General Social Media Information Archives

Did Social Media Kill Foursquare?

As recently as a year ago, FourSquare was THE thing….people were checking in when they were shopping, dining out, and everything in between. Marketers saw this as a great tool to learn more about their customers and reward them for their business.

It seems as though social media is slowly killing off Foursquare – in fact, as I prepared to write this blog post, it took me several minutes to recall the name of the site. That’s how long it’s been since I thought about it. I’m not alone – thanks to tagging, hashtags, and other social media cues, people can easily share their location and activities directly on any social site they choose without needing to visit Foursquare.

What does this mean for your business? Well, things got a whole lot simpler when it comes to marketing directly to your customers. It’s one less site to focus on, meaning more time for the sites that are most active for you and your customers.

Even if you’re not directly connected to your customers, there are ways to find them and engage directly, even while they’re in your place of business.

Social media monitoring: if you are using such a program, you know the benefits of monitoring for your brand and/or products. It’s a great way to easily find out who is talking about your brand. It’s also easy to connect with them once you’ve found them.

Take advantage of those who are tagging: when someone “checks in” by including your company’s user name in their post on social sites, respond. It can be something as simple as thanking them for visiting, ask them what they’re eating/shopping for, or, better yet, reward them if you catch the post in time – send them a coupon to use during their current visit. You can bet this will get their attention and the attention of others who follow their site.

What to do when there’s no text? Sometimes people will simply post a picture of their meal and comment on it, but not state where they are. Enhanced, location based social media monitoring can help you identify these customers while they are in your place of business so you can reach out and engage with them, similar to what you would do with those who directly tag your business in their post.

While I don’t think Foursquare is completely dead, I do think its time is limited. It was a great tool at the time, but one that was short lived as social media sites upped their game quickly and rolled out tools to encourage users to stay on their sites longer. Two years from now we will be referring to Foursquare like we now do with MySpace…it was good while it lasted, but met its fate too soon.

Job Seekers: Be Aware Of Your LinkedIn Profile

Do you include your LinkedIn profile on your resume? If not, you probably should. If you’ve built a strong LinkedIn profile, it will be a great complement to your resume. It will also give hiring managers a clearer picture of who you are, your accomplishments, and if you’re qualified for the job for which you’re applying.

Whether or not you include it though, you may want to be aware of the fact that hiring managers will likely see it anyway; many, if not the majority, are using social media monitoring as part of the hiring process. At a minimum, they are going to check LinkedIn to see if you have a profile setup.

When job hunting, it’s important to make sure your resume is perfect, but you also need to take a close look at your LinkedIn profile. There are many telling signs a hiring manager or recruiter could see that may or may not land you your dream job.

Does your resume tell a different story? At the very least, make sure your basic information with regard to job history, dates, etc is the same on your LinkedIn profile as it is on your resume. If you set up your profile some time ago, you may have been in a hurry and guesstimated at the dates of employment for a past job. If this is you, it’s time to update your profile to make sure it matches. The last thing you want is for a hiring manager to see the discrepancy and make decisions based on this.

How badly do you want this job? If a hiring manager compares your resume to your LinkedIn profile and finds the two are identical, it may send a signal that, when applying for the job at hand, you did not tailor your resume to the particular job and it could have been one of 50 that you’re mass sending resumes out for.

Are your strengths/highlights well displayed? LinkedIn is a great tool to share projects, presentations, or other media content that will nicely complement your resume. If you focus on an accomplishment in your resume of a great presentation, for example, is this included in your profile? Take a look at the additional features LinkedIn offers for users to incorporate content and media into your profile.

It’s a good idea to include your LinkedIn profile on your resume to make it easy for hiring managers to find if they choose to do so. They will likely do additional social research as part of the process, but why not create a great profile page and make it easy for employers to see? Resumes are simple and can be boring – supplementing with a strong LinkedIn profile can make the difference in landing the job!

How Are The Feds Using Social Media?

Social media monitoring has been used by brands for years now, with a more recent use revolving around employment background checks, new hires, and even insurance companies. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will soon be using social media content for granting security clearance for prospective employees.

While privacy concerns and the general use of collecting social media content has been controversial, it looks like this new guideline will be adopted soon according to recent news articles. Similar to HR departments and college recruiters, the department will be able to collect public social media content posted by potential and current employees as part of the process to grant security clearance. It also indicates that they may also collect data around a potential employee’s connections, including friends and family members on their social sites, to attempt to pinpoint any potential information that could be important to granting (or not granting) such clearance.

The department again reiterates that they are NOT asking potential employees to provide passwords or even screen names for their social sites; the proposed monitoring would only affect public facing social content – they would not have access to direct or private messages, for example, or any content that is behind a user’s privacy settings.

While some may oppose this new measure, many believe it is a tool to use to keep our country safe. Public social media data has been used for much more than social engagement over the last seven years; anything that can be used for the safety of the general public is a good thing, and I believe this is a great move by the federal government.

What do you think? Feel free to comment below and join in the discussion!

College Athletics Look at Social Media During Recruitment

High school sports are serious business, especially for those hoping to play (and get scholarship money) in college. While making sure you’re on your game at all times, it’s also important to make sure your online profile is top notch.

Athletes, and really all high school students, are educated on the importance of your social media profile – it can be very telling, and more and more colleges and athletic departments are looking at social media profiles before making decisions.

My daughter played for her high school’s softball team. They had an outstanding season, only to end the regular season with a really tough loss – honestly, they were robbed of the win by a bad call if you ask me. At any rate, I recall the coach specifically telling the girls, who post game were frustrated and upset with the outcome, to not take it online. They were reminded that they represented the school, even online, and to behave accordingly.

Needless to say, teenage girls are emotions. A lot of them. Two of my daughter’s teammates took to Twitter later that night to express their feelings about the game, the other team, and the umpire.

Imagine their surprise the next day at practice when the coach brought this up, complete with printouts of the girls’ tweets.

How can we help these students understand the reality of social media’s importance in depicting who they are as they get older and are trying to get scholarships, or into their dream college or job?

Kevin DeShazo, creator of Fieldhouse Media, founded a program to do just that – educate high school athletes about the importance of their social presence. In a recent article, high school coach Anthony Palladino shared this example of how social media can make or break a high school athlete’s college career:

“I remember one year we were recruiting two linebackers. Both were very talented, but we didn’t have room for the two of them. We checked out their social media. One was thanking people for going to the games, very polite. The other was very critical of coaches, teammates. That made the difference.”

Mr. DeShazo’s program seeks to educate athletes on how to engage on social media responsibly and in a positive way. As this becomes more prevalent, educators have also taken on this task.

As a parent and someone in the social media industry, my children are forever hearing from me about social media responsibility. While a parent’s words can fall on deaf ears sometimes, it’s important to be part of the education process. As a parent, what can you do?

Find out what your child’s school is doing to educate students on social media responsibility and best practices. Continue the conversation at home to reinforce it.

Take a look at your child’s social media accounts. Run a Google search for their name, or, better yet, get a social media background check. This gives you a good starting point for discussion – show your child how to make their sites more private and “clean up” any content as needed.

Have your child look at their social sites from an outsider’s viewpoint – if they were reading these posts from a stranger, what would they think of that person? It might give them pause if there’s anything concerning in their posts.

I’m impressed with Fieldhouse Media and their approach to educating student athletes. This is the type of mentoring and education that needs to be happening across the board. Even adults can learn a thing or two from social media education.