patti wilson's blog

In a Strong Headwind the Stronger Brands Prevail

I subscribe to Commercial Property News, "the Business of Real Estate" to stay up to date on economic trends from that vantage point. The current issue interviews Aik Hong Tan, president of Richfield Hospitality Inc. who currently manages 29 hotels.

He commented about what lenders wanted to see when providing financing for a hotel deal,  “They are definitely looking at the brand of the hotel, and they want to see a top brand.  When you start moving into a headwind, the stronger brands will prevail.”

Certainly, we can consider this as a universal statement of the times to apply to multiple business issues such as the attracting and recruiting talent of or our own personal branding.

All other things being equal, the stronger company brand or personal brand will have the competitive advantage in a commoditized world. Since brand is a matter of perception, managing bad on line visibility, accentuating the good on line visibility on line serves to build a positive brand experience and reputation.

Companies, struggling to recruit great talent, especially in small to mid-sized range, give little or no attention to the attractiveness and promotion of their cultural brand which aside from the product serves to attract the right talent to them. This starts with an inviting jobs and careers web page with clear, engaging information about who they are and what they have to offer prospective employees.

Of course, the recruitment branding experience extends to employee referral programs, new hire orientations, employee blogs, job ads and promotions.They all have to be developed and managed to ensure a positive, strong and visible brand.

In some cases, a well-done recruitment brand can enable the David, small company, to slay the Goliath, bigger company, who is less well branded.   

Build Your Career and Consulting Practice: Join the WednesdayNetwork.com

In 2001 this egroup was founded and called the Wednesdayjobgroup. It brought together professionals in high tech to support, give feedback and network with one another online. The group has grown to nearly 2000 members. It is time to improve this service and bring it up to date. When started as an online career and job group back then, it was a new concept that has since proliferated to 100's of similar egroups. Its time to do more, better and a sort of social network.   

Yes, another free online community, but this one, the WednesdayNetwork , is different.
I know that's what they all say but it is! Why? Because it is a no hassle, no obligation, no problem, great offer that will only benefit you otherwise I wouldn't do it.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?

Sooner or later you may be looking for a new consulting opportunity, position, or deal. If you are a consultant, you already know how competitive and tough the market is in your field. There are lots of formerly employed boomers offering services out there.

Grow your network and visiblity now passively! Remember how much everyone was networking when they were unemployed? How hard it was? Keeping up contacts? Staying visible? The WednesdayNetwork, enables you to quickly and easily leverage your visiblity and networking reach without any extra work or time.

HOW?  WE DO IT FOR YOU! HOW HARD IS THAT?

Just submit your name and the URL of your linkedin profile, professional blog or website and we will add you to the community list posted on the WednesdayNetwork blogsite. That's why it is a blog and not a website. It is easy and fast for us to add you to the list and for you to link with others on the list as well.

I keep saying a blog doesn't have to be used as a daily log. The WednesdayNetwork blogsite is a landing page for all your connections (links).

WHAT YOU GET

Immediate greater visiblity with all the search engines as blogs come up with higher rankings than websites. Additional leverage of your existing profiles online. Go to the WednesdayNetwork and check it out. Recruiters search Google by keywords so do prospective buyers of services. this makes it easier for them to find you . You get a FREE listing of your name and/or the URL of your Linkedin Profile, Professional Blog or Website.   

If you email your name and the URL address that you want to use to the Career Company, we will do the rest and post it on the WednesdayNetwork blogsite.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

It is a personal crusade to get as many people as possible to have an online professional profile, the ultimate passive job search and self-marketing tool.   Being connected up to multiple networks gives you as much visiblity as possible for the same reason.

Read the main statement on the Career Company homepage: "today a successful career is about Connecting, Collaborating and making a Contribution".

Yes, the economy is healthy right now, so hiring is up and the majority of professionals in the Valley are working as employees or consultants.Or " please don't look at my Linkedin Profile " as you haven't had time to update it, or it has only three connections, or you don't even have one.   Once again, we have all pushed the collective snooze button!  Many of you now tell me that you have no time to network.

The WednesdayNetwork is an easy, fast, simple way to attract potential opportunities.

Who is ZoomInfo? It's Linkedin's Search on Steroids

"ZoomInfo is a search engine that continually scans millions of Web sites, electronic news sources, SEC filings, and other on-line resources and provides results in concise, easy-to-use summaries. ZoomInfo PowerSearch helps recruiters source passive candidates by providing information on more than 36 million business professionals. ZoomInfo JobCast is a campaign tool that uses proven email best practices to help you efficiently reach these candidates. Try out ZoomInfo on some of your own searches!"

ERE the Recruiter's Mother-ship

This ad was included in an email announcement from ERE, a 30,000 member on-line recruitment community and publisher of Electronic Recruitment Daily. ERE is probably the most influential resource for the recruitment industry. 

Zoominfo a big advertiser on ERE's website and newsletters, has grown into a powerhouse resource for recruiters, deal makers and sales/marketing folks. It scrapes websites for data, organizes the information by person and provides depths of detail to users for free or in various fee-based levels similar to Linkedin.

Zoominfo is Raw Capitalism

But that's where the similarity to Linkedin ends. While Linkedin is based on a mutuality, an exchange of value, and the understanding that connections are made through known commodities. Zoominfo is pure raw capitalism, allowing you to gather as much data on a person and their affiliations as possible and go after them freely and relentlessly. Of course how you go after them is up to you as no introductions through shared mutuality and other niceties are available through Zoominfo. It's up to an organization to ferret out the data and drive the deal

This makes Zoominfo one of the most fertile aggregators of data on people and companies existing today outside of Homeland Security's records with potential to seek and recruit talent with speed and efficiencies escalated to the steroid level of employment search on the Internet. It makes even using Google's search tools pale in comparison because Zoominfo does the search for you. They take out the guesswork and the effort.

DeadlineNews.com Repurposes San Jose Mercury News Journalist

Much has been said about the disintermediation (you got to love that word) of the newspaper business caused by the Internet.  Statistics show that more than 80% of gen Y reads their news online.  The movement away from the daily paper has only accelerated with Web 2.0 blogs. Daily Kos has done more to influence and report about politics than any TV or print commentators.

Silicon Valley’s own San Jose Mercury News has been hard hit with layoffs over the past few years. Most recently, Knight Ridder, the publisher sold the paper. Where does that leave the talented, hardworking journalists in the print media? Out of work? Maybe?   

Many have found new venues online such as Margaret Steen, former careers writer, now freelance journalist. And Dan Gilmore, former technology columnist, now Director of the Center for Citizen Media, after a failed attempt at citizen journalism with  the Bayosphere blog.

Recently, I tripped over online, the best repurposing of a former Mercury News journalist yet in the form of Broderick Perkins.   His company’s,  DeadlineNews.com, tagline is “News that really hits home!”  Yup, you got it, he is writing all about real estate and he was the former real estate writer for the Merc. He is fun, credible, astute and with totally up to date information about real estate finance, markets, home improvement and the latest developments locally and nationally.

Check him out. There is life after disintermediation.

Learning from IBM...despite NY Times Glowing Article

IBM is in the throes of change in order to survive against global competition, and the message should be clear to us all. The New York Times article referred to IBM as a nimble giant that is running as fast as it can to move up the specialization food chain, re-organize into a global structure, and shed itself on low profit product lines.

The Valley Wag attributed the New York Times gentle handling of IBM to the ad dollars the company applies to full page print ads. Be that as it may, aren’t we all microcosm equivalents of the Big Blue macrocosm.  Geoffrey Moore, in Dealing with Darwin, talks about how a company must evolve or become extinct. As professionals, don’t we all?

The Times asked, “The unanswered question about I.B.M. is, Can the new, higher-margin business grow fast enough to offset the maturing of its traditional services business and rising competition from the Indian outsourcers?”

There may not be an answer at this point but the question, in some form or other, is one that needs to be addressed by every worker and company in the USA.  How IBM fares can be the mirror to us all. How can we collectively and individually change, re-tool, specialize and run faster to remain competitive?