COMMITTEE SPOTLIGHT: Marketing, PSGCNJ Members Respond to ‘Candidate-Profile’ Campaign

By Kenneth Hitchner
A recent PSGCNJ marketing campaign motivated 50 members, or 45 percent, to improve their online professional profiles, leading up to the PSGCNJ job fair.
As a free benefit, PSGCNJ allows its members to submit their own short biographies, called “Candidate Profiles” that are sent to area hiring managers each month. In addition, every company that participated in the 2012 Job Fair received a list of the members’ profiles.
In the weeks leading up to the job fair, the Marketing Committee, in conjunction with the Membership Committee, launched a 30-day “Candidate-Profile” campaign from February 8th through March 8th that generated the following results:
31 members or 28% of the database, submitted profiles for the first time.

  • 19 members, or 17% of the database, revised existing profiles.
  • 40 members, or 36% of the database, include a branding statement.

During the campaign, web-traffic increased more than four-fold as 493 unique visitors (16.4/daily) went to www.PSGCNJ.org, where the Candidate Profiles are displayed. In contrast, 107 unique visitors (3.6 daily) went to the site 30 days before the campaign launched.
Several tactics were employed to promote the campaign:

  •  Marketing Co-Chairs made announcements during the General Membership meetings and via group email.
  • The Marketing Committee created a one-page flyer, “Brand Yourself – Before
  • Someone Else Does,” that was distributed to the membership at meetings and
  • training sessions. It was also distributed via group email.
  • A special Candidate-Profile session was held during a General Membership meeting.
  • Marketing Committee members volunteered to help 20 members with their profiles during the last 72 hours of the campaign. (In total, 16 members asked for
  • assistance.)

On February 6, 2012, the PSGCNJ Co-Chairs unanimously voted to allow members to add personal branding statements to their Candidate Profiles, an act that prompted the marketing campaign.prompted the marketing campaign.

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