The Power of JOTW

Mike Klein reports on the JOTW 2006 Inaugural Survey:

The first-ever Job Of The Week Reader Survey yielded some very interesting data reinforcing the many positive reasons why JOTW has become such an intrinsic part of the business communications scene.

A SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY

The most overarching finding is that the vast majority of survey participants are either professionals who are employed full time, or are self employeds or freelancers.  Indeed, 64% of participants are employed full time, and only 7% of participants consider themselves unemployed.  At the same time, 60% of readers are “looking” for new opportunities.

The level of success of the community shows up in participants’ stated income levels.  7.5% have incomes above $150,000; 26% above $100,000, and approximately 40% above $85,000.  The high salaries indicate a fairly senior slant to the JOTW readership.

A COMMUNITY OF AMBITIOUS PROFESSIONALS

Beyond the fact that 60% of participants are currently on the lookout for new opportunities, the ambition of the members of the JOTW community is also evidenced by the considerable appetite survey participants showed for further education and training.

75% of participants read more than 6 books per year.  64% would consider purchasing training and continuing education courses from JOTW Sponsors if JOTW were to sell such sponsorships, and 60% would consider a purchase of professional journals and training materials from JOTW Sponsors. 

The educational appetites of JOTW survey participants appear against a backdrop of solid personal credentials.  33% hold bachelors degrees in Communications and Public Relations, and 18% hold masters degrees in Communications and PR.  11% hold MBAs, 2% PhDs, 15% hold masters in other fields, and only 3% hold less than a four-year degree.

Educational/training ambitions range from seeking training in Internet skills (29%), ABC/APR Accreditation (22%), MBAs (10%), other masters degrees (16%), and PhDs (5%).

SATISFIED JOTW CUSTOMERS

All in all, users are quite satisfied with JOTW, particularly when compared to other job and career sites, be they specific to the communications industry or are of more general interest.  79% of JOTW users rated it very good or excellent, compared to 46% for the IABC International Job Site, 29% for IABC local job sites, 20% for Monster, 16% for The Ladders, 11% for Career Builder, and 7% for Yahoo HotJobs.

STRONG IN THE EAST

One key finding from the survey was that the geographic distribution of the participants reflects JOTW’s historic strength in the Washington area, and to a lesser extent, on the East Coast as a whole. 36% of participants came from the combined Maryland-Virginia-DC region, with 8% from Illinois, 6% each from New York and California, 5% from Pennsylvania and 4% from Massachusetts.  In all, 41 states were represented; there was approximately 1% from outside the US.

HIGH FLIERS

Airline usage and preferences reflected the regional distribution of survey participants, with the two most used airlines being United and US Airways, both of which have major operations in Washington.  But while United was users’ favorite domestic carrier, US Airways dropped behind American, Southwest and Delta in the favorite category. 

Survey participants prefer their international travel with a British accent, with British Airways taking top hono(u)rs and Virgin Atlantic at third behind United.

BRAND CONSCIOUS

Survey participants had broadly mainstream tastes in the range of other commercial products and services tested in the survey.

In the Cellular/Wireless category, Verizon was the favorite of 33% of participants; Cingular weighed in at 16%, Sprint at 10% and T-Mobile at 7%.

For computer hardware, Dell was the favorite of 26%, Macintosh/Apple held 18%, HP/Compaq had 6%, Lenovo/IBM had 2% and Toshiba, Gateway and Sony were just above 1%.

Amazon was the overwhelming favorite in the E-Commerce category with 40%, eBay was the favorite of 14%, Barnes and Noble had 2% and Overstock was the only other player with more than 1%.  Hundreds of choices had one or two votes.

TOP SOURCES

The selection of professional journals and training manuals was extremely eclectic, given that many participants are communicators in highly specialized fields.  Still, IABC Communication World came top with 8%, PRSA Strategist had 4%, PR Week had 3%, and Ragan/Journal of Employee Communications Management had 2%.

OBSERVATIONS

The results of this survey leave me with four major observations.  First, the core of JOTW is its combination of free job postings and free job posting response—which makes it indispensable to the successful communications professional who has an eye on the market; commercial opportunities will need to be those that strengthen this model rather than compromising it.

Second, JOTW has considerable potential for growth, particularly in the top US Metro areas like Chicago, LA, San Francisco, New York and Boston—the findings show that there are large enough groups of users in these locations who could be mobilized to participate in a viral recruitment drive (particularly if incentivized properly).  A successful viral recruitment drive could address a frequent (though not prevalent) complaint that JOTW postings lack sufficient geographical diversity.

Third, it is clear that JOTW readers represent an attractive market—affluent, educated, discerning in taste, reflective of mainstream preferences but willing to look beyond the first three choices in a category if given reason to.  Whether its for training and education, airline frequent flyer programs, or computer hardware, there are many willing customers here.

Finally, a clever marketeer—be it a JOTW member or someone in the communications industry—may well discover the real genius in the JOTW network.  In a world where people are often seeking to hit the “Tipping Point”, JOTW readers are essentially the people who are the “Point Tippers”—the people who identify, present, and deliver ideas to make things happen in the world.  Those with new products (new wines, beers, computer software, magazines), or new ideas, would be well served to find a way to access and mobilize the JOTW Network as a leading edge tool for their ambitions. 

There is value in this network—power, money, intelligence and creativity.  When its value gets tapped, JOTW’s potential could be truly amazing.

See a chart that shows the growth of JOTW:http://jotw.blogharbor.com/jotwgrowthchart