Well, it’s official. I’m certifiable. White coat please. I’m ready to be checked in. Bags are packed. Padded walls here I come.

Okay. Not really but for some insane reason I agreed back in June to do the Pennsylvania Ragnar Relay “in October” with a few friends at work. October felt far away and a goal to keep training and running seemed (at the time) like a really good idea. A 200 mile team relay in 24 hours? Bring it! I’m ready!

Well, I’m not ready. The last time I ran? Thursday – 4 miles. And, anyone who knows me, that is highly unusual.

Am I ready to load into a van and trek up to Lancaster with 23 other teammates and prep my costume (which I still have yet to hammer down the idea)? Nope. Am I ready to get up at 4AM to get to the starting line on Friday? Nope. Am I ready to start my first leg of a 5.2 “Moderate” run wearing my slap on bracelet ‘baton’ at Exchange #4 (which ironically happens to start at a winery). Nope. (Can you run with a glass of wine?) Am I ready to complete my other two legs of this race – the second being 1.9 miles up a steep hill mountain with an elevation gain of 470 feet – the third leg being 8.4 miles at probably around 4AM in darkness wearing an LED headlight and a flashing “tail” light so cars don’t run over me? Nope. And, uh nope.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m super excited for the challenge of the race. I’m sure it will be fun cheering on my teammates, catching a few Zzzzz’s at the nap rest stops, navigating my way as a van driver around Mt. Pocono to the next exchange point, and trying not to get lost on my legs of the race (which is bound to happen, trust me). But, getting over the mental ‘hump’ of the unknown and my nervousness running 8 miles, which I haven’t done in weeks much less in the dark on a road in the Poconos, seems pretty insurmountable right now.

But, like many of us are doing right now, I’m going to persevere. Bite the bullet. Nose to the grindstone. And, whatever other crazy old school clichés you can think of and tackle my challenge head on. So, literally one step at a time, I’ll climb the mountain and tackle the miles and sleep in the van and celebrate when its all over!

So, stay tuned for a Ragnar Relay update when our team finishes & my butterflies are all gone and it’s time to celebrate! (A little off the beaten path today, but I felt taking a break from the norm was a good distraction.) Happy Tuesday!

Did you watch the f8 Developers Conference? Andy Samberg proved to be way funnier than the real Mark Zuckerberg. Highlights as reported from Huffington Post:

The “Saturday Night Live” star, and most recognizable third of The Lonely Island, pulled out his best comedic impersonation of Facebook’s founder, going so far as to introduce a few incredible “new” features. These included the “I’m Not Really Friends With These People” (for awkward friends from middle school and drunk old ladies you met at a charity event) and the “Slow-Poke,” a poke that you have 24 hours to take back before it reaches the target (for people who tend to poke when they’re inebriated and regret it in the morning).

I kinda liked the idea of the “Slow Poke”

All kidding and Zuckerber’s awkward presentation skills aside, the reveal of the new “Facebook Timeline” was pretty incredible. (I did get a little tired of the buzz words like “ticker” and “frictionless sharing.”) However when I logged on and switched over to the new Timeline and scrolled down my own life on Facebook (since 2008) my first reaction was “Wow!” It was that cool. It was just really interesting to see the life (and yes I’m a Facebooker – it’s kind of a business requirement) I’ve ‘shared’ on Facebook and how much has changed over the few years I’ve been using the site. SO much has changed, yet so much still remains the same. Friends, family (especially my son), running, cooking, holiday events, participating in races, etc. all dominated my Timeline. And you know what? I’m ok with that. So stay tuned friends til September 30th. (Or if you want the short cut to get yours, see the link to the article on how to get your Timeline now below.)

So here are the top articles I’ve been reading to help acclimate myself with all of these changes. My cliff notes version:

• All profiles will be moved to the Timeline format Sept 30th
• We are unsure at this point how Pages layouts will change, but you can guess they will also follow suit
• There’s another reason to triple check your privacy settings post Sept 30th and if I were you, I’d start organizing my friends list a little bit better to prepare.

Happy Reading!

Facebook Timeline Redefines User Profiles
Mashable (9/22)

Here’s What Facebook Timeline Looks Like
TechCrunch (9/22)

Facebook Apps Can Now Embed Content in Your Profile Again
TechCrunch (9/22)

“Open graph” features will help Facebook spot trends and make connections
TheNextWeb (9/22)

Zuckerberg announces that as many as 500 million users have been on Facebook in a single day.
TechCrunch (9/22)

New “Open Graph” Enables Facebook to Spot Trends and Make Connections
VentureBeat/SocialBeat (9/22)

“Listen with a Friend” takes Facebook Deeper into the Music World
TheNextWeb (9/22)

Facebook Changes 101: 4 Things You Need To Know About the New Facebook Changes
B2C (9/23)

How To Turn On Your Timeline Now
CNet (9/22)

Big Media Hands Over Its Locks and Keys to Facebook
AllThingsD (9/22)

Facebook’s New Features Might Not Be as Private as You Think [UPDATED]
Mashable (9/25)

Facebook News: The Web Reacts
Mashable (9/25)

Facebook Changes in a Nutshell (Comic)
Mashable (9/25)

Why I Love the Facebook Timeline
Mashable (9/25)

So, any guesses on the f8 “BIG” Facebook announcements? Obviously more changes are in order and it’s rumored that they are going to be focused around:

• Increasing the importance of the profile
• Providing the capability for listening and sharing music, videos, and television shows from within Facebook
• New mobile platform (HTML5-based) Project Spartan
• Expanded capabilities for developers

If you haven’t noticed, part of the recent profile changes includes the option to ‘subscribe’ to individual profile–which is very different that “liking” a Facebook page.

These profile pages are only the beginning. The integration of music sharing will most likely be displayed on a user’s profile. It’s rumored that links will appear on a widget or tab, or as part of a user’s news feed, would point a curious friend directly to the content.

My question: is this type of sharing of ‘public content’ what users are seeking? Is this Facebook’s attempt to combat the Google+ and Twitter functionality?

New Facebook Changes & Recruiting:
If Facebook is going to evolve from a private social network to a more publicly focused network of sharing resources, links, music, etc. how can this translate into opportunities for a recruiter or hiring manager? It’s now possible to have ‘public’ information from your ‘personal’ (or personality) Facebook profile. Putting a real name and face to your recruiting efforts (transparency) is becoming quite mainstream these days. Social recruiting is becoming the norm in one aspect or another.

Increasing the ability for a person to control on each status update what they are sharing and who they are sharing it with could have significant impact on how a recruiter uses Facebook for recruitment purposes. Building ‘lists’ of friends with particular skill sets, employers, job titles, etc. could be used quite efficiently in posting newsworthy items only to this select audience. Audience segmentation is key in a successful social media recruiting strategy.

Time will tell (well, on Sept 22 we’ll know definitively) how these Facebook changes will be rolled out.

What are your predictions?

Neilsen has always provided detailed information about traditional media. They are now rapidly expanding into digital media reporting as well. And, I’m of the opinion that the more 3^rd party (neutral) reporting and rating services for social, the better.

Neilsen’s report, “State of the Media: The Social Media Report” has some very interesting statistics:

• Social media accounts for 22.5 percent of the time that Americans spend online vs. 9.8 percent for online games and 7.6 percent for email.
• In the U.S. social networks and blogs reach nearly 80 percent of active U.S. Internet users
• Close to 40 percent of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone
• Nearly 2 in 5 social media users access social networking from their mobile phone
• Social networking apps are the third most-used among U.S. smartphone owners
• The other top 2? Games and weather.
• 70 percent of active online adult social networkers shop online, 12 percent more likely than the average adult Internet user
• 53 percent of active adult social networkers follow a brand, while 32 percent follow a celebrity
• Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other U.S. website
• 53.5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook (both at home and work)
• Over twice as many people aged 55+ visit social networking sites on their mobile phone than last year.
• 60 percent of social media users create reviews of products and services (making social media an ideal platform for influencers to spread their ideas and purchase power).
• Offline, active adult social networkers are more likely than the average adult Internet user to be found at political rallies, professional sporting events and working out at the gym.

So, based upon this report, does your online behavior within social media mirror these findings? Mine does – in very scary similarities! Let me know your thoughts on social media stats http://twitter.com/JenHitchens.

I received an interesting email today from Brazen Careerist to “Check out my infographic resume on [their] new Facebook App.” Interesting.

Infographics extremely popular these days. And, for good reason. They are a great vehicle to deliver complex, detailed data in a clear and concise (and often clever) way that can be quickly consumed. A perfect combination for our “info overload” and speed reading world. So, naturally this type of layout transfers easily into the resume world.

Mashable writes on the Evolution of the Resume in an Infographic, created by RezScore, and it’s quite interesting to see how far the resume format has come.

So, I decided to check in and see what Brazen Careerist put together in their Facebook App. Pretty interesting stuff. They took the data from my Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts (of course I had to “Allow” them access to all of my accounts, my activity in those accounts, and my friends’ activity, and swear to name my 2^nd born “Brazen” – ok the last part isn’t true) and they built out my own Resume Infographic.

Brazen Careerist creates my infographic in a streamlined visual while highlighting data about me in a way I never really looked at before (Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, Facebook ‘likes’). They also give back kudos on the areas of my career that they deem important or noteworthy. So, while my ‘work/life’ balance is non-existent (Do I not share enough personal stuff in my social networks? Probably.), the infographic resume they built was pretty impressive. And, they do an excellent job of reminding me to share my ‘kudos’ to my various networks on Facebook and Twitter.

What are your thoughts? Will an Infographic Resume provide you an advantage to gain a quick access to a Hiring Manager short on time? Or, is it just another pretty picture?

More Facebook changes (and why I think they are occurring):

-      The “link” button has been removed, you just paste in the URL into your status update and Facebook will load in the preview. You can then edit/manage what Facebook ‘pre-populates’ with your own comments. If you remember this from before…it’s because this was the ‘old school’ way we used to have, you’re right).

o      Why they change? I guarantee that they’ve changed how they are capable of monitoring what URLs people are sharing. Remember the change in the newsfeed recently about how they’d ‘automatically’ find common key words and attribute them to the relevant Facebook page? More to come on that one!

-      Add a location to your Status Updates.

o      Why the change? One word. Foursquare. Competition. (Ok, two words).

-      Status Updates – you can share your updates with “Public” now vs. with “Everyone”  - small language change, but check your privacy settings. And, you can apparently “edit your status updates privacy at any time.”

o      Why they change? Notice that “Public” is set up first. By placing “Public” first, Facebook is placing greater emphasis on encouraging users to share their status updates with “everyone” OR you can select just “friends” or “custom.”  And, you can change your status update at anytime. (I’d still be cautious about what you post.)

-      Photo Viewer – now it has a white background and the “esc” X is far away to the right.

o      Why they change? Hmmm…white background with a harder to find ESC option. Means more room for advertising to me.

-      New Ticker in your Newsfeed (might not be viewable to all). Set it “Most Recent”

o      Why they change? I have a feeling this will have additional enhancements in the future so users can ‘better control’ (aka Facebook send you more info in other ways in your) Newsfeed.

If you want to read more on what Facebook wants you to know, go here.

I’ve said it before. (LINK) And, I’ll say it again. Facebook ONLY makes changes to their interface when they are looking for new ways to incorporate advertising into the site. “Like” it or not people.

Are you on Groupon? Have you purchased any of their deals? Shared a special with friends? Or, just talked about Groupon among your social circles or observed some friends using the service?

You’re not alone. Groupon.com has over 115 Million subscribers to its daily deal emails.  (Yes, I’m one of them…most recent deal: Camden Riversharks tickets – good times!)…which would be a 38% increase since March 31^st (Reuters reported)

Groupon negotiates huge discounts—usually 50-90% off—with popular businesses. They send the deals to thousands of subscribers in their free daily email, and send the businesses a ton of new customers. That’s the Groupon magic.

While their IPO might not go as well as planned (thanks congress for your debt crisis debacle) due to the volatility of the stock market,  there are still a lot of things we all in the recruiting industry can learn from Groupon:

1. Offer True Value (especially in presenting the ‘deal’)– Groupon’s “Deals” aren’t written by the vendor. Groupon has a great approach to presenting the negotiated deals in an editorial fashion that is truly unique and contains a tone that really resonates with the audience.Recruiting can learn a lot about the marketing of the deals on Groupon. Over and over I hear that job postings really can only be successful when the capture the full picture of the career opportunity. This can only be achieved by taking a marketing approach when writing your job postings.

2. Simplicity in Sharing– subscribers can follow “Deals” in many ways: via email, Facebook, Twitter and all “Deals” are customized by geography. I personally don’t care what the specials are in Delray Beach (my Dad might) but personally I care about Deals that are in my own backyard (Philly) AND their great Get Away deals (because let’s face it – who isn’t always looking to just drop everything and just get away?) Groupon also does a great job of incorporating sharing and rewards for sharing their deals (share with your friends, get three to buy, the deal is FREE!). And, you get Groupon bucks for just inviting friends into the “network.”You can see where I’m going with this in the recruiting world. Don’t just ask your existing fans, followers, employees to refer their friends but provide tangible, sharable shorter-term rewards that provide immediate gratification.

3. Immediacy: Groupon Now!enables people to quickly search their zip code for shorter term Groupon deals that they can view on a map and obtain details about the deal via email or text message.As you build out your networks (whether its through your own Careers section, LInkedIn Groups, Facebook Careers Page, Twitter Channels) think about this example for communicating directly and efficiently with your audience in a targeted manner and through mobile devices.

What are your experiences with social coupon web sites?

Twitter Chats are nothing new within the Twittersphere. But recently, I was thinking why aren’t more recruiters tapping into this really great way to engage their existing Twitter followers and expand their reach?

If you’re a newer person or recruiter to Twitter, a Twitter chat is a scheduled event where like minded professionals discuss a topic, ask question and basically “tweet” to each other. And, creating your own weekly or monthly Recruiting Twitter Chat isn’t as difficult as you’d think.

I’m going to work on the assumption that you will already have in place the basic foundation that includes:

• Twitter Channel that focuses on your Career opportunities, news, updates, etc.
• A proficiency within a 3^rd party tool such as HootSuite, TweetDeck, etc. so you can monitor a specific hashtag.

 5 Steps for Creating a Recruiting Chat

1. Determine the Scope – what will be your discussion topic? Resume tips? Discussion around a new department opening? Discussion about a trend within the industry? Interview tips? There are lots of “theme” ideas for your meeting.
2. Create a unique hashtag – a company acronym with jobchat or careerchat for example (ie. #AlstinJobChat ).
3. Begin promoting to your followers with frequent (but varied) tweets announcing when you’ll be ‘hosting’ your #JobChat (date and time) and the theme. Tweet out the topic often and use a variety of other relevant #hashtags to expand your audience and increase followers prior to the event.
4. Assign a moderator to the #jobchat and possibly invite others “experts” from your company to jump start the dialogue. Open up a stream in your Twitter tool to monitor the conversations and questions from Twitter followers.
5. Archive your twitter chats for those who might have missed the event on a wiki, web page or on your LinkedIn Group.

Learn from each event and repeat those items that you determined as successful (especially making note of your participants, their Twitter profiles and activity for future communication about career openings and engaging with them on other professional networks such as LinkedIn).

If you’re looking for some tools to assist and grow your #jobchat events, here are some great tools (other than my favorite HootSuite):

-       TweetChat – chat monitoring tool

-       TweetGrid – another organization tool

-       TweetDeck (recently purchased by Twitter)

-       Twubs – useful hashtags site

-       Monitter – moniter topics and trends

-       WhatTheHashtag (wHashtag)

-       Twiends – to grow your base prior to an event http://twiends.com/

Have you ever participated in a Twitter Chat? What were your thoughts?

There’s a Toyota Venza commercial running (at least on the channels I watch) that shows a twenty-something girl at a desk with her computer talking about how she read an article, “well…a majority of an article…” that talked about how ‘older people’ are becoming more and more antisocial. So, she was pretty aggressive about her parents joining Facebook to ‘stay social.’ The commercial cuts to showing very active adults enjoying mountain biking with friends, laughing, talking, interacting…you know being social (of course all while showing great shots of the Venza). The twenty-something goes on to say how humorous it is that they have nineteen friends now. And states, “I have 687 friends. This is living.” (All while the video splices in great active shots of her parents active, and very real, social life.)

Toyota’s You Tube Channel summarizes the commercial pretty well:

A misguided twentysomething expounds on the joys of social networking while her parents are out in their Venza being social themselves. Visit http://www.toyota.com/venza to learn how the Toyota Venza helps you keep on rolling.

My friends and I were talking about this commercial while enjoying a few cold beverages the other night (kudos for Toyota for creating yet another great commercial that gets people talking). What resonated with us about this commercial is a real concern over Facebook’s tentacles into our lives and our communications and how (for some) it HAS become quite an addiction. It also got us talking about how texting and IMing have moved phone calls and voicemail into the “you know you’re a dinosaur when…” category (along with cameras, watches, and CDs, and landlines).

But, my (late) thirty-something friends and I (ouch, that hurt to type) also talked about how the ability to truly socialize – as in real person-to-person communication – is becoming passé. Not only with our generation but even more so from the younger generations entering the workplace. How often do you email a colleague or shoot them an IM about something when their cubicle or desk is 10 feet away? Sure, it may be more efficient and useful in many instances, but what’s the matter with actual verbal communication?

Which takes me full circle. Is there such a thing as Facebook Addictive Disorder (FAD)? Have we become too reliant on that instant status update of ‘interacting’ with our Facebook friends via the Newsfeed that it overpowers our ability to get out there and ‘live life?’ Do we need services/sites like FaceAnonymous.com?

If you’d like take AllFacebook.com’s ‘test’ http://www.allfacebook.com/do-you-suffer-from-facebook-addiction-disorder-2011-04 and find out for yourself. If you do, you’ll join the 121 million other people searching the term “internet facebook addiction” according to The Internet Time Machine survey.

Or, is Facebook (and other instant forms of communication) enhancing our ability to live life to its fullest? I’d be curious to hear your thoughts.

IM, text or tweet me @JenHitchens

Oh and: Toyota Venza. Keep on rolling.

Back on June 1st, I noticed (and of course shared) an article written by Sarah Kessler about a cool new (and rumored) LinkedIn Apply Button. LinkedIn To Launch Job Application Button My first gut reaction? Hmmm…they might have something here…second thought, why haven’t they launched this sooner?

Well, as of July 24th, employers and job seekers can start using the new “Apply with LinkedIn” button. There has been a lot written on the subject and I thought I’d gather up the top articles that I’ve read to give you a range of opinions on how this will be the “job board killer” to why the button “will not disrupt HR Industry.” They are all interesting posts.

My opinion? I think a universal “Apply” method is long overdue. I’ve heard complaints from all varieties of job seekers about the painstaking process that is required to apply for a position on a company’s Career Center and/or an ATS. I think we’ve all been there, done that. But, nothing (until now) has been done to correct this problem. However, do I think the LinkedIn Apply button is the complete answer? Doubtful. It’s a step in the right direction. As an employer, I think I’d be excited about the possibilities of gleaning LinkedIn profile data vs. combing through various formats of resumes. But, I think I’d be a bit nervous about this new “Apply Button” making it even easier for the unqualified to apply for even more positions (and having to weed them out).

What are your thoughts? Will you put the “Apply with LinkedIn”’ button on your job postings?

Top Five Articles on LinkedIn Apply Button:

1. LinkedIn Launches Button That Lets You Apply for Jobs – always some great insights from Ben Parr @Mashable
2. The “Apply With LinkedIn” Button Will Not Disrupt HR Industry – David Zaxt has some interesting comments, “By increasing the volume of “spray-and-pray” candidates, is LinkedIn really helping the hiring process?”
3. LinkedIn Lets You Apply For Jobs With One Click Using Your Profile’s Information - BusinessInsider.com focuses on Netflix using the new Apply button on their site.
4. Apply with Linkedin Button - Recruiter.com provides a great assessment of what the Apply button could mean for candidates, LinkedIn’s future, and recruiters.
5. LinkedIn Introduces a Simple, New Way for Job Seekers to Put their Best Foot Forward When Submitting for a Job  -interesting notes on implications for Job Applicants and Companies.

And, last but certainly not least, the blog post by LinkedIn’s own Jonathan Seitel on July 24th, 2011 – The Power of LinkedIn Everywhere: Apply with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn \”How To\” video

The idea to develop a blog for recruiting purposes is nothing new. However, I’ve seen some great examples of companies doing it right and some companies doing it all wrong (both parties shall remain nameless). So, I figured I’d map out my Top Five Things that are integral to creating a blog that serves two purposes:

• Employee Retention/Reward/Communication
• Recruitment Messaging

1. Create a living, breathing Social Media Policy – you have to protect yourself, your employees and your organization. Here’s a good article on About.com.

2. Outline what topics you want to focus on with your employee-centric blog that will provide a dual purpose for recruiting. Here’s a great example by Crocs (yes, those shoes).  They have a variety of blogs with a multitude of purposes:

• Vitamin C (“…an online community of fresh-minded individuals just like you! Vitamin C was created as a place for footwear enthusiasts to meet, mingle and share daily.”) is a great example of Brand Advocates being the voice of your brand (or company).

• Crocs (An excellent example of PR, Marketing and Social coming together to create an authentic viewpoint of all that Crocs does for their employees, their communities and their customers.)

• YOU by Crocs (written by one employee “Samantha” that portrays her experiences within Crocs and using the products.

3. Be authentic. Take risks.  If I had a nickel for every time I heard this, I’d have at least twenty dollars. I still like the saying, though. And, it’s not easy to give the reigns over to employees to speak their minds.  Create areas on your blog that will help people focus on the things they DO enjoy as a team member:

• Flex Time Speak/Telecommuting Diaries

• The benefits of great benefits

• A Day in the Life/What Makes it a Great Day

• Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

4. Promote your blog both internally and externally:

• Post links on your corporate home page and corporate careers site

• Create an email signature for all employees to use/promote

• Insert the link to your “Employee Blog” within all external job postings

• Solicit advice for improvements from industry HR blogging experts; ask them to write about your blog.

5. Enable others to comment and share. It’s social, stupid. Having an employee blog that is only promoted internally (or less!) is pointless. To gain momentum in the social world, you need to enable people to share blog posts via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ etc, etc.

So, what recruitment or employee-centric blogs have you seen? What makes them great (or not so great)? Share your thoughts! Happy Tuesday!

Well, it’s been two weeks since the launch of Google+  – “Real-life sharing rethought for the web.” Are you one of the first 10 million who are ‘in?’ Did you know that within a 32-34 hour period of time over 2 million people joined Google+?

I’m thinking, now how is Google+ going to be any different than Google Wave or Google Buzz or other social networking products? Is it really trying to “de-throne” Facebook or Twitter?

Early adopters aside. I think Google might have struck a chord, and not just for the tech people.

What is fundamentally at the ‘core’ of a social network? Your social network. Well…it’s your close friends, immediate family, extended friends, college friends, high school friends, elementary school friends, your co-workers, your previous co-workers, your former boss, your (gasp!) current boss, your ex-boyfriend from high school, your ex-boyfriend from last year, your running groups, your “insert any hobby here” friends, it’s your neighbors, your kids’ friends parents. You get me? That’s a lot of people! A lot of people that, on Facebook, have absolutely no organizational structure to help me communicate (or not!) with them (at least in an organized, efficient manner).

I’d consider myself a ‘power user’ on Facebook (I’m not really proud of that term, or use it in everyday language, it’s just that I’m literally on Facebook a lot, everyday. I’m a “Facebooker” yeah, so what?). It’s what I do as part of my career – which I’m really happy about. But, Facebook’s answer to creating structure around all of my friends was to create “Groups.”

So…how many groups have I organized? One. How many groups am I in? About seven. Have I organized my friends into groups or lists for that matter? No. Why not? It’s takes to long, it’s cumbersome and frankly I abide by the rule that I only things I post on Facebook are things that I’d want my grandmother, or mother, or co-worker or boss to see or know about. I don’t air my dirty laundry on Facebook. Sure, I may selectively delete a few things (like photos of a past) or un-tag myself in an unflattering picture where I have a double chin or my forehead looks more like a five-head (of which there are many).

But…if given a tool where I could easily and visually put my friends into Circles that could co-mingle/cross streams while still enabling me to communicate with all, some or just one of them – now that would be a powerful communication tool for me. Both personally and even quite possibly professionally. (And, side note here: Love the “Circles video w/ tagline “For the people you’ve known forever…and the people you’ll meet tomorrow.” The voice over asks, “Are you [a new friendship/relationship] worth taking on board? You gotta take a chance on people. Because they are taking a chance on you.” I like that thought. A lot.

So, when I was reading up on the subject I stumbled upon Dhanji R. Prasanna’s blog and his post and I think this guy has it right.

While Google+ won’t be the ‘Facebook or Twitter killer’ it does provide some serious muscle that could ‘de-throne’ OR at least provide a seat at the social table. Is there room for one more?

If Mark Zuckerberg  is one of the leading Google+ profiles and TechCrunch is saying Google+ Added $20+ Billion to Google’s Market Cap  AND Ford’s already jumping in on the game  those are all good signs…or, at least signs in general…right?

What are your thoughts on Google+? Have you been graced with access yet? Let me know your thoughts!

For now, the Game of Thrones, continues…(and, yeah, I like that show, too).

You knew it was coming. All this ‘sharing’ within the social worlds was bound to start getting territorial. Turns out Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Monster, BranchOut all felt there was a little too much sharing going on.

So what’s all the Buzz? (pun intented):

• Google+ launched (Google’s answer to Facebook) and, as a result…
• Google Chrome’s extension Facebook Friend Exporter had a lot more interest (over 22,000 downloads last week).
• So…therefore, Facebook shut it down basing that the app collects more than the Terms of Service allow. More specifically “it violates section 3.2 of the TOS that states “You will not collect users’ content or information, or otherwise access Facebook, using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) without our permission.”
• LinkedIn also recently blocked two Facebook Apps (BeKnown and BranchOut) from their data.
• BranchOut and BeKnown were using the LinkedIn API and messaging to expand their user base. LinkedIn stated this was against their TOCs.

So, what’s the point of a social “world” if you’re only allowed to play in one platform at a time? While I realize sites and services have to protect what they build, there shouldn’t be this attitude of, “You can’t play with me.” (Which I see a lot of on the playground with my six-year old.) But, on the flip side…didn’t BranchOut and BeKnown (aka Monster) realize that the importing of LinkedIn’s data, using their messaging platform would create huge red flags of violation? Did they think that LinkedIn was just going to roll over? Maybe they’d look the other way because “sharing is good!”

I don’t know about you, but aren’t investigating the TOCs a part of exploring the legal ramifications of any project?

A side-line subject related to sensitive sharing…

While the social platform warfare goes on, one interesting article I read was by Susan P. Joyce on job-hunt.org “Be on LinkedIn or BeKnown? No Contest!”

In her article (review) Joyce points out the extensive “Request for Permissions” that BeKnown requires. And, points out the ability for the job searching App on Facebook to post your usage on the Wall (for all of your Facebook friends and gasp! co-workers to see). While if you’re currently unemployed or a new grad this could be a potential bonus. But, if (like me) you’re Facebook friends with people you work with, the mere acceptance of the Apps permissions sends a message that you’re out there looking (or, in my case, experimenting – seriously.)

It’s not always possible to send every team member to their complete ‘wish list’ of great networking and association events…whether the events are around the corner for a local MeetUp or a plane ride away to Vegas (like #SHRM11).

So, what’s an HR professional (or any professional for that matter) to do? Well, there are a few things to help you stay ‘in the know’ about events:

#1 Create a Twitter Stream
Create a Twitter stream for monitoring the #hashtag of the event that you wish you attending. See what your tweeps are saying about the sessions. Often people who love Twitter will be live tweeting directly from the sessions, posting quick summaries of great take aways. This is a great time to “meet” some other like-minded people on Twitter and follow them, RT and @mention them to give them props for their contributions. Be sure to save them as a list on Twitter so you can continue to monitor their Twitter activity moving forward and reach out to the with any specific questions.

#2 Use Google Reader
Create a key word RSS feed for the event name and/or Twitter #hastag. This way you’ll know when someone posts a “Take Away” summary, key highlights, feedback or references the event. I’ve been at many conference sessions and often the people who take the time to digest and report back on the session or event really do a great job.

#3 Watch for ‘post event’ presentation uploads
In this digital age many presenters will upload their slides or presentation to a shared space on the event web site (which may require a password) AND they will usually upload the same material to their own web site, etc. So, keep an eye out for these announcements and download at will! You can get your hands on a lot of data, stats and things you might not know just by reviewing the presentation.

#4 Monitor LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups offer a way to also share the wealth…if you know a Group you’re a member of has a lot of people attending the event you’re wishing you could have gone to…post questions and propose discussion items.

#5 Facebook. Yes, Facebook
I know, Facebook is where you post your personal stuff (well, at least for most people) but the lines between personal and professional get blurrier and blurrier (especially for me!). So…do a key word search on Facebook for your event – you’d be surprised how many people post that they are “looking forward to attending __insert event here__.” You can also filter your search results to only view relevant Groups (that are open to new members) on Facebook. Take a look at the Groups…if you think the depth of experience is there, request to join in that Group.

Well, that’s all for now…back to my Twitter Stream…I especially enjoy watching where the roaming Cup Cake trucks in Center City are located (follow them yourself @buttercreamphl (the original) and @sweetboxtruck @CallMeCupcake are two other greats …I at least try to attend one of their events a week!

An article popped up on my radar today. AllFacebook.com’s awesome author Brian Carter got a hold of some interesting stats complied by Jeff Widman of PageLever that were a bit surprising to me. Bottom line, what surprised me most was the irony of the stats. If you build it they will come right? Yeah, but don’t count a fan as person who is having an automatic ‘long term relationship’ with your Page.

The Goal
One of the primary goals for all social media marketers (usually mandated from clients, customers, etc.) is to build lots of fans! Numbers are black and white, right? They roll off your tongue, they are easy to manage, reference and chart in pretty little line graphs in excel. But, what many folks neglect to acknowledge is the old adage “It’s quality not quantity.” I’d rather take 10 brand advocates to toot my Facebook Page to their 130+ friends than 1,000 fans who don’t do jack &^%$ with my Page.

Engagement
A trickier metric to pin down (but not impossible) is engagement – the ‘quality measurement.’ So for all of us social media marketing peeps out there, we’re looking at our engagement numbers and to be honest, you see it ebb and flow…a lot. It’s an absolute necessity to fine tune and find the right balance of frequency of posts, tone, questions asked, polls published, photos and videos uploaded as well as the sharing of other Page (or web) content. All of these elements impact the engagement of your Page with it’s fans (and reach to non-fans). The more people comment, like and share the more your Page posts appear in their news feeds. It’s integral to determine the right timing and the best content yeild the most impact. You fought hard to get that “like” and now you have to keep fighting to keep your Page front and center in that Newsfeed. Thanks EdgeRank…

EdgeRank – my own personal favorite four letter word (times 2)
As a Facebook page fan base increases in fans and you start hitting the numbers that were your ‘fan goals,’ (and your supervisor starts patting you on the back) – this is when you need to activate that long term plan you mapped out in the beginning when you launched your Page (You did create a long term Social Media strategy right? If not, tweet @AnnetteAtAlstin and get a game plan, cause you’re missing the boat).

Afraid to post daily? To give you a contrary example, one e-commerce website I know of has found their 90,000 fan Facebook page to be quite profitable, and they post five times per day and have done so for more than six months.

Four daily posts are engagement-oriented and one is sales-oriented. Not all the Facebook e-commerce efforts I’m aware of are making profits, so it’s interesting that this profitable one is posting so often. Perhaps by being so aggressive, they cultivate the most passionate fans and weed out the ones who are never going to buy.

Facebook fan quantity is overrated. You do need a lot of fans, but you need a lot of quality fans, and you need to keep them engaged. The best Facebook marketers are engaging their fans with a purpose while growing their fan base.

Have you seen QR codes on printed materials or in magazine ads? Yes? No? Do you use them? Have you ever thought about using them within your recruiting world?

Lots of questions for a Tuesday. So, let’s get back to the purpose of a QR code. (To be honest, I hadn’t tested into this area until just recently.) What IS the purpose of QR codes? Well, in this day and age, the more information you can fit into the smallest space possible all the better. As a good friend told me the other day, “It’s all about ‘information density.’” Couldn’t have summarized it better myself. He should know, he’s a Network Engineer and a self-proclaimed tech nerd.

So, back to the definition:

QR code stands for Quick Response code. Originally popularized in Japan and Korea, they are one type of 2D barcode (the next generation of regular barcodes that you have been seeing for years). 2D barcodes are becoming popular because they allow for a greater degree of data density than their predecessors. Essentially, you can cram much more information into a 2D barcode than a 1D one. Most importantly, QR codes allow for hard-linking. They allow for something in the digital world (like a webpage) to be linked to something in the real world (a poster or ad in a magazine for example). They allow for a person with a mobile phone to quickly visit a website without typing in a long complex url on a tiny phone keypad. And, in case you’re wondering how to “use” a QR code – you just use your camera and take a picture of it (click). It’s that easy. (To read more, click here. And for a full comprehensive guide to QR Codes, click here.)

“QR codes are make printed materials interactive with dynamic online content.  With one scan, your client or potential client can download your contact information, research more about your firm online, and connect and interact with your brand whenever and wherever he chooses.

QR codes can be used to do any one of the following things:

• Launch the phone’s web browser to a specific URL
• Push out a calendar event that can be saved to the phone’s calendar
• Push out contact information that can be saved to the phone
• Push out an email address that can kick-start communication
• Launch an SMS (text) message that can be sent to Twitter, Facebook, or contacts

Source: http://blogz.org/Blog731153-Qa-On-Qr-Codes.htm

So, how can this translate into recruiting? As RecruitingGeek.com reported on some of their results with QR Codes:  The results can be pretty substantial.

One of our clients, a fortune 500 restaurant chain, was looking to hire management level personnel for their stores.  What they did was put posters on the front door of their restaurants in 2 major markets (Indianapolis & Chicago).  These signs had some quick verbiage advertising Manager & Supervisor level jobs and in order to apply to scan the QR Code with their mobile device.

Scanning the QR code directs the candidate to a landing page with the opportunities listed for that store.  Rather than fill out an entire application, the candidate simply joined the Talent Community via their mobile device, by filling in their contact information.   The Talent Community then emailed a link to the jobs to the candidate so they could apply online via their computer at a more convenient time.  Two great things happen here: The candidate took immediate action, and our client benefitted in capturing their contact info in lead form and were able to track the metrics.

For the months of January – April, 463 candidates in Indianapolis have scanned the QR Code.  An amazing 146 joined the Talent Community which is a 32% conversion rate!!  Not too shabby seeing that most Career Websites only have an 8% conversion rate.

For the months of January – April, the Chicago QR Codes have generated 724 candidate scans of which 192 or 27% went on to join the Talent Community!!

My Thoughts:

QR codes offer a wealth of opportunities for recruiting…especially in the retail and healthcare industries. As people enter your environment (either through store, retail outlet, hospital, outpatient clinic, etc.) you can easily promote that very specific audience (who is there on some related business, need or interest) and easily promote your recruiting message while directing them to a landing page or application page, Facebook page, recruiting event, and so much more! QR Codes can be inserted on all recruiting materials, point of purchase posters or flyers, business cards, direct mail pieces…the list could be endless. Click – that’s all that’s needed. You could even come up with a catchy “bubble” call to action to remind the non-tech nerds regular folk what they need to do to easily view/save/share your recruiting message. (Personally, I consider myself a tech nerd.)

While I don’t think that QR codes are the single miracle solution for the recruiting world, I DO think that for tech savvy professional who use them, it’s a great way to reach a different audience through a different medium. And, if you put enough strategy and creativity behind your idea, a certain “wow” factor that is subtle but very to the point.

Thoughts? Have you used QR Codes in any of your recruiting messaging? Do you use QR codes in your daily (personal) life? Just curious.

I’ve always been a big fan of making learning fun. Especially for my six-year old. So, why not make recruiting fun with gaming?

What better place to test out this theory of recruitment-themed games than on Facebook?

I mean, who hasn’t played a game on Facebook? Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cityville, Texas HoldEm, etc. Zynga has made game playing on Facebook a HUGE pastime (and revenue generator).

So, when I read yesterday that Marriott was going to be launching their own game within Facebook that focused more on their recruiting goals, I was interested! The Army did a similar recruitment tactic about ten years ago. As reported by the Wall Street Journal “Nearly a decade ago the U.S. military introduced America’s Army, which proved to be a wildly popular and effective tool that cost very little, according to Ethan Mollick, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who has written about the game.”

Alexandra Berzon continues in her WSJ article:

Marriott International Inc. is hoping a hotel-themed online game could be a recruiting tool for the hotel industry.

At “My Marriott Hotel,” orders stack up at the restaurant. Meanwhile, the manager has to decide how many pieces of shrimp to buy for the shumai. The kitchen runs out of croutons for the Caesar salad and there’s not enough money for a new stove.

“They’ll find that in fact this is a very intriguing business,” said David Rodriguez, executive vice president for global human resources at Marriott, speaking about the game, which is making its debut this week on Facebook. The game “will demystify it.”

Marriott says “My Marriott” will be more realistic.

“Those are great because they brand the hospitality industry and get people thinking about hotels and travel, but I think people are smart enough to know” the difference, said Susan Strayer, a human-resources branding expert at Marriott who helped develop its game with input from people within the company who operate restaurants and hotels.

“That’s why our game is so appealing,” Ms. Strayer said. “Not only am I having fun but I’m actually getting an understanding of what it takes to run a kitchen.”

Ms. Strayer’s group at Marriott has the challenge of attracting newcomers to around 50,000 hotel positions this year, many in emerging markets such as India and China, which don’t have strong hospitality-industry traditions.

Wharton’s Prof. Mollick said most companies that have attempted such games have found it difficult to create a game that is enough fun to be effective marketing and realistic enough to attract the kinds of people to a job who would be suited to it.

The ‘Holy Grail’
He said the “holy grail” of recruiting games—which would market a job and determine people who would be good at it—so far remains elusive.

So…I tried it. Nice animation, cutsie sound track, got to pick my own manager (showing a nice diversity of selections!), cute grilling noises as my food orders in ‘my kitchen’ are being cooked, my orders were up, I could inspect them, opt to serve them or send them back to my Associate “Diego,” I have ingredients to measure, time limits, etc. Empty plates meant I did a good job and earned coins, increased my levels and get status update scores. The game enables me to “Do It for Real” or visit the Fan Page.

Overall, I was impressed by themes sophistication and multi-layered engagement. While no Farmville (ok, I have a confession to make, I’ve never played Farmville or any other Facebook ‘game’ and am very proud of that fact, sue me) the “My Marriot” game did showcase to me the fast paced environment of a real kitchen (trust me, I realized first hand how poorly I worked in a kitchen right out of college – I was the world’s worst waitress ever!). Kudos to Marriott and Susan Strayer and David Rodriguez for taking a risk. I think people will be buzzing about this game!

If you’d like to read more, visit: Marriott ventures into computer-game recruiting with Facebook.

And if you play, let me know what you think!?

Twitter has been up to some unusual activity recently. They recently purchased TweetDeck for $40 million. TweetDeck is a UK based company whose application helps users of the  microblogging site organize tweets and follow specific trends and hashtags. More than 20 million people have downloaded TweetDeck since it was launched three years ago. Read more…

What else is going on in the “new” Twittersphere? Have you checked out the new “Follow” button?

Twitter has launched a Follow button, enabling users to subscribe to the Twitter feeds of companies and individuals directly from their websites with a single click. Mashable writes:

Previously, website publishers had to redirect users to their respective accounts on Twitter.com before users could opt to follow them. The new feature will likely encourage publishers to increase the number of “follow us” prompts on their sites, because they won’t have to risk redirecting their audiences off-site.

Users will still be able to preview profiles before opting to follow them by clicking the username next to the Follow button.

Those who are interested in adding the button to their own sites can set one up here.

Twitter enters the arena of photo sharing.

On Monday, news leaked out that Twitter will be adding a photo-sharing to its core features. Much like TwitPic and yfrog but their own ‘home grown’ solution.

And, according to ReadWriteWeb:

Twitter will launch its own photo sharing feature very soon, according to a purported scoop by Alexia Tsotsis at TechCrunch. (Similarly loose lips confirmed the same to AllThingsD’s Liz Gannes later today.) After years of struggles to stay online and apparently giving up any hope of retrieving archival messages in text for its users, a move into photo hosting and sharing would be another show of confidence by Twitter in its newfound architectural stability.

And, last but not least, a redesign of emails and increased notifications:

Back on May 23^rd, Twitter announced it was start notifying users via email when their tweets are retweeted by someone they follow or when someone favorites one of their tweets. Personally, I was wondering why I was getting the emails until I investigated further…here’s more details on the subject.

Twitter also has launched a new design for their notifications when you receive a new follower. You can quickly see your new Twitter followers bio, pix, followers, following as well as who I also follow that follow that specific user. And, note the prominent placement for downloading Twitter for your phone.

All of these enhancements have me wondering how friendly is Twitter to third-party app developers? Twitter always relied heavily on the creativity of third-party apps to build their users and it appears now that they are more concerned with pulling the most popular functionality in-house. If I was a third-party app developer, I’d be a bit concerned about these recent acquisitions and changes in functionality. Post your comments/thoughts below or tweet me @JenHitchens – Happy Wednesday!

My first experience with MeetUp.com was an invitation to a running club and outdoor adventure club. I joined up with enthusiasm and was pleasantly surprised to see so many people in the Philly area who were also dedicated runners and loved the outdoors.

Meetup.com in case you don’t know helps groups of people with shared interests plan meetings and form offline clubs in local communities around the world.

I started poking around MeetUp.com (‘cause I’m curious like that) and was beginning to think…this could be a huge resource for recruiters who had hard to fill positions with very specific skill sets or just wanted to actively tap into a new skill set or geographic area for hiring needs.

From Meetup’s About Us section:

Meetup is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.

Meetup’s mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

Learn more on the Meetup HQ Blog.

MeetUp.com’s tag line: Do something. Learn something. Share something. Change something.

What better area to access for top tier, passionate talent? MeetUp.com offers the ability to search hundreds of thousands of monthly Meetup groups as well as access to over 7.2 million members. What better way to join in the conversation and activity? Meetup also offers the ability to create groups with a specific focus, develop mini-sites that include a full spectrum of options…links/lists to members profiles, sponsors (more on this later), photos, pages, discussions and so much more! Meetup organizes each group’s content by showcasing upcoming Meetups, Group organizers, view other relevant Meetups.

Find a Meetup that fits your recruitment focus? You can contact the group’s organizer to become a sponsor. Premium placement of your logo and tagline and link to your career site (or other URL).

Keep in mind though…Meetup isn’t a recruiting tool per se. So, be respectful. Join to enjoy the topic, venue or activity. Get to know the members, attend the Meetups, build up your reputation as an active member and then start discussions surrounding a casual conversation about what you do.

Have you used Meetup.com for any personal or professional networking? What are your thoughts? Would you consider using the site? Feel free to post your comments below!

So, if you were to search for something…anything…on a search engine AND could view input from your friends and family on said search engine., would you consider this a bonus? A positive experience? Bing is banking on it.

Microsoft and Facebook have always ‘liked’ each other (much to Google’s dismay). What would make the most sense as the next step in search? Wouldn’t the next step be to layer search engine results with the Open Graph technology (and input) of Facebook.

Bottom line, I’m more apt to take the advice from a friend than from a search engine. And, Bing recognizes this…

“Bing is bringing the collective IQ of the Web together with the opinions of the people you trust most, to bring the “Friend Effect” to search. Starting today, you can receive personalized search results based on the opinions of your friends by simply signing into Facebook. New features make it easier to see what your Facebook friends “like” across the Web, incorporate the collective know-how of the Web into your search results, and begin adding a more conversational aspect to your searches. Decisions can now be made with more than facts, now the opinions of your trusted friends and the collective wisdom of the Web.”

However, as a Facebook user and a search engine user – do I really want my world’s to collide? Ever watch the Seinfield episode where George starts freaking out because his girlfriend (Susan) was being introduced into his “friend world?” “World’s are colliding! George is getting upset!”

I’m feeling a little ‘like’ George…a bit excited but unsteady about what this all means for the future of search. I logged onto Bing with my personal Facebook profile and was a bit surprised at what I was able to view…search history from 2 weeks ago, inside Bing. But, I was also able to view who had searched for running shoes and which brands my running friends ‘liked’ etc. Pretty amazing stuff.

While I don’t think this will radically change the tide of search or make Facebook any stronger (or weaker) in their search foothold, I DO think that this is an exciting endeavor that only opens doors for even more possibilities.

As always, if you’d like to read more on the subject, here are a few articles I found useful.

Read more at:

• Facebook Friends Now Fueling Faster Decisions on Bing
• Bringing Your Friends to Bing: Search Now More Social
• The Bing-Facebook Alliance: Six Things You (and Google) Should Know
• An Overview of Bing’s Newest Facebook Features
  

Every once in a while, I veer off the beaten path with my weekly blog post. And, today, dear readers (I can call you that, right?) I’m going ‘off road.’ Literally.

I’m a runner. I love to run. There’s a certain rush after finishing a run that is hard to explain…your muscles ache and twitch, you’re lungs burn, salt crystals coat your skin, your feet are hot and sweating. It’s exhilarating, stress relieving and empowering.

I run at lot of different places and participate in many races. But, I truly detest running on the road. Which is why I’ve decided to go ‘off road’ as my next challenge.

Never one to sit back and just ‘relax’ doing the same ‘ole same ‘ole (did I spell that right?), I noticed frequently while on one of my usual running routes, trail runners climbing up the rocks and hillside and wished I could join in the fun! But, the little voice inside my head always says ‘safety first’…don’t go it alone. So, I’m joining a local running club that meets weekly just for trail runs.

I was chatting about my new trail running interest at a recent party and learned a lot more about the experiences and found someone willing to run w/ a ‘newbie’ trail runner – which is great! So, here I come…twisted ankles, banged up knees and muddy everything!

It’s funny how life works sometimes, two months ago this was just an ‘idea’ in my head, and now I’m taking on the challenge, meeting new people, and enjoying new experiences. I guess timing is everything. I’m a firm believer in karma and things happening for a reason, and when ‘one door closes, a window opens’….yadda yadda yadda…it will be good practice for the Warrior Dash my brother and I are doing in June.
Good times.

So, as I gaze wistfully out my office window at the sunny skies this week with near perfect running weather , I’ll be thinking of greater challenges (and rewards) ahead ‘off the beaten path.’

Running is a lot like life sometimes.

Happy Tuesday.  (…and if you know where this statue is, let me know and you get bonus points!)

There hasn’t been much fan fare or hoopla (yes, I use these words in everyday life) about a recent enhancement in your ability to ‘find friends’ within your Facebook account, but I think it’s an important one to note.

Have you noticed in the right rail on your profile page, Facebook is now suggesting friends to you through a “Friends of Friends you May Know” area? At first, I thought, “Well, that’s interesting.” Everyone knows the Kevin Bacon six-degrees-of-separation rule and the coincidences that occur when you realize Friend A from high school also is friends with your Friend B from your old job. So, I found the tool interesting and helpful in a non-invasive way for me to explore and expand my own network of friends on Facebook…people I had forgotten about, didn’t know were on Facebook (yes, there are still a few – my Dad for one.), etc.

However, as an advertiser on Facebook, I realized the intent of this new “user friendly tool.” Facebook doesn’t just create another networking capability for their users without significant thought into the long term objectives. Of course, Facebook wants you to increase your network because then the activity that you perform, will therefore appear in more friend’s Newsfeeds which equals more views, shares, comments and capabilities for businesses to promote their Pages and advertising.

So…coincidentally, Facebook advertising platform now has an increased capability of Facebook Pages, Places, Apps and Sponsored Ads to start targeting friends of their current fans or ‘App users.’ This is huge for an advertiser. It’s like a ringing endorsement from a friend to ‘like’ something or download a particular game or App.

All Facebook.com wrote a great article (click here to read it) on the subject yesterday. So, Facebook users, as you increase your own network, you’re also expanding the reach for Facebook to push out advertising content, endorsed by you, based upon your profile activity (ahem have you seen the Dynamic Advertising work as you post/change your status update??).

The changes are small for the user but huge for the advertiser.

Click on the links below for some additional resources about Facebook’s Friend of Friend initiatives:

How To Find Facebook Friends By City

5 Tips For Finding Long-Lost Friends on Facebook

Add a Friend Without Knowing Their Name with Facebook’s Updated Find Friends Browser

Facebook today launched their ‘new’ Deals program for select cities (Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco). With the ‘new’ Deals program, local businesses can buy ads and offer coupons to Facebook’s users.

Facebook states:

Why offer a deal on Facebook?
Let our team work for you.

• Reach new and existing customers. Over 500 million people already use Facebook.
• Make it easy for people to recommend your business to their friends.
• Get people to remember your business, not just a great discount.

Deals will live on your Facebook Page and your current ‘fans’ can “Buy Now, Like, Share or Comment” on your Deal.

Deals are distributed to Facebookers in 8 ways:

1. Users’ Facebook Home Page – “Deals” (once activated) shows as a left rail link.
2. “Deals” link loads a page with relevant content for the user to view what Deals are in their area/interest.
3. Sponsored Deals – much like “Sponsored Stories” Facebook Pages can purchase ad impressions to promote their Sponsored Deals.
4. Users can Share your Deal through email or post to their Wall.
5. Newsfeed Stories – as people interact with your Deal, their activity will show in their friends’ Newsfeeds
6. OnSite Notifications – People who “like” your Deal will be notified when friends interact with that same deal.
7. Deals Tab – Your deal is eligible to appear on the right-hand side of any deal that is currently running on a Facebook Page. (Not sure exactly how this works.)
8. Email – Facebook will email people when friends like or buy a deal that they have liked as well. Facebook will also send daily emails to people who have subscribed to our Deals updates.

Want to read more? Download the Facebook Guide.

A few interesting articles written on the subject as well.

• Facebook does deals: Groupon, LivingSocial safe
• Facebook Is Latest Rival to Groupon and LivingSocial

My thoughts? Groupon and LivingSocial have been in this game for a while (at least in social time) and their leading positions won’t be undermined by Facebook’s slightly modified “Deals” program. To me, the ‘new’ Deal is the same old, same old with slightly different advertising spin. But, that’s just my 2 cents. Yours?

Today, McDonalds has dubbed “National Hiring Day.” They have plans to hire 50,000 new U.S. employees—ranging from restaurant crew to managers. This additional staff will enable more of their operations to open 24 hours and will increase their total workforce by 7.7 percent to total 700,000 employees. This type of hiring before their busy summer months is not unusual. However, setting a goal to hire everyone on one day is. The hiring goal translates to between three and four hires per restaurant.

“Our total hires are similar to past years, but the goal of hiring 50,000 people in one day across the U.S. is unique,” McDonald’s spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling told Reuters.

This topic is front of mind to me because I had a marketers ‘perfect storm’ of frequency on Sunday…I was literally in the drive thru lane at McDonald’s (a special and infrequent treat for my six-year-old for chicken nuggets and chocolate milk shake…and yes I had a small fry, I am only human.) listening to the radio and I hear a commercial from a local franchise owner talking about the upcoming Hiring Day and I looked to my left existing the Drive Thru lane and saw that location’s lawn poster for the Hiring Day inviting me to ‘come in.’ Pretty amazing considering the voluminous task to spread the word at each of the thousands of McDonald’s stores and franchises.

Read more about the background and opinions of this event from my esteemed colleague, Annette DeHaven, in her post “McDonald’s Latest Attempt to Flip the Meaning of “McJob” (not just their burgers)”

So, what can the ‘average’ Human Resources professional, recruiter and employer learn from McDonald’s “Hiring Day?”

Here’s my Top 5 List:

1. Take a look at existing hiring goals and evaluate how you can take them ‘viral.’ What is unique about your hiring goals or programs?
2. How can you achieve your hiring goals or objectives using both your internal employee networks and external audience? Think grassroots, think social, think microsites, think tracking. Check their out McDonald’s site for Hiring Day.
3. Create a ‘theme’ for a hiring event with a goal or contest to get buzz and interest in the media.
4. Take a look at a ‘weak link’ (ie. “McJob” term was seen as a negative term for a ‘dead end job’) and use the viral component to combat any negative impressions. (McDonald’s for example embraced the term “McJob” and is attempting to redefine the term and shed a positive light on the common term).
5. Use the event to communicate a few key differentiators your organization holds within the workforce or industry. Have great flextime programs? Showcase them. Great mentoring program? Toot your own horn! McDonald’s has focused in their press release and facts surrounding the event to combat the McJob negativity… about half of the company’s franchise owners and more than 75% of its managers started in entry-level jobs at McDonald’s. “A McJob is one with career growth and endless possibilities the company said.

McDonald’s held a similar event in its Western region last year. More than 60,000 people applied for 13,000 jobs. Interesting to see how today turns out.

Those who are interested now can apply in stores or online. Some restaurants will hold events and interviews on April 19.

What do you think? What can you learn from McDonald’s Hiring Day?

I’m always researching new resources, trends and industry news as well as learning valuable insights from others in the social media space.

And, Facebook advertising is an area that I consult with experts in the field quite often and am in a constant search of best practices.

One area I haven’t talked about in a some time is Facebook’s Marketing Solutions resource area.

This Facebook Page for Facebook Marketing provides a ton of information and business success stories. While the “Case Studies” lack actual details of campaign budgets and specific ad campaigns, the do provide some solid insights into advertising on Facebook and success stories of a wide variety of goals and marketers who have used their platform to create solid results not found through other advertising means.

Two of these studies I wanted to highlight:

eTeacher Group
Objective: To acquire new students for online language academy’s language courses

Solution: Make use of Facebook’s extensive target filtering and worldwide reach to attract people with relevant interests

Key Lessons:

• eTeacher Group was able to reach new customers and demographics by “thinking outside of the box” and making creative use of Facebook’s keyword and target filtering
• eTeacher Group was able to constantly analyze and improve the performance of its campaigns by refreshing ad images and text
• The click-to-lead rate was double that of its other social media campaigns

eTeacher Group currently has nearly 10,000 students.

Victory Motorcycles

Objective
Victory’s “test ride” campaign on Facebook in early 2010 was run in conjunction with a nationwide demo tour showcasing Victory Motorcycles. The aim was to connect with current Victory owners, speak to potential customers and bring the two groups together. The company hoped that the passion and enthusiasm of Victory owners would excite prospects and encourage them to join the Victory community by ultimately purchasing one of its bikes.

Approach
A crucial part of the campaign’s approach was leveraging Facebook’s different targeting capacities. While Facebook’s targeting allows companies to reach their most likely customers based on information listed in users’ profiles, it does not reveal the personal data of the people who fit into the targeting categories. Reaching a demographic of 35-to 54-year-old men was key, as was hitting Facebook users who had indicated “motorcycles” as one of their Likes and Interests.

Solution: Targeting Facebook Ads at Victory’s key demographic within cities along the Victory Motorcycles demo tour and inviting those users to sign up for a test ride.

Key Lessons:

• The company saw the importance of having a clear objective and the advantages of being able to adopt a test-and-learn approach to Facebook Ads.
• Victory was able to measure the specific uplift from the Facebook campaign, which yielded a significant return on investment.

Results

• Victory Motorcycles started its Facebook Page in late January 2010 and in just six months, more than 8,000 people had connected to it by clicking the Like button.
• There were a total of 119 conversions (people who had clicked on the ad and signed up for a test ride) on Facebook – the highest delivering site for conversions within Victory’s overall campaign for the year. the campaign ran alongside the Victory demo tour

While both companies had very different businesses and goals. One focused on obtaining new fans and users of their product. The other wanted to focus on creating ambassadors out of existing customers. Both campaigns were a success in achieving their goals.

Throughout all of the Facebook Business Studies, Facebook makes it very clear about their ability to target Facebook profiles based upon information in the users profile and not reveal any personal information.

While it’s still pretty much the “wild, wild west” for Facebook advertising and their platform is cumbersome at best, solid results can be obtained if clear goals are outlined and the advertiser can maximize their ads through appropriate audience segmentation.

One area I’m very interested in is the real-time, or dynamic, advertising Facebook is in beta testing right now. The ability for an advertiser to serve up ads according to the key words in status updates could be revolutionary. Stay tuned.

Share your Facebook PPC ad campaign stories! What results have you discovered?

Social media has it’s risks. It’s not for the thin skinned, faint of heart, or weak stomachs.

Yes, the general population, or even your own employees, can post negative comments, bad reviews, expletives (if you haven’t enabled the profanity filter on your Facebook page) and more.

But, the positives in social media out weigh the negatives ten-fold. Your fans and followers become your advocates and circulate the word about your brand. They are your cheerleaders. They engage with you, give you support, give you good ideas, great feedback, funny dialogue. The list is endless.

I’m going a little ‘off topic’ today. I’m not quoting articles or stats or linking to countless Mashable or AllFacebook.com articles (well, maybe you’ll find a bunch below).

Right now, I’m speaking from the heart about my passion for social media and how social media strategies don’t always return the results you expect or reach the goals you have set in the timeline that you’ve mapped out. It’s risky…it’s a long road full of bumps, ups and downs…but if you commit to it, work hard, plan out your strategy, measure your results and adjust as necessary, you’ll reap the rewards in the end.

And, that’s true about life. Very true.

If you’d like to read more on the risks and rewards from other authors who have also written on the subject, check out the following:

• SocialMediaRisks.com
• Human Resources Guide to Social Media
• Social Media Comes with Risk and Opportunities – The IIA Releases First-of-their-kind Publications on Auditing Social Media
• Managing Your Company’s Social Media Risk
• How Job Seekers Are Using Social Media for Real Results
• The Future of Human Resources and Social Media
• Social Networking: Risks vs. Rewards
• Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy

Last week Facebook rolled out a newer version of Questions last week and now the option to add this upgrade is available to Pages (at least in most areas). According to Mashable’s Vadim Lavrusik in his article HOW TO: Add Facebook Questions To Your Brand Page

“Page owners can ask questions with a set of possible answers, and they have the option to allow users to add additional answers for which other users can vote. The best part is users can share the questions for their friends to answer, broadening the potential exposure.”

Mashable’s article continues to offer detailed description on how you can add Questions to your Facebook Page.

In my opinion, this upgrade in the “Questions” format is the ability for Facebook users to share the questions with their friends for expanded exposure and to “follow” Questions (and their comments/answers).

If you’d like additional information on Questions, check out Facebook’s Help Center.

Questions and recruiting go hand in hand. So, this new upgrade started me thinking on how employers could better utilize this new tool?

• Poll Facebook fans regarding recruiting activity processes.
• Ask Facebook fans for specific feedback on Page activity (too much, too little?).
• Ask Facebook fans for feedback on which type of positions are most in demand?
• Use “contest” questions to determine skill sets and qualifications.
• Ask questions to current employees to comment on their own “Day in the Life” experiences.
• And much more!

What do you think? Will the more prominent placement of Question within your page and the additional functionality, make you utilize this feature on your Facebook Page? Let me know!

Yes, I spend a lot of time on Facebook—for various work and personal parts of my life. Yes, I know more about Facebook probably than your average “Facebooker.” So when a few recent articles popped up on my radar (aka HootSuite streams) about careers at Facebook, hiring at Facebook and general recruitment news at Facebook, I was intrigued.

What would it be like to work at Facebook? Would I want to work for Mark Zuckerberg? (Hmm…?) Would it feel like I was in The Social Network? (Doubtful.)

What I found most interesting was the volume of applications Facebook received last year. AllFacebook.com reports, “The company received almost 250,000 resumes in 2010.” Undoubtedly, Facebook hiring managers keep the Universum team on their toes.

The sheer volume alone of applications would be daunting for both hiring managers and job applicants. As a job applicant, how do you stand out in a crowd of 250,000? International Business Times wrote a nice article, “A Career with Facebook: 5 Things you should know.” The take aways from the article could work for any large-scale employer. Well, maybe the Facebook motto, “Move fast and break things.” might not be your average employers’ mission statement, but you get my drift.

One take away all employers can incorporate is how Facebook communicates their philosophy and culture to their audience of potential applicants. Their career site http://www.facebook.com/careers/ provides a wealth of information about their various career areas, benefits & perks, “life at Facebook” etc. while conveying their ‘true’ personality as a young and growing company with lots of ambition and attitude. One can detemine that a career at Facebook is basically “Life at Facebook” – and, if that idea sounds terrific to you…their message: Please apply! Don’t want to live, breathe and eat Facebook? Don’t bother. Direct and to the point.

Just as you’d assume, it’s about networking on the world’s largest social networking site. Facebook makes 30% of its hires from employee referrals. A statistic not uncommon for most employers.

So, given both sides of the equation, would you apply for a job at Facebook? Or, better yet, would you want to be a hiring manager there?

When you start typing in the @ symbol in a status update on Facebook, normally you will see a drop down menu as you continue to type that starts listing the people, pages or events that you have liked (and I say ‘normally’ because I’ve found this awesome tool to be very buggy).

This feature on Facebook was always provided a great way to give kudos, or notification, to a page, event or person that you’re talking about them. It’s a nice way to include that person/page into the conversation you are having in Facebook.

Recently, Facebook has now enabled you to “@” mention in comments as well. This might not seem like a big deal, but for Page Admins and sites that offer the ability to ‘like’ all of the content on their site (and add comments to it), is a huge bonus of cross-pollination.

For example, if I’m on NYTimes.com or CNN.com and I ‘like’ a story they’ve written about Whole Foods. I can comment on this article (that resides outside of Facebook) and link it back to my profile and my newsfeed (for all of my friends to see).

Now, I can also include Whole Foods (at least the page I liked) into the conversation as well and @ mention them. By doing this, I’m sending a notification to their Whole Food Facebook Page that I’ve commented on content about them in the social sphere. And, in doing so, I’m sharing that article on CNN.com with the entire fan base…err, ‘likers’ of Whole Foods which, in turn, encourages them to read the content.

It’s this cycle of “@” mentions I find quite interesting in the circular nature of social media.

So…start @ mentioning friends, pages and events in your status updates AND comments. See the response level and how it’s affected!

Have you seen “Sponsored Stories” in the right column ad space on Facebook? Better yet, have you clicked on any of them?

Facebook Advertisers Take Note:

What makes Sponsored Stories the ‘newest frontier’ within Facebook advertising?

Sponsored Stories allow you to surface word-of-mouth recommendations about your brand that exist organically in the Facebook News Feed. Sponsored Stories are different from ads, and including them with your Facebook Ad campaign amplifies the actions your target audience takes with your ads.

Stories that can be surfaced include Page posts, Page Likes, app interactions, and Check-ins at your business. For example, if a person’s friends like a Page, in addition to seeing that news story in their News Feed, they can now also see the same story on the right-hand column on Facebook.
(Source: Facebook Help Center )

Sponsored Stories offer Facebook Page Admins and App Developers, who advertise their pages, the ability to expand their reach. Basically, you can turn any existing fan base network into automatic advocates or ‘promoters’ of your product/page/service. As Facebook states:

The number of impressions that you can receive for your Sponsored Stories is dependent on the number of organic News Feed stories about your Page, Place or application. This may cause fluctuations in the number of impressions you are receiving. For this reason, we recommend using a combination of Facebook Ads and Sponsored Stories to promote your business.

(Editorial Note: Of course Facebook says…don’t do away with your existing Pay-Per-Click campaign! Just add to your budget and include Sponsored Stories! Me: Hmmm…)

Facebook Users Take Note:

As a Facebook user, you will see Sponsored Stories in the right column of your Newsfeed. Only Sponsored Stories will appear that have been ‘liked, voted on, RSVP’d or app interactions from one of your friends.’ Conversely, as you interact with content on (or off) of Facebook and “like” or download Apps your friends will see your Sponsored Stories in the right column of their Newsfeeds.

So…next question: Privacy & Sponsored Stories (according to Facebook):

News Feed stories that appear as Sponsored Stories respect applicable privacy settings. Therefore, only people who are eligible to see your News Feed story are eligible to see it as as Sponsored Story.

For example:

1. Jane’s privacy settings allow her friends to see News Feed stories about Pages she likes.

2. Jane likes the Starbucks Page.

3. Jane’s friend John can see a story about Jane liking the Starbucks Page in News Feed.

4. Because of this, John may see the same story on the right hand side of pages on Facebook.

So, my last question is: Are Sponsored Stories a terrific avenue for employers to reach out (through their existing fan base) to promote career, job-related updates? I think we may have a great opportunity here based upon the whole ‘referral’ concept.

Thoughts?

Comment below and better yet, follow me @JenHitchens on Twitter and send me a tweet!

Within your Facebook experiences, have you uncovered the difference between clicking on a “Like” button versus a “Share” button? I did. And, I liked the difference.

Starting back in October of 2009, Facebook provided developers the ability to add a “Share” button to your site. (Probably to combat the whole “Tweet” button Twitter had rolled out at the time. When visitors clicked “Share” they would be sharing with their Facebook network a full story/URL/web page with thumbnail from that particular site as well as the capability to comment on the link, and post to your profile.

To me, that was the common sense difference in “liking” something vs. “sharing” something. Just because I like something doesn’t mean I need to share tons of details about it on Facebook. I just like it and I wanted to let that particular author, web site, blog writer, event, etc. know that they have a “fan” in me. And, conversely, when I want to share something, it doesn’t really mean I actually “like” it. The topic could be controversial, or sad, or a terrible item in the news, or a warning about an health concern.

So, of course, Facebook decides to switch it up.

And “like” functionality now mirrors what “share” used to be and Facebook will be slowly be phasing out the “Share” button.

As Mashable reports, “Now after hitting the Like button, a full story with a headline, blurb and thumbnail will be posted to your profile wall. You’ll also be given an option to comment on the story link. Previously, only a link to the story would appear in the recent activity, often going unnoticed by users.”

Like many changes that Facebook just announces out of the blue, I’m not liking this one. Pun intended.

What are your thoughts? Is this new migration away from “Share” going to provide even more changes on your web sites?

If you’ve seen The Social Network, you know that Mark Zuckerberg added the “relationship status” component to the profile info of “The Facebook” as a quick after thought when a friend inquired about a girl in one of their classes. “Is she single or what?” I think the line was…

Since social media is a large part of what I do (and enjoy) on a day-to-day basis. I see a lot of interesting things in my personal and ‘professional’ Facebook Newsfeeds. And, since streaming on Facebook went ‘live,’ I see things tick across my screen in real time…let me tell you, it can get interesting and awkward.

Etiquette
Why are ‘Relationship Status’ changes so intriguing on Facebook? Does changing your relationship status on Facebook somehow validate the relationship? Is saying you’re newly “Single” or “In a Relationship” effectively broadcasting to everyone you know too much information? Or, maybe not enough?? Personally, I’m in agreement with Nick O’Neil, who wrote a great article, 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. He discusses tips on how to control your privacy settings including Relationship Status settings. Note: There ARE ways to change your status,  and avoid any awkward comments that result from the new relationship change, without alerting ‘Everyone’ or all of your ‘Friends’ in their News Feed.

Changes
Relationship Status has also been in the headlines recently due to Facebook’s recently expanded status “options.” As of February 17^th, there are more options…domestic partnerships and civil unions were added as options in the drop-down menu for users in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and France.

Apps
There are thousands of Apps on Facebook and I’d be remiss if I didn’t touch on those that link with Relationship Status.

The “Breakup Notifier” (which didn’t get that much positive press). This App is supposed to notify you when specific people (ahem, those you stalk) change their Relationship Status. And so many more!

An interesting question was posed in a blog article I read on this subject…the concept should be simplified: In a relationship: Yes or No

Or check out Nick’s other article on What Your Facebook Relationship Status Should Really Say [Photo]

Food for thought.

Well, we’ve been exposed to the new Facebook page layout designs for one week now. And, what a week it has been! The new layout has lots of promise! And while iFrames add a level of complexity to managing content, they offer so many more options for tracking, creating dynamic content and basically having more control over your Facebook page than ever before.

So, before your pull your hair out trying to figure out how in the world you’re going to implement all of these changes, read on. I’ve compiled a list of my Top Facebook Page Change “Improvements” and included links to articles that I’ve found extremely helpful.

Speaking of extremely helpful, Mari Smith is hosting a Free (yes FREE) Facebook Marketing Webinar and she’ll be highlighting all of the changes that have occurred and boil down her own tips in her always energetic style and terrific accent! So join in!

In case you just can’t wait for the webinar, here are some great tips that Mari has already published on her Facebook page:

Facebook Tabs Change to iFrames (and there was much rejoicing).

Big take aways from this article are the added capabilities of Google Analytics and capability to use Google Website Optimizer. And, track conversions from Facebook ads. I’ve always doubted (and hated) Facebook’s InSights for tracking PPC ad conversions and now I can track this waaay more accurately now!

A great article from Aliza Sherman at Mashable highlights a lot of the great changes.

Those that are near and dear to my heart, include:

• New placement of the five photos as the top. While they rotate around randomly (duh? why is this?) you can still use the new thumbnail size photos 97×68 and if you size your graphics/photos correctly to 970 x 680 pixels, it will size down appropriately to display for HUGE marketing opportunities. The caption area under each photo can act as a Marketing message complete with links, etc. The possibilities are limitless.
• Wall Filters to “Top posts by Everyone” vs. “Posts by Page” while you lose some control over what falls at the top of your wall, it can be a nice feature to automatically populate what’s trending with your Page fans.
• Get email notification when someone posts on your Wall. This is SO big for me I seriously can’t contain my enthusiasm for this added function! No more missed comments and more timely response rates!
• Ability to post on other pages as YOUR page versus your personal profile page. This is a HUGE improvement. Sometimes you just need some ‘space’ from your work social life and your personal social life. I like this line. This feature helps keep this line in place.

The one thing I’m going to miss are the visual placement of the tabs. Yes, I know they are just moved to the left navigation and you can do ‘tricks’ like making the last one in the list your “default” tab and then everyone can view all of your ‘tabs’ but it really is a demotion of this content. Jury is still out on this one.

Well, that’s all for me. Stay tuned for more Facebook Page creative ways to market yourself. Join in Mari’s free Webinar on Tuesday. And, if you’re on the East Coast, specifically the Philly metro area – enjoy Friday’s balmy 70 degree weather! I know I will.

Oh, and post your own Facebook Page tips here, too! @JenHitchens

It seems like today, everyone has a blog.

A blog by definition (in one person’s humble opinion) is: an interactive site with regular entries by a particular person, or team, with a specific focus or theme where comments are encouraged and the community of readers and writers who are passionate about the subject at hand create an ongoing dialogue.

So, like many people out there—whether your blog is recruitment & career focused or focused on cooking or your trials and tribulations as a blogging mom—you, as a writer, are looking for feedback, comments, opinions. The key word (which I also think is overused) is “engagement.”

So, here’s some key tips I’ve uncovered to assist with getting this type of engagement:

1. Ask for comments. Seems simple but you’d be surprised that writers don’t do this.
2. Get more readers. And, to get more readers, numbers rule: The headline of this post? “Top Five” Any kind of hierarchy of tips, trends, take aways will get you more exposure time and time again.
3. Comment on other relevant blogs. Sounds simple but have you actually done this? Perform a key word search on your blog topic in Google and see what pops up. Read those sites/blogs, see who else is commenting and what they are saying. After “listening” then start commenting yourself. Don’t comment just to insert your links, that’s spammy. Comment and provide value. It will get noticed.
4. Uncover Key Influencers. Remember those other relevant blogs you visited and started commenting on? Take a look at others who are commenting. Who submits good ideas and quality feedback? Reach out to them. Ask them to comment on your articles and/or be a guest writer on a particular subject. We’re all in this because we’re “social.” We all enjoy receiving positive requests and feedback.
5. Send reminders. All of your great posts deserve a second, third or fourth look. Send out an “end of the week” summary of your top visited blog posts. Or, send a summary of your daily blog articles. Analyze common topics within your blog and create your own “White Paper” on that particular subject.

While these ideas aren’t brand new…and they aren’t rocket science…they are things that I think are often over looked as “too time consuming.” So, tackle them one by one. And, let me know how you’re progressing! I’ll comment back!

At dinner on Sunday night, my family started discussing the “uprising in Egypt” and the role technology has played. With three generations seated at the table (well, actually four generations—but the 6 year old didn’t have too many opinions on the subject) we all had differing opinions as a result of our diverse backgrounds and personal experiences with technology and social media (or lack there of).

There was one thing we could all agree on—social media will continue to be an integral tool in communicating dissent and dissatisfaction as well as providing a communication tool to organize groups to take action (positive or negative).

Did social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) play a role in the escalation? Sure. Was it the root cause for why so many people started protests? No. A good article from FastCompany discusses the growing power of social media and states that there were three roles:

• Organizing protests
• Shaping the narrative
• Putting pressure on Washington

While I’m not sure I agree that Washington shifted their position based upon what Twitter and YouTube were depicting, I do think that the sheer volume of these multiple viewpoints as well as their complexity, makes it more difficult to “shape the message” when unfiltered comments and tweets are circulating the Web.

The response of the Egyptian government to literally shut down the Internet access shows how an uprising can easily and quickly take shape within online communities. Even US State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley issued a tweet that “We are concerned that communication services, including the Internet, social media and event this tweet, are being blocked in Egypt” only proves the position that Social Media is here to stay as an information source.

Update: Mashable’s Vadim Lavrusik wrote an excellent piece “How Journalists Are Using Social Media to report on Egyptian Demonstrations” Lavrusik highlight a lot of great points in how various Social Media tools are being used.

Scott Shane of NYTimes also writes on the use of Web Tools in uprisings and how ‘secret police’ are also tapping into the information to make mass arrests.

And, just announced today from the Google Blog:

“Speak to Tweet” offering as a response to the Egyptian government shutting down all Internet access.

Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard

We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company weacquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there. (Posted by Ujjwal Singh, CoFounder of SayNow and AbdelKarim Mardini, Product Manager, Middle East & North Africa.)

Two Sides of Social: Do-Not-Track HTTP Announcement from Google and Mozilla vs. Instant Personalization with Bing and Facebook 

Last night I saw a lot of activity in my #socialmedia stream about an announcement from Mozilla & Google and their new browser initiatives that allow users to opt out of having their activities tracked by online advertisers. Click here to read the full article written by Christina Warren @Mashable.

Warren states, “Do Not Track” is like the “Do Not Call” list for online behavioral advertising.” Well said.

We all know that opt-out cookies or opt-out registries aren’t long term solutions for users who are concerned that their online activity is constantly being tracked. 

On the flip side, if you were an advertiser…would you agree to not monitor users who enable this feature? Doubt it. Why would they comply with these restrictions that basically don’t let them advertise to those people who (they think) are looking for their content, products, data, services, etc.? 

Google announced a similar “Do Not Track” option for Chrome

 And, Microsoft is apparently following in their steps with IE 9.

 Are two sides emerging regarding the interaction level on the Web?

 -         On the one side you have “Do Not Track” users

-         The other side you have Zuckerberg’s vision of a “socialized web” that not only tracks where you go on the Web (and what you “Like”) it also takes your experiences on the web (and your friends) and shares them, quite publicly, for you and your friends to see (of course only if YOU let it).

So, each of us has to decide…if we were to have full control, would we want:

1 ) a “personalized” experience where relevant ads (relevant according to key word algorithms of course) and friends’ comments and “likes” and shares help shape our online experiences and encourage a “community” atmosphere. OR…

2) A more protected view where our privacy is “king” — not content and that we are intellectually capable of making decisions on our own without any outside influence or guidance.

Me? I prefer #1. As a social media enthusiast, I’m all for sharing experiences, ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ included!

What do you think? Which is the right path to choose? Let me know http://twitter.com/JenHitchens

And comment below, please!!!

I’ve been enjoying the “new” Facebook Insights data due to the expanded reporting capabilities it provides to Facebook Page Administrators. The impressions data and percentage of feedback is invaluable within a Page in order to determining the reach of your status updates and posts.

 Now you can determine:

• New Likes (aka “new fans”)
• Lifetime Likes
• Monthly Active Users
• Post Views
• Post Feedback

 However, I’m finding that one component this data is lacking: The “Like Sources” to me is vague at best. The sources I see are:

• Fan Page
• Ads
• Search
• Stream
• Requests

For example, for one Fan Page I monitor, the “Stream” data of “New Like Sources” shows that one fan originated from the Newsfeed Stream in four weeks. Four weeks of posts to almost two thousand of fans who view/interact with this Page’s daily posts? This is the kind of data I’m doubting 100% accuracy.

How about you? If you are monitoring a Facebook Page, what kind of data are you finding useful? What kind of data are you questioning? Do you mind that we’re basically 100% reliant on Facebook’s platform (and it’s ups/downs) for statistical measurement of our successes? Post your comments and experiences!

Everyday (and multiple times throughout the day and at night, too) I scan HootSuite for top rated news within the #socialmedia world. Some links and tweets I just scan, others I click to scan full article and share, and some I read the full article, comment and share. I think this type of “engagement” (and really, who is starting to hate this word??) is typical of how many of us Twitterers, Facebookers and Bloggers consume the (often) overwhelming content out there in the socialsphere.

So…I was curious…if I were to take the “Day (or Night really) in the Life” concept and apply it to #socialmedia, what would my landscape look like? Well, I decided to boil down the Top Ten news items that came across my radar today (well, last night actually).

Number 10:
3^rd Annual Shorty Awards http://shortyawards.com/ The Shorty Awards honor the best people and organizations on Twitter and social media. Nominations may be made through Twitter and this website, culminating in an awards ceremony that recognizes the winners in dozens of official categories, as well as thousands of crowd-sourced categories. For the first time, the Shorty Awards will also honor the industry’s best agencies and social media professionals.

Number 9:
Google Releases API for goo.gl URL Shortener http://bit.ly/f3s5Zhhttp://bit.ly/f3s5Zh #socialmedia An Independent study by WatchMouse found that goog.gl was the both the fastest and most reliable URL shortener tested. Google cites another study by Pingdom that confirms WatchMouse’s findings.

Now that goo.gl has an API, the biggest thing now lacking is the ability for companies to create customer URLs (like readwriteweb.com’s rww.to).

Google is also promising more security for the shortener. A Twitter worm spread last month by using goo.gl URLs to mask malicious links, but it’s not the only URL shortener that’s been used for nefarious purposes. Twitter started its own t.co shortening service in part to curb malware on its service.

I’m curious, anyone out there using their own custom URL shortener?

Number 8:
The Age Gap Narrows on Social Media Usage http://om.ly/BJhtO

As reported in the New York Times, a new Pew Research study finds that some of the greatest gains in social media use are occurring in older generations. For example, the percentage of Web users between 55 and 64 using social tools increased from 9% in December 2008 to 43% in May 2010. At the same time period, those 74 and older who are online quadrupled their social networking presence from 4 to16 percent.

Number 7:
Klout Gets $8.5M to Create the Page Rank of the Social Web http://gigaom.com/2011/01/10/klout-gets-8-5m-to-create-the-page-rank-of-the-social-web/ #socialmedia
Several companies have already experimented with offering special deals to customers who have high Klout scores, in an attempt to bolster word-of-mouth marketing via social media. The Palms Hotel and Casino has used Klout to put together a social influence group, while Virgin had discounts on flights to San Francisco. As social-media activity becomes more commonplace — thanks in part to the rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter — many companies are trying to figure out how to harness that phenomenon as a marketing tool. Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff has even talked about using social-networking influence as a method of determining how much to pay his employees.

Number 6:
Facebook Wins Relatively Few Friends in #Japan (NYTimes) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/technology/10facebook.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimes Facebook users in Japan number fewer than two million, or less than 2 percent of the country’s online population. That is in sharp contrast to the United States, where 60 percent of Internet users are on Facebook, according to the analytics site Socialbakers.

Number 5:
#SocialMedia #Guru MySpace to Be Hit with Layoffs – The once giant social media site, MySpace, will layoff half of its 1000 employees this week. The layoffs come as the social media site tries to restructure and overhaul the company in an attempt to save itself from poor financial situation.

Number 4:
@SocialTimes: New blog post: More People Get New Facebook Messages
Got Yours Yet?

Number 3:
8 #SocialMedia News Items You Need to Know http://bit.ly/fU13Qg
From my favorite web site SocialMedia Examiner.com

Number 2:
#SocialMedia The 2010 Mashable Awards Winners [INFOGRAPHIC] http://mashable.com/2011/01/10/mashable-awards-winners-infographic/ After many long weeks of nominating, voting, petitioning, and fretting, you — the readers — have named your 25 favorite people, companies, gadgets and services, with more than 1.3 million nominations and votes. Great infographic by Shane Snow!

Number 1:
Facebook is NOT shutting down. #socialmedia http://mashable.com/2011/01/09/facebook-shutdown/
Really Did anyone take that rumor seriously??

Well, those are the “Top Ten” #Social Media stories to come across my HootSuite dash in 24 hours. Whew. No wonder I feel like I have #socialmedia induced ADD/ADHD – just reading the tons of info out there is a job itself! What I found fascinating doing this experiment was the variety of all of the #socialmedia news.

Happy networking tweeps! Drop me a line @JenHitchens and let me know how you’re doing in 2011!

Happy New Year! After twelve days off—days full of visiting family & friends, eating and cooking and drinking and doing lots of fun ‘kid-centric’ activities like the Please Touch Museum and Morris Arboretum Train exhibit and biking at Valley Green, going back to work was a bit tough yesterday—wouldn’t you agree?

So, while at my desk yesterday (after catching up on emails, tweets and Facebook status updates), I started to think…what will 2011 bring to social media?

I’ve already read a number of great articles on the Top Predictions for 2011 and many more! And, as everyone’s opinions are all filtering in my brain (which is still running a bit slow from ‘holiday’), I started to think, “Is this the year Social Media starts to mature?”

And, by “mature” I mean become an obvious, necessary, viable part in ANY advertising, marketing and/or recruiting strategy. A part that you won’t have to fight to get. A part that proves it’s ROI…easily. A part that is a ‘no brainer’ even for the C-level class.

So, if Social Media (or Social Media Recruiting) COULD mature, these are some of the components I’d like to see:

• Ability for ATS’ to identify applicants who enter the system via a Twitter tweet, Facebook status update, etc.
• Better, and more easily segmented, targeting capabilities for PPC campaigns on Facebook.
• Data measurement that can easily track ROI (whether that equals new applicants or new sales).
• Facebook will launch a stand-alone ecommerce element for retailers.
• “Authentic and personal” will actually be able to the quantified in this ROI-driven world. No more auto-tweets, auto-posts, please!
• Social media will be expanded as a major internal communication vehicle within organizations (especially within HR).
• Expanded synchronization between Mobile and Social elements within the recruiting world.

What do YOU think? Do you think 2011 will take Social Media to the next level? What other articles have you read on the subject that you like? Let me know @JenHitchens

As we wind down 2010, this December we’re all taking a look back at some of our favorite blogs. In case you missed it the first go-around, here’s Jen Hitchens’ favorite – enjoy!

It’s a toss up for my favorite blog…and neither of my two selected posts focus on social media, social recruiting, facebook FBML, twitter tips, YouTube strategies, blog editorial calendars or anything in between.

My two favorite blog posts (as this topic is “our” blog posts vs. my colleagues posts – of which I have many favorites!) really have to do more with stories, more actually introspection, about my personal experiences. We talk a lot about work/life balance and the importance of it and I couldn’t agree more and I think these posts indicate this importance.

My New Mantra: Life is An Adventure
As a follow up to the Philadelphia Triathlon: I did complete the race, one minute less than last year. The swim was brutal and I’m not sure I’ll be jumping in the Schuylkill River anytime soon. But, I finished it and that’s why it makes it a favorite of mine.

It’s Always Sunny is a second runner up because, as an English major I’ve always enjoyed creative writing, and this posts captures so much of what I ‘like’ in life. So, enjoy and stay tuned for more blog posts on social media and recruiting in 2011!

If you’ve been living under a rock the past 24 hours, then you didn’t notice the new changes that occurred with Facebook profiles and how they are structured now.

Facebook started rolling out the changes Monday morning for users and if you haven’t been automatically updated yet, here’s the link. It’s inevitable. Don’t try to fight it people. And, once you make the switch, there’s no going back (don’t say I didn’t give you a heads up).

So, why am I focused on this new change? Well, the placement of the five most recently tagged photos of me on the top of my profile has some debatable design structure issues. But, that isn’t my main focus…today.

The most intriguing element I found, is the re-surfacing of my profile information at the top of my profile page. By making this information (that I entered probably about 2 years ago when I first got on Facebook) more relevant in the visual space, I am more apt to update it. Simple.

Question: How do you get 500 million Facebook users to update their profile information and to add additional content like my education and work history (as I see lots of friends who did it)?

1)    Make that data more prominent in a person’s profile.

2)    Update a users’ newsfeed when friends update to this new profile interface

3)    Showcase when a friend updates or adds new education/work/personal information for continued sharing & commenting.

4)    Create a buzz around the change (like going on 60 Minutes)

It’s that easy.

So, my next questions (as all of my questions are when they relate to Facebook changes)…what’s in it for Facebook? What’s in it for employers?  What’s in it for users? What’s in it for me?

Well, my thought process goes like this:

• Recently updated profile information about education, work and personal history makes for a ‘more targeted’ experience on Facebook.
• By ‘more targeted’ I mean the ability for Facebook to enable advertisers to target their ads more efficiently.
• And when I say ‘advertisers’ I mean employers. Feasibly you should now be able target in ads to only CPAs or RNs with a BSN or Network Engineers who live 50 miles of San Jose.
• Moving beyond advertisements, as recruiters build their Facebook networks and as Facebook users get used to the idea of sharing more of their professional and business life on Facebook, it could be a win-win scenario. Reduced privacy settings as they relate to Work History will become the norm.
• As reduced privacy seetings become more of the norm on Facebook, we’ll see the utilization of Facebook Groups, Facebook Recruiting pages and Facebook Job Apps increase in popularity and usefulness.

Happy Tuesday! Drop me a line and let me know what YOU think about this new profile design – comment, tweet, whatever!  @JenHitchens

Are you using Twitter in your recruitment strategy? Have you synced your job posting announcements to a Twitter channel “identity?” Do you promote this Twitter channel through your career site and all employment brand materials? Do you have your own Twitter “HR” identity that you use to follow and engage with peers and potential job applicants? If so, I’m wondering if you’re utilizing the power of Twitter lists?

Twitter has more than 106 million registered users and the number of new Twitter users increases at a rate of 300,000 per day. And, if you’re like me, you’re using one of the many tools out there to monitor the information that matters to you most through HootSuite or Tweetdeck. And these tools are great for organizing your followers, the people you are following, etc.

But, there is a great advantage for creating your own Twitter list for recruitment purposes. Twitter lists enable you to make PRIVATE lists (and this is where in the recruitment world it can really provide value):

• Prioritize – if you consistently have needs for Physical Therapists or Sales professionals in Texas, create a private list for that and when an opportunity become available, you can tweet out ONLY to those people you’ve sourced on Twitter with these skills/profile.

• Categorize – create a twitter list of your competitors or industry news outlets to stay on top of what is going on in your industry and easily re-tweet subjects that matter to you most

Now, how do you find the right people to follow?

• There are a number of Twitter “lists” out there on great sites like http://listorious.com or http://twittercounter.com. Perform keyword searches or browse specific categories.
• Also check out http://search.twitter.com to find out who is tweeting about specific topics.
• Research appropriate #hashtags to locate common interests at http://hashtags.org and you can see how these #hashtags are trending on Twitter.
• Your Twitter “Home” will also suggest to you “Who to Follow” and if you click on your own Profile view, you can see other Twitterers who have similar profiles as you.

Keep in mind, you can only create:

• 20 lists per user
• List names cannot begin with a numerical character
• Maximum of 500 accounts on each list

You can link to any Twitter List by mentioning it as you would any Twitter user, just add a forward slash “/” followed by the list name to list owners username: @<username>/<listname> (example: @SchauerTime/News)

If you wanted a more in-depth look on creating lists in the #newtwitter.

Let me know your thoughts! Comment below or send me a message @JenHitchens

Did you watch Zuckerberg and Andrew Bosworth’s announcement of Facebook’s “new Email” but ‘it’s not email’ launch? I did. And it was pretty cool. I started reading some reviews and opinions and tweeting to some other social media peeps and realized, “This could be huge. A game changer. Or…could it flop?” So, what’s it going to be? I did some research and found a lot of really great articles and blog posts and thought I’d take the time to share them.

Mashable always has great reviews of social media announcements and product launches and these articles don’t disappoint:

• Facebook Bug Deactivates Accounts - According to Read Write Web, Facebook has confirmed that a bug that went live today was designed to find and disable accounts that seem fake. The social networking site is apparently working to fix the issue and to get those accounts up and running.

• Team Mashable has been playing around with the new product, and they put together a quick screenshot walkthrough to help you make sense of what the new Facebook Messages product is all about.

• Mashable provides a brief overview of how the system will work. It might be a while until you get to try it out for yourself though.

• Overview of Facebook Messaging Event

• Overview of Facebook Messages Security

• HuffingtonPost’s Facebook Email Announcement

• USA Today’s Facebook Email is Coming—Sort of.

• Charleneli’s Facebook messages challenges traditional email portals

And of course, you’ll want to read up on what Facebook is publishing about the topic:

• See the Messages That Matter – Facebook Blog post http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=452288242130
• Request an invite for the new Facebook messaging system
• See also the Facebook FAQs

I think Mashable’s article comments adequately summarize some of the questions I know I have for Facebook and the future of this ‘new social inbox”

Because Facebook’s new messaging system is still rolling out, we have some questions for the company regarding how it will handle security, malware and spam.

Some as-yet-unanswered questions include:

• How will Facebook deal with spam messages that are sent from a user you call a friend? As we’ve seen in the past, it’s not difficult for rogue apps to take over your message account and send malware links or spam to people on your friends list.
• What types of attachments can be sent and received via Facebook.com e-mail addresses? Will these attachments be scanned for malware before being delivered to your inbox?
• Will Facebook consider enforcing SSL-logins for messaging?
• How will Facebook address sandboxing the Facebook.com message system from what information is available to app developers? Yes, we know applications aren’t supposed to be able to access certain information anyway, but how will Facebook.com e-mail data be segmented from any other application layers?

Interesting questions…stay tuned! (And, yes I’m aware I provided 11 article links, Top 10 just rolls off the tongue.) Tweet me or comment below!! @JenHitchens

If you didn’t notice yesterday, I highly recommend you take notice today that, RecruitingBlogs.com has a facelift. More like a total body transformation without the stigma of surgical fakeness.

The email I received yesterday alerted me to the transformation and admission of the length of time it took to overhaul the design and how much they focused on usability as a key factor driving the changes.

Well, kudos to RecruitingBlogs.com! Taking a page from many (if not all) of the best practices of blog building, RecruitingBlogs.com has a plethora of functionality:

• Rotating banner with premium placement of current offerings, specials, services, articles and much more.
• Premium placement of Facebook “like” and Twitter “tweet” icons
• Premium placement of “Sign up” or “Sign In” functionality
• Top Content Today
• Latest Activity
• Display advertising and revenue generating “sponsored links”
• Featured Blog posts
• Forum posts (people’s comments)
• Follow Twitter link and live Twitter stream
• Add a Blog Post and Start Discussion capabilities
• Chat functions (also requires sign in)
• Featured Members (for networking)
• Upcoming Events
• Groups
• Active Members This Week
• Popular Blog Posts
• Recruiting Videos
• Add Videos

Every single function listed above serves one of three purposes: promote, attract and engage. The three core elements of any social media strategy and the foundation blocks of a any successful blog. Areas dedicated just for the end user, such as “My Page, My Profile, My Friends, My Blog,” etc. only go to support the interactivity on the site and promote engagement.

So, “Great job!” to Jason Davis aka ‘Slouch‘ and the RecruitingBlogs.com team.

Check it out and let me (and them) know what you think!

I was driving to work this morning and looking at the sky, enjoying the warmer-than-normal fall air and fall foliage and for some crazy reason the thought “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”  popped into my head. Both as a concept for my morning commute and as a reminder to watch this Thursdays show.  

Now, why my ‘sometimes twisted brain’ would relate two very disparate thoughts, is beyond me. But, it started me thinking down another stream of consciousness…so, if you’ll permit me today…I’m going to digress.

This morning’s commute acted as a reminder to not “sweat the small stuff” and to be grateful for all the great “big” things in my life. I don’t know why, I don’t know if I was feeling particularly nostalgic about my fun weekend…which included pumpkin picking, T-ball practice, raking fall leaves, cooking meatloaf & baked potatoes & string beans – a great fall meal by the way – for two of my favorite people . But my brain combined those great feelings while analyzing why I really like all of my “social media” duties so much. I made the conclusion, this morning, that I like what I do because…it’s social silly!

Social can be defined in a lot of little (and big) ways. So, I thought I’d share with you my stream of “social” stream of consciousness from this morning:

-         I like the smell of leaves on a warm fall day.
-         I like getting “Good morning. ” texts.
-         I like it when I hear a favorite song on the radio that I haven’t heard in a long time-it makes me drive that much faster
-         I like looking in my rearview mirror and seeing my little boy singing a song playing on the radio and bopping his head to the beat (and he doesn’t know the correct words nor does he know that I’m watching him)
-         I like holding hands in the car (except when the radio station needs changing)
-         I like 104.5 and 88.5 so much that I even have posted comments on their Facebook Wall thanking them for playing great tunes.
-         I like Facebook.
-         I like it when someone “likes” my photos on Facebook. It somehow validates my reason for sharing.
-         I like “liking” other people’s photos and commenting on my girlfriends’ photos when they are super cute or hilariously funny.
-         I like getting phone calls from my girlfriends when I actually have 10 min to chat uninterrupted. (Doesn’t happen often.)
-         I like being able to have a running conversation with my girlfriends for an hour despite the constant interruptions from children, pets, laundry or dish washing noises.
-         I like that neither one of us cares that this activity is perpetually going on in the background because we obviously value anytime that we can get to catch up.
-         I like GNOs (girls night out)
-         I like nights where all we do is stay in…cook dinner, make popcorn and watch a movie.
-         I like cooking dinner and watching my son do his “homework” watching him intently concentrating on making the letter “a.”
-         I like cooking a new recipe and enjoying a glass of wine.
-         I like sharing a glass of wine, well, actually a bottle of wine.
-         I like Fridays.
-         I like running in Fairmount Park on Fridays…especially during great fall days like this.
-         I like running with friends (even if I do slow them down and they’re too kind to say so). I like running with friends who prefer a slower pace than me, means I can talk more!
-         I like running by the Indian statue on Forbidden Drive. I look up at him and give a quick salute and remind myself to be grateful for all the great “likes” (and loves) in my life.

Happy Tuesday folks!

Facebook Groups have been around for a while. However, as Mark Zuckerberg has been known to add and modify Facebook features overnight, the term “Facebook Groups” now really HAS taken on new meaning.

So what’s new with Facebook Groups? Well, as Zuckerberg put it in his October 6^th, post :

“We’ve long heard that people would find Facebook more useful if it were easier to connect with smaller groups of their friends instead of always sharing with everyone they know. For some it’s their immediate family and for others it’s their fantasy football league, but the common concern is always some variant of, “I’d share this thing, but I don’t want to bother 250 people. Or my grandmother. Or my boss.”

Until now, Facebook has made it easy to share with all of your friends or with everyone, but there hasn’t been a simple way to create and maintain a space for sharing with the small communities of people in your life, like your roommates, classmates, co-workers and family….It’s a simple way to stay up to date with small groups of your friends and to share things with only them in a private space. The default setting is Closed, which means only members see what’s going on in a group.

From this space, you can quickly post photos, make plans and keep up with ongoing conversations. You can also group chat with members who are online right now. You can even use each group as an email list to quickly share things when you’re not on Facebook. The net effect is your whole experience is organized around spaces of the people you care most about.”

I think what’s most helpful is to view the YouTube video:

So, can you see the possibilities within the recruiting space on Facebook? The “new” Facebook Groups enable you to organize recruiters, hiring managers and potential applicants in one space for:

• Group discussions – IM within Facebook with multiple people at once!
• Email blast capabilities – you can send an email update to your “Physical Therapy Group” about a new career opportunity
• Invitation-only elements (only invite those you source into your Groups)

To test my theory (that people can get rewarding information and engagement from Facebook Groups) out, I’ve created my own “Public” Facebook Group for Social Media Recruiting Best Practices – join in the conversation and let us know what YOU think about the future of these “New and Improved” Facebook Groups! Share with your friends, too! Tweet to me, too! @JenHitchens

Did you ever wonder why certain friends’ posts always show in your Top News Feed vs. other friends? Or, why specific page’s or group’s status updates appear more consistently in your Top News stream?

Well, there’s an answer for that. Carrie Kerpen from Likeable Media wrote an excellent post on September 24^th on just this topic. And, I think you’ll find her discoveries (and her diamond ring analogy) very enlightening.

Many employers have Facebook “Fan” Pages but getting fans to engage and to remain “top of the heap” in the News Feed can be somewhat perplexing. Carrie’s article goes into great detail about “News Feed Optimization” and the three facets that will help your job related posts appear more frequently within your fans’ Top News Feeds:

Tip #1: Get new fans to “like” or interact (through “liking” or commenting) on your posts right away. The faster you can engage a new fan, the more likely you’ll appear in their Top News Feeds. This will also increase the odds of them engagement with your content in the future.

Tip #2: A comment weighs more mighty than a “like.” So, if you’re looking for Top News Feed listing, make your primary goal focused on fans’ and their comments, not just likes.

Tip #3: Promote content on your site that encourages fan activity. The more content you push out there that consistently gets “zero” comments or likes you’ll quickly drop to the bottom of the News Feed heap, or not appear at all.

The illusive News Feed…partial mysteries solved.

What are your experiences within your “Recent News Feed” vs. your “Top News Feed?” Do you notice the people you ‘stalk’ on Facebook appear more frequently than those you have limited (or no) interaction with?

And, my top (sort of related) question, “How does Facebook decide to rotate in the friend photos into your profile Wall?” These photos DO rotate and they seem to rotate with some “rhythm” as it relates to who you’re looking at on Facebook and who’s commented recently on your activity, but not 100%.

Feel free to leave your thoughts and tips here! I’d love to hear form you J

Oh, and my funny YouTube clips for the day: Sesame Street spoofing the insanely popular Old Spice campaign. Hilarious stuff. Way to go Sesame Street!

- Elmo “live’ video blogging

- Grover – “Smell Like a Monster”

I’d like to take a minute and talk about Mobile. Social and search go hand-in-hand in my mind. Like someone once said (I forget who, so apologies for not giving credit where credit is due), “Social and Search are like peanut butter and jelly.” Well, add to the mix is an extra special layer of…butter? (like my dad likes to add) or Marshmallow Fluff? or Nutella?…would be Mobile. 

Mobile is the ugly step-child of social media recruitment marketing. And, I’m not quite sure why. I hear over and over, “…it’s not proven, it’s untested, where’s the ROI? How will people apply? How will people search for a job…much less our jobs?” Yadda yadda yadda.

I’m telling you, mobile is the untapped frontier in the recruitment world and people have just started to dip their toes into this HUGE market. Of the 500 million Facebook users…150 million of them tap into the site via mobile platform.

I came across a great article about social and job search and thought, “There’s got to be an app for that!” And there are many! Do a key word search on Jobs or Careers in the App Store and you get a lot of results! 

So, what’s an employer to do about it?

Why not develop your own company “Jobs App” for people to download to their mobile device?

My perfect ‘company-focused’ jobs app would include the following:

• Search open positions (duh, but this is important – geo, keyword, industry- it must include robost searching otherwise you’ll make the end user delete your app)
• Email the job position to the end user or their friend
• Alert messages from the app when new jobs match their search queries.
• Employee testimonial videos on specific job opportunities (ie. Customer Service, Retail, Sales, Account Management, etc.)
• Calendar of events (for upcoming hiring initiatives)
• Ability for applicant to send notification of their LinkedIn profile as an ‘interest’ contact
• Promotional giveaway, or other coupon code, to entice higher download rates

 Want some more reading on the subject? Here’s what they are saying over at Forbes,  The Washington Post, and Mashable.

Mobile is the untapped frontier within the human resources industry. What are your experiences within this new space? Let me know! @JenHitchens

Ten years ago, you used to rely upon your corporate web site and career site(s) to communicate. Now, you’re being tasked to manage Facebook pages, twitter channels, blogs, groups on LinkedIn, moderate comments, create social media policies, combat negative feedback and so much more.

Amidst all of these changes and challenges, if you’re interested in taking your Facebook page to a new level, consider increasing your audience engagement:

• Is your Facebook page enabled to accept comments and feedback? If not, why not? Why are you hiding behind your Wall?
• Do you encourage your own employees to become “fans” of your Page?
• Do you encourage your own employees to post comments on the fan page (each comment gives you exposure to a huge network of potential top talent through News Feed updates)?
• Have you inserted Poll questions to entice fan base feedback?
• Have you analyzed the “Insights” function within your page to determine your page’s demographics, geo-focuses and common themes?
• If you are using Facebook’s advertising campaigns (either through PPC or CPM ads) are you targeting your ads to the appropriate demo and geo specifics?
• Have you posed questions (using key actionable works like “YOU”) to your fans to solicit feedback?
• Do you regularly post videos and photos and encourage feedback and sharing?
• Do you have “like” and “share” icons on your Career and Corporate site pages?
• Do you have “follow” icons on all corporate communications and marketing and human resources materials?
• Do you import your Jobs onto its unique tab and encourage fans to share job content with friends?

There’s so much changing within Facebook, it’s often hard to keep up with the fast pace. However, if you focus on what you do as an organization that works, you’ll find your niche (and strength) within Facebook as well.

Post your comments on how you’re differentiating yourself from the Facebook recruiting crowd.

Oh, and last but certainly NOT least – way to go Phils! 4^th straight year in a row! Congratulations Phillies!

With over 5 million active Facebook users—50% of which who log on daily—and over 150 million users accessing through their mobile device, Facebook’s reach is enormous. The average Facebook fan also spends 7 hours a month on the site. So, with all of this traffic, how can you maximize your message to grow the audience you want?

I’ve participated in a number of Facebook tutorials online (thanks to @MariSmith and Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner) and I decided to write up my “Top Ten” Great Tips that really made me go “Hmmmm – Good idea!”

10.  The “Suggest to Friends” call to action isn’t the best way to promote a Facebook Page these days. I don’t know about you, but I get requests to “Like” a lot of Pages. Did you know that you are only limited to ‘liking’ 500 Facebook pages? Yes, 500 seems like a lot to many Facebook users—but the numbers do add up over time. For a while, I was receiving 3 or 4 Facebook Page ‘referrals’ everyday from friends and colleagues promoting their own businesses, products, charities, etc. The sheer volume of these “Suggest to Friends” emails quickly diluted the “special X factor” of receiving (what used to be) highly personalized email requests.

9. The “Share +” button IS an excellent way to promote a Facebook page (or your own Facebook page) to all of your friends and it enables you the ability to make a comment prior to posting on your wall (and subsequently to your friends’ news feeds). So the “comment” can be a simple call-to-action such as “Come join us!”

8. Using @tags is a GREAT way to refer back to your own Facebook page in both your status updates and on posts or comments you make on other friends’ Walls. By hitting the @ symbol and then typing the name of your facebook page, you automatically include a link within your comment without having to “Add a Link” etc. Example: you can locate a comment or status update of a friend asking a question and you can insert your reply or answer and include a reference to a Facebook page (hopefully your own). SHOW VISUAL here. This is a great, and more subtle, way to promote new fans to different people that you might not be able to target through your own network.

7. Call to action on Facebook has become quite vague. We used to say “Friend Us on Facebook!” But, since the change from “Fan” to “Like,” page administrators are asking themselves, “Now what?” Many people are using “Join us on Facebook!” I particularly am fond of “Join our Facebook Community!”

6. Posts to your Facebook wall should focus on your existing fans. Ask questions, opinions and phrase your questions to “YOU” – it makes your question more personalized.

5. Every topic you promote within the Discussion tab has their own unique URL. So, post discussion topics and then send the links out via email newsletters, twitter updates, LinkedIn status updates, etc.

4. If you post a link within your status update (or photo) it will automatically go to your wall and will NOT appear as your current status. So, if you want your status update to appear as ‘current,’ don’t insert a link or photo.

3. Create a custom FBML tab that “welcomes” new visitors and encourages them to click the “Like” button. This FBML tab can incorporate graphics to promote your employment brand, it can request information (an online form), it can include animation or videos, the list is endless. Facebook enables you to set this “Welcome” tab for all new visitors to your page. All other visitors (once they become fans) view the Wall tab.

2. Set your Wall tab default to show your pages posts as well as your fan posts. Facebook is all about engagement and sharing, why wouldn’t you want to automatically show all comments and feedback? If you don’t set this option correctly, people visiting your page will need to click on the Feedback or Comment link to view “others” information.

1. Automate where it makes sense, not spam. Set your Facebook page to automatically post updates from your blog (or other relevant blog content) as status updates (my favorite is Networked Blogs) AND set up your Notes Tab to import an RSS feed of your Twitter channel tweets. These two automatic functions help to promote continued engagement.

That’s my Top Ten for now. Things within social media are constantly evolving, if you’d like to learn a lot more about Facebook and how experts in the field are using different tactics and methods for marketing, sign up for the Social Media Examiner’s Facebook Success Summit 2010!