Smart Savvy

.

Introducing Catalyst + CO. - Non-Profit Recruitment Specialists - a new division of Smart Savvy that was launched this week. Catalyst delivers accomplished individuals with the passion and skills to drive non-profits to great results, saving time and reducing the risk. Catalyst + CO. specializes in finding Executive Directors, funding & development professionals and marketing & communications specialists.

To learn Why non-profit? Why Catalyst? Why now? Check out the Catalyst blog. If you are interested in the NFP sector be sure to register with us so we can keep you in mind for suitable roles.

Follow Catalyst + CO on Twitter and connect on LinkedIn.

We thought it was time to resurrect the Smokin Recruiter

.

The gavel has dropped and the winner of the Smart, Savvy + Associates Top Grads competition has been announced.

Callum Ng is crowned the 2009 Smart Savvy Top Grad.

.

Affectionately dubbed ‘The Record Holder’, Callum Ng clearly demonstrated that he ‘gets it.’  Callum’s marketing smarts as well as his strong sense of self, resourcefulness, and tenacity helped secure him the win.  He’s just finished his Early Career Masters at UBC as well as his time as captain of the UBC Thunderbirds Swim team. We call him the record holder for breaking the Canadian record in the 50M backstroke at the 2007 World University Games in Thailand.

Swimming aside, he’s a true marketer and understands how to maximize the knowledge he has to get the greatest possible output. “Callum did a fantastic job balancing the three key elements of marketing – research, strategy and connection / creative expression. Although the other contestants were very strong – this is definitely what set Callum apart, ” says Peter Reek, Founder of Smart Savvy + Associates.

Callum made it through quite the extensive selection process. The Top Grad competition’s objective is to find new grads who truly stand apart.  The first step began with an online questionnaire and short video explaining why an employer would want to hire them. From there, ten contenders underwent a panel interview to impress a few key judges from some top companies in Vancouver.

• Stephanie Corker-Irwin, Best Buy Canada
• Laurie Sterritt, Vancity
• Dianne Finn, Johnson & Johnson
• Peter Reek, Smart, Savvy + Associates

The panel cut down the list to five applicants who were then tasked with creating a marketing + launch plan for the (not so real) Gastown Brewery.  The contenders presented their plans to a group of  this city’s key marketers.

• Bryan Mavrow, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
• Lawrie Ferguson, Coast Capital Savings
• Maya Lange, Grey Vancouver
• Rob Lewis, Techvibes Media
• Andrea Carson, Sage Software
• Catherine Ducharme, Outsidein Communications

Each presentation was strong, as all contestants put in significant effort to ‘flex their marketing muscles’ and demonstrate the marketing know-how.  The Smart Savvy Top Grad competition proved a success for everyone. For the applicants, it was presenting themselves and learning from some experienced professionals, but even the judges took away from this competition, “This was a really refreshing experience for me. I even learned a few things myself,” says Bryan Mavrow, VP Marketing at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?.

A quick shout out to the Top Grad Runners Up: Brian Wong (UBC), aka The Prodigy, and World Traveller, Tyrone Lingley (Royal Roads) , each of whom showed some great insight, strategic thinking and creative proficiency throughout the competition.

Smart Savvy will work alongside these three fine individuals to help them identify their career goals, chart an ideal path, and represent them to prospective employers who ‘fit the bill’.

Hats off to Top Grad, Callum Ng, and all who participated in a fantastic competition.

.

After all the dust has settled, only six candidates remain. Interviews for Smart Savvy’s Top Grads program kicked off this past week and students from across the lower mainland vied for their chance to interview with some of Vancouver’s hottest companies. Selected students sat down to do individual interviews with our team (think dark room, single light-bulb waving, etc). We were amazed at the talent level that was showcased, proving once again that BC is producing some of the brightest marketing minds. However much like your favorite reality TV show, some tough choices had to be made, and we had to cut down the group to six.

Without further adieu,  I present to you the Top 6 Wunderkinds of 2009.

The Record Holder - Callum Ng, a UBC Early Career Masters grad, is not only a Canadian record holder in swimming, he is also an entrepreneur, volunteer, and blogger. Callum captained the UBC Men’s swim team last year while finishing off his Masters degree, and ended up having to utilize his management and marketing skills to recruit 10 athletes to the team. Callum’s blend of enthusiasm and real world experience is top notch and we are excited to see him in the next round.

The Prodigy - Not everyone starts university at age 14, but Brian Wong has been an exception his entire life. Graduating this past semester from UBC  was just one of the many things that fills Brian’s day. He is founder of Aer Marketing, a full service marketing company that he and his partners founded in his 4th year of university. He is an experienced Tuk Tuk rider, speaks Cantonese, and loves hockey. How does he find time to fit it all in? Well, he practices the art of polyphasic sleeping.

The World Traveler - Tyrone Lingley is someone who experiences life to the fullest. This Royal Roads BComm graduate has been a university instructor in South Korea, traveled across the world, and started his own  internet marketing company. All of this experience enabled him to be an honor roll student at Royal Roads, while also serving as the Advancing Canadian Entrepreneur’s VP of consulting and the Student Representative for the RRUSA.

The Volunteer - Having an “insatiable appetite for involvements” has led Charles Voon from a tough life situation to one of Sauder’s best students. Encouraged by his mother to begin volunteering at age 7, Charles has never stopped going the extra mile. After winning the Millennium Excellence Award of Canada in 2004, Charles chose to attend UBC and has excelled throughout his time there. His significant volunteer contributions to YOUCAN and Enterprize Canada, are balanced by his impressive Co-op resume, having worked with both Procter & Gamble and Electronic Arts.

The “Make it So” - Adina Dragasanu gets things done. Just take a quick scan of her experience prior to graduating from UBC. Kraft Canada, Telus, Unilever. Besides working with some of the biggest brands in Canada, Adina also served as the UBC Marketing President in 2007 and is the Director of the Commerce Society Alumni Relations program. We have no doubt that Adina’s impressive resume will continue to build in the future.

Mr. President - Krishna Raisinghani describes himself as “not your average marketer”,  referring to his extensive finance and accounting background. The current UBC Marketing Association President has plenty of diverse experiences, including starting his own media company, winning the Gold Level Service Award for volunteerism, and interning twice with Deloitte. This mix of marketing, volunteering and business acumen enables Krishna to excel both in the classroom and in the real world.

Shouts out to UBC for having such a strong presence at this year’s Top Grads competition. Consider this a challenge to the rest of the post secondary institutions in BC.

.

For those of you who were there, you know we sponsored the BCAMA Vision Conference last week. It was a great event with a spectacular line up of speakers — namely Ken Schmidt, Consultant and former Communications Director at Harley Davidson, Richard Bartrem, VP Culture & Communications at WestJet, Brad Gamble, Senior Director of Marketing at McDonalds, Brian Scudamore, President & CEO at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Kerry Munro, GM at Yahoo! Canada, Maggie Fox, CEO/Founder Social Media Group, Ken Wong, Professor, Author & Strategist and Clare Meridew, VP/Creative Director Inteactive at Grey Canada.

One of the keener attendees, Michelle Evans, Marketing Services Manager for Grouse Mountain, has summarized the day really well in her blog.   If you’d be interested in reading her notes (almost like being there), click below:

http://imseekingbalance.com/bcama-vision-conference-2009-notes/

.

I had the privilege of driving Catherine Ducharme, advisor to Smart Savvy and Principal of Outsidein Communications, home after a networking event last night.

We had an engaging conversation and bounced about on a few topics …we ended up on the topic of what causes someone to become committed to their employer. We both agreed feeling valued and making a contribution rank high on the list of things that foster loyalty.

Catherine shared a funny story about her 15 year old son and his new job, which caused me to chuckle all the way home.

The following is a repost of Catherine’s Powering Employer Brand blog.

Some Things You Shouldn’t Forget
Posted by Catherine Ducharme on May 2, 2009

In the workplace, people want to know their managers know ‘who’ there are. I think getting to know their name is a good start.

Here’s a true story. My 15 year old son Aaron is now a proud employee of McDonald’s (he says we’re disloyal if we eat out anywhere else). He loves it. He gets great feedback. Is called in for extra shifts. Loves the people he works with. So naturally he talks a lot about his new employer (he’s a great ambassador).

He also sees the humour in situations and told me that the ‘Big Cheese’ (Chief Store Manager) visits their store a couple of times a week. Rather than calling her staff by their names, she calls them by the role they happen to be doing that day. “I was ‘Grill’ last shift and the week before I was ‘Table’. When asked if she refers to everyone this way, he tells me “Yep, Front Counter, Back Booth and Cashier – all present and accounted for.” Then he laughs, “But once she called me ‘Batch Cooker.’ I thought that was progress because at least she recognized me as a person.” He thinks it might be good material for a Dilbert cartoon. Need I say more?

I read a very interesting article this morning on about Twitter  and its effects on spreading information. In this case however, it was a negative example. The author points to the fact that Twitter includes people tweeting and retweeting information on the Swine Flu epidemic (currently trending 2 terms: Swine Flu and #Swineflu) and are doing more harm than good.

“Unlike basic Internet search—which has already been nicely used by Google to track emerging flu epidemics—Twitter seems to have introduced too much noise into the process: as opposed to search requests, which are generally motivated only by a desire to learn more about a given subject, too many Twitter conversations about swine flu seem to be motivated by desires to fit in, do what one’s friends do (i.e. tweet about it) or simply gain more popularity.”

I think it would be difficult to argue that Twitter doesn’t add noise to our daily lives, but simply another layer that has been added to our lives, and one that enables us to expand our informational flow to unprecedented levels. This over-stimulation can have detrimental effects.

Twitter’s biggest weakness is also its biggest strength, however.

Think of the tweets from the Hudson River plane crash, or the earthquakes in China. These examples weren’t just noise, they were real time news providing valuable insight into the calamities.

The information on the Swine Flu might be “motivated by desires to fit in and to do what one’s friends do” right now, when hard facts about the crisis is limited, however when pertinent, urgent information becomes available, Twitter will become the first channel of information for a large audience.

I would like to get your thoughts on this - do you think Twitter is vain? Or does it provide specific value?

I will maintain that the first time I saw the Susan Boyle video, I noted that she looked exactly like Jay Leno. Apparently I am not the only one. Been under a rock? Here is the first original-  be prepared to get a little bit teary. We at the Smart Savvy office have been known to get a bit emotional after this one.

.

I have had a couple of people over the last few weeks list the most essential social media tools for marketers. Rather than launch into a long dissertation on the importance of social media, I thought I would post them to our blog. Feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments if you have any other favs, but I have found that of the many social media memes, these are the most effective.

1) Twitter

I think we can officially all agree that Twitter has arrived. Explosive adoption rate, massive press, and celebrity followings have launched Twitter (and its new language) into widespread consciousness. As a marketer, Twitter can be an extremely effective tool. With it you can drive traffic, monitor your brand, communicate with your customers, gain clients, build relationships and promote your brand. At Smart Savvy, we have sourced leads directly from Twitter, developed relationships with local companies, and actively utilized the search functionality to monitor our brand. All this from a tool that limits you to 140 characters. If you aren’t following us yet, check us out here.

2) YouTube

YouTube , owned by Google, is not only a place for funny videos but is also among the largest search engines on the web. Companies need to have a presence there. It is important to post and organize company videos so when someone searches a topic your company will show up. These can be short videos explaining basic concepts, internal videos to promote employee culture, or a myriad of other things. Consider this as another way to get your content out on the web. You can check out more of our videos on YouTube here.

3) Blog

Blogs are a great way to communicate and interact, and are an integral part of your social media strategy. Blogs allow people to comment, engage in the conversation, and see the real people behind the company.  This is the essence of today’s social media. A one-way conversation is passive; instead blogs allow people to respond and join in dialogue. In order to avoid blog irrelevancy, you need to be interesting, insightful + topical, and most importantly, consistent.

4) LinkedIn

In the recruitment field, LinkedIn is a tremendous connector. Find thousands of resumes, comprehensive search functionality, and access to passive job seekers. Mastering LinkedIn is not easy. Knowing how to use LinkedIn well is key. Check out this article to give you a head start on some tips and tricks.

5) You

Social media is not a quick fix. Its about building an authentic community and relationships. While the web provides the tools, the people behind the brand are still the most significant component. Without a personality, no one will read, watch or interact with your content. As Seth Godin says, “Be interesting.”

We just passed the 1000 follower mark today on Twitter and want to say thanks to all our amazing followers! We have learned so much, participated in fascinating conversations, and met hundreds of great people along the way. Thanks for your support and let’s keep on tweeting!

If you aren’t following us yet, head over to http://twitter.com/smartsavvy and join in