The Power of Social Media In Moore Oklahoma
After the devastating tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma on Monday killing dozens, many people were also left homeless with their belongings swept across the town (some up to 200 miles away).
One particular resident of a nearby community, Leslie Hagelberg, found a photograph near her mailbox (90 miles away from the tornado site) and quickly realized that this and other items appearing in her yard were those belonging to the tornado victims.
In an effort to get these valuables back in the hands of their owners, Leslie formed the Facebook group “OK Tornado Doc & Picture Recovery” to use the power of social media to reunite the tornado victims with their keepsakes. With the group membership approaching 12,000, you can find countless precious and irreplaceable family photos and documents that nearby residents have found….some of which have already been recognized by the owners!
“I’m just trying to help.
I couldn’t imagine losing my kids’ pictures”
Leslie Hagelberg told The Huffington Post.
Same Table, Different Side
During my senior year of college, I was the Vice President of the Saint Mary’s College American Marketing Association Collegiate Chapter. Every year we would organize the Meet the Firms event, which allowed students to get a glimpse into the real working world by asking questions that will prepare them for a professional career in marketing. They also got an opportunity to network with firms and alumni in order to land a possible internship or a full time job.
Three years later, I found myself back on campus attending the event with my colleague, Erik Rivas (also an alumnus), but this time we were on the other side of the table. It felt gratifying giving advice and interacting with eager college students because I was in their shoes three years ago. A few other companies that attended the event include Kara’s Cupcakes, Target and LinkedIn.
If you are a student looking to gain real world knowledge in marketing, I recommend becoming a member of the SMC AMA and attending networking events just like this one. Not only will you be part of a group of people who are passionate about marketing, but you get the opportunity to network with professionals, attend workshops, seminars and special events. Learn more about SMC AMA.
Photos Credit: SMC AMA Facebook Page
Trends in Branding this year: What are the hot topics?
Most marketing professionals would agree — there isn’t anything much more important than your brand because it’s your face to the outside world. As far as what you need to know to help shape and maintain your brand, Landor, the brand strategy firm responsible for creating the image for a number of our clients, including Procter & Gamble and John Deere, provides a look at current trends in branding with a series of articles and videos, including gamification, brand purpose, Asian luxury, packaging, data, China and design.
I think that the following five are the most relevant for the balance of this year and into 2014.
Photo Credit: Landor Associates
1. Gamification
Gamification is poised to be as important this year as social and mobile were in the past, according to Jason Bice, Landor’s senior manager of verbal branding. “Gamification could be considered the third component of a new ‘holy trinity’ of digital marketing,” Bice says. The question that all small-business owners must ask is: How do I turn a virtual achievement in a real one?
Find out the answer and more about Bice’s take on Gamification here.
Recruiting on Facebook: New Ad Targeting Options
Facebook Advertising for recruitment has become an integral part of recruitment advertising strategies across the board. Why has the field of recruitment gravitated towards Facebook advertising so quickly? The reason is twofold.
Why Recruiters use Facebook Ads:
- The insanely high volume of traffic (approx. 152.4M visitors / month)
- The unique targeting options it offers to advertisers.
And with the recent release of “Partner Categories” targeting, Facebook has taken it’s ad targeting to a whole new level.
Facebook’s New Ad Targeting
By combining both online and offline consumer behavior data (courtesy of Acxiom, Epsilon, and Datalogix), Facebook developed over 500 unique groups of Facebook users. Each represents an audience segment based on demographics, psycho-graphics, spending patterns, and everything in between as Facebook Ad targeting options. As a result, over one billion Facebook users are broken down into simple, highly targeted audiences.
How Will This Impact Recruitment Advertising?
Work from Work. Why working from home doesn’t work for me.
The pros and cons of “Working from Home” have been highly debated since this past February when Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer gave hundreds of employees a tough ultimatum — Yahoo! employees who regularly worked from home must now come into the office or quit.
At a recent conference, Mayer defended her decision saying, “…people are more productive when they’re alone, but they’re more collaborative and innovative when they’re together. Some of the best ideas come from pulling two different ideas together.”
While there was certainly some pushback from many employees, I found it interesting that an outpouring of ex-Yahoos confessed that it was the right decision. Former Yahoo! ad tech executive Michael Katz summed it up best:
“The value in human interaction is greater collective wisdom as a result of improved communication & collaboration.”
The Benefits of Fun in the Workplace
As we close out another week of Wii tournament play here at the KRT offices, I am reminded of the importance of fun at work, and all the benefits it provides – not only directly to employee satisfaction but also to the well-being of a company’s consumer brand.
Thanks to Generation Y, expectations in the work place have evolved with greater significance placed on work-life balance. Moreover, 88% of Millenials want their coworkers to be their friends. So if you want happy employees coming to the office saying “what can I do for the company today,” you’re going to have to do more than provide a 401k and dental plan.
What are the benefits of providing this “fun” factor exactly? Isn’t this just detracting from productivity? No!
Be a Grammar Rock Star
I recently read a story about Van Halen that prompted me to ponder the importance of grammar in the workplace. It seems unlikely that these infamous 80’s rock gods would have anything to do with something as mundane as workplace grammar, but in reality, it’s a great lesson in the importance of client details.
Over the past three decades, one particular story has circulated about the band’s outrageous contract rider demands. The now infamous demand was hidden deeply inside the pages of the contract, and stated that brown M&M’s were strictly forbidden backstage.
March Madness at the Workplace
It only seems appropriate to write a blog post about March Madness, especially with all this talk about employees’ productivity levels dropping during this FANTASTIC time of year (see article here). I wonder if taking time out of my busy schedule to write this post would put me in that category; like Coca Cola continues to state in all their commercials “it’s not your fault that you’re working on brackets instead of working on work…You’re not slacking, you’re just being patriotic.” I might have to agree with that because even President Obama takes time away from his busy day to fill out his predictions for March Madness (see image here: @whitehouse). I bet he also downloaded the NCAA March Madness app to get constant updates during his three day visit to Israel.
Nevertheless, at KRT Marketing, we see March Madness as a time to come together and promote employee bonding (during our lunch hour, of course).
Here’s some of our team yesterday rooting on the Saint Mary’s Gaels!
Tell us how your company celebrate March Madness?
7 Great Tips for Marketing Strategy and Building Your Brand
You don’t need the luck of the Irish to find the pot o’ gold this St. Patrick’s day. KRT is here to remind you about “The Seven Golden Rules of Marketing” that will help you get lucky when it comes to building a stronger brand.
The seven golden rules, provided by The Brand Factory, remind us that a strong marketing strategy is essential for a successful business. At KRT, we specialize in recruitment marketing, where we apply these “golden rules” to create a strong brand that candidates will gravitate to. Below are the 7 Golden Rules with a KRT twist:
- Highlight your uniqueness – Avoid talking about what it is you do. Focus more on what makes your services unique compared to your competitors. Instead of discussing what you offer, talk about how you offer it. You might have a special way of presenting clients’ accounts or a system of assessing their advertising needs. At KRT, we take an organized and creative approach that shows our clients exactly what kind of ROI they are getting from our vendors.
- Be consistent – Once you’ve presented your unique selling proposition (above), apply it! Don’t be tempted to leave old messages out there. New prospects can come to you from all kinds of ways – business card, website, phone call, newsletter, blog, print, online ads and so on. Read the rest of this entry
Did Someone Say “Spring Training”?
I know the first thing that popped into your mind was the excitement of baseball, the anticipation of the new season and the smell of ballpark snacks. What about “Spring Training” for your talent acquisition team?
Today’s media platforms are ever-changing and improving their tools to assist your recruitment teams in “catching” the most QUALIFIED applicants. Just like choosing a great ball team, you only want the “best of the best” to come to the tryouts or be screened for the application process.
We at KRT think that setting up trainings for your team is essential for a great recruiting season!
LINKEDIN
Depending up your level of comfort, LinkedIn has training for everyone! From showcasing your employment brand, to spicing up your recruiter profiles to turning your team into a recruitment machine, LinkedIn has the training to get your staff into pitch perfect shape! http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/530
INDEED
If you weren’t aware that you could get FREE access to Military personnel resumes, or any resumes in Canada or India, you haven’t been through a recent Indeed training. What are you waiting for? You’ll hit one out of the park with this training session. http://www.indeed.com/resumes
SOCIAL MEDIA
Wondering how to hit a home run with your Social Media recruitment plan? Let KRT’s Social Media experts join your team as a clutch hitter and train your team to hit one out of the park!
Contact KRT today to get you recruitment team ready to have a winning season!
