Community Means Collaboration

"Reacting to an online swell of suspicion about changes to Facebook's terms of service the company's chief executive (24 year-old Mark Zuckerberg) moved to reassure users on Monday (Feb. 16) that the users, not the Web site, 'own and control their information.'" - Brian Stelter, Facebook's Users Ask Who Owns Information, The New York Times.

Facebook recently changed its terms of service, to say that users were now granting "Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense)" to do whatever it wanted with anything they posted.

As most of the social networking world already knows, this caused a tsunami of reaction from Facebook users. I am an avid user of Facebook as are many of my colleagues. I and another of my 2,645,570 closest Facebook friends (figuratively) joined a group called: AGAINST NEW FACEBOOK & FB's TERMS OF SERVICE. Mark Zuckerberg made some pertinent comments to attempt to repair the damage. The end result of the conflagration: Facebook has been forced to rethink their policy, and is actually asking for input about policy formation from users.

The company issued a press release today quoting Mark Zuckerberg, "The past week reminded us that users feel a real sense of ownership over Facebook itself, not just the information they share."

"Companies like ours need to develop new models of governance," Zuckerberg added. "Rather than simply reissue a new Terms of Use, the changes we're announcing today are designed to open and our future up Facebook so that users can participate meaningfully in our policies.

Len Stein wrote an article about Facebook's PR problems for the Cision Navigator, on 2/26/2009, No Way to Treat "Friends". His stance is summed up here: "Any corporate misstep will provoke an immediate reaction, which can lay low a company, brand or institution, within days, if not hours." Stein goes on to explain: "The collaborative process is inherently transparent and works in two directions…Brands must actively seek the approval of all of their key publics, internal and external, if they hope to gain consumer's trust and win support in the form of purchasing power."

How would this collaborative process work for HR Vendors? For a great example, you could take a look at our own HRmarketer.com Membership Community. We've worked with hundreds of suppliers over the years and always welcome collaborative input to the marketing and PR tools and resources they have access to and what will help them generate more publicity, traffic and leads. The latest changes to our HR Community Directory are primary a direct result of user input.

Many suppliers and resource centers are creating true communities of users. The steps is simple: talk to your clients, and let them know what you plan to do, get their input prior to making major changes. One of our earlier blog postings Beyond Kudos, Gold Stars and Gift Cards: A New Employee Engagement Solution describes a new HR Vendor that did just that.

It worked for them and it can work for you. Most excellent!

Post by Dawn Passaro

Rethinking Jack Welch. In a Bull Market We Are All Geniuses.

For years, Jack Welch and his management principles (particularly in human resources circles) have been praised, copied, written and talked about more often than any CEO I can remember in my lifetime.

No doubt he was a great CEO (he would be the first to tell us so).

Right?

Not so fast says an increasing body of research and opinion.

Was Jack Welch "the beneficiary of felicitous timing" and his unique ability to “manage earnings”? Was Jack Welch at best a "competent [people] manager" but nothing more?

Yes, according to a recent blog on the Economix | New York Times Blog titled Jack Welch and the Lone Ranger Theory written by Uwe E. Reinhardt. Read the aricle - it's excellent and he makes a ton of great points.

As the chart on this page shows, GE is in big trouble these days. Their stock went from a high of nearly $60 per share in 2000 to about $ 8 last I checked. And they just slashed their dividend by nearly 80%.

But what does this have to do with Jack Welch? He left the company in 2001 with a stock price in the 50s. True, but he also hired, trained and hand-picked his successor Jeff Immelt and left Mr. Immelt a "hodge-podge conglomerate" with one division (GE Capital -a financial services company!) responsible for over 50% of the company's profits. So when the global financial house of cards collapsed so did GE - this had nothing to do with light bulb demand. The fact is GE was ill prepared to weather a downturn in financial services.

As I wrote in a blog posting last year titled Leadership. Lessons from Peter Drucker Part 2 of 3, "there is an old saying in the military that says ultimately, the most effective measure of a leader is the performance of their unit in his his/her absence....".

To be sure, this is not intended to be a pick on Jack Welch blog so much as a let's not get caught up in the flavor of the day mentality like we so often do in the human resources field and marketplace.

If this economy is teaching us anything, it's to be a little more humble; that the fundamentals of building great businesses and great leaders never really change - regardless of what the latest business book may tell us; that there are no tricks or gimmicks - or as Buffet says, "when the tide goes out, we find out who’s been swimming without a bathing suit"; and that there are no CEO messiah's - it takes a team, a big team, working together to make a great company, not a hundred million dollar (with benefits) man or woman.

Our latest marketing trends report looks at HR suppliers

Today we announced the release of our ninth installment of the "Trends in HR Marketing" series of research reports: "Trends in HR Marketing: Where HR Suppliers Spent their Marketing and PR Dollars in 2008 and What's Ahead in 2009".

This latest report mirrors three previous based on surveys sent to HR suppliers. Since 2005, we have asked marketing professionals via online surveys to look in the rear view mirror and answer questions about where they spent their money and what of those expenditures was most and least effective. We then ask where they plan to spend "next year's" budget dollars.

As you would expect, Internet marketing and more recently, online social media, has played an increasingly important role in the marketing and PR mix of HR vendors and suppliers. Likewise, each year the most costly and least measurable of activities, in particular print advertising, continue to show declines according to our survey responses.

I'll be the first to admit that none of these finding constitute breaking news.

However, we get a genuinely welcome and appreciative response with each of these reports. After a few years of discussing these reports with many of you over the phone and at industry conferences, I've concluded one reason in particular makes these reports valuable. Opinions are nice, but unless you've got data to make your case, an opinion is all of you've got.

I once read about a saying made famous within the management corridors of GE that went something like "In God we trust, everyone else bring data." More like a directive than a saying I suppose...one that captures the spirit of many VP of Marketing to CEO interactions I would argue.

While the "Trends in HR Marketing" series may not offer groundbreaking news to most marketers in this industry (then again, it might), I've heard from many of you that it helps immensely to have an independent and industry specific source of data to help make the case for funding the particulars of your marketing budget. So on that point, this report may come too late to impact 2009. But, it may be just what you need to help prevent further mid-year cuts to your budget or to go back and get more dollars!

The 2008/2009 report will not disappoint. Grab it here. For those who prefer the Clif Notes version, Cheezhead offers a good summary.

And please, keep sending your feedback.

Conversation Starters: Twitter

There's been a lot of buzz about Twitter in the past year – the exploding micro-blogging social network service. Here are the seven things marketers and PR pros in the HR marketplace need to know:

• It's quick and easy to sign up for an account at http://twitter.com/
  
• You could set up a separate account for personal and professional use, but I use one for both.
  
• You can only post "updates" and "messages" up to 140 characters in total at a time. That's it.
  
• You have to start following other Twitterers (other HR vendors, journalists, thought leaders, analysts, HR pros, business owners and management, etc.) in order to build your own following (I went from 100 three months ago to over 700 today).
• You can search for and find folks to follow by going to a directory called Twellow (http://www.twellow.com/) and/or doing Google searches for potential twitterers.
  
• You need be a trustworthy source of information about your industry, company and self. No charlatans or spammers allowed because you'll be figured out really friggin' quick.
  
• Do not use Twitter to cram your products and services down your followers' throats. Use to it start conversations, share valuable insights and information, and to reply and retweet when you read something you like (more on that later).
  

We're working on a new eBook tentatively titled "Conversation Starters" that's all about social media marketing and social networking for the HR space, and Twitter will definitely be a part of that. Savvy recruiters and salespeople already get services like Twitter and have been using them a lot longer that I have.

Our goal is to keep it simple, succinct and strategic for you all. There is already a butt-load (yes, I actually wrote butt-load) of best practices information on the street about Twitter and other social media services, some engagingly in-depth, like the post I just read this morning titled The Ties that Binds Us - Visualizing Relationships on Twitter and Social Networks, which referenced a new report called Social networks that matter: Twitter under the microscope from the Social Computing Laboratory, HP Labs (which I'm actually going to read). Or the one that just popped up from @BillVick (that's how you list a Twitterer), one of recruitment's bright voices, who shared the post The 90-10 Rule for Successful Twitter Networking:

Have you noticed all the electronic and tree-based books that have come out on Twitter? There's an amazing amount of verbiage being thrown at us for such a simple service. The sheer volume of training guides, paper books, and in-depth courses on using Twitter is kind of weird when it surrounds a service that worships brevity, 140 characters at a time.

Um, yes, I've noticed. I can barely keep up with my blog reader from my Outlook feed reader. (Is that an oxymoron?)

Recently, one of my "tweeps" (Twitter followers) asked how she should explain Twitter to someone on the street. She said she tried, but only got an eyes-glazed-over return stare.

I joked and said "Say it's a highly productive time-waster." She laughed. I thought about and clarified:

It's a highly productive , laser-efficient, transparent conversation starter for social media networking, marketing and PR.

That's only 123 characters; remember, you can have up to 140.

Regardless of its critics, the ones who claim it's a time-waster, Twitter is an invaluable social networking tool for personal and business branding and marketing. We've found prospects and connected with media and just plain talked shop with other industry folk.

In its simplest form, here are the "The Five Steps of Twitter Success" a fellow Twitterer shared with me recently:

• Follow – follow the folks you want to communicate with and listen to
  
• Reply – reply to the folks you want to communicate with and listen to
  
• Retweet – retweet (repost what they just posted) when you find something you want to share to your follower network
  
• Share – share insights and such with your follower network
  
• Repeat – repeat the above every day you tweet
  

You can find more detailed guidelines here titled "Seven rules for establishing a corporate presence on Twitter" (http://www.socializedpr.com/twitter-seven-rules/)

Be careful – it's like jumping into a particle accelerator – the return is in the shockwaves, not the impact.

Here are just some of the HR suppliers, journalists, bloggers and thought leaders who you can start following today (by all means there many, many more – these were just the folks tweeting this morning):

@Barry_at_IMPACT (IMPACT)

@cheezhead (Joel Cheesman – Cheezhead, mJob)

@clachnit (Carroll Lachnit – Workforce Management)

@ejobfairs (eJobFairs)

@forrester (Forrester Research)

@i4cp (The Institute for Corporate Productivity)

@InternQueen (InternQueen)

@jasonaverbook (Jason Averbook – Knowledge Infusion)

@jessica_lee (Jessica Lee – Blogger, Fistful of Talent)

@jimholincheck (Jim Holincheck – Gartner)

@JohnSumser (John Sumser)

@recruitingblogs (Jason Davis – RecruitingBlogs.com)

@StevenRothberg (CollegeRecruiter.com)

@successfactors (SuccessFactors)

@TalentSynch (Talent Synchronicity)

@ToddRaphael (Todd Raphael – ERE.net)

@workforcenews (Workforce Management)

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Do HR Vendors Have an "Obligation" to Spend Money in this Slow Economy?

Of course not.

But whether they should is not so simple of an answer.

I personally believe we do but bear with me while I state my case.

A few months ago on CNN a pundit declared that people who aren’t currently suffering as a result of the economic decline have a moral obligation to spend their money to help save the economy. While the economy can’t continue to be fueled by rampant consumer spending the fact is most people are simply tapped and couldn't spend money if they wanted to. And frankly, consumers should not be coerced into spending money or feel they have any "obligation" to do so - practically or morally. That's ridiculous.

Who should spend money?

1. Federal Government. The government needs to fund real stimulus projects that will put money into worker’s pockets so they have something to spend. For the most part, this is starting to happen.

2. The banks who took bailout money. I don't think anyone would disagree here. That money was intended to be loaned to qualified borrowers like stable human resource businesses, quality start-ups, home buyers, and car buyers. So yes, the banks should start lending.

3. Businesses. A lot of businesses are sitting on a pile of cash. Unfortunately, many are laying off people who may not need to. They are doing so as a precautionary step. Instead, I would rather see these businesses use salary freezes or even pay cuts to keep as many people on the payroll as possible. This benefits everyone. Many businesses are also delaying the purchase of valuable HR services and software. Again, this short sighted behavior has long lasting impacts on the marketplace leading to fewer HR suppliers and ultimately, few choices which leads to higher prices.

But what about HR vendors?

We've written several blogs about the importance of NOT slashing marketing budgets in a slow economy. Since we are a marketing firm, I realize this sounds a little self serving but more often than not (and history supports this notion), cutting marketing budgets is a mistake, assuming you have a healthy balance sheet and a solid business model. And we're walking the talk at Fisher Vista, LLC (the owners of HRmarketer.com) as we are increasing our marketing spend in 2009. And so far it's paying for itself as our sales pipeline has grown and our sales have not suffered that much. We're investing in trade show exhibiting, advertising, direct marketing, a ton of social networking activities, marketing software and more. We're supporting those who have been loyal to us.

But we're seeing a lot of unnecessary panic in the HR space and this is concerning.

The problem is when vast numbers of HR vendors slash their marketing budgets or in some cases simply stop all marketing it not only hurts their company but it damages the entire human resources industry and this can have long lasting effects. If this continues, for example, we will see more publishers shut down their businesses leading to fewer magazines, newsletters, direct email lists, etc., etc. And this means fewer mediums for HR vendors to communicate and reach HR decision makers. And when the economy returns to strength these outlets won't simply come back over night. The same goes for trade shows. Many HR events will be canceled if the exhibitors don't show up, again leading to fewer venues in the future. The list goes on and on.

So yes, I do think all of us have some obligation in the HR marketplace to support our industry - and not hide under a rock hoping things will get better. Because this mentality only makes the problem worse.

Let's support one another.

Sales team struggling? Try these expert tips.

So many things to blog about and so little time…

While I'm catching up on time, here's are some helpful tips from sales experts I came across in the latest Fortune magazine titled "How Can I Keep My Sales Team Productive in a Recession."

Let's face it – it's pretty crappy out there. Asteroids keep happening and you have to keep your marketing/PR visibility and website traffic up in order to be ready for the buyers when they're ready.

We're hearing from HR suppliers that outplacement (of course), leadership development, simulation/learning/assessment, succession planning, wellness coaching, workforce planning, compensation management and performance management still have traction. This also includes all sorts of efficiency opportunities for vendors to help HR reduce overhead.

Struggling with sales now though? Tell your struggling sales teams to stand tall and take initiative with these (we are):

• In normal times, what customers want to hear varies: Some are interested in growth or competitiveness (and better workforce management); some want next-generation product. Now all they want is to wring every inch of value out of their infrastructure. So make sure you have a message that addresses that (and every single pain point you can identify and help solve).
  
• This is the time when your CEO/President/Owner should be on the phone, on the airplane, and going out to visit your best customers. Any salesperson should be dragging the most senior person they can get their arm around out to show your commitment.
  
• Try adding extra services. Adding consulting services to your existing products and services can be a booster and differentiator.
  
• Make sure your selling to the right person. In a tight market, the buying power shifts up. The buyer who could spend $10,000 a year ago has no power. Salespeople need to build relationships with higher-level contacts.
  
• Don't cut prices. It will put you out of business faster than anything. Look at the auto industry and Circuit City. Cutting prices to maintain volume is a wonderful strategy if it's only going to last one season. It's suicide in a long recession.
  

If you get Fortune, you can read entire 3-minute manager page with these sales tips.

Good luck!

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Placing Gen Y. Brill Street's Interesting Business Model.

I recently had a delightful conversation with a new HRmarketer.com member Brandi Blades from an intriguing new company called Brill Street.

In fact, the Chicago Tribune recently profiled their firm in an article titled Tapping young talent offers flexibility, cost savings: Some firms find smooth transition from intern to full-time hire.

Essentially, Brill Street helps companies tap into the 18-24 year old workforce - specifically, students in their final years of college or recently graduated. That in itself is not all that unique but how Brill Street "places" theses students is. Here is a quick summary of my conversation with Brandi:

I asked Brandi why they focus on this demographic group. The answer is because its a uniquely talented age group of well educated talent who understands Web 2.0 and other emerging technologies (skill sets employers desperately need - especially in IT and Marketing) that due to the current economic climate are available for employment at affordable rates.

The really interesting thing about Brill Street's business model is their process for screening candidates, matching them to prospective employers and the low cost / low risk employment options they offer.

Brill Street is not a job board. They work with hundreds of universities (and social networking sites like Facebook) to recruit and identify potential candidates who "apply" to Brill Street via their web site. At a minimum, students must have a 3.5 or above GPA (oops - I wouldn't have qualified!). The candidates transcripts are then reviewed, references checked (prior work references, professors, etc.), etc. and selected candidates are given a phone, Internet and/or face-to-face interview. Qualified candidates are then "hired" by Brill Street (as need dictates) who essentially acts as a PEO paying the candidates themselves.

After that, Brill Street either places the candidate with an employer (if an existing Brill Street employer client needs someone matching the candidates skill sets) or they "showcase" them to their client base (kind of like, "Hey, we know you are not actively looking for a position to fill but we have this great candidate............).

Here is where it gets interesting.

While Brill Street does direct placements, most of their work is placing candidates for short term projects. Brill Street offers employers a sort of on-demand workforce. So for example, a client needing 7 people to work on a short term project for 4 months would get an instant team. The benefit to the candidates is valuable work experience (while they are deciding what to do or looking for full time work) and the benefit to the employer is a high quality instant team without the recruiting and on boarding expenses (again, Brill Street is acting as a PEO sort of company, paying the candidates themselves).

But what's really cool is Brill Street's Try Before you Hire program where companies committed to developing leaders from within can more easily identify potential full-time hires working with Brill Streeters.

I love it.

Brill Street is the brainchild of David Frej and Nancy Lerner, a husband-and-wife team. The entrepreneurs noticed that more of their client companies were complaining about the challenges of finding entry-level talent while they knew families whose college students couldn’t find jobs. "We’re creating a new category. This is not a space that is heavily occupied," Lerner said.

David and Nancy launched the company with $200,000 in personal funds and then attracted additional funding from angel investors and venture capitalists (Brill Street received $2.75 million in first-round venture funding).

I wish them luck. In the current slow economy it's wonderful to see young successful companies give it a go in the HR space - and have success!

If you have an interesting HR company you would like to introduce me to please contact me - or hook up with me on Facebook. I love to talk with fellow entrepreneurs and share their stories with our blog readership.

Beyond Kudos, Gold Stars and Gift Cards: A New Employee Engagement Solution

Sometimes we come across an idea that's really sound, increases workforce morale and productivity, and contributes to a company's strategy and bottom line – especially in today's market.

Last Friday I was forwarded a launch release from Brand Integrity, a web-based employee engagement software solution. When I first read the first paragraph of the release, my eyes glazed over a bit due to jargonography (similar to cartography, except it's the textual mapping of ambiguity and buzz):

Brand Integrity today announced the Potential Point™ Employee Engagement Solution, a combination of web-based software and services that transforms employee recognition into a pervasive leadership tool. The solution addresses the widespread business challenge of executing strategy effectively by aligning company goals with employee behaviors, and engaging individuals to share, recognize and repeat the best practices that deliver meaningful results.

What? But then the second paragraph came into focus:

During development, 20 companies tested the solution to measure its impact (for the past 4 years), with results showing cultural and business benefits beyond simply helping employees feel appreciated. For example, in the first five months of using the system, employees at Retirement Living Television (RLTV) now have 100 percent awareness and buy-in on the company's mission and strategies, and they've captured hundreds of success stories, with 30 percent identifying replicable ways to significantly impact business growth.

I was curious and wanted to know more, so I had the opportunity yesterday to talk with with Brand Integrity founder, Gregg Lederman. He gave me an overview and a brief demo and I was really impressed.

Basically we're talking about a web-based employee "kudos" system for employers large and small that go beyond gold stars, gift cards and Excel spreadsheets. But that's not what impressed me; creating nifty web-based employee-performance tracking systems of any kind don't take a lot of investment or time to get off the ground these days. It wasn't even the easy-to-use interface for adding employees, the employee/manager "nomination" process, end user data management – or any of that stuff.

It was four things:

• Although HR is the primary buyer, a "champion" from executive management must oversee the program in order for it to be successful. This is crucial for any company-wide quality-management initiative (think Six Sigma or TQM).
  
• Giving kudos and gold stars to employees who meet and exceed performance expectations is great. But aligning those expectations with peer-to-peer participation and company strategy is where it's all at. That combination in conjunction with acknowledging your workforce throughout the year is what makes brands shine.
  
• They work with many non-technical companies where not all employees have Web access, so in one example, they installed onsite kiosks when employees could nominate others who were doing a great job.
  
• Ah, show me a happier, engaged and productive workplace and I'll show you happier, engaged customers and growth. And the Brand Integrity reporting tools seem to do just that, showing management exactly how increased employee engagement can improve processes, productivity, save money, increase revenue per employee – make the brand shine.
  

Here were some success stories they shared with me from their beta customers to date:

Cowan, Gunteski & Co has been able to achieve 100 percent employee awareness and buy-in of the firm's brand and mission. Ninety-seven percent participation in the Employee Engagement System has also enabled the firm to capture and share more than 1,000 best practices with employees—15% having a high impact—and to provide more cost-effective training and consistent service delivery. This universal alignment is a primary factor in the firm's recent awards, including Accounting Today's "Best Firms to Work for in 2008," and "Best Place to Work in New Jersey in 2008." The EFP Group's more than 95 percent participation in the Employee Engagement Solution is leading to more collaboration at all levels of the CPA firm. The stories on how employees are executing the company's brand have had significant impact: 20% have had high impact on the firm, improving ability to replicate best practices for more consistent performance and business results across locations, 36% have uncovered ways to improve efficiencies and save money, 27% have detailed ways to enhance EFP's client service, and 24% have documented client retention practices.

The University of Rochester Medical's Strong Hospital needed to improve its process for educating and recognizing employees who contribute to enhancing patient care in order to move from its current 50% patient satisfaction rating to a goal of 90%. In the first six months of implementing the Employee Engagement Solution, the Hospital has already improved its turnaround time for processing employee recognition by 300%, reducing processing time for handling 400 nominations from four days to only one day. This efficiency will enable Strong to meet its goals for notifying employees of "Strong Stars" within 2 weeks (when the prior system was 8 weeks). In addition, the solution has improved accuracy by 40%, with nomination returns by supervisors now at 10% as opposed to 25% using the old process, the faster processing of best practices is speeding education and alignment around Strong Commitment and ICARE values, and the hospital now has measurement capabilities to regularly track participation, communicate results and measure business impact.

They get a gold start from me. Good luck to you, Gregg!

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Web 2.0 and Customer Service

I recently stayed at a wonderful hotel in San Francisco and posted a positive review of my experience on the very popular social networking site, Yelp.

Within minutes I receive a email (via Yelp) from the hotel's customer service representative thanking me for my review and alerting me to other hotel properties they own. The representative also gave me her email address and direct phone line asking me to contact her direct the next time I was interested in staying at one of their hotels.

Wow.

Although I had a great experience I have to assume that if I didn't, this person would have immediately responded to my issue(s) and made things right. Regardless, I was impressed that they actually had someone assigned to reviewing customer feedback on social networking sites. This company gets it!

As social networking sites continue to grow in popularity - especially as they relate to the posting of "reviews" for consumer businesses (e.g., restaurants and hotels) - it's going to become standard business protocol for businesses to monitor the feedback and proactively establish direct contact with customers. What an incredible opportunity for businesses to build the brand and create great customer loyalty. A growing number companies like Comcast, H&R Block, JetBlue, Whole Foods and Ford are even using Twitter now and responding directly to customers (and naysayers).

Maybe the major airlines can learn something here although I doubt anyone at United, American or any other major airline is even beginning to think this way. Although I hope I'm wrong.

This may become increasingly important in the B2B world of HR. At HRmarketer.com we will soon be updating our popular HR Supplier Directory within our HRmarketer Community to allow HR professionals to rate the HR vendors they use. When completed, what a tremendous opportunity for HR suppliers to monitor what people say about their companies and respond accordingly.

Good stuff.

Whatever you do, stay close to the spark ne'er mind the burn

Last week Mark and I spoke in depth about our firm, who we are, what we have and where we're going. And we agreed that at the center of it all we're a:

Marketing and PR Software and Services Firm

Everything we development for our online service, everything traditional and Web 2.0 tactic we practice in our services group – the very spark from Mark's mind nine years ago – is to generate visibility, traffic and leads for HR vendors and senior care vendors.

We're a Marketing and PR Software and Services Firm.

This week I read a post from Chris Brogan (social media marketer extraordinaire – check him out) asking the question "where is the kernel of your blog?":

In software terms, a kernel is the deep core functionality of your operating system. It's really that which defines the rest of what follows. Kernels are tiny cores from which everything else flows.

Could you distill your blog down to a simple operational kernel around which you'd write the rest of your "code?"

To me that applies to the kernel of your business as well – the fundamental core of why you're in business in the first place – and all your marketing and PR activities, the ones you're tempted to snuff out in times such as these, must reignite a marketplace conversation no matter how long the ice age.

Whatever you do, stay close to the spark ne'er mind the burn.

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Ice Age Hot Spots - What Are the HR Industry's Bright Spots?

Kevin Grossman started a discussion thread in the Facebook Group Human Resource (HR) Vendors titled Ice Age Hot Spots where he asks "with the economic ice age upon us, what are the hot spots in our space?" Read the responses and please let us know your opinion.

Along those lines, you might be interested in the latest Wall Street Transcript report,
Investor Outlook on Human Capital Services (60 page report) where Mark S. Marcon of Robert W. Baird & Co. discusses the outlook for the sector and for investors.

By the way, if you are an HR vendor we encourage you to join the HR Vendors Facebook Group and participate in the discussions. And if you are a journalist or analyst in the space you might find the Facebook Group Human Resources (HR) Media of interest.

Kill the barriers. Hang a welcome sign on your door.

It started when I tried to comment on a blog post at Knowledge Infuser. I looked and I scanned (in the real-time Web jet skiing of 5.5 seconds), but I couldn't see how to comment.

So I left and tweeted about how frustrating it was to run into a barrier like this online, especially when I wanted to be part of that particular conversation. Within 10 minutes the Jasons replied.

Don't get me wrong – Jason Averbrook and Jason Corsello are icons in the human capital space and I'm an avid reader of their blogs. But the answer I received was the fact that, because of so much spam these days, they require registration at Knowledge Infusion in order to participate in commenting.

Barriers are barriers, though. Most blog platforms have security measures built in to verify you're a real person commenting and to give bloggers the ability to screen comments. And that got me thinking about more than commenting on blogs.

It got me thinking about content in general and how liberating the Internet has been to giving global access to content (we can debate quality and objectivity another time). However, more often than not companies still try to control their content and messaging, and that isn't working anymore. Transparency and accessibility is where it's at, but the more I immerse myself in social media and networking, I realize that as marketing and PR professionals we still put up way too many barriers potential buyers, partners, you name it.

To register or not to register is still the question – but it's even more than that these days. It's also about easily accessible "complimentary" content (free is a spam word remember) versus premium content that comes with a price tag.

First registration. We knew when we launched our HR community that requiring registration to access over 500 vendor profiles and nearly 2,000 of pieces of content would be a barrier and limit our traffic. Yes, we require registration when vendors and individuals want to complete a profile and link to their white papers and webcasts and podcast and the like, but that's not the same thing as giving open access to visitors.

I'm even starting to wane on requiring registration for content download offers. I mean, the current social media marketing super stars would tell you that just because someone downloaded your white paper or a research report doesn't mean they're a prospect. And that's true. Maybe if they download your content over time (in conjunction with other marketing/PR activities), start seeing you as a thought leader in your space, that your solutions just might help them, and then when the timing is right and their organization needs a new ATS, compensation software, I-9 compliance software, leadership development, whatever – they just might reach out to you to talk about your products/services. (We can also debate building a house another time.)

Then there's the premium content "exclusivity" business model – content sites like The HR Specialist and MarketingProfs and industry analysts like Gartner and Forrester that sell premium content along with other products and services.

But with old media dying and the sheer volume of "complimentary" content available on the Web, including podcasts that will grow exponentially in number in the next few years, how long can the premium content model be sustained? I'm sure some of these firms could show me otherwise, that their models are viable and their subscribers are there, but I'll bet that number gets smaller and smaller, even for the industry analysts. Buyers have access to too much online already, and vendors are going to have to use the content to market and sell very select content (eBooks, printed books, annual research reports) but particularly their products and/or services.

I propose that HR (and senior care) vendors use their quality content to generate visibility and website traffic, kill the barriers like registration and premium content, and the true leads will come over time.

Hang a welcome sign on your door.

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Recruiters step up: new opportunities (may be) abound

While the unemployment rate rises to record highs, recruiters are scrambling for their lives. However, there is some potential new opportunity for recruiters, if they act quickly. An article by Nick Carey titled Hiring firms gear up for US finance mop-up, stimulus highlights this opportunity.

The article points out that the economic stimulus package will create jobs, and this may translate to the need for recruiters. Not only that, but according to the article, "U.S. policymakers are considering whether to place toxic or virtually worthless assets left in the wake of the financial crisis into a bank cleanup program that some analysts estimate could cost as much as $4 trillion. Although the exact form of these programs has yet to be decided, staffing companies say they are preparing to fill a raft of different jobs with accountants, engineers, lawyers, bankers, mortgage specialists and compliance officers."

Some of these jobs will be filled directly through the President's own job board: Whitehouse.gov, which isn't up and running yet, but will be soon, according to the website.

It's my guess that many of the non-skilled labor positions can and will be filled through the President's job board, but not all positions will be filled that way. The need for professionals (accountants, engineers, lawyers, bankers, mortgage specialists and compliance officers) to help with the bank cleanup program is a ray of hope for those recruiters who can respond quickly.

Way back in the day, when I worked at Home Savings after the collapse in the Savings and Loan Industry, there was demand for qualified accountants CPR's and compliance officers to work for the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). These candidates have always been hard to find, and will likely be found through recruitment agencies. My advice is start looking for these candidates now.

But screen the guys in the cartoon out! (Or would that be EEOC discrimination, even against cartoons?)

Post by Dawn Passaro

Messaging and Mutinies

Many of us at HRmarketer are serious Battlestar Galactica fans, and Friday night's episode was as wild a ride as we've ever endured. For those unfamiliar, the TV show is a remake of an old 1970s space opera, following a ragtag fleet of human survivors after their worlds are devastated by a 9/11-style surprise attack. The attackers: Cylons, mechanical beings who long ago rebelled against their human creators. The quest: finding Earth, the fabled planet where life began.

The fleet is led by the aging battlestar Galactica (hence the title), which is basically a giant aircraft carrier in space. For four years, BSG has used its faraway setting to examine questions about politics, religious extremism, military power, faith, what it means to be human . . . and lots of rocking space battles.

So that brings us to Friday's episode—a mutiny in space. Admiral Bill Adama and President Laura Roslin (the always-wonderful Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell) face a mutiny on the Galactica, spurred by a frustrated senior officer and an opportunistic vice president. As the coup erupts into a full-scale firefight, the body count climbs, our heroes escape the bad guys' clutches, and at the end Adama and his longtime friend Colonel Tigh are trapped in an escape bay with nowhere to go. Traitorous marines are cutting through the blast doors, and they eventually wedge the doors open just enough to toss in a grenade.

And the screen fades to black with three words: "To be continued." The entire neighborhood probably heard the screams in the Lawrence house.

Yet this didn't have to happen, and the reasons are easy enough for any Earthbound marketing pro to understand.

What triggered the mess was Adama's announcement to the fleet that they were going to ally with a faction of rebellious Cylons. (See, they found Earth but it was in rough shape—nuclear holocausts tend to ruin the scenery.) So now the fleet needs to find a new home—any liveable planet—before they run out of food and supplies. Only Bill didn't make much of a case to the fleet's government . . . in fact, he didn't make any case for why they should trust the enemies who destroyed their lives four years ago. He just told them they had no choice, and that's that. Where was Laura to help make the case? Unable to govern, lost in depression from discovering a scorched Earth.

Backed into a corner, Adama believed there was no time for debates—no time to properly explain why these Cylons are different, and how they are humanity's last option for survival. What's the backup plan if they turn on us, the people may have asked? We haven't thought that far ahead, he'd likely answer.

So if I haven't lost you yet and you're still keeping score at home, that's one rushed and incomplete message, a fragmented message delivery, and a non-existent response plan. No concern about the audience and how they might react. And oh yeah, a military revolt with lots of gunfire.

Granted, the stakes aren't exactly so dire for marketing and PR professionals, but is the dilemma really that different? I've lost count of how many news releases I've seen that raise more questions than answers . . . or an announcement that lacks any detailed substance, not to mention an explanation of why their product or service is unique. I've seen story pitches that have zero relevance to the publication they're targeting, and less consideration for why an overburdened editor should care. Worst of all, I've seen releases that are barely literate, as if the writers only cared about "getting the %@#! thing done."

So what's a marketer to do when time and resources are thin?

HRmarketer offers its members a free press release review service, and our media relations advice is equally free. Take the time to properly craft your story pitches and press releases, and develop a distribution plan. Make sure your key players know what to do (and prep a customer or two) should a journalist call.

In sum, let's learn from the Galactica's bad day:

• Don't rush the sell job.
  
• A bad message does far more harm than no message.
  
• Anticipate the audience's response.
  
• Don't trust a vice president who's a frakkin' ex-terrorist.
  

(Um, the last one wasn't really for this audience).

So say we all!

Posted by Elrond Lawrence (PR pro, half-cylon, half-human)