The Art of Being Authentic and Out of Control

Several years ago in April, a Hooters waitress won a contest for selling the most beer during the month. She was promised a Toyota--- She went outside to collect her prize and she found, instead of a new car-- a Toy Yoda. Haha they said-- April Fools!
Haha she said. She sued. She won.

Moral of the story- be authentic. Be real Do what you say and be careful what you promise.

Flash forward to Web 2.0 and leave your corporate brochure at home. Blogs, social networking, twittering and cell phone cameras have made talking to your employees the same as talking to the world. In fact, is there really such a thing as internal communications? I think not.

The loss of control may be hard for some- and to get a sense of what corporate recruiting may have coming down the pike, we can look at the lessons learned from Colleges nationwide as they market to incoming freshman by pulling back the curtain.

Ball State University enlightened us with their journey from controlled media (the college viewbook aka student brochure) to their new Brand champions-- the student (paid) bloggers/podcasters:

Viewbook Copy
“Our residence halls are so popular that many of our students choose to stay in them for their entire college careers.”

Podcast
“I’m living off campus now, which is soooo much better than living in the dorms!”
Blog entry:
“As for outside of Ball State activities – I’m not going to lie, there’s not a whole lot to do in Muncie.”

Viewbook copy
“Our beautiful campus mingles classic architecture with modern facilities.”
Blogger
“There’s no freakin’ privacy in the JOHN! No wall, no nothing. You’re just left hanging out there…

Truth is, I like the school, but they said when I signed up for this I could complain about things if I wanted.”

The students of today are the workforce of tomorrow and they will be coming into your office with expectations so be prepared.