Wendy Weber on Executive Recruiting

Something interesting happened recently, that helped to mold my opinion of social media. I was approached at the Search Engine Strategies conference by someone who recognized me by my Twitter avatar. I have only occasionally tweeted, and questioned the relevance of this channel. Now I have to reevaluate my skepticism.

As a recruiter, I have been following the growth of emerging online channels with interest. Just a year or so ago, it seemed like we were receiving more search assignments for online marketers with a bullet point for “social marketing” skills added on for good measure. It seemed to me that someone in management had read an article about this, and thought it wouldn’t hurt to include it in a position description.

What a difference a year makes.

As companies have experimented with different social media channels to determine the relevance for their company, some very interesting trends have emerged:

Until recently, I thought of YouTube as a vehicle for teenage musicians and silly animal stunts. Did you know that YouTube is a serious channel for instructional videos? While chatting with a well regarded industry college from SAP, a global leader in business management software, I learned that YouTube is being widely utilized as a vehicle for learning and instruction, and a serious vehicle for lead generation.

I have been preparing for an upcoming presentation for the Direct Marketing Fundraising Association, and talking to colleagues about the relevance of social media in their mix. I have learned that although direct mail is still the workhorse of fundraising (especially with an older demographic), the use of text donations for emergency relief has emerged as a very relevant and profitable channel.

I am intrigued by a new platform called FourSquare, a “location based” mobile service that mixes social, locative and gaming elements to encourage people explore the cities in which they live. Participants “check in” from the places they visit throughout the day, to stay connected with others. For example, one might find while checking in from LaGuardia Airport that a connection of yours is there, also. If you check in frequently from the same coffee shop, you achieve the status of “Mayor”, and as a reward for your patronage the establishment may treat you to a complimentary drink or snack. FourSquare is being recognized by users as a way to stay connected, and by retailers as a terrific loyalty tool.

I believe that we are on the cusp of the mobile age. ..that it is now where the internet was in the 1990’s, and that it will explode in popularity over the next year.

After all the hype, social media has finally emerged as a viable direct marketing channel.

In an interesting piece by Virginia Backaitis for The New York Post titled The Comeback Kids, it turns out that many companies are hiring back the same workers they laid off.

Many of these workers got laid off not because they were poor performers, but because their position was eliminated due to the ailing economy. As the economy starts picking up a bit and employers look to fill jobs that were recently eliminated, they’re finding in some cases that the best candidates are the very people they had to let go.

And, in an about-face from a corporate mentality that until recently had frowned on rehiring laid-off employees, they’re bringing them back.

According to a recent survey by the outplacement firm Right Management, nine out of ten employers are now open to rehiring former employees.

The attractions of rehiring a departed employee are obvious: Their skills are known, they’re familiar with the corporate culture and their ramp-up time is minimal. They have deep company knowledge, established relationships and they can jump straight into projects because they understand the tasks required.

In addition to eliminating or diminishing the need for training, rehiring can boost morale within a company as well.

It should be noted that many companies are bringing workers back using a variety of configurations; they’re hiring them as independent temp workers or through staffing agencies; they’re hiring them as project workers, temp-to-hire workers and even incorporated contractors.

Some workers would rather not return. They have bitter feelings against their company, and perhaps their boss. But many are flattered to receive the call, and recognize that the fact that their previous employer is calling them back indicates that they thought highly of them.

Although you can click here for the article in its entirety, a summary of the article by Anto Chittilappilly follows:

1. Odds are that you are not collecting marketing data, or you have lots of data that you are not using to make the right marketing decisions. Most data collected is in aggregate form, which is not useful for finding insights. Moreover, it is often spread over different entities such as agencies, publishers, media planners, and business units, and it is fragmented across several Excel and PowerPoint files, Access databases, and relational systems.

An integrated data warehouse for all marketing data and results—which is part of any cross-channel attribution strategy—is crucial for being able to act on the data you have.

2. Most marketers and their agencies are forced into the long-held practice of tracking marketing performance in silos—that is, each channel is measured using different metrics.

3. Too often, the same advertiser will run several campaigns at once, with no tie among them to help boost overall success, or the advertiser will not align timing among those programs.

4. Admitting that your decisions are based on gut feelings is difficult, especially when there is a lot of data processing and report generation underway. But, often, decision-making can be subjective and based on gut feelings at the executive and execution levels. The author feels that is a mistake.

5. Good ideas may take time to cultivate, but it is the the marketer who has the better process and technology to make better decisions and who acts quickly who succeeds. Don’t take too long to implement a good idea.

According to a new study by Burson-Marsteller, most of the Fortune 100 Global companies are engaged in social media.

More than three-quarters (79 percent) of the Fortune Global 100 companies are using at least one of the most popular social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogs) to actively engage with stakeholders.

The study found that 65 percent of the Fortune Global 100 had active accounts on Twitter, 54 percent had a Facebook fan page, 50 percent had a YouTube channel, and 33 percent had corporate blogs. Only 20 percent of the major international companies were utilizing all four platforms to engage with stakeholders.

Some companies are interactive and not solely using social media to broadcast corporate messages. Companies using Twitter were following an average of 731 people each, and 38 percent of companies were responding to people’s tweets Thirty-two percent have also “re-tweeted” or reposted user comments during the last week.

To learn more about the study, click here.