IOUs, Buses and Mergers

It is the end of a busy week, one in which I presented on Social Media Crisis Management to the Chartered Institute of Marketing and finally started preparations in earnest for the Chester pre-screening of SKYFALL, the new James Bond movie on the 25th.

My week was less frustrating than Anthony’s. Anthony is the latest member of the Marketing PRojects team, and travels to work most days by bus. Monday, ‘the bus never came’, Tuesday he nearly missed it. Monday it had actually come but because it didn’t look like the bus he was expecting, he had ignored it. The bright new rebranded buses were not what he was looking out for, therefore what must have been an exprensive rebranding, annoyed him. Was enough done by the bus company here? How many times do we miss the obvious because we are looking for what we expect?

On the same theme he mentioned another irritation not just for him but for other users too. Quite often the driver hasn’t enough change. Several passengers get off without this, particularly on the early buses, some very cross. Can the driver not issue an IOU, redeemable on the next journey? It might even encourage more use? Seems very primative given Oyster Cards in London and the time it takes a driver to transact.

Finally, some thoughts on the Merger of the Century. For me, it has been my work and life, the balance has completely blurred. When All the World can be your office, working 9 to 5 is as relevant as a fax machine. What do you think?

Lessons from the Olympics

Now that the dust has settled round the parks, tracks, arenas, fields and coasts used by the Olympics, across what is now GREAT Britain, a few comments and questions.

On games sponsorship, was it worth it? For BMW, BT, CocaCola and MacDonalds yes, but it isn’t good enough just to argue intangible benefits for the rest. The real winner was the BBC, superb coverage, involvement across all media and the opportunity to learn so much more with all the online links!

Did the London centric games touch the hearts and minds of the rest of GB? I would say yes, but it could have done better. The North West had some football but lost the velodrome activity share it should have had and the BMX too. Regional rail links were not as active as they should have been in promoting easy access (in the North West due to the franchise rebid). But the BBC did its bit and kept us away from spending.

Team GB’s success across such a wide range of sports is also testament to the great strides the UK has made on diversity and inclusion, not perfect, but considerable when measured alongside other countries.

The Games’ legacy will be measured on how its success translates into community cohesion, how happy we are about ourselves and how we start to regain control of the nation’s waistline. There are some scary statistics about how 60% of us are going to be obese by 2050 if we don’t and the fastest growing age group is kids.

Can our state schools learn to teach more than the usual football, rugby, cricket, swimming, netball and hockey to our kids? They’ll need the time and a bit more effort to find talent beyond pushy parents and reducing playing fields.

And Pele is in danger of doing a ‘Ringo’. To be part of the closing (and his nation’s pre-opening) ceremony and then to say, probably honestly, Brazil’s infrastructure will struggle, Pele is not the sort of spokesperson they need right now. He needs to get more completely ‘on message’ before his next press appearance.

Team GB; we can all be proud. Unforgettable! And my money is on ‘Fly-Mo’ or the volunteers for Sports Personality of the Year.

OPEN CAREFULLY: Social Media and Recruitment

Marketing PRojects’ last eNews contained 25 Unusual Interview Questions and since then I seem to have become a bit of a sounding board for the use of social media in recruitment. I’m on YouTube at the 2012 Inside The Creative Industries Event at the North West Media Centre and as a result, have now been asked to help in a survey to help students (I hope!). My answers are below.

Have you ever used the Internet to investigate potential employees?

 Yes. We use this all the time, 100%, along with profiling software after interview.

Which of the following sites do you look at?

Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google, Bing.

What prompted you to do so?

Thoroughness. Investment in people is critical, we like to minimise risk.

What in particular are you looking for on these sites?

What kind of person they really are. What the gaps in the CV disclose.

What do you see the benefits are of investigating potential employees online?

The time invested saves time and money in the long term.

What do you believe the negatives and positives to be for a potential employee with a strong online presence?

There are no negatives and positives really, it’s just another tool we can use. A strong online presence is like giving us the keys to their front door, inviting us to the pub with them and meeting their mates for a night in town with them. That’s fine for many but too hot to handle for a few. They need to remember that. It puts us, not them, in control of their image. And for some, worryingly their image 100% of their time.

Can you provide any specific examples of your experiences using social media within the recruitment process of potential employees?

We receive an average of 6 applications for positions a week. Any that look good are given to a junior member of staff to ‘social media’. We need to see an online presence, if not they are not considered. If this presence is unsuitable, they are not considered. It allows us to filter candidates. We have rejected individuals, one promising one in particular because they put on their facebook ‘Still xxxxxx after last night, feel like xxxx, phoned in sick.’ And others because they party too much or are linked to inappropriate content. We’re not looking for angels, but we want them to function at 100% at work and not embarrass or compromise our organisation.

I do hope that helps anyone for applying for a job in ANY sector.

Safety Tips for the Party Season

Safety tips for the Party Season originating from American police officers, worth repeating on the basis that, hopefully you’ll never need them, but you’ll be glad to know them if you ever do.

o Avoid stairwells – they are favoured places for attacks – take the lift.

o Keep an old wallet, or purse in one place with a small amount of money in it and the rest of your money, cards etc somewhere else. If mugged, an increasingly common street crime, throw the wallet or purse one way and run very fast the other.

o The elbow is the strongest part of the body, so use it if attacked.

o Before getting into your car get into the habit of checking that no-one else is already there. Do not open your car if you are not happy about the look of the driver parked next to you. The passenger sides of large vans can also conceal attackers, crouching down underneath windows. If unhappy get someone to walk to your car with you – better paranoid than dead.

o As soon as you get into your car lock the doors and drive off. Do not make yourself a target by sitting checking receipts, making phone calls etc.

o Should you be unlucky enough to get someone in your car with a gun to your head telling you to drive off slowly, drive off very fast, swerving, and smash the car into something solid. Then quickly get out and run away, preferably in a zigzag pattern.

o Attackers of women, like serial killer Ted Bundy, often limp or carry a cane to get sympathy and then ask for help getting into their car, when they then attack. Be on your guard.

And from our own British Transport Police, advice when travelling by train at night:

o Travel in a busy carriage, and don’t be afraid to move if it empties.

o Travel in a carriage close to the driver or guard.

o On stations look for the CCTV cameras and stay within sight.

o Avoid short cuts and unlit alleys.

Useful tips on saving petrol costs

Useful tips on saving petrol costs; – assuming you are already searching for the cheapest petrol in your area online at www.petrolprices.com  and driving ‘fuel aware’ with less ‘hard-braking’ to save fuel:

*Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the petrol, when it gets warmer petrol expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your litre is not exactly a litre. In the petroleum business, the specific  gravity and the temperature of the petrol,  diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum  products plays an important  role.*

*A  1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for  this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.*

*When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)
stages: low, middle, and high. You should be pumping on low mode, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapour return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapour. Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting  less worth for
your  money.*

*One of the most important tips is to fill up when your Petrol tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is the more Petrol you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space.  Petrol evaporates faster than you can imagine.  Petrol storage tanks have an
internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the Petrol and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, every truck that is loaded is temperature compensated so that every litre is actually the exact amount.*

*if there is a petrol truck pumping  into the storage tanks when you stop to buy  Petrol, DO NOT fill up; most likely  the petrol is being stirred up as the Petrol is  being delivered, and you might pick up some of  the dirt that normally settles on the  bottom.*

What to say?

I’m Summer-cleaning my emails at the moment. Unfortunately I’ve let Outlook store lots of important information too long. Our new IT manager is likening this to storing important documents at a motorway service station. So 26,000 need pruning down to a manageable number before we burden The Cloud.

As I’m doing this there are business contacts I’m being reminded of that I haven’t spoken to in a while. Always on a guilt trip that I should spend more time ‘networking’ and ‘keeping touch’,  I’m starting emails to them with “How are you? What’s new? How is everything?”

However, one particular contact is ‘Mr Networking North West’. An early adopter of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and all things social networking, he spends time an effort letting everyone know of almost everything he is doing and thinking. The trouble is most of my LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube contacts are doing the same. And I need to filter and select what I can practically follow and still manage to get things done. Which brings me back to my dilemma.

How do you ask someone so social media switched on, how they are? You are supposed to know aren’t you?

Crowdsourcing: The Pitfalls

Crowdsourcing or “outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community” as the master of crowdsourcing Wikipedia defines it, is starting to become mainstream.  Perfect for opinions, surveys, ideas generation or product development it does, as with most things, have its pitfalls. It is also starting to threaten the traditional market and marketing research professions and rearrange the ways organisations are ‘doing things’ as social media blends into the traditional spaces of marketing, media and communications roles.

A great way to build brands and brand loyalty quickly, tap into talent, gain opinions & try out new ideas, all at little or no cost, crowd sourcing needs a health warning too. Mission-critical activities to crowd source? I’m no so sure…and the ethics of free work for nothing that takes away paid work from skilled people – not my ethics – I already hate free pitching for competitive tenders!

• No written contracts, non-disclosure agreements, or employee agreements or agreeable terms with crowdsourced ‘employees’. Barter agreements are usual for wages, if any wages are discussed. Who is to say the rates are raised once you depend on the work?
• Possible bias of results caused by targeted, malicious work efforts, or just plain bias because the crowd has time on its hands.
• Difficulties maintaining a working relationship with crowdsourced workers throughout the duration of a project.
• Increased likelihood that a crowdsourced project will fail due to lack of monetary motivation, too few participants, lower quality of work, lack of personal interest in the project, language barriers, or difficulty managing a large-scale, crowdsourced project.
• Added costs to bring a project to an acceptable conclusion.

The freelance space is a good interim between a crowd and employee. Perhaps dip your toe in the water with this first!

I think I’ll consult LinkedIn – surely another great crowd source of advice! At least I know who I’m dealing with! Or do I?