EOC Week 5: Social Networks and Job Hunting

This was clearly inevitable, and very much preferable. Prospective employers are turning to Facebook to look for new talent these days. It's even on par, if not above, LinkedIn at this point ("Facebook's use as a job-recruitment tool remains small, but its appeal may be growing. Others note that while LinkedIn contains a more comprehensive résumé database, candidates tend to value referrals from their connections on Facebook more.", Light article). It is also very much cheaper to search through those than post something on a job board for a few hundred dollars at the Unemployment office. However, this is still that feeling among some that they wouldn’t want employers looking through their Facebooks, especially if they’re concerned with the personal image it projects. That’s why they still prefer LinkedIn. Even the very much useless Monster.com is benefiting from this (“Monster's core job postings businesses have benefited. Revenue in the second quarter at Monster Worldwide Inc. rose 25% to $270 million from the prior year.”, Light article).

Another tactic that, I feel, can only go so far is these PR agents that companies are sending out there to hype up your product. They use these social media websites to plug the product and all its benefits and features, in exchange for some small compensation, probably off commission (“Brand ambassadors: Marketing agency RepNation recruits and manages college student ambassadors such as CrewBlue, which spreads the word about JetBlue on college campuses”, page 144). The problem I see with this is that you will have your typical “Brand Ambassador” that is purely in it for the money, and it shows when they try to sell the product and it comes across half assed. Another is that it can also too aggressive and drive off a potential sale by pushing it too far.