Social Media Jobs

How I Got My Social Media Job… Using Social Media

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DearLisaLate in 2011, I had applied for the first Social Media Director position at The University of Michigan. I never got called back, but several months later while searching to see if the position had been filled, I happened upon DearLisaRudgers.com, another applicant’s custom designed website for the same position.

The Blog Post

I was so amazed, I contacted the applicant, Lindsay Blackwell, interviewed her and wrote this blog post: The Best Social Media Job Application EVER: How 22 Year-Old Lindsay Blackwell Applied for a $110K Job. It turns out that Lindsay didn’t get the job either, but she did get an amazing new job – but I digress.

A day later, I got these responses to the blog post on Twitter:

Rachel had read the blog post and wanted to know how to get the same type of enthusiasm for a Social Media opening that they had available. I applied for the position through LinkedIn on March 14, but was not contacted for an interview. I did, however, keep in contact with Rachel.

The YouTube Video

A few months later, they were looking to fill out the Social Media team with additional Social Media Managers. Rachel directed me to this tweet, where Joshua, the hiring manager, had posted a YouTube video to recruit for his opening. Great idea – introduce yourself, the company and give some flavor to the generally bland application process (the video has since been deleted, so the link wont work.)

We were able to speak that first weekend in June (who takes time away during the weekend to talk to a job applicant? An amazing boss, that’s who.) We had scheduled time to meet the next week on June 5, where I met with Joshua as the senior manager of content and creative, Joshua’s boss, the senior director of marketing programs, and the social media lead.

I Got The Job!

By the end of June, I had submitted writing samples for consideration, and in early July, had completed new hire paperwork. I submitted this creative writer’s resignation, complete with corporate marketing speak, along with my four-weeks notice (we were significantly understaffed in my last position.)

The first week of August, I started as the second social media manager at BMC Software, completing a process started with a blog post I had written nearly a half-year earlier.

Lessons Learned

Throughout the process, I learned a lot about the “professional courting process.” Here are some tips.

1. Blog – If I had never written the blog post, I may not ever have connected with Rachel. Not only does blogging get your thoughts out there, it’s a great way to network with people within your industry, or with similar interests.

2. Network – Connect with people that you meet both in person, as well as digitally. If I hadn’t kept up with Rachel, there’s no way she would’ve thought about me when the new social media openings were posted.

3. Be Patient – It took nearly a half-year from initially connecting, to hearing about the new position, interviewing, receiving the offer and starting to work.

Do you have any interesting stories or tips for social media job hunting? Share them in the comments below.

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10 Ways To Improve Your LinkedIn Profile in 10 Minutes

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With 238 million users LinkedIn has become the network of professionals worldwide. Forty  percent of these users check the network daily, and with three million company pages and 1.5 million groups, there’s plenty for users to do, but how can users make the most of LinkedIn for others looking to network with them? Here are the 10 easiest ways to optimized your LinkedIn profile. Continue reading →

Salesforce Lays Off 200, Many Radian6’ers, Again.

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Me, one hour before finding out.

Me, one hour before finding out.

There are 8,760 hours in a year, which makes it extra awkward that during the two hours I spent at Salesforce Headquarters in San Francisco, I found out that it happened, again.

Last time, it was 100 let go, focused on the Radian6 side, this time, it was 200 and again focused on Radian6. About one-third of the layoffs were located in New Brunswick, where the base operations of Radian6 are, not to mention that there are many Radian6’ers outside of New Brunswich. The announcement was made alongside a Salesforce earnings call and seemed not to be covered by as many major media outlets as the first Salesforce Marketing Cloud Radian6 layoffs a year ago.

The History.

March 30, 2011: Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Radian6 for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, with the deal expected to close later that year. Radian6 has about 300 employees.

June 4, 2012: Salesforce agrees to acquire Buddy Media, a social ad platform, for $689 million in cash and equity, its largest acquisition yet.

October 24, 2012: Salesforce announced layoffs of 100 with the official explanation being overlaps between Radian6 and Buddy. Some speculated it was actually due to Buddy burning through cash. Other sources say it could have impacted one-third of Radian6 employees, but later reports indicated that Buddy Media employees had also been laid off. Let’s say Radian6 has 225 employees remaining at this point.

June 4, 2013: Salesforce announced the acquisition of email marketing platform, ExactTarget for $2.5 billion, again a record-setting agreement, and taking out a $300 million loan to cover acquisition costs.

August 29, 2013: Acting a little more quickly this time, Salesforce announces layoffs of 200, with 1/3 confirmed from New Brunswick, the main offices of Radian6. Assuming all were Radian6 employees, the employee count could be as low as 150, down from 300 during the acquisition two years prior. Consider non-New Brunswick Radian6 employees that may have been affected, and the number may be even lower. “Salesforce just lost a lot of passion and a lot of heart” said one former employee.

Salesforce.com statement:

Combining ExactTarget with our existing Marketing Cloud provides synergy, and we will be reducing our total headcount by approximately 200 people globally to reflect this opportunity. We care deeply about our employees and we’re providing resources to position them for success in the next step of their careers — whether that’s a new position within salesforce.com or a new opportunity elsewhere. via CBC

Employment Opportunities Poured Out:

Former Radian6 Family Offers Support:

Even those laid off stayed classy:

 

lOVER6

Know of any possible opportunities? Leave them in the comments.

The postings in this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent the opinions or positions of  my employer.

I Need Your Help: Who Are The Top Social Media Influencers in Houston?

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Image Credit: http://www.wordcamphouston.com/

Houston is the fourth is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the US (after NYC, LA, and Chicago) and is home to the fourth largest collection of Fortune-500 companies at 24 (NYC-84, San Fran-31, Chicago-29).

We’re listed in the top 20 US markets for social media jobs.

Yet, Haydn Shaughnessy’s list of the top 50 social media influencers fails to list a single person from Houston. Continue reading →

Radian6/MarketingCloud Lays Off 100, Social Media Community Responds

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I’ve worked with Radian6 for about two years, and in that time, I’ve begun to consider many of the employees close friends. I’ve stayed up with them on late night Google Hangouts when their fan was too creaky, congratulated them on new babies and offered probably unwanted new baby advice, and have been offered a spare bedroom in case I ever made it up to the Fredericton offices.

It is because of feeling like part of the family that I was particularly struck by a layoff announcement earlier today.

Radian 6 spokesperson:

With the combination of Radian6 and Buddy Media, the Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the undisputed leader in social marketing and the only suite that allows brands to unify social listening, engagement, advertising and measurement. With the integration of Radian6 and Buddy Media, the Salesforce Marketing Cloud is re-balancing its resources to support its growth, including moving from a hub to a distributed model for certain customer-facing roles, consolidating marketing and dramatically increasing investments in R&D. Fewer than 100 people were impacted globally. (via TechCrunch)

The Response

I was particularly touched by the immediate and heartfelt, community-wide response in Social Media.

Typically, something this big in Social Media would trigger a blog post by Radian6. I joked with one of my friends and former employees that she should write a post about it, but in the absence of a post from them, here’s some coverage and analysis by me-
(UPDATE: Marketing Cloud did indeed address it on the blog- kudos! Albeit without any analysis: Marketing Cloud is Built on Community by Community Director David B. Thomas)

Lee Odden, CEO at Top Rank Marketing:

Mike Volpe, CMO at HubSpot:

Kristie Wells, VP Customer Engagement at Swipp:

Jim Reynolds, Brandwatch:

Ann Handley, Marketing Profs fame recognizes what’s going on:

Greg Gunn, VP of Business Development at HootSuite:

Bill Ingram, VP Product Management:

Justyn Howard, Co-Founder and CEO at SproutSocial

They didn’t just hit up the Twitter Waves either (all emphasis mine):

In the comments section of several news articles covering the layoff:

As VP Community at HootSuite, i am rather sad to see this. Radian 6 – from the other coast of Canada than us – we’re a noble competitor and industry light. Regardless of Salesforce’s plans with R6 (and yes they are a competitor to us), it’s simply sad to see diligent community builders cut loose. In my (biased) opinion, cultivating community and sparking internal culture are critical roles which simply can not be outsourced, ignored or underestimated. Best wishes to all who received the dreaded news today.

Dave O from HootSuite

Even from direct Competitor, Sysmos:

While these guys have been and are a competitor to my company, Sysomos, I got to know a lot of the R6 team over the past few years and I was a bit upset to hear this news. Just because our companies are competitors doesn’t mean that I couldn’t be friends with some of these people, and it’s tough to see great people lose their jobs. I won’t say anymore about this, other than I wish all of these former employees the best of luck in the future and that any of them can feel free to reach out to me to talk any time.

Cheers,
Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos & Marketwire

An anonymous guest, but also apparently working at a Social Media company:

We have tremendous respect for Radian6 and think they have an awesome product & team. We’d be very interested in interviewing anyone who sadly, was laid off this week. hello@datasift.com

Another direct competitor, Alterian:

Very sad to see. As a former R6 employee and current competitor, I have a deep respect for the teams in St. John and Fredericton. I wish all of these former employees/ co-workers the best of luck in the future and would welcome the chance to help any of them as I joined Radian6 a few years ago from a similar situation.

Best of luck,
Warren Sukernek, VP SDL SM2

A fourth direct competitor:

Sorry to hear this about our competitor. The team at Radian6 were trailblazers in the world of community creation and social media listening. Attensity is hiring, give us a call.

Michelle de Haaff

More:

Very sorry to hear this news about a great Canadian success story. Best of luck to all those affected. We play in a similar space and we’re hiring developers right now, and more sales and marketing soon. Check out http://www.mediamiser.com/care… and feel free to contact me directly with any questions at chris@mediamiser.com.

Another competitor:

Vocus is hiring. Radian6 has done a great job with community building. I’m sure we’d take a close look at any former R6 applicants. Here’s an HR link for anyone interested: http://www.whyworkatvocus.com/…

Frank Strong

Still More:

Sorry to hear. Radian6 and Buddy Media folks have all been smart and formidable competitors for all of us in the industry. Hope you guys and gals land somewhere great. If you’re interested in joining the @AdobeSocial team, get in touch. https://www.adobe.com/careers….

Lawrence Mak, Product Marketing, Adobe Marketing Cloud

The People of Radian6

The reason we started on Radian6 was due to their great product offering, and the reason we stayed was due to the great service. Neither of which are possible without great people. I’ve never had a Customer Success Manager at another company who answered emails at 5AM or 10PM – including weekends. I’ve never known the name of more than a single community manager at any other company. Here, I can write out the org chart for you.

This layoff represents a huge loss to Radian6 and their customers, not the other way around, to the employees.

The employees are highly talented people with irreplaceable skills – they’ll find other work and be just fine. It’s Radian6 themselves and their customers that are losing out. Why give the opportunity to these dozens of other companies to pick up this awesome talent? (See Nasheen Liu’s: If you are going to get laid off, be a Radian6er and get laid off by Salesforce.com)

Coming Together?

The professional Social Media community banded together in an unfortunate time. High-level executives reached out and offered their job openings, and in some cases offered themselves personally to help.

Do you think these competitors are just in it for themselves and trying to capitalize on an unfortunate event, or are they truthfully reaching out to offer a helping hand during a time of need? Let me know in the comments!

 
The postings in this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent the opinions or positions of  my employer.

The Best Social Media Job Application EVER: Update

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Lindsay’s story about the Best Social Media Job Application EVER keeps going! Last week, I replied to several people that had mentioned the original post from this blog:

I received a response from @radiotess who seemed interested in getting in touch with Lindsay, and I responded with Lindsay’s Twitter handle.

What I didn’t know at the time was that @radiotess is Tess Vigeland, the host of Marketplace Money by American Public Media which runs on many National Public Radio stations. It seems that they were able to get in touch, and this story ran last Friday (and I get a shout-out near the end!):

(Click for a pop-up audio player) or check out this link for the link to the transcript.

Seems that the #DearLisa campaign still continues to inspire new people!

What do you think about Lindsay’s campaign? Have you ever thought about going that far for in job application? Tell us in the comments below.