Tapping into the Power of the Crowd

The phenomenal growth in the popularity of social networks has expanded its user base from individuals to include businesses of various sizes. Millions of people spend hours eacy day on multiple social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Contemporary businesses quickly respond to this trend by integrating social networks into their marketing strategy to gain visibility, connect to their customers, promote their products and services, and improve their bottom line.

While knowing how to tap into these social networks effectively can greatly benefit smart businesses, the adoption of social networking tools into the workforce can also pose major concerns such as lowering productivity and raising security threats. Some potential benefits and threats associated with integrating social networks into a business include the following:

The Benefits:

• Expand online contacts by establishing an impressive profile, thus minimizing costs associated with advertising and marketing efforts.
• Reach out to people personally by encouraging them to connect and become friends. This also extends connections to their network of friends as well.
• Present an online image of a business that is innovative, reputable, and reliable.
• Implement market campaigns such as special promotions, important announcements, and directed web links.

The Concerns:

• Reduce overall productivity when employees spend too much time on social networks during work hours.
• Lower company morale when some employees have to cover the workload for those who are addicted to social networking sites.
• Create problems for IT administrators to deal with high level of bandwidth usage when employees visit those sites with audio/video interfaces.
• Introduce spams and infecting malware when using third party applications within the social network sites. E.g. Koobaface worms associated with messaging software.
• Damage the company's reputation when disgruntled employees make derogatory comments about the company or when they are found to view sites with offensive and illegal content.

Faced with the dilemma of embracing this new way of online communication and confronting major security threats, companies have to decide how much access, if any, to grant their employees. Is it better to ban access to all social networking sites altogether, or grant full and unmonitored access, or settle somewhere in between? It appears that the option favored by most companies is to strike a balance by offering their employees restricted access and setting limits on Internet use. In doing so, they must also equip themselves with the following measures:

• Install current anti-virus software in all computers
• Set up a company firewall to guard against unauthorized access
• Establish and enforce company's security and Interney usage policy
• Monitor Internet usage by the employees and monitor social networking sites
• Grant employees restricted access and monitor access using web filtering software
• Conduct web security awareness training to all employees

The scary thing is that recent Facebook's privacy changes allows sharing of its users' information with other pre-approved third-party applications so that our friends would know about us, not just through Facebook, but through other sites that have alliance agreement with Facebook. Even scarier is that government agencies including the FBI and IRS also use social networking to piece together information as part of their clues to chase down criminals.

The question is: Is our life becoming public just because we joined social networking sites?

Sources:

Internet Addict Image.

Diaz, Sam. "Facebook Fan Pages Get Boost with 'Social Engagement Hub'" ZDNet Technology News. 10 Mar. 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2010.

Dignan, Larry. "Facebook's Privacy Changes: When Will It Go Too Far (and Will You Even Notice)?" ZDNet Technology News. 29 Mar. 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2010.

Dignan, Larry, Sam Diaz, and Andrew Nusca. "FBI, Feds Collect Facebook, Social Media Data; Why Are You Surprised?" ZDNet Technology News. 17 Mar. 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2010.

Kelleher, David. "5 Problems with Social Networking in the Workplace." Information Management. 6 Oct. 2009. Web. 9 Apr. 2010.

Establishing Connections in a Spider Web of Social Networks

Besides serving as an effective way of connecting people globally, social networking has become a powerful tool for job hunting and recruiting. For job seekers, these online networks provide a perfect opportunity for marketing their capabilities. For recruiters, social networking tools allow them to locate candidates with specific experience and skills quickly and inexpensively. To make the best use of social media tools, the job hunters and the recruiters may consider the following:

For the job hunters,

• Establish a presence on websites where recruiters or potential employers are likely to visit
• Establish profiles on social network sites, such as LinkedIn, Ryze, Facebook, Twitter, Coworkers.com, alumni networks, and other professional associations, to build new contacts and meet people for sharing knowledge and experience.
• Keep separate profiles for personal and professional use, but maintain consistency in the way you present yourself across different sites
• Showcase your skills, experience, interest; Emphasize your strengths that attract potential employers
• Maintain a track record to allow recruiters to solicit feedback on you from co-workers, both past and present (i.e. joining Coworkers.com)
• Raise your value and broaden your visibility by engaging in regular "tweets", maintain a 75%-25% professional-to-personal tweet ratio, and identify yourself in a professional way
• Set up a blog that represents you; use it for both information capturing as well as telling others about who you are and what you do regularly

For the recruiters,

• Use social media tools to complement traditional recruiting methods and generate a large number of results
• Identify potential candidates online and explore "passive hires", communicate and evaluating these candidates online
• Extend company's networks to become a part of a larger network (a "talent pool") by leveraging its relationships with employees and other businesses
• Set up online job boards to advertise jobs and provide accurate job description
• Employ different social network tools for different types of job openings (ie. use Craiglist for senior positions and Creativecircle for entry to mid-level positions)
• Make company attractive to candidates rather than simply specify the job requirements
  
• Establish a company blog to encourage communication, spot top talents, and project a desirable image to outsiders

Social networking embraces the concepts of "six degree of separation" - two random people can be connected to each other through six other people (Menon). Social network sites weave the weak ties among people into a powerful web of talents and skills by allowing people to tab into other people outside their direct association. It is this powerful web that everyone dabs into for resources. A common complaint from HR professionals is that the large volume of resumes received makes it difficult to identify the qualified candidates. On the other hand, a common complaint from the job seekers is that the recruiters do not always get back to them regarding feedback or decision.

I find social networking beneficial to recruiting because the online process is far more efficient, less costly, and definitely eco-friendly. In addition, both the recruiters and the job applicants get to check one another out, and become better acquainted prior to engaging in further time and cost commitment.

Sources:
Chalian, Henry. "Working with Financial Recruiters." WSJ Blogs - WSJ. 4 Mar. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2010.

"How to Not Hire Someone Via Craigslist." How to Change the World. 27 Aug. 2007. Web. 27 Mar. 2010.

Image

Menon, Nikhil. "6 Degrees of Recruitment." The Economic Times: Business News, Personal Finance, Financial News, India Stock Market Investing, Economy News, SENSEX, NIFTY, NSE, BSE Live, IPO News. 27 Mar. 2007. Web. 27 Mar. 2010.

Miller, Lee E. "Social Networking Has Its Perks." New Jersey Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - NJ.com. 21 Mar. 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2010.

Porter, Joshua. "The Blog Is the New Resume." Bokardo Social Design by Joshua Porter. 19 Apr. 2007. Web. 27 Mar. 2010.

Schweyer, Allan. "The Power of Weak Ties (in Recruiting)." Small Business and Small Business Information for the Entrepreneur. 1 Aug. 2005. Web. 27 Mar. 2010.

Beware of Mobile Stalkers...They're on the Loose

Many telecommunication businesses believe that the GPS-enabled phone is a game changer in the wireless phone industry. As early as 2007, mobile social networking already existed, integrated with GPS location awareness programs (such as Buddy Beacon and Rave Guardian) and cut-down versions of social networks (such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter). Businesses expect this nifty new gadget to spice up the life of many, especially those under 25. While many embrace this new revolutionary technology with open arms, others fear potential cyberstalking.

Here are some positive and negative aspects of Mososo:

Pros:

• The GPS-enabled phone can pinpoint your location and direct you to places such as famous landmarks, motorway services, restaurants, or other entertainments.

• The whereabouts of your friends can be quickly located, making it easier for you to hang out with them.

• Software like Ubisafe can help parents to track the exact location of their children.
  

• The GPS alert services can help locate an elderly relative in distress quickly.

• A cyberscort service, such as Rave Guardian provided by Rave Wireless, Inc., links to campus police to ensure the safe arrival college students to their destination.

• Location-based services can generate business opportunities through the use of ad marketing.
  

Cons:

• To some, there are privacy concerns since the GPS phone keep tabs of you even while you are asleep and you have no control over who knows where you are (or who is stalking you)

• Being tracked by your friends, boss, or loved ones every minute of the day can be quite annoying.

• Being bombarded by location-based services with targeted ads and updates, and having your phone screen clogged up regularly can be irritating.

• Location awareness posts safety concerns. Pedophiles or identity thieves can hack into the mobile network and locate the whereabouts of you and your family members.

• The software application can be extremely addictive. Youngsters can stay logged into a virtual network, thus losing awareness of the real world.

Two years ago, some people were skeptical of the location awareness program on wireless phones. Today, it is evident that this integration solution is gaining popularity. As an example, back in 2007 mobile social network programs (like Buddy Beacon) were available only on compatible phones. Today, such programs run on multiple wireless carriers and phones. Speaking of which, Campus Police at American University is currently using Rave Guardian as a part of its student safety program.

Well then, if we had food, water (although some may prefer beer), and a GPS-enabled phone that we could text, send photos, watch movies, hound our friends, and locate hot spots (of course transportation and some money would be nice), then what else would we want?

Sources:

Cieslak, Marc. "Rise and Rise of the GPS Mobile." BBC NEWS | News Front Page. 7 Mar. 2008. Web. 10 Feb. 2010.

Goodale, Gloria. "Students' New Best Friend: 'MoSoSo'" The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com. 19 Jan. 2007. Web. 10 Feb. 2010.

Hamilton, Anita. "A Wireless Street Fight - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. 15 Feb. 2007. Web. 10 Feb. 2010.

McCarthy, Caroline. "The Mobile Social: Not Ready for Prime Time?" Technology News - CNET News. 13 Feb. 2008. Web. 10 Feb. 2010.

Samsung Mobile Phone. Digital image. Web. 10 Feb. 2010.

The Truth about Informal Networks

For this week's blog post, I have chosen to comment on the following two articles:
"Six Myths About Informal Networks - and How To Overcome Them" [MIT Sloan Management Review]
&
"The People Who Make Organizations Go-or-Stop" [Harvard Business Review]

The first article discusses how corporate executives fail to nurture informal networks due to strongly-held myths about how to make these networks more effective. A number of interesting points were presented. To build a stronger informal network, people should connect and communicate, not with everyone but, with those who provide relevant information. Instead of changing technical infrastructure to promote collaboration, organizations can assist informal networks by modifying their formal structure, work management practices, employee management practices, and their cultural values. To avoid information bottleneck at a central person, organizations can distribute information and decision-making responsibilities to others. It is also important for organizations to understand how informal networks function to get work accomplished so that corporate executives can strategically support these networks to benefit the organizations.

The second article discusses the importance of social networks and the four key role-players - central connector, boundary spanner, information broker, and peripheral specialist. The central connector, also known as the go-to-person, serves as the main source of information for the whole network. The boundary spanner links the central connector in multiple external networks so that they can share information as well as various types of expertise. The information broker connects various sub-networks within an organization in large information network to promote information sharing. The peripheral specialist serves as an expert for the network in special information or technical knowledge. He or she is not integrated in the network so that he or she can focus on advancing his or her area of expertise.

The thing that sparked my interest the most was the social network analysis - a powerful tool that corporate executives use to identify employees' social relationships within an organization. This allows the organization to help its employees to build more social relationships as needed.

I recommend both of these articles to everyone since it is informative and easy-to-read.

Images:
Social Networking. Digital image. Web. 16 Jan. 2010. http://muktiweb.org/images/social-networking.jpg.