Career from a Marketing Perspective with Amy Hervey Pt. 1

Welcome to episode 60 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we discuss career management from a marketing perspective .

Original Recording Date: 10-23-2019

Topics – Amy Hervey Interview

04:17 – Background on Amy

• Amy is a Marketing Manager for an HR Outsourcing company and has been in the field for over 20 years. Her background is journalism and marketing.
• The role of a Marketing Manager varies a lot based on the size of the company, industry, and what is being marketed.
  • In Amy’s case, this includes everything from social media platform management, website management, press releases, e-mail campaigns, promotional print items, online learning platforms, Sales support, etc. She is a one person Marketing department and loves her job immensely.

5:30 – Marketing, Influence, and Staying on Brand

• What is the difference between product marketing and influence marketing?
  • Product marketing is promoting a product or service by increasing brand awareness.
  • There is a strong trend in the industry to lean on "influencers" to promote a product. This can be paid or unpaid. An example would be someone wearing a popular clothing line and giving feedback on positive and negative attributes to others.
    • People would rather hear about a product or service from someone they can relate to than to hear from a company talk about its own products and services. The influence gained from this can often penetrate new markets the company could not on its own.
    • This made John think of social media influencers. We’ve talked about peer to peer influencing (i.e. users of a business product), but there is also the mass retail influencer.
    • Many people are waiting to get the proper amount of information before making a decision. They want it from someone with which they can identify.
    • Word of mouth is not new, but that’s what social media influence is. It is one step away from customer testimonials but not looked at in the same light.
• Go back and listen to Episode 36 on customer advocacy programs as a compliment to this episode.
  • Employee advocacy programs and user advocacy programs
    • Employee advocacy programs empower employees to share messages that the employees choose. It is a nice way to provide guardrails for content and branding.
    • Employee advocacy programs really do make a difference in getting the message of the company out to others but with a personal spin.
    • A curated message is one thing, but it is important to cultivate a socially active workforce to activate this kind of effort.

12:14 – What is a Marketing Culture?

• Check out an article Amy wrote on this topic.
• We are all Marketers. It is only a matter of what we are marketing.
• Onboarding a new hire is a chance to give new employees the tools to succeed and is an opportunity for the employer to make the employee feel welcome. Providing information about the company voice (fonts, voicemails, e-mail signatures, design guidelines, etc.) is important to keep the brand strong and consistent.
  • Placing importance on this must come from the top down and should be evident when employees begin employment.
  • Some employees may be hesitant to engage fully with the company via social media.
    • Employee advocacy programs are ideal here to provide things that are safe to post and to provide some guardrails.
  • In terms of reactions to brand requirements, it can feel like big brother, but most are grateful for tools to help them get started.
    • A corporate e-mail signature is analogous to company letterhead.
  • The brand guidelines and standards give customers a consistent feel and promote trust.
  • 17:27 (ish) – John White School of Mentoring mention (Nick claiming to plug via e-mail signature)
  • Brands do business via different platforms. It depends on who they want to engage with and who they want to engage with them.
  • These guidelines become part of a culture and part of "this is how we do things around here."

20:22 – Personal Brand Marketing

• Personal brand is a buzz word for showing the world who you are professionally. Put some thought and effort into how you present yourself, your skills, and what makes you unique.
  • If representing your company, some of this will be dictated by company guidelines.
  • How do you want others to see you? What is important to you?
  • Every single interaction whether in person or online has potential to strengthen or damage your reputation.
• Personal brand is a blend of what you are good at, what you have accomplished, things you are passionate about, where your focus lies, who you want to work with, etc.
• 24:25 – Is your personal brand impactful or just noise?
  • If I don’t show you through what I do, what I’m consistently shouting doesn’t matter.
  • Are you engaging with your audience in a way that would make them miss you if you weren’t there? Are you providing something of value?
  • Think about why you respect others’ brands. What is it those you perceive to have a strong brand are doing?
  • The best thing you can do is get to know your audience and their needs. Make them feel welcome.
  • Help others by helping them build their brand. Show them that you see who they are. Be responsive if someone contacts you.
    • Think focused community interaction.
  • Likes and Re-Tweets are vanity metrics. Ask people to engage through sharing feedback.
  • A blog is a great way to share value, thoughts, ideas, and expertise.