Week 5 EOC: Social Networks and Job Hunting

Facebook is becoming the everything in the internet world.  Recently, according to the Wall Street Journal, the “majority of social-media traffic to Waste Management inc’s careers website comes from Facebook, beating out LinkedIn.  Facebook users are also easier to get a hold of and they also spend more time on Facebook than do other users of other sites."  This is not to say, however, that LinkedIn should be casted aside, as again the WSJ states “Revenue in the second quarter at Monster Worldwide Inc rose 25%...LinkedIn’s revenue ….grew 170%” in one year’s time.

Perhaps the biggest tool that Facebook can be used for are the new Brand Ambassadors that companies like Sony, McDonalds, and Microsoft are using.  Brand Ambassadors are selected from bloggers, vloggers, or anyone who is out there sharing the love for a product or brand.  They are then recruited by a marketing agency like RepNation to help spread  the word of the product or brand and are compensated by gifts, free products, etc.  This is where Facebook can be a major player in the roles of Brand Ambassadors.  One ambassador, Rebecca Nelson, from Marketing: An Introduction on when she was on a phone interview with JetBlue explains “I talked about my enthusiasm for the brand, my life at Rochester Institute of Technology, and my Facebook profile with its over 300 RIT ‘friends.’”  JetBlue operates multiple flights out of Rochester daily, and to have someone who is sharing her passion with just those 300 potential JetBlue customers on Facebook is strong marketing for JetBlue.  Facebook, as according to the Wall Street Journal article, is also a great platform for organizing events since it has over 750,000,000 users as of August 8^th, 2011.  Although some critics say the ambassadors are deceptive and underhanded, most are encourage to admit they are representatives for the company. 

Together, brand ambassadors and Facebook could be the extremely positive marketing tool for many companies.  Doing what you love doesn’t always require monetary payment, just some love in return can pay the bill of passion.

References:

Light, Joe. “Recruiters Troll Facebook for Candidates They Like.” The Wall Street Journal. August 8, 2011. Print.

Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip. Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation. 10. VitalSource Bookshelf. Pearson Learning Solutions, , Wednesday, October 31, 2012. <http://digitalbookshelf.artinstitutes.edu/books/9780558851903/id/pg144>