In 1922, Warren Harding became the first president to be heard on the radio, and two years later, Calvin Coolidge won the first election that was broadcast over the radio.

The 1960 Kennedy and Nixon debates introduced a new era in which television would dominate political campaigns.

The 2012 election between Obama and Romney has been dubbed the Social Media Election, where exit polls showed that 69% of people reported using social media in relation to the 2012 presidential campaign, a drastic increase from the 37% who reported using social media during the 2008 election, back when the iPhone was in its first year of existence.

In each of these campaigns, winning candidates embraced the newest media platforms and used them to their advantage. So what are the trends that need to be embraced in our generation? Data, mobile, and content.

Knowledge is Power – Knowing Your Constituents is the Key:

Data has become one of the most important keys to running a strong election. Data helps you find who you are looking for, where to find them and how to target them with the right message. Before we had access to data about potential voters, candidates would send their message out to anyone and everyone – direct mailings, lawn signs, television and radio spots. While these are still widely used marketing techniques, data helps you narrow down that large field of people into smaller segments. With these segments, you can target your audience with the right messages that will resonate and help sway the vote.

Americans On the Go – Bringing Information to the People:

According to survey data from the Pew Research Center, 68% of Americans own a smartphone and 92% own a mobile phone of some kind. With those kind of numbers, odds are your potential voter will be looking at their phones today. You can’t guarantee that they’ll see your TV commercial or read your direct mailer, but it’s pretty likely that you can reach your audience through mobile. Because of this, it’s important for political advertisers to not only embrace mobile, but to put it first.

Having a mobile-first strategy will help from many different angles. First, on the media side, mobile gives candidates and their supporters the opportunity to tell their own story. With cell phone recordings and live stream apps like Facebook Live and Periscope, candidates can be their own 24-hour news network.  On the campaign side, mobile joined with data can help candidates get their word out by advertising and targeting voters. In a general sense, mobile gives voters quicker and more frequent access to information.

All that being said, while your potential voter can definitely be reached on a mobile device, keeping their attention is a different story.

Complimenting Your Data and Technology with Great Content:

While it’s almost a guarantee that your potential voters are on their mobile devices, you have a much shorter amount of time then before to capture their attention. A TV commercial is 30 seconds to a minute long, while a mobile ad has to catch someone’s eye in much less time. Messages that don’t resonate with constituents will get lost very quickly in the over-saturated digital world.

Overcoming this hurdle is an easy answer that’s difficult to achieve – you need to create smart content. With data, you know who your potential voters are. With mobile, you know where they are. Now you need to reach out to them and establish a connection with them. Below are a few tips on creating great political content that will resonate with your constituents:

Tell your story

One of the most important pieces of any campaign is the story that is being told. Where did the candidate come from? What have they done? What are their beliefs? What’s their personality? A good story should be believable and should resonate with the audience that the candidate wants support from. Why did so many young people love Bernie Sanders? It’s more than his promises of free higher education – his story embodies equality for all in America, making a more even playing field and taking power away from corporations and politicians. His story resonates with a generation that grew up in the recession, that graduated from college with huge debt and little job opportunity, and that has little faith in the government.

Not only is Sanders telling this story, but he has embodied it and it has become his brand. Sanders has taken this story that resonates with young people. From there, he had delivered it across the mediums that his potential voters frequent. His social media presence (larger than front-runner Hillary Clinton’s), is significant, and he uses it in a personal way to reach potential voters.

Get Social

It cannot be said enough – it’s essential for candidates to get onto social media. Raise awareness of political issues. Encourage people to get out and vote. Promote your candidate. It can all be done with social media. So many studies have been done that say younger generations aren’t interested in politics, but maybe it’s the other way around – political advertisers aren’t reaching younger generations where they are, or not reaching them in the right way. Millennials and their successors, Generation Z, don’t have interest in mainstream politics. They’re not going to follow a candidate’s Facebook or  Twitter that doesn’t have content that resonates with them.

Direct Marketing

While social is the best way to connect with younger generations of voters, don’t ignore other strategies. While the younger generations have the numbers, baby boomers have the interest in politics. This generation still responds very well to old-fashioned direct marketing. Brochures, leaflets, and yard signs can work very well for some candidates, especially in a smaller scale election.

MassLive Media Group has the data and solutions to create a personalized digital strategy for your political campaigns. Contact us today for more information.

 

Manufacturing Recruitment Strategy

Worker shortages in manufacturing industry is real. Highly skilled positions remain open as a significant portion of the manufacturing workforce is nearing retirement age. For manufacturers, building and maintaining a robust and skilled talent pool is key for both short-term and long-term hiring success.

Recruitment Marketing as a Relationship Builder, Not Just Candidate Sourcing

Don’t wait to be present until a position is open – consistently position your brand in front of both passive and active job seekers. Consistent branding creates a talent pool who is familiar with your company, benefits, culture and therefore more likely to consider you when looking to make a career change. Top of the funnel marketing tactics such as video and display make your brand presence known.

Build A Connection By Understanding Your Best Potential Candidates 

Develop personas, marketing strategies and campaigns specific to your common open positions. Different positions attract different types of candidates. Understanding the nuances allows you to more directly content with job seekers, to communicate your company story and to welcome them into your culture with a personalized approach. Seek out a recruitment marketing partner with a deep data bench, capable of developing audience segments, media placements and creative to speak directly to specific candidate audiences.

Enhance Your Job Board Presence with Display & Video

Placements on job boards are effective in reaching those actively seeking a position. However, other traditional marketing methods like targeted display and video allow companies to share their full story. More visual formats let prospective candidates see your benefits and experience your culture. Both elements that can cause them to choose you as their next employer – over your competition.

SUCCESS STORIES

Healthcare Recruitment Strategy

A growing aging population, pandemic burnout and a ramp up of traveling nurse opportunities have put a strain on healthcare recruitment. Nurses are in high demand – with an abundance of employment options to choose from. How does your healthcare facility standout in this mad dash for employment?

Invest in the Community You Serve

Healthcare is essential to the community. Consider supporting the community you serve by sponsoring local events, job fairs and awards to keep your organization top-of-mind. Not only will these positive associations bring your organization front and center, it will also generate positive word of mouth among the community – reaching friends and families connected to potential candidates.

Showcase Company Culture

Give a glimpse of what its like to work at your organization on any given day. Show the people who work there, the halls to be walked and the benefits to be had. Video succinctly communicates positive culture through virtual tours, testimonials and more. Written testimonials and other content featuring current employees lend authenticity to your showcase.

Replenish Talent Pools with New Grads

New graduates are critical in helping to fill staffing gaps and to replenish talent pools. Utilize highly targeted strategies to reach new graduates, while still on campus, where they are spending their time. Hyper local mobile targeting puts your organization front and center among soon-to-be-graduating adding you to their consideration set for post-graduation employment.

SUCCESS STORIES

Education Recruitment Strategy

Like most categories of business, education providers are facing faculty and staff shortages. Finding experienced and passionate educators and faculty continues to be a challenge. Education institutions should look beyond salary and benefits to larger strategies to drive interest and applications for the upcoming school year ahead.

Build Your Talent Pool with Year-Round Strategy

Primary education recruitment season begins at the end of the previous school year, with many schools starting from scratch every year. Establishing a year-round recruitment marketing strategy, allows you
to reach faculty and staff considering a change throughout the school year, adding them to your talent pool as the year progresses. Having a year-round plan also puts your institution front and center, outside of the more cluttered traditional recruitment period.

Utilize Your Community As A Recruitment Tool

Your community has the potential to be a unique selling point for your institution. Consider highlighting the quality of life – showing prospective employees the community you serve. Community events, local activities, cost of living and more can have pull over prospective employees looking to make a move or to enjoy a way of life your community offers. Partner with local events, local organizations and even your convention and visitors bureau to generate content about your community.

Job Fairs Help Build Awareness of Your Institution

Passive and Active job seekers join job fairs to learn more about prospective districts and institutions. By merely being present, among your competition, you can ensure that your district or institution is in the consideration set for educators looking to make a career move. Both in-person and virtual career fairs provide additional visibility and awareness for your institution.

SUCCESS STORIES

Warehouse Recruitment Strategy

Warehouses are experiencing unprecedented growth thanks to a shift towards online shopping. As growth continues and timely shipping remains critical, warehouses face a continual shortage of workers.

Tout the Benefits That Make You Stand Out

Warehousing jobs are not historically known for good benefits and upward mobility. With changing demand and increased competition, more warehouse companies are adding long-term benefits and job training to their offerings. As an employer, tout benefits like 401Ks, employer matching and paid training as part of new hire packages. Talk about your openings more as long-term careers vs. short- term or holiday employment for additional appeal.

Get Connected In the Community

Grassroots community efforts and word of mouth tactics still hold strong in warehousing recruitment. Sponsoring local community events and job fairs raises brand awareness in the community, spreads positive sentiment about your organization and jump starts word of mouth. This simple activation makes your organization more likely to be noticed by potential job seekers and considered as a stable, future local employer in a future job search.

Local Jobs, Local Placements

Warehousing recruitment pulls most applicants and new hires locally. Very rarely to companies hire outside of their immediate market. Tap into the local job seeker scene through local job boards, job fairs and other local job posting opportunities. Local job seekers continually use these outlets to find new employment opportunities.

SUCCESS STORIES

Trucking Recruitment Strategy

Facing an aging workforce and increased competition for new talent, the trucking industry struggles to keep recruitment pipelines full and trucking routes staffed. Trucking industries should look to implement full-funnel marketing strategies to not only attract active job seekers but it keep talent pools fresh with new prospects.

Address Trucking Industry Myths

Increase top-of-the-funnel prospects by introducing the benefits of a trucking industry careers to passive job seekers. Address potential concerns head-on, including hours, mileage goals and living conditions while highlighting employment benefits such as 401K matching, healthcare and time off. Video and written content are both great vehicles to communicate this information.

Stay in Touch with Prospects

Deciding to change careers can be a lengthy process for passive job seekers. Keep your talent pool active with periodic communication about your business, job openings and career benefits. Set up an email calendar, reaching out to a list of emails from those who you met at job fairs, submitted an inquiry or sent a full resume. Frequently post about your culture, the trucking industry and openings to keep your followers engaged.

Job Boards Are Important

Trucking applicants remain tapped in to local and regional job boards. A presence on local job boards and job aggregator sites provide you business with bottom of the funnel presence – reaching those interested in the truck industry and actively applying now.

SUCCESS STORIES

Professional Recruitment Strategy

Finding outstanding talent that fits your culture is a concern for any business. Make the most of your time and resources by attracting qualified candidates that can hit the ground running and succeed within your organization. Identify quality talent and cultivate your talent pool with leading recruitment marketing strategies perfect for professional businesses.

Showcase Your Company Culture

Tell the story of your business, your history, your employees and more. The more a prospective employee knows about your operations and culture the more they are able to determine whether they are a match for your organization. Office tour videos, employee testimonials and other visuals can help to show daily life within your company.

Tailor Communications to Open Positions

Instead of deploying blanket recruitment ads for all positions in your company, consider developing custom creative and campaigns for each position. Messaging should focus on key benefits and operations of that role, showcase photos and videos of that segment of your business and speak directly to those candidates. Specific communication, drives more qualified applications – increasing your odds of finding a match while building up your talent pool - than general recruitment ads.

Use Job Boards to Reach Active Job Seekers

Job Fairs, local job boards and job board aggregators remain critical bottom-of-the-funnel tactics in securing applications for open positions. While other flashier tactics will fill the top of your funnel, these more nitty-gritty media elements provide a place for active job seekers to seamlessly apply for the positions they want – now.

SUCCESS STORIES