Social Media emerges in a hiring process

While researching on Collegemonster.com, I discovered the job position opening as head blogger for singer/actress/entertainer Alicia Keys. The qualified person will blog about Alicia Keys, while also trying to empower women, since she has been a great role model to many young women around the world. The website, ISSA.com (I am Super), is looking for someone with excellent writing skills, excellent communication skills and of course, someone who knows how to utilize social media. Since I have been enhancing my skills in all of these, I decided to apply. It's a chance in thousands, but why not take the chance?

Alicia Keys, or really her employees, know how to utilize social media. They teamed up with Monster.com to find a candidate. She created a video about the job position and her mission for the blog. The hiring process also utilizes social media. The first round of resumes will be searched through by a technology program, 6sense, to pin point key words. It is always important to have key words when applying for jobs online. For the second round, candidates will need to create a video and give writing samples. Ten lucky applicants will be chosen and flown to NYC to be interviewed by Alicia Keys and her staff, plus executives from Monster.com.

This process will take a few months, but it is a major job. It is interesting to see how Alicia Keys used social media throughout the whole hiring process. Mashable.com has already written a post about this hiring process and how social media is now an important part of the work force. Click to see Mashable's blog.

Last Week's Class was Totally Dawesome!

For my Social Media & PR class, we had a guest speaker, John Dawe. He started his own business, John Dawe Consulting Group, which involves technology, eMarketing, fundraising, project development and management. He had a very engaging discussion about social media and utilizing it in campaigns, specifically political campaigns. John promoted a local judge when elections were coming up and he did a great job, since the candidate won.

John gave great examples of how to use social media and how successful it can be. It was very helpful to me because we have been looking at how to use social media in class. Having him as a guest speaker further developed our knowledge of social media by looking at successful results of it. John is a social networking guru and his discussion gave me more confidence in the concept of social media! Thanks!

H&M is catching the social media bug...finally!

An interesting tweet came from H&M's Twitter less than 24 hours ago. They tweeted about a link for the Autumn/Winter 2010 clothing trends. It was linked to a YouTube video, which included a fashion editor speaking about the upcoming trends and shots of a catwalk fashion show. If you love fashion, check it out! Although the future fashions for the Fall are quite boring and ugly, I like how they gave their audience an insight into the fashion world.

If they tweeted more links to videos on their Twitter page, I think it will really boost the amount of followers. A plethora of people are interested in fashion and it would be a smart move for H&M to start a social media campaign of videos geared specifically for "fashionistas" about high fashion interviews and shows. H&M is not really in the category of high fashion (expensive) clothing, but it puts them into a more prestigious category of knowing fashion.

At the end of the video, they posted their facebook page and asked viewers to post their opinions about it. Way to start a conversation H&M!

Big Fan of Hulu.com

For any of you who do not know what Hulu.com is, you are missing out. I'm not sure why people even have cable television anymore. After not having a TV for almost a year now, I've discovered ways people can get around it. It saves a lot of time wasted in front of the television and it saves money. Hulu.com is not a social media outlet, but it is a great website for TV show fans and movies. It is also an awesome, legal way to watch shows or movies.

Recently, I've been addicted to the show Lost and I'm SO happy that Hulu.com has seasons 1-5 on it. I'm currently on season 3! Hulu.com offers many seasons of many shows. There's no reason to purchase cable for TV shows, unless the website doesn't have it or if you want to watch the newest episodes. Check out Hulu.com and see what shows you've always wanted to watch!

Infected with the Social Media Bug

Take a look at the map above of the domination of social media. Like an infectious disease, it continues to "divide and conquer" cyberspace and millions of people around the world. When will it stop?!?! After several weeks of analyzing different social media outlets and observing companies' use of it for PR strategies, I've caught the social media bug.

In a way, it helps me connect and learn about things that I never would have heard of without social media. Although it's a valuable tool, it gets a bit too overwhelming sometimes. How can one person handle all of the networking sites and blogs? How do they manage their time with social media? I feel like it develops into an addiction. Pretty soon, people will be admitted to Social Media Addicts Anonymous (SMAA) meetings to discuss their hours upon hours spent on social networking websites and how if they don't tweet every hour, they get depressed.

For anyone starting out in the social media world, I advise you to choose your favorite sites and stick with them. If you spend more than 2 hours a day on it and feel as though you have no "real" social life, please sign up for SMAA and attend the next meeting!

"Peter Parker" visits our Social Media & PR class!

Last night, our class had a guest speaker visit, Chris Hughes (a.k.a. -"PeterParker_pa"; and no, that's not Chris in the picture...but yes, he looks like him). He discussed how newspapers have been keeping up on the ever-growing social media trends. As The Times Leader's online guy, Chris explained the different media outlets he utilizes to make The Times Leader stand out and to be on top of news stories 24/7.

You can now find headlines by The Times Leader on Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Youtube.com, you name it. It's funny to think about how the founders of the newspaper, from 1907, would think of its development. It would be unimaginable to the old guys! From all of these new social media outlets, breaking news is out in a second, which has made newspapers more transparent. So, just as Spiderman catches criminals before they commit a crime, our local "Peter Parker" catches stories and saves the day by telling the community in a second!

Although sometimes overwhelming, it is nice to have the news at your fingertips, literally. All you need is a phone or iPod with internet access and BINGO, you are forever linked in. Now...I just need to get an iPhone and I'll be good to go! Donations to the iPhone fund are greatly appreciated (just kidding, there's no fund...sadly).

H&M's Third Tweet for March, with only two weeks left of the month!

What better way to bring in the beautiful spring weather than a new wardrobe with H&M's garden collection? Through H&M's Twitter, I was able to discover their new collection on the store's website. This was the only thing I've discovered via their Twitter account since March 3rd! I can't believe how inconsistent the company has been on Twitter.

I believe it is time for H&M to either increase tweeting or leave the twitter world. I have already given them a second chance and I'm not sure if a third one is necessary. A tweet a day isn't THAT hard. From neglecting to update, I feel that H&M doesn't have anything interesting to tweet about, which makes me a little disappointed in the company. I didn't want to say this, but I might have to say "Goodbye, H&M".