Lindsey shows how to market to millennials and how to get a first job

UPDATE: Lindsey was hired full time at HubSpot on the Content Creation & Blogging team. She started work in mid-September, 2012. Congratulations Lindsey!

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Last month I wrote a post called Tough love for marketing and PR job seekers. In it I challenged you to prove you are a great marketer by showing, not telling. I said that you need to create content that will brand you as someone to hire. Now. Starting today.

I've delivered this advice to hundreds of people. Sadly for them, I know from experience that nearly all ignore this advice.

Lindsey Kirchoff, as I write this a graduating senior at Tufts University, is in the tiny minority. She eagerly took up the challenge and started a terrific blog How to Market to Me.

In her blog, Lindsey offers her opinions on how to market to millennials like her. She says: It's my opinion. It's about the advertisements that "get" me as a collegiate and twentysomething consumer. The companies that understand my values, participate in my humor and reach me when/where I’m most likely to need them. It's also about companies that don't do any of those things and how they can better reach me (and people like me) in the future.

Lindsey is currently on the hunt for a job at a mid-to-large marketing firm with a strong entry level program to help her really learn the industry. She says: "And I wouldn’t complain if I could relocate to somewhere sunny (I’m looking at you Austin, San Francisco and Nashville)."

If I was hiring new graduates, I'd jump to hire Lindsey before anyone else does.

After my speech at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in July, 2011, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of interns at Microsoft.

I provided the same advice I offered to Lindsey about getting a great first marketing job. Part of the discussion was filmed and I offer it here.

Direct link to the video here.

If you know someone looking for that first marketing or PR job, please share this post with them.

Disclosure: I got to know Lindsey because my book The New Rules of Marketing and PR is used at Tufts and I reached out to a professor there looking to hire an intern on a project for the Massachusetts Air and Space Museum. Lindsey has been working directly with me on that project.

Comments

[Tanner Christensen]

Wow, Lindsey has really provided value to not only others in her situation (looking to get hired in the field) but also to companies. If that's not worth something in a day and age where everyone is obsessed with jamming everything and anything down one another's throats, I don't know what is.

Kudos to Lindsey, wish we could invite her out to Utah for some work.

Also, Scott, the video you tried to embed is currently not working.

[Lewis LaLanne@mynotetakingnerd.com]

Lindsey "gets" what a lot of businesses don't who try to be everything to everybody.

One of the most important lessons I learned is that a business that is for everybody is for nobody. Even Wal-Mart has a somebody in mind. It may be broader than Millenials but it definitely isn't designed or advertised to cater to everyone with a pulse. They learned this lesson when they experimented with selling high end products.

Very cool that you're spreading love like this to your web of influence and I wish you and Lindsey the very best on your journeys.

[David Meerman Scott]

Yes, Lindsey is a great example of what to do as a college student to set yourself up for a great career in marketing.

Tanner - the video works for me...

[Be3d]

Lindsey has found what I call a "social side door"--an alternate avenue of access and influence to hiring decision makers in one of the toughest spaces to break in to. She's simultaneously:

1. demonstrating expertise
2. providing value (as another commenter mentioned)
3. positively differentiating herself from the competition
4. getting past the gatekeepers by approaching decision makers in a unique way

Great stuff, David.

[JoelCapperella]

David,
another great post. I just sent a tweet to Lindsey that I'd be sharing her story with my 16yr old daughter. Both my teenage children consume digital media at a breakneck pace but I don't believe that they understand how it will eventually form their digital identity. Do you think that while in 2012 this sort of management of one's professional brand in the public domain is more applicable in certain fields - like Marketing, but will be maybe be a requirement across any and all fields in the not too distant future?

[JoelCapperella]

. . . in fact so inspired David that we co-opt'd your post once again to help our readership understand the strength of your advice to the active job candidate. http://blog.yoh.com/2012/04/social-media-recruiting-from-candidate-perspective.html

[HowToMarketToMe]

Thank you so much for the article and comments. I've been smiling all day! Who knew that was possible during finals week? I would have never thought of blogging without reading David's book and working with him has been a pleasure. I'm already starting to get great feedback and leads.

-I appreciate that Tanner. It's been interesting balancing self-promotion with providing valuable content. I never want to spam!

-Lewis, I was originally going to write much more broadly but honing in on millennials has given me a great way to focus.

-Be3d, that's exactly what I'm trying to do!

-Joel, thanks for the tweet and the share. I'm curious to see what she thinks.

[David Meerman Scott]

Be3d - I like the concept of a "side door" - thanks for that.

Joel, I do think this technique works for all industries and roles. Sure, marketers are first off the blocks, but why not an accountant? Or salesperson? Or engineer? Or designer? If a company can see how someone thinks and expresses themselves, isn't that better than a stupid old resume?

BTW - I helped my daughter start a blog about Neuroscience when she was 16 years old. It was instrumental in getting her into Columbia University, the second most difficult school in the country last year, where she is now a freshman. Without the blog, she was one of 100,000+ applicants most qualified for admission. Yet how many were creating content on the web about the subject they intended to major in? Probably just one. And the admissions officers noticed.

Lindsey -- See? You are a superstar. Companies should be fighting to hire you.

[Anne Sorensen]

Hi David and Lindsey! Great post - thanks David.

Congratulations Lindsey - it's a terrific blog and if I was marketing to millenials would definitely use it as a reference. I'm sure you will soon have an array of offers from which to choose. :) Good luck!

David - again it seems to me as marketers if we put the customer at the heart of our marketing - and really understand their behaviour, desires and experiences, and then respond accordingly, success would be far more likely.

Lindsey - a close friend's son goes to Tufts and is graduating soon too .. I'm checking with them to see if they know you! If so - what a small world! :) Take care and best of luck (from Downunder! :) )

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks for jumping in Anne. You're right of course -- it's the buyers who we create content for!

[Tony Faustino]

David: Fantastic content (as always)! Your post highlights how important it is for millennials to creatively differentiate themselves in a brutal economic market (particularly particularly newly minted graduates). The stamp of approval of a college education is not enough.

Here's the link to the recent article from Boston.com titled, 1 in 2 Are Jobless or Underemployed: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/04/22/1_in_2_new_graduates_are_jobless_or_underemployed/?page=full

Lindsey: Way to Go!! Like Anne, I believe you'll find a soft landing soon because you've taken the entrepreneurial and resourceful path to finding a solution to a complex problem. You're the type of person smart companies cherish.

Here's a great post from one of David's thought leader colleagues, Mitch Joel. It's titled, 8 Ways to Score That Elusive Entry Level Marketing Position. Here's the link: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/8-ways-to-score-that-elusive-entry-level-marketing-position/

You're already doing a number of tactics Mitch describes in his post. But, I thought i'd include it to add more fuel to your fire. Go get'em and please keep us informed of your progress. I want to hear more about the ongoing Lindsey Kirchoff success story!

[David Meerman Scott]

Tony - Thanks for pointing to my friend Mitch's post. He's got some good ideas.

[Anne]

This would really inspire those internet marketers who want to market their services, especially now that Google has made major changes in their algorithm.

[Raúl Colón]

I missed the post requesting how to Market to me.

Great to see college students being proactive. I have to say that with her attitude she should be able to get a job a lot faster than most of her peers.

[HowToMarketToMe]

Anne Sorenson-Thanks for the vote of confidence! It's been an exciting few days. I'd love to run into your friend's son. Wouldn't that be a small world?

Tony-Thank you! Wow, that's a scary statistic about post-college employment. All the more reason to differentiate. Mitch Joel is such an interesting writer. Today, he's in my hometown, Knoxville TN, for Mark Schaefer's Social Slam event and I'm so bummed I can't be there. I could always use more fuel and I appreciate you thinking of me. Your encouragement means a lot.

Raul-Thanks! I sure hope so.

[@Famoustzvi]

This is what one young fellow did in order to try to get a job at Slate Digital, a company that creates plugins for audio recording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpZsFxOHIeA&feature=youtu.be
Steven Slate even tweeted the video:
https://twitter.com/#!/Slateproaudio
I wonder if he'll get the job! Either way, it's creative and bold, so I give him credit for that!

[Stan Dubin]

There are so many people who do not see the value in creating content. And then a smart, adventurous handful slide in and create good to great content and their access to all kinds of good things opens up and sometimes goes out the roof.

It's possible ten years from now we'll still be evangelizing about the value of content.