Similiarities of the HR and Digital Marketing World
The unknown touches each of us differently. This is the story of one person.
‘’It takes time for the results to be seen” the COO of mikgroup. said while presenting the onboarding presentation of the company to me and another new hire, on our first day of work.
The onboarding presentation included the company’s vision, mission, and general information about the company’s policies and explained briefly how the Digital Marketing world works.
Considering that I had zero prior knowledge of Digital Marketing, I knew I had to try to make it easier for myself by finding out in which ways this unknown world is similar to the HR world, a world I was experienced with.
After an amazing onboarding presentation and some in-depth research, I noticed some similarities between these 2 worlds.
So, today I want to share with you 5 similarities between the HR and Digital Marketing world.
I haven’t shared this “personal study” with anyone before until today, so please keep it top secret. At least, until I become famous.
Perfect, now we’re set. Let me list below 5 similarities before I go into more depth about each.
- HR VS GOOGLE
- RELIABLE EMPLOYEE VS SEO
- FREELANCER VS SEA
- HR REFERRALS VS BACKLINKS
- TEAM RETENTION VS GOOGLE POSITIONING
Ready to dive in? Let’s learn the similarities between two different worlds yet very similar!
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HR WORLD VS GOOGLE WORLD
Before HR meant only hiring and firing people- Now, it is much more than that. Nowadays, employees care about more than just the salary.
In a study done by Microsoft, 53% of respondents said they’re more likely to prioritize their health and well-being over work than before.
When looking for a job, people now look for an environment where they feel safe, that is reliable, and that gives them a great quality of life.
This is exactly what Google users look for in Google as well. With the evolution of technology and information, we know that you can’t trust everything you read. This is why, Google users want to find Google safety, reliability, and quality when searching for something.
That is why both worlds have to update themselves constantly and offer the best in order to have authority.
2. RELIABLE EMPLOYEE VS SEO
Have you ever held an interview with someone and knew that if you take the chance to invest in that person, after some time you’re going to get rewarded for this investment by seeing amazing results from them?
Not always, great things come as a whole package. Sometimes you need to invest in order to achieve the best results. This applies to investing in people in the HR World.
This is how SEO or Search Engine Optimization is in marketing too. You need to invest in the articles that are written inside the website, in the infrastructure of the website, in the branding of the website, and make it as user-friendly as possible.
There are many, many factors involved when Googlebot’s judge your website, and the abovementioned factors are among the most important ones.
Anyone can write content, but it takes talent and knowledge to create something that is optimized for search engines. Professionals spend a great deal of time learning the most current trends, practices, and changes in search engine usage.
Pretty much, do the best you can on all the above!
So, what else do both worlds have in common? Let’s check number three.
3. FREELANCER VS SEA
If you are a company that can’t afford a full-time employee, but you need great and fast results for a certain project, Upwork is your place. There are currently over 12 million freelancers on Upwork.
If you’d search there for, let’s say, ‘Google Expert’ you would get at least 100 results. And within a day, you’d have an expert in the field that is available to work and finish your project with great results and within a short period of time. However, as we all know, experts do not come at a cheap price.
Which is how SEA or Search Engine Advertising is in digital marketing. You get fast results, within a day. But at what cost? Yes, you guessed it right. Money.
Here, to put it simply, companies compete with each other through paid ads. That’s why it is hard for each company to stay for a long time at the top of the ranking in Google and the reason is simple – There’s always a company that can pay more for those ads and as a result, changes your current ranking.
And in the HR world as well, there’s always a company or someone that can pay your favorite freelancer more than you. This is why you can’t expect them to be reliable for you all the time- just like those paid ads in Digital Marketing.
4. HR REFERRALS VS BACKLINKS
„I know someone who would be a great fit for this role” is the equivalent of a great backlink in digital marketing.
Let me explain how.
Referrals are very powerful in the HR World. When someone you trust, refers someone to you for a position, you immediately get a sense that this referral might be a good fit for the company.
You click ‘Yes’ to a meeting invite with that person without thinking twice. This is how powerful are referrals in the HR world.
Funny thing is that this is how powerful backlinks are in the digital marketing world too. When you are reading an article written by a person or journal that you trust, and you see that they are referring a product or service to you through that article, you don’t hesitate to click the link included somewhere in there, because you know that this person or journal is trustable and reliable.
That link is known as a Backlink in the Digital marketing world, which is one of the factors that help the ranking of a website.
Credit: HanTanSeo
Read more: The Small Business Guide to Growth
In conclusion, whether it is a referral in the HR world or a Backlink in the Digital Marketing world when they come from a source you trust, they usually give back great results.
While on the subject, it is worth noting that there are the so-called ‘Toxic Backlinks’ as well in the Digital Marketing world. As the title suggests, these are links that you can not trust.
Same as in HR, not all referrals turn out to be a great fit for the position.
5. TEAM RETENTION VS GOOGLE POSITIONING
Welcome to the hardest part of both worlds, or all worlds perhaps- consistency.
The hardest part in the HR world, for example, is not hiring someone. It is creating an environment for the new hire that they stay with you for the long term. And how do you do that?
Well, you can start by creating an environment that they can trust, an environment where they can learn, and a place where they feel part of the experts. And this isn’t a one-day project. It is an ongoing process where you constantly have to align what you offer with the employee’s requests and needs.
This is what Google does for its users, as well. They want to create a place where users trust, learn, and most importantly grow. That’s why Google changes the algorithm often, always aligning with the needs of the users.
This is where the hardest part of digital marketing efforts is. It is an ongoing process- you can’t do SEO for a few months and then stop, expecting that Google will keep honoring you with a 1st position forever.
Even though Google never explains directly in the Google Algorithm updates which factors exactly will boost a website’s ranking, one thing is sure, they always give priority to the experts’ written articles, trustable links, and relevant information needed for the users.
So, in order to keep your 1st position in Google, you need to update your website with all the above. And in the HR world too, you need to be updated and align what you offer with your employee’s needs in order to keep A-Players in your company. Consistently.
Therefore, it takes time to see the results and it takes consistency to keep those results. In both the HR and Digital Marketing world.
Conclusion
As I invited you to “dive in” to this above, now I invite you to “dive out” – take a look and try to deeply understand my point of view on similarities between HR and the Digital Marketing World, especially SEO & SEA.
One of the best ways to grasp and retain information in a world full of resources is to explore the unknown by trying to find similarities with a world in which you’re already an expert. This way you also understand that all worlds are equally interesting as the ones that you already know if you take the time to explore.
This is how I linked an unknown world with a known and explored one, and this is how I would suggest you tap the next unknown adventure that life will put at your door.
Until the next article, Shqipe
