As mass-media outlets everywhere start to talk about (or ridicule) Twitter, it’s interesting to watch the marketing applications begin. Whether it’s auto DMs (which can be annoying) or just the sell-sell-sell of repeated postings, the desire for people to use Twitter to generate an income, a sale or a purchase is becoming really keen. And given the space I work in, it’s hardly surprising that I can see recruiters moving in for the kill.So here’s a tip. Just a little one. Stay human.
Twitter at its best is about interpersonal connection. I chuckle whenever I read that Twitter, Facebook et al are about narcissism. It’s not narcissism to believe that you have an opinion worth sharing. Five minutes interacting on Twitter shows you that Twitter’s real value isn’t about broadcasting. It’s about connecting, about finding a balance between listening and talking. To broadcast on Twitter is to tacitly assume that your audience has nothing to say of interest to you. Don’t we already have enough websites that can do that?
If you’re going to recruit from Twitter, then you need to think about how you can connect with, add value to and engage the candidates you want to find. You also need to know that your online reputation, particularly in this world, depends on your capacity to do all those things. If you’re friends with someone in the Twitterverse right until they’ve started the role you put them in, your online reputation is going to take a nose-dive. Social media connections aren’t like the one-way traffic of a sent resume. They need to be maintained, grown and nurtured.
Like LinkedIn, Facebook and Myspace (to name a few) the recruitment angle is there to be expolited. If you’re going to succeed at building a reputation as someone worth talking to as a recruiter ina field, this isn’t just another channel. It’s a whole different way of interacting with your people. It’s conversation multiplied by SMS multiplied by the atom bomb. And if you try and use it for a one night stand, instead of a relationship, you’re going to find it very tough to do long term.
Sure it’s full of people who might be the right person for your vacancy. They’re there to connect with other people. If you can’t recruit in a way that respects and takes advantage of that, you’re in for a world of online hurt.
It’s seen as something as a disadvantage by recruiters that the real superstar potential hires for any role are smart, savvy and often analytical. It makes them harder to sell on a story which isn’t backed up by a reality. I’m not having a go at recruiters – most salespeople would probably prefer an audience that didn’t require quite so much truth and hard work to convince.And therein lies the problem.
Having a really good employer brand doesn’t work unless it’s true. Unless it’s honest. Unless you can prove it.
The greatest recruiter I know brought me into this job, and when she left, a party was held. The CEO made a speech, praising her efforts in building an internal recruitment function of nearly 30 people in three years. Towards the end of his speech, he said “Sometimes the business has had to reach in order to meet the expectation you’ve created. Your passion for working here is evident in how you talk about the business when we go to market.”
As nice a message as this is from your CEO when you leave, it paints a real problem. If the message is better than the reality, you’re creating an expectation in market that you can’t meet. It’s an expectation that will see candidates leave quickly once they realize the story isn’t going to come true.Not only will they leave ; they’ll tell their friends and colleagues how badly you delivered, and you’ll have to work progressively harder to get the right people.
If you’re going to talk to people who are interested in working for you, why not tell them the truth? Not Marketing’s truth, but the real, actual truth. Tell them the warts-and-all side of the job. Because (and this is provable across nearly every market) people remember the honesty. Respect the intelligence and observational power of your candidates, and you’ll see them become long-term employees. ]]>
Recently, I was talking about a great customer service experience with a friend of mine. I’d had one of those exceptional service moments that you walk away from a little happier with the world While we were talking, in response to my story of literally awesome service, he said “Geez, you were lucky you picked a good (insert business here).”I think this is true. I also think it’s something we should be striving for more often.
Seth Godin talks a lot about being remarkable. I think this points people in the right direction, but leaves the frame of reference up to the consumer. Every interaction with a client or customer is an experience where you are judged. Maybe it’s against expectation, or a competitor, or even against your track record. What’s important is that, to grow your business (whatever it is) you need to meet that expectation, and throw in a little something special.
Culturally this can be a challenge for you and your people. It’s easy to point to a track record of undistinguished service as profitable. It’s easy to compare yourself favourably to your competitors or deride customer expectations as unreasonable. It’s much harder to convince managers and employees that achieving a demanding, unrealistic and subjective goal is much better.
I liken it to videogames. It’s easy to beat a videogame on ‘easy’. More often than not, you get the same storyline and are treated to the same dynamics. What’s missing is the challenge, and the reward that you overcame a task which is more difficult than you were used to.
The two things that customers really remember from any interaction are service and price. Not everyone can be competitive on price. Being competitive with your service level is a choice to build your business around happier, more loyal customers.
Make people feel lucky they deal with you, and they’ll keep coming back.
“We’ve got brand recognition that’s 18 points above the market, which means 95% of people who purchase the type of product we make know who we are. We’ve got some negatives, such as a perception that we’re not timely with our delivery, we’re not particularly innovative and our people aren’t proactive, but overall the brand is strong. ”
The Marketing manager was very proud of his 18 points of brand recognition.
Along with this message came a graph, marking areas against the industry standard. “Brand” was up 18 points above average, where things like “Timely delivery”, “Competitive price” and “Great service” were all under average, by between 5 and 7 points a piece.
Added up, the negatives overwhelmed the positive “Brand” message. So by industry standard, the graph makes this statement: “People know who we are, but they think we’re expensive, sloppy and boring by comparison to the market.”
This is not good brand recognition. In fact it’s terrible.
If you’re going to push a campaign out there so widely that the whole market knows what you’re doing, you should probably be doing it well. It’s going to take more work to change negative opinions than it would have to fix the problem in the first place.And it’s going to require an under-the-microscope evolution, as opposed to a quiet one in the background.
Your brand isn’t your marketing. It’s how people view every single thing you do.
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