I sometimes use this space to talk about more than social media, and this is one of those times. So if you’re looking for a cranky rant on Apple, sorry. This one is about my boy.
My son, soon to be 10 years old, is one of the most wonderful human beings I know. A lot of parents brag, but he is so much more than just my boy. He is an amazing person.
My son is a friend to a boy who has no friends. He is a cheery “hello” when I stagger home from a rough day in the office. He is patient and sincere. He sticks up for his little sister in tough situations, even though they tussle like brothers and sisters do. He automatically massages my neck when he so much as senses that I am tense. He sees life with eyes not yet jaded, but full of the energy and enthusiasm that children have. He tells me jokes that make me laugh. He has not said “I love you” back to me in a couple of years (a boy thing), but I never doubt for a nanosecond that he does.
I write him notes every morning since I leave the house so early, and they all begin “Good morning, best friend!”
I love to play professional matchmaker, especially for my former students. If you have glanced to the right on this blog, you’ll see that I have three .rss feeds of public relations or new media jobs. And I suppose that I am lucky in that I get contacted by recruiters with some frequency. Many of these contacts, however, are downright irritating.
I am happy at my job and find it fulfilling, but sometimes by networking, you can help people – people that you might need to have a relationship with one day to help you. I have written a couple of times about the candidate side of the recruiting process at Fleishman-Hillard and The Bivings Group, but this one is a real burr under my saddle.
Sloppy, careless recruiting. And it happens A LOT.
Today, I got the latest in a series of poorly formatted, clumsy recruiting and networking attempts. Not the first one. I have edited out the agency name, but it is one of the big ones. Let’s call this one “Recruiter A”:
XXX Chicago is seeking a VP Crisis..would you know anyone? Have you ever int’d with XXX.
Where to start? If you want to take the time to offer your company up as a great place to work and spend time with me so I can help you, you might want to avoid abbreviations – and use punctuation. Maybe I am just being cranky, but I am not sure what “int’d” is. And again, it might just be me, but abbreviating in an email tells me a) you spend way to much time recruiting on Twitter or b) you are WAY busy – too busy to spell out words. Or spend time to do quality recruiting/representing your company.
Here’s a great example of a recruiting email I got a couple of weeks ago. Let’s call this one “Recruiter B.”
Hi Mark,
My name is XXX and I am the US Recruitment Manager for XXX. I was doing some research and came across your profile on LinkedIn and wanted to reach out in regards to a senior level digital media strategist position we have open for our XXX Digital Media Group. You can read more about us at XXX. We are looking for someone to join our D.C. office that has strong experience with creating digital and social media campaigns for clients in the public affairs, issues, advocacy and crisis space. You can actually read about the position at XXX.
I think your backround [Mark's note: typo forgiven] working with the XXX along with your experience XX and XX would make you a great candidate for the position and I would love the opportunity to speak with you further. Thanks for your time Mark and I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
XX
Recruiter B’s email above makes me want to contact them or help match them to someone I know. Nice email = nice results. Recruiter A, I emailed back simply because I know the person who runs the DC office. And got a one line response back after I sent a couple of ideas. #Fail.
I am flattered when someone takes the time to reach out to me for a job. Even more so when they do their homework and read my blog. It’s a nice touch. I worked in the private sector for 15 years on the agency side and know a bunch of people, so I am happy to help – I love that matchmaking. But my time is as valuable as you make it; if I am one of 100+ emails you send out in one day, it shows. I will know it and other candidates will too. I am likely not interested, but if you find a decent candidate and turn them off with your approach, it’s your loss.
Slow and steady wins the race, Recruiter A.
Am I the only one who this has happened to? By all means, please comment and share your stories.
Apple issued a big “screw you” to detractors yesterday when they announced their quarterly profit results. The cold, hard facts are below, but in recent weeks, the media has issued shrill warnings that Apple had lost its touch and become “arrogant.” Apple had lost its way. Apple was producing crappy products. Antennagate.
Working in the financial sector, I know that the proof is always in the earnings pudding – and in Wall Street’s take on it. Here’s what Apple announced, according to yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:
Quarterly profit surged 78%, as the company booked strong initial sales of its iPad tablet computer and the latest version of its smartphone, the iPhone 4.
Apple’s revenue in the quarter ended June 26 rose 61% to $15.7 billion.SIXTY ONE PERCENT.
Apple is selling iPads and iPhones “as fast as we can make them” and “working around the clock to try to get supply and demand in balance.”
Shares of Apple rose 2.5% in after-hours trading. The stock closed Tuesday at $251.89 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Apple sold 3.5 million computers, up 33% from a year ago.
Apple said it sold 3.3 million iPads since the tablet went on sale, generating revenue of $2.16 billion. The company said the average sales price for its iPad was $640, suggesting many customers opted for higher-priced models with cellular-data service.
Research company iSuppli earlier raised its estimate for iPad sales in 2010 to 12.9 million from 7.1 million, saying the only limitation was production capacity, not demand.
While analysts were also concerned that consumers might hold off buying iPhones in the quarter until the iPhone 4 was released, Apple sold 8.4 million iPhones during the period, up 61% from a year ago.
Apple posted a fiscal third-quarter profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 a share, compared with $1.83 billion, or $2.01 a share a year earlier.
I could go on and on, but let’s first address the iPhone 4.0 issue. According to Jobs’ press conference, demand has not abated since “Antennagate.” People still want the phone. BUT – if iPhone sales fell, other sectors are still strong. iPads are selling as fast as Apple can make them and Macs sales are up by a third. Even if they did not sell a single iPhone 4.0, they would have generated a profit.
I held my tongue in recent weeks because I wanted to see what the earnings and Wall Street said.
The verdict for Apple?
Screw you, Antennagate. We’re as strong as ever.
Mark
P.S. – Since this post touches on the financial sector, I’ll let you know that the thoughts expressed in this post are mine and mine alone and do not reflect those of the Chairman, Commissioners or my colleagues at the Securities and Exchange Commission. So there.
Last week, I did a Q&A with Smart Blog insights about crisis communications in general and associations in particular. I want to expand on that this morning a bit.
I used to teach crisis communications at the University of Maryland and have done a frequent bit in the private sector (let’s not even get into government – ugh). It never ceases to amaze me how many organizations just plain mess up crisis work.
I have listed five tips below, but want to put this is perspective for associations. What I think is unique to associations is that they are caught in a vise. They are expected to be the leading voice for many controversial companies and industries (read: they take the hit), but need consensus in an organization made up of members who compete with each other on a regular basis. Bad, bad recipe for success.
A few of the crisis communications basics I mentioned in the Smart Blog Insights piece (and a few more) include:
Rule #1: Avoid the crisis to begin with. Many companies (see Nestle), without even realizing it, take a communications mole hill and make it a crisis mountain. Some crises cannot be avoided, but this is the step that most people just plain forget. You need to help define an issue with your stakeholder groups or you risk having others define it for you.
Rule #2. HAVE a crisis communications plan. This is the “duh” rule. Think about this. If you are in the midst of a crisis, responding to media, operating under enormous pressure, are you going to be able to craft and deliver compelling messages? Create stuff that will convince people not to blame you (best), or at least to accept an apology (second best). This is why having a plan (updated at least quarterly) is critical.
Rule #3: Make the crisis plan easy to access. When I did crisis work, I consistently advocated for putting a crisis communications plan online. Again, like the Nestle example, opponent driven crises are often propagated during weekends or other times that companies are not in the office. You get attacked when nobody is manning a desk. And if your CEO or VP of Communications is at the beach, it makes things a whole lot easier when the plan is not a huge, written document sitting on your shelf at work, but is online and you can access it 24/7. And you can better coordinate with others as well.
Rule #4. Tell the truth. Period. Full stop. If you lie, people will find out, bust you and you will lose all credibility. And it’s ok to tell people that you don’t know the answer – just tell them when you will tell them.
Rule #5. Segment your audiences. A lot of crisis plans are based upon talking to the media – and this is important. But also think about employees, stockholders, retirees, elected officials, federal officials and even law enforcement people. Bottom line is you need to have custom-tailored messages for ALL of your stakeholder groups that matter.
Again, for associations, this means something even tougher. You have to develop all of the above in conjunction with the member companies – the ones who pay your salary. And deal with lawyers. And gain consensus under stress.
If you have not read my original post on this topic, you might not know that I disavow any responsibility for these posts. It’s my computer’s fault, not my own. The bitch set me up.
So here’s today’s mental feed:
I was commuting from my house in West Virginia last week and listened to a DC morning drive time show during which the topic of discussion came up “Are federal government workers overpaid?” Numerous callers referred to the “lazy government workers” on the federal payroll. This really pissed me off. My two years and seven months working for the Securities and Exchange Commission has been among my most challenging and rewarding career stops. There are lazy workers everywhere, callers. I work my ass off precisely because you guys pay my salary.
Train update #1: To the girl who corners me at the commuter rail station most mornings: I now know about the liposuction that your husband wants to buy for you, your kids, your daycare issues, your operations, your distaste for alcohol, your anniversary, your overweight, single sister and this morning, your need to relieve yourself at the train station restroom. You might consider that you don’t even know my name – largely because I have yet to get a word in edgewise.
Train update #2: Dear fellow riders: I get the fact that the train can lull you to sleep, especially before 6:00am. But do me a favor: if you snore (loudly) please do not get your last hour of shuteye on the train I ride. Some guy was snoring so loud this morning I thought that the train emergency windows were going to blow out.
World Cup #1: Who knew that a bunch of tulip farmers could be so aggressive on the soccer pitch? You guys should have focused on winning the game rather than getting a bazillion yellow cards.
World Cup #2: I am super happy for for Spain and my friends in Madrid. I lived there in Reagan’s first term (cue the geezer alert) and am still friends with them today, thanks to the Internet.
Seattle Thought #1: Shauna Causey is awesome and and one of the best networkers I have ever known.
Seattle Thought #2: I have my fingers seriously crossed that Eric Berto, Shannon Paul and I will get to reprise our speaking roles at BlogWorld Expo in October.
That’s today’s mental download. Sh*t my computer says.
much more than just my boy. He is an amazing person.
but this one is a real burr under my saddle.
yesterday’s 
particular. I want to expand on that this morning a bit.
time show during which the topic of discussion came up “Are federal government workers overpaid?” Numerous callers referred to the “lazy government workers” on the federal payroll. This really pissed me off. My two years and seven months working for the Securities and Exchange Commission has been among my most challenging and rewarding career stops. There are lazy workers everywhere, callers. I work my ass off precisely because you guys pay my salary.
