Social Media Headhunter

Pittsburgh Social Media Manager Search B2B

Those of you who've been around know that my job descriptions aren't exactly, standard.  Here's another one. 

I'm under contract to find a social media manager for a software modeling software company in Pittsburgh. It's a great position if you're into the business side of social, and you even get to work with a team of content creators.  The challenge is in Pittsburgh I'm mostly finding retail and ad agency experience. This is a different beast.  

As I expand the search across the country, if you think this might be something you'd look at, drop me a line on Twitter or the other hundred ways to contact me through social media (not interested in blind resume submissions), and let's talk. 

Basic Duties:  LinkedIn Groups, YouTube channel, Blog, other channels as we justify them.  

Experience: 5-10 years business experience, social media for a solid two years, and multiple enterprise clients if a consultant.  Background in software sales, engineering, or technical writing industry would be great, but I can be flexible.   

No egos on this one.  I don't want to hear about how hard it is to create change in a company when they don't buy in. It's our job to convince managers, sales people, and executives to buy in.  They're hiring for the job, right?   Also, while strategy is a key component, I've a need for a real player/coach here. It's a large company with a lot of opportunity to make changes, but you have to earn that right with your work.    

The position reports to the Director of Marketing and Communications, who runs the website, content, event, marketing ,and corp communications.  The department has 45 staff, with about a third of those reporting to your manager.  This is not a management position, despite the title.  You'd also be working with and have access to lots of SME's, a necessity as their audience is primarily technical. 


The successful candidate will have to lay out the strategy, execute it, and bring others along who can benefit.  Metrics are easy at first.  Right now, they aren't focused on Sales or Conversions, but rather figuring out where social fits, and justifying its use. Clarity of message in the right social channels is a big deal.  

One last thing.  You have to live in Pittsburgh.  Flying in and out is not going to work this time.  But we can talk about getting you there.  

How To Hire A Social Media Strategist

The phone has been pretty busy lately, with companies calling to get advice on how to hire senior social positions to guide them into this new world. 

That's not surprising, as most social outlets are reporting an uptick in hiring, and executives realize a permanent onsite presence is important.   What has been surprising is how clear-headed these callers are.  They have fair salaries (some quite good actually). They've thought out what the position should do and have short and long-term goals in place.  The organizational structure is clear, as is the interview process. 

I say surprising because this wasn't the case just last year.  What it speaks to is a maturing of the social hiring process, and the mainstreaming of social into different divisions of the corporate world.  So why are they calling? 

The resumes are terrible.  And when they do get a good resume, the interviews are so poorly presented, the company just can't pull the trigger, even when they want to.  What's going on? 

Part of the problem is no one knows how to interview for a social position.  Even if you've done the work, interviewing and explaining it is harder than it seems.  Interviewing is a skill, both from the manager and the candidate side.  As normal people, we overestimate our ability to interview, conflating doing the work with explaining the work.  

So what do you do?

If You're A Candidate: 

Practice.  Actually Practice.  I've been selling for 14 years, and I still practice.  I practice phone calls, phone messages, and especially live pitches.  Recently I sat down with a company for a project.  It was a $30,000, three-month engagement for digital profile work.  I spent two weeks thinking about it, and 2 hours creating the presentation, and 6 hours rehearsing it with a timer, for a 20 minute presentation.  To me, that's standard.  It's standard because I know a $30,000 engagement will be worth $300,000 over the next five years.  Would you practice six hours for $300,000?

Imagine that tomorrow you are fired.  If you take a job, how long before you'll make $300,000?  And yet, how many of you have practiced for an interview?

You're winging it, and then wondering why it didn't go well.  So your answer is to take what you know, put it into multiple presentations, and practice selling yourself.  That's how you win big jobs.

If You're A Company:

You're in the position of power because you write the checks.  But what are you hiring?  Are you hiring a drone or are you hiring a specialist?  You have to let go of the power of the interview, and give the candidate the freedom to demonstrate their expertise.  To do this, you need a clear vision of what you think you need, a clear process of what it takes to get you to hire, and then the invested time in learning what you don't know.  And you don't know social media.  If you did, you wouldn't need to hire.  So here's your plan. 

1) Clear job description

2) Fact sheet on the company. 

3) Private fact sheet for candidates getting past initial screening. 

4) Written process of interviews.

5) Solid expectations of what you want

That's it.  Note there isn't much about social in there.  There are no fancy metrics or silver bullets. It's such communication protocols and setting expectations up front.

A good social candidate can explain what they do. A prepared candidate can provide an outline to you of what they need from you to be successful.  A prepared candidate is like an employee, showing you what it's like to work with them.  Most candidates are like salespeople, hoping to get you to say yes because you like them, but not knowing what the job entails after the signatures are done. 

You say you want to hire?  Expect more out of your candidates, but give them more as well.  A collaborative interview will show you what you're getting, and tell you who wants YOUR job, versus someone who wants A job. 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Media Interview: How Edmunds.com Hired A Director Of Social Media

Michelle Magoffin is the Director of Social Media Programming for Edmunds.com.  Her unique background and high profile fit closely to the types of candidates I like to profile on socialmediaheadhunter.com. With experience deeply rooted in an organization, Michelle can offer insight into how to turn your job into a social media position.  The following is an interview on what it took her to win the job. 

Update:  This is what an awesome graphic resume looks like.  

1. You’re coming up on your first year as a social media employee at Edmunds.  What was the process to get hired?  Was there a job description you applied for, did you simply change the title, or did someone just know you and suggest the role?

At Edmunds, the early stages of planning for the coming year starts in the Summer. In the Spring of 2010, I spoke to the Executive Director of Community Operations and Social Media to let her know that I was interested in moving to her department, which consisted entirely of community personnel -- she was handling social media alone. At the time, I was a Director of Product Management in the Media department. I'd worked with her on many projects in the past and she was happy to hear I wanted to join her team. I also spoke with the VP of Product (whom we both reported into) to let him know that, as planning commenced, I would like to be kept in mind for any social media roles that might develop.

Later in the Summer, I spoke again with the Executive Director of Community Operations and Social Media, this time in more detail about what she was planning for the make-up of her team, and what I was interested in doing with social media. Everyone was deep into a site redesign, so it was clear that we were still making plans for the coming year. No teams were changing around in the middle of that company-wide project.

In the early Fall, there was an unexpected development when the Executive Director of Community Operations and Social Media left the company. Because I had made my interest in social media known to the right people, there was no question that a social media position would be mine. The VP of Product had me slated for Director of Product Management, Social Media. What I didn't know was that half of the social media function was staying in the Product group and half was moving to the inbound marketing team, which had previously only covered SEO.

I wanted to be on the marketing side of things, but they already had another person slated for that role. I spoke to the new Executive Director of SEO and Social Media to let him know that I wanted to be on his team instead of the Product team. I spoke again to my VP and outlined why I wanted the marketing role instead of the product role, what my background and experience could bring to it, and how much I wanted it. In the end, I was made the Director of Social Media Programming on the Marketing team but, if I hadn't started lobbying for a social media position six months in advance, I might have never had the opportunity.

2.  Did Edmunds have a clear idea what they were looking for, or did that role evolve over the course of the hiring process?

It was a little of both. Social Media is one of the company's major initiatives for 2011. The company had a clear idea of how they were dividing the social media functions across the Product and Marketing teams, but the exact nature of the positions evolved as they were filled, based on the backgrounds of the people moving into the roles. Four social media positions were created at the end of 2010 and all of them were filled with internal transfers.

I report to the Executive Director of SEO and Social Media. He has an SEO background. I have a product background. On the Product side of the house, there is a Director of Product Management, Social Media who was previously a project manager. Reporting to him is a Sr. Product Manager, Social Media who was already in the Product group.

My role was originally meant to be more of a Social Media Manager but, because I was already a Director, my role became more focused on strategy, less hands-on, than was originally intended. We are a small team, though, so every role is hands-on to some degree.

3.  I tell candidates they are hired for their background, not their social media chops. Your profile says this is true, but is that the case?  Did they give you the role because of your background in product management, your time at Edmunds, or was there significant social media campaign experience?

I had zero social media campaign experience when I started as the Director of Social Media Programming. What I did have was a six-year history with Edmunds and an even longer history of using social media. I had a Friendster account when MySpace was just a twinkle in Tom's eye. I'd been blogging since 2002. I was already on every major social media platform and was closely following emerging technologies. As a product manager, I had been on the team that built the first blogs on Edmunds.com. I introduced article commenting, rating, and sharing to the site. I'd worked closely with the SEO team on two major site redesigns.

My personal experience with social media, combined with my product experience at Edmunds.com, put me in the unique position of having intimate knowledge of all of our products, from the back-end to the front-end, as well as the knowledge of how to engage and market with socia media.

4. In what division do you reside?  Marketing/IT/Corporate Communications/Other?

My team is in the Editorial group, but I expect that will change for next year. The way that the social media functions were divided up, and how we work with the Paid Marketing and PR teams, are converging. I feel like we would function more cohesively if our teams were unified under a single executive.

5.  Did they have a salary in mind when they approached you, or did you negotiate it as the position became clear?

Neither one, actually. Because I transferred internally, in the middle of the review cycle, I retained the same salary I made as Director of Product Management. I was satisfied with that arrangement.

6.  Did you find a need to revisit any corporate policies when you got the position regarding social media guidelines, and what was your role in the widely-shared Edmunds Social Media policy?

I revisited every social media policy and strategy we had, but it was all operational. Edmunds did not have a set of corporate social media guidelines in place. I researched so many corporate social media policies one week that I began to think in legalese. Most of them read like government contracts. They were all about what employees can't do and what will happen to them if they do it. I worked with HR to come up with a direction for Edmunds. We didn't want to create a strict set of rules that was going to end up discouraging employees from ever posting a single thing about Edmunds.

The company explored several options for creating our guidelines but, in the end, the Sr. Product Manager of Social Media really wanted to tackle this project herself. I consulted with her on early drafts and I could not be more pleased with the final product. It is encouraging and useful and looks great. It is the only graphic set of guidelines I have seen.

7. If you were hiring, would you want to do it through traditional channels or through your social media contacts (Twitter/LinkedIn)? - (readers, this is not an excuse to send her a resume)

That's a great question. Right now, we are in the early stages of planning for next year and are discussing how we would like to grow our team. I am already thinking about which skillsets we need to add to the mix. I would almost exclusively rely on my social media contacts to fill open positions. Any open position would be listed on our web site and the recruiters would review all resumes that came in through that route. We would, of course, consider anyone who was highly qualified for the position, but you can't deny the power of a personal referral. And, to be honest, how much could someone really want to work in social media at Edmunds.com if they are not already engaged with Edmunds.com through social media?

8) Did you have metrics of your success in place prior to your hiring, or did you write them after you got there?

We weren't starting from scratch exactly, but we were cleaning the slate. With my boss, I developed our success metrics and KPIs after I moved into the role. They are still evolving. We're lucky in that we don't have executives breathing down our necks about measuring ROI in a traditional sense. The senior execs at Edmunds are committed to social media and understand it in a way that is uncommon. They have given us the freedom to develop our own performance metrics, and to explain why they are important to the company and how we plan to grow them.

9)  Does experience in SEO/PR/Marketing make for a better social media candidate?

No, I think a true social media lover makes for the best social media candidate. That person might have zero corporate marketing experience. I live for the internet. I have been in this business since 1999 and there is nothing else I would rather do. I was on the cutting edge of emerging internet technologies, not because my job demanded it, but because I wanted to be. Since I have been in this role, I have seen how my entire history in the internet industry in general, and in product management in particular, has contributed to my success as a social media strategist and marketer. If I had come up through a more traditional marketing path, I might have a better understanding of certain marketing aspects, but I would be lacking the breadth of knowledge about web business that is what made me uniquely qualified for this position.
 

For more on Michelle, check her out at about.me/michellem.  We'll be publishing a Skype interview that covers more about Edmunds social media plans next week. 

How A Social Media Recruiter Does Their Job

This is the process I use for social media headhunting.  After an initial consultation, I forward a retained search contract to the client.  Upon signature and an invoicing of a $10,000 deposit, I fly to meet the client and their team to begin the search.

Here is how we conduct the search.

 

Social Media Recruiting Process

View more presentations from Social Media Talent

 

Choosing A Salary Level For Your Social Media Strategist

It's been a busy couple of weeks, with the phone ringing off the hook as companies look for social media employees.  A major difference in this year from the last couple seasons is that companies have realistic salary expectations for the positions they are searching for, in comparison to even 2010, when expectations and salary offers for off by 50% and more between candidates and companies. 

In fact, this year, not a single head of HR has blinked at the salaries I have given, as they did their research and have a good sense of what is out there.  That's the sign of a maturing market. 

So what are those numbers?  And if you're a candidate, how much are you worth?

 

You're going to kill me for this, but of course, the answer depends.  We've delved into grade school math before on this blog, discussing the mean, median, and mode of salary decisions. 

"When salaries are evaluated throughout the corporation, the relative value of each skillset based on its importance to the company has been established over time. "

In plain language, your salary in a maturing market is based on your perceived value versus other people at the same salary. 

For example, if you're a Vice President of Social Strategy, you're going to receive a similar salary as a Vice President whose budget and responsibilities are the same as yours. 

If you're a Senior Manager of Social Strategy, your salary might be similar a Senior Manager of Digital Strategy or a Director of Onine Marketing. 

What happens is the corporation evaluates the importance of their perceived value of your job, and pays you equally to someone else of equal value. 

It's really quite fair for everyone, as the dirty little truth is they aren't hiring "social" people so much as "Marketing" and "PR" and "Digital" people with social tacked onto their latest accomplishments.  These are of course high value positions - no one is calling me to find social media specialists at $24,000 a year, but then again, that's not so much a position as a title change from Jr. Copywriter.

The one difference I can see is in the Community Manager space, which is more of a pure social play.  Those salaries are still max out at $80,000 (unless you're part of a huge global empire), and go as low as $40,000 for smaller communities. 

If you want to share your salary level, confidentially of course, please forward me a note to jim with an at sign and followed by the domain social media talent.com. 

 

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That's Impossible! I Can't Do It Unless...

 

Sometimes all we need to understand something is to stop believing we know everything. 

Silverpop Email Marketing Consultant Available

One of our contractors is a Silverpop expert, and we're looking to increase the number of hours we have him billing. 

Our consultant can test emails, troubleshoot, and build emails directly in Engage.  He can test all the big email client (iPhone, Hotmail, Outlook 2007, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail).  For those of you have the too, you know that Silverpop can be a very technical and tricky tool to use.  Though powerful, it rescripts code on upload, and inexperienced people using it ofter render unexpected results. 

This kind of project is perfect for companies and divisions that use Silverpop and need someone to craft a few monthly emails, but can't afford an inhouse designer.  Our guy is reliable, is a personal friend has worked with us for 18 months, has Fortune 500 experience, and most important, likes working on a project level.  All he has asked is for us to find him a few more steady gigs. 

Some highlights:

• Experience using Silverpop software: ESP, Advanced Training, Survey, Transact, RSS Direct, ClickStream, In-Box Monitoring, Reporting & Analytics, etc. 
• Experience in Social Network Marketing 
• Basic knowledge of HTML development
• Experience with  web analytics package such as Google Analytics, Coremetrics, Web Trends, Silverpop Analytics, and Omniture 

If you need someone to help you manage your Silverpop account, this is the affordable solution.  It helps that he has a great design eye. 

Contact socialmediaheadhunter@gmail.com for rates and an interview. 

 

 

 

Business Uptick In Social Media Searches

When I started in 2008, finding social media openings was challenging. 

Companies knew they wanted someone working on social media, but they didn't know who, and were unwilling to pull the trigger on hiring anyone.  

In 2009, job openings were plentiful, but there just weren't enough people with the ability to fulfill expectations.  Companies were willing to hire, but finding candidates who understood the position was far more difficult.  The biggest problem at that point was the salary expectations.  Companies were paying well, but not well enough to temp the best talent.

In 2010, companies finally started to get it in the marketing and PR space, so many adopted a strategy of hiring and training internally. That led to an explosion of talent that is just now hitting the market.  

It's now halfway through 2011, and my phones are ringing off the hook with clients looking to hire very specific positions that are fully funded and set with proper expectations on what is available.  That's a good sign for the market, even if it is anecdotal.  I say anecdotal because I'm just one data blip on a bigger screen.  My best year would only be a dozen successful direct placements (this is for Social Media Headhunter, not Social Media Talent,which is the contract side).

My digital presence is the same relative size it was in the last few years, and while traffic is up, the quality of leads coming in has vastly improved.  That's very important, because along with the use of headhunters to bring in top talent, companies are making plans to hire low and mid-level candidates as well.  This has a big impact on the health of an employment sector, as hiring and training the next generation prevents the price shock of a talent war.  It's a healthy sign mid-way through the year, and should continue right up to the beginning of the fourth quarter.  

 

Changing The Way You Contact Me

I'm making a few changes on the backend of the blog, and you'll see a simplified design and a new contact page in the new few days.  I'm moving over from an ATS to a CRM system, and adding the Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn Share buttons. 

Part of the problem was inertia.  This blog design has been up for three years as an advanced template, and a lot has occurred since then.  But my coding skills are rusty, and so I've put it off.

The most important change in the short term is to forward me resumes to my gmail account, which starts with socialmediaheadhunter.  The database is being converted over, so in the meantime, the best way to add a profile is to go to jobsinsocialmedia.com and add yourself as a member, or connect to Jim Durbin on LinkedIn.  

Please keep in mind that while I occasionally speak to candidates blindly, most of my time is spent digging up leads and finding people for them.  Any time spent talking to candidates, no matter how qualified, takes me away from actually finding companies that need to hire. 

See you soon. 

Announcing EmpireHire: A Community To Hire Eavers

Just finished shooting a quick video and building out the first job board community for Empire Avenue.  It's a place for companies to post jobs inside Empire Avenue, allowing jobseekers to purchase stock as indication of interest. 

It's called EmpireHire 

The process is simple:

1) Companies join

2) Companies post jobs

3) Candidates join and browse jobs

 4) If candidates find a job that's interesting, they buy stock in the ticker and send a private message to the company

5) The company decides if they're interested (using the Empire Avenue dashboard to assess the candidate), and either start the recruiting process or thank them privately and say no

6) After an offer is made and accepted, you come back and tell us about it. 

It's my thought that Empire offers a unique insight into people with big social networks, the type of person most companies want to hire.  So why not bring them together? 

How do you get involved?

1) If you're a company, join.  Feel free to message me if you have questions

2) If you're a jobseeker, browse open jobs when convenient and apply

3) If you're neither, spread the community far and wide, using Twitter, Facebook, and Empire.

 
It's that simple.  And let me add here that while I recruit, and don't mind recruiters posting, I won't be using the information in the forum to do any sales.  This is simply a service I want to see if it works. 

The VideoBlog Announcement:

 

 So join in.  Let me know what you think. The community again.