The Thoughtful Thud Revisited

Home based talent pool an eye opener

AMEC is launching a Knowledge Share platform for its members at the end of September. A key component of that is to find a part time Digital Content Manager.

We have been using an on-line recruitment site primarily specialising in mothers (but not exclusively) working from home. We want a candidate experienced in research; on-line content management and with good writing skills as a 'given'. Experience with the WordPress platform is a plus.

What the responses showed me is that there is an amazing talent pool waiting to be tapped of career women who want to be involved in commercial life again. All they ask is the right to be able to manage their family too, working from home. You could run a company with the experience that has already been offered to me – Business Manager; Researcher; Broadcast Journalist; Online News Editor; IT manager; Business Publishing; Educational Consultant. You name the skill and it is there.

We've had over 70 quality responses in a week. With it a sense we are about to welcome a real talent onto our team when we close applications in 2 weeks.

 

China and India the keys to unlock measurement success?

Editing hours of speaker videos from the European Summit on Measurement in Lisbon gave me a remarkable personal insight update into the challenges facing the PR industry to improve standards of programme measurement. I organised the event. I was there every day. But it is not until I went through every minute of every session in an editing suite these take outs became clear:

• The Barcelona Principles, giant step though we still believe it to be, needs constant underpinning. The Lisbon Measurement Agenda 2020 is designed to do that and take us forward in 4 identified ways.
• There are huge differences in the levels of programme measurement across the world. This is not stated as a criticism, but reality. For example, North America is perhaps more “together” than most markets and very different from South America. (Only this morning I received an email from a student in Argentina saying that despite the Barelona Principles, AVEs still rule). Europe varies depending on where you operate. Asia Pacific is wide open to change. Africa is work in progress but new entrants can change things.
• AMEC can continue to lead but only by partnering with willing partners, which we believe we are good at. These will include: IPR, PRSA, ICCO, Global Alliance and CPRF. Regionally, AMEC also gets great support in the UK from PRCA and CIPR.

For me the big opportunity is in the giant markets of India and China. Meenu Handa was a dignified and big picture thinking ambassador for both Microsoft and for India in Lisbon. We were thrilled to welcome her (thank you Aseem Sood for the idea which made it possible). She told it as she saw it:- India is ready for programme measurement change.

John Croll, CEO of Media Monitors, new Chair of the AMEC Asia Pacific Chapter, tells me that Asia Pacific, the second huge region we plan to tackle, is receptive to learning how to do things differently. More about a big initiative in the Region soon.....

The challenge, or I see it as the opportunity, is to bring on new partners in the Measurement Agenda 2020 mission with the PR associations in Asia.

So what’s my final lesson from the editing process? Don’t take anything for granted and forget what you have! AMEC has a terrific – but understated – success on our hands with Ruth Pestana’s Valid Metrics, developed after Barcelona and which PRSA has embraced. We need to do more to promote it.

PS: you can see over 20 video clips from the European Summit when AMEC launches its new Knowledge Share platform at the end of September.

 

A new look!

The Thoughtful Thud Revisited is just that. After a period of introspection about the value of social media sites I am signed up to, I want to make The Thoughtful Thud Revisited different. Posts will be different.  Shorter, for example most times. The intent will always be the same, to challenge and to engage.