Inbound marketing, of course, is the idea that the marketing of the future is not interruption. Outbound marketing says you buy commercials or print ads and interrupt content that your target audience is interested in, inbound marketing says you should actually be creating content that your audience will be interested in . I've been a fan of that idea since before I knew of the term "inbound marketing", so when I was laid off in the beginning of December, it was natural that I would leverage that concept to find my next job.
I was lucky enough in December to have had an existing personal brand, I had an established blog , a couple thousand followers on Twitter , a few speaking gigs under my belt and a little over a hundred connections on LinkedIn . I also had a pretty unique positioning strategy, labeling myself the social media and viral marketing scientist. So I wasn't starting from zero that morning I was told I no longer had a job .
Outbound or interruption personal marketing would have told me that I could rest on my laurels while I had a job and then just start spamming every HR person, recruiter and email address I could find with my resume and cover letter. In a booming economy this might have worked, but in the new economy it won't. There are plenty of other qualified candidates out of a job and doing the same old school things to find a new one . Inbound marketing teaches us that we have to give before we get, we have to become magnets to attract the right kind of attention.
That first month I did a few things that ended up helping my job search. I posted a handful of times on Twitter that I was looking for a job and that led to a few leads (in both @ replies and DMs). I also started building a few tools that I didn't have a time to when I was gainfully employed and those tools (The ReTweet Mapper and TweetBacks/TweetSuite ) accelerated the growth of my personal brand, garnering me mentions on top industry blogs, and more followers and LinkedIn connections. Rather than trying to interrupt people in my space with advertisements about myself, I created things that people wanted to use and let them come to me .
Once I had this increased personal brand awareness,
I was able to start leveraging social media to target specific companies I thought would be cool places to work
. As a result of one of my earlier tweets about looking for work, someone DM'd me to mention that HubSpot was hiring. I knew I was following a few people from the company, so I tweeted asking who worked there and was almost immediately greeted by a few employees pointing me in Mike Volpe's (
@mvolpe
) direction. I went through the normal resume submission process outlined by the website and @ messaged Mike, mentioning my interest in working for HubSpot.
Outbound marketing would dictacte that I stop and wait after I submitted my resume, but instead I followed through with a multi-touch strategy. Using Twitter I was able to make personal connections not only with my potential boss, but also a few of the people I've come to be working alongside of .
I'm not sure of the exact proceedure Mike took when reviewing my resume, but I know that he ran my site and my Twitter account through their
respective
graders
and saw that I had fairly high scores for both.
I also imagine that the 9 recommendations from coworkers and clients I had listed on my LinkedIn page functioned as sort of social media references
. I came in for a few interviews and the rest is history, I have an awesome job at a cool company and I have my personal brand and social media prescence to thank for it.
After starting to work at HubSpot my personal brand was such that industry blog ReadWriteWeb thought that my new job was big enough news to feature not only on their new jobwire site , but also on their homepage .
Webinar: Blogging for Business
|
Want to learn more about publishing a blog on your business website?
Download the free webinar to learn how to create a thriving inbound marketing blog. |
Inbound Marketing Blog Feed
Pushan 8:15 AM on February 17, 2009
Refreshing insights compared to anyone else. This is the first time I have seen inbound marketing in use and might I say WOW! Thanks and it's been a pleasure following you on twitter too
Zara Green 8:16 AM on February 17, 2009
Great stuff Dan. You were prepared to be layed off...and rehired; in a position to flow with the changes in your life - hitting that challenge, head on!
Good for you!
~Zara
NEXT Decision...BETTER than your LAST ;)
Guillaume 9:11 AM on February 17, 2009
Very impressive. Do you think your experience could also apply to a company or an organization that, let's say, has just lost a big contract?
Kerryann Driscoll 9:12 AM on February 17, 2009
Dan- Thanks so much for sharing. As someone who is in the job market currently, your post gave me a lot of great ideas!
Pete Caputa 10:12 AM on February 17, 2009
Thanks for sharing, Dan. This is a cool story.
At HubSpot, we spend a good amount of time recruiting. We're looking for people who are passionate about what we do; creative and hard working so they can start making an impact day one. It's hard to demonstrate those things on a piece of paper. Those things are demonstrated by the way someone approaches a problem... a problem like finding a new job. You certainly have demonstrated your abilities and it's already obvious what skills you bring to the marketing group with the launching of the link love site! Can't wait to see more of your work.
Tim Malone 11:27 AM on February 17, 2009
Great article. I was let go on Friday Feb 13th from my web design/development job. I have been moving more toward the inbound and social media aspects in the last few months at work. I have started monitoring my facebook account and interacting more, setup some bookmarks on digg, started tweeting about 3 months ago and have 80+ followers. I love this marketing concept. I am terrified now that I don't have everything I need setup and in place to move forward with the job search. It takes time to develop relationships. I have watched a ton of resources from hubspot and would love to work in a place like that. Is there hope for people like me who don't have a complete personal brand in place? Thanks for the article.
Brian Halligan 11:53 AM on February 17, 2009
We are thrilled to have you, Dan.
mores 12:52 PM on February 17, 2009
اهلا
David Moore 2:05 PM on February 17, 2009
Dan you really set the bar high. But not only for those who are currently in the job market or who fear losing their job, but for business leaders. I run a small company and boy did you challenge me. Small to Large business leaders should be ashamed if they don't have the passion, expertise, and foresight to do what you just did. If we as leaders were doing what you just did, our businesses would probably be so successful, there would be LESS layoffs. Bravo Dan.
Dobes Vandermeer 2:46 PM on February 17, 2009
Sure, that's great - but what if you want to get a job at McDonald's? :-P
Actually, for targetted job hunting and networking, I did discover that LinkedIn and Twitter can be great, since you can do these multi-touch campaigns where you've sent a message to a few people at the company and created some "buzz" which gives you an edge as long as you are not annoying.
One of the "secrets" I discovered about LinkedIn is that if you belong to groups you can contact anyone in the group - no cumbersome "introduction" process is required. It's a loophole - enjoy it while it lasts!
Chernee Vitello 4:58 PM on February 17, 2009
Dan -
Great blog, and great success story on how to leverage all tools available to a person in today's marketplace. I am a recruiter and trying to encourage my candidates to leverage this process.
Best -
Chernee
Jodi Bakst 6:51 PM on February 17, 2009
I am more than impressed with this story. This is clearly the wave of the future. I find it fascinating that you took the bull by the horns and used all of the incredible tools available to you to bring you to HubSpot. Clearly, this is a great match for you and HubSpot.
I think you should design a webinar or series of webinars around what you did. Now, not all of us have the tools to build twitter programs, but I am sure we can be creative and come up with other good ideas as well.
Thank you for posting this.
iPeter 7:07 PM on February 17, 2009
I found Dan's twin brother!?
http://flickr.com/photos/markmarkmark/2111765734/in/set-72157601589026844/
iPeter 7:15 PM on February 17, 2009
I found Dan's twin brother!?
http://flickr.com/photos/markmarkmark/2111765734/in/set-72157601589026844/
Brandon Walker 10:59 PM on February 17, 2009
It just shows the power of internet in making connections and 'reaching out' to people. I never ceases to amaze me the power of social networking and making connections online.
David King 2:43 AM on February 18, 2009
that's awesome! inbound marketing sure is awesome... great post!
I am loving twitter... i am connecting and networking with so many people... the best part is that it's at light speed too!!!!!!
thanks for the post~
Justice O. Omorodion 3:26 PM on February 18, 2009
Great connections you made there! How are you doing right now with your new found job? Hope you meet nice people there! I'm looking forward to utilize twitter brilliantly as you did.
Deb Lamb 11:21 AM on March 29, 2009
Awesome post! As someone that has been laid off since November, searching for a new job can be very tiring! You have given me some great ideas that I will put into place and see what happens.
If anyone is looking for a Seasoned Technical Recruiter that has worked in the Aerospace, Defense, Government, Specialty Materials, Manufacturing and many more, with 12 yeas of experience...please feel free to contact me!
Thanks again and make it an awesome day!
Tim 1:31 PM on April 06, 2009
Giving before receiving and developing a network are great points to take action on.
Having those connections is kind of like the squirrel who has hundreds of nuts stored away ahead of time and has no problem when winter comes.
When it comes to job, or at least "income-developing" activity, here's another possibility.
Since so many are talking about being more creative during this economic slump, why not think outside the box of looking to work for another in the first place? I know, I know, but stay with me for a moment.
It's amazing that there are plenty of skill sets that are for whatever reason not "conventional" enough to be taught in schools, but the mastery of which would lead to more autonomy.
Most of us are trained to be employees- nothing wrong with that, but thinking that way can be a kind of tunnel vision that keeps many from learning skills that would allow them to carve out their own path to income and contribution.
One of them is as close as the computer in front of you. No really, for the first time in history, we are 3 feet in front of the world, yet few learn how to use it in a way to render 1) value to others and 2)income for themselves.
There ARE ways to learn this stuff, if you can avoid all the junk and find good and reputable sources.
leavethejobbehind.com
Jenny 8:29 PM on May 08, 2009
Thank you so much for these ideas! I've started my own blog and hope to implement more of your tips into my job search. Hope it's alright that I mentioned you in one of my posts. Thanks!
Yoav Shapira 12:04 PM on June 01, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/jobs/31recruit.html