We have the pleasure of welcoming our newest addition to the Paladin Team and the new voice of Paladin - Cindy-Lee Pijoos. Cindy is taking over my role as Recruitment Coordinator. She will be the point person for our working Associates and initial inquiries from Candidates and Clients.

Cindy’s story about finding Paladin is a classic case study for how social networking can help you find a job. Recruiters, mentors, bloggers, and even Forbes continuously buzz about personal branding and networking through online communities to find a job. After reviewing Paladin’s postings online, she contacted me through a direct message on Twitter. Her social media savvy gained her an interview, and her experience and professionalism won her the role.

Cindy graduated with an integrated marketing communications degree in PR. She comes to us originally from Cape Town, South Africa and has lived in various cities before settling in Chicago. She thoroughly enjoys volunteering, cooking, and networking - so be sure to introduce yourself at the next event.

As we welcome Cindy as the new face and voice of Paladin, I am personally taking the next step in my career. I have recently accepted a position in social media, which will be a new challenge I am very excited to take on. My passion for interactive, online marketing has spooled through my experience at Paladin. I am happy to have had a chance to hone my social media experience in my Paladin role and look forward to staying a part of the extended Paladin family!

Recent marketing industry events have highlighted the coming wave of mobile marketing. Location-based marketing has had a particular hype. I wanted to learn more about it first hand, so I took to the road to test it out myself while on a short vacation this past weekend.

In advance, I researched some of the latest location-based marketing techniques and platforms.

• Twitter has integrated geotagging into tweets accessible by computer or on your mobile device. Marketers can target and communicate virtually, which makes it easier for marketers to find customers and quickly get in touch in real-time.
• Foursquare was the instigator of geotagging presented as the highly popular location based game/application, rewarding customers with ‘check-ins.’ In most recent news, they are close to 1.8 billion users and just raised $20m in a Series B investment.
• Yelp newly introduced a similar concept to Foursquare by adding badge features and ‘Dukedoms’ to their mobile application. Ideally, Yelp would like to provide readers with quality reviews since they will have the ability to track the number of times the reviewer is actually visiting the venues.
• Gowalla, also similar to Foursquare, has just rolled out five new local language settings for global users to actively participate.

An article last week from Noah Elikin on Media Post Marketing Implications of a Truly Mobile Internet, discussed the idea that frequent travelers were a prime target for location based marketing. I put the theories to test on my adventures to the Northwest and Canada. From Thursday to Monday, I utilized my social networks by checking into Foursquare and sending updates to Twitter. Being an avid user of social media and having a fairly sizable network of 1150 followers, I was curious to see if brands would indeed market to me as I was on the go.

On Foursquare, I made sure to check-in everywhere I stopped, including: airports, train/bus stations, hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, well-known tourist attractions, and tours. I logged over 20 check-ins and 15 tweets throughout the trip. Surprisingly, the results were underwhelming. Out of all venues I visited and tweeted about, I only received one automated response from the tour company, @SavorSeattle, thanking me for the follow and participating on the tour.

The only ’specials nearby’ notification I received was from @Starbucks on Foursquare. For the sake of my research (and being a frequent coffee drinker) I couldn’t travel all the way to Seattle without visiting the original Starbucks store. The company has quickly adopted location-based marketing on Foursquare. When users check-in to the store, a notification pops up offering incentives to “Mayors” (most frequent customers) discounts and free drinks. It is a program that drives increased customer visits and alerts to Starbucks near their immediate location.

Findings: Despite the location-based marketing hype, the practice has not become an integral part of the marketing mix. It will be interesting to watch brands roll out the efforts in the months and years. However, for the moment, there is not very much activity visible at the traveling consumer level.

Although I was not geotargeted by marketing brands, I did learn more about an interesting tool for travelers worth noting: @Boarding

The recently new idea was founded by Damien Guinet in France and seems to be leading in the developing an ideal platform for travel-based marketing. The concept is to find ’stranded travelers’ through online social media tools. Simply tweet #boarding followed by the airport code and moments later you will receive a message with a link to a map plus list of Twitter handles also in the airport. What I found most interesting about the concept is the ultimate end goal of the idea: Proposing specific airport service/product coupons plus tips to help occupy the time while waiting to board.

Traveling back to Chicago from Seattle, I put my research to the test myself. After reviewing the list of Twitter profiles in who were also at SeaTac International Airport, I came across @AirlineReporter, who I have recently started following. So I did what any other tweep would do - sent a direct message to see what terminal he was in! We ended up meeting at his gate and chatting about how we had just put social networking into practice. He had valuable insight for location based marketing. Airlines are finding creative ways to integrate social media into brand strategy. For instance, there is future talk of allowing customers to check into their flights via Foursquare, providing a quick, efficient way of flying. Incentives are also being created, such as becoming the Mayor of the airline terminal and given the chance to bump up to business class or win 5,000 frequent flyer miles. The tools seem to be a great starting point for airlines and companies to build up to specifically target the traveling customers.

My end result showed that many companies are buzzing around location-based marketing and hoping to roll out their innovative and creative concepts, although the ideas have not yet been fully implemented. After putting myself out there, one thing is for sure - thanks to social media and mobile apps, you can connect virtually with anyone, anywhere. How will companies catch up with real-time connection on the go? What examples have you come across in your daily activities recently that integrate location-based marketing?

Paladin would like to find out where location-based marketing is headed in your companies. Take our quick, one-questioned polls and results will be given next week on our social networks.

1. http://polls.linkedin.com/p/93828/jqvtu

2. http://polls.linkedin.com/p/93830/cmzdo

On Friday I had the pleasure of taking part in a panel discussion with graduate students from Northwestern University’s Masters of Science in Communication program. The topics covered included: career paths, job search and the effects of the current economy for recent graduates.

Here are a few of the insights that I gathered and shared with them:

 Masters of Communications vs. MBAs:

We ran a quick pool of several senior level marketing and communications professionals to get their take on the value of a Masters of Communications.  As of today 51 have responded. Nearly 50% said it gave a professional a leg up or was “a must”.  Only 17% said other degrees are better.  The poll is still live. Feel free to participate and check out the results: Poll

Compensation:

One of the trends we are seeing is a polarization of compensation. The top 10% of earners within marketing and communications make at least 50% more income than the average earnings of the bottom 90%.  An article in Marketing Week from the UK gives a global view of this trend: ‘A New Age of Austerity Hits Pay Packets Hard‘

 Where the Money is: 

• US owned companies compensate these Marketing and Communications roles better than their European counterparts.
• Digital natives (those who have worked within online marketing from the beginning of their careers) earn a significant premium in compensation.
• High performing employees may be in a great position to negotiate. 70% of companies reported that they were concerned that these high performing employees may leave.

The Economy

Yes, the economy is difficult. But the anxiety caused by high unemployment numbers is often worsened by media oversaturation. The staggering numbers (8.4 Millions jobs lost since the recession began – Bureau of Labor Statistics) do not provide a  perspective on how communication  professionals will be effected. While white collar workers did experience some of the wrath of the poor economy, they were not affected to the same degree as those without a bachelor’s degree. Bureau of Labor Statistics Education Pays Graph.

 On the bright side:

• The Unemployment rate recently fell to under 10%.
• In January there were 5.9 job seekers on average competing for each job -  a significant decrease from the pervious month
• There were 2.5 million job openings in December 2009- a significant increase from November
• Even with 14.8 million people out of work, there are an estimated 137 million employed.
• A Towers Watson survey released Dec. 2009 states that the number of polled companies that plan to freeze or reduce hiring dropped by half to just 33%. Click here to see the Study
• Marketing, creative and communications professions make up only a very small percentage of the total work force and unemployment rates among those ranks are generally much less than the national averages.
• In surveying the January job postings for Communications roles several groups were up. For example- Internal Communications increased 9%, Communications Managers increased by 10%.

So take a deep breath and start regrouping for the big surge ahead that will surely follow this economic turmoil.  It is time to get back to the hard work – figuring out what you are truly passionate about. Trying to guess the direction of the market, following the hot industries of the moment will never create the foolproof career plan. Being passionate about your chosen path will make you more attractive to employers regardless of which way the current trends are blowing.

Employee vs. Contractor

Temporary employment is becoming the new norm. As companies remain fiscally conservative and credit strapped, they are reluctant to bring on a permanent head count. Marketing, creative and communications departments have had experience with this model for years. This will continue to be a growing trend into 2010 and potentially far beyond. From junior assistants and mid-level specialists to the most senior level strategic directors – contract vs. employee is an important part of the mix. Check out two articles on the subject:

‘Temporary CMOs are Here to Stay – for Six Months or So’ - Brandweek

‘Recruiters See Jobs Pickup in 2010 Despite Concerns’ – Wall Street Journal

As always, I came away from the panel discussion super charged. The talent, dedication, drive and passion these professionals have reminded me why I love this field so much- a big Thank You to the school for inviting Paladin to participate.

The old adage that “time flies when you’re having fun” really hit home for me this morning. As I was reflecting on the last ten years I’ve spent in the professional working world, I realized that one of the common denominators in each of my positions has been healthcare. 

I began my career on the public relations side, working with healthcare systems and big pharma. That interest has carried over into my role in the recruiting world. In the last four years at Paladin, I’ve worked with nearly 30 healthcare associations, providers, insurers and pharma companies, providing a vast array of talent for marketing, creative, programming, membership, training, event and communications departments.  Working with marketers and creatives in this space has allowed me the opportunity to stay abreast of trends, pressures, challenges and nuances in the field.

To get an even deeper understanding of these trends, I launched a survey of my healthcare association clients last month. The goal was to better understand the marketing, membership and staffing trends within these organizations.  I think you’ll find the survey results interesting.

A few key findings:

- The healthcare association world is a “healthy” one, despite the turbulent U.S. economy. The majority of respondents noted that their overall membership base in continuing to grow and that from an organizational perspective, they plan to continue expanding in other markets.

- As with many organizations, healthcare associations are embracing the new social media movement and offering new online and interactive forums to help their members and employees communicate. Facebook and Linked-In are becoming the top social media tools in the communications arsenal of these organizations.

- In order to remain competitive, healthcare associations are expanding their product and service offerings in 2009, including e-learning programs, online conferences, and social  media tools.

I encourage you to review the full survey findings in the hope that you’ll be able to leverage them as you continue to build marketing and communications campaigns and products for your members this year.

http://www.paladinstaff.com/promo/survey-results/

I also welcome your insights and hope you will help create a larger dialogue on this topic.  Feel free to comment here, or to contact me off-line with questions, ideas, suggestions, requests or additional resources: elise@paladinstaff.com.