Social Networking

Social Networking was once considered a fad that might go away and then became something that is a major obsession in many people’s lives. This new age media can consume hours upon hours of a persons life and companies see that as an opportunity for gain on their end. In the Social Networking world you can get back in touch with old friends, family, old co-workers, teachers and the list goes on and on. You can also connect with current friends, family, co-workers or acquaintances. You can do things like set-up events and invite all of your “Friends” from Facebook or even promote your music, clothing line and products/services that you provide. The information that you provide on places like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc… are very valuable to companies out there trying to find an outlet to advertise their services. The ability to socialize with distant family members and friends has been one of the greatest things about Social Networking. I have been able to connect with people I haven’t talked to in years. The new and old pictures/videos are usually a delight to see, especially of you have known these people for a long time. It makes the world seem like a much smaller place even though some of your conversations on happening from the other side of the world.

Let’s look at Facebook as an example, many people who log on actually use their real name, email addresses, home addresses, bios, their hobbies and many more pieces of information that are enticing to advertisers. This is one thing Facebook has over a company like Google. In the article “Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet” Larry Page (Co-Founder of Google) was a little upset that Microsoft was able to purchase a 1.6% stake ($240 million) in Facebook. Microsoft was Google’s sworn enemy and this left a bad taste in Larry’s mouth. Facebook executives stated that they wanted nothing to do with Google. They saw Google as their main competition in being the dominant force on the internet. Google sees the potential in the valuable data that Facebook has in regards to their users. As was mentioned in the same article above “Internet users behaved differently on Facebook than anywhere else online: They used their real names, connected with their real friends, linked to their real email addresses, and shared their real thoughts, tastes, and news. Google, on the other hand, knew relatively little about most of its users other than their search histories and some browsing activity.” This is a gold mine for most companies. Facebook makes sure that it keeps this information away from Google search engines by blocking this “proprietary information”. This was definitely embarrassing for Google because they usually get what they want but in this case they didn’t and it was also publicized. This definitely added more fuel to the fire.

Social Networking allows companies to hear direct feedback from the customers or potential clients. This can be good or bad but I think it gives them an opportunity to hear the likes and dislikes of the public, so that they could adjust their approach accordingly. Companies can also use a site like LinkedIn for recruiting purposes. This can be a much faster and less expensive way of vetting the right candidate for an open position. I work at an outsourcing company that provides Business Process Outsourcing (IT Support, Facilities Management, Reception, Word Processing, Print Procurement to name a few) for a number of Fortune 500 companies like Bank of America, Pfizer, Wal-Mart, etc… Whenever we win a contract to provide a service we normally have a small window to staff a location with as little as 2 people to as much as 100 or more employees. This will require a number of resources in the form of managers interviewing numerous candidates, HR assisting with paperwork, Directors or VP’s coordinating the workflow. This amount of personnel can cost a lot of time and money. Utilizing something like LinkedIn will allow us to reduce the amount of resumes or candidates you have to view or see. It helps save on costs and gives us more bandwidth to get the place staffed more efficiently. Many companies are starting to lean towards this approach (ours included) and it has its benefits.

Now there are some “Dark Sides” to this. I will point out a couple of issues I see with it. The first one has to do with the obsessions that come out of Social Networking. There are many people that can’t go five minutes without checking Twitter, Facebook or any other Social Network. This approach seems to replace the human factor of being able to have a conversation in person. There are people that are so consumed by this in that it affects their ability to hold a conversation in real life. As a manager, I notice it in some of the candidates that apply for jobs at my location. It is hard for some candidates to hold an intelligent conversation. It is not something that seems to come natural in some cases. I have interviewed a number of candidates that speak in short sentences, can’t maintain eye contact, using text language like LOL or TTYL when responding to emails. This is very concerning because it takes away from their ability to function in the real world. I am concerned for many of the kids and the future of our society. Things like this take up a lot of our time and are fun but it can make us fall behind the rest if the world if our kids can’t prosper in the real world. The US will continue to fall behind other countries because our future stars can’t compete in the business world.  We are so reliant on technology that we barely ever speak in person anymore. That personal touch is needed more than most people think. We need to be really careful with that. In the article “ Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum”, Steve Chazin (Former Apple Marketing Director and current CMO at DimDim.com) recalls something that happened in his office “I remember one day a few years ago when our office phones and Internet stopped working. No e-mail, no voicemail, no Facebook, no Skype, and no Twitter. People came out of their offices and talked. I enjoyed that day.” If we need to wait for an outage to come out and talk to people, we are in some big trouble.

The second one is the privacy issue you run into. A lot of your personal can be bought and sold without your knowledge and it can end up in the wrong hands or with annoying advertisers. Hackers can go in and do some damage to you as well if they get a hold of personal emails, phone number or any other information they could get their hands on. Lastly, as a manager I come across a number of candidates and there are times when I would get the feeling that I know the person from somewhere. I do a little search on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn and I may come across the person. Then it clicks in my head that this is where I know them from. On occasion, the candidate would end up being a “friend of a friend” and the pictures alone may influence my decision. I focus on the comments as well because it can tell a lot about a person’s personality. I have actually made some of my decisions based on this because the references or research of a person’s previous jobs do not always net good results. This is why everyone has to be careful with their life online. This can influence one’s career. You never know who is watching…

The future of Social Networking is limitless. Being that they have been able to capture hundreds of millions users and even a billion or more, there is no telling where it would go next. Virtual worlds may become the next big thing where you could go shopping together, run a business together or even party together from anywhere in the world without ever having to step foot in a brick and mortar building. This technology will continue to evolve and we will continue to experience new obsessions. It will be an interesting future.