Careerbuilder Case Study

Problem: Not Enough Engagement

Careerbuilder needed more engagement from its content. They regularly publish studies that get published in many news outlets, but they were looking for more engagement, especially among C-Level executives.

Solution: Leverage Forefront Network

Forefront leveraged its network of C-Level executives to offer commentary in the context of their own role and experience.

Result: Discussion and Dialogue

The Careerbuilder study was transformed from a list of statistics to a seed for discussion and dialogue among C-Level leaders. Careerbuilder is perceived as a catalyst for thoughtful discussion and corporate change management.

See below to learn more about how we did it.

In January 2014 Careerbuilder published a press release called “One in Five Workers Plan to Change Jobs in 2014, According to CareerBuilder Survey”

This study got picked up by a number of publications like Forbes, Talent Management, TLNT.com, and us. All of them did the same thing: they published a summary of the findings. This is great, and works very well to get the Careerbuilder name out there.

Forefront went a step further. We got C-Level executives to read and offer commentary on the findings.

How does Forefront do this?

Forefront regularly works with and engages a wide network of C-Level executives in a variety of functions like HR, IT, Finance, Legal, and others. We regularly contact them to offer insight on their careers, roles, and current project. For this particular situation, we summarized the findings of the study and presented an opportunity for them to write up commentary, which would be published in conjunction with our summary.

Note: Executives rarely comment on social media and rarely write on their own blogs, but collaborate with and trust our team. They like that our platform can be a safe place to serve as their “voice” for their opinions. To see how candid and open our executive network is, please read through some of our executive features. A good example is Todd Richardson, Former Head of HR of ExactTarget. He was featured in and regularly contributes to Forefront.

Careerbuilder gains exposure in two ways:

#1: During the initial request to C-Level executives for their opinion

Forefront has a proprietary list of executives that have expressed interest in participating in our editorial opportunities. Executives are busy. All of them are engaged with Forefront, but only a fraction have an opening in their schedule to participate. Careerbuilder gains exposure to this list of executives during this initial phase.

#2: When the commentary is published

Executives take other executives seriously. When an C-Level leader has something to say, other C-Level leaders really consider what they are sharing.

Example #1

As you can see, we ran a similar summary to Forbes, Talent Management and TLNT. However, we followed it up with content written by executives in our network.

Commentary #1 was from Adrianne Court, the CHRO of Transplace, a multibillion dollar logistics company.

Commentary #2 was from Todd Richardson, the EVP of HR & Legal at ExactTarget, a large digital marketing firm recently acquired by SalesForce.

Example #2

Careerbuilder published another study about employee health and wellness. We ran another story, plus additional commentary from several executives.

Tobias Lee, CMO at Thomson Reuters, commented directly in the article. We also talked to the Wellness Director at National Instruments about their fitness programs.

Commentary #1 was from Christopher Brennan, the General Counsel of NBTY, a multibillion dollar manufacturer of vitamins and nutritional supplemens.

Commentary #2 was from Glenneth Reed, A certified Holistic Health Coach.

As you can see, the Forefront team is extremely skilled at creating engagement with C-Level executives across a wide variety of topics.