Changing Fast

I was a guest feature writer in the Detroit Free Press 7/19/2010

How to Harness Social Networks and Branding Yourself Online Video

This video is from my speaking engagement at the LA2M event in Ann Arbor July 7 2010

This video is from my speaking engagement at the LA2M event in Ann Arbor July 7 2010

Transitioning from traditional to digital 360 talent

 I am amazed when I talk to some traditional talent they tell me, “I don’t know flash so I am not sure I can make the jump into digital."  Huh?  Of course you do not need to learn programming skills to get on the digital side of advertising unless you are a programmer.  What you need to do is take a proactive role in learning about the digital side of things. “It’s not rocket science folks," all the information is out there. Trust me.  Wikipedia is a great start to understanding…

 I am amazed when I talk to some traditional talent they tell me, “I don’t know flash so I am not sure I can make the jump into digital."  Huh?  Of course you do not need to learn programming skills to get on the digital side of advertising unless you are a programmer.  What you need to do is take a proactive role in learning about the digital side of things. “It’s not rocket science folks," all the information is out there. Trust me.  Wikipedia is a great start to understanding different terms you might not understand, for example the meaning of Digital Strategy.

 Video: Blogs in Plain English

Commoncraft.com is a great site with tutorials in plain English!  When you click on the link there will be a search window, put in the word “internet” and many tutorials will come up. Another example to try is: web-search-strategies.

 Learning more about search commands is going to help you on your quest to become a 360-integrated talent. For example, to show you how effective Google search commands are, put in slideshare: "social media."   As you can see above, I typed in the website name slideshare, after that I put in a colon, and from there I put in quotes, "social media."  This is key to getting a search return with information only about social media.  I cannot tell you how valuable slideshare.com is for any type of research you are doing, it is a great place to learn just about anything. Searching just within a specific website can be a real time saver!

Note: Start taking an interest in learning the basic search commands on Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Live.

I found a great blog called Googletutor.com http://www.googletutor.com/google-manual/ they explain it in a user friendly way.

Google commands open up a new world on how to get information about advertising and marketing knowledge.  Want to know about top advertising blogs? Just go to Google and type in exactly that. Google will give you the results you are looking for by asking it in a question format.  I do recommend you get the basic search commands down from Google, it will give you more exact information.

Ad Age’s Digital section is a great read every week. You can also find many bloggers in the digital space by using Google’s blog search engine for any interest you have.

There are too many brilliant traditional people out there that have so much to give to an agency, but are being let go because they are lacking digital background. I have seen many people make the transition to a 360-integrated talent.

Let’s not forget, "a great idea is a great idea."  What is most important is understanding the audience you are speaking to.

Important: There is no excuse if you are on the traditional side to not have an online portfolio - I don’t just mean creatives - anyone. Go to wordpress.com, find a theme you like, then create a blog. It is just like a website only you can control what’s added and change the content, and you no longer will be dependent on a programmer to help you. There is a user-friendly dashboard where you control your blog and the icing on the cake is, wordpress provides wordpress visual tutorials on how to build your blog from top to bottom.  All of my sites are on wordpress.

*Creating a blog shows any potential employer that you are with the program and gives you the oppurtunity to showcase your background.

 If you want to be a player in this business you need to be constantly changing fast. I sincerely mean this. You can see all around you everyday the advertising world is moving at breakneck speed. People and agencies in our business are being displaced like vinyl records.

Remember my clients are not usually just looking for digital experience; they are looking for talent that understands traditional also.  It is critical to understand all the ways of distributing information and content (360), we would be doing the client’s brand a disservice if we didn’t. I am hoping the day comes when I don’t have a need to say traditional or digital to define the talent. 

Look at it this way, “you are halfway there!”

I welcome your comments.

How to avoid Crisis Reactive Mode

  Crisis Reactive mode: When you have made no prior planning to an event that could possibly play out, and now it has. Ok, if I get hit by lighting today this would be one of the most important posts I will ever write! As a headhunter this has been a consistent problem with talent. This situation can be avoided if the right steps are in place. Let me show you in dialog format an all too familiar scenario.

Crisis Reactive mode:

When you have made no prior planning to an event that could possibly play out, and now it has. 

 Ok, if I get hit by lightning today this would be one of the most important posts I will ever write! As a headhunter this has been a consistent problem with talent. This situation can be avoided if the right steps are in place. Let me show you in dialogue format an all too familiar scenario.

 

Me: ring ring “Hello?” 

Candidate:  "Collin, I am in the main conference room along with 40 other people, we were just laid off and they will not let us go back to our desks and our work computers have been confiscated. I am freaking out!!"

Me: "First of all, I am sorry about what has happened but you are well prepared to deal with this situation."

Candidate: "What do you mean I’m prepared?"

Me: "Well, we discussed over 2 years ago, and several times since, a proactive strategy to keep yourself optimized in the marketplace. I sent you a list and examples on how to accomplish this."

Candidate: "Uhhhh"

Me: "You agreed with me when we first discussed this that this is a great action plan to follow throughout your career."

Candidate: "Yes, this is true, but…"

Me: "So, lets calmly go down the list.  Have you made time to go to industry meetings and did you subscribe to those blogs I suggested to keep up with what’s happening?"

Candidate: "No."

Me: "Why don’t you send me your updated resume."

Candidate: "I will need a couple of days to work on that, I did not update my resume on a regular basis as you suggested."

Me: "Did you sign up on LinkedIn and the other social networking sites I suggested to keep yourself fresh within your network of influence?"

Candidate: "No."

Me: "Did you back up your work on a daily basis so you can keep an ongoing catalogue of what you have accomplished at your company, so you can show your next employer that you are effective and results driven in your role?"

Candidate: "No."

 

You get the point I am trying to make with this dialogue. It is soooo key to make sure you are working on your brand at the same time you are working at your place of employment. Putting a strategy together so you never end up in this candidate’s situation is critical! Going into crisis reactive mode plays out when you are not prepared, and not just in your career.

Sadly, when people get in this mode they end up making more poor choices on top of the event that has just occurred, myself included, “been there done that."  I know we all have time constraints; we can come up with endless excuses for why we don’t do the things we need to do - count me in again. 

Below is a list of things you should be doing on a regular basis:

• Set up a catalogue system to keep track of all data and assets you find beneficial - it is key for all your data to be useful and searchable!
• Get your work online - everyone should have a portfolio, not just creatives.

• Always back up your work so you can analyze it on a regular basis, or "benchmarking.”
• Make an effort to do some schmoozing at industry events.

• Make sure you sign up on social sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
• Join online user groups and blogs pertaining to your area of expertise.

• Update your resume regularly, adding in your newest quantifiable results.
• Set up alerts with keywords that pertain to your career on Google, Twilert.com, and Indeed.com. 
• Leverage a great headhunter to help with strategy and opportunities! “Shameless plug”
• Know your competitors in the area and across the country.

*I am referring to all companies, not just the ones that are popular because of their hot talent.  Remember this is why we know about them - because they are doing these steps on a regular basis.

You will expand on some of the suggestions I have just made if you take a proactive interest in your career strategy and your ongoing brand development. In most situations, people had some idea that this day was coming, along with a little voice inside saying, "I have to update my resume and portfolio, I need to start networking…."

Lesson: Avoid crisis reactive mode by taking a proactive stance and strive toward a better future by anticipating and preparing for future clouds on the horizon.

I welcome your comments on this post.

Indeed.com is a powerful trend tool, not just a job search engine

“social network” Job Trends “social network” Jobs Indeed.com is one of the most useful tools out there to understand the trends concerning what is hot, or not, in your industry of work! Indeed.com, if you are not aware of it, is what I call the Google of job search.  It indexes most of the job sites out there so you don’t need to go to each and every one.  Excellent time management tool - great idea! I direct many of my candidates to Indeed as an exercise for them to see what is going on in their specific…

“social network” Job Trends

“social network” Jobs

Indeed.com is one of the most useful tools out there to understand the trends concerning what is hot, or not, in your industry of work!

Indeed.com, if you are not aware of it, is what I call the Google of job search.  It indexes most of the job sites out there so you don’t need to go to each and every one.  Excellent time management tool - great idea!

I direct many of my candidates to Indeed as an exercise for them to see what is going on in their specific discipline of work.  Lets preface something; I think it is critical before I go further with this post:

Make sure you know your skills and title are in line with what the market is looking for, it is important for longevity and growth in your area.  Too many of us ignore where the trends are going.  Things are always changing fast!

That is why this tool is so powerful; it is a part of your competitive intelligence arsenal.  Instead of chasing yourself, chase what the companies consider hot and in demand!  Why would you keep peddling skill sets that are not in demand?  You need to write your resume to what the market wants.  If you don’t have the skills, then you need to attain them.

 If you were in the Digital Marketing arena (shown below) you would put in the What field “Digital Marketing,” in the Location field put in “New York.”  The day I did this post 176 new jobs came up. 

What is awesome is, to the left of the pane the links are broken down into categories, so you don’t need to sift through all the pages.  As you can see below, it is broken down by Salary, Title, Companies, Location, Job Type, Employer, Recruiter, Temp, and most recent searches.  This way you can go directly to what you want to look at.  This is the first step; from there you start reading the job descriptions.  Important: Create a system where you can copy information of interest.

Not being a nice person on the way to the top has its consequences

  This is a true story that has played out many times.  I have watched this scenario up close working with talent, and below I have written an all to common scenario.  Let me tell you about this person’s background before I move on to the chain of events that played out.   This candidate is award-winning and extremely talented, the problem is he was not very nice on his way to the top.  I had known through the years by people that worked for him that he was abusive, condescending, played games with…

This is a true story that has played out many times.  I have watched this scenario up close working with talent, and below I have written an all to common scenario.  Let me tell you about this person’s background before I move on to the chain of events that played out.  

This candidate is award-winning and extremely talented, the problem is he was not very nice on his way to the top.  I had known through the years by people that worked for him that he was abusive, condescending, played games with people, always took the credit on projects that were a success, and blamed others when the client was not happy.  I am sure you get the type of person I am talking about.  We all know someone just like this.

There is a philosophy I believe in: "there are natural laws in life that will play out one way or another at some point, positive or negative, depending where you put your energy."  This Creative Director calls me and says,

"Collin, my company just laid me off for budget reasons and I need to get in front of the top agencies across town.  I am sure I will have many offers so lets get rolling."

 In my head I realize the opposite is going to play out.  I tell him I will make some calls first to see if anyone is hiring before we move forward on working together.

 I know when I make the calls to other clients I am going to get some interesting responses.  What the Creative Director did not think of as he moved forward in his career is, all the people that quit from frustration or people he fired with no real merit, are now salt and peppered all over the city, and for that matter across the country.  I call the top Creative Director at one of the local agencies where he would like to interview.  This Creative Director used to work for this guy when he was an Associate Creative Director, and now my client would be working for him!  I break the news that he wants to come in and interview.  Well, I cannot tell you the expletives this CD began to spout; I brought up an old wound he wants to forget.

"I would never in a million years bring that toxic person to my office.  What he did to me and others were unforgivable and I heard he has not changed his ways at all.  I don’t care how talented he is…"

I pick up the phone and call a few people at other agencies.  Same scenario.  Some of the feedback went something like this,

"Collin, I mentioned his name to my team and they all told me they would quit if I even entertained the thought of bringing on this person."

You get the idea, right?  The reason I went down the road of making calls for him is the hope that when I give him feedback, he will rethink how he conducts himself in the in the future.  I did not want it to be my opinion, but a consensus by many.  I have found in the past if I don’t do this, he will end up thinking it was just my opinion.

So I give this guy a call back and tell him the feedback, minus the expletives.  At first he was very defensive and could not believe that people thought of him in that light.  That in itself tells you how out of touch this person is with how others viewed him.  I was waiting for him to ask me the toughest question that I had to answer,

"Collin, so what do I do now if no one wants to hire me at the big agencies and the smaller ones cannot afford me, what do I do?"

I calmly and slowly said, "you need to move out of the state and start fresh - you are toast in this town."  There was air over the phone which seemed like an eternity!

I did not take any joy in doing this.  Hopefully, I helped someone that is truly talented, but needs to seriously clean up their act!  I am sure you are asking yourself how people get to the top behaving like this.  Well, that is another post but it does happen and as far as I’m concerned, it always catches up with you.

I put together a small list of musts as you move forward in your career:

1. Maintain good relationships with your co-workers; you never know when you need to call on them.
2. Stay in contact with people that have moved on to other companies.
3. Always be respectful to others, there is no excuse not to.
4. Be observant of verbal and body language - obviously this guy did not learn this.
5. Go out of your way to do something nice for someone; you would be surprised how far a handwritten card will go in an age when all we do is email!
6. Make sure when you take a job, you have done your homework on the leadership to make sure you don’t end up in this type of situation.

Lesson: If you are starting to behave in anyway like this person, this is what will probably play out for you also.  Talent is not the only hand you can play to truly succeed in your career or life.