You know me and short job descriptions.  I need someone to be a social media consultant for a company. The position starts off as consulting gig, but if you do a good job, they will want you to go full time in six months.  I have a fixed rate and salary in mind.

The position is remote, but you'll have a cubicle.  It's working for a nursing provider here in St Louis, helping brand and promote the recruiting department.  The job is not posted, and it's my job to bring a slate of candidates to them (it's retained). 

What you'll do

You'll blog (regularly, and on multiple sites).

You'll monitor the online world for information on the company

You'll look for and post events in other cities.

You'll help the recruiter be the face of the company's employment, but will not be a ghostwriter.

You'll make it so the recruiter and the company are well-known in the geographical area, which means working with them to create a style of writing that agrees with both of you. 

You'll report on results. 

What I need from you.

1) Experience writing consistently in the online world

2) Experience interviewing (reporters and recruiters welcome)

3) Self-disciplined (as in examples, not, "I'm really discipline."

4) Curiousity

5) Functional use of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning social networks, Google, and blogging platforms (this is typepad, but you don't need it)

6) Some background in recruiting is great, but not necessary.  Same is true for PR.

7) A desire to utilize social media for results, and not "engagement" or "conversation."  It's a metrics based world.

I can train some of what you don't know, but I'm only training the one who gets the job.  If interested, contact me at socialmediaheadhunter at the google email or using smheadhunter as a headhunter on a number of sites. 

A white-label social media company is looking for a set of social media engineers to work in Chicago and New York in tandem with sales account executives.  We call them social media engineers because the position is similar to what a sales engineer would do for a large technology firm – you are the expert at identifying client needs and crafting the solution once the salesperson has made the initial contact.

This is a sales and product position.  When you’re not working with the salesperson to craft and land deals, you’ll be using your network to help your salesperson with leads.  When you’re not helping bring in leads, you’ll be working with the corporate office on methodologies, product suite descriptions, and service offerings.

The right candidate is whip smart, an excellent presenter, and possesses deep experience in how corporations function.  A background in project integration is required, and expertise in large project technical integration (database, CRM) is very helpful, but not required.

The position is front-end.  A technical team is in charge of installation, which then hands the project off to a project manager.  Your job is to forecast problems, map out the proper route to a successful integration, lay out the metrics the client will use to measure success, and ultimately help close the sale and prepare for a smooth transition. 

Responsibilities – the key responsibilities for this position include:

* Create client-specific social media strategies utilizing products and services offered by the company.
* Identify key performance indicators and metrics tailored to each client
* Work with Salesperson on new business development and closing.
* Strategize with and educate the client management team and others across the company on incorporating relevant social media techniques into the corporate culture and into all of the company’s products and services
* Create and deliver presentations on the scope and scale of individual projects
* Aid in the development of RFP responses
* Work with salesperson to generate sales leads using social media contacts and profiles
* Develop new product and service offerings with corporate

Experience – the ideal candidate will have experience in the following areas:

* Social media tools and techniques
* Management, Technology, or Marketing Consulting
* Product marketing
* Public speaking and client presentation
* Business development
* Web Analytics

The positions are for the Chicago and New York City markets.  There is no relocation, and very little travel (there may be the occasional day trip to someone in your region if corporate lands a prospect.  This is not a junior or even mid-level position, and it's also not an executive position.  We're looking for practitioners with experience in community management, social media consulting, and corporate sales or project management.

To apply, send an email to socialmediaheadhunter at gmail or contact me through a social media site.  My handle is smheadhunter for most, Jim Durbin for others.  If you're going to call in, be prepared.  You need to research me and this post, and have a good sense of what the job is before you call.  I will be judging you on that call, so make it count.  Salary is base plus commission. 

I first saw a posting for Jobaphile over at Edgelings and thought that indeed the gates to Hades had been cracked open, and the souls of the undead had taken over Human Resources departments.  There's a good reason not to believe headlines, as this job auction site is really just a version of eLance or other freelance gigs.  It seems that you're bidding on getting jobs, but you're not actually paying for the right to get hired, you're bidding on how low you'll work for a project.

It really is a reverse-auction site.

Still makes it creepy.  I've been in staffing for 10 years.  Nothing new is under the sun, and that includes social media and job auction sites.  Jobaphile, in addition to being poorly named, is another example of people wanting to get something for nothing.  $15 for a Ruby on Rail developer?  Not in this country, bub.  And if that's your max bid, what do you really want to happen?

If you're a candidate or an employer, know this - the old idea that something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it is true, but if you treat human labor like a commodity, you've got to add in the cost of compliance and legal fees.  You may be able to get someone to be a deli clerk for $9 rather than $10, but the cost in getting someone who doesn't hurt your business is usually worth the extra buck.

Chalk it up to another story sensationalized by poor reporting.  Move along, and careful what you read on the interwebs. 

I need a St Louis copywriter for a project. It's heavy on SEO and Branding, simple text coveying powerful messages for a website redesign. You'll be working with me through DurbinMedia (http://durbinmedia.com).

Shoot me a message or DM me on Twittet at smheadhunter.

I'm working with a small business located in St Louis that is looking for a marketing whiz to take their substantial competitive advantages and turn them into new business leads.

This 10 person company is run by an entrepreneur, and has seen steady growth for the last five years, with positive cash flow, a well run operation, and a reputation for service and quality.

The company sells a high-end design product that retails in the $20-$25,000 range.  The company currently only uses Yellow Pages and Direct Mail, although they have used multiple marketing packages in the past.  Your monthly marketing budget is $15-20,000.   

This is an internal position at the home offices in South County. The office is moving to a more central location in the next year (they're looking), and remote work is possible.

You need 5 years of broad-based marketing experience with small businesses, selling a high-end luxury product or design services. Experience with direct mail, media buying, online marketing, and copywriting is essential.  Your creative and web design services are taken care of, which leaves you responsible for vision, strategy, tactics, and execution.

You must be a result-oriented marketer with the ability to explain what you're doing without marketing speak.  I'd say detail oriented, but you're the type of person who labels their sock drawer, so asking you to document what you're doing shouldn't be that hard.

And if you can't forecast and track the ROI of your program, then you probably shouldn't be in marketing anyway.   

If you're interested and want to hear the salary range, send an e-mail titled Design Marketer to socialmediaheadhunter@gmail.com with a description of your experience marketing high-end products to the consumer.    

What does it mean to be a social media expert?  Seeing as just two years ago, no one would know what it even meant (and few do today, as well), it's not like we have degrees, or titles, or even a standard list of questions that can be used to hire someone into a social media position.

To complicate the matter, many social media experts (myself included) started out in fields separate from Marketing, Corporate Communications, or Information Technology.  How then can we determine what someone's value is in terms of their background, when the tools we use define our position, but not our experience?

What exactly is a social media consultant, and how can we build the business case to hire one internally?  How do you go about writing a job description?

 

1) Define your goals:  The biggest danger of Enterprise 2.0 projects is a desire to have a social media team without having a clear business goal to achieve.  We talk about metrics of traffic, SEO, reach, influence, and transparency, but what are these  supposed to achieve? Have a point, and you'll find metrics are much easier to create and sell.

 

2) Search for relevant experience: If you can determine what your business goals are, it should be easy to determine what skills are needed to reach those goals.  An example would be building a social network to improve customer service communication.  Knowing what you want, allows you to pick the tool, and then hire a community manager to run the process.  Only after the goal is defined, can you determine if someone's experience building a not-for-profit online community is an experience you need, even if the individual has no customer service management background.

 

3) Base salary range on the business metrics.  Many people want to leave their careers for a job in social media.  That's okay, but you shouldn't be paying for them to make an equal salary jump.  At the same time, creating an entry level salary isn't going to get you the talent you need to succeed.  Once again, it comes back to the business goals you wish to achieve.  If your goals are increased revenue, paying someone in the six-figure range is acceptable.  If your goal is increased publicity online and testing the waters, you can achieve that for $50-$70,000.

Hiring a social media candidate is not as simple as other positions, but it also shouldn't be a guess or a shot in the dark. Understand what you want to achieve, and then set the salary for a level that makes sense for your organization.

One of my clients is looking for a team of SEO and Web Analytics Consultants to work on their global website.  The job is open through a few agencies, but the advantage of working through me is the interview preparation you're going to get ahead of time.

As a practitioner in this field,  you'll be working with the only recruiter in St Louis who understands what you do in in SEO, SEM, and social media.  If you're curious about the details, or just want to get into the queue for future jobs, drop me a line - the database will be up next week to upload your resume directly into my ATS.

I'm posting some keyword fodder below the fold.

One of my clients is looking for a VP of Marketing to generate business leads.  This is a contingent search, and I'm recruiter.

This is a start-up company located in St Louis, involved in the GPS Tracking business.  The company has been around for over a year, is funded, and basically needs someone who is prepared to run a full-scale marketing program.  The product is sold over the phone and online nationally.  The sales process is short, and the primary markets are small businesses with employees who drive company vehicles.

What I'm Looking For:

Expertise in running PPC, SEO, direct mail, telesales and online marketing.  Experience in social media would be nice, but only to the extent that it improves your online profile.
Self-Managed: This is a position for someone who doesn't need a lot of hand-holding. You should be able to create, design, and execute a marketing plan that helps this company add new customers.
Proven Track Record: You must have a proven track record of success in generating new leads. That is the primary purpose of this assignment.
Sales experience: The best candidate would also know how to close over the phone when needed.  Your ability to do so will greatly increase your salary.

Compensation:

I have three levels of salary I'm willing to present, based on the kind of person I found.

Level 1:  $50K:  Skilled online marketer.  Good at generating new business leads
Level 2:  $70K: Marketing and Sales, plus a bit of management experience to put into place in the future
Level 3:  $????   Marketing, Sales, and part of the Executive Team.  You're just waiting for the right opportunity to seek your teeth into.  You've done this before, but you can also speak to board members, the press, and build a team as the company grows.

There is also an equity stake available that vests over time for the right candidates.

Your Marketing Budget: You're starting mainly from scratch - there's marketing collateral and a decent PPC campaign, but you really need to come in and plan out the next 6 months to a year.  You'll start out with a $15-20,000 a month budget, but that can expand if you start to show results. 

Your Boss: Direct report to the President.  He's a software consulting expert from a couple of degrees, business savvy, and previous management experience under his belt.  He's smart, aggressive, and wants someone who sees this opportunity and wants to be a part of it.

If this is you, or someone you know, have them contact me at jdurbin@durbinmedia.com with the Subject VP Marketing, or have them call me by searching this site and finding the number.