This article will be introducing web 2.0 technology as it relates to marketing strategies and the medical device industry.
There are several items that will be addressed in this series of articles;
1. What is web 2.0 technology?
2. How is it used?
3. Who are the regulators watching the use of the technology?
4. How can medical devices manufacturers market their products using web 2.0
technology while staying within the confines of the FDA?
5. How do you get started using web 2.0 technology?
6. How to track and measure the effectiveness?
Part 4. How can medical devices manufacturers market their products using web 2.0 technology while staying within the confines of the FDA regulations?
Currently, the FDA does not have a clear set of rules or regulations directed at the medical device or pharmaceutical industries specifically in regards to Web 2.0 technologies. What they have advised and acknowledge is that if marketers use the existing rules and regulations compliance should not be an issue.
The DDMAC is the FDA arm that regulates pharmaceutical companies marketing. Research of warning letters to various pharma companies demonstrates the FDA’s desire for marketers to remain compliant with existing regulatory guidelines.
Medical device companies and marketers should be confident that when following the guidelines set forth by the FDA's Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications (DDMAC) in combination with the CDRH they will not be violating any regulations.
The guidelines for advertising and marketing of products can easily be translated into social media and web 2.0. It is clear that the FDA will not allow for off label or benefit statements to be made without the proper indications and risks of use data included in all other marketing.
Social Media (Community Groups, Blogs, Mini-blogs)
An open forum for communication between patients can be a great way to develop ambassadors of your product. Personal recommendations and testimonials, especially unsolicited are very powerful tools.
Any communication where any person other than the marketer delivers the message can be frightening. There has yet to be a ruling on whether the company is responsible for a patient or physician disseminating incorrect or non-FDA compliant information.
What we can infer from what has been said and acted on so far is that there are ways to monitor and filter information between community members. Groups can and should be monitored for false or misleading information so that group members can be educated or directed to the proper source for information.
Blogs are great for posting news stories, updated information on products or stories from patients and physicians. They are not intended to create a social dialogue as much as allow for one person to post information and others to make comments if they choose to do so. Conversational stories and posts are saved for the community groups. It is not a requirement to include a comment section on a blog.
It is the manufacturers/marketers responsibility to monitor and regulate any communication channel they set up. Therefore it will be important to know who is contributing to the community information and what they are saying about the product and your company.
With any groups or blogs having a comment section there should always be a requirement for the registrant to give certain information as a registered user. Part of this registration should always include a clear user agreement, which must be signed. Not only will the registration of users allow the marketer to watch who is saying what but also to send new product information and engage the patient or physician to further develop the relationship. Medical device manufactures should continue to monitor the feeds in which patients, physicians and possibly the competition are posting information or opinions about their product.
Because of the strict guidelines enforced by the CDRH and DDMAC for all marketing communication, mini-blogs or Twitter should be used cautiously. This form of media is most useful for public relations efforts as well as customer service contact in the medical devise industry. Regulations for stating indications for use as well as potential side effects of certain medical treatments as mentioned earlier is difficult at best with the 140 character mini-blog and limited space sponsored ads. By their design they do not allow for adequate regulatory information so these tactics should be left to non-FDA regulated advertising. The FDA does have a Twitter account!
Facebook/MySpace is not an appropriate medium for medical device marketing. Due to the ability for misinformation to be spread and the difficulty in managing messages. This is not to say in the future it won’t be used, but until medical device companies have clear guidance from the FDA it is dangerous territory.
Part 5. How do you get started using web 2.0 technology?
The key to effective web 2.0 marketing is to understand the limits of the technology and the benefits of reaching potential and current customers in a meaningful way.
As with any marketing strategy you should know where and who your audience is, what information you will provide and who will be responsible for distribution of that information.
There is some debate on who is best equipped to handle the web 2.0 responsibilities, especially when the FDA/CDRH are concerned. No matter which department is tasked with web 2.0, they must keep the legal and regulatory departments involved. And the legal and regulatory departments need to keep the marketing or PR person up to date on any new information or guidance from the FDA as it comes in.
The size of the medical device organization will have a major impact on how the web 2.0 technologies will be implemented. Larger organizations may have websites that do not readily allow for additional pages or section to be added to the website.
Microsites are a possibility when considering which technologies will be used and will vary greatly type of current website and final web 2.0 strategy.
Marketing and PR professional should also research other blogs and websites to see what is being said and reply appropriately to those blogs. This is a unique opportunity to not only market the product or service but actually provide customers with information that may not have or dispel any misinformation existing within other blogs or communities.
If the strategy calls for a branded community than close monitoring is required. The FDA has stated in communications that any company with a product specific website is responsible for the content even if posted by a member of the community.
In the implementation of all communities, required registration should be a best practice. This will allow for tracking of users statements and to monitor any wrong statements made. Some communities have an approval process before any posts go live onto the site. This will limit the possibility of errors in communications but it will also hamper the ease of use by members to gather information, advise and feedback from others.
The key to the implementation of web 2.0 technologies is first that the website is able to handle multiple users at one time, have intuitive navigation, and include information from experts that is accurate and trustworthy.
Next time you talk about adding web 2.0, social media or new media to your marketing strategy, ask yourself, is it necessary for what we really want to accomplish? If you are not sure what you should be using, how they work or if you are permitted to use them according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Devices and Radiological Health Organization (CDRH) guidelines, talk to a professional.
Part 6. How do you measure and track results to show ROI?
As with any plan, tracking the ROI is what will keep you in your job another day. More and more, marketers are expected to show the heads of companies the financial payoffs to what we have recommended they spend money on.
Have clear and realistic goals with what you expect your efforts to achieve. It is not likely that in 30 days the brand awareness of the product you are marketing will increase all that much. As with any campaigns time is important, especially with web 2.0 technologies. Being a social form of marketing it takes time to build relationships and trust.
Set goals for how many new community registered members you will have in 3 months, how many mentions you have on Twitter, number of unique visits to your blog, or what type of or number of comments you are receiving on a blog.
There are many free and paid tracking services available so that you have a third party evaluation to present when time comes to show ROI. When the time comes to start developing the program it is important to discuss your needs and what your measurement goals are to ensure proper tracking methodologies.
Tracking awareness as we mentioned earlier can be done with online or phone surveys. Pre-launch, mid-launch and post-launch data will give enough information throughout the cycle to know what is working, what is not and help make appropriate changes.
A key way to measure success of any website to include a registration requirement. In order to post on any site or blog a registration page should be filled out. This will allow for data capture of locations, ages, knowledge of products and will capture opt-in data for future e-message correspondence. Opt-ins are required by law and if messages are tagged as spam you may be held accountable under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
Part 7. Implementation considerations
When implementing web 2.0 into the overall marketing strategy of a product or service there are some questions to be answered.
What are you doing now?
What is working and what isn’t?
How will Web 2.0 technology fit into the overall strategy?
Another key issue will be who will plan and implement the new program? There are two obvious options: hire an interactive marketing specialist in-house or hire an outside agency.
Rules and regulations will change and you must have a team set in place that will be responsible for constant and diligent follow up with the FDA. For most companies using an agency where they have a team of experts will be best. Agencies can not only guide you when dealing with the web 2.0 strategy but can also be sure that any plans are within the overall marketing strategy.
I have mentioned it many times here and will say it again, talk to a professional about how best to approach web 2.0. Defying or ignoring the FDA marketing rules and regulations can be a costly mistake.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Web 2.0 for the medical device industry. Parts 1-3
This article will be introducing web 2.0 technology as it relates to marketing strategies and the medical device industry.
There are several items that will be addressed in this series of articles;
1. What is web 2.0 technology?
2. How is it used?
3. Who are the regulators watching the use of the technology?
4. How can medical devices manufacturers market their products using web 2.0
technology while staying within the confines of the FDA?
5. How do you get started using web 2.0 technology?
6. How to track and measure the effectiveness?
Part 1. What are web 2.0 technology, social media and new media?
These three terms have been thrown around and over used by marketers who don’t understand their meaning and completely misunderstood by everyone who has been told they MUST be involved in them.
Each term has a very valuable place in marketing strategy but not all products or services are appropriate. Just like TV is not the answer for every product and service, neither is social media or new media.
The first step is understanding what each term means and how it varies from the others.
The simple definition for web 2.0 is: websites that have been specially programmed to allow for conversations and feedback between users of the same websites and community groups.
The term "Web 2.0" was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999, in her article "Fragmented Future.”
“The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. ... The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will [...] appear on your computer screen, [...] on your TV set [...] your car dashboard [...] your cell phone [...] hand-held game machines [...] and maybe even your microwave.”
Wikipedia’s definition:
"Web 2.0" refers to a second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashup and folksonomies.
As you will notice in the Wiki definition, there are a few concepts that will not be discussed in detail in these articles; video-sharing, wikis, mashup and folksonomies.
Social media is part of the web 2.0 technology capability. The way websites are programmed, they allow for users to share photos, give updates on “what they are doing” as well as video sharing.
The clearest and best definition of social media I have found was written by Joseph Thornley.
Social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.
The term “new media” has been overly used and widely misunderstood and includes technologies such as PDA’s CDs, DVDs and video games. Webopedia.com defines it as:
A generic term for the many different forms of electronic communication that are made possible through the use of computer technology. The term is in relation to “old” media forms, such as print newspapers and magazines, that are static representations of text and graphics.
So, next time you talk about adding web 2.0, social media or new media to your marketing strategy, ask yourself, is it necessary for what we really want to accomplish? If you are not sure what you should be using, how they work or if you are permitted to use them according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Devices and Radiological Health Organization (CDRH) guidelines, talk to a professional.
Part 2: How is web 2.0 technology used?
Now that we know the definition of web 2.0, where the term came from, we will talk about what tactics are under the umbrella of web 2.0 technology and how they relate to the medical device industry.
It is important to know what type of information dissemination should be part of your overall marketing strategy and how web 2.0 can be implemented as part of that strategy.
How the web 2.0 technology is used for healthcare marketing and medical device specifically is an interesting subject. The regulations and restrictions are set to protect consumers and stop snake oil salesmen from deceiving the American public.
The rules are strict, when established. The FDA has yet to develop a set of guidelines for medical device marketers to follow. The FDA has been active in the pharma sector and has levied fines for misuse. In the mean time, it is prudent to work closely with your marketing team and legal regulatory team to establish rules and guides for your web 2.0 efforts.
Blogs
Blogs can be useful during the development of a new product with updates and information of the development phase and progress. When writing blogs for medical device it is important to know what the FDA regulations are for marketing. Providing information about a products benefits or making statements before it has been through the proper FDA channels will land you in a heap of trouble.
A summary of the definition of a blog from Wikipedia.org is:
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries.
The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.
Asking for feedback on your posts can be a valuable tool but also tricky to manage. The FDA hasn’t provided exact restrictions for medical device marketing about the regulations on who is responsible for information posted on a blog. Pharma companies have been diving into web 2.0 and the lessons learned should be taken into account for medical device.
Blogs should be optimized to ensure they are crawled by the search engines for rankings as well as tracked for unique visits for ROI measurement. While it is difficult to quantify an ROI on this type of marketing strategy you can get a clear sense of who is looking at your product updates as well as how often. Requiring visitors to register will also allow you to collect data and can allow for one on one contact with prospective buyers or even investors.
Community Groups
These groups are usually very social in nature and gather via the Internet to share ideas and information ranging from business to personal and include special interest groups dealing with topics like, religion, health and politics.
Medical device manufacturers can also find a place in these communities or create their own. Depending on the marketing strategy these types of groups can target business, consumers or even the special interest groups depending on the product going to market.
Jeremiah Owyang of Silicon Valley writes in his blog Online Community Best Practices:
Communities Are A Powerful Tool, As Long As You Put Members’ Needs First “An online community is an interactive group of people joined together by a common interest. It’s also one of the most powerful tools a marketer can deploy for customer retention, word of mouth, and customer insight. To host a successful community, think of it as you would product development: Start by focusing on objectives, chart a road map, assemble the right team, and plan to be flexible. Then build your success by launching the community with the backing of your most enthusiastic customers and staying engaged as the community grows. Above all, remember that control is in the hands of the members, so put their needs first, build trust, and become an active part of the community.”
Business community groups have become a very popular form of networking for the busy professional who finds less time in their schedule for the face to face lunch and cocktail networking.
Websites like LinkedIn allow for businesses to network as well as individuals. This particular community has sub-communities called networking groups where you can target your interests and be part of a group that is even more specialized. Even the FDA has a company page with connections to their staff.
Consumer community groups range from fans of products like Pepsi World to AngiesList.com where consumers can review companies and post grievances online. Consumer community groups are sometimes set up by the corporation or by consumers on sites like wetpaint.com.
Special interest community groups created on-line include, health, politics, religion and more. These groups are similar to a consumer group but are brought together for personal reasons and tend to be like-minded individuals looking for news, information, support groups, events, and relationships.
Micro-Blogs
Micro-blogging has become a major topic in marketing communications over the past 6 months or so. One major reason, Twitter, a micro-blogging website designed to tell people “what you are doing” in 140 characters or less.
Twitter came about from the application on Yahoo! Mail, status update, to tell people who also have Yahoo! Mail accounts, what you are doing. In an interview with the LA Times Jack Dorsey explains why he created twitter and the history behind it. Other websites have included the mirco-blog concept into their programming.
Twitter is great for PR needs in medical device marketing. While there are multiple websites that post news releases, having a Twitter account and asking your followers to re-tweet (RT) your posts helps with SEO and gives your followers up to date information that they want.
Facebook and MySpace
Facebook and MySpace are a different type of community from the other three groups mentioned above. These communities are typically very personal in nature. There are some companies that have jumped into the water to test out how having a fan page or group of people who love their product will work. This type of word-of-mouth marketing for some companies will be beneficial.
Medical device companies need to look at their individual product carefully before deciding to go this route. Unless the product has a wide target market these social media sites will not pull the quality traffic needed.
Part 3. Who are the regulators watching the use of the technology
“The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one of the sections under the HHS. Other sections include the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Indian Health Service, National Institutes of Health and others.
Within the FDA there are seven centers and offices that are managed under the FDA commissioner. One of the centers is the Center for Devices & Radiological Health (CDRH). The CDRH breaks down even further into another six offices that are “…responsible for regulating firms who manufacture, re-package, re-label, and/or import medical devices sold in the United States. In addition, CDRH regulates radiation-emitting electronic products (medical and non-medical) such as lasers, x-ray systems, ultrasound equipment, microwave ovens and color televisions,” according to the FDA website.
This is where it becomes a little more complicated. Depending on the type of device one of the 6 offices will be responsible for the monitoring of regulation compliance.
There are standard marketing rules for medical devices that manufacturers must meet in order to be compliant with the FDA. Each of the following requirements are listed on the FDA website under Overview of Device Regulation.
* Establishment registration,
* Medical Device Listing,
* Premarket Notification 510(k), unless exempt, or Premarket Approval (PMA),
* Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) for clinical studies
* Quality System (QS) regulation,
* Labeling requirements, and
* Medical Device Reporting (MDR)
Next time you talk about adding web 2.0, social media or new media to your marketing strategy, ask yourself, is it necessary for what we really want to accomplish? If you are not sure what you should be using, how they work or if you are permitted to use them according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Devices and Radiological Health Organization (CDRH) guidelines, talk to a professional.
There are several items that will be addressed in this series of articles;
1. What is web 2.0 technology?
2. How is it used?
3. Who are the regulators watching the use of the technology?
4. How can medical devices manufacturers market their products using web 2.0
technology while staying within the confines of the FDA?
5. How do you get started using web 2.0 technology?
6. How to track and measure the effectiveness?
Part 1. What are web 2.0 technology, social media and new media?
These three terms have been thrown around and over used by marketers who don’t understand their meaning and completely misunderstood by everyone who has been told they MUST be involved in them.
Each term has a very valuable place in marketing strategy but not all products or services are appropriate. Just like TV is not the answer for every product and service, neither is social media or new media.
The first step is understanding what each term means and how it varies from the others.
The simple definition for web 2.0 is: websites that have been specially programmed to allow for conversations and feedback between users of the same websites and community groups.
The term "Web 2.0" was coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999, in her article "Fragmented Future.”
“The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. ... The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will [...] appear on your computer screen, [...] on your TV set [...] your car dashboard [...] your cell phone [...] hand-held game machines [...] and maybe even your microwave.”
Wikipedia’s definition:
"Web 2.0" refers to a second generation of web development and design, that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashup and folksonomies.
As you will notice in the Wiki definition, there are a few concepts that will not be discussed in detail in these articles; video-sharing, wikis, mashup and folksonomies.
Social media is part of the web 2.0 technology capability. The way websites are programmed, they allow for users to share photos, give updates on “what they are doing” as well as video sharing.
The clearest and best definition of social media I have found was written by Joseph Thornley.
Social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.
The term “new media” has been overly used and widely misunderstood and includes technologies such as PDA’s CDs, DVDs and video games. Webopedia.com defines it as:
A generic term for the many different forms of electronic communication that are made possible through the use of computer technology. The term is in relation to “old” media forms, such as print newspapers and magazines, that are static representations of text and graphics.
So, next time you talk about adding web 2.0, social media or new media to your marketing strategy, ask yourself, is it necessary for what we really want to accomplish? If you are not sure what you should be using, how they work or if you are permitted to use them according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Devices and Radiological Health Organization (CDRH) guidelines, talk to a professional.
Part 2: How is web 2.0 technology used?
Now that we know the definition of web 2.0, where the term came from, we will talk about what tactics are under the umbrella of web 2.0 technology and how they relate to the medical device industry.
It is important to know what type of information dissemination should be part of your overall marketing strategy and how web 2.0 can be implemented as part of that strategy.
How the web 2.0 technology is used for healthcare marketing and medical device specifically is an interesting subject. The regulations and restrictions are set to protect consumers and stop snake oil salesmen from deceiving the American public.
The rules are strict, when established. The FDA has yet to develop a set of guidelines for medical device marketers to follow. The FDA has been active in the pharma sector and has levied fines for misuse. In the mean time, it is prudent to work closely with your marketing team and legal regulatory team to establish rules and guides for your web 2.0 efforts.
Blogs
Blogs can be useful during the development of a new product with updates and information of the development phase and progress. When writing blogs for medical device it is important to know what the FDA regulations are for marketing. Providing information about a products benefits or making statements before it has been through the proper FDA channels will land you in a heap of trouble.
A summary of the definition of a blog from Wikipedia.org is:
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries.
The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.
Asking for feedback on your posts can be a valuable tool but also tricky to manage. The FDA hasn’t provided exact restrictions for medical device marketing about the regulations on who is responsible for information posted on a blog. Pharma companies have been diving into web 2.0 and the lessons learned should be taken into account for medical device.
Blogs should be optimized to ensure they are crawled by the search engines for rankings as well as tracked for unique visits for ROI measurement. While it is difficult to quantify an ROI on this type of marketing strategy you can get a clear sense of who is looking at your product updates as well as how often. Requiring visitors to register will also allow you to collect data and can allow for one on one contact with prospective buyers or even investors.
Community Groups
These groups are usually very social in nature and gather via the Internet to share ideas and information ranging from business to personal and include special interest groups dealing with topics like, religion, health and politics.
Medical device manufacturers can also find a place in these communities or create their own. Depending on the marketing strategy these types of groups can target business, consumers or even the special interest groups depending on the product going to market.
Jeremiah Owyang of Silicon Valley writes in his blog Online Community Best Practices:
Communities Are A Powerful Tool, As Long As You Put Members’ Needs First “An online community is an interactive group of people joined together by a common interest. It’s also one of the most powerful tools a marketer can deploy for customer retention, word of mouth, and customer insight. To host a successful community, think of it as you would product development: Start by focusing on objectives, chart a road map, assemble the right team, and plan to be flexible. Then build your success by launching the community with the backing of your most enthusiastic customers and staying engaged as the community grows. Above all, remember that control is in the hands of the members, so put their needs first, build trust, and become an active part of the community.”
Business community groups have become a very popular form of networking for the busy professional who finds less time in their schedule for the face to face lunch and cocktail networking.
Websites like LinkedIn allow for businesses to network as well as individuals. This particular community has sub-communities called networking groups where you can target your interests and be part of a group that is even more specialized. Even the FDA has a company page with connections to their staff.
Consumer community groups range from fans of products like Pepsi World to AngiesList.com where consumers can review companies and post grievances online. Consumer community groups are sometimes set up by the corporation or by consumers on sites like wetpaint.com.
Special interest community groups created on-line include, health, politics, religion and more. These groups are similar to a consumer group but are brought together for personal reasons and tend to be like-minded individuals looking for news, information, support groups, events, and relationships.
Micro-Blogs
Micro-blogging has become a major topic in marketing communications over the past 6 months or so. One major reason, Twitter, a micro-blogging website designed to tell people “what you are doing” in 140 characters or less.
Twitter came about from the application on Yahoo! Mail, status update, to tell people who also have Yahoo! Mail accounts, what you are doing. In an interview with the LA Times Jack Dorsey explains why he created twitter and the history behind it. Other websites have included the mirco-blog concept into their programming.
Twitter is great for PR needs in medical device marketing. While there are multiple websites that post news releases, having a Twitter account and asking your followers to re-tweet (RT) your posts helps with SEO and gives your followers up to date information that they want.
Facebook and MySpace
Facebook and MySpace are a different type of community from the other three groups mentioned above. These communities are typically very personal in nature. There are some companies that have jumped into the water to test out how having a fan page or group of people who love their product will work. This type of word-of-mouth marketing for some companies will be beneficial.
Medical device companies need to look at their individual product carefully before deciding to go this route. Unless the product has a wide target market these social media sites will not pull the quality traffic needed.
Part 3. Who are the regulators watching the use of the technology
“The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one of the sections under the HHS. Other sections include the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Indian Health Service, National Institutes of Health and others.
Within the FDA there are seven centers and offices that are managed under the FDA commissioner. One of the centers is the Center for Devices & Radiological Health (CDRH). The CDRH breaks down even further into another six offices that are “…responsible for regulating firms who manufacture, re-package, re-label, and/or import medical devices sold in the United States. In addition, CDRH regulates radiation-emitting electronic products (medical and non-medical) such as lasers, x-ray systems, ultrasound equipment, microwave ovens and color televisions,” according to the FDA website.
This is where it becomes a little more complicated. Depending on the type of device one of the 6 offices will be responsible for the monitoring of regulation compliance.
There are standard marketing rules for medical devices that manufacturers must meet in order to be compliant with the FDA. Each of the following requirements are listed on the FDA website under Overview of Device Regulation.
* Establishment registration,
* Medical Device Listing,
* Premarket Notification 510(k), unless exempt, or Premarket Approval (PMA),
* Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) for clinical studies
* Quality System (QS) regulation,
* Labeling requirements, and
* Medical Device Reporting (MDR)
Next time you talk about adding web 2.0, social media or new media to your marketing strategy, ask yourself, is it necessary for what we really want to accomplish? If you are not sure what you should be using, how they work or if you are permitted to use them according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Center for Devices and Radiological Health Organization (CDRH) guidelines, talk to a professional.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
How to optimize your site's conversion rate - iMediaConnection.com
"This is a great article! It is certainly refining what I have done with my CPL and Axciom data! "
Optimization tactics can tell you who your users are and what they want. Use these essentials to ensure you're making the right moves.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Creative Services Manager at National Marketing Department at MDC Holdings Denver
This sounds like an amazing opportunity! The company can not pay relocation costs but like many of us, if you qualify and are in the market, covering those costs on your own is worth it. If interested feel free to send resumes to me direct and I will send them to my contact.
Headquartered in Denver, CO, Richmond American Homes is one of the nation's top homebuilders. Our leading position in the homebuilding industry can provide you with a chance to learn, develop and move ahead. Working within our National Marketing Department provides you with a unique opportunity to work on a national brand. You will be part of an in-house ad agency that plans, creates and implements marketing campaigns from coast to coast. From online to outdoor, you will have an opportunity to work on many integrated marketing programs.
We are seeking a Creative Services Manager that will lead a team of traditional and online designers, working directly with both the Directors of Creative and Account Services to manage our brand and our overall workload. In this position you will be responsible for understanding Richmond American’s business goals and objectives, and for insuring that all marketing material meets these objectives. You will work closely with National Marketing Managers to define and solve communication needs and challenges within our business model as well as working in conjunction with National Marketing Managers to present solutions to stakeholders. The Creative Services Manager will direct a team of print and web designers and maintain brand integrity across mediums.
Essential Job Functions and Supervisory / Project Management Duties:
· Responsible for overseeing Brand Development and Management
· Responsible for maintaining strategy and consistency
· Review and critique design departments’ work
· Helps Traffic jobs among team members
· Responsible for managing direct reports career growth by leading the team with inspiration and motivation to follow strategic objectives
· Responsible for recruitment, termination and performance reviews
· Manages and mentors graphic design staff, including approving daily work product and ensuring daily productivity levels are met
Our ideal candidate will possess a four year degree in graphic design with 5+ years of graphic design experience, preferable in an agency setting.
Additional Requirements:
· Excellent communication and art direction skills
· Advanced knowledge of Macintosh operating systems and troubleshooting
· Advanced knowledge of Adobe Creative Suites including Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat and knowledge of Adobe InDesign
· Pre-press preparation skills and understanding of the printing process
· Experience in hand-coding HTML, CSS and Actionscript
· Knowledge of the capabilities of browsers and design constraints on the Web
· Thorough understanding of email design standards and best practices
· Attention to detail and ability to prioritize in a fast paced environment
· Strong visualization and conceptual skills
· Successful track record of management experience
Our successful history in this industry comes from developing a culture that rewards employees for hard work, perseverance and integrity. We have high expectations for employee performance that produces positive business results and a performance management system that measures activities objectively. Additionally, our organization has a strong commitment to compliance with operational standards that all employees must adhere to. This philosophy has helped to not just make us an industry leader but also a place where people are challenged, encouraged and supported to make a positive impact every day. A competitive benefits program including Medical, Dental, Vision and 401(k) are just some of the features available to you.
If you are ready for more than a job and seek a career with one of the most respected organizations in a top industry then we want to hear from you. Please also visit our website at www.richmondamerican.com for more information.
MDC Holdings, Inc. / Richmond American Homes is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Headquartered in Denver, CO, Richmond American Homes is one of the nation's top homebuilders. Our leading position in the homebuilding industry can provide you with a chance to learn, develop and move ahead. Working within our National Marketing Department provides you with a unique opportunity to work on a national brand. You will be part of an in-house ad agency that plans, creates and implements marketing campaigns from coast to coast. From online to outdoor, you will have an opportunity to work on many integrated marketing programs.
We are seeking a Creative Services Manager that will lead a team of traditional and online designers, working directly with both the Directors of Creative and Account Services to manage our brand and our overall workload. In this position you will be responsible for understanding Richmond American’s business goals and objectives, and for insuring that all marketing material meets these objectives. You will work closely with National Marketing Managers to define and solve communication needs and challenges within our business model as well as working in conjunction with National Marketing Managers to present solutions to stakeholders. The Creative Services Manager will direct a team of print and web designers and maintain brand integrity across mediums.
Essential Job Functions and Supervisory / Project Management Duties:
· Responsible for overseeing Brand Development and Management
· Responsible for maintaining strategy and consistency
· Review and critique design departments’ work
· Helps Traffic jobs among team members
· Responsible for managing direct reports career growth by leading the team with inspiration and motivation to follow strategic objectives
· Responsible for recruitment, termination and performance reviews
· Manages and mentors graphic design staff, including approving daily work product and ensuring daily productivity levels are met
Our ideal candidate will possess a four year degree in graphic design with 5+ years of graphic design experience, preferable in an agency setting.
Additional Requirements:
· Excellent communication and art direction skills
· Advanced knowledge of Macintosh operating systems and troubleshooting
· Advanced knowledge of Adobe Creative Suites including Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat and knowledge of Adobe InDesign
· Pre-press preparation skills and understanding of the printing process
· Experience in hand-coding HTML, CSS and Actionscript
· Knowledge of the capabilities of browsers and design constraints on the Web
· Thorough understanding of email design standards and best practices
· Attention to detail and ability to prioritize in a fast paced environment
· Strong visualization and conceptual skills
· Successful track record of management experience
Our successful history in this industry comes from developing a culture that rewards employees for hard work, perseverance and integrity. We have high expectations for employee performance that produces positive business results and a performance management system that measures activities objectively. Additionally, our organization has a strong commitment to compliance with operational standards that all employees must adhere to. This philosophy has helped to not just make us an industry leader but also a place where people are challenged, encouraged and supported to make a positive impact every day. A competitive benefits program including Medical, Dental, Vision and 401(k) are just some of the features available to you.
If you are ready for more than a job and seek a career with one of the most respected organizations in a top industry then we want to hear from you. Please also visit our website at www.richmondamerican.com for more information.
MDC Holdings, Inc. / Richmond American Homes is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Monday, December 6, 2010
Answers to pre-interview questions.
I was contacted by a recruiter last week for a position with an agency who markets themselves as a hybrid agency. They are currently seeking an account manager to join their team who has a mix of traditional and interactive agency experience. The recruiter and I discussed the position over the phone and decided I would be a good candidate for the position.
Part of the interview process includes answering some questions about my social media experience, what I have been doing since my layoff in 2009, and what my hobbies are outside of the office. While I know I have addressed most of this in my past blog articles I thought that the focus of social media is an interesting twist on my experience.
Answering the question of my participation, involvement and execution of social media programs requires me to discuss how I use the various tools personally and how I have used it in the past in a professional work environment.
Using social media tools I have been working diligently to build my personal brand. Utilizing my LinkedIn network, posting blog articles to ArticlesBase, Google and Twitter, reading and commenting on other blogs I have been developing a community of fellow job seekers and recruiters looking to fill positions for clients.
One of the tactics in marketing my personal brand has been to spread the news that I am in the job market, send out my LinkedIn profile to every person I know and use as many websites as possible to post my information. The results from LinkedIn as of 9:00 am on 12/2/10 had my profile views listed as 8 people in 3 days with an appearance in search results 12 times in 7 days.
Another tactic I have used for my personal brand is blogging. The purpose of my blog is to discuss my skills and qualifications while at the same time offering helpful information to other job seekers. I post my blog articles to Google Blogger as well as ArticlesBase which helps increase my search rankings, allows me to communicate with readers, and gives prospective employers an opportunity to read on their own time how I can benefit them as a team member. I use Google Analytics to track my blog stats and have a measurable success rate of 109 unique visitors from 10/1/10 thru 12/2/10.
Twitter has allowed me to not only post updates and interesting articles I have read, but also to connect and communicate with the community of Denver bronco fans. Hootsuite is the platform I use to monitor various topics including healthcare, broncos, and mentions. I am currently following 224 people and companies and have 243 followers. My goal for Twitter is not to have millions of followers but to be part of a community.
The results of my personal branding campaign using social media are measurable not only in the stats from each site I use but also when doing a Google search for my name as well as the term marketing manager Denver, no quotes. I was contacted by a MBA student here in Denver who found me on Google and needed to interview a marketing manager. He told me he found me listed #1 on Google.
In the professional work environment the use of social media can be a challenge when the client base and agency team is unfamiliar with the use and power these tools can provide. One challenge was educating the agency team on how social media can drive new business and promote the agency knowledge and background in such a niche market. Another challenge is marketing niche medical device products which are regulated by the FDA. Many times the client fears repercussions from using the tools incorrectly and the agency needs to speak intelligently about how and when to use social media.
After demonstrating to the team the need for social media in our new business efforts and how other agencies were using it I began setting up accounts on Google, LinkedIn and Twitter. Prior to this the agency was not measuring website traffic so I also had our team add Google Analytics to the website so I could track and measure our progress. It wasn’t long before we were ranking in the top 5 on Google and in July 2009 our website traffic was up 36% from the month before.
We had started doing new business projects and I was providing prospective client lists and information to the owner of the agency. Most of my time at this point was spent researching companies who fit in our area of expertise, getting information on what products were being developed by them, finding contact information and making initial contact via LinkedIn.
One of the challenges was to show the agency team and clients that using social media and web 2.0 technologies for marketing medical devices was possible. I began researching the current regulations set by the FDA and what they meant for social media. At the time the FDA didn’t have any clear rules set so existing advertising guidelines needed to be construed for social media. I began writing a blog increase our visibility and demonstrate our expertise when it came to web 2.0 technologies and the FDA and what role social media would play in medical device marketing.
It could be said that using social media and web 2.0 technologies to market medical device products was a big idea. Unfortunately the agency went out of business before we could implement programs for clients. Which brings me to what I have been doing since the layoff. There is always a friend or family member who needs help writing a brochure or designing a flier they can print a Kinkos.
Looking for a new position in marketing has been my full time job. As I mentioned above I have been very active in building my personal brand and working on my Google rankings. I find that I spend at least 6 hours a day researching companies, participating in webinars, reaching out to my network, and writing.
Beyond that I have been helping a friend in Las Vegas market his business. Unfortunately he has no budget and is under contract with DexKnows. I have been helping him with changing his website to include content management, increase his search engine rankings, and encourage him to participate in social media and networking.
I also was asked to help with a fund raising campaign for local after school programs in the city I grew up in. A few alumni got together and decided to hold an alumni softball tournament where the three local junior high schools would compete for bragging rights. We had three weeks to pull it all together and it was a great success. I created a Facebook fan page, wrote a news release and used word of mouth tactics . Our initial goal was to raise $600 and once I began the marketing we quickly realized we could raise more. Our total donation to the program was $1100.
Working in advertising agencies for over 9 years has allowed me to be part of teams large and small. Marketing Partners was my company and I provided marketing services to clients. I worked with Hugh Roper who was a freelance graphic designer on a campaign to launch a new condo conversion property in Las Vegas, NV. I started out by evaluating who our prospective buyers were using Acxiom data and from there we designed all the ads and collateral based on those profiles.
Where the “big idea” comes into play is how I planned and bought the media for the client. Using the data from Acxiom I was able to segment consumers into buying groups and use this information to purchase the most effective media schedule. I would then use a company called Who’s Calling to place unique phone numbers into all ads (print, radio, Internet and TV) to track who was responding to which ad and from what media outlet. Also, I used unique URLs and Google Analytics to track web traffic.
So, each month I would pull a call report, Google report and sales team report and track the cost per lead down to each newspaper ad, radio station, email, and even the signage. That way I was able to adjust my media buys and messaging as needed. At the end of the campaign I was able to calculate a total cost per lead for the entire marketing plan.
The goal for traffic was determined at the very beginning of the planning process. It was figured that 4% of all traffic should result in sales. We had at one time 267 units to sell and were able to calculate how many units of traffic needed to be driven to the sales team to sell out. The final results of the campaign generated over 1,200 prospective buyers in a six month period at a cost per lead of $162.
Now, jumping to the personal side of life, being new to Colorado I am looking forward to learning how to ski this winter. My husband claims he knows how and we plan on going on our first adventure this month. Our past summer vacations have been spent camping, hiking and biking in Yosemite National Park. This past summer we camped in Tuolumne Meadows for the first time and fell in love. While we did miss seeing the bears that are so often roaming around the lower valley, the hiking and fishing was amazing. Next summer we may go to Yellowstone but with so many amazing camping opportunities close by, we have yet to decide.
Watching the Denver Bronco games is a big part of what I do during the football season. One of the reasons my husband and I started dating was because we were both fans. When he was offered and excepted a job with Denver Water we couldn’t believe we would live in the state where our team was. The excitement of watching our team with other fans has been amazing!
Part of the interview process includes answering some questions about my social media experience, what I have been doing since my layoff in 2009, and what my hobbies are outside of the office. While I know I have addressed most of this in my past blog articles I thought that the focus of social media is an interesting twist on my experience.
Answering the question of my participation, involvement and execution of social media programs requires me to discuss how I use the various tools personally and how I have used it in the past in a professional work environment.
Using social media tools I have been working diligently to build my personal brand. Utilizing my LinkedIn network, posting blog articles to ArticlesBase, Google and Twitter, reading and commenting on other blogs I have been developing a community of fellow job seekers and recruiters looking to fill positions for clients.
One of the tactics in marketing my personal brand has been to spread the news that I am in the job market, send out my LinkedIn profile to every person I know and use as many websites as possible to post my information. The results from LinkedIn as of 9:00 am on 12/2/10 had my profile views listed as 8 people in 3 days with an appearance in search results 12 times in 7 days.
Another tactic I have used for my personal brand is blogging. The purpose of my blog is to discuss my skills and qualifications while at the same time offering helpful information to other job seekers. I post my blog articles to Google Blogger as well as ArticlesBase which helps increase my search rankings, allows me to communicate with readers, and gives prospective employers an opportunity to read on their own time how I can benefit them as a team member. I use Google Analytics to track my blog stats and have a measurable success rate of 109 unique visitors from 10/1/10 thru 12/2/10.
Twitter has allowed me to not only post updates and interesting articles I have read, but also to connect and communicate with the community of Denver bronco fans. Hootsuite is the platform I use to monitor various topics including healthcare, broncos, and mentions. I am currently following 224 people and companies and have 243 followers. My goal for Twitter is not to have millions of followers but to be part of a community.
The results of my personal branding campaign using social media are measurable not only in the stats from each site I use but also when doing a Google search for my name as well as the term marketing manager Denver, no quotes. I was contacted by a MBA student here in Denver who found me on Google and needed to interview a marketing manager. He told me he found me listed #1 on Google.
In the professional work environment the use of social media can be a challenge when the client base and agency team is unfamiliar with the use and power these tools can provide. One challenge was educating the agency team on how social media can drive new business and promote the agency knowledge and background in such a niche market. Another challenge is marketing niche medical device products which are regulated by the FDA. Many times the client fears repercussions from using the tools incorrectly and the agency needs to speak intelligently about how and when to use social media.
After demonstrating to the team the need for social media in our new business efforts and how other agencies were using it I began setting up accounts on Google, LinkedIn and Twitter. Prior to this the agency was not measuring website traffic so I also had our team add Google Analytics to the website so I could track and measure our progress. It wasn’t long before we were ranking in the top 5 on Google and in July 2009 our website traffic was up 36% from the month before.
We had started doing new business projects and I was providing prospective client lists and information to the owner of the agency. Most of my time at this point was spent researching companies who fit in our area of expertise, getting information on what products were being developed by them, finding contact information and making initial contact via LinkedIn.
One of the challenges was to show the agency team and clients that using social media and web 2.0 technologies for marketing medical devices was possible. I began researching the current regulations set by the FDA and what they meant for social media. At the time the FDA didn’t have any clear rules set so existing advertising guidelines needed to be construed for social media. I began writing a blog increase our visibility and demonstrate our expertise when it came to web 2.0 technologies and the FDA and what role social media would play in medical device marketing.
It could be said that using social media and web 2.0 technologies to market medical device products was a big idea. Unfortunately the agency went out of business before we could implement programs for clients. Which brings me to what I have been doing since the layoff. There is always a friend or family member who needs help writing a brochure or designing a flier they can print a Kinkos.
Looking for a new position in marketing has been my full time job. As I mentioned above I have been very active in building my personal brand and working on my Google rankings. I find that I spend at least 6 hours a day researching companies, participating in webinars, reaching out to my network, and writing.
Beyond that I have been helping a friend in Las Vegas market his business. Unfortunately he has no budget and is under contract with DexKnows. I have been helping him with changing his website to include content management, increase his search engine rankings, and encourage him to participate in social media and networking.
I also was asked to help with a fund raising campaign for local after school programs in the city I grew up in. A few alumni got together and decided to hold an alumni softball tournament where the three local junior high schools would compete for bragging rights. We had three weeks to pull it all together and it was a great success. I created a Facebook fan page, wrote a news release and used word of mouth tactics . Our initial goal was to raise $600 and once I began the marketing we quickly realized we could raise more. Our total donation to the program was $1100.
Working in advertising agencies for over 9 years has allowed me to be part of teams large and small. Marketing Partners was my company and I provided marketing services to clients. I worked with Hugh Roper who was a freelance graphic designer on a campaign to launch a new condo conversion property in Las Vegas, NV. I started out by evaluating who our prospective buyers were using Acxiom data and from there we designed all the ads and collateral based on those profiles.
Where the “big idea” comes into play is how I planned and bought the media for the client. Using the data from Acxiom I was able to segment consumers into buying groups and use this information to purchase the most effective media schedule. I would then use a company called Who’s Calling to place unique phone numbers into all ads (print, radio, Internet and TV) to track who was responding to which ad and from what media outlet. Also, I used unique URLs and Google Analytics to track web traffic.
So, each month I would pull a call report, Google report and sales team report and track the cost per lead down to each newspaper ad, radio station, email, and even the signage. That way I was able to adjust my media buys and messaging as needed. At the end of the campaign I was able to calculate a total cost per lead for the entire marketing plan.
The goal for traffic was determined at the very beginning of the planning process. It was figured that 4% of all traffic should result in sales. We had at one time 267 units to sell and were able to calculate how many units of traffic needed to be driven to the sales team to sell out. The final results of the campaign generated over 1,200 prospective buyers in a six month period at a cost per lead of $162.
Now, jumping to the personal side of life, being new to Colorado I am looking forward to learning how to ski this winter. My husband claims he knows how and we plan on going on our first adventure this month. Our past summer vacations have been spent camping, hiking and biking in Yosemite National Park. This past summer we camped in Tuolumne Meadows for the first time and fell in love. While we did miss seeing the bears that are so often roaming around the lower valley, the hiking and fishing was amazing. Next summer we may go to Yellowstone but with so many amazing camping opportunities close by, we have yet to decide.
Watching the Denver Bronco games is a big part of what I do during the football season. One of the reasons my husband and I started dating was because we were both fans. When he was offered and excepted a job with Denver Water we couldn’t believe we would live in the state where our team was. The excitement of watching our team with other fans has been amazing!
Friday, December 3, 2010
What have you done for me lately? Job search tips
As a very active job seeker I find myself sending connection requests to fellow LinkedIn members asking for help. Most of the time I need help connecting with hiring managers to get my foot in the door. And one of the things I have learned is that you have to offer up your help to others as well. Easier said than done for sure. I’ve started sending job leads from recruiters to my connections that are also seeking a position. I answer as many questions as I can and start discussions in my groups to show I am an active participant.
So, in an attempt to really help others I want to list out some of my favorite recruiters and job search websites. My hope is that I can do for others what I hope they can do for me.
Of all the job search websites I prefer InDeed.com. This is mainly due to the ease and accuracy of the job alerts. I have signed up to receive an email everyday with jobs that match my selected criteria. I have been sure to include the terms that I don’t want. I’ve found that because the term marketing is an umbrella term for so many positions and is included in the job descriptions of so many listings that excluding certain terms keeps me from getting jobs that I would never be interested in.
Of course I am on CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com as most job seekers are. The job alerts from CareerBuilder usually include positions for sales as well as entry level positions. I don’t ask Monster to send alerts because it is too repetitive of the jobs I am already getting.
I have received a few emails and calls from recruiters from CareerBuilder and that is great. At one time I actually paid for Marketing Ladder.com and was terribly disappointed. It was expensive and after some time I realized it was a recruiter database. The worst part was positions I would apply for I would also find on the free sites. I had been told that the staff would review your resume and let you know if you had the right experience to be included on their site. It was supposed to be exclusive to upper level management. They actually had commercials during the Superbowl one year touting the exclusivity of the site.
I really like to look at LinkedIn for positions because I can send my profile along with my resume. Unfortunately, many of the groups have started listing jobs in the group pages and those are much more cumbersome to sift through. There is no way to search through the listings for positions in your area or by job title. I’d like to see LinkedIn change that.
A really big tip is signing up with the temp/placement agencies. Most of my interviews and job leads have been from a recruiter. I have had varying results from these companies. What I really appreciate is that they return calls, emails and are never rude.
Here is a list of sites/companies to sign up with. If you want an actual contact, leave a comment and I’ll get the contact information for you.
Note: I am in marketing/advertising and some of the companies specialize in my industry.
The Creative Group
The Kleeman Group
Source Executive
DCM Staffing
Aquent
I hope this helps in your search!
So, in an attempt to really help others I want to list out some of my favorite recruiters and job search websites. My hope is that I can do for others what I hope they can do for me.
Of all the job search websites I prefer InDeed.com. This is mainly due to the ease and accuracy of the job alerts. I have signed up to receive an email everyday with jobs that match my selected criteria. I have been sure to include the terms that I don’t want. I’ve found that because the term marketing is an umbrella term for so many positions and is included in the job descriptions of so many listings that excluding certain terms keeps me from getting jobs that I would never be interested in.
Of course I am on CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com as most job seekers are. The job alerts from CareerBuilder usually include positions for sales as well as entry level positions. I don’t ask Monster to send alerts because it is too repetitive of the jobs I am already getting.
I have received a few emails and calls from recruiters from CareerBuilder and that is great. At one time I actually paid for Marketing Ladder.com and was terribly disappointed. It was expensive and after some time I realized it was a recruiter database. The worst part was positions I would apply for I would also find on the free sites. I had been told that the staff would review your resume and let you know if you had the right experience to be included on their site. It was supposed to be exclusive to upper level management. They actually had commercials during the Superbowl one year touting the exclusivity of the site.
I really like to look at LinkedIn for positions because I can send my profile along with my resume. Unfortunately, many of the groups have started listing jobs in the group pages and those are much more cumbersome to sift through. There is no way to search through the listings for positions in your area or by job title. I’d like to see LinkedIn change that.
A really big tip is signing up with the temp/placement agencies. Most of my interviews and job leads have been from a recruiter. I have had varying results from these companies. What I really appreciate is that they return calls, emails and are never rude.
Here is a list of sites/companies to sign up with. If you want an actual contact, leave a comment and I’ll get the contact information for you.
Note: I am in marketing/advertising and some of the companies specialize in my industry.
The Creative Group
The Kleeman Group
Source Executive
DCM Staffing
Aquent
I hope this helps in your search!
Monday, November 22, 2010
10 Ways to Leverage Your Blog for Stronger Relationships
10 Ways to Leverage Your Blog for Stronger Relationships
I love when people post great information that will help us all do better!
I love when people post great information that will help us all do better!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Marketing Manager Littleton, CO- My personal recap of webinar "Keys to a successful job search" by Get Hired Boot Camp
Greig Wells and Get Hired Boot Camp lead a webinar this morning giving 10 phases in the job search process.
If you have read any of my previous articles or know the purpose of this blog, it is to market myself to get my next position as a marketing manager here in the Denver Metro area. I spend hours upon hours reading articles, participating in social media, and attending webinars so I can have all the best tips and tricks.
I have to say that this webinar was the most focused and complete tool I have found to date. While I have implemented almost all of the 10 phases already in my search, I did learn some tips on how I can refine my approach and techniques.
Greig does offer a special boot camp on all the 10 phases and if I could, I would take part in it. He did give us the names of the experts he uses to teach the classes and I will be looking them up, getting in touch with them and learning as much as I can reading the blogs.
My two biggest takeaways were;
#1 Target companies I want to work for. Choose 50 companies I want to work for, or as many as there are, and connect with at least one person. Connect by offering to help them and not that you need something from them. The reality is, out of the 50 companies not all will have job openings. The goal is to make a real connection and when possible connect off-line. Build real relationships!
#2 Market my potential and not just my past. Emphasizing my credibility and showing what is in it for them to hire me is a direct approach to find the best fit. Making sure to only express interest in positions I truly qualify for and demonstrating what I will do for them specifically will be key to getting interviews.
Greig also talks about search focus. I did learn from him in another webinar that the personal brand is key and since I have made sure that I am branding myself as marketing manager in Littleton, CO. I'm not a generic job seeker! One thing he mentioned today was to include an industry in that branding. Because my skills and experience were all developed while working in residential real estate marketing I try to avoid mentioning that. So, this tip I will have to consider carefully and maybe ask more questions on how best to approach it.
Another thing I am going to focus on is rethinking my specialty. Once again I am coming back to my title and the challenge of the term marketing generalist. I quit calling myself a generalist but found that I still use the term in interviews. MISTAKE! My conundrum, I specialize in the general. This will take some work.
I do recommend participating in this webinar. The information is clear and can help everyone focus their search. I have some serious work to do.
If you have read any of my previous articles or know the purpose of this blog, it is to market myself to get my next position as a marketing manager here in the Denver Metro area. I spend hours upon hours reading articles, participating in social media, and attending webinars so I can have all the best tips and tricks.
I have to say that this webinar was the most focused and complete tool I have found to date. While I have implemented almost all of the 10 phases already in my search, I did learn some tips on how I can refine my approach and techniques.
Greig does offer a special boot camp on all the 10 phases and if I could, I would take part in it. He did give us the names of the experts he uses to teach the classes and I will be looking them up, getting in touch with them and learning as much as I can reading the blogs.
My two biggest takeaways were;
#1 Target companies I want to work for. Choose 50 companies I want to work for, or as many as there are, and connect with at least one person. Connect by offering to help them and not that you need something from them. The reality is, out of the 50 companies not all will have job openings. The goal is to make a real connection and when possible connect off-line. Build real relationships!
#2 Market my potential and not just my past. Emphasizing my credibility and showing what is in it for them to hire me is a direct approach to find the best fit. Making sure to only express interest in positions I truly qualify for and demonstrating what I will do for them specifically will be key to getting interviews.
Greig also talks about search focus. I did learn from him in another webinar that the personal brand is key and since I have made sure that I am branding myself as marketing manager in Littleton, CO. I'm not a generic job seeker! One thing he mentioned today was to include an industry in that branding. Because my skills and experience were all developed while working in residential real estate marketing I try to avoid mentioning that. So, this tip I will have to consider carefully and maybe ask more questions on how best to approach it.
Another thing I am going to focus on is rethinking my specialty. Once again I am coming back to my title and the challenge of the term marketing generalist. I quit calling myself a generalist but found that I still use the term in interviews. MISTAKE! My conundrum, I specialize in the general. This will take some work.
I do recommend participating in this webinar. The information is clear and can help everyone focus their search. I have some serious work to do.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
10 Things the HR Department Won’t Tell You by Woman's Day
This type of articles show up almost everyday, and I try to read them all. I look for little nuggets of information that will help me get my next Marketing Manager position. Kimberly Fusaro who wrote the article for Woman's Day talks not only about getting a job, but what we should and shouldn't do after.
The first point she talks about is the Google search on a candidates name. I have worked hard on getting my name on the first three pages of Google. I am careful not to have personal information show up and keep it on a professional level. I protect my privacy on Facebook knowing it is a personal use of social media. Yes, some people use it as part of their marketing tools but I choose not to.
Tip: When you comment on another person's Facebook page and they do not use the same privacy settings as you do, it will still show up in Google. So watch what you say on your friends page!
Number 10 was interesting because you hope that when you do well your supervisor remembers it forever. According to this article, you only get three to six months to utilize the good work. But, when you make a mistake they say it can last for years. This is a point where every time you get a positive email from your supervisor, print it, put it in a file and use it when you are looking for that promotion. Remind them how great you really are.
I encourage you to click on the link to the article and see if there are any points maybe you already know, but need reminding of.
The first point she talks about is the Google search on a candidates name. I have worked hard on getting my name on the first three pages of Google. I am careful not to have personal information show up and keep it on a professional level. I protect my privacy on Facebook knowing it is a personal use of social media. Yes, some people use it as part of their marketing tools but I choose not to.
Tip: When you comment on another person's Facebook page and they do not use the same privacy settings as you do, it will still show up in Google. So watch what you say on your friends page!
Number 10 was interesting because you hope that when you do well your supervisor remembers it forever. According to this article, you only get three to six months to utilize the good work. But, when you make a mistake they say it can last for years. This is a point where every time you get a positive email from your supervisor, print it, put it in a file and use it when you are looking for that promotion. Remind them how great you really are.
I encourage you to click on the link to the article and see if there are any points maybe you already know, but need reminding of.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Overcoming Discouragement and Getting Back to Work
I read this article post earlier today on LinkedIn and asked Linda if I could share it. I was working on an article about my own frustration with the job search and found this to be helpful because she has validated my feelings. yes, sometimes we all need a little validation.
Overcoming Discouragement and Getting Back to Work
Managing discouragement, and the other emotions that accompany a job search can be challenging when you are diligently getting your resume out to the world without the results you desire.What can you do to transform discouragement into hope that you will land another job? Engage in activities that will help you move through difficult emotions. Fear and faith make poor roommates because one dispels the other.You must fight discouragement.
Avoid beginning and ending your day with negative television and radio news reports about the economy and start your day early with activities that inspire and comfort you such as devotional readings, meditation, artwork, or exercise. The best form of workout for you is the one you are most likely to participate in. Begin your day early by first making a deposit into your emotional bank account–that is, your self-care plan.
If you are starting to give in to discouragement, it is time to tune in for self-care. Prepare a list of 10 self-care items that will help renew your mind, body, and spirit. You may find it difficult to do so, but it is completely worth your time. The items on your list do not even have to cost money. Participate in 2-3 of these self-care activities every day. Give yourself permission to take an overdue restorative time-out.
Many people work very hard while also attending to the needs of their family, but find it nearly impossible to be especially kind and tender to their selves. In an emergency, you have to put on your own oxygen mask first, and being out of work in an economic downturn qualifies as just such an emergency. You may need to go fishing or engage in other enjoyable and renewing sport activities—whatever it takes to think about something besides the ongoing job hunt for a little while. It’s not a luxury; it’s a necessity!
Address discouragement and other emotions by taking the time you need – not by doing what others think you should do. Talk to someone you trust who will help you to get rid of negative feelings and evaluate the emotional ramifications of what you’re going through. Get help from a friend in managing your emotions and when you are ready, launch into the tangible, practical components of job search.
After you’ve taken a step back, take stock of your expectations. Unmet expectations can lead to disappointment and discouragement. You may be very good at the work you have done in the past but your future does not live in your past. Industry changes create opportunities for new job growth. Do you need to take what I refer to as the ’transitional bridge job’ or two part time jobs to pay the bills while you think about seriously re-inventing yourself ?
Are you at a fork in the road? Do you want to return to a former, similar, or new job title? Research professional association websites in the industry you want to explore. Perform information interviews to help expand or narrow options and consider participating in other activities outlined in the Getting Back to Work book. Don’t let lack of information stall you indefinitely. New job growth is there. You will bring greater enthusiasm and success to your job hunting when you identify what you want to do. What does your heart desire for employment?
When you are ready, set a structured job search schedule that allows for concentrated job hunting activities, say between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm daily, or whatever time frame works for you. No matter what, though, it’s important to keep your work/life balance and self care in the daily mix. Your future work is ahead of you and you must move forward to reach your goals. Giving in to feelings of discouragement can only hold you back.
After being out of work for over a year and employing as many of the techniques to market yourself as possible, and really doing everything possible, what do you do when you still don’t have a job offer?
This is my question and my struggle. I’ve been keeping my blog focused on what I am doing, what my capabilities are and how I can benefit any company that hires me. But, there comes a point for all of us unemployed job hunters where we feel defeated, frustrated and ready to give up.
As we go through the challenge of unemployment we realize that not only do we struggle financially but emotionally as well. Some of us, me in particular, find it difficult to not work. And as much as we throw ourselves into the job search, which really is a full time job on its own, and try to get more involved with family and doing volunteer work, nothing can take the place of the joy and satisfaction of going to work everyday and earning a paycheck.
One of the interesting things I read was someone posted a comment on desperation. They have been out of work for a long time saying that the financial issues they were facing were making life so stressful that when they went in for an interview, they were later told that the desperation was a turn off to the hiring manager.
Now this had me worried. Those of us that have been out of work for so long and honestly attach some of our personal self worth on the work we do and are faced with financial troubles are desperate. We thrive on making a difference everyday in the work we do for our clients and the companies we work for. They don’t call us workaholics for nothing. We get a personal satisfaction from doing our jobs not just well, but excelling and exceeding expectations everyday.
So what do we do? We plunge ourselves into the job hunt by networking, writing blogs that may help others and trying to make an impact in other ways. Recently I was given an opportunity to work with an old classmate from Jr High to raise money for after school programs in Fullerton, CA where I grew up.
This was great for me as I was able to use some of my marketing skills for a great cause. The idea was to donate money to the City of Fullerton so that they could provide money to the after school programs for sports equipment, educational outings and special events. We first wanted to donate $600 and that number was increased to $1000 once we realized how much support we were getting from our fellow alum. We surpassed our goal and raised almost $1200 for the program.
I have been helping a friend with his SEO/SEM and building his website so that we can include case studies and update his before and after images more often. He used Dex Online and while he says he is happy with the results my analysis of the ROI is terrible.
Anyway, as Linda has recommended in her article, sometimes we need to take a step back, reevaluate goals and reexamine expectations.
Overcoming Discouragement and Getting Back to Work
Managing discouragement, and the other emotions that accompany a job search can be challenging when you are diligently getting your resume out to the world without the results you desire.What can you do to transform discouragement into hope that you will land another job? Engage in activities that will help you move through difficult emotions. Fear and faith make poor roommates because one dispels the other.You must fight discouragement.
Avoid beginning and ending your day with negative television and radio news reports about the economy and start your day early with activities that inspire and comfort you such as devotional readings, meditation, artwork, or exercise. The best form of workout for you is the one you are most likely to participate in. Begin your day early by first making a deposit into your emotional bank account–that is, your self-care plan.
If you are starting to give in to discouragement, it is time to tune in for self-care. Prepare a list of 10 self-care items that will help renew your mind, body, and spirit. You may find it difficult to do so, but it is completely worth your time. The items on your list do not even have to cost money. Participate in 2-3 of these self-care activities every day. Give yourself permission to take an overdue restorative time-out.
Many people work very hard while also attending to the needs of their family, but find it nearly impossible to be especially kind and tender to their selves. In an emergency, you have to put on your own oxygen mask first, and being out of work in an economic downturn qualifies as just such an emergency. You may need to go fishing or engage in other enjoyable and renewing sport activities—whatever it takes to think about something besides the ongoing job hunt for a little while. It’s not a luxury; it’s a necessity!
Address discouragement and other emotions by taking the time you need – not by doing what others think you should do. Talk to someone you trust who will help you to get rid of negative feelings and evaluate the emotional ramifications of what you’re going through. Get help from a friend in managing your emotions and when you are ready, launch into the tangible, practical components of job search.
After you’ve taken a step back, take stock of your expectations. Unmet expectations can lead to disappointment and discouragement. You may be very good at the work you have done in the past but your future does not live in your past. Industry changes create opportunities for new job growth. Do you need to take what I refer to as the ’transitional bridge job’ or two part time jobs to pay the bills while you think about seriously re-inventing yourself ?
Are you at a fork in the road? Do you want to return to a former, similar, or new job title? Research professional association websites in the industry you want to explore. Perform information interviews to help expand or narrow options and consider participating in other activities outlined in the Getting Back to Work book. Don’t let lack of information stall you indefinitely. New job growth is there. You will bring greater enthusiasm and success to your job hunting when you identify what you want to do. What does your heart desire for employment?
When you are ready, set a structured job search schedule that allows for concentrated job hunting activities, say between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm daily, or whatever time frame works for you. No matter what, though, it’s important to keep your work/life balance and self care in the daily mix. Your future work is ahead of you and you must move forward to reach your goals. Giving in to feelings of discouragement can only hold you back.
After being out of work for over a year and employing as many of the techniques to market yourself as possible, and really doing everything possible, what do you do when you still don’t have a job offer?
This is my question and my struggle. I’ve been keeping my blog focused on what I am doing, what my capabilities are and how I can benefit any company that hires me. But, there comes a point for all of us unemployed job hunters where we feel defeated, frustrated and ready to give up.
As we go through the challenge of unemployment we realize that not only do we struggle financially but emotionally as well. Some of us, me in particular, find it difficult to not work. And as much as we throw ourselves into the job search, which really is a full time job on its own, and try to get more involved with family and doing volunteer work, nothing can take the place of the joy and satisfaction of going to work everyday and earning a paycheck.
One of the interesting things I read was someone posted a comment on desperation. They have been out of work for a long time saying that the financial issues they were facing were making life so stressful that when they went in for an interview, they were later told that the desperation was a turn off to the hiring manager.
Now this had me worried. Those of us that have been out of work for so long and honestly attach some of our personal self worth on the work we do and are faced with financial troubles are desperate. We thrive on making a difference everyday in the work we do for our clients and the companies we work for. They don’t call us workaholics for nothing. We get a personal satisfaction from doing our jobs not just well, but excelling and exceeding expectations everyday.
So what do we do? We plunge ourselves into the job hunt by networking, writing blogs that may help others and trying to make an impact in other ways. Recently I was given an opportunity to work with an old classmate from Jr High to raise money for after school programs in Fullerton, CA where I grew up.
This was great for me as I was able to use some of my marketing skills for a great cause. The idea was to donate money to the City of Fullerton so that they could provide money to the after school programs for sports equipment, educational outings and special events. We first wanted to donate $600 and that number was increased to $1000 once we realized how much support we were getting from our fellow alum. We surpassed our goal and raised almost $1200 for the program.
I have been helping a friend with his SEO/SEM and building his website so that we can include case studies and update his before and after images more often. He used Dex Online and while he says he is happy with the results my analysis of the ROI is terrible.
Anyway, as Linda has recommended in her article, sometimes we need to take a step back, reevaluate goals and reexamine expectations.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Marketing Manager Littleton, CO
I have written articles to emphasize what tasks and skills I have used in various positions throughout my career. My goal is to show prospective employers what I can do for them beyond the timeline resume. After reading another article on LinkedIn about adding keywords on a resume and in your blog I thought that I should have an article with information directly from my cover letter and resume.
the experiment is to see if using part of my cover and resume will increase my readers and/or rankings.
This is the bulk of my cover letter.
During the past few years the marketing and advertising industry has taken a major punch. As of May 2009 it was being reported that more than 30,800 marketing professionals had lost their jobs. This situation has created a pool of professional marketers unprecedented in the past. Companies like yours, now has the opportunity to really find the right candidate for your business goals.
The decision may be difficult for you as you are bombarded with hundreds of resumes from candidates that all seem to be qualified. As a marketer and a prospective candidate I want to help you see why I am the best fit for this position and for your organization.
Using social media, I am working to establish my personal brand and increase my Internet ranking, as well as show prospective employers like yourself my capabilities. You can find my professional profile on LinkedIn and I have started a blog where I discuss my previous positions and what I accomplished. The goal is to give you an opportunity to get to know me and my work style.
My resume vital statistics list out my specific skills and qualifications. What you won’t see on my resume is my ability to work with teams, vendors and all levels of management to meet the specific goals of the business.
I can tell you all day long about my skills and personality, but that doesn’t mean as much as a testimonial by colleagues and past supervisors.
“Lucinda came to KPA and hit the ground running with enthusiasm and experience. Her self-starter attitude enabled me to continue working with clients while she managed the day-to-day account needs. She understands the need for and importance of maintaining budgets and how they impact the bottom line. She is a well-rounded professional with the knowledge and skill to be an asset to any marketing team.” June 18, 2009 Jeff Turcotte, VP General Manager, KPA Healthcare Advertising
“I have worked with Lucinda on a number of different projects and have watched her stand by her personal commitment to ethics. She keeps her clients interests at the top of everything she does. Lucinda has years of marketing experience and has developed a unique tracking and accountability system for her clients that most other marketing professionals would be frightened to show their own clients.” March 4, 2008 Hugh Roper , Freelance Graphic Design , Hugh Roper Design
I have worked diligently on my resume to make sure it is keyword heavy and uses bullets to clearly demonstrate successes. I am including here my keywords/vital statistics and my professional summary. Both these portions of my resume give an overview of what a prospective employer can expect when hiring me.
Vital Statistics
9+ years in marketing
New product and neighborhood launches
Brand development and messaging
Marketing plan development, implementation
Lead generation
Internet marketing (SEO/SEM)
Social media; Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogging
Consumer profiling
Competition analysis
Budget development, reconciliation and cost per lead/ROI analysis
Photography for client collateral and video
Copywriting of collateral, web copy, advertorials, broadcast scripts
Production management including press checks
Directing TV and radio production and editing
Event planning, implementation, onsite coordination and measurement
Team and vendor management
Media planning, buying and negotiating (Print, Outdoor, Radio, TV)
Summary of Experience
Marketing professional with expertise in short and long-term strategic counsel and tactical execution. Proven track record of maximizing resources, streamlining processes while increasing revenues. Combines expert orchestration of campaign management and building team morale with a history of successfully maintaining budgets. Reputation for being a results-driven team leader with a strong work ethic, approachability, customer focused attitude and bottom line outlook that exceeds objectives in dynamic, fast-paced environments.
The goal of all this is to get that perfect job where I can use all my talents to help a company reach their goals and make a positive impact. I have a passion for advertising and marketing and look forward to my next opportunity.
the experiment is to see if using part of my cover and resume will increase my readers and/or rankings.
This is the bulk of my cover letter.
During the past few years the marketing and advertising industry has taken a major punch. As of May 2009 it was being reported that more than 30,800 marketing professionals had lost their jobs. This situation has created a pool of professional marketers unprecedented in the past. Companies like yours, now has the opportunity to really find the right candidate for your business goals.
The decision may be difficult for you as you are bombarded with hundreds of resumes from candidates that all seem to be qualified. As a marketer and a prospective candidate I want to help you see why I am the best fit for this position and for your organization.
Using social media, I am working to establish my personal brand and increase my Internet ranking, as well as show prospective employers like yourself my capabilities. You can find my professional profile on LinkedIn and I have started a blog where I discuss my previous positions and what I accomplished. The goal is to give you an opportunity to get to know me and my work style.
My resume vital statistics list out my specific skills and qualifications. What you won’t see on my resume is my ability to work with teams, vendors and all levels of management to meet the specific goals of the business.
I can tell you all day long about my skills and personality, but that doesn’t mean as much as a testimonial by colleagues and past supervisors.
“Lucinda came to KPA and hit the ground running with enthusiasm and experience. Her self-starter attitude enabled me to continue working with clients while she managed the day-to-day account needs. She understands the need for and importance of maintaining budgets and how they impact the bottom line. She is a well-rounded professional with the knowledge and skill to be an asset to any marketing team.” June 18, 2009 Jeff Turcotte, VP General Manager, KPA Healthcare Advertising
“I have worked with Lucinda on a number of different projects and have watched her stand by her personal commitment to ethics. She keeps her clients interests at the top of everything she does. Lucinda has years of marketing experience and has developed a unique tracking and accountability system for her clients that most other marketing professionals would be frightened to show their own clients.” March 4, 2008 Hugh Roper , Freelance Graphic Design , Hugh Roper Design
I have worked diligently on my resume to make sure it is keyword heavy and uses bullets to clearly demonstrate successes. I am including here my keywords/vital statistics and my professional summary. Both these portions of my resume give an overview of what a prospective employer can expect when hiring me.
Vital Statistics
9+ years in marketing
New product and neighborhood launches
Brand development and messaging
Marketing plan development, implementation
Lead generation
Internet marketing (SEO/SEM)
Social media; Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogging
Consumer profiling
Competition analysis
Budget development, reconciliation and cost per lead/ROI analysis
Photography for client collateral and video
Copywriting of collateral, web copy, advertorials, broadcast scripts
Production management including press checks
Directing TV and radio production and editing
Event planning, implementation, onsite coordination and measurement
Team and vendor management
Media planning, buying and negotiating (Print, Outdoor, Radio, TV)
Summary of Experience
Marketing professional with expertise in short and long-term strategic counsel and tactical execution. Proven track record of maximizing resources, streamlining processes while increasing revenues. Combines expert orchestration of campaign management and building team morale with a history of successfully maintaining budgets. Reputation for being a results-driven team leader with a strong work ethic, approachability, customer focused attitude and bottom line outlook that exceeds objectives in dynamic, fast-paced environments.
The goal of all this is to get that perfect job where I can use all my talents to help a company reach their goals and make a positive impact. I have a passion for advertising and marketing and look forward to my next opportunity.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
501 Mission Place Launches for Non Profits and Charities
I love the idea of helping non-profits with social media tools! I recently was on a committee to raise money for an after school program in California. They could use this type of information.
501 Mission Place Launches for Non Profits and Charities
501 Mission Place Launches for Non Profits and Charities
Friday, October 29, 2010
Marketing manager seeking position part 9- Using Linked In
One of the best ways to market yourself during the job search is on LinkedIn. And it needs to be said that even when you are working you always want to brand yourself as a professional in your industry. You never know when you will be laid off.
There are multiple articles available on how to use LinkedIn. The following tips are what I have done and found that works that weren’t mentioned in my last blog post.
1. Measure your success
Why do we need to measure how much our profile is viewed? Well, first off, we need to know if our profiles are optimized correctly. If you aren’t showing up in searches and people aren’t looking at your profile to learn more about you, there is something very wrong. Build it and they will come is nonsense and we all know it.
There is a statistics section called “Who viewed my profile?” and you can look up the trends of your profile for the past 90 days. It is interesting for me because I have been spending copious amounts of time targeting my profile for a marketing manager position and building my personal brand. My visits numbers fell in September but are on the rise again in October with the high being in August. The appearances in search numbers also fell in September to dramatically increase in October.
My stats currently say my profile has been viewed by 8 people in the past 15 days. Now, this number has been as high as 24 people in 15 days but I would say an average is one view every two days. I have also shown up in search 12 times in the past 7 days. And as exciting as these numbers are, the most important measurement for me is contact. I know I am being looked at and that is great! But what I really need is for prospective employers to contact me. And yes, my phone number and email are public.
All this information tells me that I am doing well on views and interest. What my job is, that LinkedIn can’t track for me is actual touch points. How many people have requested connections and how many calls have I received for interviews? I can tell you that I have had two calls for interviews in the past 2 months. Now that is what this is all about for me! Finding the right job!
2. Get recommendations
I have worked diligently on my recommendations. I have at least one for every position I have ever held and try to get supervisors to recommend me. This sometimes means you have to write the recommendation yourself. Yes, I said it! We all know it happens often and it is nothing to be ashamed of. Some people just don’t know where to start or what to say. I work with creative designers who aren’t super savvy with words and need help. They always edit to put their personal touch to the recommendation sometimes adding things and other times deleting things. It’s okay to do this! They want to recommend you, so give them a hand!
I was talking to a client about LinkedIn and how it can be used for new business and the job search. He was about to lose his job because they couldn’t get funding to complete a medical trial for FDA approval. I sent him a connection request and he wrote back that he had never seen a more complete profile with so many recommendations. Proud moment for me.
What good recommendations can do is show your ability to work with all levels in the organization and gives a prospective employer the ability to get a preview of your references.
3. Past Positions
When possible use numbers to demonstrate your success at each position. This can be difficult when you are not responsible for calculating or have access to the final results of a marketing campaign. I have held positions where we were tracking foot traffic into the sales offices but at the time did not know that I needed to keep track of our successes so I do not have that information to include.
Have a clear job title for each position. Sometimes we have very creative titles such as Strategy Consultant, and sometimes we list ourselves as Marketing Professional. Neither of these job titles tells a prospective employer what you are looking for or what your experience is. I have had both titles on my LinkedIn profile in the past and through all my research learned this is certainly not the way to go. Another tip for your job title is to change the ones in the past that really did not capture what you were doing. While at KPA my actual title was Account Executive but that did not capture my responsibility to manage budgets, staff and traffic. So, I changed it to Marketing Manager on my profile because that is actually a better fit. My resume has AE as my title only because that was what was on my business card at the time.
4. Connections
Everyone has an opinion on connections. Do you accept everyone who asks? Do you only accept people you know? I struggle with this because when you accept every person who requests the spam gets out of hand quickly. If you only accept people you know, then you are hurting yourself. LinkedIn is about connecting with other professionals and when you have 500+ you can reach out to many more people.
My solution has been to limit who I connect with but to join as many groups as I can that fit my goals, needs and interests. This allows me to connect with many more people and limit the amount of spam.
5. Websites
I have my blog link and my portfolio link posted in this section. It’s another way to stand out from the crowd and show a prospective employer what you have done.
I found a free website doyoubuzz.com where I was able to post a radio spot I had written and directed as well as post images of chochkies I had done for a client. It also includes my resume. I would love to have other work I have done but like the stats and results of campaigns, I didn’t know at the time I would need it. Lessons learned!
And of course I have my blog posted. This gives me an opportunity to show that I am an active user of marketing communications tools and gives a sample of my writing style. My blog’s main purpose is to discuss my experience as a marketing professional. Now, I will be the first to tell you, I am not a writer. I can write and when really inspired, I’m actually good. During college I had a PR professor actually tell me that I was not a good writer and that most people who think they can write, really can’t. Taking that with a grain of salt I continue to write and have done very well. I have written numerous TV and radio commercials, print ads, brochures, and newspaper copy.
And I have my Twitter username as well. I do not Tweet as much as I should but have found I can spend my entire day reading articles, re-tweeting, and DMing. Everything in moderation is healthy.
So those are the top 5 tips I have for using LinkedIn and my experience with it. I wish you the best of luck in adapting these tips into your profile and if you are in the job market, the best of luck finding the right position for you.
There are multiple articles available on how to use LinkedIn. The following tips are what I have done and found that works that weren’t mentioned in my last blog post.
1. Measure your success
Why do we need to measure how much our profile is viewed? Well, first off, we need to know if our profiles are optimized correctly. If you aren’t showing up in searches and people aren’t looking at your profile to learn more about you, there is something very wrong. Build it and they will come is nonsense and we all know it.
There is a statistics section called “Who viewed my profile?” and you can look up the trends of your profile for the past 90 days. It is interesting for me because I have been spending copious amounts of time targeting my profile for a marketing manager position and building my personal brand. My visits numbers fell in September but are on the rise again in October with the high being in August. The appearances in search numbers also fell in September to dramatically increase in October.
My stats currently say my profile has been viewed by 8 people in the past 15 days. Now, this number has been as high as 24 people in 15 days but I would say an average is one view every two days. I have also shown up in search 12 times in the past 7 days. And as exciting as these numbers are, the most important measurement for me is contact. I know I am being looked at and that is great! But what I really need is for prospective employers to contact me. And yes, my phone number and email are public.
All this information tells me that I am doing well on views and interest. What my job is, that LinkedIn can’t track for me is actual touch points. How many people have requested connections and how many calls have I received for interviews? I can tell you that I have had two calls for interviews in the past 2 months. Now that is what this is all about for me! Finding the right job!
2. Get recommendations
I have worked diligently on my recommendations. I have at least one for every position I have ever held and try to get supervisors to recommend me. This sometimes means you have to write the recommendation yourself. Yes, I said it! We all know it happens often and it is nothing to be ashamed of. Some people just don’t know where to start or what to say. I work with creative designers who aren’t super savvy with words and need help. They always edit to put their personal touch to the recommendation sometimes adding things and other times deleting things. It’s okay to do this! They want to recommend you, so give them a hand!
I was talking to a client about LinkedIn and how it can be used for new business and the job search. He was about to lose his job because they couldn’t get funding to complete a medical trial for FDA approval. I sent him a connection request and he wrote back that he had never seen a more complete profile with so many recommendations. Proud moment for me.
What good recommendations can do is show your ability to work with all levels in the organization and gives a prospective employer the ability to get a preview of your references.
3. Past Positions
When possible use numbers to demonstrate your success at each position. This can be difficult when you are not responsible for calculating or have access to the final results of a marketing campaign. I have held positions where we were tracking foot traffic into the sales offices but at the time did not know that I needed to keep track of our successes so I do not have that information to include.
Have a clear job title for each position. Sometimes we have very creative titles such as Strategy Consultant, and sometimes we list ourselves as Marketing Professional. Neither of these job titles tells a prospective employer what you are looking for or what your experience is. I have had both titles on my LinkedIn profile in the past and through all my research learned this is certainly not the way to go. Another tip for your job title is to change the ones in the past that really did not capture what you were doing. While at KPA my actual title was Account Executive but that did not capture my responsibility to manage budgets, staff and traffic. So, I changed it to Marketing Manager on my profile because that is actually a better fit. My resume has AE as my title only because that was what was on my business card at the time.
4. Connections
Everyone has an opinion on connections. Do you accept everyone who asks? Do you only accept people you know? I struggle with this because when you accept every person who requests the spam gets out of hand quickly. If you only accept people you know, then you are hurting yourself. LinkedIn is about connecting with other professionals and when you have 500+ you can reach out to many more people.
My solution has been to limit who I connect with but to join as many groups as I can that fit my goals, needs and interests. This allows me to connect with many more people and limit the amount of spam.
5. Websites
I have my blog link and my portfolio link posted in this section. It’s another way to stand out from the crowd and show a prospective employer what you have done.
I found a free website doyoubuzz.com where I was able to post a radio spot I had written and directed as well as post images of chochkies I had done for a client. It also includes my resume. I would love to have other work I have done but like the stats and results of campaigns, I didn’t know at the time I would need it. Lessons learned!
And of course I have my blog posted. This gives me an opportunity to show that I am an active user of marketing communications tools and gives a sample of my writing style. My blog’s main purpose is to discuss my experience as a marketing professional. Now, I will be the first to tell you, I am not a writer. I can write and when really inspired, I’m actually good. During college I had a PR professor actually tell me that I was not a good writer and that most people who think they can write, really can’t. Taking that with a grain of salt I continue to write and have done very well. I have written numerous TV and radio commercials, print ads, brochures, and newspaper copy.
And I have my Twitter username as well. I do not Tweet as much as I should but have found I can spend my entire day reading articles, re-tweeting, and DMing. Everything in moderation is healthy.
So those are the top 5 tips I have for using LinkedIn and my experience with it. I wish you the best of luck in adapting these tips into your profile and if you are in the job market, the best of luck finding the right position for you.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 8; Using LinkedIn as a networking and self promotional tool
I have watched as LinkedIn has added tools to help increase our connections and more and more ways for us to get and share knowledge. While LinkedIn was launched in 2003 I became a member in 2007 and started using LinkedIn regularly.
There are multiple articles and webinars on how best to use LinkedIn to get a job, increase your visibility, as a new business tool, and many others. LinkedIn itself has a blog on how to “make the most” out of the site. I have done my part in reading and watching in order to keep on top of all the latest and greatest ways to find the perfect job by using the best keywords to increase my rankings, getting recommendations on every position held, and making new connections.
I’m going to use Lindsey Pollaks LinkedIn blog article from October 18th, 2010 as a stepping stone to talk about how I am using LinkedIn as a way to market myself and promote my personal brand.
Lindsey says the first of her 5 steps is to use the status updates as a brief conversation piece but be sure to stay professional. I update my status almost everyday including weekends. Right now my main goal is to find my dream job, so that is my main focus when posting updates. I post my blog when a new article is available to read, talk about the job search process, post interesting articles that relate to my current industry job search, or mention the new positions I have applied for. Not only do I post but I also comment on other connection status updates. When they have an interesting comment or a question I try to respond in a timely manner. This is just one more way of actually staying connected to your network.
Her second step is to do “small goods” for other people by congratulating others on new jobs, promotions and participating in the question and answers section of the site. I regularly look over the Q&A section and respond to polls as they apply to my industry and experience. I have written questions on some of the groups I belong to, especially the Jobs groups.
During a recent webinar I was told that recruiters are more and more using a Google search to find prospective candidates. He is recommending that not only do we as job hunters need to pay attention to our rankings under our name, but under our job title and location as well. This was a new concept to me and I sent out the question to my HR group contacts to learn more. It was interesting to learn that none of them were using Google this way but that they had heard the same thing. When answering questions, I have found that I can be helpful to new members and recent grads on how to use LinkedIn as well as discussing the frustrations of the job search.
Step 3 can be slippery if you are not careful. Lindsey says to “look up everyone” as a way to connect with prospective employers. As a marketing manager I have been surprised by the number of professionals who are not registered on LinkedIn or who do not utilized it regularly. We are marketing and communications professionals after all and should be using the latest and most common forms of communication. It reminds me of a time when not all professionals used email preferring to stick with snail mail for personal communications. Snail mail still has an important roll in communication but that is a blog article for another day.
While working at KPA I was leading new business research by searching for prospective clients using LinkedIn. I was able to narrow the search down to industry, location and find who the contact person for the company would be. I set up the agency with an account on LinkedIn and encouraged the other person doing new business to update and optimize his LinkedIn profile. I set about adding our current clients as connections for KPA as well as for myself. There were a couple times when I found close connections with a prospective client that got us meetings we may not have otherwise been able to get.
During my job search I have looked up the professionals I will be interviewing with and the company to help prepare me for the meeting and provide me with questions to ask. One interview I went to I had noticed that only a very few of the team had been there more than a year and was able to ask about turn around. It’s important to me to work for a company that values its team and has some sort of retention plan.
One of the difficult things about researching and attempting connections is that you have to know the person or know someone who knows them and uses LinkedIn to refer you. I currently have 20 invitations out and some are to people I actually know well but they do not use LinkedIn the way I do. I have also been warned that you can appear stocker like if you are not careful. I make an attempt to connect with everyone I have interviewed with so I can keep in contact with them. Even if I wasn’t right for the position I interviewed for, you never know when a different position may come up that fits better or is in another department. As Lindsey says, you never know who may be connection with whom.
I always research a company before speaking to anyone about my skills and qualifications, unless the company was confidential. Step 4 “beef up your expertise on potential employers” is a no brainer and I find it ridiculous that professionals don’t know what a company does before the interview or even applying.
First, most job postings come with a description of the company and the position. I saw a posting just yesterday where my qualifications matched but it was for a company I would not be proud to work for. So, I didn’t apply.
I had an interview a few weeks ago with a telecommunications company here in Denver and because I had done research before my interview I was able to ask detailed questions. They happened to be blasted all over social media at the time and knowing that gave me a unique opportunity to discuss my experience with a similar situation. Now, I didn’t get the position but I did think the interview went well. I’d like to talk more about why we are never told what the reason for not getting an offer after an interview that you think went very well some other time.
When you do a company search you can see who is new, promoted and who used to work there and you used to know for how long. Again, because long term employment is one of my main goals for my next position, knowing how long people have worked at a company is important to me. LinkedIn had a stat of what the median term was and i could decide if it is somewhere I wanted to apply. They have removed this tool and I hate it! It is now up to me to figure out how long the median time of employment is.
Etiquette is extremely important when using social media. “Remember your manners” is step 5 in Lindsey’s blog and I know exactly why she puts it in. I have seen people bash others for typos and some misuse of the English language. One instance I remember is when one person was bashing another for a typo and had a typo themselves. I know spell check is vital and I also know that when I am in a hurry but want to leave a comment, I have sent misspelled words and incorrect numbers. I commented on a blog once about McDonalds and put $300 instead of $3.00. It continues to embarrass me as I can’t figure out how to fix it.
I think the main issue is people get comfortable saying rude or unnecessary things because they are basically faceless. What they don’t understand is that we can see them. Yes, we know who you are! You never need to correct people on spelling or grammar, you never need to call them names or demean them in anyway, and you really never need to attack anyone for any reason. You don’t like someone, don’t connect with them, ignore them or if you are so inclined, report their behavior.
On her recommendation to personalize invitations, that is very important. I have received requests that say nothing about where I know the person, how we are connected, or what the reason for the request is. My goal is to have quality connections that I can network with and communicate with.
One of my biggest pet peeves right now is the group connection request and all you get are spam emails. I am not a part of LinkedIn so you can sell me your product. I joined real estate groups because for 6 years I was in residential real estate marketing. That does not mean I want to buy your house, or see your MLS listings. I want to connect with other professionals in the industry to keep up to date on trends and opportunities. I understand using LinkedIn to find new business, I’ve done it. But I researched who I was contacting first to be sure they were the right contact. As a marketing manager I know that throwing something at a wall and hoping it sticks is a terrible way to market and sell yourself. Spend a little more time targeting your market and leave me alone. Thank you.
Okay, so those are 5 steps and you can find so many more on how to use LinkedIn to promote yourself. In my next blog article I will give a few additional tips I am using that help keep my profile ranking well. At least, this is what I believe is working.
There are multiple articles and webinars on how best to use LinkedIn to get a job, increase your visibility, as a new business tool, and many others. LinkedIn itself has a blog on how to “make the most” out of the site. I have done my part in reading and watching in order to keep on top of all the latest and greatest ways to find the perfect job by using the best keywords to increase my rankings, getting recommendations on every position held, and making new connections.
I’m going to use Lindsey Pollaks LinkedIn blog article from October 18th, 2010 as a stepping stone to talk about how I am using LinkedIn as a way to market myself and promote my personal brand.
Lindsey says the first of her 5 steps is to use the status updates as a brief conversation piece but be sure to stay professional. I update my status almost everyday including weekends. Right now my main goal is to find my dream job, so that is my main focus when posting updates. I post my blog when a new article is available to read, talk about the job search process, post interesting articles that relate to my current industry job search, or mention the new positions I have applied for. Not only do I post but I also comment on other connection status updates. When they have an interesting comment or a question I try to respond in a timely manner. This is just one more way of actually staying connected to your network.
Her second step is to do “small goods” for other people by congratulating others on new jobs, promotions and participating in the question and answers section of the site. I regularly look over the Q&A section and respond to polls as they apply to my industry and experience. I have written questions on some of the groups I belong to, especially the Jobs groups.
During a recent webinar I was told that recruiters are more and more using a Google search to find prospective candidates. He is recommending that not only do we as job hunters need to pay attention to our rankings under our name, but under our job title and location as well. This was a new concept to me and I sent out the question to my HR group contacts to learn more. It was interesting to learn that none of them were using Google this way but that they had heard the same thing. When answering questions, I have found that I can be helpful to new members and recent grads on how to use LinkedIn as well as discussing the frustrations of the job search.
Step 3 can be slippery if you are not careful. Lindsey says to “look up everyone” as a way to connect with prospective employers. As a marketing manager I have been surprised by the number of professionals who are not registered on LinkedIn or who do not utilized it regularly. We are marketing and communications professionals after all and should be using the latest and most common forms of communication. It reminds me of a time when not all professionals used email preferring to stick with snail mail for personal communications. Snail mail still has an important roll in communication but that is a blog article for another day.
While working at KPA I was leading new business research by searching for prospective clients using LinkedIn. I was able to narrow the search down to industry, location and find who the contact person for the company would be. I set up the agency with an account on LinkedIn and encouraged the other person doing new business to update and optimize his LinkedIn profile. I set about adding our current clients as connections for KPA as well as for myself. There were a couple times when I found close connections with a prospective client that got us meetings we may not have otherwise been able to get.
During my job search I have looked up the professionals I will be interviewing with and the company to help prepare me for the meeting and provide me with questions to ask. One interview I went to I had noticed that only a very few of the team had been there more than a year and was able to ask about turn around. It’s important to me to work for a company that values its team and has some sort of retention plan.
One of the difficult things about researching and attempting connections is that you have to know the person or know someone who knows them and uses LinkedIn to refer you. I currently have 20 invitations out and some are to people I actually know well but they do not use LinkedIn the way I do. I have also been warned that you can appear stocker like if you are not careful. I make an attempt to connect with everyone I have interviewed with so I can keep in contact with them. Even if I wasn’t right for the position I interviewed for, you never know when a different position may come up that fits better or is in another department. As Lindsey says, you never know who may be connection with whom.
I always research a company before speaking to anyone about my skills and qualifications, unless the company was confidential. Step 4 “beef up your expertise on potential employers” is a no brainer and I find it ridiculous that professionals don’t know what a company does before the interview or even applying.
First, most job postings come with a description of the company and the position. I saw a posting just yesterday where my qualifications matched but it was for a company I would not be proud to work for. So, I didn’t apply.
I had an interview a few weeks ago with a telecommunications company here in Denver and because I had done research before my interview I was able to ask detailed questions. They happened to be blasted all over social media at the time and knowing that gave me a unique opportunity to discuss my experience with a similar situation. Now, I didn’t get the position but I did think the interview went well. I’d like to talk more about why we are never told what the reason for not getting an offer after an interview that you think went very well some other time.
When you do a company search you can see who is new, promoted and who used to work there and you used to know for how long. Again, because long term employment is one of my main goals for my next position, knowing how long people have worked at a company is important to me. LinkedIn had a stat of what the median term was and i could decide if it is somewhere I wanted to apply. They have removed this tool and I hate it! It is now up to me to figure out how long the median time of employment is.
Etiquette is extremely important when using social media. “Remember your manners” is step 5 in Lindsey’s blog and I know exactly why she puts it in. I have seen people bash others for typos and some misuse of the English language. One instance I remember is when one person was bashing another for a typo and had a typo themselves. I know spell check is vital and I also know that when I am in a hurry but want to leave a comment, I have sent misspelled words and incorrect numbers. I commented on a blog once about McDonalds and put $300 instead of $3.00. It continues to embarrass me as I can’t figure out how to fix it.
I think the main issue is people get comfortable saying rude or unnecessary things because they are basically faceless. What they don’t understand is that we can see them. Yes, we know who you are! You never need to correct people on spelling or grammar, you never need to call them names or demean them in anyway, and you really never need to attack anyone for any reason. You don’t like someone, don’t connect with them, ignore them or if you are so inclined, report their behavior.
On her recommendation to personalize invitations, that is very important. I have received requests that say nothing about where I know the person, how we are connected, or what the reason for the request is. My goal is to have quality connections that I can network with and communicate with.
One of my biggest pet peeves right now is the group connection request and all you get are spam emails. I am not a part of LinkedIn so you can sell me your product. I joined real estate groups because for 6 years I was in residential real estate marketing. That does not mean I want to buy your house, or see your MLS listings. I want to connect with other professionals in the industry to keep up to date on trends and opportunities. I understand using LinkedIn to find new business, I’ve done it. But I researched who I was contacting first to be sure they were the right contact. As a marketing manager I know that throwing something at a wall and hoping it sticks is a terrible way to market and sell yourself. Spend a little more time targeting your market and leave me alone. Thank you.
Okay, so those are 5 steps and you can find so many more on how to use LinkedIn to promote yourself. In my next blog article I will give a few additional tips I am using that help keep my profile ranking well. At least, this is what I believe is working.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 7 Personal Brand
By September 2009 I had worked in advertising for 10 years in the healthcare, real estate, telecommunications and medical device industries . Most of this time was in the traditional advertising agency setting where I had given the opportunity to learn it all.
So, after being laid off and knowing that at the time that so many others in my field were also laid off or going to be laid off, I set out to differentiate myself from my competition. I emphasize my ability to do it all by calling myself a marketing generalist. This is truly what I am but after talking to friends in the industry it sounds too bland.
The term generalist is a person whose knowledge, aptitudes, and skills are applied to a field as a whole and does not speak directly to my skill as a marketing manager. It became clear not too long ago that what I needed to do was market myself using the title of the position that best fit.
This too is a struggle because even the term marketing manager is fairly general. Job titles to some are unimportant and to others a key in deciding what level you have achieved in your career. My last position was account executive and that did not come close to all of the tasks I was responsible for. I was also managing the traffic of jobs through the agency, billing clients, paying vendors and managing the creative team hours.
I did hope, in the beginning of my search, to find a director level position. I thought I had the years experience required and certainly the knowledge. For some positions listed I do have the skills and years experience but I am missing one key ingredient, an MBA and there for am under qualified.
Not having the ability to go back to school, I quickly realized that I set my sights too high and started looking for manager level positions. I began running in to the problem of being over qualified for some because I had too much experience. This has continued to be a difficult challenge in my job search.
A challenge that is continuous, is finding positions where industry experience is not required. As I have written about in my other articles, my experience is in residential real estate. We all know what happened to that market and those job postings are very few and far between. I have applied to positions such as online marketing manager but with no luck so far.
So, I have been working diligently building up my LinkedIn network, posting my blog articles to Google and Twitter, reading and commenting on other blogs and doing tons of research on the job hunt. I am open to learn as much as I can to get my next position. And there is an overload of information out there on how to do all the things I am doing to market myself.
Every once in a while I will run across a tip or two on how to do it better or different. Recently during a webinar I was told that recruiters are now using Google to search for resumes and portfolios online. This was the first I had heard of this tactic but it made sense to me. If you are looking for a marketing manager, don’t you want someone who can market themselves?
One of my tactics in marketing myself has been to spread the news that I am in the job market, send out my LinkedIn profile to every person I know and use as many websites as possible to post my information. In doing this I though I had been putting myself out there for Google to find me. Well, it was working if someone was doing a search for my name. Google Lucinda DeVries and check out what comes up. Then Google your name and see where you show up. Yes, it is called “ego surfing” but when you are marketing yourself, it is really called “doing it right”.
What my challenge is now, is to get my information to be listed when a search is done for “marketing manager, Denver, CO.” I am competing with all of the job search sites and need to find a way to overcome them in the rankings. Even with all the sites I am registered on it may become necessary to build a website where I can better use keywords and content with links to increase my ranking.
For now though, it is the free sites, and just getting my name out there as much as possible. I have wondered if any of this has helped get my foot in the door or give me a second glance. I went to an interview recently and was tempted to ask but thought that it may not be a good idea. After getting my “thanks but no thanks” standard email yesterday I realized I should have asked.
I do have Google analytics set up on my blog so I can see who is coming to my blog and I keep close watch on my LinkedIn stats as well. I did see during my last “ego surfing” adventure that other sites have picked up my blog. Measuring the success of my personal branding campaign has been a challenge.
I know one thing for certain; this has given me the opportunity to continually learn more about social media and fine tune some SEO skills.
So, I have some questions for you and I would appreciate if you could take a minute and add a comment with your response.
Where did you come from to find this blog?
Are you looking to hire a marketing manager?
Have you read any of my other posts?
Did you do your own “ego surf”? What did you find?
So, after being laid off and knowing that at the time that so many others in my field were also laid off or going to be laid off, I set out to differentiate myself from my competition. I emphasize my ability to do it all by calling myself a marketing generalist. This is truly what I am but after talking to friends in the industry it sounds too bland.
The term generalist is a person whose knowledge, aptitudes, and skills are applied to a field as a whole and does not speak directly to my skill as a marketing manager. It became clear not too long ago that what I needed to do was market myself using the title of the position that best fit.
This too is a struggle because even the term marketing manager is fairly general. Job titles to some are unimportant and to others a key in deciding what level you have achieved in your career. My last position was account executive and that did not come close to all of the tasks I was responsible for. I was also managing the traffic of jobs through the agency, billing clients, paying vendors and managing the creative team hours.
I did hope, in the beginning of my search, to find a director level position. I thought I had the years experience required and certainly the knowledge. For some positions listed I do have the skills and years experience but I am missing one key ingredient, an MBA and there for am under qualified.
Not having the ability to go back to school, I quickly realized that I set my sights too high and started looking for manager level positions. I began running in to the problem of being over qualified for some because I had too much experience. This has continued to be a difficult challenge in my job search.
A challenge that is continuous, is finding positions where industry experience is not required. As I have written about in my other articles, my experience is in residential real estate. We all know what happened to that market and those job postings are very few and far between. I have applied to positions such as online marketing manager but with no luck so far.
So, I have been working diligently building up my LinkedIn network, posting my blog articles to Google and Twitter, reading and commenting on other blogs and doing tons of research on the job hunt. I am open to learn as much as I can to get my next position. And there is an overload of information out there on how to do all the things I am doing to market myself.
Every once in a while I will run across a tip or two on how to do it better or different. Recently during a webinar I was told that recruiters are now using Google to search for resumes and portfolios online. This was the first I had heard of this tactic but it made sense to me. If you are looking for a marketing manager, don’t you want someone who can market themselves?
One of my tactics in marketing myself has been to spread the news that I am in the job market, send out my LinkedIn profile to every person I know and use as many websites as possible to post my information. In doing this I though I had been putting myself out there for Google to find me. Well, it was working if someone was doing a search for my name. Google Lucinda DeVries and check out what comes up. Then Google your name and see where you show up. Yes, it is called “ego surfing” but when you are marketing yourself, it is really called “doing it right”.
What my challenge is now, is to get my information to be listed when a search is done for “marketing manager, Denver, CO.” I am competing with all of the job search sites and need to find a way to overcome them in the rankings. Even with all the sites I am registered on it may become necessary to build a website where I can better use keywords and content with links to increase my ranking.
For now though, it is the free sites, and just getting my name out there as much as possible. I have wondered if any of this has helped get my foot in the door or give me a second glance. I went to an interview recently and was tempted to ask but thought that it may not be a good idea. After getting my “thanks but no thanks” standard email yesterday I realized I should have asked.
I do have Google analytics set up on my blog so I can see who is coming to my blog and I keep close watch on my LinkedIn stats as well. I did see during my last “ego surfing” adventure that other sites have picked up my blog. Measuring the success of my personal branding campaign has been a challenge.
I know one thing for certain; this has given me the opportunity to continually learn more about social media and fine tune some SEO skills.
So, I have some questions for you and I would appreciate if you could take a minute and add a comment with your response.
Where did you come from to find this blog?
Are you looking to hire a marketing manager?
Have you read any of my other posts?
Did you do your own “ego surf”? What did you find?
Friday, October 15, 2010
Marketing manager seeking position part 6 KPA
The Las Vegas real estate bust was taking down the entire economy. People were losing their jobs, losing their homes, and many were having to leave the valley. At the time we were moving it was difficult to find a moving truck because so many were being used for one way relocations, move out of state.
It took me a record 3 weeks to find a new job and I couldn’t have been happier. I thought we had justified our move and the new job was going to pay off. Shortly after starting this new job we rented a house and started flying our kids out to visit.
I was doing well at the new company. They needed someone who could come in and start working without much training. I was given 3 days of orientation with the person leaving and after that was on my own.
This was not an issue at all because I have a clear and solid understanding of the workings of an agency. They used the same systems I had been using for years. The real difference and learning curve for me was the client base. I had worked on hospital marketing at IDG and had worked in a hospital for 5 years as a unit secretary and had some basic medical terminology.
The clients at this new company, KPA Healthcare Advertising, were medical device companies. Some were start-ups and others were large internationally known. I was able to handle all of the agency coordination and worked with clients to get projects done.
The largest client was preparing to launch a new product and required multiple tactics. I was coordinating medical journal ads, interactive videos, tradeshow booth graphics, and a sales tool that included multiple elements.
At the same time I was learning about the client’s products which included atrial fibrillation ablation treatment, human stem cell technologies for cryopreservation and treatment, equine regenerative treatments, and degenerative disc disease treatments. I was being challenged in a whole new way and I was loving it. I was bringing home research on all the products and even with my current medical terminology was having to learn a new language.
A large part of my job was to manage the client budgets and make sure that the creative department team was not going over the time allotted on each project. I was fortunate to have experience with this and was able to talk to the team about what the client needed and what I needed from them. Nothing will get an account service person on the bad side of the creative department faster than unrealistic deadlines and unclear directions.
I was working well with the creative team managing budgets and trafficking the various jobs to make sure we were meeting timeline requirements. When I think back to this experience, I know that my impact for the agency and our clients was positive and immediate. Once again I was part of a team where my experience and abilities were having a positive impact and that is the most satisfying part of what I do.
Then about 4 or 5 months into the new job, our clients were cutting budgets, trimming expenses and all of that effected the amount of work we were doing for them. For the first time, I was going to be furloughed, which was much better than being laid off. And shortly after that, my supervisor, after working at the agency for over 16 years, decided to leave.
We had started doing some new business projects and I was helping by providing prospective client lists and information. Most of my time at this point was spent researching companies who fit in our area of expertise, getting information on what products were being developed by them, finding contact information and handing this all over to a newly hired creative director.
We were also working on getting our company website up to date and changed from a flash only site to HTML so that we could optimize for better rankings. It is common for agencies to not do for themselves, what they do for clients. You get busy and stop paying attention to your own needs as a business. This is common and as we were experiencing, deadly.
It wasn’t long before we were ranking higher on Google, had accounts with Twitter, LinkedIn and were signed up on various registries. One of the first things I had done to the website was the addition of Google analytics so that I could measure the traffic I was driving to our website. In July 2009 our website traffic was up 36%.
I was working on a blog article as well to increase our visibility and demonstrate our expertise when it came to web 2.0 technologies and the FDA and what role social media would play in medical device marketing.
After working for the agency 12 months almost to the day, I was again laid off. Even with all the work we were doing and new business presentations, medical device companies were struggling with getting the funding they needed to complete trials for FDA approvals.
I learned a lot during my time with KPA and I miss my colleagues. We keep in touch and I wish them all the very best.
It took me a record 3 weeks to find a new job and I couldn’t have been happier. I thought we had justified our move and the new job was going to pay off. Shortly after starting this new job we rented a house and started flying our kids out to visit.
I was doing well at the new company. They needed someone who could come in and start working without much training. I was given 3 days of orientation with the person leaving and after that was on my own.
This was not an issue at all because I have a clear and solid understanding of the workings of an agency. They used the same systems I had been using for years. The real difference and learning curve for me was the client base. I had worked on hospital marketing at IDG and had worked in a hospital for 5 years as a unit secretary and had some basic medical terminology.
The clients at this new company, KPA Healthcare Advertising, were medical device companies. Some were start-ups and others were large internationally known. I was able to handle all of the agency coordination and worked with clients to get projects done.
The largest client was preparing to launch a new product and required multiple tactics. I was coordinating medical journal ads, interactive videos, tradeshow booth graphics, and a sales tool that included multiple elements.
At the same time I was learning about the client’s products which included atrial fibrillation ablation treatment, human stem cell technologies for cryopreservation and treatment, equine regenerative treatments, and degenerative disc disease treatments. I was being challenged in a whole new way and I was loving it. I was bringing home research on all the products and even with my current medical terminology was having to learn a new language.
A large part of my job was to manage the client budgets and make sure that the creative department team was not going over the time allotted on each project. I was fortunate to have experience with this and was able to talk to the team about what the client needed and what I needed from them. Nothing will get an account service person on the bad side of the creative department faster than unrealistic deadlines and unclear directions.
I was working well with the creative team managing budgets and trafficking the various jobs to make sure we were meeting timeline requirements. When I think back to this experience, I know that my impact for the agency and our clients was positive and immediate. Once again I was part of a team where my experience and abilities were having a positive impact and that is the most satisfying part of what I do.
Then about 4 or 5 months into the new job, our clients were cutting budgets, trimming expenses and all of that effected the amount of work we were doing for them. For the first time, I was going to be furloughed, which was much better than being laid off. And shortly after that, my supervisor, after working at the agency for over 16 years, decided to leave.
We had started doing some new business projects and I was helping by providing prospective client lists and information. Most of my time at this point was spent researching companies who fit in our area of expertise, getting information on what products were being developed by them, finding contact information and handing this all over to a newly hired creative director.
We were also working on getting our company website up to date and changed from a flash only site to HTML so that we could optimize for better rankings. It is common for agencies to not do for themselves, what they do for clients. You get busy and stop paying attention to your own needs as a business. This is common and as we were experiencing, deadly.
It wasn’t long before we were ranking higher on Google, had accounts with Twitter, LinkedIn and were signed up on various registries. One of the first things I had done to the website was the addition of Google analytics so that I could measure the traffic I was driving to our website. In July 2009 our website traffic was up 36%.
I was working on a blog article as well to increase our visibility and demonstrate our expertise when it came to web 2.0 technologies and the FDA and what role social media would play in medical device marketing.
After working for the agency 12 months almost to the day, I was again laid off. Even with all the work we were doing and new business presentations, medical device companies were struggling with getting the funding they needed to complete trials for FDA approvals.
I learned a lot during my time with KPA and I miss my colleagues. We keep in touch and I wish them all the very best.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Marketing Manager Seeking Position Part 5 Marketing Partners
When I was laid off from Centex, while I knew it was coming, it was still a hard blow. For the first time I really loved my job and the people I worked with. Now, this is not to say I didn’t love the others but to say, I thought I found my home. I thought I found a company where I could work for at least 5 years and really develop my professional career.
Being a fighter and a driven person was what was keeping me going and to this day, is what keeps me from giving up on a career that I love. I am passionate about marketing and advertising. I had learned that I wanted to do something in this industry in Jr. High and once I figured out what that was, I have been going for it!
While looking for a position, I got a call from my friend Nikki telling me, someone she knew was looking for a marketing professional to help with a new condo conversion project and she thought of me. This was perfect for me! I could start up as a consultant and start a business based on my vision of what an advertising agency should be and what they should do for clients.
I knew I needed to provide my clients with measured success and be accountable for my recommendations. I often used a famous quote by John Wanamaker , “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the problem is, I don’t know which half.”
Using foot traffic numbers provided by the sales team, Internet traffic provided by Google Analytics and using a phone tracking service, Who’s Calling, I was able to see exactly where people were seeing us and how many responded to those tactics I was recommending. Each month I provided my client with a detailed report calculating the cost per lead (CPL) by tactic. I planned all of our media on a monthly basis so that at any time I could change what was being done in order to drive more traffic and decrease our CPL.
Side note: My first client was Property Financial Group and the community was named Eleven11.
The method was effective and proved that if an advertising/marketing agency wanted to, they could tell you what half of your budget was being wasted. What I believe was the key to buying the right media and knowing what messages to send was the use of the Acxiom segmentation I had learned about while working at Centex. I was able to take the data gathered by them and use it in conjunction with demographic data provided by the various media outlets. I had a specific target buyer profile and was able to find the radio stations and publications they used.
The fun part of each month when I put all my results together, I was able to call up my media reps and discuss how well the media buy went and it gave me leverage to negotiate prices based not on what they said the numbers were but what I could prove were the real numbers for my client. I can appreciate that the radio stations base ad rates on listeners, but how many listeners doesn’t matter to me if none of them are interested in buying what I had to sell.
Sharing the CPL during media negotiations of the other stations and publications was never a problem. It was important for each of them to know that I was ready and able to stop my buys with them if they could not help me improve my CPL by reducing rates. The clients needs were most important and I was not about to report to them that we were buying media that was below par.
This is not a common practice for agencies because they mark up media 17.5% and the higher the buy, the more the commission they receive. My media buying fee was 6% and because I was paid either hourly or on retainer the 6% was not a factor for me. The way commissions are being done has been changing over the years. It used to be that all media fees automatically included the agency mark up. More often now the mark up is not included and it is up to the agency to bill for those fees.
During my time with this first client they referred me to others and the sales team referred me as well. They all saw that I could market their product and do it in a way that was most profitable to them. I was honest and straightforward and was a quality alternative to the larger agencies in town.
I was having a blast! Here I was again, doing what I loved, doing it well, and changing the way my clients viewed an advertising agency.
Then with some new laws on the books the already struggling real estate climate in Las Vegas came to a screeching halt. I was put to task at figuring out how to get our prospective buyers to not only fit the lifestyle profile but now to target the financially qualified buyer as well. So, how do you know if a person is a financially qualified buyer…you don’t. But the realtor does! They understand much better the financial stability of their clients and if compensated properly, will bring buyers in.
Realtor programs had been a big part of the Centex marketing plan and I was very familiar with how they worked. I had tried to get in buyers without realtors so we could avoid the commissions and extra fees associated with them. But, now we were in position where we needed to tap that resource. So, I began developing realtor programs and incentives to drive the financially qualified buyer into the sales office.
And during this process, my client was struggling not having expected this turn of events in the market. With that, my time with them was halted but we maintained a good relationship. I did a great job and they knew it. Their money was well spent but they could no longer afford me.
I still had other clients and was doing okay until banks stopped lending to developers. Land values were dropping at incredible rates and for most developers the land was collateral for the loans already taken out. Slowly, my client base fell apart and my attempts at finding new clients was unsuccessful.
Eventually I closed the business and with so many layoffs I was unable to find a job with another company. My husband and I made a decision to move back to California.
Being a fighter and a driven person was what was keeping me going and to this day, is what keeps me from giving up on a career that I love. I am passionate about marketing and advertising. I had learned that I wanted to do something in this industry in Jr. High and once I figured out what that was, I have been going for it!
While looking for a position, I got a call from my friend Nikki telling me, someone she knew was looking for a marketing professional to help with a new condo conversion project and she thought of me. This was perfect for me! I could start up as a consultant and start a business based on my vision of what an advertising agency should be and what they should do for clients.
I knew I needed to provide my clients with measured success and be accountable for my recommendations. I often used a famous quote by John Wanamaker , “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the problem is, I don’t know which half.”
Using foot traffic numbers provided by the sales team, Internet traffic provided by Google Analytics and using a phone tracking service, Who’s Calling, I was able to see exactly where people were seeing us and how many responded to those tactics I was recommending. Each month I provided my client with a detailed report calculating the cost per lead (CPL) by tactic. I planned all of our media on a monthly basis so that at any time I could change what was being done in order to drive more traffic and decrease our CPL.
Side note: My first client was Property Financial Group and the community was named Eleven11.
The method was effective and proved that if an advertising/marketing agency wanted to, they could tell you what half of your budget was being wasted. What I believe was the key to buying the right media and knowing what messages to send was the use of the Acxiom segmentation I had learned about while working at Centex. I was able to take the data gathered by them and use it in conjunction with demographic data provided by the various media outlets. I had a specific target buyer profile and was able to find the radio stations and publications they used.
The fun part of each month when I put all my results together, I was able to call up my media reps and discuss how well the media buy went and it gave me leverage to negotiate prices based not on what they said the numbers were but what I could prove were the real numbers for my client. I can appreciate that the radio stations base ad rates on listeners, but how many listeners doesn’t matter to me if none of them are interested in buying what I had to sell.
Sharing the CPL during media negotiations of the other stations and publications was never a problem. It was important for each of them to know that I was ready and able to stop my buys with them if they could not help me improve my CPL by reducing rates. The clients needs were most important and I was not about to report to them that we were buying media that was below par.
This is not a common practice for agencies because they mark up media 17.5% and the higher the buy, the more the commission they receive. My media buying fee was 6% and because I was paid either hourly or on retainer the 6% was not a factor for me. The way commissions are being done has been changing over the years. It used to be that all media fees automatically included the agency mark up. More often now the mark up is not included and it is up to the agency to bill for those fees.
During my time with this first client they referred me to others and the sales team referred me as well. They all saw that I could market their product and do it in a way that was most profitable to them. I was honest and straightforward and was a quality alternative to the larger agencies in town.
I was having a blast! Here I was again, doing what I loved, doing it well, and changing the way my clients viewed an advertising agency.
Then with some new laws on the books the already struggling real estate climate in Las Vegas came to a screeching halt. I was put to task at figuring out how to get our prospective buyers to not only fit the lifestyle profile but now to target the financially qualified buyer as well. So, how do you know if a person is a financially qualified buyer…you don’t. But the realtor does! They understand much better the financial stability of their clients and if compensated properly, will bring buyers in.
Realtor programs had been a big part of the Centex marketing plan and I was very familiar with how they worked. I had tried to get in buyers without realtors so we could avoid the commissions and extra fees associated with them. But, now we were in position where we needed to tap that resource. So, I began developing realtor programs and incentives to drive the financially qualified buyer into the sales office.
And during this process, my client was struggling not having expected this turn of events in the market. With that, my time with them was halted but we maintained a good relationship. I did a great job and they knew it. Their money was well spent but they could no longer afford me.
I still had other clients and was doing okay until banks stopped lending to developers. Land values were dropping at incredible rates and for most developers the land was collateral for the loans already taken out. Slowly, my client base fell apart and my attempts at finding new clients was unsuccessful.
Eventually I closed the business and with so many layoffs I was unable to find a job with another company. My husband and I made a decision to move back to California.
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