This week, I focused on the article “Published” Tumblr Posts Can Now Be Auto-Featured on Facebook Timeline, But “Read Stays Private.” Tumblr is a community blog spot that features posts that run from family friendly to very NSFW. Facebook Timeline is a new upgrade to Facebook in which it offers comprehensive profile information from first day you joined to the present day. I chose to write about this topic because social media is intent on sharing personal information incrementally which is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. While Tumblr has not opted in the “Read” function, this function would automatically import data about posts you have looked or read in Tumblr into Facebook.This is a highlighted feature in the article because social reader websites like The Guardian and Washington Post are automatically imported to Facebook every time you open a related link. An interesting note about this feature is that if you don’t opt into the feature it becomes harder to view articles that your friends may have posted. You have to go out of your way to find that article in Google instead of just being able to click on the hyperlink on your friend’s wall. Facebook is brilliant in understanding what users really want in today’s world: 1) they want everything now 2) they feel compelled to share everything 3) they want convenience. Why does this matter? This matters because it opens an indirect issue of privacy. Do you really want what you read in the comfort of your home or work to be shared with everyone? Maybe. What if you open a link that may not be safe for work which may or not have been intentional? You may know it wasn’t intentional, but your viewers know that? All of these new “additions” to Facebook and social media beg the question whether it really is a convenience to use social media or whether it’s a risk management issue.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/02/tumblrs-new-facebook-timeline-sharing-will-nab-more-traffic-for-publishers/

By: Esther Chelladurai

The article below is talking about how employers are now requesting access to passwords of potential employees. While the initial response from Facebook was to take legal action, it seems that they have softened their stance to “investigating matters” and “continuing to protect user’s information”. Facebook is notorious for the loopholes in their privacy policies and users have been equally warned. It begs the question of where does what’s ok to be public stops and what starts being private begins. While there is a common saying that goes “What goes on Facebook stays on Facebook” holds true, what does this mean for the future of Facebook? Will their new policies include revisions to accommodate employers? I think that Facebook is meddling in hot waters which will result in a lot of anger and frustration amongst its current users. If they continue to be so “open-ended”, this will give room for a new revolution of social media. Why should one use Facebook when they can find another social network that is as good as or maybe even better than Facebook without all the privacy issues? While it is up to the user to voluntarily use this service, there are certain privacy policies that must be regulated and not allowed. This new request by employers is the equivalent of asking for the key to your home so they can make sure your home is really where you say it is or your lifestyle is really the way you are”. In the end, employers will always have to face some losses; it is a matter of how diligent their HR department is. Employers shouldn’t be turning to Facebook for the answer but rather the hiring process their company takes part in. 

By: Esther Chelladurai

Guy Kawaskai is the founder of Alltop.com, a bestselling author on social media and marketing, and is an avid speaker. Recently I read a Q&A between Here, Inc.com reporter Eric Markowitz about how entrepreneurs are just not hitting the nail on the head when it comes to social media. Social media has changed the way companies and entrepreneurs fundamentally express themselves to consumers by making it a fast, free, and ubiquitous way to market themselves. Social media is more about the effort than the expense. When you are an entrepreneur new to the whole social media thing, your best bet is to just dive in to Facebook or Google+ or Twitter. This is very different than the typical expert telling you that you have to set your strategy and your goals and have a massive document and working plan. You have to first know the platform before you can set a plan for unchartered waters. An exemplary small company that uses social media well is Kogi BBQ in LA that tweets out street food locations and 100 people show up. Promoting your brand and yourself without becoming nauseated about it is 90% about making sure that you truly have that great cause. The reason Steve Jobs didn’t nauseate people about how great Apple products are because it’s true. Kawasaki’s biggest SEO tip is to write good stuff. Google is in the business of finding good stuff, it has thousands of the smartest people in the world, spending billions of dollars to find the good stuff.

By: Esther Chelladurai

You send countless emails and texts but don’t know how to get people to do what you want them to do. Richard Worth, a guest speaker, spoke about how to manipulate language you use to capture your audience’s attention—to make them listen. The biggest problem in communication is communicating too much information; in all that overwhelming information the average person only catches sound-bytes. Sound-bytes are the result of compression of too much information. For example, in the presidential election, what candidates essentially stand for or are representing are compressed into sound-bytes. Romney was recently nailed as a candidate who doesn’t care for poor people while Obama a food stamp president. Worth’s overall argument was to write about what is of value to the reader and put it in to perspective, otherwise, known as What’s In It For Me (WIIFM). You need to think about what are the benefits and consequences to your audience and coerce them with either pros or cons. In you writing, you must use present tense, drop article like the, and have no quotes. Use as much headline space as you can give a good introduction. Most importantly, when writing, treat your piece as if it’s a candidate running for office, make your candidate as positive as possible!

By Chitra Esther Chelladurai & Donna Sweidan

LEE ZALBEN is a peanut butter connoisseur. Zalben, 38, had a dream of opening a restaurant to showcase his unique passion and talent of making outrageous but delicious PB&J concoctions. He began his career at a practical, safe magazine publishing job and then, soon realized that this wasn’t his passion nor his interest. At age 24, he liquidated his savings and took out loans, and at the age of 24 opened sandwich shop Peanut Butter & Co. Though his only restaurant experience was working at a frozen yogurt shop, he faced many obstacles which he overcame one by one. Listening was the key to his breakthrough success. To learn the ropes, he turned to others for input, learned quickly from what they had to say and eventually fueled his enormous creativity. His menu includes exotic sandwiches such as the Pregnant Lady, The Heat is On, and of course, the most famous Elvis. In 2003, Zalben decided to expand and have his homemade peanut butter available for purchase at grocery stores. The company’s products are now available at 15,000 stores around U.S. and Canada, including Whole Foods, Walmart and Target.

KAREN GRANDO FORAY is a wife and mother who was supporting her husband’s 1984’s skydiving accident where he ended up in a full-leg cast and she his chaffeur. While waiting in his office to drive him around Grando noticed that her husband—who owned a duct and pipe insulation firm in Woodside, Queens—was turning down customers requesting asbestos removal. Those frequent calls persuaded Grando to go into the asbestos-removal field herself and thought, “I can do this.” Unfazed by her lack of hands on experience, she believed that her accounting degree from Hofstra University, employment history, and her willingness to learn was enough to have her in good standing. After taking a training program and earning her licenses, her company, International Asbestos Removal Inc, was formed in 1987. IAR growing steadily from the beginning wasn’t enough for Grando, this led her to pursue certifications as a woman business enterprise in the early 1990’s. The firm won contracts from a slew of city and state agencies that still use her services, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the School Construction Authority, and the Dormitory Authority of the state of New York. Thirsting for more work, she deployed WBE certification to bid for pipe and duct insulation, her spouse’s domain. “I wasn’t competing with my husband, since a percentage of a public contract has to be given to women contractors,” she said. True to form, Ms. Grando continues seeking opportunities.

MICHAEL KIRBAN’s most missed novelty of Brazil is coconut water. Mr. Kirban and his friend Mr. Liran decided that they could position coconut water as a new, trendy drink from back home. “We felt that coconut water could be as big a market as orange juice in the United States,” said Mr. Kirban. In 2004, they used $100,000 in savings to set up All Market Inc and developed the worldwide known Vita Coco coconut water beverage. Their big breakthrough was landing a contract with Whole Foods in New York, eventually leading them to start selling nationally. Vita Coco is now stocked at many Walmart and Costco locations. After hearing that Madonna is a Vita Coco, celebrities like Demi Moor and Matthew McConaughey have contributed about $10 million to the firm. The business, which is profitable, brings in $40 million in sales; the figure doubled between 2009 and 2010. Mr. Kirban states that, “We could have grown 300% last year if we had more coconuts.” Vita Coco has made over $200 million worth of donations to charities ranging from the American Heart Association to the Special Olympics.

ANTHONY CASALENA, student of University of Maryland, came to a realization when he was building his own site that integrating all of the disparate components –software of displaying photos, blogging, analytics, etc—was a cumbersome process. Thus, he created his own way of pulling all the pieces together in a seamless and headacheless manner. When friends started asking to use his program for their websites, he realized he had stumbled on a business opportunity: a one stop publishing platform. His program, Squarespace, enables clients to create high-quality websites and integrate other series which now include Flickr and Twitter. Casalena borrowed $30,000 from his father to purchase servers and then came to be the CEO of Squarespace. Clients include both individual bloggers and companies such as fashion firm Mark Ecko Enterprises and cosmetics retailer Kiehl’s. Squarespace has been profitable since 2005, posted 2010 sales of $10.2 million—up 95% from the year before. Squarespace got a big break in July 2010, when it earned one of the year’s largest rounds of venture capital in NY: $38.5 million in funding, led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures.

ROHIT ARORA, a former employee of Deloitte Consulting, discovered that small business loans made up banks’ most profitable portfolios, and that those serving ethnic-owned firms had the fewest defaults. With a long time desire to start a company and readily armed with these pieces of information Rohit and Ramit, his brother, were ready to challenge the financial world. However, the only replies they received were an earful about the lack of understanding immigrants have for the US banking and credit systems. To refute, the brothers developed Biz2Credit an immigrant-friendly online operation that eases access to commercial loans, credit reports and other financial products. Rohit serves as the the firm’s president while Rohit serves as the CEO—their vision has evolved into a 37-employee firm, headquartered in Manhattan. Biz2Credit has facilitated a total of $400 million in loans. Their clients? Medical practices, gas stations, restaurants, and franchises. Last year, as the credit crunch began to ease with the passage of the Small Business Jobs Act, Biz2Credit facilitated about 2,500 loans, 150% jump over in its 2009 figure. Revenues skyrocketed 100% to a profitable $1.8 billion, from $900,000. “Biz2Credit has created a platform that connects small business with lending institutions in a very innovative fashion that I haven’t seen in the market before,” said Dan Csont, chief marketing officer of Equifax Commercial Information Solutions.

MICHAEL DORF is trying to fill the void of winemaking in NYC by arranging for fresh-off-the-vine grapes to be express-shipped to Manhattan from the Finger Lakes, California, Oregon, even Chile. Customers who purchase certain memberships can make an entire barrel of wine under the tutelage of a master vintner. City Winery is also an event space: It both hosts its own concerts and tastings, and rents out the venue for private parties, wedding receptions and the like. After his legendary downtown venue the Knitting Factory went defunct, he spent a few years licking his wounds, hit his 40’s, got married, had kids, and became a wine aficionado. In 2008, he leased a 21,000 sq. ft. space at Hudson Square but his timing was terrible. By Christmas 2008, the company was nonexistent, a victim of the massive economic meltdown. After being forced to reevaluate his plan, City Winery is now selling its memberships to produce barrels of wine, which range from $5,000 to $15,000 per barrel.

By Chitra Esther Chelladurai & Donna Sweidan

Facebook is the cornerstone of social media, especially, the social part of it. Though it’s a great way to meet friends and family it is also a great way to have a meet and greet with professionals. Facebook is an excellent way to advance and propel your job search if you use the right strategies to do so.

First and foremost you must Network Network Network! That’s the main purpose of Facebook, you might as well use it to your advantage! Meet new people that have similar interests to you and develop relationships with them.

Who should you add? What groups should you join? How do you search for these people? Facebook search is a great way to find people that are similar to you. For example, if you are a designer or an alumna of UCONN you can find a group on Facebook for that. Through groups you can find people that are looking for the same thing that you are or can identify with your job search. If you aren’t looking for anything specific you can join the popular group “Recruiters on Facebook” which post job openings as they come. This is a great opportunity for you to build a relationship with recruiters and let them know who you are and what you are about. When you have developed and keep developing your network will be your greatest asset in your job search.

As you develop your network take this chance in using Facebook to showcase yourself as a “whole” person. It’s a great way to display your professional and personal interests. If you are careful and considerate of your audience it can be a great way for your professional network to really get a taste of who you are. As you build your profile, fix in mind that everything that goes on Facebook stays on Facebook—even if you delete it. Remember “The Emperor Has No Clothes’ story? Well, keep that in mind when you are on Facebook or any social media site for that matter. People seem to forget what other people can see on their profile.

Using Facebook’s status update like you would with Twitter—just asking a simple question like, “Does anyone know someone who needs a new web designer?” Your network will work for you, there are bound to be people who know someone or might know someone who can help you out. Don’t want to make your job search public? Ask someone directly. Asking someone on Facebook to help you introduce you to someone or a recruiter can help you go a long way. This is especially true when that recruiter is looking to fill an opening and you just happen to be at hand.

Applications. Utilize the tools that Facebook provides to enhance and kickstart your job search. Branchout, an application on Facebook, is like a LinkedIn for Facebook. Branchout aggregates your friend’s professional activities and networks to better advance your job search. The notes application on Facebook is almost like a FB blog. Like any other blog, blogs can help keep your network updated professionally. Suppose you just got laid off or are not finding what you really want professionally, you can use FB notes to communicate to people what you really want and where you want to go with it. Though a status update is a good way to get quick responses, they aren’t as meaningful as a response to notes. Have a blog already? Another tip is to import your blog posts to FB or copy your blog post into a note. Marketplace…not many people know about Facebook’s app Marketplace but it is an AWESOME tool to find job listings. It’s like your newspaper listing brought to the convenience of your own home (for free!)

Flaunt what you got on Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads is a feature that helps self-promote yourself—design your ad to tell a little bit about yourself. Who you are, what you’re looking for, and why you’re here—say it loud and clear.

Though Facebook is known for it’s socializing phenomena, use it to your advantage. There are many great tools, people, and opportunities on Facebook waiting for you!

5 Tip on Getting Your LinkedIn Profile to Tip Top Shape!

LinkedIn is a professional network where you can share and gather information, gather presentations, meet peers and leaders in the field, find out about job opportunities, learn about career paths, and do knowledge-powered networking. With such a powerful tool at hand your number one objective when creating and maintaining a LinkedIn profile is to get to the 100% mark. You can do this by making sure your profile is keyword rich, has a professional photo, building your network, a member of groups that are relevant to your interests, having recommendations, and have links to additional info about yourself.

Where are you?

One of the biggest mistakes people make on LinkedIn is that they do not modify their URL name so it comes out to look something like this: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/xxx-xxxxx/33/54/915

Go to “Edit Profile” page and go to the section titles “Public Profile” (it should be right above your summary) and click edit. On your right hand side there should be a box with the title “Your Public Profile” where you can edit and customize your current URL. Neaten and shorten the URL to only your name. You may find that your name has been “taken” already. Determine what initials you will use and ensure that you use these across other social networking platforms to avoid confusion. Consider how you will distinguish yourself from others in cyberspace with your specific name, a common challenge for many. In addition, if your goal is to be found for possible work opportunities or business endeavors you want your profile to be as easily accessible as possible, and easily found!

Hire me!

Your billboard to getting noticed and hired: Your Professional Headline! You have approximately 160 characters to create a compelling and targeted introduction to who you are and what you have to offer. Use this space wisely! Avoid letting the default mechanism include your current position as your professional headline. Consider your job title and key expertise/industry knowledge. For job seekers you should identify your own personal tagline while business owners should include their business tagline and key points.

Who are you again?

Put your creative writing skills to good use! Your summary isn’t just a synopsis of your work history but a description of who you are what you’ve accomplished, and what you have to offer When writing your summary be clear, concise, and complete. Write who you are in first person and make it a point to create your value proposition not a regurgitation of your resume. Talk about your accomplishments and use as much given space as you can with valuable information not fillers and puffery. Your summary is the place to be straightforward, show integrity, and establish credibility of what you have done and what you can do for others.

In your past experiences, don’t just list who you worked for, what your title was and how long you were there. Exhibit your accomplishments, newfound skills, and revel your progress throughout the years. Showcase a portfolio, not just a resume. Include a blog, Twitter, any impressive PowerPoint presentations, links to article you have written, television appearances, or interviews, art work, photography, etc.

Don’t be another “John Smith”

Resist being a generic, promiscuous connecter by actively expanding your network with intention. Experiencing career success results based on your Linkedin presence will rely both on the quality and quantity of your network. Both are equally important and also determined by your individual purpose. So, when making new connections be sure to include a message of your purpose to connect with them—don’t be anonymous!

While it is key to establishing your credibility and reputation by receiving recommendations, don’t forget to give them either! If you have worked with someone closely, speak with sincerity regarding their ability of doing a great job with the task at hand. In being sincere, you help avoid the genericism blanket.

Get active, Stay Active!

Reach out and engage with key people. Don’t wait for people to send you requests to connect. Be proactive in learning who are the key influencers, thinkers or hiring managers in your field and initiate steps to get into their network with the goal of making a direct connection. Establishing connections with key influencers can also be done by joining industry, peer, and community groups. There are many benefits to participating in LinkedIn groups, for the individual professional as well as small business. Your goal should be to join and participate in 50 groups. When you have reached out to these people, participate and share information. Social networking sites became known as such, because of the assumption that there will be social interaction. Since you are on LinkedIn for professional purposes, career management is not a spectator sport. One no longer has the option of being passive observer of ones career development. By its very nature, Web 2.0 calls for engagement and participation for it to be of value to all participants. 

Use all that LinkedIn has to offer to leverage yourself and build your online reputation. Be professional, personable and specific about who you are and where you are looking to go. By finding professional and personal communities of interest you network and share and gather valuable information for yourself and your peers. Pursue and connect to people in careers/industries of interest to keep yourself up to date on what’s happening in your pursued or current field of work. Develop and demonstrate your expertise and knowledge by being active in your community through sharing and commenting. Lastly, be in control of what you want others to see—manage your privacy!

By: Chitra Esther Chelladurai & Donna Sweidan

As a job searcher one of the most important things to keep in mind is your visibility and your digital footprint online. But when does your visibility online hinder you? In this day and age, the internet’s two billion users acts as the public’s investigative eye that tracks and pieces together the puzzle of your personal life.

Recently, there were online related content to men who set fire to cars and looted stores after Vancouver’s Stanley Cup defeat last week who were almost immediately identified through acquaintances online.  Another instance is when a freelance photographer, Rich Lam, reviewed his pictures of the riots in Vancouver and spotter several shots of an intimate couple surrounded by police officers in the middle of a passionate kiss. When the photos were published, netizens pursued to find out what the identities of this passionate couple was. Within the same day the couple’s relatives tipped off and confirmed the identities of Scott Jones and Alex Thomas. Events in the world, whether they be terrifying, embarrassing, or indelicate—they will all be remembered. This is why protecting your identity, managing your digital footprint, and having an active online presence is of utmost importance.

While online data about yourself could eliminate opportunities, no online presence can eliminate opportunities as well. Having an active online presence not only means keeping your LinkedIn profile up to date but also managing your digital dirt and being aware of what information is available for everyone to see in the world wide web. While in 2008, 44% of recruiters were eliminated because of their online presence or lack thereof, 70% of recruiters finding positive information online improves candidates’ job prospects.

Now, this raises the questions: Do you have G-Cred? and How do you stand up to the competition on Google? John Follis says, “…What someone sees when they Google your name, your business or organization…It is an increasingly important measure of legitimacy and how seriously someone will take you.” Understanding the importance of your G-Cred relays how substantive your brand, reputation, and value really are.

Defining yourself online requires strong branding and reputation, but you must be able to tell the difference from both. When branding yourself, you have to think of yourself like a business, less personal—self centered, and exclusive. If your brand is “unique only to you”, it can limit your ability to show you can do many things. While building your brand is important you have to think back to your reputation and the fact that it precedes you. Building your reputations means that you just need to show your expertise, not “exclusivity.” Back up your expertise by focusing on relationship building which concocts integrity and genuineness—this will help you gain sincere recommendations of your work. This will require you to be other centered and inclusive of everyone around you.

With all done and said, many are still skeptical of providing their personal and even professional information online. As you build your profile, fix in mind that everything that goes online, stays online—even if you delete it. Remember “The Emperor Has No Clothes’ story? Well, keep that in mind when you are on any social media site. People seem to forget what other people can see on their profile. So here are a few guidelines to follow that will help you manage your online presence:

1.     Don’t advertise that you are looking for a job

2.     Don’t say anything negative about anybody

3.     Don’t make rude comment, even on Facebook.

4.     Don’t forget to check your spelling.

The key to sharing more of your personal life is to be selective about what you share. Sharing information about fun weekend activities, trips, family events are great as they introduce the less formal side of you, and give your connections/friends/acquaintances other reasons to relate to you, other than on just a professional level. Anonymity isn’t back in style, managing your digital footprint is.

By: Chitra Esther Chelladurai & Donna Swiedan

Facebook is the cornerstone of social media, especially, the social part of it. Though it’s a great way to meet friends and family it is also a great way to have a meet and greet with professionals. Facebook is an excellent way to advance and propel your job search if you use the right strategies to do so.

Some strategies are:

• Using Facebook’s status update like you would with Twitter—just asking a simple question like, “Does anyone know someone who needs a new website?” Your network will work for you, there are bound to be people who know someone or might know someone who can help you out.
• Asking someone on Facebook to help you introduce you to someone or a recruiter can help you go a long way. This is especially true when that recruiter is looking to fill an opening and you just happen to be at hand.
• Use Facebook to showcase yourself as a “whole” person. It’s a great way to display your professional and personal interests. If you are careful and considerate of your audience it can be a great way for your professional network to really get a taste of who you are.
• Branchout, an application on Facebook, is like a LinkedIn for Facebook. Branchout aggregates your friend’s professional activities and networks to better advance your job search.
• Remember “The Emperor Has No Clothes’ story? Well, keep that in mind when you are on Facebook or any social media site for that matter. People seem to forget what other people can see on their profile.
• Notes: The notes application on Facebook is almost like a FB blog. Like any other blog, blogs can help keep your network updated professionally. Suppose you just got laid off or are not finding what you really want professionally, you can use FB notes to communicate to people what you really want and where  you want to go with it. Though a status update is a good way to get quick responses, they aren’t as meaningful as a response to notes. Have a blog already? Another tip is to import your blog posts to FB or copy your blog post into a note.
• Facebook search is a great way to find people that are similar to you. For example, if you are a designer or an alumna of UCONN you can find a group on Facebook for that. Through groups you can find people that are looking for the same thing that you are or can identify with your job search.
• If you aren’t looking for anything specific you can join the popular group “Recruiters on Facebook” which post job openings as they come. This is a great opportunity for you to build a relationship with recruiters and let them know who you are and what you are about.
• Marketplace…not many people know about Facebook’s app Marketplace but it is an AWESOME tool to find job listings. It’s like your newspaper listing brought to the convenience of your own home (for free!)
• Facebook Ads is a feature that helps self-promote yourself—design your ad to tell a little bit about yourself. Who you are, what you’re looking for, and why you’re here—say it loud and clear.
• Network Network Network! That’s the main purpose of Facebook, you might as well use it to your advantage! Meet new people that have similar interests to you and develop relationships with them.

By: Chitra Esther Chelladurai & Donna Sweidan

Stop, drop, and think before you tweet!  Twitter is a great way to get a job and even greater way to lose one. When tweeting, there are a few guidelines you should follow: don’t say anything that would embarrass you in front of a future in-law or your potential boss at your dream job, no posting of lewd pictures, make sure all tweets can be understood by anyone—this means no inside jokes (no one wants to feel left out!), and lastly be mindful of not only the followers you have but also any potential followers. By doing this, you can avoid what a potential employee of Cisco had tweeted about: 

“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weight the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

 It goes without saying that this potential employee not only did not get the job but also got a reply to their tweet:

“Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We at Cisco are versed in the web.”