NPR Reports High School Grads Can Succeed in the Federal Government

Here's some info on the federal government's pay and benefits practices that we should pay attention to from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). If you have a high school diploma and want to get ahead - don't go to a fast food chain - go work for the federal government.

Overall, the federal government paid 2 percent more in total wages than it would have if average wages had been comparable with those in the private sector, after accounting for certain observable characteristics of workers.



A quick rundown:

High School Grads Go Work for the Government

• Federal civilian workers with no more than a high school education earned about 21 percent more, on average, than similar workers in the private sector.

Bachelors' Degree Federal Benefits Rock

• Average benefits for federal workers whose education ended in a bachelor's degree were 46 percent higher than for similar workers in the private sector.

PhD or Professional Degree Salaries Lower

• Federal employees with a professional degree or doctorate received 18 percent lower total compensation than their private-sector counterparts, on average.

And for the Taxpayer . . .

On average, the benefits earned by federal civilian employees cost 48 percent more than the benefits earned by private-sector employees with certain similar observable characteristics.

Read more at: http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12696

Millenials are Different - So What Generation Isn't?

A lot of consultants have made a lot of money spouting expertise on the Millenial Generation, those who are 20-31 right now. Born from 1979 to 1991, they are more socially conscious, more technology savvy, likely to job hop, demand more in the workplace, latch-key kids and harder to convince sitting in a cubicle all day is a way to get ahead, etc., etc., etc.

Doctoral dissertations are written about them, businesses are grown around them and it still goes on.

But aside from the fact thatey have every generation before them beat on tech savvy are they really all that different from previous generations? I mean I really don't like their music and they spend more time on Facebook than I do but my parents didn't like our music and we talked on the phone all night long.

Oh and I forgot that millenials don't communicate as well in person because they're so used to texting all the time. But what kid whose in college, just got out or has not been in the workplace for awhile is really literate in grown-up, corporate speak?

I've worked with this generation and I think many of these studies, and many of the "Millenial Consultants" are spin masters. First of all, the recession has completely levelled the playing field. Those Millenials who went out and got jobs right after college or graduate school are no longer able to demand signing bonuses, raises or many of the other things they got away with when the economy was soaring.

Many have had to accept jobs that are not as lofty as those they envisioned and they've learned how to deal with that.They've been humbled by the economy, as we all have.

Second, there are always generational differences in the workplace, and some Millenials have a strong work ethic and others have been handed everything by their parents. How is that different than the world the rest of us grew up in? Doesn't it really come down to good parenting versus spoiling your children rotten?

So I propose that Millenials and those that follow them (other than the fact that my 12 year-old can program my iPhone and GPS while I have to watch her) aren't that different than previous generations. They're learning what they have to do to get ahead and figuring it all out as they go.

I saw a "Millenial Consultant" a couple of years ago at a trade show and she was in jeans and extremely entertaining. But personally, I would have preferred someone who taught me how to market my business rather than deal with a generation gap.

More power to the consultants who've created an industry out of this they've found the golden goose. But in the end, that was a fairy tale too.

How Did the DC Holiday Parties Turn Out?

Well this year I haven't spent much time on the holiday party circuit but I did attend three, so here's the rundown for anyone who is interested.

Best Holiday Party of the Year Hands-Down

ASAE & the Center's Yule Rock - Underwritten by Multiview, a publishing and directory company that services associations, it's nice to know someone had a fabulous year. Multiview shut down DC's Hard Rock Cafe, had a full open bar, two bands, and passed food all night that included shrimp shooters, scallop ceviche, and of course the classic mini-hamburgers.

Top shelf liquor for all. It was like a great wedding. Someone whose name I didn't know but who I've seen at many ASAE events, pulled me onto the dance floor before the rock band switched over to punk and we just went wild. Very fun.

My only critique - It was way too loud for networking - even in the far corners of the rooms.

DC Science Writers - At National Geographic which is always a great spot for a party. There's a picture of me and Santa that I've shared. I'm not that chubby really, it's an optical illusion. Santa had a Spanish accent, gave out awards and was very funny. The crowd was mostly freelancers and pretty welcoming. I had just joined. The food not so much - they had champagne glasses with mashed potatoes and stuff that you could put in a baked potato and that was the best of the party fare. Tasteless desserts. But it was cheap, and that was the point.

PRSA National Capital Chapter - Held at Carmine's and again reasonably priced except we had to pay our own bar bill. They gave you one drink but as a wine snob we skipped it. Maybe about 100 people came to the private room in the back. A good crowd. A diverse mix of mostly consultants but from many different facets of the industry.

Had a long conversation with a young women who is an analyst for a company called CARMA International - they evaluate the power and reach of your social media presence. I had never heard of them. About 10 people and they seem to really know what they're doing.

Food was garlic and fried overload, although I'd give the calamari a solid B. Carmine's has mouthwash in the bathroom which anyone who eats there desperately needs. We ended up having dinner afterwards, at a spacious upfront bar with inattentive bartenders.

Skipped The One Party this year, often very crowded, hard to network and filled with very young, very pretty people who are often being followed around by older not so pretty people. I usually feel invisible and last year heavy snacks were chicken wings. The other issue is it's supposed to be a conglomeration of several different organizations within communications and advertising, but it's usually just the ad people who go. Not sorry to have missed it.

Stay tuned for an update from the Twelfth Night party in January via Women in Film and Video. I have a feeling that will be a blast.

LivingSocial - Shop, Go, Don't Slow Down

A friend applied for a communications job at LivingSocial recently, one of the daily deal juggernauts like Groupon that are invading cities all over the planet. Like the dot.com and social media booms, people are skeptical but can't help but jump on the bandwagon.

My friend "Katie," who is in her late 40s, submitted her resume and cover letter to LivingSocial in the morning. By mid-afternoon she got a note that said, thanks for applying, you're not what we're looking for, best of luck. That must be some sort of world record.

What impressed me about that note was its speed and that it left no room for further discusssion. In a very simple way they told her we're young, we're hungry and you'll slow us down. The average age at LivingSocial is 31 years-old.

I'm going as fast as I can

This understanding of LivingSocial and the business it operates in was reinforced by Alexandra Solomon, senior director of marketing, who gave a presentation last week to the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) in DC. She spoke fast, rushed through and said a lot about growth (they are now in 21 countries, with 40 million members, and were named one of the top 50 places to work by Washingtonian magazine). Then she was out the door to talk to a company they had just bought on the other side of the planet.

LivingSocial's goal is to become the leader in international retail deals and they are buying companies like crazy overseas. They have a deal of the day, are introducing a gourmet group (for those who don't want to wait on line forever at an obscure ethnic restaurant that is suddenly flooded with patrons), and a variety of last minute, decent percentage off travel, dining, etc. packages.

Living Social Ads - Check out its new campaign.

The business model is strong but quite frankly we've seen it come and go in other recessions. Retailers cut prices, give away freebies and drag traffic into their places. Most, Solomon said, make a little bit of money or break even on the deal. What she did not say is that people have shown up at restaurants with their 50% off coupon, only to discover that they cannot get in - at all that day. Right now there's no cut off or control over usage. That will likely end soon.

Many of the European and Asian services are still branded under their own names, and often have existed for a couple of years already, so they come with followers. Although the ultimate goal is to make the LivingSocial brand prominent on everything - right now that's not an option. Bragging rights to becoming the largest global player in thes market are worth it.

I also don't know if the deals are all that good - so you get 50% off dinner in a restaurant you've never tried, but you end up spending 25% more than you would have anyway. But the bottom line for marketers and retailers is consumers like to feel as though they've gotten a bargain. They brag about it to friends. They become deal of the day junkies. It's harder to compete with that.

Local retailers can probably compete with LivingSocial through better service, deals that pamper rather than are fully based on saving money, and just developing strong repoire with their customers. But that's what they should do anyway, right?

Will the LivingSocial model survive? Probably but it's getting cluttered out there and there will be a lot of shake-out first. Like any new market that's growing faster than it can keep up with, the excitement is high and the value to its various players is all in being part of the game.

Defense PR Joins the Real World

At the Capitol Communicators Group lunch last week, I saw a refreshingly frank presentation by Frederick P. Wellman, president of a small PR company called ScoutsComms. Wellman served in Iraq twice and returned to launch a PR company to help the aerospace, defense and veterans' sectors navigate the muddy waters at the end of the decade long defense spend-a-thon.

Wellman discussed General David Petraeus' management style as just go figure it out. He was replaced by General Martin E. Dempsey who operated by asking what's your plan? He has worked for both and learned a great deal in the process.

Wellman discussed how many defense contractors approached their businesses in the gravy train years as don't do anything to rock the boat. But as the budget cuts keep coming, the new defense PR strategy is transitioning into fight as hard as you can for your piece of the pie.

Wellman also described the competitiveness for media attention at a recent trade show. There were over 600 exhibitors and just over 20 reporters to cover all of them. That seemed like pretty good odds to me.

How the Washington Post Covers Defense Contracting

Wellington brought along a Washington Post defense contracting reporter, Marjorie Censer, who quickly explained she is the only one left covering this topic. Censer is working for the Washington Post's weekly magazine Capital Business, and appeared smart and accessible. She offered a few tips about pitching her stories:

Deadlines - Capital Business comes out on Monday and the Washington Business Journal (its major rival), the Friday before. Don't pitch the two of them the same story at once because if the WBJ runs it first, her editors will be very upset.

Sources - Her main sources are analysts who cover defense contractors in our region and she is looking for others. While the analyts are helpful, they are not unbiased. She welcomes input from college and university professors who teach defense policy and other topics within this realm.

Story Pitches Censer says she reads press releases and story pitches, and gave an example of how she'd featured a small company whose release she'd received recently, within a larger story. Product pitches are out unless you can tie them to a bigger trend. Fresh ideas about the battle between Maryland and Virginia for corporate headquarters and jobs are welcome.

Association Execs Share Creative Ideas for Member Bonding

The American Society of Association Executives which now goes by the acronym ASAE, holds what it calls Super Swaps four times each year. The one I sat in on last week in Washington, DC was about membership marketing. There were probably 40 professionals in the room, many of whom contributed to a spirited conversation.

The session was moderated by Talisa Thomas Hall, president of The Center for Effective Organizations, who was very good. Although some of the ideas were association specific, many could be adapted to different marketing situations.

Annual Meeting – One association streamed its general sessions by putting them live on its Web site, so all could members could benefit and share in the conference. One of the speakers was well known and from a TED Talks series. When asked, the membership person said the general sessions are of interest to all, and not necessarily conference specific. It’s a great way to get people who didn’t attend the annual meeting last year, to think about coming next.

CEO Outreach - One CEO has a conference call every three months for all new and current members. They get on the phone and ask him questions about the association during the call. It’s a creative method for welcoming new people, and to show that you care.

Helping Members Get Through Tough Times. For members who are on the fence or can’t pay all at once, consider offering an extended installment plan. You can do it through Pay Pal. One membership professional said her association’s membership was down 20%, and since it's offered a payment plan membership is up 6%. That’s impressive.

Market to Where Members are with You Understand where specific members are in the lifecycle of membership, and deliver member benefits for them around that. For instance, one association has new members get a call from a staffer after the first 90 days to see how it's going. Another association has a forum annually where founding members are honored. Several associations have recently added associate memberships at a lower rate. All agreed that as part of this, you should give your current members recognition or an added bonus.

Wooing younger members One association sends members out to recruit and talk about it to high school students. They offer a free membership to them and follow them to college. Often the high school students join as college age members later on.

Members tell their stories Consider capturing the stories of how your association made a difference in the lives of individual members and sharing them. One association had a photo and video booth at its annual conference where people could tell their stories of membership. It was kind of an old fashioned idea, but members loved it. The association was also able to create a library of material that it could use to reinforce the value of membership.

Remember to Constantly Ask Yourself These Membership Questions


Consultants also shared some of the questions they ask membership staff and leaders when they are called in to help. They are pretty basic, but always good to revisit.

What is your members’ can’t, why aren’t they involved with the association and what’s stopping you from delivering it?

What do your members want from you?

Who are the members in your association that bring in non-dues revenue and how are you reaching out to them?

Are you focusing your membership marketing on what you do well?

What can you stop doing and no one will care?

Yahoo Social Guru Offers Engagement Tips for Facebook

I saw Patrick Albano, executive director of social and mobile sales at Yahoo speak at Adweek DC recently. I thought it was one of the best presentations I’d seen in a long time. So I’m sharing. I’ve also added some thoughts of my own.

The evolution of social

If you go to a party and just talk about yourself, you will be the least popular person there. That’s how most organizations approach Facebook. But that can damage all of that brand loyalty you've worked so hard to build.

Albano discussed how social media has created a major shift in how we approach branding. For decades marketing and advertising was focused on convincing people that The Brand Cares about Us. Remember the Pepsi Generation, Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, or You are in Good Hands with Allstate?

But in Yahoo’s post engagement analysis of its Facebook pages, it determined that the most effective approach is to convince individuals that The Brand Cares About Me. The emotional connection now has to be made on an individual level.

Back to the Future

Believe it or not, Albano, who is well under 40, suggested reading How to Win Friends and Influence People. Written by Dale Carnegie in 1936, it offers six steps to getting people to like you, which are as relevant today in social media as they were in sales then.

1. Become genuinely interested in other people
2. Smile
3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests
6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

Remember when people answered their phones, and the customer service rep was a person not a voice mail or computer help list designed to not have you talk to anyone? When a human being was on the other end of the line, actually voiced concern, and a real connection was made. That’s two-way communication.

But today, the vast majority of business Facebook pages repackage information that’s been approved, sanitized, etc. from other sources. Often they are from another form of media, like a press release, and read like one. The goal of these Facebook pages is to search well, to have some sort of a presence. But just having a Facebook page doesn't do much, except improve SEO to some degree.

It’s All About Caring What I Think

Albano pointed to research which found when advertisers asked people questions around content sales jumped by 12%. Ads that ask questions are 4x more engaging than those that don’t.

If you troll Facebook pages, as I often do looking for ideas, you will see a lot more questions. Some work and some don't. Albano points to the contrast of the traditional Oscar experience on the Web where experts tell you who will win and why they think so compared to weighing in on who wore that dress best.

Sports is in a question mode too – not just in social but mobile. Teams and commentators are asking fans who they think will win the game and giving real time stats on what everyone thinks.

The Art and Science of Questions

The best question example Albano gave was State Farm’s Fallen Firefighters’ video posted on 9-11, and created for its 10th anniversary. Called “Empire State of Mind” and directed by Spike Lee, it runs six minutes and tugs at the heartstrings while revering the firefighters. The question State Farm asked – What did you feel that day? The responses were overwhelming.

PBS has about half a million Facebook fans and is a master at asking engaging questions. Here are a couple of recent ones that sparked conversation:

• What do you hope President Obama talks about? (reference was to an upcoming news conference)
• Do you have a favorite Steve Jobs moment or quote?

I also took a look at some of Yahoo’s Facebook sports questions:

• Which NFL team has surprised you the most this season?
• The NBA players are willing to miss games. Do you think there will be any games at all?

Of course, it's not just the questions, with any marketing approach you must have a sound strategy behind your page. And from that strategy, your questions will evolve more easily.

So what questions can you ask on your Facebook page?