TECHWORKING : New Media Strategies

New Media Strategies plans to hire about five people in the next three months and five more during the rest of the year. Pete Snyder, founder and chief executive, talked with The Post's Andrea Caumont.

Q What does your company do?

AOn any given day, our people could be watching the newest movies, playing the newest video games or checking out soap operas. We're the online pioneers in online brand protection and promotion. We work with major brands, television networks and movie studios and help them protect and promote their bottom line online. We tell them what consumers are saying about them and their products and provide them with the oldest form of marketing, word of mouth marketing, on its newest platform, the Internet. We focus on online communities, chat rooms, message boards and list serves, where millions of people are talking about things that matter to them. What do you think your employees would say were the best reasons for working at your company?

Some of the biggest reasons are on any given day you can be working on the hottest movies and television shows. Our clients are interesting and fun. And then there's our people. We're at the nexus of a tech company and a service company and it's all about your people. We have smart, eager and cutting-edge folks here that have really helped grow this company. We listen to our employees and give them a voice. I'm a former geeky pollster and I realized that smart companies listen to their employees. Every quarter, I give a survey to my team so I can know what's happening out there: how they feel about the company and how they feel about their performance and job prospects. We set really clear goals and try to get people on board. Who owns your company?

We're privately held. We have a small amount of angel investors. The rest of the company is owned by employees, myself included.

What sense of stability can your company offer job candidates?

We've been around for five years, and in the tech and Internet world that's actually kind of a long time. We've been profitable since inception and been able to achieve triple digit growth each year in the worst tech economy. The clients we have aren't going anywhere. Coca-Cola isn't going under. There's also the fact that we've created a new niche industry that's growing. What are the demographics of your company?

Our company really does look like America. We're 50 percent female company-wide, and 85 percent of the managers in our largest division, client services, are women. Company-wide, we are 15 percent minority. Diversity is really important to us. We market to such a wide array of companies with such a wide array of demographics. We're touching just about every demographic out there and we need to be able to speak to those demographics and understand what they're thinking. Within our five-person executive management team, we are 20 percent female and there are no minorities.

What positions do you have available and what level of expertise do you want?

We'll need five online analysts. They're part of our client services division. We want folks with a minimum of two to three years of public relations or marketing experience, and/or tech experience. We're looking for two online brand managers with four to six years of client management experience as public relations marketing professionals or public affairs professionals who have been able to manage internal teams as well as client relationships. Experience with Fortune 500 companies is preferable. We also need one business development associate with a minimum of four years of experience with a proven track record of success in generating new business within the marketing industry, along with a skill set similar to that of a brand manager candidate. Finally, we need two project managers. This position is at a level between online analyst and brand manager. We mostly promote from within but will consider outside applicants with anywhere from three to five years experience who have some team management experience.