Jeremiah Owyang

Jobs in a Recession Survey Results 2: Most Recent Hires Got Jobs in Less Than Three Months

This is part 2 of an ongoing community project to help people understand how to get jobs during a recession.

This data is slightly skewed towards those that are already active in social media as the survey went to those within my network on my blog and the highly connected Twitter community. There were 214 respondents to the survey although this graphic only represents those who got jobs since Sept 2008 (71 respondents) that represent those that were hired during the announcement of the recession. This sample set is smaller than one would expect out of a formal research project, after multiple promotions, it was capping out at 200 respondents, and I don’t have other resources to deploy against email lists, or affiliate programs. This is a personal research project, and is not tied to my employer, clients, or anyone else for that matter.

39% of the respondents who recently got a job were able to get a job within one of actively looking

33% of the respondents that recently got a job were able to do so within 1-3 months

12% shows a quick drop of respondents that recently were hired got a job 4-6 months of actively looking

11% of the respondents that recently got a job took 7-9 months of actively looking

This means that 72% of respondents were able to get a job within 3 months of actively starting to look.

Getting a job (for those who were hired from Sept 2008 to Jan 2009) haven’t had that much of a problem doing so

For those that are concerned about layoffs, should have some ‘irons in the fire’ and keep conversations going with prospective empoyers

Haven’t started a conversation? Be active by reaching out to your immediate network with your new skills, or projects, as shown by data from finding 1

Families and individuals should at least have 3 months (preferably 6 months, I’m told) of reserve capital for living expenses if someone gets laid off

Coming soon I’ll be posting results for: top industries hired, compensation rates, and some other interesting data cuts.

Resources: See my Web Strategy Job Board

Jobs in a Recession Survey Results 1: Recent Hires Got Jobs Via Referral from Friends, Colleagues, Alumni, or Family

This is part 1 of an ongoing community project to help people understand how to get jobs during a recession.

This data is slightly skewed towards those that are already active in social media as the survey went to those within my network on my blog and the highly connected Twitter community. There were 214 respondents to the survey although this graphic only represents those who got jobs since Sept 2008 (71 respondents) that represent those that were hired during the announcement of the recession. This is a personal research project, and is not tied to my employer, clients, or anyone else for that matter.

Most (43%) get their jobs through their immediate online network of friends, colleagues, alumni, or family.

Although a big gap the second (12%) most used method was through online job boards or websites.

Some suggested on Twitter that in Europe or Asia this is the primary method of job seeking –unlike the highly wired online job market in US, I did not ask location question to verify.

This could also be due to the fact that my network are people already using social media and are hyper-connected to each other.

I had no idea this method would have been so high, if it were, I would have asked separate questions to break that out into different referral methods.

First of all, considering the massive layoffs, almost everyone should be exploring a backup plan

Job seekers should nurture their relationships with their peers first.

Job seekers should continually keep their network educated about their new projects, skills, and work they are taking on, consider using LinkedIn, Facebook, professional website or a blog

They should reach out and connect with their network before they need them.

Interact with them in email, social networks, phone and good ol fashioned lunch meetings

Coming soon I’ll be posting results for: top industries hired, compensation rates, and duration spent looking for a job in a recession

Resources: See my Web Strategy Job Board

Community Managers Must Deliver ROI: Commandments For Surviving a Recession

I’m a former community manager, and many of my friends are currently in this role, and I want to make sure they are armed with the right knowledge to succeed during hard times –I know some of them may get laid off.

Community Managers are at risk of being let go
During a recession, we know that marketing, sometimes new media and unknown expenses get cut. Unfortunately, to some, the Community Manager role may sit in all three of those areas of scrutiny. Although I’ve been tracking quite a few Community Managers working at enterprise class companies, they must quickly learn to measure, and demonstrate ROI or risk getting cut.

Community Managers must educate stakeholders and management.
Measurement depends on which objective they are trying to solve, so I’ll break it down into specific objectives and tasks. During incidents the community manager should report in real-time to key stakeholders. Secondly, they should provide weekly updates that can be quickly scanned in 30 seconds to community managers. Each month, they should provide a detailed report, and initiate a 30-60 minute meeting with key stakeholders to discuss changes.

Among these changes they should measure:

Improvement in marketing efficiency
Community Managers should measure increased speed from word of mouth or marketing awareness, the best way to measure this is time from awareness to close –or spread of WOM. This could also include increase understanding of customers (listening) for marketing research, or warning stakeholders about potential detractors before they become real issues. Unfortunately, these metrics aren’t valued as much as the next two, so focus accordingly.

Reduction in support costs
The bottom line is always important to business, so if you can measure a decrese in customers going to physical stores, emailing account reps, or calling the support center as they instead rely on community to help self-support themselves, you can start to put dollar costs on this actual community savings.

Actual improvement to sales
This matters most. Community Managers should start to measure how clicks from community directly impact ecommerce, go to product pages (perhaps if you’re B2B) or to affiliate marketing to demonstrate how community interaction increases revenue. If you can demonstrate this (like Dell’s million dollar sales in Twitter) tout this loudly to management.

Conduct additional research
If you’re like most companies, layoffs are coming, therefore Community Managers must educate the powers that be the value that they offer when it comes to customer service and support. Rather than focus purely on the role that they have, they should demonstrate the overall of the community –then discusss why a role is needed (like a physical store manager) in order to keep it running smoothly. Consider running quarterly surveys that measure Net Ratings or customer satisfaction, and don’t forget to quote qualitative responses from community members themselves, there’s nothing like a pure customer testimonial about why they are customers.

If you’ve other tips for Community Managers during a recession, leave a comment below.

Update: Bill Johnston has some additional tips you should read, he also left a comment below.

Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Jan 27, 2009

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an industry analyst. By creating this digest (I started this over a year ago) it really helps me to stay on top of the space I cover.

I’ve created a new category called Digest (view archives). Start with the Web Strategy Summary, then quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read text for my take, and click link to dive in for more.

Subscribe to this blog in your feedreader, or use the email subscription box in the right column. Or you can subscribe to this digest tag only and not receive my other posts.

Web Strategy Summary
More growth shown in Facebook’s worldwide unique visitors, Leverage Software launches upgrade, and more twists on social networking in our culture from crime, religion, and parenting.

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Release: Leverage Software upgrades to version 6.5
Leverage has made some improvements with it’s geo social maps, groups, and calendar functions, and has provided some detailed release notes.

Data: Social Networks overtake adult websites
Hitwise has collected data on UK social networking activity, and has found that social networking sites has overtaken one of the greatest triggers of internet innovation, the adult industry.

Data: Adults bulk of social networkers, but still leans young
eMarketer gives data on how “But younger online adults were much more likely than their older counterparts to use social networks, with three-quarters of those ages 18 to 24 using the sites, compared with just 7% of Internet users ages 65 and older”.

Culture: Woman killed for Facebook Status
This bizarre case shows how much social networking has infiltrated our culture. Obviously, this has little to do with social networks as this enraged husband rampages after wife turns her status to single on Facebook, and more about human psychology.

Usage: Facebook unique visitors twice as large as MySpace
More growth in Facebook’s arena as Techcrunch reports that unique worldwide visitors has overtaken MySpace.

Culture: Pope welcomes Facebook –yet cautions
Here’s a sign that social networks are bleeding into many areas of culture, when religion starts to comment on “gifts” such as these online tools.

Parenting: Friends of children’s friends
Linda Furrier poses some questions about parents monitoring the friends of friends (FoaF) within social networks, should advance parenting features be setup in social networks? Last time I checked, there was a minimum age required for some social networks.

Hungry For Social Networking Stats? Then you should see my collection of Social Networks Stats for 2008 and 2009. Bookmark them, then share it with others as I continue to update it.

Twitter’s Valuation, $73.52 an Active User?

This is just an educated guess, as we don’t have confirmation from Twitter, nor has the funding closed.

Rumors are coming in that Twitter may raise another round of capital at valuation of $250mm, quick calculations from my archive of social networking stats show many sources indicate they range from 4-6mm registered users.

Last week, when I visited the smooth Twitter offices in SF, I asked them about official registered users and they commented “they don’t give out those numbers”, as it would benefit others more than them. So, I’ll average it around 5mm total registered users. I trust the HP labs research on Twitter (met with Bernardo two weeks ago) and their data from a significant sample size shows that only 68% of users return.

This would suggest that 3,400,000 actual users, which if you diveded into the supposed valuation of $250mm would result in the active (people who actually return) users actual worth $73.52. Scobleizer suggests it’s $42 but I think it’s near double that –as you have to take into account those that won’t participate.

Could a Twitter user generate this type of value for it’s users over it’s lifetime? Perhaps if they went the consumer route with eCommerce, advertising, or some type of location based marketing. Or, they could supplement this with revenues from the corporate side by supplying brands with services to ethically, delivering services to them that wouldn’t shy away consumers.

This isn’t even close to being correct, as if we truly wanted to be analysts over the valuation, we would have to factor in future growth, market conditions, and whichever monetization routes they intend to go, since we don’t have that data, we’ll leave it at current size of an estimated 3.5mm active users.

Misjudgment or Transparency? How a Single Tweet Caused a Stir With a Client

It’s entertaining to watch how the PR industry self-spins, in this latest dust up regarding a tweet by James Andrews, an executive who works at Ketchum, a well known PR agency.

James is accused of bad form, and his company had to backtrack when he posted this tweet on the way to visit his client Fedex: “True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say “I would die if I h ad to live here!” it caused angst with the ‘location sensitive’ client, and they issued this comment, apparently on this blog (update: this may have been an email from Fedex to Ketchum), after it was run up the Fedex flagpole. (via David, and Peter)

Apparently, some took offense, and tweeted and an interesting exchange started to happen, as the conversation ensued also on twitter. James then stood by his guns, explained his stance and apologized and helped explain what happened on this own blog (followed by a post by his own wife).

A few takeaways

While showing a bit of misjudgment, (there are many other ways he could have expressed his opinion) I’d rather hire someone who was honest and transparent first. Gawker agrees

Fedex employees need to have some fun with the online conversation, the reaction was a brutal and excessive, but it’s clear that this was a trigger for other axes to grind.

Personal opinions must be kept in check when it involves clients and customers.

Twitter is often taken out of context, it’s happened to me. Intent isn’t always clear.

The PR industry likes to spin it’s own top, and I’m adding to it right now.

James Andrews is better off for this, and I admire him for weathering this storm.

Rule of thumb: (fitting, if you tweet from a mobile device). When you tweet, you’re publishing, don’t say anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face, and assume that your current and future boss, wife, and mother are reading it.

Thanks to Jennifer Doctor (update: who calls for context of the situation) for spurring me along to comment on this topic.

UJpdate: I like Eric’s take on this, and suggests that James didn’t represent himself well as a PR professional, regardless of anyone who should have an opinion.

The Obama Generation

Yesterday, Stephanie Agresta brought nine tech and business students from Iowa’s Luther College (blog) to meet me at our Foster City office for some Q&A about the business world they’re about to enter. This day, Jan 20th was the first day Obama has been in office, and he’s already made some significant changes within his first hours in the oval office.

We had an interesting conversation, we talked about creating career websites, starting blogs, and how to represent yourself in a professional way. We discussed how sharing online is likely permanent and you should assume your boss, your mother, and your future wife/husband will read whatever you say online. How they should start preparing for the job market, and some practical tips to use social networks to find jobs.

These juniors and seniors are about to enter the workforce, and they’ll have experienced this in a different way then any previous generation has. What’s so different? they’ll always have been in the workforce and known that:

Their President was always their Facebook friend.

Their President was always the top Twitter user as far as they can remember.

Their President has always addressed them on Saturday mornings on YouTube.

They’ll be connected to their friends to discuss topics and join causes in social networks.

The “Mall” won’t just be about shopping but also refer to the Washington Mall.

Blackberry’s are the new scepter of power, and a status symbol.

Soon, they’ll remember how they can voice their opinion on websites like the Whitehouse.gov isn’t just a destination site, but will become a place to have two-way conversations with peers and the administration.

Not all of these things are always cheery for them, as they graduate the impact of the recession may cause them to compete against others that are far more experienced and may be able to outbid them. They may understand what ‘change’ and ‘hope’ means but may not remember what the country is trying to escape.

Back to you, what are the other characteristics of this Obama Generation especially as it ties back to the internet?

Webinar: Social Media Across the Enterprise

Hopefully you’ve noticed my journey lately, to understand how social computing impacts not just one aspect of a company, but how it’s going to be an ‘overlay’ across the entire organization, in fact, nearly two years ago, I created this graphic in 2007 which demonstrates how social computing can be applied across an entire customer lifecycle. Maybe you noticed that in 2009 your CIO will start to sniff out the different business departments deploying social technologies, and may want to consolidate.

Spiksource and Intel have made it possible by working with Forrester to sponsor this webinar on Leveraging Social Media into your Business Strategy, Feb 5th 10am PST where we won’t just talk about how social media impacts marketing –but thinking bigger to the whole enterprise. I’ll be joined by Six Apart’s Michael Sippey, and Jive’s CMO, Sam Lawrence. See you there!

Update: Joseph has taken some notes from the webinar, thanks! also, the recording is now available.

How Did You Participate In The Inauguration?

Are you old media or new? Progressive or traditional? Were you present in DC or were you participating using TV and being online?

President Barack Obama’s inauguration was an interesting event, why? It wasn’t during normal evening showtimes when people would watch on TV, as a result, people found other ways to consume the event –even using iPhone apps. Secondly, although an American event, it has implications to the rest of the globe, it’s not just a limited audience.

In my world, I watched it at 830am at home on HDTV, while streaming other pieces on Ustream.tv. I watched Current TV (got annoyed with the hip hop music and ridiculous tweets) and turned on CNN. I was on twitter (see charts), chatting and commenting about Aretha’s magic bow and how to be yellow mellow, and was reading the hundreds of tweets coming in every 30 seconds on Tweetscan, Summize (it couldn’t keep up) and Tweetdeck.

Over on Seesmic, there were discussions from those who were watching –and it cascaded to many other social sites, at the end of the ceremony, I changed my Facebook stats to read “Jeremiah is mellow yellow” and received several replies in a matter of minutes –one from my kid sister, who says I’m old for using email.

Tell me how you experienced the inauguration? Did you use mainstream media? Was it a social event for you? Did you create your own commentary and share with others?