Following Jobsite’s recent Fresh Thinkers events, get the latest insights on mobile: the widest reaching technology in the world today by downloading by visiting the below link. Definitely worth a read!
http://www.jobsite.co.uk/events/fresh-thinking/whitepaper/fresh_thinking_nov11.pdf
In April 2012 James Swift will be taking part in the Greater Manchester Marathon for the charity, Freedom from Torture.
Freedom from Torture (formerly the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture) is a human rights organisation that exists to support survivors of torture and organised violence. They provide medical and social care, practical assistance, and psychological and physical therapy.
This will be James’s 5th Marathon in total and he will be aiming for a sub 4.30hr time.
Please sponsor him by visiting: www.justgiving.com/jamesswiftmanchester
We all operate in tough times, none more so than Job Boards. There are far too many of them for starters and with social media thrown into the mix and traditionally press advertising, there’s less money to go around. That said; I find the attitude of certain media sales people absolutely appalling.
The other day I asked a regional job board for a proposal which was responded with immediate negativity and accusations of us not giving them feedback on previous proposals. What’s more, apparently sending us proposals is “becoming mundane.” After pointing out that I’d be happy to lift the burden and take our business elsewhere, I got a further accusation of being “rude.” As someone that sold Job Boards to Ad Agencies for around 7 years or so, I totally understand people’s frustrations. However, there are ways of doing business and frankly, this is totally unacceptable! Emailing us with “any news on that proposal?” isn’t asking for feedback. It’s lazy and gets answered with “no” if there isn’t any news. The same media owner sees fit to then get other people in their business phone me, have a right go, point out that they know someone that works for our client and basically piss me off to high heaven. All this for just asking for a proposal!
All this has been going on for years but in these tough times, it’s the really smart and professional operators that will succeed. You don’t need to be an ass-kisser, just behave in a professional way and you’ll be treated this way in return. Becoming aggressive just makes you look desperate and extremely unprofessional!
Will I do business with this site again? Yes, probably, but will I think of them as one of our partners? Definitely not!
Feedback on the above more than welcome!
On Saturday 10th July from 1pm – 4pm in association with The Levana School Project, Chorlton Leisure Centre (in South Manchester) is holding a handball tournament in aid of helping the school children of Levana Primary School, Cape Town, South Africa.
Come along and play in this quick changeover tournament. Your small entry fee will help educate the pupils at this school and give them some much needed funding. Adults and Children over 13 welcome and there will be cheerleaders and a raffle.
It raises money for pupils at Levana Primary School which is in a deprived area of Cape Town, South Africa. So far it has funded things such as a library, school uniforms, school trips and an extra teacher. It aims to provide opportunities for the pupils that they may not otherwise receive.
For more information, please contact Nell Banfield on 07944 663026 or email: nell.banfield@ntlworld.com
You can also visit the just giving page if you would like to make a donation: http://www.justgiving.com/levanaschool/ or to see some photos of the School, visit: http://www.nellbanfield.com/levana.html
At the end of March 2010, Beyond Interactive will be exactly halfway through its 4th year and here are some thoughts on how things have been going:
This time last year the business was ticking along nicely but nothing more than that. In fact, it was a difficult time to predict anything and we had a job on our hands to continue our early years’ success. Whether a coincidence or not, the business has gone from strength-to-strength since April last year. We’ve picked up some fantastic accounts such as Weight Watchers, Astra Zeneca and JTI – to name a few. With these new business wins and continued support from existing clients, the 2nd half of last year was very strong and enabled us to finish much better than was originally predicted.
The start of our 4th year in October got off to a great start by picking up a few more new-business wins and 6 months on, we’re on target for an even better year financially with continued profitability. However it’s not been plain sailing and like everyone else, we’ve had to adapt to the poor economic situation. Fortunately being a smaller organisation, we’ve been able to this a lot easier than some of our larger competitors.
A big reason for our success has come from listening to what clients really want and not just jumping on the social media bandwagon. Yes, we offer this and we’ve seen some great results from ongoing campaigns, but we try and advise instead of pushing the latest trend to our clients. The last thing we want to do is create campaigns for the sake of ‘ticking the social media box’ and generating a new revenue stream.
We may spend less with certain job boards than we used to but we still see them as an integral part of our strategy and there’s nothing to suggest this will change. A certain client of ours hasn’t paid a recruitment agency fee for over 8 months; no coincidence since this is when they first started working with us! We’ve helped them to develop their online presence and engage with the right audience on the right job boards. Only now do we feel this client is ready to build on this success and embrace social media as part of their people strategy.
Another client has seen their cost-per-hire reduced from around £5K to £600. This success was again generated from using job boards in the right way. But more importantly, by listening to what the client wants and getting them to communicate openly and honestly.
Overall, we’re really excited about the second half of year 4. We’ll be embracing social media much more but only if it’s right for our clients. One thing’s for sure: trying to forecast and predict is almost impossible in this climate. However, if we stick by our principles of ambition, credibility, honesty and transparency, then I see nothing but continued success for the business.
What’s more, our new website (and blog) will finally be ready early April so watch this space.
Today is the last day of Beyond Interactive’s third year and we’re pleased to report another great and profitable one.
Instead of waxing lyrical about how great we are, here are a couple of recent testimonials from our clients that explain it better anyway:
Beyond Interactive have proven to be an extremely flexible, customer focused and supportive partner. James has enhanced our ability to support clients with expert insights into online recruitment strategies. Their research is always tailored to our, often changing, requirements. We would have no hesitation in recommending their services.
Bryan, Brophy McPaul
I see Beyond Interactive as the absolute ‘oracle’ for all things to do with online media. I believe that we get absolute value for ££, that the advice given is 2nd to none and that you truly have the best interests of the client in mind.
Nick, AstraZeneca
Roll on year 4 – new website coming soon too!
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