One in ten US College Admissions Officers checks social networks in admissions process. September 23, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, authority, brand, digital biographer, facebook, googlicious, online identity, search marketing, social media ,A Kaplan survey of 320 admissions officers from the United States’ “top colleges and universities” revealed that one out of ten admissions officers has visited an applicant’s social networking Web site as part of the admissions decision-making process.
It’s not all bad news, of course - 25% of those surveyed said that viewing social network content had a positive impact on their evaluation. However, a greater percentage (38 percent) report that applicants’ social networking sites have generally had a negative impact on their admissions evaluation.
“The social networking frontier is a bit like the Wild West for colleges and universities — everyone is trying to figure out how to navigate it,” said Jeff Olson, Executive Director of Research for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. “The vast majority of schools we surveyed said they have no official policies or guidelines in place regarding visiting applicants’ social networking web sites — nor are they considering plans to develop them.” For schools who reported having a policy, generally the policy is not to look at or factor these sites into the evaluation. One admissions officer reported, “Staff can visit them for narrowly defined reasons, but can’t go on a fishing expedition.”
Kaplan conducted similar surveys at business (9%), law (15%) and medical schools (14%), and it is interesting to note that there have been a whole series of ‘clean’ online-profile-building services appearing, which of course, are specifically designed for the college admissions process, and significantly, over a quarter of survey respondents (26 percent) say their schools subscribe to one or more of these sites.
Examples of these sites include Admish.com, Cappex.com, EdSoup.com and Zinch.com.
So it looks like college kids don’t have to worry too much about what material they place on Facebook or MySpace (yet) but they should certainly throw together a profile on a college admissions profile site to boost their chances of admission to their preferred schools. At the same time , it seems that there are a lot of institutions out there who need to draw up a policy of some sort (even if it’s a blanket ‘no online screening from social media’), otherwise they may lay themselves open to claims of bias or discrimination.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=c5547404-3f7d-454d-bf3f-c0ffe7f671a5)
More than one in five employers will screen your social media profiles before they decide on hiring you. September 16, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, authority, digital biographer, facebook, googlicious, online identity, social media, sound, streams ,Twenty-two percent of hiring managers said they use social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 11 percent in 2006, according to a nationwide survey of more than 3,100 employers from CareerBuilder.com. An additional 9 per cent said they don’t currently use social networking sites to screen potential employees, but plan to start.
Of those hiring managers who have screened job candidates via social networking profiles, one-third (34 percent) reported they found content that caused them to dismiss the candidate from consideration. THAT IS MORE THAN ONE IN THREE.
Top areas for concern among these hiring managers included:
- 41% - information about them drinking or using drugs
- 40% - provocative or inappropriate photographs or information
- 29% - poor communication skills
- 22% - screen name was unprofessional
- 19% - shared confidential information from previous employers
On the other hand, social networking profiles also can give job seekers an edge over the competition. Twenty-four percent of hiring managers who researched job candidates via social networking sites said they “found content that helped to solidify their decision to hire the candidate“.
Top factors that influenced their hiring decision included:
- 48% - candidate’s background supported their qualifications for the job
- 43% - candidate had great communication skills
- 36% - candidate’s site conveyed a professional image
- 31% - candidate had great references posted about them by others
- 24% - candidate’s profile was creative
So, if you’re aiming to be hired, you need to make sure your online profiles match the picture you want a potential employer to see, because there’s a greater than one in five chance that they will check out your profile online, and an even greater chance that if they see something they like there, that fact will help you to get the job you have applied for.
The careerbuilder site gives a number of fairly obvious tips to ensure you are viewed favourably, but I have a few more:
- Use online profiles to create positive information about yourself, and ask for recommendations or testimonials from others that can be placed on these profiles. LinkedIn is probably the best example where you can receive testimonials from work colleagues, associates and employers.
- Monitor your own name with a service such as Google Alerts - or if you are really serious about managing your reputation online, try Trackur - it has a 14-day free trial.
- invest in your own name as a domain name, especially if you have a common name. I own both davidpetherick.name and davidpetherick.com, for example. And add content and commentary there - preferably right in the heart of your area of expertise - but also as a place where you can show diverse aspects of your personality or interests.
The survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 3,169 hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions) and 8,785 employees (employed full-time; not self-employed) ages 18 and over between May 22 and June 13, 2008, respectively.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=9d135ead-1641-4b72-b58c-f806f104483a)
Facebook Business Pages are GO for Search Marketing: they now get Page 1 at Google January 31, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : brand, digital biographer, facebook, googlicious, mobile search, online identity, search marketing ,A few weeks ago, Facebook changed something slightly. They made their business pages and personal listings include an extra section in their centre, with the subject of the page written in there. Why? Search visibility.
Previously, my Facebook page was at
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=850265552
Now, it’s at
http://www.facebook.com/people/David_Petherick/850265552
So what? Well, OK, so it’s easier to remember - but it’s also visible to search. The old one still works, but the new one is in the top 20 for a Google Search for my name between long-standing entries at Association For Community Networking and 43 Things.
My Business Page for Certain Host is right up on Google, as you can see below - and that’s a search with more than 7 million pages in my wake.
So if you want to be found for a specific search term, just add a page to facebook, name it accordingly, and convert your customers from there. There is a catch though - I can’t edit my Business Pages on Facebook this evening. I suspect the reason is because this news is spreading…
How is your business page doing on facebook? Got many fans yet? What are you going to do to monetise it, manage it, and keep it fresh?
http://facebook.digitalbiographer.com arrives 12th February 2008.
Marketers wake up to social networking, but they still don’t smell the coffee. January 26, 2008
Posted by Thomas Power in : 2.0, brand, corporate blogs, digital biographer, ecademy, facebook, social media ,From Guest Blogger Thomas Power, Chairman, Ecademy.
Originally published 15th January 2008 at Ecademy.
The significance of social networks is now starting to become obvious to the marketing departments of larger companies, largely due to two factors - 1) Traditional advertising channels are proving less and less effective and 2) Marketing and advertising agencies have started to realise where people are spending their time.
They have seen the writing on the wall - with one particular statistic likely to be a challenge for many a marketing manager: “Social networks will become the dominant channel for viral marketing campaigns - email has been the dominant channel for viral marketing campaigns since the mid 90s, but social networks will overtake it in 2008.”
Another fact that’s staring marketers in the face - a tipping point that only has one further hurdle to clear: “In October 2007, Social Networks accounted for 7.7% of upstream Internet traffic to all other websites, making the category the second most important source of traffic after Search Engines.”
The next hurdle of course is for social networks to become a more important source of traffic than search engines. That’s a whole blog of its own, however.
An article in this morning’s Financial Times is entitled “Business urged to woo social network figures“, and uses language very firmly couched in the tradition of ‘moving product’ and the pages of publications such as ‘Campaign‘. This all suggests to me that although businesses may have woken up, they have not actually smelt the coffee - they still have the urge to sell cereals.
(more…)
Grazr Twitter Reader - Flash widget for Blogs, MySpace, Facebook December 4, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Live, facebook, mobile, social media ,I just came across an impressive new widget from Grazr.com which allows one to view the ’social graph’ of any twitter user - or more simply stated - what they have said, and what their friends have said, and what their followers have said. 
The Grazr Twitter Reader makes it easy to browse a social graph starting with any individual Twitter user. You can see how many degrees of separation there are between any two people. While browsing through a network of frends, you can see all the messages they see from their perspective.
One of the nice features is the ability to search the twittter system from within the applet, and if a user has an account on Twittergram.com, their audio posts will automatically be added as an extra feed. The Grazr Twitter Reader includes a built-in MP3 player, so you can listen right away without having to load another tool or Web page. Now that is useful.
The service is also available as a facebook application - see it live below as it’s also now a fixture as part of this blog.
Facebook Grazr Twitter Application >>
Grazr Twitter Reader >>
Facebook Shortcuts: Faceto.Us offers free custom shortcuts for Facebook Profiles and Business Pages November 30, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : facebook, facebook shortcut, googlicious, online identity, search marketing, social media ,Create memorable facebook shortcuts for free - create a simple, short link to your profile, business page or fan page on Facebook at FaceTo.Us!
As well as being available in seconds from http://faceto.us, FaceTo.Us shortcuts can also be activated directly from within facebook from the pages of Digital Biographer, Certain Host and Faceto.Us, and is used by:
New York Times: New York Times Facebook Page: http://faceto.us/nytimes
Twitter: Twitter Facebook Page http://faceto.us/twitter
Lifehack: Lifehack Facebook Page http://faceto.us/lifehack
Robert Scoble: Robert Scoble Facebook Page http://faceto.us/scoble
Techcrunch: Techcrunch Facebook Page http://faceto.us/crunch
Digg: Digg Facebook Page http://faceto.us/digg
Allfacebook: Allfacebook Facebook Page http://faceto.us/allfacebook
Valleywag: Valleywag Facebook Page http://faceto.us/valleywag
Wikipedia: Wikipedia Facebook Page http://faceto.us/wikipedia
Mozilla Firefox: Mozilla Firefox Facebook Page http://faceto.us/firefox
And of course…
FaceTo.Us: Face To Us Facebook Page http://faceto.us/shortcut
UPDATE 11-Jan-08: Due to abuse from spammers, new links from faceto.us have been disabled. We are working on amending the service to only allow links to content located within facebook.
Business Pages are FREE on Facebook. Here’s mine. Where’s yours? November 24, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : commerce, corporate blogs, facebook, search marketing, social media ,Facebook means business - for all kinds of businesses, small or large.
There are over 45 million people on facebook, and you can reach them as a business, and have them talking about you, talking with you, recommending you and buzzing about your products or services. Free. Or not.
Which will it be? Set up a free facebook page for your business today and start connecting with your customers.
Digital Biographer Business Page on Facebook
5 Ways Small Business Can Benefit From Social Media/Networking Sites November 17, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : corporate blogs, ecademy, facebook, googlicious, online identity, search marketing, social media ,Sometimes, someone just writes something so apt, concise and useful, you want to just say “read this”.
So - read this! 5 Ways Small Business Can Benefit From Social Media/Networking Sites which delivers exactly what the title promises, and also provides a link to a simple guide to enhance your online reputation and footprint - with a few resources that you may not have on your radar.
Written by David Wallace at Search Engine Guide
Powered by ScribeFire.
MyOffice: Groupware Tool launches on Facebook
Posted by David Petherick in : commerce, corporate blogs, facebook, social media ,A Facebook groupware tool has just been launched called MyOffice, which includes private discussion boards, file sharing, a schedule, and to-do lists you can share with a public or private group within Facebook.
The current MyOffice tools are pretty basic, but the three Columbia University students who created it are already responding to user feedback to improve and extend features. It’s very easy to use and seems to work well. Each project gets its own dashboard with a helpful activity stream that keeps you on top of the latest moves by team members.
This is the sort of application I have been expecting to see a lot more of since Facebook launched itself as a platform in May - something very simple but useful that lets one stop just poking around, and start collaborating with your network, and drawing in new partners and ideas to projects.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Facebook Brand Landgrab: Now Open for Ads 2.0 November 7, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : commerce, digital biographer, facebook, online identity, search marketing, social media ,I am now a product on facebook. A brand. Or rather, Digital Biographer is. See httv.biz/biographer/.
.
I have also created a page for myself as a writer (that’s a celebrity, I am pleased to hear).
As such, I can now have fans who can tune in to my messages, news, hear about events and more… quite apart from being able to target advertising very precisely to demographic and geographic groups.
Facebooks Ads are here (and Social Ads), and it’s quite staggeringly simple, and complex, in a layered sense.
Find out more at http://facebook.com/ads/ and see the announcement on the Facebook blog:
You now have a way to connect with products, businesses, bands, celebrities and more on Facebook.
Ads should be getting more relevant and more meaningful to you.
You now have the option to share actions you take on other sites with your friends on Facebook…… we noticed people wanted to connect with their favorite music, restaurants, and brands; but there was no good place for these types of affiliations to exist. Now, there is a place for them and you can become a fan of whatever pages you choose in order to interact with your passions in new ways. You can post reviews for a local restaurant, buy tickets to a new movie, or be the first to get a heads up about new promotions.
Ads will be getting more relevant and more interesting to you. Instead of random messages from advertisers, we’ve launched Social Ads. Social Ads provide advertisements alongside related actions your friends have taken on the site. These actions may be things like “Leah is now a fan of The Offspring” (if I added The Offspring to my music) or “Justin wrote a review for Sushi Hut” (If Justin wrote this review on the Sushi Hut page). These actions could then be paired with an ad that either The Offspring or Sushi Hut provides.
I can see a lot of ad agencies, ‘new media’ agencies and PR companies reaching for the phones now, asking how can we do this? Where do we start? Well, my number is 0845 658 9058, and I am preparing a 1PrecisePage™ download for release shortly.
The Barcelona Masterclass from Digital Biographer - “Brand New Friend“ from March 8-10, 2008 is the first event to be launched in Facebook as a Digital Biographer ‘brand’ event.
Facebook Retail Landgrab: Now Open for Business (3.0) October 30, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : commerce, corporate blogs, digital biographer, facebook, social media ,Facebook now has an even more useful application for Business - and a very simple one: you can now set up an online store to sell your business’ products or services to the 45 million+ people on Facebook.
Cleverly, it allows you to use the ecommerce solution you choose by simply allowing insertion of a payment button from your payment processor. There are 45 million Facebook users out there. I suggest you open up your retail space now - and do remember, this will also act as a name landgrab - I own the extension digitalbiographer - what should you own? The shop setup and rental is currently free…
- View the offerings at my FaceBook Digital Biographer Business Shop
- Create your own FaceBook Retail Outlet
- FaceBook For Business Club & Forum at Ecademy
Facebook Landgrab: Register your profile shortcut now September 18, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : facebook, online identity, search marketing, social media ,I now own (or perhaps lease) the web address http://profile.to/makeover, which is simply a shortcut to my profile at Facebook.
It’s a lot more memorable than http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=850265552, I think!
This is a simple and useful Facebook plugin called ‘Free Profile Web Address’ that’s free (for now). Get your FB profile shortcut now at http://apps.facebook.com/profiles/ before someone grabs your name or your key phrase!
Why you should pay your people to waste their time on Facebook August 25, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : corporate blogs, digital biographer, facebook, googlicious, search marketing, social media ,Of course, you may already be paying your staff to spend time on Ecademy, Linkedin, Facebook and other social networks, but not know it… or maybe you ban them from doing so. You’re making a mistake. I say: don’t be dumb - get them on there before it’s too late, and you get the boot for not doing your job.
Oh yes, I’m serious. I’m actually advocating an approach where you pay your staff to use facebook and similar social networking sites to network, and promote themselves, and your business, to the world. Because otherwise, they’ll not promote you - they’ll just promote themselves. What would you rather pay for?
You could explain it to them like this: —
- You’re valuable to the organisation not just for what you do, but for how you relate to others, and who you relate to.
- We know you have a personal opinion, personal life, and friends and colleagues outside work. You know we wouldn’t employ anyone who didn’t.
- So we know you have a brain. We’re not going to say “don’t use social media in work time”, because we’re social people. We like friends, chat, buzz, news, even fun. Yeah. We know you’ll get your work done better if you get to be sociable. So go do it, but remember the work is primary!
- Keep it structured, though, and use your time well. Remember that our customers might not want to see all of our family and party photos, but they will want to see some insight and ideas that you blog about and introduce them to. So be good. But be you.
- Remember to keep your passwords and access secure - because it’s not our reputation we are concerned about - it’s yours. We want people to say “It must be great to work for those guys - they let you network and be yourself. Maybe their stuff is good too. I’ll get in touch with them.” We might even build in some blog business bonuses…
And now I could explain it to you like this:
(more…)
