Beyond.com

Beyond.com, Inc. is the world’s largest network of niche career communities, powering thousands of geographic and industry-specific sites. We are dedicated to helping business professionals, corporations and vertical communities connect with each other by providing relevant career search services, networking tools and portal software solutions.

The Challenge

Despite its illustrious customer list and position on Inc. Magazine’s prestigious ‘Inc. 500’ list of the fastest growing private companies in 2007, Beyond.com was faced with a clear need to further raise its visibility and validate its “niche” approach among both employers and job seekers.

The Approach

To help the company increase online traffic and visibility among key HR players, PAN set out to generate buzz about the company among influential bloggers. This involved a highly targeted effort, honing in on the top blogs being read by job seekers and/or HR professionals.

In the first phase of its social media campaign, the PAN team made sure that those bloggers received Beyond.com news. However, knowing full well that bloggers don’t tend to cover product news, PAN wrapped in industry relevant information along with each bit of news. This news whet their appetite, and spurred many to dig deeper into learning about Beyond.com’s unique capabilities. Next, the team shared Beyond.com’s quarterly trend reports on issues such as job growth, and top jobs in various cities. By providing valuable information that aligns spot-on with the topics these bloggers cover, the team broke through traditional blogger barriers to be seen as a key resource.

The Results

PAN’s approach quickly paid off. Within a matter of weeks, the agency had secured a hit on Mashable.com — one of the largest blogs for social networking news. In addition, this forum gave Beyond.com founder and CEO Rich Milgram an opportunity to respond to the post and keep the dialog going.

The agency also garnered ongoing coverage in blogs such as Cheezhead.com, CareerWayMark.com, HR.com, Recruiting.com, WebDev.com, and Jobboarders.com — ideal targets for Beyond.com’s message. Having developed positive working relationships with these bloggers, the PAN team has secured Beyond.com’s place as a valuable source of industry commentary and thought leadership in these venues. Milgram regularly provides commentary on timely issues such as work/life balance, employee retention, and protecting your identity while conducting online job searches, as well as other areas of interest to both HR professionals and job seekers.