Marketers know that PR is often the best weapon in their arsenals, particularly with members of Gen Y who have grown up being bombarded with marketing messages and tend to seek out their own information in many different ways. The idea behind effective PR is to have someone with credibility say something good about you that seems more authentic and closer to the truth than any marketing fluff you could put on your own website. It's this element of authenticity that is missing from most career websites.
Recently, some companies that were willing to step up and take a risk (in the face of many critics who questioned whether it would yield an ROI before initiatives even launched) were rewarded with some very positive press. Microsoft, T-Mobile, HP and Verizon continue to receive positive mentions as companies that were using new and innovative tactics in the war for talent by participating in a Second Life career event hosted on TMP Island. Traditional media like the Wall Street Journal, the Baltimore Sun (and many others), niche media like techcareers.com and dozens bloggers have jumped on the story, which should help each of these companies in their recruiting efforts and provide a boom to TMP's business as they seek to be positioned as a recruitment ad agency on the leading edge of technology in the wake of their recent spin-off from Monster.
Boeing also received some positive press recently from their earlier foray into Facebook (which they did with the help of their ad agency, JWT). The Boston Herald story about the aerospace's industry sums up the target audience's impression of these types of efforts to meet Gen Y where they are:
"My first impression was that Boeing is getting with the times," said the 21-year-old senior (at MIT, Justin Wong), who will work at Boeing’s satellite division after graduation. "It shows the company is making an effort to talk to us on our level."
For an industry like aerospace, there's a business imperative lurking behind the efforts to reach out in new ways:
It’s no secret the U.S. aerospace industry is rapidly graying: The average age of an aerospace worker was 45 in 2005. By next year, roughly one out of four will be eligible to retire. Faced with a looming brain drain, companies are cooking up creative ways to lure and keep talent from chatting with students online to fast-tracking young workers to be future leaders.
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