Start Selling Millennials With Your Job Description

Posted on May 7, 2012 by ryan

Last week Jennifer King, HR Analyst for www.SoftwareAdvice.com, interviewed Ryan Ruud, Four51 Director of Marketing, for an article about “Six Ways to Sell a Millennial With Your Job Description.”

Here’s a short excerpt from her blog post:

While some managers and recruiters are fed up with some of the stereotypical behaviors of Generation Y, this group is predicted to make up nearly 75% of the world’s workforce by 2025, according to the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation. The best of them will be in high demand, and companies can start using the job description to court them.

In her blog post, Jennifer writes about six ways employers should tweak job descriptions to attract Gen Y talent:

1. Tell them why they should want to work for you.
2. Tell them why the position matters to the company.
3. Talk about what the job could do for them.
4. Tell them about your creative benefits.
5. Tell them about your vision for the position.
6. Tell your company story, quickly.

Read Jennifer’s full post on her HR blog: http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/hr/millennial-with-your-job-description-041712/

Discovering Twitter Chats

Posted on April 25, 2012 by jenny

What is a Twitter Chat?

A Twitter chat is a chat on Twitter set for a specific time around a designated topic. There is a hashtag (#) associated with the chat topic so participants can monitor the chat as it happens and after the fact. (Ex. #PinChat is about Pinterest)

There are tools to help you follow and participate in Twitter chats such as TweetChat and TweetDeck. Continue reading →

Measure Your Pinterest Analytics With Pinerly

Posted on April 18, 2012 by jenny

I recently got access to the beta version of Pinerly. Pinerly has BIG potential. I could see Pinerly being to Pinterest as Hootsuite is to Twitter. The “go to resource” for the particular social media platform. Honestly, right now, the site is a little slow, but it is clean and user friendly.

Pinerly will be useful for individuals using Pinterest so they can see what pins work and what pins don’t. However, pinalytics will be even more important to businesses using social media. Continue reading →

All Access Q & A with Pinerly Co-Founder and CEO Rick Kats

Posted on April 18, 2012 by jenny

This all access Q & A was conducted via e-mail. All questions asked by Four51′s Jenny Pollock (@Jennykaypollock) with answers are from Pinerly’s Co-Founder and CEO, Rick Kats (@RicKats).

Pinerly is an account management dashboard for Pinterest, a photo sharing social media site.

Q: When do you expect Pinerly to be open to the public?

A: There is no concrete date yet, but we are aiming for May 2012. Continue reading →

Measuring Your Social Media Influence: What is Klout All About?

Posted on April 9, 2012 by jenny

Social media is everywhere from captions on TV, breaking news stories before the press, cited in academia and even involved in the presidential elections. To be successful these days, social media is essential; social is the name of the game and now it can be measured by services such as Klout and PeerIndex. From what I have noticed, Klout is the more popular measure of social media influence. Continue reading →

Commerce to Social Media Marketing, A Four51 Evolution via Tech.MN

Posted on March 7, 2012 by ryan

Originally published in Tech.Mn.

Named after the temperature at which paper burns, Four51 was founded in 1999 by Gary Nemcek, Rich Landa, and Mark Johnson— three entrepreneurs who saw a future that was essentially paperless.

Ironically, the SaaS firm got its start by serving many large customers involved with the wholesale distribution of print, promotional and office supplies — Sir Speedy, Deluxe, Staples, UltraGraphics — by providing customized ordering and management systems under the product name CommerceTools.

Bootstrapped through the startup phase, the company found profitability shortly after a $5.5m capital bump in 2003 which came in part from local firm Space Center Ventures. CommerceTools usage would eventually grow throughout the US, reach into 40 other countries over the years, and support a staff of 40.

But after a decade of driving growth one way, the trio sought a change of direction and formed an internal task force to navigate the unknown.

“We are certainly beyond startup, but created a new orientation to define and address a real problem that many businesses began facing lately. After so many years of delivering, you get the confidence to create new systems,” says CEO Mark Johnson (left).

The result is Fantools, a B2C social/ mobile SaaS campaign management product that launched last year to tackle the proliferation of promotional platforms like Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Groupon, and Yelp. Distributed franchise organizations like Wendy’s FourCrown, Senor Wongs and Figaro’s Pizza were amongst the early adopters of Four51′s new venture, which has topped 500 new accounts this year, according to Johnson.

“Measured by revenue, CommerceTools exceeds FanTools today, but measured by number of customers, FanTools is rapidly gaining on CommerceTools,” he says when asked about the product mix.

“There’s 30 million registered businesses in the US that participate in online promotional marketing. We’re want to disrupt that number.” As such, Four51 is forecasting a 50% increase in headcount this year, targeting 60 employees to accommodate the next phase of their journey.

Social Media Marketing | Taking The Confusion Out Of A Social Media Calendar

Posted on March 1, 2012 by ryan

A quick Google search on social media marketing will leave even the novice social marketer with a very prominent and common theme across all the social media success stories: you need to have a plan.

In fact, there are lots of articles out there that help you navigate the scary world of developing a social media calendar, like here, here and here.

The FanTools team at Four51 had an epiphany a little while ago. We figured we should take the guesswork out of planning a social media marketing program, and that’s what we did.

In the latest version of FanTools, we take the guesswork out of social media marketing so you can get back to doing what you do best, which is running your business. With a little help from our friends at Epipheo Studios, we can now share our epiphany with you and the world! The best part is, FanTools is free to sign up!

We’re Hiring! Join Four51 as a Support Analyst

Posted on February 24, 2012 by ryan

SUPPORT ANALYST

Four51 is a Bloomington, MN-based cloud computing software company in the fast growing ecommerce industry. Founded in 1999, our solutions help thousands of businesses around the globe better distribute their various brand messages to their customers and employees. Our latest application called FanTools, launched in late 2010, is experiencing significant growth in user acceptance and we are therefore experiencing solid growth in our business. FanTools is a social media marketing platform that allows marketers to create, publish, and share preference-based deals and sound content to a merchant’s Facebook page.

Four51 is looking for a junior IT person to learn our CommerceTools and FanTools applications, and to assist with the help desk needs of our employees. The IT & Application Support Analyst provides technical support to Four51 employees and customers. This includes the installation and support of desktop and server hardware software, as well as working with the case management team to support Four51’s CommerceTools and FanTools applications. This position is located in our Bloomington, MN home office.

Main Areas of Responsibility:

Manage the installation, configuration, and ongoing usability of desktop computers, peripheral equipment, and software for Four51 employees.
Work with procurement staff to purchase hardware and software.
Maintain corporate telephone system.
Obtain expert-level proficiency in Four51’s CommerceTools and FanTools applications.
Become an invaluable member of the application support team to deliver exceptional application support and service to Four51’s customers via the case management system.
Work early morning, evening or weekend hours when tasks require.

Required Skills:

A bachelor’s degree, preferably in computer science, or equivalent work experience.
Exceptional organizational, communication and problem-solving skills.
Basic knowledge of Javascript, SQL, HTML, CSS, and JQuery.
Working knowledge of Windows 7, Windows 2008, Mac OS X, network storage and archival technologies.
Experience troubleshooting hardware issues and replacing hardware on both desktop and laptop PCs.
Experience troubleshooting basic network, software, and printing problems.

Four51 offers a competitive starting salary and incentive bonus program, fringe benefits including health/dental Insurance and 401(K) with match, an outstanding working environment including free (covered) parking, access to walking/running trails and exercise rooms/fitness classes, and is located in a convenient close-in suburban location. Four51 has a challenging workplace team with smart, experienced individuals who can provide the opportunity to help you grow and develop.

Please submit cover letter and resume to Kari Weiss, kweiss@four51.com.

We’re Hiring! Account Executive

Posted on February 1, 2012 by ryan

Job Description

The Account Executive will work within an assigned geographic territory to generate new business, manage an activity plan, and perform account management duties as required.

Main Areas of Responsibility:

Develop product competence and a thorough understanding of Four51 solutions.
Identify, contact, qualify, and close new business within an assigned local geography.
Meet and exceed monthly activity targets.
Develop and maintain an excellent understanding of the needs of prospects in the SMB social marketing space and determine how those needs are best addressed by the Four51 solutions.
Use knowledge of technology, products, processes, industry expertise, and consultative sales skills to educate prospects on the Four51 value proposition.
Proactively participate in local networking events, trade events, shows, and conferences to build relationships and heighten visibility of Four51 solutions.
Update CRM system to generate activity, pipeline, and sales reports.

Desired Skills & Experience

Requirements:

Four-year college degree (3.0 or greater GPA).
1-2 years sales experience in marketing services, advertising, or Software as a Service.
Proficient with MS Office products and familiarity with CRM systems, social media, and eCommerce.
Ability to work independently and manage activity plan.
Strong verbal, written, and communication skills, as well as strong attention to detail.

Company Description

Please submit resume to Kari Weiss, kweiss@four51.com. Please title subject of message with “Account Executive”.

Additional Information

Posted:: January 10, 2012
Type:: Full-time
Experience:: Associate
Functions:: Business Development, Sales
Industries:: Internet
Compensation:: Competitive Starting Salary

“I didn’t know that?!” Training at Four51

Posted on January 30, 2012 by elsie

“That is new to me… I didn’t know that… You can do what?… Neat!…” These are all the phrases that make us smile when we have new trainees in our classroom, and we hope to hear some of that this week!

At noon today we kick off our newly revised free training format and are welcoming 12 people to frigid Minneapolis! (c’mon, only 7 miles away from Mall of America!) So you may ask yourself, would this benefit me? Of course it would, unless you are better than our very own tech guru, Steve Davis. We have many trainees that attend our program because they are new at their place of employment and need to learn the basics; but we also have a large audience who come to expand their knowledge so they can provide more for their customers and co-workers.

Many of you may have already attended a training session here at Four51′s headquarters, but this week marks the first week with our new format in place. In the past, we offered a one week course lasting M-F. This allowed a lot of classroom time for Mike Moebeck to crack his famously old stale jokes, but meant people had to give up their weekends catching flights in and out of town. We’ve changed that.

Here is a breakdown of our new training:

Monday Noon to 5 pm: CommerceTools Administration

Tuesday 9am to 5pm: Variable Text Products, Pageflex lesson 1 &2

Wednesday 9am to 5pm: Pageflex lessons 3-6 and Lesson Challenges

Thursday 9am to Noon: Pageflex lessons 7 & 8, Summary, and Goodbye!

Stay tuned for an announcement on our next training session so you can start planning your visit.

And please tell us! Have you attended training at Four51? What are your thoughts on the shorter program we’ve put in place?

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