Students: Building Your Personal Brand For A Career In Sales And Marketing

Marketing and sales students – this post is just for you!

With leaves changing to fall colours, many companies have been hitting campus with gusto to find the best seniors for upcoming internships and new grad jobs.

The competition on campus between employers is getting hot as the economy picks up and companies’ hiring numbers increase. A shift is starting, where students will have more power as the number of jobs available increases; however, we aren’t quite there yet. As a student, it is important to play a lead role in choosing your first job out of school and selling yourself to your employer(s) of choice.

Your personal brand

You need to build your personal brand as a sales and marketing student because potential employers want to see that you can apply the basic principles of marketing. If you can’t sell or market yourself, why should they trust you to market or sell their products and services?

First, do a branding exercise to understand your unique value to a future employer. Think about how you present yourself both in person at company campus recruiting events or interviews, and in online spaces.

Things you should evaluate include:

·         How you dress

·         The language you use

·         How you can showcase specific accomplishments

·         How you come across to employers – do you seem credible/real?

Your personal brand - online

Your online personality should mirror how you come across in person. Ensure that, if your future employer seeks you out on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook, there is consistency in the things you say you are knowledgeable about or roles you played in extra-curricular activities.

Things like LinkedIn recommendations are very valuable, especially with LinkedIn launching a new student profile option.

In sales and marketing, future employers will likely perform a social media search on their top candidates – think of this as a “reference check.” Make sure that you hide information that future employers don’t need to see (e.g., Facebook photos) and remember that social media is PERMANENT. 

Your personal brand – in person

For in in-person events, network and showcase your personality as well as your interests and skills.

Marketing and sales is a lot about a “fit” in being personable, believable and coachable. When I interview for entry-level marketing roles, I look more for a strong personal impression than wide sales/marketing experience – I can teach you how to be successful, but I can’t teach you how to think critically or have personal credibility.

I want you to highlight your interests, where you think the industry is going, recent highlights at my specific company, and why you believe you fit the company culture. Show you spent some time researching my company online, even talking to past interns or employees, and understanding our culture.

Don’t treat every networking session, interview or online application the same. Most recruiters are very open to telling you the unique parts of their company, so talk to them and ask for a follow-up prep call prior to an interview.

If you don’t meet a recruiter on campus, reach out to them via LinkedIn. Recruiters will highlight great candidates’ applications if you wow them. Consider this reach-out like dating – you only have one opportunity to make that perfect impression that might lead to a relationship (or in this case, a fantastic career)!

Students: As I am now a regular contributor to TalentEgg.ca (Canada's leading job site and career resource for students and new graduates), I will be featuring monthly articles written specifically for students on my blog. I would love your thoughts on what you want to hear about! Please comment below to drive future articles.

Thursday News Day: Global Campus Recruiting

As per my article on Tuesday of this week, I’m focused on international global recruiting best practices as a theme right now. Despite all of my best searches, the information available online on this topic is shockingly limited. The best article I could find to share is from 2010; however, it does have some strong points that many companies are still not doing half way through 2011 and it is less than 1 year old. Read here for tips & tricks and know I will be working on many more articles on this topic moving forward.

If you have any great articles or resources on global recruiting beset practices, please include them as a comment in the below to share with myself & other readers.

Employment Branding:

 “Global Recruiting in 2010: Trends & Best Practices”

-          Featured on: slideshare  

-          Writer:  Kevin Wheeler

-          Publishing date: Aug 25, 2010

-          Link: http://slidesha.re/dm81lO

Good webinar with a 5 trends & best practices for global recruiting.  Major trends include globalization = ubiquitous mobility, shortages of key skills, recruiting is internet dependent & recruiting remains local. This article includes good statistics, research & recommendations for any recruiting manager building a campus recruiting program.

Happy reading! Any resources/articles/webinars you can share about global recruiting? What are your challenges? Learnings? Best practices for global recruiting or taking global plans & implementing on a local level?   I would love questions/ideas/thoughts as inspiration for future blog articles.

Thursday News Day: Employment Branding

As I’m currently consulting in Europe for clients, I was inspired to discuss global campus recruiting in this week’s articles. Despite my BEST goggle searches, I didn’t find any relevant articles about global employment branding or campus recruiting … this of course inspired next week’s post about campus recruiting and global best practices. For this week’s article (as it is Thursday News Day!) I have included a good piece about employment branding as knowing the basic principles in building your EVP (employee value proposition) will help set you up for understanding global best practices for campus recruiting.

Employment Branding:

 “Employment Branding: The only long term Recruitment Strategy”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  Dr. John Sullivan

-          Publishing date: Jan 7, 2008

-          Link: http://bit.ly/Wfj0a

Though this article is a couple of years old, it really highlights the basic principles of employment branding and those principles haven’t changed. The way you execute on your brand has evolved but this is a good introductory read to the key components of and long term benefits of employment branding. The author quotes that typically companies only spend 5% of their budgets on employment branding… which camp do you fall into?

I hope you read over this solid employment branding article so that in my next few posts about campus recruiting & global recruiting, you understand the benefit of having a EVP prior to hitting campus. Shockingly, I found very few other articles about campus recruiting unless they were tied to a company as a pitch document. Looks like I found a new wealth of things to write about! Stay posted over the next few weeks for posts on campus recruiting & global student behaviours.

Thursday News Day: Recruitment 3.0 - Are You Ready?

This week’s news comes from www.ere.net – one of my favourite websites for articles about recruiting, sourcing, social media & overall HR issues. Whenever I need supporting information about training hiring managers or what’s happening in the market place, this is one of my go-to resources.

This week’s theme:

Recruiting & SOCIAL MEDIA:

 “Facebook’s Tag Suggestions Raise HR Issues”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  John Zappe

-          Publishing date: June 14, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/j5eWGV

This article discusses current flack on Facebook’s facial recognition software & the HR implications. The article quotes that as “84 percent of U.S. recruiters think it is proper to consider personal data posted online when evaluating a candidate” there are huge implications to this new picture tagging.  It comes as no surprise that professors and career counselors are cautioning students about the privacy settings & photos they post on social media sites.  This facial recognition technology is further complicating the problem as people can be “tagged” in photos that are not an actual picture of themselves, yet, a hiring decision may be formed based on such photos.

Read this article as a recruiter for understanding the technology fully. As a candidate, read on to find out the importance in opting out of this feature on Facebook.


 “A Vision for the Future of Recruitment: Recruitment 3.0”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  Matthew Jeffery & Amy McKee

-          Publishing date: June 14, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/jcgRSF

This article is one of the BEST summaries I have seen about the changing recruiting landscape. It states that recruiting is going through a “a fundamental seismic shift... A change that will see many traditional recruiters falling behind and being replaced by new, differently skilled recruiters, ready for the challenges of Recruitment 3.0.”  The global race for talent is reaching new levels & the way to secure that talent is changing. Companies need to focus on the 90% of candidates who are not active job hunters and must use social networking & nontraditional sourcing methods to reach them.  

This is an absolutely fantastic article outlining the current evolutionary landscape that is Recruiting 3.0. It is a great tool for HR managers to educate senior leadership about the changing game called recruiting.

Happy reading! Thoughts on the article about Recruitment 3.0?

Following Up with Employers

Students, this post is just for you! I’ve received questions asking for advice on how students should follow up with employers after in-person encounters at tours, info sessions, career fairs, networking events, interviews etc. So here are some tips…

The first step is knowing how your perspective employer likes to receive applications. If they have an online application system – use it!  Don’t just email your contact your resume.  Many employers receive hundreds of applications a week and the only way they manage them is through their online application/candidate management system. Ensure that you write a cover letter highlighting the culture & unique features of the company & matching those points with reasons on why you are the perfect fit. In your cover letter mention the person you met at the event & why they made an impression on you. Knowing the culture of the company you are applying for is key. If they are a very corporate/professional environment a more formal tone is appropriate. I work in a very young dynamic marketing environment so I like to see real personality and energy come out in a cover letter to set someone out from the pack.

After applying online, reach out directly to the person you met at the event. Make sure at the event you ask for a business card of the contact. First make sure you actually speak with the contact though. When I receive a follow up email from a candidate, I want to actually remember that we spoke.  I want them to have stood out. At the end of an event, don’t rush around trying to meet as many recruiters or hiring managers as possible, asking for their card & sending them each form letter follow-ups. Instead focus on building relationships or connections with a few recruiters & let them really get to know you. This will give you more information to personalize your follow-up email & also help them remember you when they receive it.  

Sending a personalized email within 24 hours is key. Remember to attach your resume but reference that you have already applied online.  I also recommend for students to include their LinkedIn profile link in their email so recruiters can go online & see their photo/online resume if they need a reminder of who the candidate is.  Additionally in your email, highlight why you enjoyed meeting them, reference the interaction you had, and discuss why you think you would be a great fit for the company. This personalized touch makes a difference - you would be surprised how few students do this! When I receive a great follow up email, I always forward it directly to the recruiter who is leading the hiring for the position the candidate is interested in. I also go into our application system to copy the letter & insert my feedback into their file so other recruiters see how passionate the candidate is. The 20 minutes taken to write a great follow-up email are worth it if it follows a great in person conversation.

The same holds true after an interview: Make sure you send your interviewer an email thanking them for their time & highlighting what you learned about the company during your interview & why you think you would be a great fit.

Hopefully this gives you a few quick & easy tips on how you can continue to make that great impression with recruiters that might make all the difference in securing your first full time job! 

Though this article is aimed at students, these tips are also very applicable to any candidate who wants to follow up with a recruiter or hiring manager after a networking or interview opportunity. Good luck job hunters!

Thursday News Day: University & College Trends

I’m starting a new weekly Thursday post to share relevant news articles or blogs on the topics of talent management, recruiting, social media, & branding.  My goal is to provide you with interesting news articles and blogs resources. I hope you enjoy addition #1.

TALENT MANAGEMENT/RECRUITING:

“When a University Degree Just Isn’t Enough”

Featured in: Globe & Mail

Writer & Publishing date:  James Bradshaw; May 9, 2011

Link: http://bit.ly/k8uIsv

This article relates to my April 23, 2011 blog post on Balance Game for New Grads: Degree vs Experience vs Interest.  BA graduates are a shrinking portion of enrollment classes as students feel obligated to get graduate, professional or college credentials to prove their worth. – Do you think a BA still holds value? Are you hiring BA candidates?

“Job-Seeking University Graduates give it the Old College Try”

Featured in: Globe & Mail

Writer & Publishing date:  Tralee Pearce; May 10, 2011

Link: http://bit.ly/kTDgUH

This article speaks how colleges are seeing an increase in enrollment of students with university bachelors who are seeking specific job related training to be “job ready.” Colleges are essentially being used as finishing schools. - Colleges - are you using this trend in your marketing material?

Happy Reading! Any articles/resources you would like to share?

Career Services & Student Corporate Tours

University Career Services are trying to create new engagement with students and help prepare them for careers after school. One new offering I am seeing offered by career services is organizing corporate tours where they build relationships with relevant companies. Within this offering, a short office tour and information session is organized where students can talk to management and new hires to understand what a career at their company would look like.   I recently participated in one of these from a corporate standpoint & have some tips for students as well as for Career Services.

The students arrived looking dashing and all professionally attired to make a good impression. We started the introduction asking who had heard of our company before. I was shocked to see only 1 out of 15 students put up their hand. Would you really come into an interview without even visiting the company website & understanding their offerings, jobs and company vision or culture? Well these students did. Our first impression of the students was not good though they went on to have great questions throughout the tour.

Career Services: don’t assume that your students will do their due diligence in doing research on the companies you are visiting. Ensuring your students are prepared will make a great impression as this reflects on your campus & your services. This will help the company want to further engage your services to hire your students.

Students: Any time you are engaging with a potential employer, have your ducks in a row. Do your research.  Visit the company website, seek them out on Facebook & LinkedIn. Understand the basic values of the company and know why you might want to work for them. Remember, just because an interaction isn’t a job interview doesn’t mean it can’t get you a job! First impressions count more than ever now that the job market is picking up and companies have choices in the students they hire.

I applaud career services for connecting student’s to corporate life and building higher engagement between students and their campus services. Hopefully my above tips help make these offerings even stronger for all parties involved.

Brands: Finding Your Online Voice

Choosing the right voice for your brand is a very important step in your brand identity and building your social media efforts.

I recently spoke at a conference to an audience of University employees who are responsible for recruitment, enrollment, and student engagement in student services. I was speaking about how universities can use social media sites to boost their recruitment and engagement efforts. I started the presentation asking how many universities, by show of hands, had a social media policy. I was honestly shocked to see that only approximately 10% of 58 major colleges and universities had a policy as 100% of them were on social media sites!  Without a policy that creates a plan on your use of social media websites and helps define your values, purpose & voice, these universities are showcasing multiple personalities online as many different functions/teams within the campus are using these sites with no overall alignment.

Universities (or companies) wanting to use social media sites, must first go through an exercise of defining your brand voice.  Think of a playwright, building a character, you must think through things like Persona, Tone, Language & Purpose.

Here is a great article on Social Media Explorer by Stephanie Schwab that walks you through building your voice through the above 4 characteristics:  http://bit.ly/gTsbTS 

I hope my thoughts & the above resource help. I always love sharing a great article/resource. Don’t forget that your online voice must be a work in progress & you should visit it often to make sure you are adhering to your plan and having a consistent voice across multiple online mediums (i.e.: Facebook, twitter, blogs etc)

Balance Game for New Grads: Degree vs Experience vs Interest. What Matters?

A friend recently connected me to a contact of hers as we had similar degrees (Master in Arts) and her friend wanted to work in the marketing & social media fields (which I work in) and wanted career advice. The conversation centered on how much does your degree vs experience vs interest matter in the job hunt & in being selected for a role. The conversation inspired me to jot down the following thoughts:

Degree – there are absolutely varying opinions on this one and I think the company you are applying for and the hiring manager or recruiter you are working with will dictate this one. What a new grad’s degree is in absolutely plays a part in their fit for a role. With many careers like nursing, engineering, accounting … having the right degree absolutely matters. When we are talking about roles in marketing and social media the lines are more blurry. I am actually an Arts grad myself and did a Masters degree in history but work in talent acquisition and experiential marketing. Does my degree relate to what I do on a daily basis? Not directly; however, I use the SKILLS I learned in my degree all of the time as I do a lot of international marketing & student hiring. My skills in researching, asking the right questions & understanding how culture shapes the present have all come into play when I start working in a new country and understand how to tweak and tailor an existing program based on a culture’s needs. I learned to do my research and ask the right questions. The key for new grads is relating your degree to the job you are applying for. If the connection isn’t obvious, make sure you clearly state it in your cover letter & interview.

Experience – experience is huge! I worked in marketing the entire 6 years of my 2 degrees and thus it was very easy for me to parlay my part time work into a full time career no matter what the focus of my degree was. If you don’t have experience in the field you want to work in, get some! Volunteer, connect with friends, read, research and become well versed in the field. Companies are always looking for volunteers so this is an easy way to get experience in a new field.

Interest – from my point of view, interest is the driving force. If you have interest in a field, then you have passion for it. According to many authors, passion is THE driving force in being successful. If you have passion for a field, you will push yourself further and harder to learn more, do more and be better. Your interest will keep you persevering when the learning curve is steep and you don’t have the basic lingo others with a relevant degree have. You will stay up at night researching and reading, taking courses and getting up to speed. Interest and passion are what keep you going.

The key is in selling others on why you are a fit for a role if your degree isn’t a perfect match for the position. Know that you may not get passed the resume screen if a company has targets based on degree. Positioning yourself in a cover letter is a key part of getting that first interview. Work hard in your resume and cover letter to sell your skills. If you are applying for a social media position and have an arts degree, showcase that you are active in the social media space by putting your blog or twitter handle right in the title. The key to this is actually BEING active in these spaces! Remember, experience matters! Cover letters are also a fantastic place where you can sell yourself and create connections between your degree, experience, & interest to the position.

Good luck in the job hunt new grads!

(By authors talking about passion, I am referring to authors like Richard St John who wrote The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common – see blog post November 2010 called Finding Inspiration - http://chelseanewton.blogspot.com/2010/11/finding-inspiration.html on this topic)

Social Media Recruitment & Engagement Tips for Universities

Being on social media sites for student enrolment/recruitment and then engaging students in your university services is not enough – you have to use the sites in the RIGHT way! I recently spoke at a conference (see the last post) on this topic and to prepare, I completed a quick and dirty audit of the 52 university/colleges that would be present. I found that though most were on social media sites, they weren’t using them the RIGHT way! Here are my quick tips on usage for student recruitment & engagement in student services with the 4 main social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & FourSquare.

Everyone knows Facebook is important but few Universities are using it to create engagement & conversation. Instead, very PR messaging is used. Below are a few tips to make better use of your Facebook page:

Facebook Student Recruitment

-    GOAL: Help make my life on campus easier (calendars of events, tips/tricks, photos, etc)

-    Have a page with a Community Manager from career services

-    Get rid of the PR style messaging

-    Every message (even official) are conversational

-    Answer/create dialogue

Facebook Student Engagement:

-    GOAL: Adds to campus life. Making student life more fun & connecting me with other like    minded students

-    Separate pages based on interest/audience

-    Teams

-    Faculties

-    Not services – community management sits inside career or community services

-    Community Manager for each page but create a hierarchy of managers/auditing. (Create conversation, contests, photos, events etc)

Though twitter is still growing among the student population, it is important to have a presence on this medium. Get in now, make mistakes and learn while your students aren’t all on it! Here are some good tips for its use:

Twitter Student Recruitment:

-    GOAL: Have information available to help perspective students make important decisions & showcase student life on your campus

-    Have an account with a dedicated Community Manager

-    Be available to answer questions

-    Showcase “real” life at your campus

-    Tweet important information via a content calendar to highlight important events/deadlines etc

Twitter Student Engagement:

-    GOAL: Create conversation & showcase Q&A

-    Ask Us (twitter widget) on homepage of website to showcase Q&A from students

-    The vehicle for ongoing student support

-    Student says: “Where do I go to get my student card renewed?”

-    Manager tweets answer with link to YouTube video.

-    50% listening to students, 10-20% messages about University, 30-40% engaging

-    No PR style messaging; this is a conversational method

You Tube is an absolutely fantastic medium for having your current student population help you with recruitment. Give them a voice and answer WIIFT (What’s in it for me) by creating contesting on Why They Love XX school and give tuition credits. Then feature these videos on your Prospective Student/Admissions homepage so students can see why your current student’s love your campus.

YouTube Student Recruitment:

-    GOAL: Showcasing life at your campus

-    Have a YouTube Channel

-    Showcase videos on “admissions” home page

-    Contesting about why you love XXX campus or want to become a student at XXX

-    Give rewards that are inspiring & make them go viral; driving WOM

-    Video tours of campus

-    Engage influential students  & have them build “day in the life” videos that are unscripted

YouTube Student Engagement:

-    GOAL:  Create school pride & have the message go viral

-    Contesting

-    Challenges within relevant departments

-    Be comfortable with user generated content versus only professionally cut & scripted videos

-    Relevant prizes (ie: tuition credits!)

-    Interview style videos/vlogs

Very few universities are yet using location based services (LBS) – be one of the first! Foursquare or Facebook Places are great ways to build campus pride! The graphic above is big as this is the next BIG thing (LBS)!

Foursquare Student Recruitment:

-    GOAL: have information available  for potential students who are into location based sites

-    Check in for campus visits

-    Have reminders in prominent places for visitors to “check in”

-    Add tips to locations where perspective students might be (high schools, malls, transit etc)

Foursquare Student Engagement:

-    GOAL: Build campus pride & provide contextually aware advice

-    Tips at every location on campus from the university

-    Tips on where to eat, history of building, interesting info, profs etc

-    School pride badges

-    Earn badges for checking into multiple sports games etc

-    Encourage use of services & educate on services available

-    Tips at stores, malls etc nearby mall about discounts for students

Hopefully these tips help you understand a few quick and easy ways to use social media for recruitment and student engagement purposes! What universities do you think are doing a great job in using these sites?

Canadian University Uses of Social Media for Enrollment & Student Engagement

Universities and colleges are feeling the same pressure as companies in recruiting students & even further pressure to keep them engaged throughout a 4 year degree. It’s about targeting the RIGHT students & engaging them in student services to create a loyalty to the campus. I spoke at the SEMM conference last week put on by Brainstorm Consulting (Strategic Enrolment Marketing & Management) with an audience full of University & College enrolment directors, student service managers etc. It was a fantastic audience here in Toronto & I’m looking forward to presenting in Calgary on May 6^th in just a few weeks.  I spoke on the topic of using social media to recruit & create connections with students.  This blog post will be a 1 of 2 series as the below outlines what universities are currently doing in the social media space and post 2 will outline what they SHOULD be doing.

As this was a new topic for me (I typically speak on how to use social media for company student/new grad recruiting vs college recruitment/engagement), I spent a full day doing an audit of the 52 schools in attendance. I looked at the following things:

-     Did they have social media links on their home page (Were they “above the fold” – meaning, did I have to scroll down the page to find them?)

-     Where there social media links on the admissions page where prospective students can learn about university life on that campus?

-     Did the school use widgets to feature Twitter feeds, Facebook updates or YouTube videos?

-     Was the school present on social media sites (even if not listed on their website) in terms of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, did they have a Blog?

-     If present, what where they doing right & what were they doing not so right?

-     Did I get a sense of the uniqueness of this campus via their social media efforts?

This was truly a quick & dirty audit as I spent about 10 minutes per school to understand what they are doing in the social media space.  Here is a quick summary of my findings:

-     77% of the schools had social media links on their home page or admissions page

o   Note: Most of these links opened in the same window (losing the audience) versus opening in a new browser

-     Though most schools were on the main social media sites (Facebook, Twitter), not all were listed on their sites

-     Only 1 school was on Foursquare (a location based platform)

-     Most of the schools did not use widgets to showcase social media efforts & most links were “below the fold” meaning I had to scroll & look for them

o   Ie: Did not have a twitter feed or have videos with campus or dorm tours right in their website but instead I had to go into YouTube to see them (risk of losing your audience to YouTube recommended videos is very high!)

-     Over 90% of the messaging on social media sites was PR orientated, which is against the nature of these platforms

-     At the conference, I polled the room and though 100% of the attendee schools were on social media only 10% of the attendees actually had a social media policy (SCARY!)

So, what do universities need to do? Stay posted for my blog post on Wednesday with Tips & Tricks for how universities/colleges should be using social media for recruiting & engagement purposes.

Are you involved with your University or Campus Enrolment or Student Engagement? Join me at the SEMM Calgary May 6^th conference: http://www.semmforum.ca/home.htm