Digital Recruiting

The Philosopy of Work

So, I was at the SouthBank centre last night attending a talk by one of my favourite writers, Alain De Botton. I've read all his books since one of my good friends bought me the book Status Anxiety a number of years ago for my birthday (take from that, what you will....).

The genius of Alain is his ability to articulate and make simple the biggest challenges and issues we face in life, be that love, success, friendship etc. He makes philosophy accessible to the masses.

His latest book is all about work called The Pleasure and Sorrows of Work.

He noted that if you were to look to art - be that TV, movies, books etc there is very little coverage of our real working lives - something that takes up a huge amount of our time.

It would seem in movies and TV that everyone works in three professions - Medicine, Law and Criminality and spend most of their waking lives, falling in and out of love etc.

Where is the movie on the world of recruitment advertising I ask?

He said a few interesting things from a recruitment and employer branding perspective. He explained how he had spent a number of months with the HR department of the UK's largest Accountancy firm (whose HQ's are by the Thames..).

He was suprised that there was a whole floor of these HR bods, all working on initiatives and processes for their staff. However, he began to see the important role that HR played, as when you think about it, there were over 15,000 people in this organisation - all of whom, had to get on with each other as much as possible to ensure maximum productivity and ensure success.

Unlike in love when if you p*ss each other off you can 'throw the crockery' at each other, this really isn't possible in the working environment.....pity.

What this example did reveal for me, is that a company's culture and values should really promote openess and straight-talking to alleviate stress, upset and miscommunications etc. 

The other interesting thing he noted is that there is a universal desire in all people to have a 'meaningful' job- this is what makes them happy and fulfilled.

This doesn't have to be through saving a persons life in a hospital - this can be making a difference in peoples lives through; fixing their squeaky door, booking them a holiday or producing beautiful photgraphs that make people happy etc

If a company can show employees what they do is something 'meaningful' - then jobs a winner, as they say.

Sinead

So, Digital Czars, what time is your Interview at?

I  read the following headline in my digital newsletter today:

'Government slammed for £160,000 digital-czar job posting'

Crikey, I thought - is that the price of a job posting these days? - no wonder people are a bit upset - back to the Sunday Times we go....

On closer inspection, the government has created a new post for a Digital Czar to help the government connect with people through the digital social environment - on such things such as Twitter, Facebook etc

Is this a grotesque use of public money, as one opponent exclaimed? - well no, I don't think it is.

If the role is to genuinely engage the public in dialogue, share information and involve them in the democratic environment, staving off apathy in the process, then it is to be welcomed.

Enabling participation and giving people a voice is one of the most positive lessons we can take from Obama's recent election campaign.

In a similar vein, is the future use of technology and social media in Labour's future re-election campaign.

What I found interesting last week was Obama's marketing guru Thomas Gensemer pitching for Gordon Brown/Labour party business.

Gensemer makes the point himself, that there must be, in conjunction, with the smart use of technology a clear message and objective.

For all the Twittering , Facebooking, iphone apps and mybarackobma.com sites in the world, unless the message and content is genuine and compelling, the desired result or election win, through clever uses of social media and technology is by no means guaranteed.

Back to the Digital Czar job:....

'This role is not for everyone - success will be achieved by influence and encouragement, not by issuing instructions from the centre.'

 

Should make it interesting ;0)

Best Blogs

So, I was reading the Sunday Times at the weekend and had a look at their best blogs article.

I was of course, shocked and bewildered that digitalrecruiting.co.uk wasn't on there, but hey ho....

Anyhoo - there's a blog on there on the Advertising world from a copy-writing fella named Dave Trott.

I've been reading it ever since and am loving the content and his writing style.

Check it out if have a moment - some great content on what a client briefs you and what they actually mean, a fantastic post on whether in design, all elements should be purely functional or should include non essential emotional elements to enhance and complete the full design- the WW2 story of the British colonel, the Nazi concentration camp and lipstick made a real impact.

The oft-fricticious relationship between the client facing Account Manager and the internal creative department . This particular post put me in mind of the old days at my previous agency and the relationship between the Account Handlers and the 'Interactive' department as it was once called.

Was having some banter with a colleague in the pub last week who was an Account Handler back then at same agency.

I did my impression of Account handlers back then;

'Hi Mr Client, whats that you say? you want a fully functioning website with ATS/annual online media strategy  in two days?  - sure no problem - that's completely feasible, its very easy you know...

'Hi Interactive team - what do you mean you can't do it!!!! - you guys are so obstructive and useless - JUST do it!' MR MD, Interactive are being cr*ap again'!!

She retorted with her impression of the Interactive team:

'Ok, so we are a commercial business with targets to hit and are trying to get our clients to do some best-practice interactive stuff - have managed to sell this is and its a bloody hard sell....

'Hi interactive, can you please do this project that is sustaining your department and team? Whats that you say - you need 6 months to do it?, a Prince 2 diploma project plan, with gant charts...for no apparent reason, just for the sake of it?? - argh!!!!

Good times. Good memories. :)

Fired Up! Ready to Go!!

Last Friday we held a seminar for clients on Obama and his fantastic use of marketing and branding to help bring him to power.

One of the speakers was an author, who is currently featuring in our 'Smarter ways of working bookclub'. It was a corker of an event and myself and hopefully our clients found it really useful.

The author Ian Leslie talked us through amongst other things, Obama and his teams use of technology (iphone apps etc), social media, the positioning of the campaign as a grassroots campaign as opposed to the traditional top down approach, fund raising and the the Obama logo   itself being a symbol of change and optimism.

The country, as a result of Bush etc was crying out for change and 'man did meet the moment.'

The presentation climaxed with a clip from Youtube, (where else) of the man himself delivering a speech to a USA trade union. This clip really brought home to me what a charismatic, fantastic orator Obama is - his brand ultimately succeeded because, he himself, is authentic - and really seems to be genuinely willing and able to bring change - lets hope so!

Its well worth a watch, fast forward to 2:52 seconds to see the best story and the mark of the man. Fanbloodytastic!

Fired Up! Ready to Go!!

 

The Rads - Two Years on.

It's two years, nearly to the day that I posted my first entry on this blog. It was titled 'Putting the RADical into the RAD's'. Two years ago!....where has the time gone?

My post wasn't pithy, in fact it could have given War and Peace a run for its money, but I certainly got a lot off my chest and you know, I found it quite cathartic. (good to know blogging is good for my state of mind then).

I had some beef with our industrys' awards ceremonies/judging criteria and my view was that the judging of the RAD awards and CIPD's was based solely on creativity and little notice or importance was given to the media/channels used to engage with the target audience or the actual effectiveness of the ad/campaign.

As such, this limited focus on creative wasn't a reflection on the best solutions and work our industry had to offer, especially in our current communications and media landscape.

Fast forward two years on and again I'll be donning my frock to attend the RAD's this Thursday, but will I be moved to write another post outlining my concerns or has our industry or the RAD's evolved and moved on?

In the wake of my post, I got a call from Richard Andrews, who runs the awards and we had a good discussion. I was subsequently asked to be a judge for last years event,(really interesting and enjoyable) a clear sign that the RADs and Richard were open to feedback, change and that they recognised that digital, media selection and tracking were key elements of recruitment solutions.

There were a few of us 'digi' types involved, such as John Buffey from Barkers and after the event we both met with Richard to work on honing the judging criteria for this years event.

This year Matt Alder and Drew Spencer are part of the judging panel so again there will be focus on the importance of all elements in the mix and with these guys, great representation.

Perhaps another key sign that the RAD's has evolved and wants to be the awards ceremony that recognises the best work in the industry, was its openness to accepting entries from multiple parties who have worked together to 'develop and deliver the recruitment solution collectively'.

What this means is that for the first time, a media communications agency like MediaCom will be recognised along with our creative agency partners in the awards ceremony.  Yay!! (in the past even though an agency may have provided the research, media planning and channel innovation along with the tracking and data on effectiveness it was the creative agency who got the nomination and award on the night).

Now, I know that I'm not 100% objective on this development, ;) but this can only be a good thing and it genuinely demonstrates that our industry is moving in the right direction. All aspects of the recruitment solution including the results of our most innovative and creative solutions are being reviewed in the selection process.

Now, any awards aren't perfect (in fact I'm gutted one of our submissions didn't make it through to the second round in the innovationcategory - it was blooming marvellous!! :) and although there are improvements that can and will be made, I'll definitely be a bit more confident on Thursday night that the nomination and winners on the night are a good reflection of what our industry has to offer.

Oh, and give us a cheer when you hear our name and wish us luck...

p.s. think my posts are still too long...

Fly Fishing by JR Hartley - Downstream to Lifestream

So, it was New years eve, eve, 2008. I was running around Belfast with my mummy in tow, trying to find a Star Wars, Princess Lea outfit for my NYE's 1980's fancy dress party in London. The only Lea outfit left in the whole city seemed to be xtra-small size (and I ain't no xtra small,....especially after such festive indulgence). As we drove around, I was using my blackberry to go online and look for other fancy dress shops in the city and surrounding areas. The results coming up on Google were pretty limited....yet we knew there were others out there...

Time was running out so we popped into a small haberdashery shop, to look at some material we could maybe use, to alter the aforementioned xtra-small outfit. We asked the lady behind the counter did she know of any other fancy dress shops, in the hope we wouldn't end up having to get the sewing machine out.

After some chit-chat she suggested something that threw me a bit...

'Do you want to have a look at the Yellow Pages?' she enquired.

'Oh...er, well.. yeah sure, why not', I said. How very antiquated I thought....

Intuitively, I looked up F for fancy dress and before my very eyes, in clear, comprehensive listings were every fancy dress shop, with addresses and phone numbers I should ever want in N. Ireland...wowsers, perfect!

I slipped my blackberry back into my handbag...only to be taken out later, to make a phonecall to one of the shop numbers the helpful lady had jotted down for me....

So, there you have it, does this mean my prediction for 2009 are directories?, well no, but this experience of using my mobile for search did make me wonder about the prediction (some would say, the perennial prediction) that this year - 2009, is the year that mobile advertising goes mainstream and is key - I'm thinking yes, mobile is becoming more and more important but not sure 2009 is its critical mass advertising year..maybe 2010. But hey, who knows, things change so fast...

This Guardian article, notes a couple of key upcoming themes, - the increasing flat-rate, mobile data charges that will enable us to access the web via our phone, freeing us from onerous monetary concerns. This will be a key factor to enable critical mass - and this will be very significant and impactful. (Check out the post below this Guardian article for a different and pertinent point of view)

Secondly - the role of a social media aggregator such as Friendfeed that will pull together for us, all our networks, into a one-stop, easy, individual source (in the 'cloud').

This will be our Lifestream - all our various networks tipped into one virtual funnel, resulting in one master-stream that helps us to manage and stay connected with info and friends that appear across a multitude of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn etc.

Friendfeed is the king of aggregators, as among other things, its the first lifestream service that is viewable on mobile (all devices) and this robust service has recently signed a deal with Facebook -so expect a tab on your profile page soon.

An aggregator of this type and the possibilities it has for Career management and networking are very interesting.

So, there you have it, the first of many thoughts for the new year. Happy new year everyone, hope its the best yet.

Sinead

Obama may digitise but did he monetise online?

When I first came across Obama's use of social media and blogged about his barackobama.com site here in April 07, I noted its potential and asked a couple of questions:

'Registering to vote is made easy.....Will the Internet lead to more people taking part in the political/democratic process by making participation easier and more accessible?'

Answer: Yup - this election achieved an unprecedented record level of people voting, with huge amounts of people voting in advance and many queueing for 3-4 hours to place their vote.

'...it's a great example of 'Recruiting for Power' in practice and also demonstrates that recruiting people via the Internet for votes or anything else for that matter (note the fundraising options) is extremely effective.'

Yup - the site recruited 1.5 million volunteers and generated $600 million from 3 million people, which were fundamental to the success and election of Obama.

Now, everyone knows that in this 'Youtube'  election, Obama's online strategy has been superb and has given him the funds to win the election.

However I read an article a couple of weekends ago which reveals the challenge if not the dichotomy of the Internet platform, especially from a media and publishers perspective.

Of the $700 million that was reportedly spent on advertising in this campaign, it has been estimated that less than 1%of total expenditure has been allocated to online advertising. So whilst the Internet has powered the whole communication strategy,it has recieved a miniscule proportion of the paid-for advertising - such is the free, democratic, user-generated nature of the medium.

Herein lies the challenge that many media, especially 'traditional' media face when devising their digital strategies. How can we translate the incredible value that this digital communications medium offers into tangible financial value, on a par with media that has gone before?

Mobile to save Press industry! - an augmented reality?

As online overtakes newspapers, in terms of ad spend and classified advertising revenues diminish year on year, the picture for the press industry could be viewed as pretty bleak.

Fear not press titans! the calvary are coming to your rescue and in fitting, with the delicious ambiguity of life, it will be digital that saves you - digital in the form of the ubiquitous mobile phone.

Put simply, by dowloading software onto your mobile and then holding your mobile phone camera over a press ad, it allows a 3D image to 'jump out' from the page. Thus creating a incredibly engaging, interactive press advertising experience.

This is enabled by 'augmented reality' technology - a theme of computer research that combines real world and computer generated data.

Wellington Zoo, in New Zealand carried out a press campaign using this technology to promote getting face-to-face with the Zoo animals. When a user held their mobile phone over the ad, a 3D animal such as a giraffe apeared...very cool.

We are exploring this for our clients, so watch this space.

Would you believe the future possibilities for press advertising are incredible? Convergence and integration of channels are key.

Check out details at this link, you will need to register.

Sinead

The Complete Online Journey

The latest thing to get me all interested is the news that Atlas Solutions, one of the third party ad servers we use, to track and optimise our online media has launched engagement mapping. This new reporting methodology will allow us to see all the digital touch points on a job applicants journey and not just the last media they click on or viewed before arriving at a clients site and applying.

Instead of the last ad getting 100% of the credit we can see the influence of all media and creative messaging and reveal the entire conversion funnel. This will no doubt help to plan the most effective digital media and creative strategies to attract active and passive jobseekers.

This is good news for display advertising online as they will get some credit and perhaps not so good news for affiliates, Google and maybe even job boards who may dominate online schedules. 

Of course the fact that Atlas Solutions is owned by display giant MSN is irrelevant ;o).

Deeper ROI is always to be welcomed.

Nice Viral - Little Gordon Ramsey

Was sent this by Samantha D on our team just now. Really nice example of viral marketing from our industry.

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