The Vantage View

Did you know that your interview isn’t over when you walk out the door. In this day and age of MySpace and Google, human resource managers no longer rely solely on resumes, references or your word.

In the past, you would be asked in for an interview and present the HR manager with copies of your resume, list of references and a winning smile. The interviewer would go over your resume and ask a series of questions before you were sent on your way.

What few people realize today is that once you walk out of the interview, the hiring agent is at a computer Googling your name and work history. Surprisingly one in five employers research applicants on the web. Often times when researching your name, hiring managers stumble upon the applicant’s social networks including Twitter, MySpace, YouTube channel and more.

According to a survey reported by CareerBuilder.com, “34 percent of the managers who do screen candidates on the Internet found content that made them drop the candidate from any short list.”  The biggest hindrances to candidates were those of them that had illicit material on their web pages (i.e. compromising photos, drinking, drugs etc.) It is easy to forget that social networks are public; meaning anyone and everyone can access the wild pictures you posted from last weekend’s party. If a potential employer was to find your MySpace page, you may risk the chance of not being asked in for the second interview.

On a lighter note, several hiring managers reported that they were impressed by some of the candidate’s personal Web sites and social networking profiles and used the Internet to help solidify their decision to hire the applicant in question. Take a look at your social networking profiles and clean up your act in order to make a positive impression on potential employers.

About the Author
Jennifer Villalobos
Online Marketing Coordinator/Ringmaster
I enjoy long walks on the beach, the full imitation cheddar flavor that are Cheez-Its, Gonzaga basketball, Budweiser commercials and managing web campaigns for both consumer and business to business clients.  Drop me a line at jennifer@vantageinternet.com, or follow me on Twitter @vantagejennifer.

Did you ever have one of those nights when you knew you have to be up early the next morning but you stayed up anyway?  Typically, nights like that involve lots of drinking and a high school-ey amount of peer pressure to keep the night going.  Well, I didn’t have one of those nights – mine was far more productive.

I was settling in for the night, checking my email before I went to bed and I did something I never do, I clicked a spam from Mozilla.  It sent me to a sort of {air quote here} APP store for Firefox and I’m sure some of you reading this will roll your eyes in a second.  I discovered…StumbleUpon.  And let me tell you, this is the greatest thing since the invention of the Internet.  (Go ahead and roll your eyes, I’ll wait).  Now let me qualify that statement with this; for me the Internet has always been strictly a tool.  I log on, check email, read some news, FTP files for work, log off.  StumbleUpon has opened up a whole new world of Internet time-wasting activities as well as some great sources of inspiration for me, a child of cassette tapes and beta max.

Three sites in particular really stood out to me that I probably (scratch that) NEVER would have seen if it weren’t for my new best buddy StumbleUpon.  I’ll start with a couple that any designer would love to have in his arsenal:

PDSTUTS.com
http://www.psdtuts.com/

This truly is a toolbox site folks, I’ve been using Photoshop since v3.0 and as all of you know there’s at least four ways to do anything in Photoshop.  What I found on this site was great tips and tricks to get results at least twice as quick as an old-schooler like me would get them done, it’s all ‘bout productivity people!!  This is definitely a bookmark-able site.

The Dieline
http://www.thedieline.com/

Hmmm…. Why do I like this site, lemme see it’s a packaging design site with a really cool name that is spot on to what the site is all about.  Seriously people, if you had never heard of Amazon.com would you be able to connect the dots that they were an online retailer?  Maybe I’m just that much of an Internet noob, but I’m a sucker for a site that has a cool name.  Next, talk about inspiration!!  This isn’t necessarily a toolbox site but it’s defiantly a keeper.  Especially for the day when you’re expected to come up with the next great design in packaging… in twenty minutes.  I know all you designers out there feel me on that.  This site will certainly get you motivated to showcase your creativity.

Lastly, off the topic of design, is Ultimate Flash Face:
http://flashface.ctapt.de/

WARNING: THE USE OF THIS SITE WIL CAUSE HOURS OF LOST PRODUCTIVITY AND WILL RESULT IN THE USER THINKING EVERYONE IS A FUGITIVE!

Now that I’ve appeased the powers, let me just say this site is a blast and an insanely good waste of time.

I’ll be back next time to share more of what I found last night.  For years I was baffled at how someone could be on the Internet for hours at a time, that is, until last night. My wife actually had to tell me, ME to go to bed!  Before I could pick a fight with her I looked at the clock—ashamed, I crawled under my covers knowing I had to be up in four hours.

…and for the record, that’s totally what I’d look like in a police sketch (minus the evil smirk.)

About the Author
Rob Acosta
Graphic Designer/Lactose Intolerant
When a sandwich needs-a-eatin’, I’ll eat it, when a drink needs-a-drinkin’, I’ll drink it and when a design needs-a-designin’, I design it. I’m one of Vantage’s graphics designers and quintessential jack-of-all trades. I design print work, illustrate, animate, edit video and create custom motion graphics. Drop me a line at rob@vantageinternet.com.

The secret to any successful and prosperous business is the advertisement strategy. Whether it is an online or offline campaign, these advertisements are created to increase the interest of the consumer in the products or service. Every other day you will find new advertising methods all competing for consumers’ attention. With these new advertising tactics consumers have a tough time avoiding the overpowering presence of businesses on the web.

Many competitive online advertisements aim to irritate the consumer in hopes of making a lasting impression. This irritating and old school method of advertising online is avoided by the consumer at all costs. Pop ads just don’t work, especially as a growing number of consumers look to interact online at their discretion.

By adopting a method which will entice the consumers to interact with your product or service, instead of closing and avoiding your campaign altogether, is of the utmost importance. Keeping this strategy in mind the latest method of advertisement that has been introduced is the peel away.

What are Peel Aways?

In short, curiosity captures the customer. With peel away advertisements, the advertiser tempts the consumer to interact with their moving graphic. This small unobtrusive graphic, which typically looks like a peeling piece of paper, appears in the corner of a web page. In order to see the marketing message, the customer is prompted to move their cursor over the ad and, eventually, click through to view full campaign details.

Start Peeling
Increase your number of conversions by capitalizing on the curiosity of consumers. A peel away advertisement is a cost-effective way to boost Web site sales efforts and the number of conversions resulting from a PPC campaign landing page. Whatever the case, peel away ads can be placed on your home page and are highly effective in driving traffic to your sales promotions. Contact the Vantage Sales Department at 800.921.0687 x718 and learn how your site can benefit from peel away ads.

Getting a marketing message seen is easy, but ensuring the message sticks isn’t a walk in the park. The Internet offers numerous ways to get your message out, some being the tried and true old school methods of SEO and PPC, and others being the more innovative and up-and-coming techniques using social networking and viral campaigning. Whether you are targeting an online or offline audience, one of the most effective means of business-to-client communication is through video.

In short, video is a powerful marketing tool. Not only does a video increase the retention of a message by 50 percent, it also enhances consumer experiences and emotional connections with products, services and/or brands.

According to a ComScore marketing research study just this past year, 74.2 percent of American Internet users view videos on YouTube and watch an average of 2 videos and day and 3 hours of online videos each month. Video engages, explains, informs and excites the viewer in a way that a press release or brochure never could.

As technology advances, video becomes more accessible to businesses, consumers and the media. Numerous social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, and video sharing sites, including YouTube and MetaCafe, have made it easy for users to pass around and publicly discuss video, images and content with thousands, if not millions of people. This exposure not only bolsters a company’s branding efforts, but search engine optimization efforts as well. Due to the ever-changing and evolving nature of blogs, MySpace and YouTube, search engines are constantly spidering, or scouring, content in order to display the most relevant and recent results.

Is your business listed? If not, now is the time to get your online video project started. Vantage is currently offering half off 0:30 second video production services. Get your video online and start experiencing greater exposure.

Call 800.921.0687 x2 and mention this blog post to take advantage of the special, limited time rate.

Recently Johnson & Johnson launched a commercial “Wearing Your Baby” which was featured on Motrin’s Web site, as well as in several magazines. The ad was an attempt to connect with moms through the common experience (and pain) of carrying a child, but instead the ad implied that mothers carry their babies as fashion accessories.

Through blogs and other social networks a groundswell was started by outraged mothers. This came to a boiling point when Los Angeles blogger Jessica Gottlieb shared her take on the ill received campaign with her 1,018 Twitter friends. A few hours and thousands of tweets later MotrinMoms became the #1 search on Twitter, eclipsing SNL for the first time since Obama was elected president. Then came Katja Presnal a blogger from New York and her 4,221 Twitter followers. Katja collected tweets from offended moms and edited them into a nine-minute video on YouTube titled “Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad,” which has been viewed over 25,000 times so far.

The power of online social networking was felt by Johnson & Johnson as last night they took the Motrin.com offline.

When the Motrin site was restored today, the ad was replaced by a message from Ms. Widmer: “We have heard you. On behalf of McNeil Consumer Healthcare and all of us who work on the Motrin brand, please accept our sincere apology…We are in the process of removing this ad from all media. It will, unfortunately, take a bit of time to remove it from our magazine advertising, as it is on newsstands and in distribution.”

Many often forget to consider the great power of the Internet and, more importantly, enraged mothers. As of today seven of the top ten search returns today for “Motrin” and “headache” on Google referred to the marketing debacle. I think Gene Grabowski, chair of the crisis and litigation practice at Levick Strategic Communications said it best, “We now have indisputable proof that online marketing, YouTube and Twitter and all that it encompasses is meaningful and has arrived. We are seeing real consequences to a mistake. If [social networks] didn’t matter, you wouldn’t see this type of reaction from J&J or consumers.”