Social Media: Friend or Foe to the Job Seeker?
From being caught out whilst pulling a ‘sickie’ to posting negative comments about your employer, there has been a plethora of example where social media use has proved to be detrimental to the career prospects of the social media savvy.
According to a recent survey by social media monitoring service Reppler, 90% of recruiters and hiring managers have visited a potential candidate’s profile on a social network as part of the screening process. Whilst many may put this down to natural curiosity, an alarming 69% of recruiters admit rejecting a candidate based on content found on his or her social networking profiles.
However, it’s not all bad news for the next generation of workers, that same survey found an equal proportion of recruiters (68%) have hired a candidate based on his or her presence on those networks.
Profiles on business social networks, such as LinkedIn and Xing for example, have a variety of tools that support the recruitment process from both sides of the table. However, it’s not just these professional sites that appear to be getting people into interview room.
A recent article from Mashable.com showed that approximately 18,400,000 Americans say that they have got their current through Facebook. This is in fact more than both Twitter and LinkedIn combined, with 8 million and 10.2 Americans, respectively, stating they have gotten their jobs through social platforms.
There are also other fantastic examples of the creative use of social media being used to grab the attention of potential employers, from social CVs to entire campaigns.
Whilst social media contains pitfalls for the potential job seeker, and potentially employers as well, it has also allowed people to break the pen and paper CV mould, fostered creativity and opened up global opportunities to the next generation of workers.
Unsure of whether your online persona matches your professional ambitions, check out this article on jobsearch.com for some helpful hints.
One to Watch for 2012: The Social TV Convergence
There was a time, a long long time ago before the internet, The X Factor and Pringles existed, when the phase ‘water-cooler moment’ was coined. This was a moment of community and shared experience, where the tele-visual event of last night was watched by the majority so they could be involved in the conversation. Then, as time passed, the number of channels grew and digital recorders such as Sky Plus and online catch-up sites like 4oD and iPlayer evolved, and the relevance of the event diminished to a point where advertisers withdrew and ratings dropped.
Now, however, an online revolution is changing all that, it’s no longer the water cooler but the social media moment, and it happens live, as the programme is broadcast. Suddenly a two screen revolution is under-way as internet access and multi-platform applications such as Twitter and Facebook are used in unison with the television to analyse, discuss and ridicule the exploits of soap characters, reality ‘stars’ and world events. No longer does it take any great effort to access the social media platforms for the average viewer, of a certain demographic, has mobile phones, tablets and laptops at their sides while they watch TV. There are even services like Zeebox springing up that embrace this trend and give users a one stop social media stop.
This is a sign of the future where all forms of media channel (YouTube, ITVPlayer and Sky TV) are viewed within a web environment that is not confined to the window of that company. So what does this mean? Well, for the consumer it means more feedback which could lead to better programming but also more power to those who air their views. For the businesses involved, the broadcasters lose control over image but have more metrics by which to show value to advertisers and these advertisers will no doubt be the target of the social media platforms collecting opinions.
Google+ for Business: Exploring the opportunities
Google+ now offers a social networking service for brands prompting thousands of businesses to set up profiles. However, to optimise brand exposure, businesses need to understand what differentiates Google+ from its competitors and tap into its full potential.
Although it looks quite similar to Facebook, there are some features which really set Google+ apart. One of the greatest advantages of the new social networking service is its integration with Google Search. Google Search provides brands with exposure to a search base allowing access to reportedly 50% of global websites. Furthermore Google+ enables brands to streamline social media content easily across multiple platforms including Android, Google Chrome and YouTube. This could offer exciting opportunities to businesses to improve audience engagement and explore innovative ways to create and distribute marketing content.
To make its service more appealing to brands, Google+ launched its Direct Connect feature, which makes it simple for users to find and follow brands on Google+ by just typing a “+” sign in front of the name of the brand on Google Search. Another step towards strengthening the integration with Google’s search engine is the brand verification procedure at the initial registration stage. As Google+ permits the registration of multiple users with one brand name, it allows organisations to appear at the top of the search results by verifying their brand identity and linking their profiles to the company website.
As Google+ is looking to further integrate with the rest of Google’s products, the appearance of the website and its features are going to change. At the CrushIQ conference this week, Google’s spokespeople announced that they were planning to integrate Google+ with AdWords and enable multiple administrators to handle the brand pages on the website.
A further integration with products like Google Shopping and Places could open exciting opportunities for brands and advertisers to deliver micro targeted campaigns based on users’ interests, location and shopping habits. This has huge potential for brands. Furthermore they will be able to tap into Google+ features such as Circles and Hangouts to segment their Google+ followers and create targeted campaigns for engagement.
However, as social networking websites emerge almost on daily basis, a question is beckoning of how many social media profiles users can tolerate? With 40 million users worldwide Google+ is still far behind Facebook and Twitter in terms of popularity among brands and consumers.
To expand its reach, Google+ have to differentiate itself from its competitors and get the most of its integration with Google’s products to create an innovative, intelligent and pervasive social media product.
Twitter for Business: Myths Busted
Who would have thought only a few years back that we would all be sitting here broadcasting to the world and its mother what we ate for lunch? Who would have thought we would have the outlet to do so and who would have thought anyone would care? Flash forward and we are obsessed with Twitter. We use it to publicise ourselves and our work, we use it to get information (whether that be actual worthy information or, perhaps, what someone else deems worthy), and sometimes we use it merely to kill some time. Whatever our reasons, Twitter can no longer be ignored, but certain myths about the best way to use it for your business can.
Myth 1 – The longer you are on Twitter, the more influence you have
FALSE! No one cares if you joined three years ago or three weeks, so long as what you are saying is interesting and valuable. Businesses joining Twitter now are not late if they are engaging with their followers and showing them 140 characters that no one else in the industry can. People will take notice and will follow – regardless of if you joined in 2009 or just this month.
Myth 2 – The more you say, the better
FALSE! In terms of the workplace, as exciting as it may be to you to talk about what your office ate for lunch, the truth is, your followers are probably more interested in what your office thinks about its industry. Your followers want to know what events you will be attending and what you are doing to stand out from your competition. They do not want to know if you all need a coffee as it’s been “one of those days”. The truth is you need to think about what you yourself would want to read with your precious time. We live in a world where self promotion is easy and self indulgence is even easier, but if you are using a social network to get ahead, promotion should beat indulgence at all times. This means 3,000 tweets a day are not necessary and, if anything, a hindrance that could result in people clicking “unfollow” just to stop hearing about how your coffee machine is broken.
Myth 3 – Following celebrities will make you a celebrity
FALSE! Okay, this should go without saying, but if you are a business, it’s probably unlikely that following a celebrity is really going to bring in a large amount of interest for you (unless the celebrity is part of the cast of The Only Way is Essex and your business is in fake tans). On the whole, you would be better spending your time finding relevant people to follow. This can include important members of your industry, thought leaders, companies, and, most importantly, potential customers. It’s all fine and good to follow people that you find amusing or tell the best Twitter jokes, but if they aren’t going to buy your product, they aren’t the people you really want to engage with.
FACT!
At the end of the day, as with everything in business, Twitter should be about adding value. You would not call up a potential customer and spend half an hour telling nonsensical jokes. Fine, put the odd joke. Afterall, it’s important to show some personality (just as it would be on the phone). But just like you would on the phone, you should use your time on Twitter effectively – talk to the right people, promote yourself in a professional capacity, and tell your customers what the benefits are to them. People are busy – even 140 characters can be too much to read if time does not allow, so make sure that your 140 characters are saying something useful and it will be irrelevant how long you have been on Twitter or whether you have Stephen Fry following you – you will have customers who are interested. And we all know, the right interest leads to sales. Which is why you are on Twitter in the first place, right?
Do you eat your own cooking?
The old adage that you should ‘never trust a chef that doesn’t eat his own cooking’, or in fact a ‘skinny chef’, is due an update in my opinion. With the rise of celebrity chefs, a nation obsessed with obesity and the dubious contents of the McDonalds secret sauce – it just doesn’t make sense in the 21st Century.
So what would be today’s equivalent? Based on the recent news surrounding Google+ the phrase ‘never join a social network where even the management aren’t even members’ could catch on.
Last week, 3 months after its launch, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has finally gotten the message and joined Google+. I understand he’s an extremely busy man, he’s running one of the biggest companies in the world and retweeting Ivanka Trump’s promotion of “Snow Flower & The Secret Fan”, but surely someone might have mentioned it?
However, the fact is that most of Google’s management team aren’t much better. Only 3 of the 12 people listed on Management Team page have ever posted on Google+ since launch, with a total of just 29 posts ever and only 6 in September.
With a recent press release from the company stating the social network has over 40 million users, perhaps the company doesn’t believe a few rogue management users will make much difference, and yet a rogue software engineer could.
Steve Yegge, a Google Software Engineer, recently hit the headlines after describing the site as “a knee-jerk reaction” and “a pathetic afterthought.” Only certain members were meant to be able to view the post, using Google+’s Circles feature, but it instead ended up going out for the whole world to read, showing even employees are struggling to figure out how to use the service.
With recent research showing that activity levels are on a continued downward trend, the newest social network contender needs all the help it can get as it continues to force its way on the agenda.
