Branding David

I am seeing a fair number of companies cutting staff that probably don’t need to. They are reporting record earnings, or at worst nominal drops in revenue, and yet they are cutting upwards of thirty percent of their staff. What is going on? Why are they making such aggressive cuts in their staff if the money is still rolling in?

The ME TOO Mindset

I was recently talking to a colleague of mine, and it was said that watching the news go around about all the cuts and the horrible economy most definitely pushes out the feeling that companies should make cuts because others are. When you put massive amounts of people together, you’ll notice quite often there is a tendency to follow a leader, even if it is in the wrong direction.

Are many companies letting go of hard working people just because they have seen the news that their competitors have let go of staff? Do they see this as a way to remain competitive and bolster their revenue figures? Is this just a great excuse, so that those that do the firings don’t have to feel bad?

Again, I am not saying that there isn’t a reason to downsize, if your revenues are going south, or your cash burn rate is too high to be sustained over the long haul, but to do it without any other provocation other than your competition cutting back is ridiculous.

Companies expect their staff to work hard for them, and be loyal, and then there is a hiccup in the economy and people are being downsized like there is no tomorrow.

I really think that if most companies took a moment to pause, really analyze the situation, and take preventative measures that don’t require a loss of talent and staff, they would be able to ride out this economic storm without contributing to the negativity that is currently hanging over the new media / Internet and technology related industries.

What do you think, were all of these firings really necessary?

While it can be hard to find the time to post on other people’s blogs, no matter the reason you have behind doing it, you’ll see rewards that far outweigh the time constraints. Sometimes, it can be twice as effective to write guest posts versus writing posts that will be published on your own blog.

So, instead of trying to write an extra post in your day to make time for guest posting, I would advocate taking the time away from your own posting and dedicate it towards writing an amazing guest post.

Even if the blog isn’t bigger than yours in traffic, RSS readers, or listings in search engines, it can still provide huge benefit from being highly focused, or giving your blog the variety of links it needs to be highly recognized from search engines like Google.

Guest posting continues to be one of the ways we advance the marketing of College Crunch.

There was something that frustrated me a little bit today in a post that someone wrote about the things that shouldn’t be discussed at PodCamp, they listed monetization as one of those points, and that there are already many articles online regarding monetizing podcasts and being able to quit your job to podcast full time.

It really flipped a switch for me because when I went to Podcasters Across Borders, I was basically lynched for wanting to hear about monetization, as it was a bad word at that event.

People were focused on podcasting because they were passionate and they didn’t want anything to get in the way of that, but what they don’t realize is: monetization is just a step in building a business.

No matter how the economy is, people should want to turn their passions into their business. Some of the wealthiest people in the world were able to make that leap, and why shouldn’t podcasters? Also, the tips, tricks and ideas from last year might not be the same today, as things are always changing online.

To say talk of monetization isn’t welcome is odd, and shortsighted to me. Sure, there will always be purists out there, but I say, “build a business from your passions” and as long as monetization isn’t welcome in the conversation stream, maybe ask about “building a business” around your podcast next PodCamp.