Edward Corona

Marketing

[edwardcorona]

Information Search On Potential Employees: Is That Ethical?

One question that has been asked since the rise of the digital world is if my information private? With the World Wide Web, it is extremely simple to find all sorts ofinformation, especially information on people. Employers utilize this information to search job applicants to see if they are qualified and to give some insight of that person and what ideologies and characteristics they may have. Now this bring up the question, “is this ethical?”

Job applicants feel that it is an invasion of privacy and that their online person does not reflect their professionalism at work. Employers believe that they should be allowed to look at their profiles because it give insight to who they are hiring and what types of decision they make. This have become a factor on whether or not you will be hired by the company and my job applicants see this as unfair. Of course this is an invasion of privacy and can make the company look because they are disregarding privacy, but if they do have your consent it should be fine.

Overall employers should have a right to see your profile, as long as they have consent, they should be allowed to see what kind of person they are hiring. Also if you don’t want your employer to view certain things, you shouldn't have it there in the first place. You should do a background check on yourself to see what may be offensive or choose lack of decision making and although privacy is an issue, if there is consent then I see no problem with it.

What do you think? Is it ethical for employers to search job applicants online without their consent? Or is it okay for employers to search?

[edwardcorona]

How to manage you Social Media profiles with Dashboards!

Having trouble managing all your social media profiles? Do you wish you could just manage all of them in one place? well these tools actually exist and they're very useful. here are just 3 different types of social media dashboard to use.

  Hootsuite:

Hootsuite is one of the many Social Media management sites that allows you to manage and keep track of most of your social media accounts in one place, it really allows you to build your online presence on social media. You are able to view/monitor what people are saying about you, your company, or your brand. You can also use Hootsuite analytics to track your brand growth, segment by gender and geographic locations, social influencers, and much more. Hootuite also allows you to send status updates (you can even set a specific time when it updates or even have schedule tweets and status updates), as well as responding to comments instantly. Social media site that are compatible with Hootsuite are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, Myspace, WordPress, and Mixi. One of the many perks that Hootsuite offer is that it allows more than one user to manage a business social media accounts, which is useful for giving each member some to respond/manage (if you were to reactive 10 comment/mentions, you can give 1 to each member to handle). Also you are able to shorten you links when posting to your social media sites. There are different costs associated with the number of people who manage this dashboard as well as plans that go along with them, there is also choice to pay monthly or yearly.

Cost for using Hootsuite:

Personal use: Free

For small business: 9.99/month, 50 social profiles, 1 to 9 team members. Limited access/optional access to services.

For larger corporations: unlimited access to all service. Must call to receive price.

Hootsuite is compatible with mobile, desktop, tablet, and even has its own app that is compatible with both android and IOS that offer the same features as their regular site. It is accessible through all web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Explorer, chrome).

Sprout Social:

Sprout Social is also among the top Social media management sites. Like Hootsuite, Sprout Social also has Analytics that allows businesses to track/monitor their brand online with the use of key words to track what people are saying about your brand, as well as where they are talking about, as well as checking whether there were increase in follower or decrease for individuals social media profiles. It also allows you to check your newsfeed for profiles such as Facebook and Twitter, which is easier to use compared to having to keep switching web tabs, as well as being able to post directly to your social media sites from their dashboard. Sprout Social also allows you to shorten links when you post them to social media sites, as well as scheduling posts. Another perk to using Sprout Social are seeing who your influencers are and those have no activities on their account and clean them up (removing spam accounts or those have little activity). Social media sites that are compatible with Sprout Social are Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There also different plans to choose from depending on the size of your company, but limited customization with each plan.

Cost for using Sprout Social:

Free trail for 30-days

Deluxe: $59 per user/month, up to ten profiles, all in one social box, comprehensive reporting and much more.

Premium: $99 per user/month, includes all deluxe features, manages up to 20 profiles, advanced reporting, and much more.

Team: $500 per month, 3 users, include premium and deluxe features, manages up to 30 profiles, customer branding, and much more.

Enterprise & agency: request price. Customized fit to your business. Sprout Socail is compatible with IOS and Android, as well as compatibility with mobile and desktop sites. There is also an app available to iPhone and android phones. It is also compatible with Safari, Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox.

Buffer:

Buffer is one of the more simple Social media dashboards to use. Buffer allows for scheduling tweets and post, so you are able to choose specific times that people are more likely to see your posts. Buffer offers Analytics, which shows potential (meaning the amount of people your post can reach), track who mentions you, and if you post has any influence, and if you upgrade to a premium account, you can view statics of your post to really understand your social reach. Although there are less perks for using Buffer, it is still useful for people who are blogger or for smaller business. Buffer can connect to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, App.net, and Google+.

Cost of using Buffer:

Free account: standard services. 10 posts, 1 account.

Plans for $10/month or $102/year, allows more posts, better analytic tools, and allows you to add more accounts (10 profiles).

Buffer is compatible with both IOS and android, and has apps available for use. Works on Desktop and mobile browsers. It is also compatible with Safari, Firefox, Explorer, and Chrome.

[edwardcorona]

Social media vs SEO

After Reading this article, I have to agree with Mitchell Harper on whether social media affects sales and customer interactions. If your goal is to build customer relationships this social media is by far one of the best way of doing so but to use it as a way to increase sales, then it is not such a great idea.

Social media has become a big part of a Company’s Market strategies and help promote themselves but one thing Social Media cannot really do is increase sales and does not show connections to being able to generate sales for a company. Social media is great way to interact with consumers and help build better relationships with consumer, as well as providing customer service that build’s customer loyalty, but you cannot directly sell products/services to your customer. Yes you connecting directly with your consumer but there is no real way to see whether or not customer are buying because of a company’s social media updates, if anything all they are really doing is increasing awareness/customer loyalty which is good thing, but given the numbers from the article it’s better to use direct mail to get sales rather than to use social media. It also states in the article that although you may have a large amount of followers on social media not all of them are necessarily going to respond or even notice any of a company’s updates.

My point of view is that Social media is the new generation of advertising and if used appropriately it can be a great asset for any company but again it is not something that can generate sales unless they develop a way to use direct marketing to really be able to see a change of sales if companies use social media to sell. Overall I believe that social media is great tool to use to help strengthen customer relationships, but if you are looking for a way to increase sale I’d recommend using key word for SEO to help drive consumers to your website.

Check out the article below.

http://www.theage.com.au/small-business/smallbiz-marketing/social-media-versus-seo-20140812-3dja2.html

[edwardcorona]

The hype versus the reality.

After Reading this article, I have to agree with Mitchell Harper on whether social media affects sales and customer interactions. If your goal is to build customer relationships this social media is by far one of the best way of doing so but to use it as a way to increase sales, then it is not such a great idea.

Social media has become a big part of a Company’s Market strategies and help promote themselves but one thing Social Media cannot really do is increase sales and does not show connections to being able to generate sales for a company. Social media is great way to interact with consumers and help build better relationships with consumer, as well as providing customer service that build’s customer loyalty, but you cannot directly sell products/services to your customer. Yes you connecting directly with your consumer but there is no real way to see whether or not customer are buying because of a company’s social media updates, if anything all they are really doing is increasing awareness/customer loyalty which is good thing, but given the numbers from the article it’s better to use direct mail to get sales rather than to use social media. It also states in the article that although you may have a large amount of followers on social media not all of them are necessarily going to respond or even notice any of a company’s updates.

My point of view is that Social media is the new generation of advertising and if used appropriately it can be a great asset for any company but again it is not something that can generate sales unless they develop a way to use direct marketing to really be able to see a change of sales if companies use social media to sell. Overall I believe that social media is great tool to use to help strengthen customer relationships, but if you are looking for a way to increase sale I’d recommend using key word for SEO to help drive consumers to your website.

[edwardcorona]

"Since I started my LinkedIn connections binge, I’ve been collecting endorsements like bottle caps." Larry Kim on collecting as many connections as possible on LinkedIn.

This article has some great points about promoting your LinkedIn account.