What can I say? If I were looking for a job, Jive Software would be on my application list. I love the concept of sharing what the company has to offer in such fun, informative, and collective way. Whether it is a slice of apple pie, or a large Apple monitor, Jive seems to give employees what they love. How can we learn from companies like Jive that treat recruiting as a marketing process?

First, I have a small disclaimer to make. I am in no way associated with Jive Software, and I am taking a moment to profile them in this post simply because I admire the work that they do.

Creating such videos is nothing new. For the past few years, primarily larger companies have been creating similar videos to highlight the company culture. Today, however, it is easy and cheap to create similar videos and have fun with them. However, I would even take it to another level. Why not create a video not just about the company culture, but about a specific job opening.

Here is how it would look:

• 30 second company description
• 30 second description of the job duties
• 1 minute interviewing people who will be working with a new employee about the job
• 1 minute talking to various employees about the company culture

Here is my quick break down of why it is important:

• A one page job description on a company website is not enough to attract passive job seekers. People who are carefully choosing where they will work next want to see the environment, want to talk to potentially new coworkers, and want a peek at the company culture.
• Do not let an HR person or a professional recruiter do the job themselves. Just like selling your products and services, you are selling your company to job-seekers. In order to attract quality candidates you have to work hard on your HR Brand.  Happy employees attract new employees.
• It raises employee morale and gets their buy-in. You want your employees to feel engaged and connected.
• It is CHEAP. Do not do it because it is cheap, but do it because it is good for your company, and it will not take a lot of resources. Jive video doesn’t seem to be recorded using high-end equipment, and chances are you could use an iPhone 3Gs or a Flip Video Camcorder. I would recommend keeping such videos under 3 minutes, but you can create videos on various topics – meet our IT Team, meet our Marketing Team and meet our Sales Force.
• You can spread the word about your company using such videos. Do not just place videos on your site; put them on video sharing sites, and please send them to me.  I am always interested in profiling companies that are innovative in their approaches.

It wold be interesting if after creating a video job description, companies would ask job seekers to reply with videos rather than with cover letters. This would certainly lower the number of applicants, and perhaps only the ones who are most motivated will apply. In that case, I would recommend that a company distributes applicants’ videos to their employees to get their constructive and objective feedback. This way everyone plays a part in finding the best candidate for the job.

Although, it may seem that blogs are everywhere, American Express, estimates that only 5% of businesses with 100 people or less have blogs. If you are one of the businesses in this category, it is time to step-up and take some pointers from Accenture, Adobe, Google, Best Buy and Dell. Those are only some of the top brands that use blogs.

Obviously, there is an explanation to why larger brands use blogging – they have the manpower to sustain an interesting and informative conversation. However, small companies can be quite creative in their blogging efforts, and gain all the benefits of blogging without overstretching themselves.

Blog consulting is one of the services we offer to a number of clients. Being in this business for a number of years, we have picked up a number of tips and strategies that can make a blog successful, and we want to share our findings. You will be able to decide if having a blog is right for you, get tips on managing blog effectively, and see proven ideas on how to make your blog remarkable. This is just a tip of the blogberg (blog iceberg); we would be thrilled to have an opportunity to work on your blog, and make sure it is aligned with your business strategy and delivers the needed results.

We can’t emphasize the urgency behind a marketing strategy enough.  Your blog should complement your strategy, and not replace it.

Here are Some reasons to have your own business blog:

• Give a backstage pass to your potential customers. For example, let people know how your product is being made, this transparency will develop trust. People will know what hard work goes into making the product they are using, which will give them a certain appreciation for your company.
• Share your smarts so that people will know what to expect of you, if they consider hiring you or your business. This specifically applies to consultants.
• If you have a product, be very careful when you blog. Nobody wants to read a commercial. The alternative is to use your blog for testing grounds, and for asking consumers for advice and feedback. This gives people a voice, and develops an immediate connection with your brand. One famous athletic shoe company blogged about a new line of clothing, and asked consumers to offer their ideas for colors and slogans.
• Give consumers tips on how to use your product.  One chocolate factory offered different recipes as their blog posts, later they offered blog readers to post their own chocolate recipes.
• Share what you know about the industry you are in, offer your perspective on the current news. Your knowledge of the industry helps you sell yourself.
• Use your blog as a customer service tool, let people know about any updates, bugs or new software editions. This is your new interactive FAQ. Nike has the feature “Ask Our Expert” on their corporate blog.
• Use your blog to post what others have to say. A lot of companies ask other businesses to write postings on their own blog. This makes your blog a community, and gives consumers a broader outlook.

If you decide that blogging is for you, it is time to do some research. You want to find out what platform to use, what your competition is doing, what keywords in your field are most popular, and what blogs in your area are considered to be an authority. This is where we tend to help our clients the most: market research will help you build a blogostrategy (strategy behind your blog), and a strategy is a key. Your blog needs to answer a very simple question: what is the objective?  Consequently every posting needs to support this objective.

Once the objective and strategy are established, it is time to roll up your sleeves and start blogging.

Here a couple of recommendations we give our clients:

• Learn from other blogs in the field: see which posts get the most comments and attention and what keywords they use. See what works best for them and utilize it. Install StumbleUpon toolbar, it will help you monitor the information in the field you are in.
• Make a habit of monitoring what your competition does. Use free tools like Google Analytics and Site Meter to understand how people are finding sites and which key words are working.
• If writing is not your favorite thing to do, start with capturing your ideas with short sentences and key phrases. It will be easier to put it together later.  If it helps, come up with a list of headlines, and then turn them into a story.
• Prepare a couple of posts for later use. This will help when you do not have any time to blog.
• Create a blog series, a series of blog postings on a specific title. People often like to monitor a series, it shows that you have a lot to say. Additionally, a series of blogs can be easily turned into an article to help with your public relations initiatives.
• Ask your employees to write posts, you never know who has something valuable to say.
• Your blog can easily add flare or character to your organization. You and your coworkers have a personality; this is what sells.
• Follow the news, and offer short postings about recent headlines or review new books.
• Many people ask us how regularly they need to post new content. There is no winning formula. Update your blog regularly, so people remember that you exist. On the other hand, pace yourself; you can’t publish quality content every day.
• If somebody sends you an interesting email or good question, reply to it on your blog.
• Link your posts to other sites and blogs. While you do that, let other blogs know about what you wrote and offer them to link to you. Additionally, try to include different forms of media in your post: embed an image, video or a presentation.

Once your blog is set-up and working, give it some time to blossom. Attention is a scarce resource, and it will take time for people to learn about your blog. Be skeptical of those who tell you that blog is a hidden treasure that will magically put your site on top of Google’s page rank. Just because Mark Cuban has it, doesn’t mean that you need to have it.  Your blog will help you with Search Engine Optimization, and will increase market awareness and sales in the long run. This will take some time and patience on your part.

If you decide not to have a blog, there are still several strategies for you to benefit from the blogosphere.

Here are a couple of examples:

• Create a Feed Aggregator on your site. This tool will help you aggregate different blog posts and put all of them on one page. This greatly benefits a consumer, who can then read 10-15 blogs in one location.
• Become a guest blogger. If you do not have the time to maintain your own blog, offer to write for other popular blogs once in a while. This way you can establish your own series.

If you are trying to understand whether to have a blog or not, how to create a blogostrategy or how to manage and continuously improve your blog, we can help. We would appreciate an opportunity to help your blog bloom. Please let us know if this information was helpful. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel out this form http://infotrustllc.com/contact-us or email us at info@infotrustllc.com

To Your Continuous Success,
InfoTrust Team

People rarely think about themselves in terms of a “product” that they need to sell. Quite often at my events, I ask the attendees if they are in sales. Very few people say Yes. I wonder why. It seems to me that we have a certain predisposition against people who are in sales. We immediately start thinking about stereotypes like used car salespeople and loan officers who call us during dinner hour. People are hesitant to sell themselves, but if you are looking for a job, it is your full time job to sell yourself.

After the event, several people approached me, and shared their stories. They mentioned what type of job they were interested in, and mostly asked for referrals. Less than third of people I spoke with, gave me something to remember them by. I was amazed to see that only few carried their business cards – sales cards. How am I supposed to remember people who are interested in finding a job? There is almost no way, unless I get something from a person, something that I can use to remember who I spoke with, and what that person wanted.

Of the several people who actually gave me their cards, none had anything meaningful printed on them. Obviously, each card had:  person’s name, address, contact information, but none of the cards gave me a good reason to contact that person. Your personal sales card should not just list the means to reach you, it needs to have a compelling reason for me to want to reach you.

I would recommend having these features present on your card:

• Have a picture – helps me rember who you are
• Have a slogan – Experienced corporate accountant with proven track record
• Phone number
• Address
• Email address
• Your web page, if you do not have a web page, consider listing your LinkedIN account
• Use the sapce on a back of the card – share with me top 5 things that you accomplished. Show me some numbers.

Once you have a card, and eager to give it to everyone, be very careful in how you pass it out. In business, peole tend to give their cards in passing, without making me pay attention to what they give me. I, on the other hand, take their card, put it in my pocket and rarely remember whose card it was. I would encourage you to direct person’s attention to your card, when you give it out. Here is how you do it:  “Let me give you may card. Here is my direct phone number and my email, and on the back you can read just a bit about my experience.” While you say this, you demonstrate your card, so the person can establish a mental connection between you and your card.

80% of sales is selling yourself. Consumers can buy a product anywhere, just as employers can get dozens of applicants to do the job. Your goal is to make sure that the person remembers you, and when it is time to look at the cards and call somebody for an interview, the employer will look at the card and remember you. The reason you want to put some actual data on your card is to help the employer see your value proposition. This way, the employer doesn’t have to think about why you are the person to contact, they can just read it on your card. It is just another means of selling yourself.