💡 Employer Brand Headlines: The "Situation" Edition (#103)
My mission: Help you understand your employer brand better and make it work for you.
In this issue
In someone else’s head
Tik not
Brand insistance
Pictograms
The big idea
I’ll admit that I really enjoy graphic novels. I even liked them way back when I just called them “comics.”
This, plus my strange fascination with information architecture, lead me to an amazing book called “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud. By the end, it was as if someone had revealed the things that were right in front of me and I never saw. It was pointing out where the puppet had strings. I love that feeling.
One of the biggest “oh wow” moments was from a simple statement: no matter how action-packed a comic panel might be, it is static. All the actual “action” takes place between the panels.
Here’s a drawing of Batman pulling his arm back and here’s a drawing of Batman punching a bad guy. Two still images, and my brain filled in the rest.
In fact, the action was happening between the panels. The action was happening in my head.
… mind blown…
The lesson for branding is simple, if not necessarily obvious: in branding, you are the one drawing the still pictures (in a sense), and it is the reader (viewer, prospect, target) who puts them together to create that sense of action.
Example: You claim that your employer brand is deeply innovative. You have ten examples of the kinds of innovation you build. But the subject may have just had to go three rounds with your customer service to solve a problem. And in doing so, had to explain her problem five times to five different people because there didn’t seem to be much innovation in the customer service systems. Claim innovation all you want, but the brand actually lives in their head.
Tout your tag-lines, your ads, and your stunning creative all you like. That’s not your brand.
Shout about your award-winning DEO program all you want. That’s not your brand.
Polish up those job posting until they shine like the top of the Chrysler building. That’s not your brand.
Your brand is what THEY think it is. They choose the information that they see and absorb. They decide what other info to add to it. They create all the action in between the panels without you.
The brand is in their mind, a place where you have NO direct access and have no way to “fix” it.
All you can do is influence it. That’s what great branders do.
Headlines!
Can TikTok's new résumé feature really help you find a job?
So… are people actually taking this Tik Tok resume thing… seriously? I don’t mean to be “Old Man Yells At Cloud,” but beyond the logistics of wading through hundreds of videos and the limited amount of info that can be transmitted, this is a gimmick, plain and simple. But it is indicative of how constrained and limited our thinking around application processes have become: any deviation, regardless of how ludicrous, is interesting. Candidates and recruiters alike are desperate to re-write the rules, and yet the rules remain. Why is that?
5 Drivers For Creating Brand Insistence
I rather like this framework around brand implementation. I can see how you can quickly turn this into the second (and probably most important) slide in your EB deck…
www.brandingstrategyinsider.com • Share
Deloitte U.S. CEO: Employees don’t realize how much power they have
The employment idea is such a fascinating exercise in micro and macro perception. At the micro, you’re one person looking for a job to pay the bills. You might feel a little helpless as you don’t have agency in the process. At the macro level, you’re the king of the hill, being the thing that makes all businesses run: labor.
So yes. People can tell when your brand claims are bullshit.
Research: Why Rejected Internal Candidates End Up Quitting
In a way, EB is the “bigger picture” people within recruiting. Buying a great tool to solve a problem (any problem) often creates bigger and messier second-order effects (also called “new problems”). You need to own the perspective of the bigger picture, of the system so that investments can be worth the price.
Rebranding Made Easy II – The Business Side of Rebranding
Are things getting stale? Must be time for a re-brand. Or is it?
What’s the magic within writing where even the people who are good at it (great at it) struggle with the act? Everyone could stand to improve their own writing. (see also: why words matter in design)
How To Use LinkedIn Carousel Posts For Maximum Engagement
Anyone using this to tell their brand story on LI yet? I bet it feels old-school, but you can get a LOT of info into this (for people who want to really engage).
If you missed the Olympic pictogram video from the opening ceremonies, you have to catch it. To me, it’s an amazing example of taking a constraint, turning it into an advantage, and then localizing it using native culture.
How two artists are using NFTs and other new tech mediums to grow their community
When you see your work as a kind of art, there are reminders all around you that there really are no rules…
Quick hits
Inside the fortune cookie
The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the force the thing contains. - James Baldwin
Thanks, everyone!
Reminder: The more people at your org who read my books, the better your job will get! employerbrandbook.com (They’re free!!!)
There are now more than 900 links in the link archive. And as always, when you reply to this email I will read your questions and comments. Is there any article I should be commenting on? A book? A podcast? Is there something you what to know? How can I help? Just reply to this email and it comes directly to me.
Cheers and thanks!
-James Ellis (LinkedIn | Twitter | Podcast | Articles)
Where the subject line came from:
Yaz - Situation (Official Audio)
You’re listening to the official audio for Yaz - “Situation” from the album ‘Upstairs At Eric’s’. “Situation” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs c…
By James Ellis, Employer Brand Nerd
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