I have to wonder if all this WFH has caused tech companies to roll out all its planned features early to keep our attention. Evidence? Facebook Messenger for groups, Youtube features to compete with Tik Tok, Facebook live gets accessibility features, and even reddit is rolling out new features. The best part? These features are free! Go engage your candidates!

How did Pixar, already known as a fantastic story-teller, change how it approached story and brand issues to reach the next level? By building an internal "brain trust." (For the record, so much of what we see as "great creative" isn't about inspiration, but about the systems and processes we put in place to foster that creativity.)

In 2019, WhatsApp reached 2 billion global users and solidified itself as the most popular mobile messaging app worldwide. Here's how brands leverage it.My feeling is that Europe and Asia have embraced WhatsApp far more than America (1.5B users globally, but only 23MM in the US) but that just means we can learn some lessons on how to leverage it. The best part? WhatsApp is free.

here's a whole report on the state of diversity within marketing and how people feel like they see themselves in marketing.

Since it's the topic of this week's The Talent Cast, I've got diversity on the brain. Maybe that's why I jumped at this list of 25 stats to help you explain why diversity is important to your company and employer brand.

Usually, when I get looped into "should recruiting have it's own social channels" fights, the fight is based on feelings and politics. How controlling is marketing being? How willing are you to care and feed the channel? Etc. But Hubspot offers a smart set of arguments as when when you should (and should not) launch your own dedicated social channels.

I don't want to be one of those "productivity-or-die" people. This situation is intensely stressful, so if you don't feel like using your WFH time to write a book or start a side-hustle, you'll get no judgement from me. But, if you want to learn something (and there is a webinar glut at the moment, so it's not hard to find stuff to learn), Google has a list of 9 free online courses that would really help you elevate your game.

This article should arm you with a better argument with tech recruiters and tech hiring managers at to why their normal way of hiring is deeeeeeply flawed. I point it out because tech recruiting is one of those places that doesn't always embrace the power of employer brand, and when you read this article, it should become pretty clear where the disconnect it.

Remember, your brand is less a set of words, images or concepts, but of the stories people tell themselves and (obliquely) each other about why they work there. So here's a great piece on how you can use narrative to as a means to influence decisions.

I had a fun conversation over at Chad & Cheese on employer branding in a post-COVID world that got some surprisingly positive mentions.

How do you recruit on campus when no one's on campus?

If it seems like all the emails you've been getting all seem to say the same stuff, it's not just you. Here's a poem someone based purely on the first lines of recent emails (it's a winner).

Prediction: we've reached "peak inspiration" with our brand messaging. We needed that sense of hope to get through the initial freak-out, and some companies did a great job with it. But leaning too much on inspiration can feel like eating too much of that chocolate bunny. Beyond peak-inspiration? Getting the work done. Where we get back to the pleasures of doing good work.

NYTimes has a bunch of data on how people's internet use has changed since their lockdowns. This might be useful as you plan how you reach out to people in a COVID world. My big takeaway is that where phone-driven apps had been growing steadily, the fact that we're all locked at home with our laptops and TV means that they are taking up a LOT more of our screen time.

What's the line? Nothing may happen for a decade, but then a decade can happen in a week? We're living in a VUCA world. All the conversations we've been having below the water line around the purpose of a company, the why, the change the company is trying to make in the world, has suddenly become THE conversation.

Historical perspective: companies that shirk their brand investments during a downturn pay a steep price.

Introduction to a Three-Part Series.

Feeling like you're behind the curve (and the 8-ball) on adjusting to the new reality? Don't feel confident taking a big leap forward? Don't feel like your leadership knows how to help you change? Take some queues from consumer brand shifts as they try to figure how to reach customers who aren't buying.

Before I roll out some cool new stuff (I'll be able to announce it in a few weeks, I hope), I've been thinking about metrics a lot. So this article on how to think about and measure your brand equity really stuck with me. (Pro tip: use the term "brand equity" more at work to elevate your own personal brand.)

I will admit right now that I have yet to see a "talent community" which is actually more than just a mailing list and job posting spam. A community is a place where there is two-way interaction including between members, not just a set of targets to blast with email. (By the way, if you read that as "that's why I shouldn't build a community, you're missing the point: there's a huge opportunity here to build a community because everyone wants one and no one's done it right yet!) So it might make sense to take this opportunity, as you pivot the brand and figure out your strategy going forward, to think about getting serious about your own community.

Is it time to surge? If you're business isn't in one of the industries being crushed by the pandemic (retail, movie theaters, travel, live events, etc), you might be surprisingly well-positioned to level up. So if you can read past the example of Southeast Asian economies, here are the seven reasons the a company will surge. Take a moment and give each of the seven drivers a few minutes of thought. I bet you can come up with a bunch of smart projects to facilitate your surge (oh, and feel free to link to the article when you discuss the projects, to show that you are taking your cues from a higher order of publications).

I loved this piece from Branding Mag on "upbranding," the process of elevating your own brand relative to the competition. The goal is help your brand stand out and appear more valuable (something we probably all would like) by tapping in emotional and rational drivers. The kicker for me was the idea of working t appear more exclusive, something not everyone could have. As our brands hire on quality instead of quantity, exclusivity is a close cousin.

Speaking of "pivot," how deep are you in pivoting your content strategy? Here are two good guides on how to make a quick change of direction from Hubspot and Talent Brand Alliance.

Speaking of "pivot," how deep are you in pivoting your content strategy? Here are two good guides on how to make a quick change of direction from Hubspot and Talent Brand Alliance.

Emily Firth puts this idea front and center, claiming that now is the time for EB to show the value it can bring to the company beyond pipeline-filling (and she's 101% right).

There are some nice examples here, but the real power is in the headline: Content is king as brands make themselves useful. Useful?!?! Wow. But it's a fair shot. Brands are so often seen as fuzzy-bunny nice-to-haves, the thing you invest in once things are nice and cushy. True of consumer and employer brands, the Covid pivot means brands themselves are reinventing what they can be to the company. And for us, it is absolutely true.

Marketing Land is a daily, must-read site for CMOs, digital marketing executives and advertising campaign managers.

This might make you feel good (or at least a slight twinge of schadenfreude) to see that marketing likes to complain about how it isn't take seriously in the board room, much like how many of us feel disrespected by marketing. Strangely, the solution to both problems is to stop relying on internal metrics and focus on real business metrics.

How has Google changed its marketing tactics in light of the pandemic?

Some great quotes from business marketing leaders on how COVID has changed their view of how they can market their business to the world. It doesn't take much to read between the lines and see all the room for employer brand to be a strategic partner to marketing. But don't wait for them to come to you: go make that appointment to chat right now!