Answers to pre-interview questions
Answers to pre-interview questions
Answers to pre-interview questions
I was contacted by a recruiter last week for a position with an agency who markets themselves as a hybrid agency. They are currently seeking an account manager to join their team who has a mix of traditional and interactive agency experience. The recruiter and I discussed the position over the phone and decided I would be a good candidate for the position.
Part of the interview process includes answering some questions about my social media experience, what I have been doing since my layoff in 2009, and what my hobbies are outside of the office. While I know I have addressed most of this in my past blog articles I thought that the focus of social media is an interesting twist on my experience.
Answering the question of my participation, involvement and execution of social media programs requires me to discuss how I use the various tools personally and how I have used it in the past in a professional work environment.
Using social media tools I have been working diligently to build my personal brand. Utilizing my LinkedIn network, posting blog articles to ArticlesBase, Google and Twitter, reading and commenting on other blogs I have been developing a community of fellow job seekers and recruiters looking to fill positions for clients.
One of the tactics in marketing my personal brand has been to spread the news that I am in the job market, send out my LinkedIn profile to every person I know and use as many websites as possible to post my information. The results from LinkedIn as of 9:00 am on 12/2/10 had my profile views listed as 8 people in 3 days with an appearance in search results 12 times in 7 days.
Another tactic I have used for my personal brand is blogging. The purpose of my blog is to discuss my skills and qualifications while at the same time offering helpful information to other job seekers. I post my blog articles to Google Blogger as well as ArticlesBase which helps increase my search rankings, allows me to communicate with readers, and gives prospective employers an opportunity to read on their own time how I can benefit them as a team member. I use Google Analytics to track my blog stats and have a measurable success rate of 109 unique visitors from 10/1/10 thru 12/2/10.
Twitter has allowed me to not only post updates and interesting articles I have read, but also to connect and communicate with the community of Denver bronco fans. Hootsuite is the platform I use to monitor various topics including healthcare, broncos, and mentions. I am currently following 224 people and companies and have 243 followers. My goal for Twitter is not to have millions of followers but to be part of a community.
The results of my personal branding campaign using social media are measurable not only in the stats from each site I use but also when doing a Google search for my name as well as the term marketing manager Denver, no quotes. I was contacted by a MBA student here in Denver who found me on Google and needed to interview a marketing manager. He told me he found me listed #1 on Google.
In the professional work environment the use of social media can be a challenge when the client base and agency team is unfamiliar with the use and power these tools can provide. One challenge was educating the agency team on how social media can drive new business and promote the agency knowledge and background in such a niche market. Another challenge is marketing niche medical device products which are regulated by the FDA. Many times the client fears repercussions from using the tools incorrectly and the agency needs to speak intelligently about how and when to use social media.
After demonstrating to the team the need for social media in our new business efforts and how other agencies were using it I began setting up accounts on Google, LinkedIn and Twitter. Prior to this the agency was not measuring website traffic so I also had our team add Google Analytics to the website so I could track and measure our progress. It wasn't long before we were ranking in the top 5 on Google and in July 2009 our website traffic was up 36% from the month before.
We had started doing new business projects and I was providing prospective client lists and information to the owner of the agency. Most of my time at this point was spent researching companies who fit in our area of expertise, getting information on what products were being developed by them, finding contact information and making initial contact via LinkedIn.
One of the challenges was to show the agency team and clients that using social media and web 2.0 technologies for marketing medical devices was possible. I began researching the current regulations set by the FDA and what they meant for social media. At the time the FDA didn't have any clear rules set so existing advertising guidelines needed to be construed for social media. I began writing a blog increase our visibility and demonstrate our expertise when it came to web 2.0 technologies and the FDA and what role social media would play in medical device marketing.
It could be said that using social media and web 2.0 technologies to market medical device products was a big idea. Unfortunately the agency went out of business before we could implement programs for clients. Which brings me to what I have been doing since the layoff. There is always a friend or family member who needs help writing a brochure or designing a flier they can print a Kinkos.
Looking for a new position in marketing has been my full time job. As I mentioned above I have been very active in building my personal brand and working on my Google rankings. I find that I spend at least 6 hours a day researching companies, participating in webinars, reaching out to my network, and writing.
Beyond that I have been helping a friend in Las Vegas market his business. Unfortunately he has no budget and is under contract with DexKnows. I have been helping him with changing his website to include content management, increase his search engine rankings, and encourage him to participate in social media and networking.
I also was asked to help with a fund raising campaign for local after school programs in the city I grew up in. A few alumni got together and decided to hold an alumni softball tournament where the three local junior high schools would compete for bragging rights. We had three weeks to pull it all together and it was a great success. I created a Facebook fan page, wrote a news release and used word of mouth tactics . Our initial goal was to raise $600 and once I began the marketing we quickly realized we could raise more. Our total donation to the program was $1100.
Working in advertising agencies for over 9 years has allowed me to be part of teams large and small. Marketing Partners was my company and I provided marketing services to clients. I worked with Hugh Roper who was a freelance graphic designer on a campaign to launch a new condo conversion property in Las Vegas, NV. I started out by evaluating who our prospective buyers were using Acxiom data and from there we designed all the ads and collateral based on those profiles.
Where the "big idea" comes into play is how I planned and bought the media for the client. Using the data from Acxiom I was able to segment consumers into buying groups and use this information to purchase the most effective media schedule. I would then use a company called Who's Calling to place unique phone numbers into all ads (print, radio, Internet and TV) to track who was responding to which ad and from what media outlet. Also, I used unique URLs and Google Analytics to track web traffic.
So, each month I would pull a call report, Google report and sales team report and track the cost per lead down to each newspaper ad, radio station, email, and even the signage. That way I was able to adjust my media buys and messaging as needed. At the end of the campaign I was able to calculate a total cost per lead for the entire marketing plan.
The goal for traffic was determined at the very beginning of the planning process. It was figured that 4% of all traffic should result in sales. We had at one time 267 units to sell and were able to calculate how many units of traffic needed to be driven to the sales team to sell out. The final results of the campaign generated over 1,200 prospective buyers in a six month period at a cost per lead of $162.
Now, jumping to the personal side of life, being new to Colorado I am looking forward to learning how to ski this winter. My husband claims he knows how and we plan on going on our first adventure this month. Our past summer vacations have been spent camping, hiking and biking in Yosemite National Park. This past summer we camped in Tuolumne Meadows for the first time and fell in love. While we did miss seeing the bears that are so often roaming around the lower valley, the hiking and fishing was amazing. Next summer we may go to Yellowstone but with so many amazing camping opportunities close by, we have yet to decide.
Watching the Denver Bronco games is a big part of what I do during the football season. One of the reasons my husband and I started dating was because we were both fans. When he was offered and excepted a job with Denver Water we couldn't believe we would live in the state where our team was. The excitement of watching our team with other fans has been amazing!
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