By Christine Chen

Minorities will be the majority within a few years’ time, and ethnic media publications are already deeply rooted in these diverse communities.  According to New American Media, more than 57 million ethnic adults connect to each other, to home countries, and to America through 3,000+ ethnic media.  It is the fastest growing sector of American journalism.

For companies and their communications teams who want to reach people in numbers, consider ethnic media a niche not to be ignored.  Here are a few reasons why:

• They speak the language and know the audience.  Peers/communities bring intense credibility in a world of mixed messages and media noise.
• While each ethnic publication or media outlet reaches fewer people in numbers, collectively, they can reach more. In one case, a big-state politician won his race despite being the underdog, and ethnic media endorsements were largely credited with the surge in support.
• You can almost always find an example of a diverse story in your organization, which brings authenticity to new communities and potentially new audiences.

Here’s a poignant commentary by Dr. Julie Pham in the Northwest Asian Weekly, who also published an article about one of our clients in Nguoi Viet.

By Christine Chen

At lunch at a large company’s cafe recently, I overheard a table of about 10-12 people debating the topic of blogging.  One comment was (paraphrasing here), “Social media has given some people the ability to blog that really shouldn’t be allowed to blog at all.”   Whether you agree with that statement is up to you.  Certainly, social media has democratized the information flow. This also means you have a choice whom you trust – just like you had pre-social media.

I am often asked about this topic, as a former journalist during the long-standing media structure which is known as “gatekeeping”.  In this structure, a limited number of traditional media organizations filtered information for their audiences, serving as “gatekeepers” and packaging what they thought was most relevant/important/appealing/riveting for their “masses”.

Today, the filters aren’t quite as obvious, but you still have filters.

Here are some benchmarks to sort through bloggers and serve as potential filters:

1. Who is the blogger, and what is their experience in the field in which they blog?
2. What is their background in information dissemination and/or sharing?
3. What organization do they/did they work for?  Do you trust those?
4. Do you find value in the overall scope of their blog content?
5. What makes you go back to their blog – and why?

If you are a company, executive and or blogger, you might take some of those thoughts and flip them around as part of your social media strategy… to understand your potential blog audience.

By Christine Chen

Some top recruiters for Microsoft can’t underestimate the value of three things when it comes to a job hunt:

1. Clearly demonstrate how you acquired skills (and where).
2. Quantify the results of your contributions.
3. Make sure this information conforms with your brand in social media.

The third point is the one that prompted the most buzz during two social media panel discussions at the Microsoft Diversity, Recruiting and Networking event in November 2010 at Studios West in Redmond, featuring recruiters from some of Microsoft’s most popular groups: Xbox, Customer Service, Bing and Windows Phone 7.

The recruiters made it clear that they do their research when vetting potential hires, and social media has made it very easy for them to spot red flags; conversely, social media has also made it possible for someone to stand out.

I posed the questions, fed by tweets to @chencomm during the panel discussion.

Here were the top takeaways:

• They want to know where you got your skills chronologically.  Keep your resume simple, with dates, facts and figures which are well-organized and demonstrate results.
• Make sure the chronological and results-driven information is in this same order on your Linkedin profile.  They say most Linkedin profiles are too bare.
• If you have particular capabilities – perhaps particular program experience – say so.  Often, recruiters will scan resumes for a single item that matches what they’re looking for.
• If you need a place to share your strategic thought and experiences, start and maintain a blog.  They’re interested.
• Don’t complain that your resume gets lost in the shuffle.  They figure if you can break through the noise, then you can effectively navigate your way through a massive organization such as Microsoft.

Look for Jason Pankow, Xbox/Xbox Live recruiter as a contributing blogger on Fistful of Talent, a blog of all things HR, recruiting and corporate.  @JPankow

Also look for open networker, Kay Kelison, recruiter for Bing/Online Services.  By the way, she tweets a lot of job postings. @kay_kelison or @Jaxx_McGee