By Julie McReynolds, Account Executive, ACS Advertising
According to statistics, about 65% of the US population will own either a smart phone or a tablet by 2015. That number is roughly over 200 million people. As of May 2011, one in three US consumers (76.8 million) has a smartphone. As of April 2011, over 40% of truck drivers carry personal smart phones.
What does that mean for your business? Mobile is where it’s at. Today, the average person searches for information on their smart phone rather than going to a laptop or desktop computer, which means if your website isn’t mobilized, you are missing out on traffic to your company website and recruiting opportunities.
If you attended the 2012 Recruitment & Retention Conference last week, you heard about the latest innovative strategies related to mobile marketing and advertising and how that relates to your recruitment strategy. Mobilizing your web sites can’t be ignored any longer.
Taking your web presence mobile is simple. Let us help.
Are you registered for the 2012 Recruitment & Retention Conference? It's time to throw out your old playbook and replace it with new strategies for reaching today's driver. Learn from experts like Keynote Speaker Kenny Vieth, President and Senior Analyst at ACT Research who will provide an overview of the economic outlook for the trucking industry and how that will affect your business in 2012. Vieth and his panel of experts will show you how to stay in the game and win!
INSIDE LOOK AT GENERAL SESSION 3:
The Recruiters Playbook: How to Stay in the Game and Win!
The economic outlook for trucking will be presented, followed by a discussion with a panel of recognized industry leaders, thinkers and professionals. They will explore the current recruiting environment for the trucking industry from every angle possible and discuss solutions to the barriers and challenges we face. They will help you fill your play book with strategies for success as you look ahead toward the next 10 years and beyond.
Speaker:
Kenny Vieth, President and Senior Analyst, ACT Research
Panelists:
Kenny Vieth, President and Senior Analyst, ACT Research (Moderator)
Gregg Aversa, President, The Sage Corporation
Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief, Heavy Duty Trucking
Dave Nemo, The Dave Nemo Show
Dan Vits, CTP, General Manager of Transportation, Bridgestone Americas
Click here to see the entire conference schedule and information on all sessions.
Don't be left on the bench! Register now!
According to LinkedIn, as of November 3, 2011, they operate the world’s largest professional network on the Internet. With more than 135 million members in over 200 countries and territories, LinkedIn houses more than 2 million Company Pages. It is a tool that can be used many different ways. If you have planned a meeting and you know who is going to be in attendance, find them on LinkedIn! Attendees will be impressed that you went out of your way to find them and they will be even more impressed if you take the time to get to know them virtually before you meet them “in real life.” It is also a great way to generate sales leads or follow up with a business pitch. Smart business men and women are always the most prepared.
These easy to follow instructions should get you off to a good start. After perfecting your profile, you’ll be ready to get LinkedIn! Make sure you download our Getting Started with LinkedIn Guide here.
For other helpful tips, check out our full Social Media White Paper series here! Happy connecting!
Every year, ACS Advertising and the Truckload Carriers Association hosts the Recruiting & Retention conference where driver recruiting professionals come together to gain insight into the market and how to improve their recruiting efforts. In 2012, this annual event will be held January 30 – February 1, and you don’t want to miss it!
The driver recruiting game has changed! It’s time to throw out your old playbook and replace it with new strategies for reaching today’s driver. We have a full roster of industry experts on-hand to share with you the most innovative approaches for recruiting in today’s market. Don’t miss this opportunity to create new plays for your recruiting department.
Register today at www.cvent.com/d/xcqj9r/1Q.
We’ll see you in Nashville!
Joe Montgomery, ACS Advertising Digital & Social Strategist
As the Digital & Social Strategist at ACS Advertising, I spend copious amounts of time researching the various digital behaviors of Americans and how I believe those behaviors are impacting recruitment. Recently, something caught my eye: Google’s ZMOT (Zero Moment of Truth) program and how it’s changing the standard marketing model. As a result, big brands are staffing people whose sole focus is on helping their brands win the moment after a consumer gets a stimulus (advert) about a brand and want to learn more. Google commissioned a survey to discover how consumers approached decision making when they considered making a purchase. You can download the eBook from Google; it’s free [ZeroMomentOfTruth.com].
So what did they find?
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In 2011, the average shopper used 10.7 sources of information before buying.
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70% of Americans now say they look at product reviews online before making a purchase.
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79% of consumers now say they use a smart phone to help with shopping.
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84% of Americans engage in ZMOT behavior before making a purchase.
Ok, but what does this have to do with recruitment?
If the average American consumer will go through the ZMOT behaviors listed above for a $600 washing machine, I believe we can expect that same level of behavior (or greater) when thinking about making a career change. For example, when John Q. Trucker is looking for work based out of Louisville, the most likely behavior is he will visit Google or Bing and search, before ANYTHING else. There is our ZMOT in recruitment. After he hits “Enter” to start the search, who is present in organic and PPC results? How does that search look from a mobile device, where the digital shelf is much smaller? Did Google serve up a YouTube video with that keyword targeted … is that you? What are other people saying about XYZ Trucking in forums? What is the conversation like on their Facebook Page (since it has such high SEO)? Is there a website dedicated to how horrible XYZ Trucking is? If arriving to their website via a mobile device, does he get an auto-redirect to a site design to fit his device?
Step and repeat this process for any job type, from customer service jobs in El Paso to sales jobs in Milwaukee. Successful recruitment today means being present at the ZMOT, when a potential employee responds to advertising stimulus or generates a search based on other motivating circumstances (i.e. I moved, I was downsized, I want a career makeover) and making sure you are setting yourself up for success there.
Ask yourself, “Are we here at MY COMPANY considering how search (SEO), websites, mobile sites, online ratings and reviews, social media-based peer reviews, videos, and other information points are being leveraged to help us tell our story to job seekers?” You might want to follow up that question by replacing “MY COMPANY” with your top competition. As we acknowledge that the marketing model has changed before our eyes, remember, you must be present to win.
By Leah Mackey, ACS Advertising Social Media Manager
Still not convinced of the business value that Twitter brings to the table? Think it’s just a place to share what you had for lunch or share goofy photos from the weekend? It’s true that 60 percent of those who sign up for Twitter give up after just the first couple days. Why is that? Probably because they don’t know how to get value from something that is so unfamiliar. Do you remember when Facebook first came out? I do. I remember thinking, “Oh no… this will never work. It’s just like Myspace, but with a white background. Only the internet geeks will be on Facebook.” I couldn’t have been more wrong.
So, with that said, here are a few ways that you can leverage Twitter for business purposes…
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Sales Leads – Use Twitter to promote your products and services. Tweet links to your website. Be careful not to inundate your following with sales pitches… or they will quickly unfollow you. You should also utilize Twitter Search for potential customers. For example, if your business sells advertising services to transportation companies, you may want to find and follow these companies. Once you are following them you can say hello, build a rapport and potentially gain a new client. This is the epitome of online social business networking. Again, please do not bombard folks with sales pitches. You want to add value to the information flow that is the Twitterverse.
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Idea Sharing & Research – Have an idea but not sure of how it will go over with your customers? Trying to brainstorm but not coming up with enough good ideas? Suffering from writer’s block? Ask your Twitter tribe for assistance! For example, say you need to write a blog post or white paper for your company. You have a few ideas, but nothing amazing, yet. Tweet some ideas out to your followers and ask for their two cents. You will be surprised at who responds and what they have to say. Think of it as a virtual think tank that anyone who is following you can chime in on. Just imagine the possibilities when you have the potential to hear hundreds or thousands of people’s opinions…for free!
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News – Traditionally, Baby Boomers read the newspaper daily, Gen X’ers read the newspaper on the weekends and Gen Y doesn’t know what newspapers are. Ok, a bit dramatic, but you get the point. With the advancement of the internet, videos and drumroll…Twitter, the speed of information sharing is lightning fast these days. Take advantage of this by following global, national and local news sources. Almost all news stations, newspapers, magazines, radio stations and bloggers are also on Twitter. And if they aren’t yet, they will be soon. Some good ones to follow are @nytimes @cnn @msnbc @TIME @APNews @WSJ @WhiteHouse. Click here for a great list of the 100 best Twitter feeds for news. The list even segments by American news, international news, sports, social media, politics, business, arts, science, tech and entertainment.
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Networking – This one piggybacks off of the idea sharing/research point a little bit. What I find to be the most valuable part of Twitter is endless possibilities for networking and connecting with new people. As Mark W. Shafer says in his book The Tao of Twitter, networking online is not about B2B or B2C… it’s about P2P – person to person connections. You are not limited by geography, time zones, awkward face to face meetings or other boundaries. Twitter even does some of the work for you with their “Who to follow” feature.
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Hashtags – Hashtags are the greatest invention to hit Twitter other than Twitter itself. According to Twitter, “The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.” The use of hashtags has become the universal system for categorizing tweets around an event or topic. Using them is very easy. All you have to do is place the # symbol before a word or phrase. Keep in mind that phrases are often used, but that you must leave out the space between words. For example, #TruckerTuesday or #FollowFriday are common hashtags used to collect tweets surrounding their respective topics. Often there are specific hashtags for events so that you can follow along with chatter of the event. For example, we were able to keep up with the conversations mentioning the 2011 Great American Trucking Show by following the #GATS hashtag. Check out Twitter’s official explanation of hastags for more info.
So, if you still aren’t convinced, shoot us a tweet at @ACSAdvertising and we can help you figure out how to leverage for your business.
By: Priscilla Peters, Marketing Director, TripPak SERVICES® & ACS Advertising
The Great American Trucking Show opens this week and thousands of drivers from all over the country are in Dallas for the show. At ACS Advertising, we’re gearing up for Dallas as well. Make sure you stop by and see us – booth#20172 – we’re providing insight to fleets on how the driver recruiting game is changing.
Five DON’T MISS events/attractions/features surrounding GATS:
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The Commercial Vehicle Outlook Conference – The featured speaker is Karl Rove. A great event for fleets of any size.
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The GATS App – Yep – there’s even an app for truck shows these days. This is one you won’t want to miss. Download the app, and stay connected throughout the show.
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Jamey Johnson Concert – Friday August 26 – if you love music, you’ll love this show.
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Pride & Polish – The Custom Rigs Pride & Polish Truck Beauty Show is a must see for truck lovers.
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Booth #20172 – The ACS Advertising booth is full of information on how we are connecting fleets with drivers and growing fleets for clients nationwide.
We’ll see you in Dallas!
By: Beverly K. Ringstaff, Creative Manager, ACS Advertising
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” ~ Charles Darwin
As part of our service to the transportation industry, those of us at ACS Advertising are constantly tasked with looking ahead. We examine industry trends, we scrutinize media strategies, we study results … all to prepare us for change. Like you, we have to change to stay competitive – and we have to help you change as well.
If you will be attending the Great American Truck Show in Dallas this month, you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about how recruiting in trucking has changed in the past few years. For example, you can’t rely on one form of advertising or one method of communication any longer. Depending on the type of drivers you’re targeting, you will need to explore a variety of communication channels to reach them.
In the creative group at ACS Advertising, we’re focusing on how to speak to drivers of different generations. What messages reach the Baby Boomers? What advantages mean the most to Generation X? How can we craft an ad campaign specifically for Gen Y? These are important questions for us because they are vital to YOU and the success of your recruiting efforts.
It’s also been a priority for us to explore all the ways your message is distributed whether through traditional publications or social media’s newest sites. Communication is so fast and furious now, you really have to pay attention to make an impact.
Finally, remember that all communication to and between drivers doesn’t originate with you. With today’s social media involvement, there are conversations going on all the time. The change you need to embrace is to get in on that conversation. A word of caution! As drivers connect on your Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites, remember that you can’t control their comments, nor should you! Let them talk about whatever is important to them THEN RESPOND! That’s the most crucial step that most fleets are not taking. If there is a complaint or negative comment, post a response that tells everyone you’ll look into the issue or explains the cause of the event. This shows your current and prospective driving force that you’re not afraid to listen to them and respond.
As Einstein once said, “the only constant is change.” Incorporating strategies to embrace our industry’s changes will give your organization a competitive edge.
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