We are in the final days of October, a month that will be remembered as “the time in which the credit crunch came to a head not only for the economy as a whole but for the tech community in particular.” (TechCrunch) Everybody in my office has been either asking or answering a very important question: “How does the current economic situation specifically effect the online sector?” And now we have a better idea…

Small Business and Startup Companies are being pushed to cut and focus on increasing their profit margin through better processes. Their “plan-of-action”? Layoffs!! Lots and lots of layoff, which keeps their bank accounts lasting a tad longer, especially for web companies that require little physical capital. VC firms like Sequoia Capital are urging their portfolio companies to cut costs and increase capital, with layoffs as the solution.

One of my co-workers at AC Lion made a great point, that as a recruiter you need to understand people should be more willing to hear about opportunities – in fact, they’d be crazy not to keep their ear to the ground about upcoming opportunities.  Layoffs are happening everywhere I look and I recently stumbled on a new site that effectively tracks these layoffs, company information, etc. – TechCrunch Layoff Tracker. They’ve begun tracking all of the relevant layoffs in the tech sector. They’ve mapped out…

• Total Layoffs Since August 27, 2008: 220
• Total Employees: 76,077

*These numbers are constantly growing. For an updated & comprehensive list Click Here.

A the end of the day, it’s important to know who’s laying off and why, and TechCrunch Layoffs is a great source for tracking firings…BUT I DO HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS!! I found another site, Web-Strategist.com, where Jeremiah Owyang, Sr Analyst at Forrester Research: Social Computing, started this post series (see archives) to recognize and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Check it out, you may find your name on that list some day

Posted under Job Search

If you’re like me and you do Business Development (or leisurely keep up) on new startups, old startups…basically, every company…if that describes something you do on a daily basis (or even once in a while), then I suggest these 4 different sites that are perfect! Whether your looking for reviews, salaries or success – these sights do the trick. I use them religiously, so check ‘em out…

Posted under Blogs

It is very important to stay up to date on local events if you’re in the Online Marketing space. One of my first jobs since my promotion at AC Lion was to create a targetted, detailed list of new york local and west-coast based events. These sites serve as potential advertising opportunities for events we hosted as well. Here are the best places to source for events if you’re in the Online Marketing & Advertising space:

#1: Gary’s Guide: GarysGuide.org

Garysguide is the #1 Events Calendar for Technology & New Media professionals. Their calendar is a comprehensive edited list of all upcoming events related to technology, web 2.0, social media, online advertising & marketing, software, hardware, digital video, new media, entrepreneurship, startups and much much more. They are currently live in 13 of the top tech hubs in the country including New York, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, San Diego, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Toronto, Las Vegas and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Meetup.com is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. For Online Marketers, there are tons of tech related meetup groups including Online Video, Bloggers, SEO, SEM, Search, Buzz Marketing, Sales Executives, VC Elevator Pitch Groups, etc. They are loads of fun and are usually followed up with a drink.

BtoB is the magazine for marketing strategists, Published monthly by Crain Communications Inc. With 45,000+ subscribers, they also provide a detailed list of b2b related events. They currently hold events in New York, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco. You can aslo opt-in for e-mail notification of future BtoBevents, by e-mailing BtoBevents@crain.com.

A. Events Listing – A list of MediaPost shows in which you will find detailed information on each of their signature events. And don’t forget, as a MediaPost member, you are entitled to a special discounted rate to attend.

B. Public Directory of Industry Events – This is a publically submitted comprehensive calendar of upcoming events around the country. Florida to New York, Chicago to LA, Portland to Seattle…this listing has it all.

Advertising Age (aka: AdAge) is the leading global source of news, intelligence and conversation for marketing and media communities. They host their own events and provide a comprehensive calendar of Industry Events in LA, NYC, Chicago and more.

…The best way to stay on top of these events is by subscribing to their e-mail updates and event RSS feeds. One way that works for me that I use on my personal web site’s events calendar, is to create a Google Calendar and combine all your events RSS feeds into one big mashup. That way you can monitor every event in one AJAX driven and clean looking window.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing you at upcoming events!

Posted under Events, Viral Marketing

“Viral Video of The Day” is part of this blogs timely Friday Tradition, as provided by my friends at ViralVideoChart.com.  They  marked an interesting #1 video for today.  So for all of you marketers and mobile junkies out there obsessed with your PDA and e-mail, you’ll love todays Viral Video of The Day:

Introducing Gmail for mobile 2.0

That’s right! A geekie video made it to #1…and with reason. For all of you using PDA’s, the proprietary email application can be quite plain (static, no html, courier new, etc.). Well, this is probably more applicable to “Blackberry Users”. Well, today’s viral video promotes Gmail’s Phone Application. The guy’s kinda funny in the video, in a geeky google kind of way. How this made #1 for the day, I’m not sure…

Posted under Viral Marketing

WiseStamp Signatures

This article is relevant for all of you who use the signature function in Outlook. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, ever notice when you get a professional e-mail, the signature will have a company logo, colors, links, etc. And until recently, the top 4 free Email Service Providers have been lacking such options. Until now, Outlook ruled the “signature” space…but not anymore!

This article is geared for Firefox users (b/c that is what I am using). I was on the hunt for an awesome Firefox Extension for Gmail Signatures, when a friend of mine told me there was an even better extension that worked with the big 4 ESP’s: AOL, YAHOO!, GMAIL & HOTMAIL! WiseStamp is a Firefox extension that enables you to easily customize & add personalized email signatures on any webmail service (Gmail ,Yahoo ,Aol mail, Hotmail).

WiseStamp is without a doubt, amazing! Very easy control over your email signatures, with granular level customization. Easily insert your Instant Messenger & Social services (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) The best part is you don’t even have to know HTML. It’s as easy as using Microsoft Word, with a library of premade signatures here, and the option for HTML is there. I suggest this for everyone. It increases your visibility with every e-mail, and in this space, transparency is necessary if you want to get your name out there.

Posted under E-Mail, Viral Marketing

e-benchmarking.org (Benchmarking Procedure)

This week I learned the true value of “Benchmarking”. Considering our current financial crisis, it is important to understand the true need for Benchmarking. According to WikiPedia, “Benchmarking is the process of comparing the cost, time or quality of what one organization does against what another organization does. The result is often a business case for making changes in order to make improvements.”  As an employee, it’s time for you to figure out what it is your supposed to be doing at your company and make sure you hit your #’s. (ie: Sales hit their Goals, Marketing hits their ROI, etc.) As a business owner, benchmarking applies to almost every department for a company to be most profitable. You need to find your weak spots and FIX THEM (or FIRE THEM, depending on the situation).

For business owners, there is no single benchmarking process that has been universally adopted, but the most prominent methodology is the 12 stage methodology by Robert Camp (who wrote the first book on benchmarking in 1989). You can follow the image at the top of this post or use the following as an example of a typical shorter version of the methodology.

1. Identify your problem areas,
2. Identify other industries that have similar processes,
3. Identify organizations that are leaders in these areas,
4. Survey companies for measures and practice,
5. Visit the “best practice” companies to identify leading edge practices,
6. Implement new and improved business practices (Wikipedia).

If I’m doing it, I’m positive your companies are doing it and without a doubt, you should be doing it too! I’d hate to say, but for employees, I suggest you do what I do and sit down with your managers to discuss goals and #’s. It can only be to your advantage to have goals match up with your companies benchmarking statistics.  If your boss isn’t benchmarking, then I suggest you urge him/her to do so and get in on the process. (Sucking up would be my #2 choice in times of financial crises!)

FOR ALL OF YOU BENCHMAKERS, break out your Excel Spreadsheets, tap into your companies reporting tools and start crunching numbers. Oh, and at the end, if you find out you’re the source of all problems at your company – you can always leave that blank

Posted under Online Marketing

eMareter.com Blogger Stats

Sticking to the theme of this blog, I feel it is necessary to explain why I even bother blogging. Technorati sponsored a survey of bloggers in July-August 2008 only to determine, as their CEO Richard Jalichandra says it best: “Blogs are now mainstream media.” So there’s your answer!

According to Paul Verna, Sr. Analyst at eMarketer.com, “Blogging has become so pervasive and influential that the lines between blogging and the mainstream media have disappeared”. ComScore Media Metrix found that blogs had 77 million unique visitors in the US in August 2008, nearly double the amount of Facebook’s mere 41 million!

1/3rd of the respondents found in the Technorati survey were contacted by a brand/agency = $$. Money could play a major factor in their decision making. There’s also the SEO factor. Companies small and large use blogs to their marketing traffic, offering value and drawing more traffic…

Marketing and Money? That’s more than enough of a reason for anyone to blog. But don’t expect the traffic to happen right away. It takes hard work, lots of content, and most importantly – “readers”. I know the rules and I’m patient and will keep sharing how I am going to get from 0-100, 100-500, 500-1,000, etc.

Let me know if you found this valuable or inspiring b/c at the end of the day, it’s you who I am creating value for. Good luck! Feel free to post a link to your blog below!

Posted under Blogs

My company, AC Lion, recently assigned me the task of finding a new Applicant Tracking System and Customer Relationship Management software. The ATS and CRM systems are a MUST for any staffing company of ANY size! Being that we are a niche market recruiting firm, our needs are particular to specific best practices and standard processes. Before picking out the correct solutions, I must define the two systems:

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term applied to processes implemented by a company to handle its contact with its customers. [...] Information in the system can be accessed and entered by employees in different departments, such as sales, marketing, customer service, training, professional development, performance management, human resource development, and compensation. (Wikipedia)

Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that enables the electronic handling of corporate recruitment needs. (Wikipedia)

The rationale behind these systems is to improve how we track and also how we provide services directly to the customers. We use the information in the system for targeted marketing and sales purposes.  One of the industry leading CRM’s is Salesforce.com, but my company decided on an ATS/CRM hybrid able to handle both candidate leads (B2C) and client-side relationships (B2B).

Another thing to consider is a web-based, also know as Software as a Service (SaaS).It really comes down to a few considerations. Cost of in-house servers and storage vs. a Tier3 network and fast internet connection. It really depends on your comanies budget and needs. We decided on web-based.

When it came time to conduct research, I read a very helpful article on ERE.net, on How to pick an ATS in 7 days – includes short review of 6 major vendors (LONG). This is a great way to organize your time and find the right fit in an effective manner in 12 simple steps.

I am still on step #5, Contact each vendor….Below is a list from ERE.net of which I can say 3 of my choices and our current vendor are inlcuded:

• cBizOne
  Easy to use and contains all core functionality of ATS. Very customizable. Can host data locally or remotely (on access or SQL server). Cool quick searching UI.
• PCRecruiter
  Easily customizable and good performance for an ASP.
• BullHorn
  Highly recommended and praised. Performance good for ASP, UI and usability are good. Integrated email with cool email tracking feature.
• HireDesk
  Feature rich and very customizable. Awesome website integration where candidate can have custom job agents (most the same features candidates have on Monster) Large company, dedicated support staff and best support hours.
• Sendouts
  Outstanding usability and GUI design. One of two hybrid solutions. Good performance and overall solid system.
• MaxHire
  Its all Microsoft technology and the email integration and automation is very well designed.

I hope at this point you find yourself with enough information to get started. If you need further advice or a copy of my checklist, feel free to e-mail me at work – Red@aclion.com.

Posted under Job Search, Online Marketing