I usually make time to watch MSNBC’s early morning weekend show Your Business. And just about every week, I see something interesting and think “I should blog about that”—but then I think . . . small biz/SOHO/entrepreneurial ideas aren’t very relevant for a corporate audience.
Now that I’ve turned it over in my mind several times, though, I’ve decided that some “small” ideas really do apply well to “big” companies. Two of the regular features from Your Business that provide useful ideas for recruitment and corporate communications are Elevator Pitch and Top Five.
To see videos from these (and other) segments, scroll down the web page and select from the Features dropdown list. A couple that are worth viewing: Top Five Apps for Monitoring Social Media and the IndiCustom Elevator Pitch.
It’s really fun to see what the Pitchers come up with, and how the volunteer venture capitalists respond to their presentations. But beyond the entertainment value—what I’ve realized by watching these segments is how much the Careers website is like an Elevator Pitch! Basically, there’s a very limited amount of time to capture a visitor’s attention and persuade him/her to “take a meeting” (i.e., find out more about your company).
For a speedy refresher on the elevator pitch, try this classic Fast Company article. Rule number one for crafting the perfect pitch? “Assume short buildings.”
Speaking of Fast Company–it’s not very corporate, but it is full of ideas about getting things done creatively in business. Why not just flip through it occasionally? Ditto for Wired. Yes, it’s (almost) terminally techie—but if your company ever hires anyone under thirty or needs a steady supply of IT wizards, then it’s worth a few minutes every now and then to check out what the target group might be reading.
And here’s a blog that’s chock-full of interesting news and information, but you might miss entirely because of the name: Small Business Labs. FYI: It’s future-focused, wide-ranging, and sometimes surprising, so . . . what’s not to like?
(Thanks for the scales, Mysid.)
Cynthia Giles has followed a serpentine career path from academia to publishing to marketing and design to information technology and corporate communications. There’s plenty of detail about this journey at www.cynthiagiles.com, but briefly--the common theme has been ideas, and how to present them effectively. Along the way, she became an accidental expert on data warehousing and business intelligence, and for the past ten years she has combined corporate contracting with an independent consulting practice that focuses on marketing strategy for smaller businesses and non-profits.
Having spent quite a bit of time looking for work, and anywhere from two weeks to two years inside a wide variety of American companies—she has given much thought to what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to creating a great employment fit.