Week 5 EOC: Social Networks and Job Hunting

Social networking, although a relatively new concept, has taken the world by storm.  Not only is it a way to keep in touch and communicate with friends and family across the globe, it is a great way to influence people with products and services, as well as seek out employment and/or employees. Facebook alone has more than 750 million users.  That means a lot of eyes to potentially view something that you want to public to see.  For example, more and more job recruiters are using social networking sites like Facebook to look for potentially qualified employees.

"Facebook's use as a job-recruitment tool remains small, but its appeal may be growing. Some recruiters say they have all but eliminated their spending on job boards, which can charge a few hundred dollars per job posting, depending on volume. Others note that while LinkedIn contains a more comprehensive résumé database, candidates tend to value referrals from their connections on Facebook more."




Job Recruiters Turn to Facebook to Find Candidates - WSJ.com http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903885604576490763

  Facebook is also a great way to reach customers.  One of the best marketing tools is "word of mouth."  As a group we want to know what our friends, family and peers think of a product or service before we make a decision to purchase anything.  One of the ways company's are accomplishing this is to use Brand Ambassadors. "Marketers select their brand ambassadors very carefully, based on customers’ devotion to a brand and the size of their social circles. They sometimes search blogs and online social networks to identify individuals who are already functioning as brand advocates. Once selected, the ambassadors are trained with real brand knowledge to go along with their passion for the brand. The ambassadors then tap into friends, family, groups, and broader audiences through personal conversations, blogs, live events, and online social media." Marketing: An Introduction

Social networking sites have now made their way into the marketing world in a way they may not have even realized was possible only a few short years ago.