If you’re like most recent graduates, you didn’t have to fight your way past a throng of potential employers to pick up your diploma. Chances are good that CEOs probably didn’t insist on picking up the tab for your post-graduation luncheon or ask you to stop by their offices sometime Monday afternoon for a job interview. Instead, you woke up on the Monday morning after commencement to start combing through job listings like everyone else. Isn’t there a better way to get an employer’s attention?
Even if you’ve already got some experience under your belt, finding a position commensurate with your new bachelor’s degree can present a challenge. Luckily for 21st-century job seekers, LinkedIn offers a way to network with more than 8.5 million experienced professionals. Indeed, this professional social network is so popular because it produces results, catching the regular attention of corporate recruiters, headhunters and human resource managers.
Proper use of this network can, at the very least, provide you with a professional network of more experienced peers; offer a platform in which to ask pertinent questions; allow you to engage in discussion forums in which you can answer questions and strut your stuff; and give you access to groups of like-minded professionals. (read more…)
Autodesk makes 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. With more than 80 products used by more than 10 million people around the globe, the company’s customers make stuff the rest of us use and experience every day.
With its flagship AutoCAD product, the company’s target is to reach 18- to 24-year-old designers — the heavy users of Facebook. To connect with them, Autodesk is doing all the usual stuff involved in creating a great Facebook page, but it is also experimenting with new techniques to make the page even better — such as live streaming.
At our BlogWell conference, Autodesk’s Daniel Zucker and Marielle Covington took the stage to teach us how the company is implementing live streaming on Facebook and how so far it’s generated 167,000 fans.
A few of their big ideas:
- Build up to your live-streaming event. For one of its big “Facecast” events, Autodesk created polls, fill-in-the-blank posts and art contents through multiple social channels for six weeks.
Some social media pundits claim that we are in an age of “real-time” media. And, to some degree, that is true. But I think many of them would also agree that they don’t mean literally sharing every thought in real time — even if that’s not quite as catchy of a headline as “Real-Time Social Media, Except Please Don’t Really Do It That Way.”
True, social has changed some aspects of marketing and communication, adding tools to communicate and engage audiences. But is interacting via social networks in real time always what’s best for your brand?
Two examples of real-time communication being bad for your business or personal brand:
- Micky Arison, owner of the Miami Heat, found himself stuck with a $500,000 fine after he used his Twitter account as a sounding board about the NBA lockout.
- This week, former Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce implied that victims of the Aurora, Colo., shooting hold some blame for not being armed.
SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social media practices and issues.
This week we asked, When you post about a brand on a social network, do you expect that brand to see that post and respond in some way? The results:
- I expect a response only when I’ve addressed a brand directly, such as by posting on its Facebook page: 57.14%
- I don’t expect a response, but it’s nice when it happens: 27.59%
- I expect brands to respond to any post that mentions them, and I become upset if I don’t hear from them: 9.36%
- I don’t expect a response and would prefer brands didn’t reach out to me: 3.45%
- No opinion: 2.46%
For about 95% of SmartBrief readers, brand responses to social media mentions are encouraged, if not downright mandated. Heck, I’m as jaded of a social media user as you’re likely to come across, and I still get a warm, fuzzy feeling when a business thanks me for mentioning it — and a cold, distant feeling when I’m ignored. (read more…)
Companies are protective of the brand they have developed because it represent the relationship they’ve built with consumers. Copyright infringement puts that brand in danger, and companies can be quick to sue when they think their brand has been misused. Companies usually seek monetary compensation for infringement, which can lead to a lengthy trial and battered public opinion. But these opportunities can also be a chance to create good publicity if the company knows its audience well.
Whiskey manufacturer Jack Daniel’s recently dealt with an author who’d copied elements of the company’s label for his book cover. But instead of going after monetary gains, the company wrote a cease-and-desist letter that gently explains the case and even offers to help pay for a cover change. The company’s course of action turned the situation in its favor and garnered publicity for both parties. Jack Daniel’s was seen in a positive light, and the author got publicity for his book. (read more…)
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