AMA Job Support Group Meeting Notes

In an effort to share more of what is happening around AMA Pittsburgh, Mike Kaulakis suggested that we share meeting notes from Wednesday's Job Hunting Support Group in this space.  The Job Hunting Support Group invites those seeking a job and those that wish to help job seekers to meet once a month.  It is people helping people and it is open to all members and non members of AMA Pittsburgh.

Thanks to Mike for preparing these meeting notes:

Good turnout - 15 or so and a good mix of job-seekers and job-helpers

Next meeting is scheduled for April 15 11:00 AM at Panera Blvd. of the Allies in Oakland.

Meeting notes will be available on AMA Pittsburgh blog for access to all interested.

Suggestions/Questions from Group

• Anyone familiar with Papen?  Local weekly job group meetings North/South split.  $10 contribution.  More info at www.papen.us 
• Kiran Shetty has a lead on medical product marketing positions in eastern PA - Contact Mike if interested.
• Attended Diversity Job Fair Tues Mar. 24th - a waste (Anyone know of any job fairs that would be of interest to more experienced job seekers?)
• Attended Pink Slip Party @ Mullaney's.  Got lead on George Swanik III - Action Mode.com career development
• Leukemia Society organized party w/$10 donation.  Contact Megan.nemecal@lls.org 412-697-2863
• Pittsburgh Business Times has a free SmartReader Strategies Seminar on April 3 from 8:30-10:00 AM
• Westvac career event April 22nd (If you have more details on this event, please leave them as a comment to this post)
• Volunteer opportunities posted to AMA Pittsburgh site for board.net and Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council
• TIE.org Pittsburgh Chapter has a Power Roundtable scheduled for April 8th.  Free for TIE member/$30 for others
• Innovation Works was mentioned as a source for events but none listed on site for 2009 (If anyone has more details, please let us know)
• Dave Roberts will research upcoming job fairs, etc. from his former employer (Thanks Dave!)
• Business Leads Exchange meets monthly for lunch - $15
• Vista Print is a source for free business cards

If you have any topics or comments, please feel free to submit them to the AMA Pittsburgh blog.  Don't forget the Hyde Park Happy Hour networking event is tonight.

Upcoming:

Apr 9 - Green Marketing Summit

Apr 15 - Job Hunting Support Group

Unsubscribe Reasons

This week's chart comes from Marketing Sherpa.  The survey details the reasons for unsubscribing from an email list.  

Join the discussion on the AMA Pittsburgh blog by submitting your topics or comments.

Obama's Winning Lessons

Join the AMA Pittsburgh for a luncheon on Thursday, March 12th.

Mar 12 Luncheon: Winning Business Lessons of the
Obama Campaign, Featuring Barry Libert, author of Barack, Inc.

Barry Libert is a business executive, author, and speaker based in Boston, Massachusetts. He has more than 25 years of executive leadership and entrepreneurial experience, and has been instrumental in advancing the awareness and use of Web 2.0 and social technologies within the business world.

You can register for this event here.

The Process of Finding Work

Tomorrow the AMA Pittsburgh Job Hunting Support Group will meet at 8AM at Big Dog Coffee at 2717 Sarah Street in the South Side. The event will focus on brainstorming. You are welcome to come out and share a cup of coffee and ideas on how to find a job in this economy.

Keeping with this subject, I have asked Neal Griebling of Future Design Studio to guest post in this space on the process of finding work in recessionary times.

From Neal:

It’s my experience that we, as Americans, are an impatient lot. We seek immediate satisfaction, gratification, and results. Moreover, we not only seek these things, we expect them. When our expectations are not met, we give up and walk away.

George Leonard in his wonderful book, entitled Mastery, writes with great eloquence about how certain types of individuals react to the challenges of mastering any skill. He focuses on the martial arts, but his analysis and insightful suggestions could apply to learning any skill. He counsels patience, discipline, and focusing on process.

The search for work is filled with stress and anxiety. We are impatient; we want results today, or if not today, then tomorrow. What we must realize is how little control we have over results. Will the HR specialist read our resume, will our friends seek leads on our behalf, will the interviewer recognize our skills and talents? All of these situations are not within our control.

What, then, is within our control? It’s our behavior, our action that we bring to bear upon our job search. When we focus on process rather than results, we are able to give our undivided attention to the task in hand, be it refining our resume, scheduling our networking appointments, or immersing ourselves in researching the job marketplace.

When impatience or anxiety arises, concentrate on what you can control — your process. If you are diligent about mastering your process, the results will, in time, take care of themselves.

Chart of the Week

This week's chart comes from Marketing Sherpa. Sherpa surveyed and found that the most effective tools are the hardest to measure. In looking at this chart, I must say I am a bit confused. How do you know it is effective if you don't measure it? I'd love to hear your opinions. Feel free to comment.


Join the discussion on the AMA Pittsburgh blog by submitting your comments or topics.

The Hidden Job Market

Today's post comes from Neal Griebling of Future Design Studio. Neal's topic is word of mouth referrals and the importance of networking. His advice is directly related to career searches, but can the theory can be applied to any business building activity.

Neal Griebling:

It’s a commonly accepted fact: 80 percent of the jobs in the United States are never advertised. This phenomenon is what is known as The Hidden Job Market. How do you penetrate that market?

Informational interviewing combined with mastering the art and science of work-of-mouth referral (WOMR) networking. These two strategies are absolutely necessary in finding work in a recessionary economy. Today let’s look at why you should adopt these strategies.

The current recession is impacting the entire economy. Many companies today are simply not hiring; actually, they are laying off workers. They are retrenching and not taking job applications.

Yet business leaders have problems and issues they must grapple with if they are to survive and prosper. There will always be a need for people who can solve problems, design new products, cut costs, and increase efficiencies within a company. Business leaders do not want meet job seekers; they may, under the right circumstances, consent to informational interviews with people who are referred to them by people they know and trust. And this is where you must employ your word-of-mouth referral networking strategy to create openings for yourself.

Be a part of the AMA Pittsburgh blog by submitting your topics or comments. Did you see the spread in Friday's Pittsburgh Business Times? What were your thoughts?

Barriers to Social Media

This week's chart comes from Marketing Sherpa. This space is often utilized to report on digital marketing trends. This chart fits right in with the barriers cited as reasons not to adopt social media. Lack of knowledge is right at the top.


AMA Pittsburgh can be a resource as you seek to gain knowledge with a variety of resources. Join the discussion on the AMA Pittsburgh blog by submitting your comments or topics.

Chart of The Week

Our chart this week comes from Marketing Sherpa and details consumer company priorities for 2009. Email, SEO and paid search have the highest ranking. Display ads take the hit this year.

Join the discussion on the AMA Pittsburgh blog by submitting your topics or comments. See you at the Winter Mixer tomorrow.

Recognizing What We Can Control

More bad news today regarding the economy. The unemployment ranks grew once again. You may be sitting at your desk worried about your own fate. Today's post comes to us from Neal Griebling of Future Design Studio and the topic is dealing with your fears.

These are extraordinary times and even the so-called economic gurus admit they are not sure how things will play out. It is natural to feel stress, anxiety, and fear in such an environment. Our fear also generates paralysis and resistance to taking any sort of action. We are prone to hunker down, do nothing and wait for conditions to improve. However, we cannot allow our fears and resistance to drive our career bus.

The first step we need to take is to Recognize what we can control and what is outside our control. Face it, most things are outside of our control: what will happen in the housing and credit markets, how global competition will erode American trade performance, how your company is positioned to withstand the loss of key customers. Well, what can we control? I would suggest it’s our attitudes and our behavior. We can choose to forget about past mistakes and refuse to indulge in doomsday scenarios of the future. Remaining grounded in the present allows us to focus all of our internal and external resources on what’s in front of us.

Neal Griebling
Future Design Studio
www.futuredesignstudio.com

Join the discussion on the AMA Pittsburgh blog by submitting your comments or topics.

Don't Forget - Winter Marketing Mixer

Pittsburgh may be back in the deep freeze, but that is no reason to come warm up at the AMA Pittsburgh Winter Mixer. It is this Thursday and starts at 5:30 at McCormick and Schmicks, 301 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. $20 gets you 2 drinks, food, entertainment and an evening with your marketing colleagues. Register in advance at http://www.amapittsburgh.org/. See you there.

Priorities for B-B Marketers

It is time for our first chart of 2009. This one comes from Marketing Sherpa. Sherpa surveyed top B-B firms to determine priorities for 2009 and then mapped these against complexity.

Join the discussion on the AMA Pittsburgh blog. Submit your comments or topics.

Jazz It Up at the First AMA Mixer 2009

Please join us at our first AMA Pittsburgh Marketing Mixer of 2009 sponsored by Port Authority. A $20 ticket gets you two drink tickets, food, live jazz piano, and an evening of networking and fun with your peers! Members, prospective members, and guests are welcome to attend. Thanks to Our Sponsors: HJ Heinz Company Pipitone Group PPG Thanks to Our In Kind Sponsors: JA Interactive Hughies Audio-Video Pittsburgh Business Times proSource For more information visit our website http://www.amapittsburgh.com/

WHEN

Thursday, January 29, 2009 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

WHERE

McCormick & Schmicks

301 Fifth Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

A Word on the Transition to Digital Marketing

Saw this in WOMMA today and boy did it stick in my head:

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has warned that advertising agencies face growth of just 1.2% a year by 2016 if the industry fails to tackle the changes to the media created by sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The IPA warned that not enough agencies are adjusting to the online world. In its worst-case scenario, the resulting decline in paid-for advertising space could see $23 million of revenues lost by the industry by 2016, if agencies fail to create new products and services to cater to the social media world.

Join the discussion by submitting your comments or topics to the AMA Pittsburgh blog.

Early 2009 Trends in Web Marketing

Some interesting web marketing trends are emerging early in 2009. The economy has influenced several. Another factor in the development has been the continued shift to digital marketing. In fact, it seems to be on every one’s minds. The American Marketing Association have two webinars scheduled for later this month on the subject.

Trend: Shift to Pay for Play

There is a rumble out there that online publishers will again search for a pay to play model as advertising curtails. This is not a new model, but the prevailing attitude on the web is content should be free. Due to economic issues, publishers must now search for additional revenue and pay per play if accepted is a sustainable model. Also related to this trend, is the emergence of micropayments once again. Micropayments allow a small charge for content.

Trend: Emergence of Alternative Media

This trend is partially influenced by the emergence of digital media and partially by the economy taking its toll on traditional media outlets. Several newspapers are struggling for survival and experts predict that more will fall victim to the slow economy. Newspapers have failed to create a digital revenue stream other than advertising. This has lead to the trimming of staffs and that means less news reported. Blogs and other online media outlets are going strong. As they gain more credibility, PR will shift focus to these alternative outlets.

Trend: B to B Looks to Blogs

Businesses are starting to discover blogs. Industrial brands have begun to look to blogs as their second foray into web marketing. Their first was SEO which may or may not have included some pay per click. These brands have begun to realize the benefits of distributing content via blogs and the added SEO benefits.

Trend: Twitter Marketing Campaigns

Twitter is still looking for their own sustainability and revenue streams. However, the service is about to become inundated by marketing campaigns. First it was My Space and then Facebook took some thunder by doing it better. Now Twitter is poised to be the marketing flavor of choice.

5 Potential Popular Online Marketing Themes

Some potential themes that should be popular in online marketing during 2009.

1. Sustainability - Green marketing has been en vogue for several years. Sustainability takes it to the next level. Searchers will look to find more information on how they can be more green, but also save money in the process. 2009 will see them support companies that do the same and/or help them achieve this goal.

2. Financial Planning - This one is obvious after the events in 2008. 2009 will prove to be challenging as well. Can your brand fit with ways, tips, improvements, etc. for financial topics.

3. Career Tips - There will be many more people hitting the job boards and alternate sites in search of jobs or other career tips. Planning ahead can help these future seekers. Tips on networking, alternative education, certifications, and job seeking tips will be in demand. Can your brand engage with these people.

4. Games - Did you notice that games did not take a dip? In fact, GameStop reported great numbers. There is a common thread to human nature, we all like to be diverted from the real world. I expect this thread will be pulled often in 2009. Games are a favorite diversion. Can your brand get mind share by offering a game?

5. Entertainment - Same theory as #4. If your brand can fit (And you will be surprised that most can) with forms of entertainment, then you can use these vehicles to keep mind share. Online videos that entertain will continue to be popular on free outlets. Growth will continue in 2009, as I expect other avenues may decline such as pay tv.

Join the discussion on the AMA Pittsburgh blog by submitting your topics and comments.

Twitter Comes of Age

Interesting piece of news today. Twitter has grown up and by an interesting yardstick. Twitter has reached a critical mass, catching the attention of spammers. It is a shame that we have to measure viability by this measure, but you have not made it until you attract this kind of attention. Just ask My Space and Facebook.

Marketing Vox reports that users receive a direct message from a follower, bearing this or similar bait: “hey! check out this funny blog about you…”, followed by a link to a webpage.

After clicking on the link, victims are presented with a false Twitter login page. Usernames and passwords entered on the page become vehicles for spammers to distribute similar messages. A second scam jijacked some high profile accounts such as President-Elect Obama.

Twitter is tightening its security in response to the hackers. Users that fell victim to the phishing scheme can reset their password on Twitter.

Ratings for Websites

The UK follows Australia in a call for ratings systems for websites. The Telegraph reported on Sat., a call by the UK's Cultural Minister for a ratings system similar to cinema for websites. The UK is reported to be interested in working with the US to develop the first of the kind standards for English language websites.

The standards would likely include a time limit for sites to take down questionable content when it is brought to their attention. This standard would be targeted at sites like YouTube and Facebook that are dominated by user generated content.

"If you look back at the people who created the Internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that governments couldn't reach," Andy Burnham told The Telegraph. "I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now."

As a marketer, what are your thoughts about ratings? Join the discussion on the AMA Pittsburgh blog by submitting your comments or topics.

Looking at the Year in Online

Online and new media had another year of growth in preliminary numbers reported:

Time Spent Online ................ +8%
Online Video Views................ +40%
Blogs....................................... +20%
Online Advertising................ +17% (Through the first 3 quarters, expect it to be lower when 4Q is reported)
ECommerce........................... +17% (Smaller than previous years, but still respectable growth)

Online is now the 3rd largest advertising medium.

What is Viral Good For?

Following up from last week's post on tools for viral marketing, comes a new chart this week from Marketing Sherpa detailing what marketing activities viral is good at. Survey respondents ranked brand building the highest:

Join the discussion by submitting your topic or comment to the AMA Pittsburgh blog.

Viral Statistics from New Study

From Marketing Sherpa's new online video benchmark survey, comes their first chart detailing what respondents state are the best ways to go viral. The survey is very mixed, which leads me to the take away that there is no magic pill and testing and trial will determine what is best for you:

Join the discussion on the AMA Pittsburgh blog by submitting your topic or comment.