While the buzz surrounding social media is growing, so is the number of people who just don’t get it. In fact, I come across tens of people daily that use Twitter and have a significant following but are totally clueless about maximizing it. They make mistake after mistake and see none of the results social media can bring. Let me emphasize that there is no one way to use social media “properly”, everyone uses it differently, that is part of the very essence of social tools. However, if these people are annoying their audience with spam-like tweets and causing people to unfollow, it is safe to say they are doing it “wrong”.
Social Media
Five Rules Businesses Must Follow To Succeed on Twitter
As I was reading an article written by a friend and fellow blogger, Kfir Pravda, entitled “What Companies Are Missing in Social Media Marketing”, I started to think about Twitter, social media, and whether all the hype was really justified. My conclusion, as I am sure you know by now, was that yes, social media can be an amazingly effective tool and can assist you in reaching a wider and more relevant audience then any other tool; IF USED CORRECTLY.
Social Media and Mobile Apps Join Forces Using AppBoy
The mobile industry seems to be in a major transformation over the past few years. If a few years ago, the “in” thing was to have a cool looking cellphone, one that was as thin as lets say, a razer blade, the new greatest thing in today’s mobile arena is of course mobile apps. Which platform has the most, coolest, and easiest to install apps? Which app interface meets my needs the best, the Apple App Store, the Blackberry App World, or the Android App Market? Apps is what it is all about in the cellular world.
Orange Finally Realizing the Potential of Social Media
I was fortunate enough to be invited to a blogger’s event hosted by Orange the other day. They invited a group of bloggers and twitters (their definition, not mine) to hear about the way Orange operates, in terms of choosing phones, marketing them, testing them, and selling them. It was a very interesting crowd, mostly people I communicate with on Twitter and have met at a few events before. When we arrived, we were greeted by the top executives of Orange, which at least for me, showed that they meant business.
Yet Another Proof that Social Media Works
After a long three months of job searching using every available tool, looks like I have landed myself a position as a Content Manager at a Forex startup. At the risk of giving myself a huge jinx before I even start the job, I wanted to share with you my experience over the last three months, and how I reached the indisputable conclusion that social media is the way to go.
Over this extremely trying period of looking for my next job, I used pretty much every tool available to me. That includes the traditional job websites, as well as outsourcing companies, and placement agencies. I must have sent out a 100 CVs a week, each with a really impressive cover letter as well as a CV customized for the type of position for which I am applying. I will not say that was a total failure. I did get a handful of interviews from them, but nothing came of any of them. What seems to count more than a nice cover letter or CV is people’s opinion and recommendation of you as an individual. In addition to those tools, I used Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, emails to all my contacts as well as community lists, and let’s not forget a whole lot of IMing.
So in the hope that one or more of my readers will benefit from this information, I decided to share with you some of the tools that I found to be useful. Let’s start with the one that ended up closing the deal, Facebook (with a little IM help on the side). I know people today seem to think of Facebook as a waste of time and one of those things “I just do not need”, but my experience proved otherwise. Yes, it is true, Facebook can be a huge distraction and occupy a lot of your time, but the exposure that one can get using Facebook is unprecedented. At a simple click of a button, you can let hundreds if not thousands of people know you are looking for a job, and that is what I did.
What ended up happening with me is that, the fact that I was looking became known to pretty much everyone I ever knew, and an old friend of mine, who, the truth be told, would probably have found out via IM anyway, heard I was unemployed. Now, remember, I was working in the technology and cellular industry in my last job.
This particular friend works in the Forex industry, and has built various sites, one of them being a Digg style website for Forex news , as well as others for the Forex community. Well, he made a connection through one of his sites with an individual who has recently started a company and was looking for a content manager. He then made the match.
This story could never have happened five years ago, when there was no social media and all these tools were unavailable to us. Now, it is important to emphasize that this particular opportunity worked out for the best, but for every interview I got through the job sites, I got five from networking. Wherever I was, whoever I was talking to, I put aside the embarrassment of being laid off from my last company (although, in today’s economy, it is not so bad, who doesn’t know someone that lost their job recently? Check out this list.), and pretty much let anyone and everyone know I am looking.
Just to sum up, if you or someone you know are looking for a job in almost any field, I would recommend making use of the old fashion tools as well, but spending much more time developing your profile and networks on the various social media tools.
If you want to know more details about the exact manner in which I did this networking, or alternatively, if you want more information on the traditional side of things, the sites I used etc., you can message me on Facebook here, DM on Twitter here, write me on LinkedIn here, email me here. Or, you can also call me if you have my number, I have not stopped using that means of communication, YET.
-Hillel
