Social Media Knows No Boundaries

The social media community in Washington, DC has largely been associated with the interactive strategy folks who serve corporate concerns and even the occasional startup or political campaign, but that is changing.  If you are interested in seeing how the local defense community is also embracing social media then you may want to check out David’s post on WebInkNow.  He has a nice write-up about Captain David Faggard, Cheif of Emerging Technology for the US Air Force, and how he’s leading the social media charge in the defense sector.  Captain Faggard also writes the official blog of the US Air Force.

Selling Through Opinion Leaders vs. Relationship Based Selling

I happened upon this clip titled ‘Should salespeople simply market to opinion leaders’ while researching a Baltimore area organization this morning. The speaker, Myra Norton, apparently runs a “research organization based on the principals of social networking” called CommunityAnalytics and is an adjunct professor at Towson University just outside of Baltimore. This ties nicely into the discussions regarding personal brand vs. social media brand here on Jobmatchbox. I believe that with all of the buzz and hype about social media there are a lot of folks out there who are neglecting to differentiate between marketing and sales. While marketing may work to enable selling, and in some cases it may even result in a few deals, there is no substitute for effective sales people. If you rely solely on marketing then you may find that your shortcut could actually be very counterproductive.

Google’s Expanding DC Metro Presence

In 2008 we watched as Google expanded their presence from a lobbying shop with a few sales seats into a larger office downtown (DC).  Their next move was to open an office in Reston, VA.  Over the past few months the Google offices have played host to a few events for the local community too.  Now, according to Michael Alison Chandler who writes for the Washington Post, the folks at Google are starting to court Fairfax schools.  Chandler’s article points out that they are offering to train teachers how to teach students to use Google Earth.

Obama’s Department of Energy Appointment Represents A Big Shift

The Obama Administration has not even taken up residence at the White House yet, but radical change is in the air.  During the Bush Administration we became accustomed to the idea that Big Oil and Gas ran the show.  Lobbyists for the Chemical industry were put in charge of environmental protection and the EPA decided that CO2 emissions were not that important did not matter.  Fast forward to Obama’s pick for the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Chu.  Chu’s views on CO2 are definitely off the Bush reservation.  According to the New York Times:

“Dr. Chu has been unambiguous in stating that carbon dioxide emitted by cars, power plants and industry is a direct cause of global warming and that urgent action to slash emissions is needed to avoid upheaval of the planet’s climate.”

Exciting times ahead.  It will be interesting to see how this new, scientific, perspective influences the economy.

What Are Your Startup Stock Options Worth?

Stock Options are usually out of sight and out of mind unless the company they are in happens to go somewhere.  IF you have them and happen to be wondering what they MIGHT be worth then you should check out Don Rainey’s VC in DC blog post on the subject.  He also shared some thoughts on the subject of startup CEO salaries recently that might be worth checking out.

A Sign of Social Media’s Entry Into The Mainstream?

While we all still do quite a bit of business over email and fax, this is the first that I’ve heard of legal notice being served via a social network.  Apparently, an Australian court allows legal notices to be served via email, text messages and even social network messaging systems now.  If you have been accepting friend requests from strangers perhaps this will convince you to think twice next time.

Spam Is Not Networking

I’m always amazed by the shameless tactics used by staffing agencies.  As a former staffing agency guy myself I find myself constantly in the position of trying to undo the damage done by people who work in the industry.  Recruiters are always somewhere on the line of socially acceptable because their role is essentially to move people around the market, whether or not they (or their employers) like it.  Without good recruiters organizations would not grow, teams would not be built and many success stories would not happen.  There are a lot of different things that companies can do to attract employees, but even then they still need recruiters to help filter, screen and perform due dilligence (references, employment verification, etc.) on applicants.  With that said, I can’t help but point characteristics of a bad recruiter.  Notice that recruiter is scratched out and keep reading.

“

I’ve already gotten a ton of referrals so obviously this tactic works. Also typically I don’t send out big spam emails in face its the first time I’ve done it in 3 years but I got a ton of pressure from my boss to send out a networking email to everyone in our database.” -a recruiter who spammed my inbox using an email address obtained through a resume database, probably Hotjobs, Careerbuilder or Monster

“I work for a staffing agency, and we often send out emails to the people in our database, usually people we’ve contacted for positions in the past.” -another recruiter who thought the one above should be given a break for doing something that many consider to be shameless

“

If you read the news and are up to date on current affairs you would know that the unemployment rate is at his highest level in 25 years and most jobs filled by recruiters are partly due to NETWORKING. 

We did not go on a job board and get your email address for spamming purposes, we had your email in our database which is exactly what we said in the email.  We have never in all of our years in this business taken resumes from a job board for the purpose of spamming.” -the partner from the staffing agency that spammed my inbox using an email address obtained through a resume database filled with resumes obtained, like mine was, through resume databases like Hotjobs, Careerbuilder and Monster

As a member of the business community, the partners have a responsibility to provide sufficient training to their employees.  It isn’t always possible to train your employees on everything or to anticipate the potential actions of an employee, good or bad.  As someone who went through the training of a big staffing agency, one that was very successful and long running (the one implicated here has been around 25 years), I watched a lot of things happen that should not have.  The company waiting 3 full months before they taught us anything about employment law.  Three months.  When they finally did, the subject was covered very quickly in a standing room only room and it wasn’t very convenient to take notes.  It also wasn’t very convenient to ask questions, in part because of the size of the crowd but also in part because of the time (right before lunch).  During the 3 months that I spent waiting for that training, and the rest of my time there I witnessed some practices that were highly out of bounds.  Ignorance is bliss for some.  For the company owners and investors I suppose it didn’t hurt either.  If nobody is the wiser then what difference does it make, right?  There are a lot of opportunities for business community members to do the right thing, and in this case a staffing agency now has that opportunity.  If the problem was ignorance when the most recent spam as networking blast was sent out then it won’t be tomorrow.  Time to be a good community member and learn how to communicate without spamming.

Let’s get a few definitions out there for the rest of this discussion:

Spam, according to wikipedia, is indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages via email or other methods.

Networking, according to the Riley Guide, is “the art of building alliances. It’s not contacting everyone you know when you are looking for a new job and asking if they know of any job openings. Networking starts long before a job search, and you probably don’t even realize you are doing it.”  I like this definition, even though it is directed at job seekers and not staffing agencies because it differentiates between networking and spamming people you know.

The partner of this successful and long running staffing agency did not seem to understand the difference between spam and networking yesterday.  I hope that these definitions help to clarify the grey area.

The Riley Guide goes on to list a few activities that are networking:

“You are networking when you
* attend professional or trade association meetings
* talk to other parents when attending your child’s sporting or music events
* volunteer for a local park “clean-up” day
* visit with other members of your social clubs or religious groups
* talk to your neighbors
* strike up a conversation with someone else waiting at the veterinarian’s office
* post messages on mailing lists or in chat rooms
* talk to sales persons who are visiting your office”

Yould sum up networking as the act of having an engaging conversation with someone.  There is clearly a difference between sending an indiscriminate and unsolicited message via email or other methods.

But there is more to this.  Recruiters have to send email all the time, to candidates and to companies who might want to hire them…right?  The answer is an obvious one - of course they do.  This is where professionals who I know from tech community are going to differ with me.  Despite the fact that a job seeker is not looking it is the job of the recruiter to contact you whatever way they can (responsibly).  The recruiter may hit you up on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or by email or phone.   Note that I inserted the work “responsibly”.  What I mean by this is that there are certain things that a recruiter should not do.

Recruiter Responsibilities:
A recruiter should not call you about a job that you’ve said you are not interested in for the duration of their search.
A recruiter should not call you late at night unless you have given them permission to.
A recruiter should not call you if another recruiter from their team or company has (for the same search).  This is problematic at larger staffing agencies that may have 2-3 different teams (local and national) working on the same search.  They have rules of engagement for this.
A recruiter should talke the time to make sure you are a resonable match for the job that they are calling you about (this starts with reading the resume, not just calling people who show up in their search results in a resume database)
A recruiter should not spam people.

You get the picture.  They shoud apply the same courtesies that apply to every day life, be considerate, etc.

I think part of the problem here is that applicant tracking systems used by staffing agency are very powerful and enabling, but are used by un-trained marketers.  Part of the problem is that recruiters are just recruiters, not marketers.  This could be an opportunity for someone to come along and start educating recruiters on how to market to job seekers.

But back on the subject of responsibility, as in don’t give recruiters a bad name by doing shady things, I think it is important to point out that just like recruiters have responsibilities…so do marketers.  And they might not be the same.  So it is incumbent upon the recruiter who engages in marketing, i.e. bulk email marketing or direct mail campaigns, to learn what the responsibiliites of a marketer engaging in these areas are.  I’m not going to turn this into a how to market post, but I would like to point out that there are some basic principals involved.

Marketer Responsibilities:
A marketer should target their message to the right audience.
A marketer should not engage in spam.
A marketer should remember that there is only one chance to make a first impression.
A marketer is required to give recipients the opportunity to opt out of future communication, but should also give them the chance to opt-in before the first communication.

The bottom line here is that the recruiter who spammed my inbox did not bother to target the message to me at all, didn’t get my permission to add me to her list, didn’t get my email address from an opt-in source, and didn’t make a good first impression.  In fact, the spam message was counterproductive.  I would never hire or consider working for the staffing agency that she works for.  Based on what I’ve learned since the message, I don’t believe that it was the recruiter’s fault.  The recruiter was trained and directed to send spam.  So it all falls back to the partner and the staffing agency.  Time to be a good corporate community member and start marketing responsibly.

Personal Brand vs. Social Media Brand