A Handy Guide to Content Marketing. Plus—Employer Branding in a Nutshell
March 17, 2010
I hadn’t thought that much about the definition of “content marketing” until I visited the Junta42 site for another reason, and realized that I wasn’t sure exactly how they were using the term. While scouting around for clues, I found an abolute gem buried in one of the many (many) layers and offshoots of the site.
Junta42 is a content-marketing matchmaker (projects-to-vendors), and their site is super-rich in content about content. But there is such a thing as too much abundance! Luckily, though, I did discover the Content Marketing Playbook and recommend it very highly. Subtitled “42 Ways to Connect with Customers,” this nifty ebook has a page for every imaginable kind of content, from white papers to webinars. And! Each page has a brief case study that links right to a relevant example of the content type. So if you’re not completely clear on what an “Online Media Site” might be (Item 31), you can click right over to an example at Proctor & Gamble’s HomeMadeSimple.com.
For every content type there’s a handy cheat sheet, explaining what it is, who/what it’s good for, who/what it’s not good for–and ending with three quick tips. A cruise through this book provides a great refresher on content forms that are already familiar (blogging, newsletters, podcasts, etc.) and should also offer every reader at least a few new ideas. Get up to speed on magalogs, wikis, widgets, and more.
Suggestions: (1) Open/download the PDF version. You can page through the book via the website, but there’s a lot of visual distraction. (2) While visiting Junta42, bookmark their guide to the “Top 42″ blogs about content marketing. (The list is also an example of Playbook Item 11, the “Industry Ranking System.”)
Speaking of cheat sheets—there is an exceptionally concise summary of employer branding on the website of Singapore-based Human Resources magazine. It’s smart, short, simple, and clear. Here’s a highlight:
Generally, companies can focus on four types of employer branding messages:
Focus on offers: “At our company, you get more than what you get elsewhere. (E.g. benefits, culture, and career opportunities)”
Focus on personality: “You can find people who are similar to you in our company.”
Focus on values: “Values are important to us. If you share the same values, you can live according to what’s important to you here.”
Focus on tasks: “At our company, you will get the chance to do what excites you and you will love it here.”
This article provides a nice refresher for those already engaged with employer branding, and a useful starting point for those new to the topic.
All in all–two free reads that offer a lot of value.
(Thanks to Arnero for the . . . illustration. Wondering what it is? Me too. By title, a “Combustor with guide vanes.” No idea what that means, but it’s really cool to look at!)
Potato Chips and Flickr — A Happy New Social Media Marketing Tactic
March 17, 2010
Flickr is the most popular online photo sharing site, but it has yet to be fully leveraged for social media marketing. The reason lies in part due to the restrictions of use that the site has in place to ensure that everyone who spends time there is uploading valid images that add to the community rather than detract from it. PepsiCo’s snack food division, Frito-Lay, is trying to find the secret to marketing via Flickr with its new “The Happiness Exhibit” campaign. Check out the Web site here and the Flickr group here.
Consumers are being asked to upload photos of themselves, friends and family to Flickr (or to Flickr from Facebook) while enjoying happy moments in life. Some of the images will appear in People magazine and on Lay’s product packages later this year. The campaign integrates well with Lay’s “Happiness is Simple” initiative that has played out in advertising and marketing over the past year. The new digital component of the initiative on Flickr will be promoted with ads on Hulu, iVillage, Yahoo! and YouTube as well as on some Lay’s product packages.
This particular campaign has a big budget push behind it, and partnerships have been made between Frito-Lay, Flickr, and Yahoo! to make it happen. The campaign was announced by press release on March 15, 2010, and by March 16, 2010, nearly 6,000 images had already been uploaded demonstrating that people like the idea of sharing photos without a lot of encouragement. It certainly helps that a lot of people already have Flickr accounts, but the point is that people love to share content they’re proud of, and photos are included.
How can you leverage photo or content sharing to market your brand? It’s something people clearly like to do? Can you create a campaign around sharing — an activity that your customers are already doing? It’s quite an opportunity.
Early Adopters Have Significant Influence on Brand Success
March 16, 2010
A new white paper from Advertising Age (sponsored by Yahoo!) called Shiny New Thing: What Digital Adopters Want, How to Reach Them, and Why Every Marketer Should Pay Attention reinforces the idea that people who are quick to try new brands, products, and services, are influential both online and offline.
The statistics for early adopters tell us:
- 62% of early adopters are more likely to upgrade a mobile phone as soon as a new model becomes available.
- 68% are more likely to have purchased three or more computers in the past two years.
- 58% are more likely to have purchased three or more flat-screen TV’s in the past two years.
Not only are they quick to try new products and brands in the technology industry, as revealed in the statistics above, but they’re also more likely to talk about those products and brands on the social Web where many early adopters have established followers. That means the opinions of early adopters can be very influential on a broad scale.
In other words, the opinions of early adopter are no longer confined to the neighborhood or office. Today, early adopters are vocal about their opinions and they share them freely using the tools of the social Web such as Twitter and Facebook.
As the Advertising Age report reminds us, “early adopters sway the early majority, and those groups can account for half of a new product’s sales.” Clearly, this is a group that you want to connect with on a positive level, and what better place to find them and build relationships with them than on the social Web? If early adopters can talk about your brand and products online, thereby influencing a large audience of consumers, then you can use the social Web to influence early adopters. However, your influence should be indirect. Strong arming people with sales messages on the social Web is a surefire route to disaster. Instead, be patient, build relationships, and your efforts should be rewarded with brand advocacy in the future.
The Advertising Age report also reminds us of the three motivating factors that define early adopters, which you can use to help you find early adopters on the social Web and more effectively communicate with them in a language and style they’ll respond to positively:
- They aren’t afraid to take risks.
- They enjoy gathering and sharing information.
- They like to research products and tell other people what to buy.
- They are status seekers.
While the Advertising Age report focused on technology early adopters, the lessons can apply to most industries. This is a customer group that bores quickly and is constantly looking for the next great thing. The worst thing you could do is ignore them. Instead, you need to deliver great products, earn a solid brand reputation, and build positive relationships with them.
Undercover Employee
March 15, 2010
I haven’t seen the new television show Undercover Boss—but the idea seems almost irresistible. Who wouldn’t want to see executives slogging around in the trenches?
However, I have done several stints as an undercover employee. Way back when I wanted to get out of academia and learn about the business world, I found it was easy to get temp jobs because I could type really (really) fast. So I got to snoop around a dozen or so companies, seeing how they were organized, how people behaved, and so on. The companies were in different industries, and the work cultures were superficially different. But what I learned in my adventure was that they all had the same problems.
Fast forward to today. I’m currently undercover again, this time because I wanted an inside view of a very famous employer brand. The “undercoverness” is not that no one knows my real identity–it’s that no one has the least interest in who I am. My role is to get X amount of stuff done in Y amount of time, and enter my hours into the appropriate project slots. As long as I do that, no one will pay any attention to me. I am a worker bee.
But I do get to see (or at least hear) how things run in one group. I won’t reveal my “findings” until I’ve finished the project and departed the company. For now, I just want to share this observation . . .
Probably nothing would be more help in improving the employer brand than finding out what new employees actually experience as they go through the hiring process, go through the onboarding process, try to do some work, and try to find their place in the group structure. How many companies substantively interview new hires and actively utilize feedback?
Come to that: How many companies provide ongoing support and resources for new hires? How many managers have the time, skills, or inclination to effectively integrate new employees? And how many Careers sites talk about the hiring and onboarding processes, or include interviews with newly hired workers as well as career employees?
Last question. How many corporate recruiters actually know what becomes of candidates after they get hired?
When you think about it—every new employee is “undercover.” Secretly observing, forming opinions, drawing conclusions. And those early observations will shape the relationship between employee and employer for a long time.
Check out the fantastic (seriously) New Hires site at Stanford University for some ideas. Especially impressive: a series of Manager Checklists that cover the first days, weeks, and months on the job.
(Thanks to Eric E. Castro for the original “Shhh!” photograph. It’s been reworked a bit here.)
The "New" Fortune List: Part 2
March 12, 2010
More observations on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, 2010 . . .
A Lesson from the List: Right-sizing the Corporate Careers Site
Given the fabulous workplace at SAS (see Part 1 for details!), we can surmise that the main challenge for their recruiters really is tracking down those perfect passive candidates and luring top talent through the gates of paradise. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the SAS Careers site is truly minimal—just a (long) list of benefits and some job search tools. That’s all. No videos, testimonials, day in the life, social media. Just the opportunity to apply.
Over at Publix Super Markets, on the other hand, where many prospective employees can expect to work long hours stocking shelves or filling prescriptions, the Careers site has every conceivable bell and whistle. Publix has almost 140,000 employees compared with not quite 6,000 (U.S.) positions at SAS, and as of January 2010 they were looking for 1300 new employees, while SAS was in search of 52.
Point: In considering what is “best practice” for a corporate Careers site, we really need to look at the context. Arguably, SAS doesn’t need a state-of-the-art web presence. Publix does.
A Question about the List: Is It Still Relevant?
A few years ago, the Fortune List seemed to be investigative and informative. It offered examples of what worked in the workplace, and showed off companies that had built solid employer brands. Getting on the list was a valuable achievement, and falling off would presumably be a disgrace.
When you look at that set-up, it becomes obvious that the list is not likely to change much. There are only 100 spots, and once you’ve identified 100 companies that meet the criteria, the quota is full. New places will only open up when a listee messes up seriously, goes out of business, or gets bought up. So by now the news is not who’s on the list, but whether they rise and fall in relative rankings.
This year SAS vaulted from a respectable Twenty all the way to Numero Uno. Why? No way of knowing. Fortune doesn’t explain its rankings. But some suspect that companies figure out the secret of improving their rank and deliberately work their way up. I.e., they study the test.
This year I spotted five newcomers: McCormick, FactSet, Mercedes-Benz, LifeBridge Health Care, and DPR Construction. There are probably more, as I didn’t make an exhaustive comparison—but I’m pretty sure I recognize 90% of the companies as perennials. Given that 353 companies competed . . . the apparent conclusion would be that at least 248 competitors (2/3 of the set) fell short of whatever it would take to dislodge an incumbent.
Point: Maybe it’s time for Fortune to shake up this drill. What about categories for small, medium and large enterprises, to establish a more level playing field? What about special recognitions for innovators and most improved companies? What about breaking out the citations for listees in terms of (a) tangibles like pay and perks, and (b) intangibles like respect, fun, loyalty, etc. And what about adding a new point of view, so the Great Place to Work Institute is not the sole arbiter?
Just some thoughts . . .
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