Archive for the ‘ social media ’ tag

My Glass Isn’t Just Half Full, It’s Broken

Years ago, I had a prospect that I had been pursuing for several months, with zero success.  I couldn’t sell them a thing. I had used all of my awesome sales training (Selling to VITO, Spin Selling, Give ‘Em the Pickle and more) to no avail. The client had expressed their pains, and I had listened attentively and then diligently worked alongside of them to fashion a solution that they agreed would solve their problems and certainly make their lives easier.  The stumbling block was neither my contact nor his boss would take the risk and pull the trigger.  Why? Because, in their eyes, change meant running the risk of making a huge mistake in front of peers or senior executives.  Their fear of failure paralyzed and wedded them forever to their existing solution which was an admitted failure.

After disclosing in a tense pipeline review that another month would pass without this account closing, my manager sat me down.  He had disappointment in his eyes and said these words I will never forget:  ”It’s time you change up your approach- you’re growing stale.  You need to get serious and break some glass or you will never get your customers to break it!”  I was super frustrated and confused (break the glass?  What in the world was he talking about?!)  I wondered if my manager could tell that I wanted to throw everything in my cubicle including him.  Then being sensitive to criticism, I felt my neck grow hot, embarrassed and shocked that someone actually thought my approach had gotten old.  I mean, seriously, who the heck was he talking to?  I had been told by clients that I was like an entire cheer squad, or a cute puppy with a severe case of ADD, but never had I been called stale.  It took me a long time to get over that horrible moment in my cube…Looking back now; I understand what he was trying to do.  He was giving me the big shove I needed to take a different approach and ruffle some feathers to get my point across.

Today, I speak to talent acquisition leaders daily and some of them are managing recruiting programs that are seriously flat lining. Sadly, some are incorporating recruiting methodologies and processes that were used 10-15 years ago and they are genuinely disturbed and saddened that the old “post and pray” isn’t effective anymore.  Unfortunately, this is what happens when no one questions “the method behind your madness” or no one cares to challenge the status quo or when HR can’t get support from the rest of the business and they are relegated to being just a huge cost center.  And, let’s face it, recruiting is not an easy gig right now and there is certainly no silver bullet.  It is much easier to just sit back and keep riding the same old recruiting train.  We can kick back and make stops here and there to lay blame:  job boards don’t work, social media is unsafe and unproven, we lack resources or budget, or our website sucks, the economy blows, my recruiters are lazy, and the list goes on and on and on…

Personally, I made a vow to myself at the beginning of the year to find ways to start chipping away at the legacy glassware that has become the accepted and the norm.  I am pushing myself to have frank, honest and sometimes uncomfortable discussions with my clients and hope that they don’t get their feelings hurt or throw me out of their offices.  The questions aren’t that crazy, but you never know when you are knocking someone’s baby.  ”Do you know who you are and why anyone would want to work for you?”, “Do you believe that your (fill in the blank with-process/job postings/ careersite/ branding) is effective?” or “Why do your current employees stay/leave?” Oh, and by the way, if you do know the answers to these questions, then why in the heck aren’t you sharing your story and/or fixing the issues?   It might be a little uncomfortable, but not asking would be a disservice to our clients.  I am going to help who I can that will listen and divert my attention from those that continue to don their 1999 recruiting earmuffs.  I know that I might emerge at the end of 2012 with a few cuts and bruises, but I’m sticking to the plan because I can’t let myself or my customers get stale.

Final thought:  I don’t recommend going in Rambo style and shattering everything in sight, but my mantra is “Take out your velvet hammer and start tapping, kids!”  Life is better when the glass is half full and a bit broken.

Posted: February 3rd, 2012
at 9:20am by Deb Andrychuk

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Categories: Employment Branding

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House Advantage Swings to Google

When we started The Arland Group six years ago, social media was not even on the list of services we provided. Facebook was for college students and Twitter wasn’t even an idea yet.

Today, social media is not only one of the most exciting segments of our business, it’s also the fastest growing. We now employ people just to develop mountains of content for our clients’ social networks.

To date, most of our efforts have focused on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. But there is a new player in town in the form of Google+. I’m a cynic when it comes to new social media networks, mainly because I think the big three are innovative and continually push for improvements on their platforms. It’s hard to be the new kid on the block when everyone loves hanging around with the older, cooler kid.

I have a Google+ account, but I don’t get it. I think the user interface is clumsy, the concept is contrived and not too many of my friends and colleagues have embraced it, so I feel pretty isolated when on the platform. Despite what I perceive to be its shortcomings though, Google+ has an immense house advantage: the algorithm.

The mysterious mathematical equation Google uses to determine the results of search engines is the holy grail of digital marketing. As an agency, we strive to make sure our clients are on that front page of search results when their clients look for them. Getting on the front page requires an immense amount of work, of which I won’t go into detail here (you can call me though!).

On a recent Google search of  “The Arland Group,” we were shocked to see our Google+ page was the third result posted! It was above our Facebook and Twitter pages, despite the fact that we only have five posts on Google+ and hundreds on Facebook and Twitter. Despite building a solid brand on Facebook and Twitter, Google played its house advantage and tilted the algorithm to Google+.

Kudos to them. If you have an advantage, you capitalize on it. They have singlehandedly forced our agency to start launching Google+ accounts for all of our clients. We’re not sure it’s the best way for them to promote their brand, but with a world of information driven by Google, it’s imperative that our customers are present and accounted for on Google+.

Posted: December 7th, 2011
at 3:13pm by Keith Seiz

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Categories: Content

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Some Things are NOT Better Together

When I present our social media solution to companies, a common question that I get asked is,  “Why do I need a separate Facebook and Twitter careers page for our company, can’t we just incorporate this onto the corporate pages we’ve established?”  The answer is no.

First of all, I like the St. Louis Cardinals page on Facebook. Does that mean I want to work at Busch Stadium? No, it doesn’t. (Although, if it meant free World Series tix, maybe.) People don’t necessarily become fans of a company on Facebook or follow them on Twitter because they want to work there. A corporate Facebook page is and should be geared toward consumers. Consumers often like to use this as an avenue to voice their praise of a company, but unfortunately, when you take the good, you get the ugly as well. Consumers LOVE to voice their negative opinions and experiences on these pages, which brings me to my next point. Are negative comments about your company the content you want your potential candidates to see?

You’d be surprised, but we rarely see negativity on career Facebook and Twitter pages. When we do, it’s more about not hearing back after an interview or resume submittal rather than unfounded accusations from disgruntled employees. These types of comments are actually a great opportunity to show responsiveness to the person posting and this responsiveness is seen as something positive to other job seekers. Win-win, right?  Also, by keeping your employment brand social media pages separate, you can really focus on providing content that will interest your current employees and potential candidates.  You can show people what it’s really like to work for your company through posts about work culture, highlighting individual employees for their achievements and showcasing the variety of career paths you have to offer.

Still not convinced? I could give you several other reasons on why you need to keep your corporate and employment brands separate on social media, but here’s the bottom line:  Social media is here to stay and the recruitment aspect of it is rapidly growing.  Pretty soon, traditional recruitment avenues will become irrelevant and it’s important to stay at the forefront of these developments. By establishing your employment brand on social media, you’re keeping yourself on top of the recruitment game.

Posted: October 26th, 2011
at 11:11am by Megan

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Categories: Employment Branding

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Use Your Gut to Make the Best Decision

We have all experienced running into an image, concept, person, etc. and it seems to reoccur to the point where we ask ourselves, “what is this and why does it keep coming up in my life?” That has recently happened to me with the concept of intuition.  Intuition is defined as the act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes. In recent months, I have read a series of articles in various magazines, caught a speech by Steve Jobs and had conversations where intuition ends up being the center of attention. So I finally stopped and told myself that maybe it’s time I examine my intuition—and not so much in terms of what it will mean but what it has meant in my life so far. In doing so I came to the realization that I have made by best decisions when I’ve gone with “my gut” or intuition.  When my head has gotten involved too much I mess it up.

Here’s an example of time when my head got in the way: When it was time to pick a college, my gut told me to go to the one close by my house that was affordable and good enough. But my head told me to go to an expensive and prestigious university. Almost 15 years and countless student loan payments later, I wish I had trusted my intuition. I’ve since learned that what you mean to your clients in business is less about who you are and more about what you’ve made them mean to you. If you can adopt their business as your own and cherish it the way they do, you’re golden. Where you went to school isn’t even a moments’ thought.

One of my best business decisions was made almost completely on my intuition. When Keith Seiz called me to meet with him and Jason Wood for dinner to discuss the possibility of joining their new company—TAG—my head told me to wait. Coming from a big corporation to a new small business was just too risky for my brain to accept. But my intuition told me to take the leap of faith without the slightest moments pause. That coupled with an already well-earned trust I had in Keith, I allowed myself to take that leap and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I now work everyday with a group that is not based on ego or title but more based on building solid client relationships and we all win in that. I don’t even dread going to work Sunday evening. Actually, with a mischievous toddler in the house I often look forward to it.

My intuition has been right on many other occasions from deciding what house to buy, to when it was time to have a baby and then another baby, calling my dad the night before going away for a couple days just to say “hi” and when I had come back he had passed away, right down to stopping into a small grocery store nearby to check their prices and now it’s my main grocery store and I’m saving $300 a month. I’m finding that I’m forcing myself to stop thinking too much about a decision and allow my gut to guide me once in awhile. On those occasions, my answer is usually resolute and always the best choice.

Maybe this will be your second or third time of running into the concept of intuition in recent days or maybe it’s the first. If nothing else, maybe you can look back and examine when you went with your gut and what the outcome was. I hope it at least gives you the pause to “think” differently if only for a moment and ask your gut a question or two.

Posted: September 22nd, 2011
at 10:27am by Erin Canetta

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Categories: Uncategorized

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Strategizing Makes Success a Piece of Cake

Here at The Arland Group, we pride ourselves on applying successes from one area to another, sharing ideas from consumer marketing to recruitment marketing, vice versa, and on over to business-to-business. Similarly, I like to borrow work strategies that can extend to my personal life. For one, pro-active planning, creativity, detailed project management and research are just some of the things we do here to ensure success and I’m hoping to carry that forward to a large undertaking at home . . . I am already thinking ahead to my son’s 4-yr birthday party and it’s 2 months away – I just can’t help it. I enjoy planning and love being pro-active, so that makes for a great fit when planning client strategies . . . I am hoping this will also help me make a Treasure Chest Birthday Cake – not your average 3-step box cake or store-bought cake (one step: pickup). It has so many steps it needs a VIDEO to go with the recipe! http://familyfun.go.com/parties/parties-by-theme/pirate-parties/treasure-chest-cake-686531/ Yikes!

So as a first step to my “planning and strategy” while I’m considering this I decide to draw on my business world acumen. Network. Use social media. I post the idea on Facebook only to get an immediate reply from someone who actually already made the cake! (How’s that for personal research?) And she got huge applause for it. Well then, I guess I’m “in”: decision made. And I will use my business strategies: project management, pro-active planning, and prioritizing to get this done. I will enjoy every step of it as I do working with my customers and just as I experience the success of a Target Mail with a very creative message and high open rate, I will love to see the happy face of my 4-yr-old and his friends.

Posted: September 15th, 2011
at 9:02am by Sharon Lynch

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