So you’ve got the education that you needed, the knowledge that you wanted, and the position that you are interested in. Time to send out your well-structured and perfect written cover letters and CVs. Wait, have you Googled yourself yet?

According to a recent survey done by CareerBuilder.co.uk, most of the employers these days screen candidates using social networking sites. From the survey, 53% of the employers claimed that they run searches online through social networking sites to research their candidates, and 43% of the employers have decided not to hire after seeing what’s online. The top reasons are:

• Candidate lied about qualifications – (38%)
• Candidate displayed poor communication skills – (31%)
• Candidate used discriminatory comments – (13%)
• Candidate posted content about their use of drink or drugs – (10%)
• Candidate uploaded provocative or inappropriate photographs or information – (9%)
• Candidate bad-mouthed their previous employer, colleagues or clients – (9%)
• Candidate shared confidential information from workplace – (8%)

Around 50% of the employers decided to hire after checking candidates’ online profiles. The top reasons are:

• Profile substantiated candidate’s professional qualifications – (61%)
• Candidate displayed good communication skills – (41%)
• Candidate seemed well-rounded – (37%)
• Profile gave a good feel for the candidate’s personality and fit – (28%)
• Candidate was perceived as creative – (24%)
• Candidate gave off a professional image – (22%)
• Candidate had received awards and accolades – (15%)
• Contacts had posted good references about the candidate – (15%)

Numbers don’t lie, I don’t think social media profile is more important than qualifications, but I think what’s online about a person should always be transparent. The data above should not in any way encourage anyone to build a fake online profile to impress employers, what’s online should reflect directly who you really are and what your passion is.

Photo Credit: Matthew Flores

“Site” doesn’t have to be an online “website”, it can also be a camp site. The advertisement above is by Coleman outdoor company that has over 100 years history of bringing people together with their outdoor products. This video has high potential for going viral, very clever for positioning themselves as a “social networking site”.

There was a huge discussion 2 weeks ago on China blocking Twitter and other social networks for June 4th Tienanmen Anniversary 2009.

I don’t think we need further analysis and opinion on that issue, but today, Thomas Crampton, Jean-François Amadei and I were lucky enough to meet Chinese journalist and political blogger, Michael Anti (Chinese: 赵静 or 安替), who gave me a new angle on the social media environment in China and how Chinese behavior on Twitter different from most of us.

China has No Citizen

As Michael Anti mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, Chinese people think that there’s “No Citizen” in China, only “Netizens” because people can only freely express their point of view online.And Michael Anti believes that the growth of Netizen will eventually turn Chinese into Citizens.

Heaven or Hell?

There are two sides of media in China. Traditional media (TV, newspaper, radio) in China make China heaven, while social media in China make China Hell. Michael Anti also kidded about how it takes only a day for most Chinese people to turn anti-government if they get on social media like Twitter.

The meaning of “Coffee”

Learned from Michael that in China these days,  “having coffee” refers to how police ask netizens to have coffee and chat with them at the police station for hours when found posting sensitive content on the Internet.

Twitter is more than 140 in China

As we all know that “simple” is the whole point of using Twitter for it only allows 140 characters for each status update, which is around 30 words in English and other major lanuages, but not in Chinese. 140 charactors = 140 words in Chinese, which is already long enough to be a paragraph with the 5W (Who What When Where Why) and it completely changes the form of Chinese Tweets. Michael Anti believes that Twittersphere (in English) would be totally different too of it offered 350+ characters.

Say Yes to Retweets (RT), but No to @Replies

Unlike most of the Twitter users who interact, Chinese Twitter users see Twitter as more of a news sharing/ grading tool. It is powerful because posts/ pieces of news are basically rated by human, which means the more RTs they see, the more important that piece of news means to them. Most of them don’t write tweets like “I am on my way to work” or “@username: what are your plans for tonight” because they have other platforms to do so. (Facebook, Xiaonei and IM platform like QQ).

Thomas Crampton did a short video interview with Michael Anti, and will be posted on his blog. Also, thanks to Jean-François Amadei for the images below.

Thomas Crampton and I listening to Michael Anti

Michael Anti talking about Social Media in China

When is the Dooms Day, where’s the next tsunami, and more recently, when is the end of Newspapers. There are thousands of people who have tried to “predict” the end of newspaper, like psychics and fortune tellers, predictions are just estimations that don’t have enough back-up information. I’m not here to tell you when I think Newspaper industry will die, I am just combining the most logical reasons why I think the history of Newspaper will end soon.

Nothing can beat “free”

The major newspaper companies met last week outside of Chicago and tried to create an agreement so that all newspapers charge for content to cover their lost. What I don’t get is why people would  pay for something that they can get for free, what extra value can they bring? Two generations are used to/ born with free content, and people would not change all in a sudden just to keep the loosing newspaper businesses profitable.

Social Networks

Since the rise of Facebook, and many other different networks like Twitter. It’s hard not to keep ourselves updated on daily news. Instead of digging around to “get” news through different channels like TV and newspapers, news these days come to you. For example, if you are following the right tweets, you can easily finish your daily news reading in 10 minutes by going through people’s updates and see what they are talking about.  Social Networking is like being in a room 24/7 with the people who you have similar interest/ people who interest you, and these people deliver you news that interest you.

Blogs

Blogs are getting bigger and bigger in scale and they break news more often than ever (especially technology and entertainment content), you can get information as-it-happens, so why wait for the next day and pay for the Old News?

Eco-friendly trend

Digital solutions not only provide better/ same value as newspaper in content, but also cut the use of paper.

Most of all, financially

I don’t think I need to explain this in detail, online-ads revenue will eventually beat newspapers. Below is a map showing the number of Layoffs and buyouts at U.S. newspapers in 2009 from papercuts. Laying off employees is a short-term solution, it also lowers employee loyalty and workplace morale. A long term solution is to migrate resources into digital and act before competitors do.

Ads are all over the Internet. Recently, status updates/ micro-blogging have become popular, some people even use status updates to express themselves in an artistic way.

Status Update advertising basically means to pay certain profile owners and get them to talk about a brand/ product/ service.

After PayPerPost and other networks for blog post advertising, I knew status updates would be the next new thing. Status Plug is one of the ad networks that bring status update ads to work. I personally think that Status Update Ads could be quite powerful if the right “buzz leaders” are chosen, reasons are as followed.

• Buzz leaders effectively target the audience. (e.g. classical Music Lover would not follow Snoop Dogg’s twitter).
• Easy and short = attract more attention. In social media, only small portion of people in a target segment like to read all the articles and posts. Status updates are short and noticeable with a link, which can attract people who are not “True Lovers” of an interest.
• Lower cost for advertisers comparing to other advertising media
• High viral potential
• Online buzz leaders can bring positive image of a brand

What do you think? Would you use it as an advertiser?

Thousands of people jump into the game of social networking everyday. More than 90% of Internet users own at least one profile page from social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, linkedIn, myspace and I can continue naming all the sites for the next hour.

People spend more time on the Internet which somehow leads to the growth of online shopping, therefore, it makes perfect sense for people to figure out ways to make money online and build connections with social media.
The problem is, should we just forget about our natural ability to socialize Offline?

Let me briefly list out advantages for both Online and Offline socializing.

Social Networking Sites:
- International connections
- Easier to start conversations
- Doesn’t have to dress up
- Be whoever you want to be (which is a bad thing too)

Socializing Offline:
- Personal/ deeper connection
- “Experience” what’s going on outside your room/ office.
- Learn human behavior
- and did I mention no spam & affiliate links?

They both have their own advantages, but I know many full time digital marketers started to ignore the power of socializing offline.

Get the Balance
It’s always good to get a balance on things, offline and online socializing can both help future success in career. So, don’t be afraid to go out and start conversations, introduce yourself, exchange contacts/ business cards and get connected!

These credits will be purchased from the Facebook gift store at a rate of US$1 for 100 credits. It will take Facebook to the next level, at the beginning stage, FB users will do it for fun, but what if it turned into an online currency and payment method like Paypal, which you can purchase actual products online from the credits earned on Facebook. It might change the whole concept of social media to an exchange platform and an virtual society where people might “work” their way to become “wealthy” on Facebook by marketing themselves as “Facebook celebrities”.

This system will sure encourage users to share more valuable content on Facebook, but the problem is, will it be too much for some users?