For Me? Wow thank you. I truly appreciate it.

What would you do if you received a jar full of red M&M’s as a thank you from your manager for a job well done or to celebrate your birthday or in recognition of your anniversary with the company. What? Really? Would you feel cheated? Feel it is a cheap reward? What kind of reward program is this? Or would you feel special? Uplifted? Have it create loyalty to that company and manager?

Before you decide – let me tell you that my FAVORITE treat is M&M’s (NOT SMARTIES) and my FAVORITE color is red. Now if this was delivered to me on a beach on the Greek island of Naxos, I would name my next grand child after my company!

Because of so much in the press recently about the continued success of ILoveRewards, and the inspiring and often hilarious Tweets I see everyday from BAUDV!LLE, this topic has been stuck in my head for a few days. There are some fabulous rewards/recognition/incentive companies in the HCM space, that range from rewarding with the traditional trophies and motivational posters to gift cards to cold hard cash. But managers need to keep the momentum going all the time, switch it up, surprise, and show that they care, and that they listened, and that they knew something about what makes the employees tick – NOW that would say something to me.

Let me tell you a little bit about the management style of a good friend of mine, Zachary, who happens to manage a very large group of employees within an RPO company. When a new hire comes on board, he spends time with them to welcome them, give some basic onboarding items, and then spends time “chit chatting” about the new employee. He asks questions about recent holidays and the favorite place you would like to go. He asks about family, passions, past times, charitable causes, and even things like: favorite color, restaurant, animal, car and so on.

First of all, that would certainly make me feel like he wanted to know about me, but Zachary creates a reference sheet on the conversation and the specifics of the employee. When he wants to reward an employee – he refers to this sheet and POW! he creates something that is very, very meaningful. Like red M&M's. (I am sure that he has some help from his right hand person, but the concept and decision is his).

This does not a full Incentive program make – in fact, it could be very difficult to maintain frequently, but to increase morale on your team and beyond at certain times, this pinpoints a concept that will forever be the driver for Motivation – Recognition – Loyalty; that each employee is an individual and has just been shown that they are appreciated.

Getting Into the Marketing Bed with A Start-Up. Risky for Both Parties.

I've been an employee with three start-ups and the founder of one - Fisher Vista, LLC (HRmarketer).

For the start-ups where I was an employee:

• The first, with the patient backing of Johnson & Johnson, became a successful global biotech company.
• The second one flourishes today as one of the largest privately held employee benefit firms in the USA.
• The final one burnt through over $10 million of OPM (other people's - venture capital - money) in two years then crashed and faded away.

As for Fisher Vista, LLC (HRmarketer), in a few months we'll celebrate ten years of business.

What have I learned from my experiences?

No two start-ups are alike and there is no cookbook to building a successful business. You're on your own kid. But I do like to share my Three Truths of starting a business:

1. Whatever amount of money you think is needed to start the business – double it.
2. Whatever amount of time you think you’ll spend running the business - double it.
3. Whatever amount of money you think you'll make from the business during the first several years – half it.

Being an employee or the founder of a new business can be exhilarating. What's not to like about exhausting hours, depressing troughs, stress, fear and anxiety? (I'm kidding - sort of). It's all about the journey and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

But being a marketing agency for a start-up - now that's hard work.

In our soon-to-be ten years of business, HRmarketer has worked with hundreds of HR software and services companies - and some have been start-ups. And the start-ups are the most challenging companies to do marketing for.

Why?

1. Unrealistic goals. I appreciate the enthusiasm but a goal of wanting to "put Monster out of business" is a little, well, silly. The problem is that when the goal is not realized in the first year it ends up being the marketing agency's problem.
2. Unrealistic sales cycle expectations: Underestimated sales cycles are one of the most common reasons for failed businesses. Why is this a problem for the marketing agency? Because when those "leads" the agency generated on Friday don't close over the weekend marketing tends to get blamed for delivering lousy leads.
3. Dysfunction: Finally (and this is the hardest part of working with start-ups), the marketing agency is forced to ride the emotional roller coaster of the entrepreneur. When things go well you're the best. On a bad day you become the whipping post. Through osmosis you are forced into the irrational and dysfunctional world of a start-up. At the end of the ride, you may need therapy.

OK - so I'm exaggerating. And yes, we've worked with some absolutely wonderful start-ups who prosper today.

But those are the minority. For what it is worth, the worst offenders seem to be in recruitment services/technology. Nothing against recruitment companies. We work with a lot of you and there is no doubt the sector is one of the most forward thinking and innovative in the HR marketplace. It's just where we find the most offenders. The marketplace that serves recruitment is much less standardized (and regulated) than benefits, training, HR compliance, etc and thus open to more new ideas and innovative products. It is an area ripe for lots of start-ups. Entry barriers are low and recruiting is highly dynamic and many argue inefficient. And of course the Internet supports sourcing, selection, job placement, etc... so with the rise of the Internet, we saw the rise in recruitment technologies.

Anyway. I have come to the conclusion that more often than not, marketing agencies don't need start-ups any more than start-ups need marketing agencies.

If you are a start-up, allow me to tell you something that most marketing firms won't tell you:

Think twice before spending a lot of money on marketing.

Too many start-ups invest too much money in marketing way too soon.

When this happens, the start-up ends up with leads they don't have the ability (or the time - e.g., cash flow) to nurture/close, a drained bank account and a host of other related problems and frustrations.

So think hard before entering into a long term marketing agency marriage - wait until you are a little more stable.

That doesn't mean spend nothing on marketing. Just don't over-invest in lead generation and PR. How about an initial webinar based on a content piece (e.g., white paper) to solicit some early leads that you can use as the basis of some focussed conversations to test/validate your ideas and learn about your buyers. I would also invest in a quality search-optimized web site (the investment that keeps on giving) and messaging - you really need to have a compelling value proposition.

And remember those Three Truths.

Good luck.


Post by HRmarketer CEO Mark Willaman. Join Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Will Tweet for Food. Misconceptions of Social Media.

In yesterday's blog post, My Social Media Experiment. It bombed - or did it? , Rita Jackson wrote a very engaging post about a disappointing experience she had on Twitter.

It generated so many comments that I decided to do a follow-up post on the subject.

Rita tweeted, five times, asking what great books were available about Social Media. And she got virtually no responses.

Rita's conclusions (read her post):

- Her followers are not interested in helping her.
- There is so much “noise” on Twitter, that something like this is just a flash in front of everyone’s eyes.
- Those Social Media experts out there DO NOT KNOW what they are doing.
- Those Social Media experts out there DO NOT PRACTICE what they preach.
- Social Media is all a FARCE. It doesn’t work! It is a waste of time! It keeps many people busy doing a crap load of nothing!

Here is my take.

Your problem Rita is that most B2B companies using social media have no idea how to use social media. Arming most B2B marketers with a Twitter account is the equivalent of giving a kid a gun.

They are dangerous.

I'll explain. In a roundabout way………

Most B2B companies that I speak with sense they need to have a blog and be active on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook yet they cannot accurately measure the ROI of these efforts or give examples of any actual business closed as a result of their social media efforts.

So they give up or never really get started.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are the companies that have a false belief that social media is the holy grail of marketing that will deliver unprecedented numbers of leads and propel them into fame and fortune.

So they spend ridiculous amounts of time on these platforms and move a big chunk of their marketing budget to social media. Yet, they don't use the tools properly - nor do they "listen" (a concept that Brian Solis discusses in his excellent book Engage).

Both camps are wrong.

They are wrong because they are not understanding the role of social media in the buying process (sales cycle).

Social media is about awareness and branding and monitoring what others say about your brand. But most importantly, it is about relationships. And B2B is all about relationships. So they go hand-in-hand.

Social media plays an important role in moving prospects along the buying continuum from awareness to interest to evaluation to purchase and post-purchase. So not participating is a mistake. But so is allocating too many resources to social media at the expense of other more traditional marketing and PR tactics.

Why?

BECAUSE SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT AN EFFECTIVE LEAD GENERATING MARKETING TACTIC.

You can be the most popular person on Twitter but that alone will not grow your sales pipeline. That's a recipe for becoming a really great but starving artist.

The problems you encountered Rita are twofold. One, social media is not very effective at lead generation or in your book recommendation example, soliciting information. Second, and related, is the fact that for most people on Twitter, it's all about them. They tweet all day but don't actually observe and listen. They don't care. They don't get the fact that in B2B Twitter is all about relationships.

An upcoming HRmarketer white paper will discuss the role each marketing tactic plays in the typical B2B buying process. And in this white paper we'll spend a lot of time discussing the role of social media - stay tuned!

But have faith Rita, because you get it. I know because I see how you use Twitter and other social networking platforms and I watch the relationships you build - they are powerful, strong and lasting.

BTW - Rita, as I recall you have had some positive experiences on Twitter as you wrote in your blog post The power of the Tweet - Good or Evil.

So don't give up!

Post by HRmarketer CEO Mark Willaman. Join Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.

My Social Media Experiment. It bombed - or did it?

No, I am not a scientist, and really this experiment started out very innocently. I wanted to find out what great books there were available (as a gift) about Social Media. What is it? Why do it? What results can you expect? Is it fun? SOOOO, I thought that certainly the best place to find out about Social Media might be through, well, Social Media – and in this case Twitter (and a quick try on LinkedIn). I know I could have used a search engine, but I wanted to hear from all of those people that I trust and respect. I was not prepared for the onslaught of silence that I received. AND I didn’t just send one tweet, I sent FIVE – yes 5 – I will repeat 5. See below:

• Can anyone suggest a great Social Media book that I can buy for someone for Christmas? Gotta be encouraging and easy to read!
• Still looking for info on good books on #SocialMedia. How it works, why do it and what to expect. Any help?
• Want to buy a good book on #SocialMedia. How it works, why do it and what to expect. Any suggestions?
• You know I find it interesting that I essentially tweeted the SAME Social Media info request 3 times and got 1 response. Why? worth a blog
• I am going to try this one more time. Looking for a book on #SocialMedia - how it works, why to use it, gauge its success. any suggestions?

Hard to understand? I even hashtagged it! I got a grand total of 2 responses. The first one came from HRmarketer.com, which also happens to be the company I work for. Congratulations team – you were watching the Twitter conversations just like we tell our clients to do.

Then on my last Tweet, @Herzwords contacted me with a great suggestion. I would have thought that if the companies who have solutions surrounding the confusing world of Social Media, would have been contacting me with suggestions of the books, ebooks, articles, white papers that they have. Not good.

Now like with any experiement, we review the process, and create a Hypothesis/conclusion.

1. Well the very sad part is that all of my followers, really are not interested in helping me, or don’t have the information to help me. (I am hoping for the latter).
2. There is so much “noise” on Twitter, that something like this is just a flash in front of everyone’s eyes. (hence the reason for hashtags?).
3. Those Social Media experts out there DO NOT KNOW what they are doing.
4. Those Social Media experts out there DO NOT PRACTICE what they preach. (to me a much worse offence).
5. There aren’t any good Social Media books out there, except for the two that were suggested to me.
6. Social Media is all a FARCE. It doesn’t work! It is a waste of time! It keeps many people busy doing a crap load of nothing!
7. Insert your own conclusions here.

The result of my Social Media Experiment? I still don’t have a good book to consider buying AND I have lost a little faith in the power that is Social Media.

The B2B Social Media Party is in Full Swing

Ben Parr over at Mashable wrote a great article a couple of days ago on how B2B uses social media. Essentially, here’s the dilemma:

"Business-to-business (B2B) social media is a different animal [than B2C]. B2B and enterprise companies aren’t trying to convert millions of individual consumers into customers — they’re trying to convince a smaller group of companies with bigger budgets to buy their products or services. Social media’s power to spread a message across the web isn’t as relevant."

We’ve heard that argument before from some of our customers. “We’re B2B, so social media just isn’t relevant for us.” They see it as a waste of time and resources. However, as Parr points out and our own experience at HRmarketer shows, social media is definitely relevant for B2B companies. In fact, a Business.com study last year showed that more B2B companies are using social media than their B2C counterparts:

"75% of B2B companies participated in Twitter (compared to 49% for B2C), 74% hosted a blog (compared to 55% for B2C), and 66% engaged in online discussions (compared to 43% of B2C companies)."

Our just-published Trends in HR Marketing report had similar findings. Over 60% of supplier participants said they participate in social networking. In fact, nearly 95% of HR vendors said their participation in social networking and social media marketing increased in 2010 and will continue to increase in 2011. Additionally, they will increase the number of networks with which they are involved.

Another very interesting point we discovered is the fact that last year, 82% of HR vendors didn't measure the ROI of social media but in the coming year, 69% will attempt to do so. This could spell doom for a lot of companies’ social media efforts (or decrease them), because social media is next to impossible to “measure” for B2B companies. Social media activities for B2B aren’t about the typical, analyzable returns we’re used to measuring for traditional sales and marketing initiatives.

Which leads us to the key question: Why are HR vendors active in social media? According to our research, the top four goals are:

1-online visibility 50%

2-thought leadership 46%

3-increased website traffic 32%

4-creating referral relationships: 32%

Let’s look at each one of these for a moment.

1- Online visibility. In this age of company Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, Diggs and so on, ad infinitum, a static company website just won’t cut it. In a culture that has come to expect interactivity, you simply have to reach your prospects in ways that they can respond to. Social media presence increases your online visibility in a way nothing else can.

2- Thought leadership. How can you be a leader if no one can hear what you’re saying? You can be the smartest, hippest, most revolutionary thinker in your industry segment and it won’t matter one fig if you don’t broadcast it. Social media is the essential vehicle for thought leadership. Write blogs. Read and comment on other thought leaders’ blogs. Start Twitter conversations. Join groups and engage in dialogue. Make yourself seen and heard.

3- Increased website traffic. There are so many ways, some of them yet to be dreamed up, to use social media to drive traffic to your site. You can tweet links to your latest content, send company blog readers to the site for bonus content, or create an integrated plan like the Golden State Warriors. Go here to see how they used Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr to roll out a logo and increase their Web traffic by 66%.

4- Creating referral relationships. On the Internet, as in the 3D world, you just never know who you’re going to meet, or who knows someone you need to meet. Friends of friends can become some of your best customers or greatest strategic alliances—people you would not have discovered without an active social media presence.

So, if you’re currently involved in social media, keep going! And if you haven’t yet joined the party, the social media realm is still relatively new. There’s still time to put on your party shoes and make your entrance. You’ll probably be surprised when you show up, though, how many of your competitors are already there.

Ultimately, social media is not a lead-generating marketing tactic, so companies should not try to measure it like they would a lead-generating tactic. Doing so would likely put an end to your social media efforts, which would be a mistake. Social media is a branding and relationship-building tactic (it’s also a great way to monitor what others say about your brand) – both very important as you move prospects along the buying process from awareness to purchase. But don’t overdo it. A lot of HR vendors make the mistake of allocating too many resources to social media at the expense of other, more traditional marketing and PR. You need a blend. In fact, Hubspot is holding a webinar on this very topic tomorrow. But don’t under-invest, either. Dedicating too little time to social media (e.g., one tweet/blog post per month) can actually hurt your brand. Social media is no longer just an option for B2B companies; it has so pervaded our cultural consciousness that it’s a requirement. So think it through, experiment until you find the right balance, and keep doing it.

Tag, You're Niche. Industry Specific Marketing Campaigns.

In a recent blog post, The Results Are In! Trends in HR Marketing 2010/2011 Survey (niche mktg is back), I touched upon the topic of niche marketing and how some HR vendors are effectively incorporating niche marketing into their overall strategy.

This post is a commercial for a new feature we just launched on our HRmarketer.com software that makes it easy for HR suppliers to build industry-specific (niche) marketing campaigns.

We have assigned industry channel "tags" to all the resources we currently track in our Information Databases such as media outlets and conferences/trade shows. This helps marketers quickly find relevant information for their niche marketing campaigns.

For example, a human resource company targeting the "hourly" marketplace can select tags such as hourly, healthcare, retail, food services, hospitality or transportation to get an instant list of key media outlets, journalists and conferences in these segments. A user can then add selected resources to a list of favorites and create targeted media lists or find EdCal opportunities.

It may not sound like much but its a big deal. You can find in minutes what would otherwise take days or weeks of research. I know this because it took our own research team weeks of research time to identify all these niche resources - and they are experts at this sort of stuff!

Check it out by watching the video on this post.

Niche marketing shouldn't replace your current strategy. Much like social media has broadened your marketing "tool-kit" beyond the traditional vehicles of print advertising and tradeshows, niche marketing broadens your reach by taking your message direct to specific industries - where you may face less competition and find new opportunities.

If niche marketing is not a part of your marketing plan in 2011 and you need guidance on making it a part of your plan, give us a call.

Post by HRmarketer CEO Mark Willaman. Join Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.