Lindsay Olson

The Dangers of Overapplying

In hard economic times, job seekers often apply for more than one role at the same company. While at first glance, this may seem to increase your odds, it may actually hurt them. Read on.

What Recruiters Think

The danger of applying for many jobs with the same company is that recruiters may feel like you haven’t really reviewed the job requirements, and this can give you a bad mark.  If there are sincerely several positions that you’re interested in and qualified for, that’s one thing, but recruiters may feel like you’re desperate for a job and that you don’t really care about the role(s) you’re applying for.

I like what Marsha Freedman says about overapplying: “make sure that every application you submit conveys authenticity in terms of your ability and desire to do the job.”

When to Overapply

Sometimes, applying for multiple roles is acceptable.  If a company has several communications  positions available, it’s acceptable to apply for them. A larger company may have openings for a roles in different areas of communications and if you possess qualifications in employee communications and media relations, it would make sense to apply for multiple roles since they are addressing different areas of the communications department. But don’t apply for marketing, finance and admin roles. It looks bad on your part.

Same goes for PR agency jobs. Because a PR agency hires mostly PR people, you’ll probably find several openings that match your interests. Don’t apply to each one individually. Be selective and pick those that are most relevant to your expertise.

If the company has several openings, rather than applying to ten in one sitting, explain your interest in your cover letter. Mention that you are interested in several positions and list them out. Explain why you are applying for more than one role (get that big elephant out of the room).

Ensure that your skills truly are a solid fit for the roles. Don’t apply for multiple jobs just to “increase your chances.” You really won’t. And like Marsha said, only apply for jobs you’d love having.

But You Really, Really Want the Job!

If you truly think a role is ideal for you but you don’t hear back, follow up with an email to see if the recruiter or hiring manager has chosen a candidate. If you were told you weren’t chosen after an interview, you can always ask why. You might not be exactly what they were looking for internally, through no fault of your own and you might get some additional helpful feedback.

Even if you weren’t selected, always thanks the recruiting or hiring manager for the consideration and ask to be kept in mind for similar roles in the future. Make sure they know you are serious about wanting to work for their company, not just any company.

Are Fake Tweets Part of Your PR Program?

A post by PR columnist, Alison Kenney.

As a free service that lets its users set up an account in just a few seconds, Twitter has made it easy for people to take advantage of its system.  Plenty of tweets come from assumed aliases or posers.  Why would anyone do this?  And what role do fake tweets play in PR?

First, fake tweets can be really entertaining. Many of the fake Twitter aliases dispense pretty hilarious and well-thought out tweets.  Everyone from Forbes to Mashable has published a list of the best fake Twitter accounts. They range from crime bosses (there are about a dozen Whitey Bulgers on Twitter and even @Catherine_Greig is tweeting now) to celebrities(@FakeJeter) and from the cast of Star Wars to memes like @FakeAPStyleBook and@shitmydadsays, which seems to have spawned @oldmansearch. Often the entertainment value is in extending the life of a popular news topic, such as the creation of@Bronxzooscobra.

Faux tweets can also help brands engage with audiences in a new way and/or add a new dimension to the brand.  For example, the Mad Men TV show characters who tweet in their fictional voices would seem to be a brilliant branding move on behalf of AMC, the show’s creators, and a smart way to extend the brand and keep audiences engaged even when the season is not airing on TV. (The real story is more complicated.)

Another benign reason for skirting total transparency on Twitter is to establish and build authority.  For instance, Lindsay’s Twitter handle, @PRjobs, is an easy-to-remember and authoritative name for someone whose job is recruiting PR professionals.  Similar to the practice of grabbing up popular web domain names, some Twitter names become sought-after. @Massachusetts isn’t a government agency; it’s the Twitter handle for Trazzler, a travel deal site co-founded by Biz Stone, one of Twitter’s founders.

Twitter is also used strategically to influence audiences or perhaps attack an opponent.  This seems to be happening more and more in politics, with opponents creating fake Twitter names to tweet offensive comments about a candidate, as was the case for California State Senator and leading candidate for mayor of San Francisco Leland Yee says the New York Times.  In an unusual example of Twitter impersonation, a faux Rahm Emanuel, who presumably sought to entertain when he began tweeting under the handle @MayorEmanuelduring Emanuel’s run for mayor of Chicago, identified himself to the real Rahm Emanuel in exchange for a donation to a local charity.

In typical fashion, campaign managers and PR strategists simultaneously deny involvement with fake Twitter accounts and discount any influence the fake tweets have.

Of course the most infamous fake tweeter so far is @BPGlobalPR, which took advantage of BP’s slow reaction and lack of communication in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to generate negative attention for the BP brand.  The creator of @BPGlobalPR shares his thoughts with PRSA in this interview.

Twitter doesn’t endorse phweeters (phony tweeters) or parodies but openly accepts their existence and attempts to help its users identify real versus phony accounts by verifying certain accounts and publishing these guidelines.

Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.