement. Adding a new member to your executive management team is high
risk. Not just as it relates to the
hiring of the “right” individual, but to your entire corporate brand over the
course of your search. How you and your
management team treat the executive candidates and react to their social
invitations could have a lasting impact on your brand that may or may not be
helpful. Just remember, many of the applicants you reject and/or ignore could
end up as key executives with your suppliers, channel partners or current
customers. And what will they be
thinking about your corporate brand then? |
Does Your Favorite Brand Follow You Back?
Posted on September 26, 2016 at 12:53 PM |
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At the beginning of the 2014 NFL season
I posted a short article related to NFL teams Follow-to-Follower ratios on Twitter. That score
card showed that most NFL teams, like most major brands, don’t follow-back
their fans or customers: As you can see on the 2014 score card,
the average NFL team was following back just 0.46% of their fans. That ratio now stands at 0.27% which means
the odds of your favorite team following you back are actually decreasing. “This Copyrighted Broadcast is the Property of the
National Football League” Most
major brands, including NFL teams broadcast on Twitter; they don’t follow-back
for purposes of personal engagement.
That strategy doesn’t seem to hurt them either. For example, the Dallas Cowboys follower base
grew from 900K to 1.9M over the past two years and they went 4-12 last year! Does the brand manager for “America’s Team” even
need to show up for work? “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” ~ Vince Lombardi Winners
never follow, and followers never get followed; unless it’s the Broncos. When it comes to sports we like to
follow winners. The Panthers follower
base grew over 550%, although they still lost the Super Bowl last year. The Super Bowl winning Broncos grew over
320%. Surprisingly, they follow back
over 6K of their fans ranking them third in the league. Deflatgate or not, the Patriots at 12-4 last
year grew 275%. “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” ~ Mark Twain We
don’t follow losers, they follow you; go Chargers! The Chargers finished 4-12 last year. They also continue to lead the league by
following back 5% of their fans which comes to over 29K profiles. That’s less than half the capacity of Qualcomm Stadium but it’s far
better than any other team. |
Your HR Department is creating a Major PR Disaster
Posted on January 21, 2016 at 12:26 PM |
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The economy remains weak which means your organization has its pick of
talent during the hiring process. In
fact, you are probably getting tens if not hundreds of qualified applications
for each position you seek to fill. Your
quest to find the “purple squirrel” (Recruiter jargon for the “perfect job
candidate”) has been easy. Although you
have discovered that there are often fifty shades of purple! No problem though, eventually HR will send
forty-nine of them your standard politely worded “we’ve carefully considered,
and best of luck” letter (HR jargon for rejection letter). “Hell hath
no fury like a woman scorned.” William Congreve (1670 – 1729) Or in this case; “PR hath no fury like a job applicant scorned.” In the age of social networking and pay-it-forward
preaching we often forget that humans hate pain. And guess what? When a highly qualified individual is summarily
rejected with a boiler-plated letter from HR you’ve just opened a floodgate of painful
emotions. So, what’s a little pain and
anger? Besides, it’s legal, and it can’t be prevented; after all we can’t hire
every qualified applicant. This issue is much larger than you realize. Just ask your sales people. They’ve been trained to probe for “pain
points.” They know that people make
decisions to buy based on emotions. When
people make purchase decisions they are either moving toward pleasure, or away
from pain. Check in with your customer
service group. The use of smartphones
and social media has fundamentally altered the science of customer
complaints. But Alan, it’s not personal with
job applicants. “It’s not
personal, Sonny. It’s strictly
business.” The Godfather I love that line, but it’s dead wrong.
It’s always personal. We are by
nature, an emotional being. We vividly
remember pain, and who delivered it. So,
let’s take a look at some critical parts of this process through the eyes of
the applicant and figure out if something could be done differently. Purple
squirrels know where to find the acorns, and they remember where they bury them. Just because the applicant applied through a job site doesn’t mean they
didn’t network their way throughout the process once they uncovered your job
posting. No doubt they’ve poured over
your website and looked up all your key executives on LinkedIn and
Twitter. In fact, they’ve probably
proactively reached out to many of your employees in order to establish rapport
and credibility, and to try and get their foot in the door. Social networks and relationships are constantly in play during this
process and you can bet that the top flight candidates are well connected whether
they fit your idea of the perfect shade of purple or not. Let me say that again; “many of your
rejections are well connected social media influencers.” Are you still sure you want to send them the
boiler-plated letter? Many of those
applicants you’ll be dismissing have tens of thousands or more Twitter
followers than your own corporate Twitter profile. That is guaranteed to send shivers of fear
down the spine of your PR team. And why
shouldn’t it? You are basically telling
people who have the same power as a major publisher that you don’t really care
about their feelings. In my opinion the hiring manager (even if the position is reporting directly
to the CEO) needs to send the letter. A form
rejection letter sent from HR months after the application was submitted only confirms
that they were never seriously considered.
You’ve figured out how to do one-to-one marketing with your customers
and prospects; it’s time to bring that same care to your HR process or you’ll
find yourself losing ground fast in the social economy. An employer’s
treatment of job applicants is a very very good barometer of how they’re going
to behave toward employees. Are you treating your job applicants to the six-month job interview
process? Yes, we understand, it’s
expensive to make the wrong decision. Yes,
you want to “get it right” and make sure everyone involved has input. Yes, you want to make sure you’ve covered your
a** in case the final selection doesn’t work out. But in your attempt to make the perfect
decision you are actually making your situation worse. ·
While you’re searching for that perfect fit your
company is losing momentum. ·
And there are more than 50
common interview problems that you have probably not addressed. You still need the interview process, but have some empathy for all the
candidates. And make a decision for heaven sakes! And just fun! |
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