Very few people post comments on my blog (guess it's more for reading pleasure), but I got one comment (I have to agree to post comments to this blog of course) from someone who felt that my email to him was a piece of SPAM.  I say, if you think I sent you SPAM then you better look in my SPAM folder so you know what to look for in a peice of SPAM. 

You know, my staff and I do send a lot of emails, but we pretty much use email as another form of the phone or regular mail.  In this day and age of BEING BUSY, email and texting is considered to be one of the best ways to communicate with folks (whether you are intiating the contact to someone who you don't know or to someone you DO know). I have to say that I have met MOST of my business colleagues VIA EMAIL over the, well, past 10 years. 

I do have to say that, YES, SOCIAL NETWORKING sites and tools are THE better way to reach out to people who you do not know.  However, I cannot tell you HOW many invitations I have and have gotten over the last four years (since I have been on Linked In and some others --very minimally to start I might add!) that make NO SENSE WHATSOEVER as far as it pertains to ME "linking in" or "connecting" with someone. Do they want to do business with me? Do they want to hire me? What DO they want?  Thus some of the members working the Social Networking sites (in my opinion) can also be considered SPAMMERS. I mean they ask you to connect and then they have zero information on their profiles (other than a name and email) or they ask you to connect and it's like "why would I want to invest in your chocolate factory?"

So I am now going to be helping myself and my clients and staff to improve their appearances on these social networking sites and then use these sites to their advatange.  I will still use EMAIL as a form of reaching out as well since not everyone in the world is a member of a social networking site (the guy or gal that tried to post on this blog about the fact the EMAIL "is so 90's" has it right, but Social Networking is still very new and the majority of the Baby Boomer and Gen X population is still getting into the mix hence email is still very much apart of our lives!).

In the November 27, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Perri Capell writes in his Career Q&A column: Hiring Doesn't Take a Holiday In December, So Stay Active (my sentiments exactly Perri!). Just because we all want to NOT work (to sit back shop and party!), it does not mean that BUSINESS sits still.

Click on the link above on this one to read Perri's article.

If you know me (and you can hear what I have to SAY live on Dee McCrorey's Blogtalk Radio Show by clicking on the MP3 player on the left of this page) and if you know about ECMG as personal publicitists and agents, we are not only about getting out there and helping our clients find work or business. We are also about helping our clients build personal and professional brands via a personal publicity strategy and up until now, I saw our brand of personal publicity as our "ePR" service since we meet and greet so many of our clients and connections via direct email campaigns.  I am, however, There is a lot of talk surrounding the whole Web 2.0 Profile building strategy as it pertains to one's online personal news and personal brand.  This is a good thing to do for anyone looking for work or new business opportunities. While most social media is very much a norm with the Gen Y crowd, it's starting to take hold in the business and professional worlds (I just got invited to join a start up social networking site for entrepreneurs today  - but I won't provide the name until I find out if I like it or not!). Linked In and Plaxo have been around for many years (I have met a few clients via these sites) and while they are starting to really take hold in the business and professional networking arena, I still think that you need the super direct approach. My motto is to be in and get in as many channels of introduction as you can to be recognized and visible to the people who will matter to your success! Let's put it this way, with our ECMG (traditional model), I can't tell you how many times we have introduced a client to a company and the company ends up interviewing them not even knowing that they were even looking for such a person to hire.  Needless to say to network effectively on these sites you have to connect in the right manner or you will be passed by and you have to still have some traditional (old-school) tactics in place (i.e. direct introduction via cold calls and emails) too!

However, I think it is crucial that ECMG incorporates more online social networking/Web 2.0 profile (ePR) programming into our traditional PR/agent representation service and business model! That being said, I will soon be offering Web 2.0 building/ePR services to those who want to build up effective profiles and get more exposure via online networking/social media as well as help our ECMG (direct campaign) clients secure a better place and more exposure on some of these social business networking sites, become better connected to the right people who can and will lead them to the right opportunities whether it means for job placement or business development as well as maintain the client's Web 2.0 content for them automatically and upon demand.  We will continue to produce the collaterals that we currently produce for our client campaigns, but also utilize this copy for social media profiles and then some (every social media site has their own little bells and whistles for profiles) in addition to our online portfolio set up (a component of our ECMG Service that also getting a face lift VERY SOON). 

I will be announcing our WEB 2.0 PROFILE BUILDING/ePR Service on our site in a few weeks. This will be a separate or add-on to our current ECMG Services.

As I see it (and due to the fact that I have been getting REQUESTS for this type of service), there is a huge need for Web 2.0 profile/strategy building since most executives --i.e. Babyboomers and/or Gen Xers who are not so well versed on social media or who are either pressed for time to be able to set up profiles in general or ones that are of substance or who have no time or patience to maintain them (since that is another important part of being a part of online networking/social media communities).  Needless to say, I am trying to be my own best example and build up my profiles on the specific sites that I feel are of substance to the goals my clients have.  I have been a member of Linked In and Plaxo (now called Plaxo Pulse) for MANY years, but I really did not think that online networking and or true social and new media (videos, blogs and the like) was the exact vehicle for myself, my biz or my clients. OH -- if you see me on these sites now (I am starting in a few others too), bare with me - they are works in progress as my clients come first you know! I am changing my mind about it all, but I still think a direct (or old school approach) via personal endorsement through agent representation is also a key to building up good visibility for job and new business search purposes.  Yet more and more people are turning to online communities to communicate more than ever before. There is also research out there now that pertains to the fact that people are communicating within social networking sites then ever before (rather then email, read: Are Social Networks Replacing Email Yet?), geeze I need to get on this for myself and help my clients be ready for this change!

I am offering our Web 2.0 profile/ePR strategy building services to those who are looking for employment or looking to for new employment changes, but also to those looking for more business (since we handle consultants and small business).  As a matter of fact, more and more recruiters (in-house and outsourced) are looking to online networking sites to connect with good candidates - candidates of all levels (see Recruiting Employees 2.0), and journalists/editors are looking for content online as well (both written and videos).  Traditional Press Release Blasts are being taken over by blog posts, streaming video and online networking sites. This is why I think anyone who is looking for a job or new business needs to blog and talk about their personal brand, but again there is a key to effective blogging too and if you are an executive looking for a new job don't think that posting your video on YouTube will help you land your next CEO gig. For the most part, Linked In and Plaxo are leading the pack as far as being good social networking vehicles for executive level people, with several others falling in behind and so I am exploring them all.

More good reading about this topic is on Sally Falkow's Blog. She has a great post about Web 2.0 content on websites which pertains to my strategy for my client campaigns and my own business.

I think I have told a few people (live and on email!) that I need to start blogging more regularly.  I just have had a hard time getting into the "Blogger Groove" if you will. I also don't want to blog and come off sounding like the pitch person for ECMG Services. Well, whether I like it or not, I AM the pitch person of ECMG.

The whole concept of the ECMG brand is to help people stay in front of other people who potentially will hire them into their organizations.  Our job is to land interviews and subsequently offers. There is no magic ball to look into --it is what it is. There is also NO particular time of the year when companies tend to interview or hire more. Business goes 24/7 - 365 days a year - right?   

For some strange reason, people seem to think that starting a job search or any other kind of business development/opportunity search or even PR campaign at year end is just not a good idea and that waiting for the New Year is better.  I ask this: WHY?

Do companies just shut down operations or do investment companies stop investing or stop deals they are looking to close....at the END of the year and pick it up in the New Year?  It used to be that bigger companies shut down during the holidays (I remember when a friend of mine worked for IBM - they took off the week before Christmas and between Christmas and New Years -- but that was in 1990! Companies cannot afford to do that in this day and age!  The only time hiring is ever SLOW is for perhaps a week if say the CEO is taking his/her vacation... but even if that is the case and they are interested in a hiring a specific person, it is ONLY for that ONE week (between Christmas and New Year most likely) that it will slow down and once the CEO is back the next week the interview is scheduled. So what, it's a week or so --and if you are on the mark to get the job, what is another week? At least you are in the mix and ready to go to the table with this CEO! Right?

NOW IS THE TIME for those seeking out new deals or job opportunities to GET IN THE GAME: no time like the present!  I tell all my clients that campaigns, public relations, marketing etc. NEVER can stop (not even through the holidays). So if you are waiting for the lovely New Year to set in and THEN do something about your situation - you need to rethink you plan. I have no problem with waiting if say you are having a baby or getting married or are very sick, but waiting just because it's "near the end of the year" is not the way to go. DO IT NOW, get in the GAME. If you are smart you will beat the other "it's the Holidays" suckers out!