Using Facebook for Employment Search

Although Facebook is thought of mostly as a social networking site for keeping up with friends and family, the network has much to offer those who are seeking employment or changing jobs. A survey by Jobvite.com found that more than 44 percent of all job seeking related activity takes place on Facebook. The nearly universal acceptance of the network has led to over 900 million users, a potentially rich resource for the job seeker.

Ways to Use Facebook for Employment Search: 

1. Status Updates - Make sure you keep your network updated on the status of your job search and the type of position you are seeking. Be sure to remind them periodically, so they don’t forget about you.
2. Networking - The vast numbers of Facebook users means, not only are all of your friends, family, and business related colleagues on the network, but potential employers as well. This is an advantage of using Facebook for a job search; the network puts you in front of many people.
3. Make Sure your Profile is Complete and Clean - Your profile should be complete and contain all of your work experience and educational information. If you have a profile on LinkedIn (you should), copy over all of the information from there. Since employers will be looking at your profile, clean up any images or status updates  which may be damaging to your professional reputation.
4. Join and Interact with Groups - Professional interest groups are on the rise on Facebook. Join the groups related to your field and interact with other group members. This expands your sphere of influence and the number of contacts you have exponentially. Each contact gained opens new possibilities for you.
5. Follow the Companies that Interest you - Once again, research by Jobvite.com has shown that over 80 percent of companies use social media to find their employees. Just “Like” their page and you will receive updates and news from the company in your  Facebook newsfeed. Also, many company pages provide links for people seeking employment. Take full advantage of your contact with these companies by really showing interest and actively engaging with them.

Mobile Marketing -- What Is Mobile Marketing?

Smartphones and mobile devices are everywhere now and have practically become ubiquitous. Closely related to this phenomenon is mobile marketing, a concept that is still evolving, but needs to be understood by businesses of all sizes. In this, the first of a three part series, we will examine just what mobile marketing is. In the following segments, we’ll see why it is so important for businesses to get involved and the ways to engage in mobile marketing.

 

What is mobile marketing?

Mobile marketing can be defined as marketing and advertising that reaches its intended target audience by way of the audience’s mobile device or smartphone. There are various components and methods of mobile marketing that a business must be aware of, including:

 

SMS - This stands for short message service and refers to text only messaging and limited to a length of 160 characters. This can be utilized for sending marketing information, such as coupons, directly to the audience.

 

MMS - Stands for multimedia messaging service, and provides the audience with messages containing images, video and audio.

 

Mobile Internet - This includes mobile websites and internet sites, specifically optimized to properly function and be visually appealing on mobile devices.

                              

Mobile Apps - Downloadable software applications for smartphones and mobile devices.

 

Mobile Advertising - These usually appear as ads on mobile devices during the loading process of mobile web pages, as banners at the top or bottom. Mobile gaming ads, along with SMS or MMS, are other forms of mobile advertising.

 

The relatively new technologies that are yet unfolding are being rapidly adopted by the public. This combined with the growing use of social media networks by both consumers and businesses are factors driving mobile marketing to the forefront of importance to brands. In part two, we will see in more detail why mobile marketing is so important to companies.

Written and produced in beautiful Naples, Florida by OnFast.com. Visit OnFast.com today to get your free trial subscription to our Social Media Marketing Service.

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Social Media News For The Week Of 11/2/12

Small Businesses Don’t Have Time for Social Media -- and Don’t Track Results

The results of a study by the online marketing firm, Vertical Response, indicate that small businesses have adopted social media in a big way, but think they are spending too much time on the medium. One third of business owners wish they could spend less time on their social media marketing efforts. Most businesses using social media marketing are unaware of their return on investment figures, as only 36 percent utilize paid tools which will give them analytical data and schedule posts. Full Story Here:

4 Social Media Metrics You Should Measure

As businesses come to terms with the fact social media is here to stay and not some fad, the importance of tracking their endeavors on the medium is becoming clear. Monitoring social media’s impact on a company’s bottom line is vital. Keeping track of factors such as brand awareness, website traffic, site loyalty, and conversion rates are crucial in determining the success of any social media marketing effort. Full Story Here:


Social-Media Users Flock to Facebook for Sandy Updates

With the ongoing disaster of Hurricane Sandy unfolding in the Northeast U.S., people have turned to social media for news, help and comfort. The social media networks, Facebook and Twitter, have been the platforms of choice during this crisis. This clearly underlines the level of importance social media as attained in our society. Full Story Here:

Ask a Business Expert: Social media vital to all business

Social media is becoming increasingly part of everyday life and a tool to express individuality as much as brand awareness. This fact underscores the importance to businesses to craft and adopt a clear social media strategy and company policies for employees. Determining who will play a role and making sure all involved are on the same brand page, is paramount to the success of your company’s social media efforts. Full Story Here:

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Social Media Tips For Google+

Google+has not reached the massive level of acceptance found by other social networks like Facebook. However, the network has grown to over 170 million users and in certain circumstances, might be a better choice for social media marketing for some brands. In any case, Google+  should at least be considered, for it does offer some specific advantages to business users. If your company is giving it a try, here are some helpful tips.

1. Customize Your Sharing -

This is probably the greatest advantage offered by the Google+  platform. Google Circles gives you the option of sharing information with specifically targeted groups of followers. Posts can be automatically sent to all of your followers or to only certain circles of followers. Also, if you don’t want information re-shared outside the circle, re-sharing of each post may be optionally disabled.

2. Fire Up Engagement With Sparks

The Sparks feature allows you to search for relevant information or topics of interest and share them with your circles. The reverse works as well, since others can search for your content and share it. Sparks can live up to its name by getting engagement and interaction started within your circles.

The Meaning Of Facebook Timeline For Your Brand

The Facebook Timeline for brands places a greater emphasis on interaction, as well as being more visually oriented than the previous format. One of the features that has proven to be most controversial is the elimination of a landing tab. This feature of Timeline has raised the ire of businesses that have successfully leveraged the format into large numbers of “Likes” and followers.

The format tries to encourage increased engagement between brands and their followers. The Timeline platform does not reward companies who would rather set up a landing page, walk away and forget about it. That style of one-way marketing has never been what social media is about anyway. A business that puts in the time and makes a concerted effort to make a success of the company Timeline will reap the benefits of their work. Once again, interaction is the key to that success.

Social Media News For The Week Of 10/26/12

Consumer Social Media Engagement with Brands Leads to Increased Sales, Study Reveals

A study released by LoyaltyOne, Northwestern University, and Ivey Business School has found proof that the effects of social media on the purchasing behaviors of consumers is both significant and measurable. The research showed an increase of 15 to 30 percent in transactions by consumers who were engaged on social media with participants in 10-million member air miles reward program. Full Story Here:

A Big Boost for Small Business, Social Media is an increasingly important component in growing businesses

The online business directory, Manta.com, found 9 out of 10 small businesses are now utilizing social media as a part of their overall marketing efforts. According to Facebook, 11 million businesses keep a page up and running on their site. These facts point out the importance for all businesses to engage their customers on social media. To assist companies who have not joined in, the U.S. Small Business Administration is holding workshops to inform them of the potential growth possibilities and advice on getting started. Full Story Here:

Ignore Fads

New trends come and go. Hardly a day goes by that you don’t uncover a new social media site. Early adopters love these opportunities and often jump in without assessing the real effort and pay back. A business can easily be lured into wasting precious time learning about new unproven fads.

 

Some basic questions to ask your self are:

• Is this site popular and will it generate traffic?
• How vast is the audience?
• What are the demographics?
• Is this effort compatible with my strategy?
• Will this effort generate new business?
• Can you quantify the results?
• Do I have the time and resources to make this work?

 

Don’t be tempted into becoming a “Social Media Technical Expert” while the real challenge of growing the business is ignored.

Written and produced in beautiful Naples, Florida by OnFast.com. Visit OnFast.com today to get your free trial subscription to our Social Media Marketing Service.

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