Website Basics

Last week, I gave a presentation to about 30 small business owners on marketing their services. One of the hot topics was websites. I think websites are an important took for small businesses, but they are certainly not the "be-all, end-all" of marketing.

So it was with great interest today that I came across this website, ResumeAnswers.com, and it reminded me of some of the basics that resume writers should remember when developing their website.

These are:

• Make it easy for prospective customers to contact you. Maybe it's my browser, but I can't find a phone number or e-mail to contact the site owner/business owner -- despite several statements about "contact me for 'x'".
• Establish your credentials. I get the feeling that this individual works in a recruitment agency, or maybe in hiring in general. But I don't know who he or she is, or any of their credentials, because they're not spelled out anywhere on the site.

There are certainly more, but looking at this site, these were two very obvious "basics" you should remember. Make sure your phone number (at a minimum) is on every page of the site.

MySpace for Job Seekers?

Going through some old articles I'd clipped out, I came across an article from Business 2.0 magazine (no longer in existence, unfortunately), about a website that was touted as "A MySpace for Job Seekers." I looked up the company ("Blue Chip Expert") and it's still in business.

Here's how the concept was explained in the article:

"While interviewing with the CEO of a top Silicon Valley e-commerce firm, Scott Langmack got the idea for a company of his own. Langmack, a PepsiCo and Microsoft veteran, was a shoo-in for the position of chief marketing officer. But then the CEO complained that his headhunters had scoured thousands of resumes and that he'd spent three months interviewing shortlist candidates. A lightbulb went on in Langmack's brain, and he turned down the job.

Instead, he spent his own money creating Blue Chip Expert, a San Mateo, Calif., startup. Blue Chip is designed to make the kind of match Langmack's interviewer was seeking -- but in hours, not months. Think of it as a MySpace for top-level job seekers, except Langmark is offering thousands of dollars to any user who makes a successful referral. As he says, 'viral networks don't have to happen by accident.'"

Resume writers should consider signing up as a "Networker" and seeing what it's all about.

Employment Stats - November 2008

Here are some useful/interesting job search-related statistics, courtesy of Office Solutions magazine (January 2008):

71% of executives say the use of temporary workers has a place in their overall human resources budgets.
- OfficeTeam

2,356 people go into business for themselves every day in the United States. 20.4 million Americans are currently self-employed.
- U.S. Census Bureau

26 percent of Americans spend six or more hours each day on the Internet. 54 prcent spend 1-4 hours online.
- IBM

82 percent of HR professionals say that the way employees dress at work directly affects their prospects for promotion.
- Yahoo! HotJobs

43 percent of workers say a job interview is the most anxiety-inducing situation.
20 percent say the first day on a new job is the most anxiety-inducing situation.
- Monster.com

88 percent of executives say that sending a thank-you note following an interview can boost a job seeker's chances of landing the job. But 49 percent of applicants don't send thank-you notes. 52 percent of executives prefer to receive a handwritten thank-you note.
- Accountemps

The Value of a Newsletter

My husband, Jon, was cleaning out a desk drawer earlier this week, and came across an old issue of the "image building newsletter." Although it wasn't dated, the return address on it was from our very first issue, which means it was produced sometime between 1996 and 1999.

Ahhh.. some things never change. In an article about business promotions, I wrote:

Ever wonder how you can get more clients? Sometimes it seems new clients are dropping out of the woodwork ... while other times you wonder where they all went! There are ways you can help increase the likelihood that prospects will choose you ... and you can increase sales from your repeat customers when business slows down.

Most service business owners don't have the time it takes to devote to marketing their services -- they are too busy providing services to existing customers. But you need to continue marketing even when you're busy, because business can slow down at any time.

Marketing your services requires a commitment to ongoing promotions, advertising, and marketing.

Funny, I'd write the same thing today.