“Although reaching 25 million registered users looks less impressive when compared to LinkedIn’s 150 million, there are 850 million Facebook users for whom joining BranchOut is just a matter of accepting the app’s permissions. On Thursday, BranchOut announced a $25 million round of funding, bringing its total venture capital backing to $49 million.”

While BranchOut certainly seems to be on track to meet or exceed LinkedIn’s numbers the article makes some good points about potential hazards the app’s team may meet as they gain users. One is that being part of such a large platform means that the small development team will have to react to the many changes Facebook will surely make, and fast. Another roadblock could be that if Facebook decides to create their own career section BranchOut could easily be made irrelevant. Not to mention eventually they would have to go after LinkedIn’s user-base,many of whom already have vast, intricate professional connections on their competing site. That said LinkedIn may want to form a strategy to prevent such hemorrhaging.

Derek Clark, May 1, 2012

Writer Katheleen Colan has tips for getting the most out of each platform. In Facebook, she recommends using the new groups feature to corral interests. That feature, of course, was a response to the circles in Google+, which she suggests using in a similar fashion. Ditto for the analogous functions in LinkedIn and YouTube. Colan seems most impressed, though, with Twitter’s efforts:

“Twitter is made for fast and efficient news aggregation and again, it’s all in the lists you create. Twitter’s ‘List’ function allows you to populate lists of like-minded Tweeps to quickly scan up-to-the-moment news on any topic under the sun. I probably keep too many lists and often construct temporary lists during large, important events.”

Colan goes on to recommend the HootSuite dashboard for some serious media aggregation. The application monitors social networks, performs custom analytics, and provides a space for collaboration. The basic version is free, so it might be worth checking out.

Cynthia Murrell, February 1, 2012

The following are a few interesting quotes regarding social media: 13 Great Social Media Quotes

“The difference between PR and social media is that PR is about positioning, and social media is about becoming, being and improving.” – Chris Brogan, author of “Trust Agents”

“The value of being connected and transparent is so high that the roadbumps of privacy issues are much lower in actual experience than people’s fears.” – Reid Hoffman, founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn

“How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?” – Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog

Predictions for 2012 are flying in the wind at this time and one in particular is business and media will take advantage of trans-media web publishing for media coverage such as news, ads, and stories to be accessed on one micro-site. I suppose this simplifies things and in turn saves time, and time is money. Also, another prediction is that network and cable TV will remain status quo. I know sometimes change is good, but in this case web TV is just not ready for the TV viewers of the world.

Sandy McIntosh, January 4, 2012

“Brand Monitoring, to put it simply, is the understanding of who, what, where, why, when and how 3rd party sources or customers are referring to your brand. Brand Monitoring has become an extremely necessary and important responsibility for any business in today’s environment.”

So it boils down to a lot of data – what are customers, the media, competitors, and employees saying about you? What’s being tweeted, blogged, linked, and liked about you? When is this all happening and is it good or bad?

Competitive Research asks the same questions, just about your competitors. In part three of Midure’s series, “Social Media Marketing Analytics – Competitive Research, Part Three of an Exclusive 7-Part Series,” he notes:

“Just as you do for your own brand, it is YOUR job to be on top of what your competitors are doing, LISTEN and be attentive of what is being said about them. YOU need to be aware of what they are doing well and what they are doing not-so-well.”

Add your competitor’s brand monitoring to the mix, and all this knowledge can help identify niches, opportunities, and failures. It all comes down to better knowledge and better performance.

It’s clear that this data organized and turned into knowledge can help any business. While these strategies are not new ideas, in the Web 2.0 city that never sleeps, it is constantly becoming more challenging to round up all that data.

Philip West

November 29, 2011

The article states the following:

“Sure, a couple of social media companies — professional social networking site LinkedIn and Internet radio company Pandora — went public last spring, with mixed results. LinkedIn shares nearly tripled in their ticker debut in May, while Pandora’s IPO one month later was a relative flop.”

Currently, there are some social media giants in the picture.

Not only have Groupon and Zynga filed for IPO’s earlier this summer, but it has been rumored that Facebook invariably will too. When these IPO’s will come to fruition and how they will do are the main questions.

According to the ITWorld article, Facebook will remain private as long as Mark Zuckerberg feels that his employees don’t need the distractions that going public would bring to the company—and their wallets. September marks that unofficial date.

Groupon on the other hand has been pushing to get their IPO off the ground, but the market stands between them and the public. Zynga has also suffered

Of course, there were a few duds in terms of social media companies that went public recently and some companies going through a rough time, but can we really assess how they will fare with the current market as a variable?

Megan Feil, October 4, 2011

Econstituency vice president Rebecca Lieb says 32 percent of marketers who responded to the e-commerce advisory firm’s recent survey said they spend nothing on social media, according to “Live from SES NY: Marketers Claim Social Media Doesn’t Cost a Dime” by Tim Parry on Multichannel Merchant. Lieb theorizes that respondents consider dollar figures to equal the amount of money spent, and are not accounting for resources such as the manpower that go into having a social media presence.

And they are using social media. More than four-fifths – or 86 percent – report marketing on Facebook, while 77 percent are tweeting and 58 percent are using LinkedIn, says Leib.

The SSN take: Either the accounting departments have not caught up with the marketers, or someone is really trying to make social media use look cost efficient. Neither is good business.

John Sniffen, April 22, 2010

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“Deloitte is taking a multifaceted digital approach to recruiting by using a blend of social networking resources and multimedia elements. A versatile introduction to their company is available at the click of a button,” reports the T+D Blog in “Deloitte: The Future of Recruiting is Social Media.” Deloitte’s program integrates several interactive media outlets, including a micro-site, a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, a LinkedIn group and a YouTube channel.

The micro-site provides an in-depth look into the lives of the firm’s Gen Y workers through a series of profiles and short films. The Twitter feed, “Life at Deloitte,”features daily tweets designed to provide insight into the company’s different practice areas and the latest hot topics from a variety of business leaders. The “Your Future at Deloitte (U.S.)” Facebook page also has interactive message boards where potential job candidates can join the discussion. A campus-focused LinkedIn group helps connect college students with employees and recruiters.

Deloitte’s YouTube channel, “Your Future at Deloitte,” features video testimonies from employees about why they chose the company and what the work means to them.

Deloitte, which has about 169,000 employees worldwide, estimates it will hire about 4,800 full- and part-time employees during 2010.

Sodexo USA, the global food and facilities management services provider which was recently awarded ERE’s 2010 excellence in recruiting award, also makes use of a full social media arsenal. “Sodexo’s social media initiative is on the leading edge of best practices,” writes John Sullivan in “Best Practices in Recruiting” on ERE.net. “Its web presence effectively communicates Sodexo’s company culture, and opportunities across a Careers blog, Facebook page, LinkedIn group, YouTube channel, Twitter and Flickr.” The Society for New Communications Research has recognized Sodexo for its pioneering work in microblogging.

Employing a more one-dimensional social media recruiting campaign, Sears Holding Corp., recently posted 7,000 positions with TweetMyJOBS, a Twitter-based job board service. Writing for ReadWriteWeb , Sarah Perez says TweetMyJOBS president and founder Gary Zukowski claims the partnership makes Sears, which also includes the Kmart chain, one of the largest brands to embrace mobile recruiting. The service lets job seekers receive instant notification on their cell phones via Twitter when new jobs are posted online.

The partnership has a large potential to grow as Sears posted more than 500,000 job openings last year via traditional recruiting channels.

Another social media recruiting partnership features CareerBuilder.com and Facebook.

In “It’s time to update your Facebook status—recruitment strategies move toward social media in 2010” on examiner.com, Megan Munch notes that job postings from CareerBuilder now also post directly to Facebook. “The best matched candidates will be able to see the company’s job advertisement on the side of their Facebook page.”

Careerbuilder and Facebook also cooperate in helping the more than 700,000 local companies that have Facebook pages improve their image. CareerBuilder consultants work with clients, checking their Facebook pages weekly—blogging, posting updates, new hires and accomplishments—as well as monitoring site activity.

Munch offers one bit of advice to potential job seekers using social media, especially those fresh out of college. “I would advise taking down [photo] albums titled ‘The Hangover Album.’ Inappropriate behavior can and will affect job and internship opportunities.”

John Sniffen, April 14, 2010

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In “6 ways to Stop the Social Media Madness” on the WebWorkerDaily, Aliza Sherman says what’s needed is a bit of common sense. “In trying to tackle overload and meltdown, two modes that seem part and parcel of our digital social communications, I tried to return to some common sense, something I think we’ve almost left behind as things move so quickly around us,” she writes.

Sherman, founder of the first woman-owned Internet company, Cybergrrl Inc., provides a half dozen tips:

1. Pare down. Decide which social media sites are not essential to work and daily life, then drop them.

2. Turn off non-essential notifications. Only use the ones that mean “go there now” or “do this in 10 minutes.” Those are reminders, not invasions of limited brain space.

3. Designate time. “If it isn’t your job to monitor the social mediasphere for a client, you’re falling into the trap of ‘always more and never enough.’ Remember that we all survived quite well before tweets and updates.”

4. Filter better. Narrow searches terms to a few “mission-critical” terms, and be more specific.

5. Step away. “If you find yourself consumed with your social networks and endless updates, push the computer away and step away from your desk. Go for a walk. Have a conversation with someone face-to-face.”

6. Go cold turkey. “If you’re really struggling with managing your information intakes,” says Sherman, “just stop. Go a few days completely disconnected. Pay attention to life. Listen to people.”

The SSN take: Besides returning productive work hours to the company (or your own bottom line, if self-employed), these guidelines may also promote mental and even physical health.

John Sniffen, March 23, 2010

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The sheet details various social media sites and how well they can be used for customer communication, brand exposure, upping site traffic, and SEO. At the top of the list? Twitter, of course, allowing instant interaction and exposure for anything, as well as re-tweeting links and sending traffic your way. YouTube and Facebook rank high, along with Digg, though McLellan cautions that the site’s user-driven rating system eschews any perceived commercial content. “Buzzing up” through Yahoo!’s new service, along with the lo-fi Reddit don’t get high marks in any category, but this doesn’t mean they can’t be utilized by your company, you just need to know your audience. Social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Del.ici.ous are listed with some value, too.

The SSN Take: Diversification in the social media landscape is a good thing; utilize each site’s strengths.

Sam Hartman, March 20, 2010

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John Sniffen, Feb. 27, 2010

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