Before the deep sales dive you gotta screen through the luke-warm jive.

You're in business to stay in business whether you've got an end game, a path for aggressive growth, or it's a lifestyle.

But for most smaller HR suppliers, when you've actually invested the resources and did all the continued hard marketing work -- now what?

I mean, you've got a bucket full of leads from Webinars, white paper downloads and the like -- now what?

We've talked before about lead nurturing before and how to stay in front of your prospects with continued content marketing.

What about cutting through the luke-warm jive and qualifying the leads? You don't need an complicated enterprise-level qualification system to get this done.

You and your sales and marketing staff (or you and your marketing firm -- or just you) can answer a simple question:

What constitutes a qualified lead for my firm?

Then develop qualification criteria based on (if you haven't already captured some of this in lead-capture forms):

• What’s the size of your company? (If this is a consideration.)
• Are you currently in the market for [insert your products/services]?
• What is your timeframe to buy [insert your products/services]
• Do you have a budget allocated for the purchase of [insert your products/services]?

These are but a few screening questions you can ask your leads. If they qualify as a warmer lead -- a potential buyer in the near term -- then you escalate your sales process.

Maybe then you'll get more detailed and ask them questions like:

• What is your decision-making process?
• Do you send out RFI’s, and/or RFP’s?
• How do you research, interview and screen potential vendors in order to create a short list of potential vendors?
• Who is involved in the decision-making process?

Of course your qualification screening process and the more detailed questions you ask all depend on what products and services you sell.

But for goodness sake don't rely only on e-mail to qualify leads. Write a script, pick up the phone and call them. Thank them for their interest in your "stuff". Ask them for a few minutes to answer simple questions.

You're going to get a heck of a lot of voice mail but you will certainly benefit from those you speak live to -- those that may become buyers.

Before the deep sales dive you gotta screen through the luke-warm jive.

We're helping more and more clients do just this, so give us a call if you need advice.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

They're the people behind the voice that seep into our soil and help us grow.

A decade ago a fiction editor gave me a great piece of advice:

"The only way to find your voice is to fall through the center of the earth and back again."

Of course, he was referring to life experience and tons of reading and writing, and of course I blew him off and responded with some flippant remark.

And of course he never gave my work a second look. Thankfully I finally decided to fall through the center of earth (and am still falling).

Fast forward to the wild world of business blogging. Sharlyn Lauby (aka, HR Bartender) wrote a post last week on her blog titled Buy My Stuff and Click My Junk.

In it she relays advice from another blogger:

The key to blogging success was simple – never ask your community to “buy your S@#% and click your junk.”

No one wants to read blogs that constantly do little more than selling – buy my book, hear me speak, come to my event, yada yada. The value lies in engaging members of the community in conversation and building relationships. If you write good stuff, people will naturally want to know what you do.

You should read the whole post because she goes on to talk about face-to-face interactions and the true value of networking without selling.

I responded in the comments:

Right on, Sharlyn. There’s a art to the contextually appropriate times to sell to each other, and it comes easier when there is a basis of a communicative relationship first.

People flock to blogs to consume voice and to share voice, not stuff. Same with face-to-face interaction; there must be a reciprocal nature to the exchange.

If you dig each other, you’ll put up with the occasional pitch.

You can embed a lot of thought leadership, topical trend data, best practices, tips, and of course pitching your products and services in your website, in your collateral, in your deminars (demo webinars) and in so many more marketing activities.

You also share that same information in your business blog and unfortunately as we've mentioned before there is a lot of voiceless junk out there.

Quality business blogging, like all blogging, is more of an art, a creative writing exercise via effective communication -- your voice -- whether that's one primary blogger or many.

People flock to blogs to consume voice and to share voice, not stuff.

"The only way to find your voice is to fall through the center of the earth and back again."

An authentic voice that's credible, rich in industry and life experience yet always willing to learn. (The same goes for face-to-face interaction.)

They can make us laugh. They can make us think. They can make us mad. They can make us drink.

They can make us reach for the stars and shout: "Right on!"

They're the people behind the voice that seep into our soil and help us grow.

They show us without telling.

Those are the bloggers I follow.

You?

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, FacebookandLinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, FacebookandLinkedIn!)

And another thing. Know the differences and be a leader in media relations.

And another thing...

When I was at WorldatWork this week I had the honor of meeting John Hollon in person, editor and journalist extraordinaire.

If you don't know who John Hollon is, read Sumser's Top 100 Influencers coverage of him and check our John's LinkedIn profile.

With 32 years of journalism under his belt, Hollon is a principled and opinionated influencer. As the editor of Workforce Magazine for the past six years, Hollon shapes and encourages the HR Industry.

John recently became the Vice President for Editorial at ERE Media, Inc. and plans to help launch a very cool new online media endeavor via ERE very soon.

HRmarketer has worked with John for many years, pitching him our client's stories and news, and we've learned a lot from his leadership and business savvy.

So here's the insight I gleaned while talking with John on the expo floor, much of which we've talked about before:

• A true "thought leader" blog is not the same thing as a media outlet. A journalist and/or editor for a print or online publication may have a blog, but the "voice" and purpose can be quite different. Know the difference.
• There is a lot of free content available out there today, which means there is a lot of crap out there (content farms) as well as the good stuff. Quality content marketing is king. Know the difference.
• If you have access to a large database of publications and journalists (like HRmarketer's), then don't be impatient saying you don't have the time to review and know who you should be targeting. Make the time, Jack. Know who you should be pitching and why and don't spam. Know the difference.
• Be a resource for the media, not a pain in the behind spilling your own Kool-Aid all over your press releases. Understand trends and topics in your part of the HR space. Know the difference.
• Sending a release via a wire service isn't the same thing as pitching a small group of targeted journalists you've researched and want to cover your news. No, it's not. There is no easy button. Know the difference.
• Have you even read the publications your pitching? Media is getting hammered and layoffs are non-stop, so you better know why you're pitching the pubs and the news better mesh. Don't throw spaghetti against the wall. Know the difference.
• Get to know social media because many journalists are using tools like Twitter to source possible story ideas (and HRmarketer is tracking all journalists tweets). But make sure to listen and network the natural way. Don't force the buddy-buddy schlock. Know the difference.

Know the differences and be a leader in media relations. Right on.

Pleasure meeting you in person, John. Good luck to you.

Some other useful related human resource marketing resources:

• Print Media Dying a Slow Death. Get Social and Get Online.
• Using Traditional and Search Engine Marketing (and Social Networking) to Leverage Your Investments in Original Content and SEO.
  
• Conversation Starters – Social Media Marketing in the HR Marketplace.
• Making Sense of Your Press Release Distribution Options.
• Using Original Content to Generate Online Visibility, Web Site Traffic and Sales Leads.
• SEO and “Marketing” Web Sites – Internet Best Practices for Human Resource Vendors.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, FacebookandLinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, FacebookandLinkedIn!)

Yahoo Gives Up $100M for More Ad Bait aka Associated Content

"Associated Content stands as a cautionary tale for anyone looking to do news by the numbers. It is a wasteland of bad writing, uninformed commentary, and the sort of comically dull recitation of the news you'd get from a second grader." - Farhad Manjoo, Technical Writer, Slate

You may have heard that Yahoo agreed to buy the web-content company Associated Content (AC) for a price that many experts believe was close to $100 million. Associated has about 380,000 'contributors' who get paid between $0.99 - $10 per article they write and an additional performance bonus of about $2.00 per 1,000 views on their content.

Yahoo says that this acquisition will expand their source of high quality, original news and content. Quotes from Yahoo executives about the deal:

- "Combining our world-class editorial team with Associated Content's makes this a game-changer." - "Together we'll create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network." - "The addition of Associated will enhance Yahoo!'s social, mobile local and media offerings and will entice advertisers with more topic areas and real-time content generation".

Frankly, I am perplexed by this deal. $100 million? I cannot see how this deal benefits the shareholders of Yahoo - not at that price. And given Yahoo's history of very bad acquisitions (Geocities, Broadcast.com, Inktomi, Overture to name a few) my confidence level in the above statements by Yahoo execs is lukewarm.

So why is an HR marketing blog commenting on this acquisition? At HRmarketer, we take content very seriously. We produce a lot of content for our clients and we house a lot of content in our HR Directory and HR Content Library. We think producing great non promotional content (that is search optimized) is a key marketing and PR strategy for HR vendors. Content (white papers, research, articles, e-books, etc.) can be used to establish an HR vendor as a thought leader in the human resources marketplace, leading to increased online visibility and sales leads. But putting bad content out there just for the sake of generating leads almost always fails - fool me once shame on you; fool me twice shame on me.

Yahoo will have to sell a lot of ads to make this deal pay for itself. Currently AC makes money from the display ads on these articles and from Google AdSense. Will Yahoo now switch out those Google Ads and replace them with their own Yahoo Ads? And considering 80%+ of ACs traffic comes direct from Google search results how might that complicate matters?

I'm still not sure why this deal bothers me so much. Perhaps because such a value - premium - was placed not on the quality of the content but on a business model that flourishes because of its access to a ridiculously inexpensive yet willing labor pool that produces a product of questionable quality that - dare I say - the masses tolerate and even reward.

Or maybe I don't get it (an opposing view to my take is given by Ken Doctor, author of Newsonomics).

As one blogger wrote, "Associated Content pollutes the top search results with garbage content that is written solely for the purpose of search engine exposure in Google". And because contributors get paid for page views there really is no incentive to produce great content - just great headlines (to get you to click the links) with keyword stuffed articles and titles.

Isn't Yahoo concerned with how this content may impact the quality of their brand? Probably not as this is all about advertising revenue. But is it sustainable?

The Economist just last week published an outstanding article on these types of web sites which they call "content farms". Some excerpts from this article:

- "Content farms like Demand Media and Associated Content aim to produce content at a price so low that even meagre advertising revenue can support it". - "Demand Media’s approach is a “combination of science and art”, in the words of Steven Kydd, who is in charge of the firm’s content production. Clever software works out what internet users are interested in and how much advertising revenue a given topic can pull in. The results are sent to an army of 7,000 freelancers, each of whom must have a college degree, writing experience and a speciality. They artfully pen articles or produce video clips to fit headlines such as “How do I paint ceramic mugs?” and “Why am I so tired in winter?”

Predictably, many commentators are appalled, calling these sites “demonic”. Dan Gillmor, a professor of journalism at Arizona State University said "the problem with content farms is that they swamp the internet with mediocre content. To earn a decent living, freelancers have to work at a breakneck pace, which has an obvious impact on quality. Moreover, content that is designed to appear high up in the results produced by search engines could lose its audience if the search engines change their rules".

Time will tell if this deal pencils out but our suggestion to HR vendors is not to follow in Yahoo's footsteps by viewing content only as a means to generate more impressions and sales leads at the expense of brand integrity - and solid information.

The World is at Work working hard to attract, motivate and retain the bestest of the rest.

HR is relevant. No doubt about it. In fact, as HR evolves, learns the business behind the business and then helps to grow the business throughout the enterprise, it'll be even more relevant.

Right on.

Plus, when you're in larger organizations with lots of HR staff, then you've got specialists like compensation and benefits folks.

The physicists of HR.

I say that because, although I joke about having played HR on T.V. in the 80's, I certainly have never played a comp or benefits specialist.

Mercy, their jobs are intricate and complicated -- salary and benefits do make up a huge swath of company budgets and are still pretty big carrots to attract talent.

Just listening anecdotally to these HR pros talk about their jobs was almost enough to make me and my savvy HRmarketer and HR Vendor Phonebook team pass out on the expo floor of this year's WorldatWork Total Rewards Conference & Exposition.

*clap-clap-clap-clap*

Deep in the heart of Texas.

Let's also not forget the performance management, employee recognition and rewards, and work-life architects that also attended the event.

It's not called Total Rewards for nothing -- and now more than ever companies are doing everything they can, as creatively as they can, to keep their best in lieu of investing more money.

Now, this isn't to disparage the equally as intelligent specialists in training, learning and leadership development folks up in Chicago at the ASTD International Conference & Exposition going on at the same time.

But we weren't there, we were here, at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine. Like the Disneyland Alamo, complete with a river walk and all. An amazing venue (everything's so big in Texas).

While we were relegated to the expo floor and did not attend any sessions this time, the buzz on the floor was that the session content was high-caliber and motivating.

Jeff Taylor was one of the keynotes -- founder and former CEO of Monster.com -- and he was quoted as saying:

"If you want your people to make some noise, you [leaders] have to make some noise."

Then he made everyone take off one shoe. Sorry I missed that. To actually motivate people enough to take off a shoe. Crazy cool.

Per my conversation with Kenneth Shafton, North American Leader of Marketing at Towers Watson, who had center stage on the expo floor:

• Attendance was up almost 30% this year. Not quite to pre-meltdown levels, but a positive sign nontheless.
• The attendee titles and corresponding company sizes were much more conducive to sales conversations. This was representative of many of the major shows in the past year and what makes the HR suppliers very happy!
• Having the event at such a landlocked venue like the Gaylord prevented attendees from heading out on their own. They were there for the duration and again helped with booth traffic -- with the exception of the Sunday night reception, something W@W will change next year.

Audrey Johnson, Visibility Manager for WorldatWork, confirmed these observations as well. (Love that title -- Visibility Manager, and once again Audrey's festive painted toenails below.)

The World is at Work working hard to attract, motivate and retain the bestest of the rest.

Thank goodness for that.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook andLinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook andLinkedIn!)

Viewing Organizations Through an EAP Lens. Great New Report.

A lot of excellent Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) and Work-Life companies use HRmarketer so we've become quite accustomed to the space.

One of these company's, Harris, Rothenberg International, just released an absolutely fantastic and informative report titled "Working Toward a Culture of Health: Annual Trends Report 2010".

The Great Recession has brought to the workplace a wide array of challenges, some not seen in decades, others completely unprecedented. As employers continues to deal with what some people are calling the “New Normal”, Harris, Rothenberg International's 2010 Annual Trends Report is based on their experiences, observations, and data from thousands of employees across hundreds of businesses who accessed HRI's services the last several years.

Perhaps no other HR vendor has greater insights into the overall health and pulse of an organization than an EAP. An EAP fields hundreds and in some cases thousands of calls from a company's employees and managers on a range of issues from personal family matters to health & wellness to employee/manager relationships. All of which have an impact on employee productivity. As a result, an EAP is privileged to information that even a company's internal HR department and management may not have access to.

And that is what makes this report so valuable.

Some key talking points from the report:

• Many HR executives report that they are successfully integrating EAP / work-life services with their health and wellness offerings, describing this as a natural pairing that increases efficiency and encourages greater utilization.
• EAP/Work-life counselors increasingly "refer" employees to other key benefits in an organization. Often, after a caller identifies one concern, it quickly becomes apparent that there are multiple significant underlying issues that also need to be addressed. For example, the initial purpose of a call might be to seek financial advice or obtain help in avoiding home foreclosure, but issues of domestic violence or substance abuse might then become evident as the call progresses.
• Branding EAP-Work-life programs under a new name to expand the program’s reach and usage without the connotation or stigma of "EAP" is a growing trend.
• Calls to the EAP have increased every month year over year from 2009 to 2010. In particular, emergency calls have dramatically increased.
• There is a greater complexity in calls to the EAP.
• Outsourcing of HR functions by some companies has resulted in the EAP taking on more of the role of assisting managers.
• Once the unemployment rate hit 8% in February of 2009, more than 50% of EAP participants reported moderate or severe anxiety.

The conclusion of the report focused on the importance of COMMUNICATION with regard to company benefits. Strategies mentioned include:

• Make more employees and dependents aware of the existence of the programs.
• Explain what the programs offer.
• Emphasize that the programs are confidential.
• Create an automatic connection between a need for services and calling the EA/work-life and/or health and wellness programs.

Both HR managers and HR vendors can learn a lot from this data as they look at strategies to support employees, make employees more productive and tailor other HR services to the real pain points of organizations. Download it here.

The Manager Question. What Question?

I just read an article titled "The Manager Question" in the April 2010 print issue of Workforce Management (sorry - can't link to article because it's not online - ughhh!). The article starts off saying:

"The old saw that "people don't leave companies, they leave managers has become outdated if it ever was true. Recent polls on retention reveal that crummy managers aren't the principal cause of employee defections. While employers say the manager-employee tie is the biggest or second-biggest reason workers jump ship, employees put many other factors ahead of the manager connection, such as stress and base pay."

I'm unsure of what the point of the article is, which by the way is an exceptionally well written article by Ed Frauenheim. Even if we buy into the premise of these consultants and their survey results that say "the relationship between an employee and their direct report is NOT the main reason an employee leaves a company", so what? Are companies supposed to focus less attention on hiring, training and developing great managers?

Of course not.

Ed Frauenheim does a great job presenting other points of view and the article is superb because it invites criticism and provokes thought. Perhaps this IS the point of the article, but the conclusions of these so-called experts do a disservice to employers and HR departments by even suggesting the diminished importance of great management.

In one survey used to confirm the viewpoint that the relationship between an employee and their direct report is not the main reason an employee leaves a company, key reasons cited as to why employees leave companies included:

1. lack of confidence in the company
2. stress
3. base pay
4. recognition for contributions and opportunities for growth and development.

But a great manager who knows his/her direct reports and communicates regularly with them would know about these issues BEFORE they become major problems! And the manager would address them accordingly. The one exception may be a lack in the company's stability but I would not consider that a valid argument against the importance of the relationship between an employee and their direct report.

Admittedly, I don't have a PhD in psychology or organizational development but I have been an employee (reporting to great managers and lousy managers) at some of the most well respected and admired Fortune 100 companies. And I have played the role of "manager" for dozens of individuals since 1994 including the company I founded in 2000. And my own experience tells me that the relationship between an employee and their direct report is absolutely critical in retaining great people.

And many leadership development, talent management and performance management companies we work with at HRmarketer have undeniable data that supports this fact. In particular, the strong correlation between reduced turnover and investments in quality management training programs.

So what's the point in debating whether it is the number one, two, three or one hundredth most important reason why an employee leaves a company?

What do you think? I'd love to hear your opinion.

Release the leash: I've got plenty of Elmo Band-Aids.

Recently in my daddy blog I wrote:

Okay, I know Bea's only 19 months old and the Pacific has a relentless rip tide, but do we really need to put our little surfer girl on a leash?

I mean, none of the other kids wore a leash.

"Oh yeah, Daddy? If all the other kids jumped off a cliff, would you follow?"

No Mama. No.

Safety first. That's the rule.

Now, I'm not advocating feeding your children to riptides, but as a metaphor for strategic risk in marketing and PR and business development, I say release the leash.

We get so caught up in doing the same safe activities over and over again -- adding helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, mouth guards, safety harnesses and leashes -- and then we wonder why publicity, traffic and leads fall away like scabs from healing knees.

Your knees will look pretty, but will anybody care?

You've got to take ambiguity head on and be able to manage risk. That's what market leaders do to not only survive, but to flourish.

Are you participating in these activities?

• Social media including blogging
• Participatory Unconferences
• Participatory Webinars
• Backyard marketing (face-to-face when possible)
• Mobile marketing
• Content marketing
• Video channel marketing
• Social media press releases and RSS-friendly news rooms
• Tweet chats
• LinkedIn groups
• Professional online networks
• BlogTalkRadio shows
• SEO and SEM
• Extreme customer service including outbound contact

What else? There are tons more I'm sure that haven't even been tested yet. Oh, and check out these lessons for B2B marketers.

Trying something new and falling down is imperative to success.

Get busy with your bad selves and bring on the bloody knees. I've got plenty of Elmo Band-Aids.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

HRevolution: Because they come in three's.

Evolve the HR profession; evolve as a business partner; grow the business.

They always come in three's, don't they?

The things we learn that is. The things that stick. The things we want to do something about.

Yes, neuroscience says up to seven, and the limbic well beyond that, but work with me here.

HRevolution was a pretty amazing one-day HR unconference this past weekend I was fortunate to attend and participate. Unconference meaning loosely structured sessions facilitated by multiple people to ensure attendee participation in any and all discussions, including any sidebars that develop within and without.

And there were many of them amongst the over 130 people in attendance. Kudos to the HRevolution Planners, some of the brightest minds in the HR space.

Everything's prettier in pink. Not one of the three, but I do want to thank The HR Technologist, Bryon Abramowitz for buying me a pink shirt. Because I'm having two girls and I haven't worn a pink shirt since 1984 (although some college friends would argue I wore them beyond that). In the picture below is Jessica Miller-Merrell (Blogging4jobs), me and Eric Winegardner (the Monster man).

Here are the three:

The power of influence. Can be pretty powerful. So powerful that I've been influenced to buy a few different books I've never read including Influence (thank you Paul Hebert from Incentive Intelligence). The discussion on influence as it related to employee engagement and motivation was much bigger than the one hour allotment and I was completely in awe of the intelligence tendrils connecting each one of us in the room. Some very smart people to be around. I hope osmosis really works.

Informal learning is more powerful and lasting with some formalized processes. Nature abhors a chaotic knowledge vacuum and the only way to further the transfer of knowledge is to document it and create formalized processes and systems to share and distribute. These types of conferences and sessions are amazing incubators of learning, but we've got to make them available to those who don't attend.

The gulf between HR vendor and buyer is still pretty darn big. HRevolution was fortunate enough to have Bill Kutik attend and also help moderate the HR Tech session. Although the sessions weren't necessarily representative of all size companies (more in the realm 2,500 or less), it was clear that vendors aren't reaching the small to mid-size buyer effectively, while at the same time the HR buyers aren't really sure what they need and if they need it. I made the statement that's like a junior high school dance with the vendors on one side and the buyers on the other and a big ol' disco ball twirling in the middle. Oh, and the vendors are throwing shiny objects at the buyers.

(I hope we're helping those vendors and buyers learn to dance, but there's a lot of work to be done.)

Laurie Ruettimann hit it on the head for me and the HR practitioners in the room at the end of the day Saturday, "Learn the business; get promoted; transform HR."

And as Jason Seiden said to the room, "Keep moving forward."

And I'll just add, "Empower yourself; empower others; be the lead."

Because they come in three's.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

If they demand 12 inches then you give them a mile and all the while you just eat 'em and smile.

It's been almost three years.

Three years we've serviced this client and every other week we hear the Janet Jackson song echoing all around us:

"What have you done for me lately -- oooo, oooo, oooo, yeah!"

I don't like the messaging, the design sucks, why aren't my adwords pulling, why am I not in the Wall St. Journal, why am I not winning awards, why don't I have buyers begging me to buy?

"Oooo, oooo, oooo, yeah!"

But you know what? I'll let you in on a little secret: we do a really great job servicing the heck out of this client with big ol' friggin' smiles on our faces -- heck, we do that for all of our clients.

Yes, we know the marketplace and know marketing and media relations and all activities in between.

Our customer service is big and bountiful, regardless if it's our tough to please three-year client or any customer buying any marketing product or service from us, we have great service.

And that's one of the big marketing differentiators in the new millennium, right next to product differentiation and transparency and corporate responsibility and topical best practices content marketing.

Yes, and having quality products and services helps in the long run.

However, brand loyalty flails, outside a company or within. Great customer service must be embedded deep with a company's culture in order for it to thrive and survive, especially for smaller to mid-market players.

If your employees are unhappy then that seeps into the customer service ground water and poisons the business.

Are you:

• Proactively communicating with your employees regularly to circumvent dissatisfaction and keep up morale and engagement?
• Proactively communicating with your customers regularly to circumvent dissatisfaction and keep their business?

Negativity abounds in the workplace, in the media and with your buyers. You've got to excel in your servicing and respond with positive action in kind -- you've got to constantly earn the business.

Just like David Lee Roth's solo album Eat 'Em and Smile. Fans were still mourning the Van Halen break up and although the album was a critical and commercial success, it was Van Halen they wanted back together.

Dude.

But David was a smart business man. You know the story of the brown M&M's?

Our client of almost three years is still with us; our employees of many years are still with us; our reputation in the HR marketplace is excellent.

If they demand 12 inches then you give them a mile and all the while you just eat 'em and smile.

"Oooo, oooo, oooo, yeah!"

Here's another great customer service post from our friend @AliciaSanera - Thank You For Your Complaint.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Hot HR Topic or Good Timing?

In our Trends in HR Marketing report "HR Buyers’ Behavior: What to expect in 2010" we surveyed hundreds of human resource and benefits departments on a variety of HR topics. As a group, our findings showed HR buyers were increasing their budgets by 25% for “corporate social networking tools, employee wellness programs, management and leadership development initiatives, performance management systems, and other training and development programs"

Employee wellness, in particular, has been a growing market for many vendors through the recession and is continuing in 2010. Not surprising as:

1. Companies cut staff and give more responsibilities to fewer people. Adding new benefits helps keep them happy;
2. Companies are increasing co-pays on health insurance, so providing employees affordable and personalized wellness programs may help slow the rate of increase;
3. Companies are looking at preventive wellness benefits as a way to reduce overall health care costs.

Whatever the case, wellness is hot at the moment.

This was clearly demonstrated by the attendance at a recent webcast, “Seven Strategies to Build a High Engagement Wellness Program” that we coordinated for an HRmarketer customer, DSM Personalized Nutrition.

DSM Personalized Nutrition has developed the Global Personal Nutrition System (GPNS™), a comprehensive, nutrition based health and wellness program designed to help employees create better health. (You can visit them at www.DSMPersonalizedNutrition.com).

The webcast topic generated 611 registrations and nearly 400 HR and industry professionals attended this week's event.

That may be a record for our webinar marketing team.

And it shows the value for vendors to provide thoughtful and practical content around current HR trends. Yes, wellness is hot now, and with increased incentives for wellness benefits and preventative programs in the new health care legislation, it’s about to get even hotter.

Time to ante up on your marketing efforts if you are a wellness vendor.

Because who doesn't want to be on the Celebrity Apprentice? And sit in a social media cuddle chair?

Okay, there are way too many social media experts and myths out there.

The expert myth: funny how that worked out.

I don't claim to be one; I learn something new everyday. And that makes me a student of social media.

And of life.

Sure I know how to use social media as a networking and marketing tool. It's very powerful that way. That combined with an integrated online and traditional marketing/media relations strategy and you've got a winner.

But let's not forget:

• Sharing
• Caring
• Listening
• Learning
• Teaching
• Participating
• Communicating
• Building relationships
• Being real

Me be touchy-feely, but it's real, not a myth.

Because it's the myths that can make us Tomfoolery Experts:

• Social media is free. No it's not. It takes time and staff. It takes planning and execution.
• Everybody in the great HR space is doing it. No they're not. We're a few light years from mass adoption. Some anecdotal accounts place social media participation in our marketplace at around 20%. Maybe more. Maybe less.
• Social media is a great communication tool. Not really. I mean, it facilitates some communication in the confines of 140 characters, status updates, DM's, emails and inmails, blog reading and commenting and tweeting.
• Socia media is creating a culture of toxicity, incivility and conversely non-confrontational couch potatoes. Yes and no. The social networking tools may make it easier for freaks to be more anonymous, and for people to stay introverted and never leave the house, but these behaviors aren't anything new. TV and video games have been rotting our brains for decades. But it also promotes live meetings and action. (Thought-provoking article in the New York Times online called Antisocial Networking?)
• Social media marketing is all I need. What part of integrated online and traditional marketing/media relations strategy do you not understand? Same for recruiting.
• Social media for a cause is lame. No it's not. In fact there are more grass roots efforts -- local to global -- being launched via social media than you can shake a stick at. Not that you'd want to.
  
• Social media means you never have to travel. Really? Yes, it's a virtual world, but c'mon. Get out there. Local or global.

For me and what I tout each day is that social media fuels the face-to-face fire, the desire to get my bottom out of my chair and interact live with folk.

Trust me, my chair is really comfortable. Especially the cuddle chair I'm sitting in at home right this very minute. Yes, a cuddle chair.

But so are the chairs at unconferences -- comfortable and cuddly -- the smaller events that promote interactive and lively discussions with session leaders and participants alike.

Like in our space: the TRU events and HRevolution.

HRevolution is this weekend in Chicago. I cannot wait!

HR social media thought leaders and practitioners from around the country will be converging for 24 hours+ of mind-bending, trend-setting discussions on HR, social media, communications, leadership/development in an unconference format that emphasizes interaction over passive listening. HRevolution has it all.

Plus, they're playing Celebrity Apprentice in one of the sessions. How much fun is that? Love that show. It doesn't get any better than a business task train wreck for a cause.

This is the payoff of social networking: meeting live with the folk met online and building real relationships that can further self, career, business and more. To be a better me.

Because who doesn't want to be on the Celebrity Apprentice? And sit in a social media cuddle chair?

See you in Chicago.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Print Media Dying a Slow Death. Get Social and Get Online.

Erica Morris from PR Week wrote an article about a 2010 Media Survey they worked with CA Walker to conduct. Data is based on completed surveys from 268 media professionals and 285 PR professionals during January 11-19. Results were tested at a confidence level of 90%.

The article can be accessed here (need to purchase or be a subscriber to PR Week).

The findings were very very interesting. A few findings stood out for me:

1. Growing importance (and acceptance) of pitching to journalists through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
2. Half of surveyed journalists say that only 0-25% of pitches they receive are related to what they cover.
3. Nearly 40% of journalists say pitches incorporating multimedia and high res photos help them better understand a story.
4. 84% of journalists consider email the best way to receive pitches.
5. Nearly 60% of journalists expect a further decline in print circulation and growing importance on the Web and other online channels. A blog post I made yesterday discussed how the S.F. Chronicle circulation dropped 22 percent in last year! While there are exceptions we are seeing a definite trend of dropping circulations amongst print media and our own HR Marketing Trend surveys confirm the fact that fewer HR decision makers read print media.
   

My reaction to these points:

• HR Vendors must do a better job at connecting, following and using social media in their media relations. Our HRmarketer customers have plenty of tools available to facilitate this including our database of social networking account information for HR media and our real-time feeds of HR media tweets. But they are not being used to there maximum value by most HR vendors.
• Knowing journalists prefer email is a plus for HR vendors using HRmarketer because they can send media releases to HR journalists via HRmarketer.com. But many vendors still do not engage in ongoing media relations. This is a missed opportunity. And some new tools we have coming at HRmarketer will allow HR vendors to embed high res images and videos in their search optimized and social media releases. Vendors need to use these tools - they work.
• Finally, the fact that 50% of journalists say that only 0-25% of pitches they receive are related to what they cover is shocking to me. Elrond Lawrence, one of our media relations experts at HRmarketer, wrote several articles on effective media relations - read them here. And HRmarketer.com customers should review the notes we compile for HR journalists before sending them news releases (e.g., what they cover, what they want, etc.).
  

Our HR Content Library has lots of free articles and e-books on these subjects that I encourage you to read. I have included a few at the end of this post..

The bottom line is that print media is dying a slow death as online visibility grows in importance. More and more data is confirming this fact. As a result, companies targeting human resource departments must aggressively invest in social media, SEO, SEM and other tactics that result in online visibility, web site traffic and sales leads.

Some useful human resource marketing resources:

• Using Traditional and Search Engine Marketing (and Social Networking) to Leverage Your Investments in Original Content and SEO.
• Conversation Starters – Social Media Marketing in the HR Marketplace.
• Making Sense of Your Press Release Distribution Options.
• Using Original Content to Generate Online Visibility, Web Site Traffic and Sales Leads.
• SEO and “Marketing” Web Sites – Internet Best Practices for Human Resource Vendors.

Warren Buffett on Compensating Managers and Customers Tattooing Your Logo on Their Chest

I just returned from the 2010 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Conference. As I have stated before, I think this is the best business conference one can attend. Listening to (and applying) the wisdom of Warren Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger will help any manager and business owner improve their career/success. And with Berkshire B shares now trading at around $80 just about anyone can attend. If you can't go, read his annual letters to shareholders.

Each year I blog about my experience at the Berkshire conference and I try to make it relevant to human resources and marketing - the focus of this blog. Keep in mind that Buffett and Munger answer questions over a 5+ hour period and I am only highlighting a few minutes of their commentary.

Not a lot about human resources this year but in response to a question about how Berkshire compensates managers Buffett stated he never uses compensation consultants nor solicits HR advice - saying it "would be a disaster". He said every business is different, some take a lot of capital, some very little, some can be run by anyone, others not even by Alfred P. Sloan. It is therefore important to have a unique compensation plan for each manager based on the value they bring the business and "how wide of a mote they build around their business". Buffett says doing this takes only a few hours of his time annually (for the managers of over 50 Berkshire operating companies) and he has never had a manager leave Berkshire do to compensation reasons.

Note to HR - bring real business reasons and not "because this is what the national average is for similar positions…." when making compensation recommendations to management.

For our CEO readership, I found Buffett's comment about operating budgets quite interesting. Buffett said he does not set nor ask for budgets from his operating companies because having budgets only increase the temptation for fudging numbers. He also pays no attention to quarterly earnings (not even EPS). Instead, Buffett says he focuses on the "whole enterprise" and building long term value and will take larger lumpier earnings over smaller, smoother earnings.

Switching gears to marketing, Buffett (who owns several newspapers) paints a grim outlook for print newspapers saying the money to run a newspaper comes from advertisers and with subscription rates continuing to fall at alarming rates - even in prosperous areas (S.F. Chronicle circulation dropped 22 percent in last year) - advertisers are leaving. By the way, a recent PR Week survey found nearly 60% of journalists expect a further decline in print circulation and the growing importance of the Web and other online channels. Our own HRmarketer research confirms this and our entire product line is based on the fact that online visibility is more important than print visibility. But how many HR vendors still budget more for print advertising versus online marketing? A lot.

A a few amusing marketing moments at the meeting. One of Berkshire's companies, Geico, was selling very cool, high quality t-shirts and hats. I bought a hat and t-shirt and the grand total was a little over $10. When I asked how they could sell this stuff at such bargain basement prices the rep said "because it's free advertising for Geico". I love it (and I bought more).

And finally, a humorous look at the power of brands.

Berkshire invested in Harley Davidson and has done quite well. Asked why he invested in Harley Davidson Buffett said:

"I like the kind of business where your customers tattoo your name on their chests."