Last week I read a blog post by Seth Godin called, “Are you doing math or arithmetic?” Mr. Godin stated his respect for mathematicians and the work they do – a cross between art, science, and music.  While arithmeticians are merely plugging numbers into a calculator – they are neither bold nor adventurous.

I was rather disappointed in this look at both sides of math work.   Not all work is glamorous or groundbreaking.  I am a marketer, like Seth Godin.  Not all parts of my work are thrilling or edgy.  Much of it is arithmetic – adding numbers, balancing budgets, and planning.  Some of it is exciting and thrilling:  the design and execution portion of my work is why I struggle through the arithmetic.  No one makes it to their peak without a lot of eraser marks and crossing out wrong answers.

When I was a dental assistant, it was all arithmetic – except for the “caring for the patients” part.
There needs to be dental assistants in the world.

When I was a junior high coach, it was all arithmetic – except for the “caring for the students” part.
There needs to be junior high coaches in the world.

When I was a full-time recruiter, it was all arithmetic – except for the “caring for the candidate” part.
Recruiters are not going away any time soon.

When I was a consultant, it was all arithmetic – except for the “caring and client” part.
Consultants are not going away anytime soon.

All work contains mostly arithmetic  – “the work that is tedious and must be done”.   Sometimes, we get to enjoy the mathematics  part – the design and strategy, the implementation and finale, the pomp and circumstance.   The trick is to find the job that brings you the most all-around joy, that brings you fulfillment and highlights your strengths – your talents.   And we can’t all be strategists or designers all the time.

Frankly, I am thankful there is an arithmetician on the other side of my paycheck or adding up my groceries.  I am grateful that someone measures the flavors of my salted caramel mocha exactly accurately.  I am appreciative of the countless hours that go into mixing paint or cement or cookie dough.  I admire those who measure fabric or cut leather to produce shoes or clothing.  That is art.  That is ability.  That is talent – not the person who sits back and defines or admires art.

So I am proud that my work includes arithmetic and lots of it. Be proud of the your arithmetic, the repetition that you perfect.  It is the part that hones your talent, that paves the way for design,  parts the sea for the magic we each make happen – whether it’s a smile or a donut.

Never underestimate the power of arithmetic.   The most talented rely on it.

part 1

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

Is relevance just a matter of perspective?  Of course, it is.

I attended a marketing summit recently.  It was not a recruiting conference or a recruiting unconference.  It was a meeting of local marketing minds from mobile, public relations, social media, and…, wait for it…, the soon-to-be extinct direct marketing.  I have attended multiple tech conferences and enjoyed them, and many, many, many HR and Recruiting conferences.  But this was my first marketing conference – if you don’t count a Seth Godin concert or a Scott Stratten sing-a-long (with greatest respect, as I admire both immeasurably).

It was a great opportunity to meet folks, within my own community, fearlessly working and trying to navigate the new rules of marketing, just as I am.  Typically, I am hopping on a plane or driving for at least four hours for such an opportunity.  Who knew I could be inspired and learn from just down the street?  True, there were only three or four of us tweeting, but the information and deets shared were relevant because of our location and our chosen fields.

We are all battling the same demons:  How many email campaigns before we get deemed spam by our receivers?  Is print marketing dead?  Is social all it’s cracked up to be?  Can you really measure it?  Do we really want to help each other?  How much more can we possibly learn? Are there really that many platforms and do I need to be present on all of them? Whew…, makes even the most level head spin.

No one is teaching this – no formal educator anyway.  We are learning it on our own, organically, as we go.  When last I checked, my alma mater was still not offering social or mobile marketing classes.  Why is that?  Has it been determined, somewhere, by the academic gods that  social media is a flash-in-the-pan?  That mobile is just a fad?  I, for one, am very happy to declare that they aren’t going away.  They aren’t going to ride off into the sunset, like Polaroid cameras and Playtex bras.  They aren’t going to sing one last song for the road, at least not until the next greatest elevation of innovation.  This is it, the latest and greatest.  Learn it, embrace it.  Use it to do your job better.  Listen to what others are saying and doing.  And share what you are doing.

When all is said and done, perspective is everything. How you use what you use.  What you need to “make it work” depends on you – your approach, your management and maintenance, what is relevant to you, your family, your friends, your business.  G+ may be just what you were looking for as an individual, but how will it work for your business?  LinkedIn may be perfect for your HR department, but how about marketing?  Twitter may be the be-all-end-all for viral marketing, but  does it really make a recruiter’s job easier?

Facebook sits on the throne, but how long will be the reign? With lightning speed, functionalities change or increase.  Sometimes, the crown becomes crooked or tarnished – but is always righted and shiny once passed along.  The elevation of innovation.

Here lie the graves of:  reel-to-reel, facsimile, cassettes, Napster, dictaphone, pagers, and of what once was Friendster -  What will be next?

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.

<—- Is this a better option??

That’s it, I’ve had it.  It took me more than a week to change my settings on all my LinkedIn Groups so I no longer received fifty-two different emails every day containing Group Updates.  What a relief that was, however, email notifications continue to stream in from other sources.  My inner brat reared its ugly tech head and like the raven, cried “Never more.”

I reviewed the constantly streaming in emails that every single morning, I methodically delete.  I finally said to myself, enough is enough.  I am tired of it.  So, do you know what I did? I, one by one, went through each marketing email in the inboxes of my personal and professional accounts and systematically unsubscribed.   It was not easy and it took longer than I expected.  I will repeat the process tomorrow and the rest of this week as others continue to stream in.

In my personal email account this morning, there were sixteen different marketing emails by the time I sat down to my computer.  They were from the likes of Bath & Body Works, Sage Act Software, Groupon, Barnes & Noble, Enterprise, LivingSocial, hunch, ModCloth, Ace Hardware Store, Goldstar Events, Xbox and so forth.  Some were a simple process of click here to unsubscribe and it was done, others required you to carefully review your options and make sure you had ticked the right box, and others begged you to stay and change your mind.  I think the idea was to make it difficult, so you didn’t actually go through with it, you didn’t actually cut the ties of your favorite retailers.

Only one – ONE – asked why I was unsubscribing:  Nordstrom.  I love Nordstrom, I cannot always afford to shop there but they have great sales and better yet, they have excellent customer service.  And their unsubscribe process proved my case in point.   A drop-down menu appeared, not begging me to stay or to please reconsider, but rather with options of why I wished to stop receiving emails.

Options consisted of *Too many emails from Nordstrom or *I don’t shop at Nordstrom.  But the one I selected was *I receive too many retail emails.  And it is true; I spend my first waking half-hour deleting emails on my mobile device before I even leave my bed.  And today’s barrage proved to be e-fatal to the retailers who have access to my multiple email addresses.

Interestingly enough, as a marketer, I am extremely adverse to email marketing.  I know that most emails are OptIn, but what I struggle with, like most, is spam and I have no desire for my carefully-crafted message to be lumped in with spam or to end up on the cutting room floor with the others before me.  I want my information not only received but read, in full.  So, as a business-to-business marketer, I appeal to you – what is the right option?  Are you as sick of email spam or blather as much as I?  Are you eBombed twenty times daily, as well?  Are you leery of distributing your email address to vendors or businesses?  Have we reached critical mass?  I think yes, I think we have.  With so many different ways to advertise your product or service, is email still a viable marketing tool?

I think we have a way to go before email blather is completely eliminated, I am also a firm believer that email is not dead – I do most of my customer  response and industry communications through Twitter;  I am ready to do my part, to proceed with awareness that eBombing is a pain in most people’s sides.  Including my own.
                                                                                                      ~Eradicating the eBomb, one email at a time.~

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.

I do my fair share of talking about the importance and effective uses of blogging as a form of external promotion and what analytics giant, Hubspot calls “inbound marketing.”  Companies, individuals, and agencies can benefit from positioning themselves as an expert in their niche or industry field.  This form of inbound marketing is certainly less expensive than it’s more traditional counter part.  It also often times take time to to develop a following or readership of your blog, but it only takes one person to read your article or blog post to lead to a sale.

Effective inbound marketing is not just limited to large corporations.  In fact, I believe that small boutique firms and individuals often have the more competitive advantage in this arena.  This is because of the personal touch that small firms can provide to their readers.  While large firms sit in committee and navigate the red tape faster contact and follow up can be made by smaller firms when someone leave a blog comment.

Blogs are a great way to provide your client or prospective client more information about you, your values, and insight into your work as an individual, agency, or corporation.  Blogs provide a more personal opportunity to develop a relationship encouraging your readers to comment, pick up the phone, or read more.  Blogs and articles on websites are in many ways more effective and more engaging than those traditional types of promotion and marketing of which I refer to as Spray and Pray.

The Spray and Pray terminology is something that is very popular in the Multi-Level Marketing industry.  You spray your message through posting and distributing fliers, calling your contacts, reading your paper advertisements, and pray that they will call you back.  In theory, the Spray and Pray method is not a lot of ways very different from a blog except for two things– 1.) The impact on your business checking account and 2. ) Capturing passive clients.

The act of a phone call or email from someone who reads your billboard is an extremely active action.  They must pick up the phone, desire to speak with you, and make a concerted effort to learn more.  This is an awful lot to ask when most newspaper ads and billboards are written with less then 140 characters.  Most consumers are looking for information, engagement, and a conversation vs. a sales pitch.  Blogs provide you (the service provide) that opportunity.

After hearing Hubspot’s Rick Burnes speak two weeks ago at Oklahoma City’s American Marketing Association meeting, I was inspired to drive more traffic to my blog, develop relationships, and capture potential lead information more than ever.  I’ll be playing with new tools and articles that drive readers to a call to action.  Because having a good blog is good but having a good blog that drives amazing business to you is even better.

You might be interested in some more tools regarding blogging:

• 5 P’s of Blogging
• Blogging It’s More Than a Brand
• When Your Blog is My Content
• Bloggers We’re Media but Better
• Bloggers Beware–Liabilities, Licensing, & Legalese

Photo Credit A Photo Editor.

What Happens when Human Resources and Public Relations Job Descriptions Blend?

As an HR practitioner and someone who has worked in the field for more than 10 years, I have a solid foundation and understanding of how human resource works within a corporation and also as a consultant.  In one of my most popular posts, HR is the New PR, I discussed what is PR and how cross-functional teams across human resources, Marketing, and PR should be an important

Over the last two years, there has been much debate on the death of HR.  While the fundamentals of human resources that we come to think of like hiring and firing remain the same, HR is evolving not because it wants to but became it has to…

Human resources  is a valuable member of Public Relations team with a legal twist.

Can PR, Communications, Human Resources, and Marketing be One Career

Over the last  year working as a full-time consultant who is also responsible for marketing and promoting her own business while also consulting clients on marketing, blogging, and public relations principles, I realize there is a very thin line that separates departments like human resources and public relations.

All four departments: Human Resources , Public Relations, Communications,  and Marketing work hard (often separately) to craft campaigns, devise strategies, and develop plans to educate, engage, and influence an audience of consumers. While the consumer or end-user may vary, all four work to craft, influence, and execute positive messages internally and externally about a company or corporation.

What is Human Resources Exactly?

Internally, human resources crafts memos, emails, and designs newsletter while preparing for the newest policy change and developing the best overall communication strategy to educate their end user on things like changes to a benefit plan, changes to the self-review and 360 feedback process, and the online corporate diversity program.  Externally, we write advertisements and job descriptions for job boards, write corporate blogs and work with our university, diversity, and other affirmative action partners to fill open positions.

All while HR is conducting investigations and mitigating and developing damage control strategies for the email miscommunication on holiday pay while working with corporate teams to forecast department openings and identifying our future internal talent.

Ever heard of a thing called Employer Branding? What about Marketing HR?  These are but two of thousands of blogs and articles devoted to the shift, a change in thought…

HR and PR: Not so Different Any More

Chances are your marketing teams and PR departments manage and monitor your social media, monitoring key words, phrases, and managing comments and conversations.  Human Resource teams often do the same internally monitoring the workplace grapevine, internal email and instant message platforms while also promoting job openings, sourcing, and marketing to prospective employees and future or current consumers.

Your human resource and recruiting teams are the champion of your employer brand. Yes, I said “brand.”

The overlap is everywhere and most HR professionals continue to go about their daily responsibilities acutely unaware.   HR is more than just hiring and firing, it’s about maintaining a positive public and corporate image, predicting and planning for the consequences, and implementing planned action programs which serve both the organization and the public.

Public Relations Careers and Media Communications

While I don’t believe HR is meant to replace PR, I believe that fundamentally we are the same and by working together instead of apart we can help to truly transformation an organization and communicate a clear and consistent message to all consumers throughout all departments.  And don’t be surprised if you see the crossover already beginning.  More and more savvy HR professionals are re-considering their corporate career paths into the marketing, public relations, and branding arenas.

So you want to work in Marketing, PR, or Communications?  Try HR.  And maybe just maybe there’s a seat at the table for HR after all.

It’s called the Vice President of Communications!

Follow up (10/20/10)–The response to this post has been overwhelming.  The post has been highlighted in the HR Communicator, Ragan Communications, and PR Daily

Photo Credit Orgullobrand.

Last week I presented to a group of Restaurant Human Resources Professionals as part of the People Report Summer Camp Symposium in Dallas, Texas.  The event was hands down the best conference I have ever presented at or attended.  I led a session titled,  ”Blogging for Dummies.”

Blogging is an interesting topic for Human Resources and Corporate Recruiting Teams.  An amazing corporate blog can help effectively communicate change to your current employee base while also providing potential candidates a look inside your company and corporate culture.  Recruitment and HR blogs should be managed by their respective departments and not marketing.  Marketing should work hand in hand with their talent team and serve as a consultant or advisor.

For the individual, blogging in my opinion is an absolute must to help define and control your personal brand.  Blogs are a great way for companies and clients to learn more about you outside of your professional resume or social profiles like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.  Blogs can be the difference maker for job seekers and are the Resume 2.0.

My talk’s foundation started with what I call the 5 P’s of Blogging.  Although similar, the 5 P’s of Blogging are different from the 5 P’s of Marketing you might remember from your undergrad marketing class.

• Purpose. Your blog as a corporation, collaboration, or person must have a purpose.  Similar to a corporate mission statement, your blog’s goal must be defined and like any marketing or branding tool must be developed to attract and inform a particular segment of your audience or market that you have defined.  Too often, we start a blog without the proper research or understanding of what we want to write about or who we want to engage.  Developing and defining your purpose is by far the most important step.

• Platform. The decision to create a blog starts with the decision to use a blogging platform or service.  I encourage you to play with some of the platforms before you make this decision.  I say this from my own experience.  My first blog, BloggingforJobs was on a free platform called Blogger before I moved it to its own domain and transferred my blog to another platform called WordPress.  A third and very common blog platform is TypePad which my good friend Kay Stout uses.

• Planning. Hands down your first 10 blog posts are the hardest so it is important for you to plan, research, and prepare for these first few articles.  This is an important part of defining your blog’s writing style, your own style, and setting up the structure surrounding how often, who, and when your blog will release its posts.  If you have a collaborative, corporate blog, I encourage you to work with at least 4 bloggers who will commit to writing at least one blog post every two weeks.  Personally, I commit to no less than 8 blog posts a month myself for Blogging4Jobs and have for the past four years.

• People. Second to Purpose, this is the most important step.  People are the social aspect of blogging.  Ask your entire company to help you promote leveraging their own networks.  Setting up a simple RSS feed or newletter can help leverage your contacts both inside and outside the company as well.  Both these tools allow persons to subscribe to your blog updates while keeping your brand and company at the top of their mind.  Blogging should be a two way conversation and I encourage you to keep the comments open both good and bad.  Candidates realize that companies aren’t perfect and its the conversation and culture that sets companies apart.

• Promotion. Promoting my blog on social networks is a huge part of my blog’s success.  I recommend using social bookmarketing sites to promote your blog like Digg, Stumbleupon, Technorati, and LinkedIn Groups in addition to popular social platforms like Twitter and Facebook.  Your marketing department is key in helping your blog gain momentum and popularity as they are experienced in online press releases with services like Pitch Engine.

Want to bring an corporate, personal, or professional blog to myself and the reader’s attention?  Leave a comment below and recognize them for a job well done.

Photo Credit Farm3.