Any job seeker who spends a day at a recruiting fair meeting with numerous prospective employers will tell you that before long, all of the agencies and organizations begin to look and sound the same.  Job seekers are bombarded with recruiting material, and they often leave recruiting fairs with folders full of information and bags full of gimmicky knickknacks.  When they get home and dump that pile of information out on their kitchen table and begin to examine it, an organization has only about 30 seconds to “sink the hooks in” and get them interested. How can you ensure that your organization’s recruiting media stands out as the “diamond in the rough”?

When USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) came to Mind & Media looking for a clean, easy-to-use recruiting tool to attract top-level talent, we knew that we’d need to hook the audience in that critical first 30 seconds. So we developed the ERS recruiting tool with a brief introductory “teaser” video followed by three short video segments hitting the Who, What, Where, When, and Why elements that every job seeker needs to know before pursuing an opportunity.

The teaser video includes powerful snippets from the main feature videos. These brief vignettes of our interviews with ERS employees illustrate to our audience that ERS employees love where they live, that they enjoy their work, and that they are empowered to continue their personal research in order to make a global difference. By giving our audience a taste of the main messages in an appetizing way, we are encouraging them to watch the short video features that present the content in an easy-to-digest manner.

This concise and personal look at ERS is inviting, the content is simple to navigate, and it is as elementary to use as putting the CD into any personal computer. Take a look and see for yourself!

I’ll say it again: it’s all about the audience.  Your message, the medium you choose and the distribution mechanism you select is all dictated by the audience you want to reach. With the multitude of choices that make up our ever-widening media landscape, choosing the right avenue by which to reach your audience is extremely important and can make or break your campaign.

So where are these splintered audiences and how can you best reach them? There are entire books that have been written about this subject and I only have a few paragraphs, so I’ll concentrate on one demographic parameter alone: age. In future posts I’ll deal with others such as gender, income level and race.

The biggest general observation that can be made about media consumption is that online technologies are increasingly attracting all age groups, especially the younger demos, while traditional media like newspapers, magazines, radio and television continue to skew older.

Newspapers: Newspaper readership has been in a steady decline over the past decade, with only two in five reporting that they obtain their news via traditional newspaper brands on a daily basis (whether print or online). 60% of those 55+ reported reading a newspaper on a daily basis while “less than one quarter of those aged 18-34 (23%) say they read a newspaper almost every day while 17% in this age group say they never read a daily newspaper.”

Magazines: The average age of magazine readers is now 45 at the same time that ad pages continue their downward trend.

Radio (AM/FM): Listenership is declining in the 12-17 age demo, while 86% of those above the age of seventeen still listen to radio.

Television: Although the median age is now 51, two years older than the coveted 18-49 demo, television is still the broadcast medium of choice for reaching a mass audience. However, the numbers speak volumes about the viewership habits of the newer generations. The 55+ age group spent approximately 60% more time watching television than the 18-24 demo.

Internet Video: The 18-24 age group spends the most time watching video online, three times as much as those aged 65+ and almost twice as much as those in the 45-54 age group.

Internet Radio: According to the NPD Group, more than half of teens (52 percent) listened to online radio in 2008, compared to just 34 percent in 2007 and in a study conducted by Big Research, it’s clear that the percentage of users listening to radio online decreases as age increases, with almost three times as many listeners in the 18-24 age group as there are in the 55+ age group.

Instant Messaging & Text Messaging: There are almost twice as many users of instant messaging in the 18-24 age group as there are in the over 55 age group. And from the same chart you can see that use of text messaging is overwhelmingly a youth activity.

Blogs: Those aged 18-24 comprise the largest group reading blogs and compared to those 55 and over, there are almost three times as many of them.

Social Networks: This is where things get fascinating, especially as it concerns the largest social network out there, Facebook. In an interesting analysis by Peter Corbett, head of iStrategyLabs, he reports that “Facebook’s 35-54 year old demographic segment not only continued to grow the fastest, but it accelerated to a 276.4% growth rate over the past six months. That demo is DOUBLING roughly every two months.” Additionally, the second fastest growing age group on Facebook is the 55+ group. In another, more comprehensive analysis on the Royal Pingdom Blog, it’s clear that those in the 25-54 age group comprise the bulk of social network users.

My next post will be about gender differences in the usage of these media.

Image courtesy: http://www.ny3d.org/2008/03/

If you are a government or public agency and want to know how to use Twitter the right way, look no further than AlexandriaVAGov.  This was a well-performing account prior to Snowpocalypse 2010, dishing out helpful information to the residents of the City of Alexandria, Virginia.  However during the snowmageddeon, its value eclipsed that of the last snow shovel in Home Depot.

Throughout the snowtorious snowstorm my family had many concerns: What number do we call to report a power outage? AlexanderVAGov posted those numbers.  What if power isn’t restored and the house gets too cold?  They posted the addresses of shelters and warming centers. From school closings to cancelled city services to the latest snowfall predictions, AlexandriaVAGov on Twitter was there for us, keeping us informed while everyone else lost their minds.

When the snow stopped and it was time to go back to work, they posted a link to a Google Maps mash-up that showed what roads were priorities for the plows and what the expected driving conditions were.  This was very helpful in planning a safe route.

Yes, Twitter is full of nonsense and, yes, Fake[Insert Celebrity] is a lot more entertaining than AlexandriaVaGov. However when you’re snowed in or in a similar emergency, your local government is (or should be) there for you.  AlexandraVAGov understands this.  I hope your local government does, too.

Image courtesy: http://twitter.com/alexandriavagov

As part of our work helping USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) re-brand itself to attract top-notch professionals, Mind & Media conducted a focused research and analysis effort resulting in a recruitment branding report. The report included:

A general review of industry best practices in recruiting,

• An overview of competing agencies’ recruiting websites,
• An analysis of the current ERS recruitment approach,
• Recommended changes to enhance the ERS recruitment program, and
• The recommended content and approach for a conference take-away tool.

I was so glad we were able to take this step for ERS before developing the recruiting tool for them. Often government agencies go to contractors just wanting something made up quickly to meet an immediate need. Without the time spent determining the audience’s needs, organization’s value proposition, and key messages, a recruiting product is unlikely to succeed.

The report we created for ERS led to development of an excellent recruiting tool (see it here http://dev.mindandmedia.com/usda/tool/start_here.html). But the report will also guide development of other recruiting and marketing efforts at ERS, as well as help internal stakeholders better understand the key benefits of working at ERS and how to convey them to prospects.

The research and analysis effort was not lengthy, but the impact was dramatic. Just another example of how spending some “mind” time up front can make the “media” part at the end so much more effective.

Our clients often believe they’ve communicated vital recruiting messages, yet a potential hire must dig very deep into busy websites or fragmented recruiting materials to understand why an agency is a stellar career choice.

Recently we had the opportunity to help USDA/ERS develop a recruiting tool to attract top-level professionals.  Though USDA was well ahead of the pack in knowing what set them apart from the competition, they also knew that their message was not getting the exposure it deserved.   And now more than ever, USDA knows it has to put out an inspiring recruiting message so they have the right talent to tackle many pressing issues, e.g. climate change, rural economic well-being, and international food safety and security.

As a starting point for a broader campaign, USDA/ERS tasked Mind & Media to develop a recruiting tool to give out at their national conference.  The tool they had used in the past was a series of fragmented files on a flash drive.  While the information contained on the tool was excellent, it was difficult to use and required a concerted effort on the part of the applicant to glean any value from it.

We recrafted the information to showcase the key recruiting messages and eliminate the clutter that muddled the messages.  We recrafted the tool so that it was transparent and very easy to use, whether being presented on CD-ROM or on the web. We also maximized the use of video to give the agency a human face. Check out what we created:  http://dev.mindandmedia.com/usda/tool/start_here.html.   Wouldn’t you want to be part of the USDA/ERS team?