Google+: Google's Social Media Platform

Do you think that any company could produce a social media platform that could go toe-to-toe with Facebook? Well, if any company can accomplish such a goal—it’s Google. In article by Julie Na, of ABC News, she discusses additional details about the speculated components of the platform.

The news of Google’s plans to produce a social media platform that would combine Google’s already successful products with added privacy was released this week. Google+ is said to be Google’s most ambitious effort to make a footprint in the social media world.

Charlene Li, owner of Altimeter Group, said this new platform would not be an attempt to compete with Facebook: “Key thing here is that going against Facebook directly is suicidal (Na 2011)”. Currently, Facebook commands 700 billion minutes of users’ time per month.

Google+ will give users the ability to categorize their contact list, so they can choose whom to share certain information. A selling point for Google+ is said to be the added privacy and structure. According to Li, Google+ will be comforting to parents who have concerns about their child being online. She continued to say that maintaining privacy in communication is very important. This statement could be a response to the constant warnings Facebook users’ receive about posting material that will tarnish their reputation or hinder their ability to get a job.

Google+ has some promising ideas and features; however, regardless of their published comments about not directly competing with Facebook, there is certainly an intention or desire to take a metaphorical stab in the social networking empire. If they want to beat Facebook, they need to introduce this site like Facebook. Google needs to release Google+ geographically little by little—similarly to Facebook releasing school by school.

Google+ is still in the works and available only by invitation. What are you thoughts on this new project? Does Facebook have any reason to feel threatened?

Source 

Na, J (2011). Google takes on Facebook with Google-Plus. ABC News. Retrieved on June 30, 2011 from ABC News

Where Did "Friday" Go? Rebecca Black Removes Hit Song From YouTube

“Today is Friday, Friday, Friday.” Most people know exactly the song I’m quoting. Rebecca Black became famous from her one hit wonder, “Friday” (and yes, I’m speculating on the “one hit” part). Katy Perry and countless YouTube users have covered her song, but it seems her original song won’t be playing legally on YouTube anymore. According to an article by Garrett Downing (2011) of kypost.com, the video was requiring a payment of $2.99 to view and has now been taken off of YouTube all together.

Downing sourced TMZ.com: “Ark Music [who claims to have written the song] operated the YouTube account, and put the video behind paywall, and Black responded by having the video removed” (¶6). Black’s “Friday” had received over 160 million views prior to the video’s removal.

I haven’t been able to find an official word from Black’s reps; however, this seems to foreshadow a lawsuit where copyright and intellectual property infringement will be argued.

Rebecca Black had received a lot of extreme comments that clearly transcended into the bullying category—which, though inexcusable, is to be expected when a young person is made a star over night from a practical joke with music. That said, she created a unique song and video and commanded attention. She had kids and adults a like singing the lyrics as they left school and work. In my time analyzing social media platforms, I can’t remember a time when someone received that much attention—what appeared to be, overnight.

Rebecca Black is the perfect example of how social media websites give anyone, and I mean anyone, the potential to be famous. At 160 million views, that calculates to $160K in Ms. Black’s pocket—earning $10K for every million views received. Whether Black has the rights to the song or not, I’m sure between appearances or endorsements she will have some extravagant Fridays. 

Source

Downing, G. (2011). Rebecca Black's 'Friday' video removed from YouTube. kypost.com. Retrieved on June 23, 2011, from click here.

Using Social Media to Get Hired

Many of us associate social media with Facebook or Twitter; some of us connect social media with promoting our business; and then a few of us think about social media promoting ourselves—i.e. YouTube fame. For a moment, consider a more important way social media could help; something that, until we hit the lottery, we all still need: a job.

Mashable contributor, Dan Schawbel (2011), published an article discussing five innovative ways social media can be used to get a job. Schawbel begins by revealing shocking information: 1 in 3 jobseekers have been out of work for more than a year and, after 5 months, the average jobseeker loses hope (¶2).

Here is an analysis of a few of Schawbel’s suggestions for using social media to land a job:

Instead of using job boards to blindly submit a resume, Schawbel suggests using your social networking connections to locate the right places to apply (¶5). The important part here is to keep the job seeking professional. No one needs to know how long you have been out of work or how desperate you are to find a new company. Keep in mind that a company is benefitting from finding an applicant through an existing employee’s professional network; after all, continuous posts on Craigslist are not the best for business—the same as for your chances on getting a call back from a legitimate company through applying for a job via Craigslist.

Schawbel also discusses turning your resume into a more multimedia presentation—seeing as, according to a Office Team survey, 36% of business predict eventually social media profiles will replace resumes all together (¶13). This concerns me, and should concern you—mainly because, you do not want to hurt your chances with a company because you approach your application with too much innovation. Applicants need to make sure they know the hiring criteria of the company before assuming that a slideshow or multimedia webpage is acceptable.

Regardless of your take on social media regarding job seeking, I encourage you to read Schawbel’s article in it’s entirety because he brings up some interesting ideas, which you can do by clicking here. Best of luck in your job search. 


Source


Schawbel, D (2011). 5 clever ways to get a job using social media. Mashable. Retrieved on June 21, 2011, from http://mashable.com/2011/06/19/get-job-using-social-media.