Social Media and #Job hunting

We’re hiring new staff….woohoo! This means I’m in business for checking out all those fresh candidates online!
How does your online life match with your curriculum vitae? I found it very important to make shure that the on-line matches the off-line. This way I get a complete 360°view on the candidate.

So where do you/we start?
Off course the curriculum vitae (CV)…where a fresh candidate shows his life, status, education, experience, ….
Next up checking the online versions….are they corresponding? Depending on the job opening I found it very interesting to see how the candidates interact and present themselves online.  If you’re hiring a social media manager (f.i.), he can present you a great resume, but when his own private social media plan is the opposite of what your company wants, you might want to think again about hiring this guy! A conversation manager should be about open, positive and professional communication…So when the candidate’s profile is completely sealed with the highest privacy levels, I don’t think he’s matching the profile. He isn’t able of being a social media manager for is own account, let alone for a business account!

So huge tip: make shure your online profile is matching your off-line, and use social media to your advantage.
LinkedIn and Facebook are cool tools to build an online CV. Use the correct privacy settings on Facebook, to show you can manage a Facebook profile professionally. Make shure to show and hide the right pictures to your future employe. If you claim to be sportive, make shure your Facebook profile shows a few pictures. Education, working experience need to be shared not hidden…show it, build references through those channels!

Second tip: add online content to your off-line CV. Please exist online, don’t play dead in the flat world!
Use Slideshare uploads, YouTube movies, own website, blog, QR codes to pimp your off-line CV! It’s important to share knowledge these days, so why not share your knowledge…creative commons, you know?! Add more content and insights to your 4 page resume! Make shure your future employer gets to know you!

When I’m hiring, I’m looking for an online profile which matches the off-line CV and has knowledge to share, and doesn’t hold back on information. If you’re hiding information, or falsely pimping your CV, we’ll probably track it down through the on-line channels…always awkard when this happens!
Hopefully I inspired you to build a viral on/off-line CV for your next job!

Social media as an educational tool

Education in the 21th century can’t be the same as education in the 20th century…
As I already stated in my prior post I’m a true believer of collaborative education where a teacher is a facilitator, the guy who gives a structure, and the students are the real knowledge workers.

A major role as a tool (never a goad) can be social media in every form you can think of; microblogging, Facebook, Blog, wiki, … Social media can be the platform to engage and enchant the students…but recognizes also the student as an individual learner! In my presentation I see a couple of challenges…and when I give this presentation, I can see they are real challanges; like mindset (both teacher and student side!), choosing the right algorithm for social media use in each learning context (which is always different – topic, subject, students, ….) and last but not least sharing of knowledge (breaking down the barriers and collaborate).

If you want to this presentation alive and kicking in your learning/working environment, don’t hesitate to contact me (flatworldbusiness@gmail.Com)!

The Cost of Social Media

The social media fad is gone, social media is here to stay…but if you look around and ask who is using it business wise, few will raise their hand. Reasons differ: I don’t know how to use it (properly), I don’t need social media presence (shame to even think this in 2011), … and what does this cost me and what are my net benefits?

Off course I don’t have an accurate answer, but I can tell you social media doesn’t come for free (at little cost, or little time). The next infograph (click it to see it in full!) shows different costs and generated benefits!

Always keep in mind: staff costs, external costs (building stuff you can’t do in-house), advertising (as part of the social media campaign) and others!
While main benefits often don’t mention a sales increase….but in my opinion still worth while since consumer satisfaction and engagement will probably mean more sales (as a second wave!)

Interesting Times – Skype, Cloud, AVOS

Again 2011 is an exiting year for online (social) media…roumours of a new bubble, take-overs, new players, ….

You probably read it, heard it, … tweeted about it…but Microsoft has taken over Skype for a staggering $8.5 Bio. Giving the former owner eBay a huge return on investment. But why did Microsoft want to buy Skype? Microsoft needed a glue between his different components regarding video, voice and sharing technologies. Skype will probably be embedded and integrated in different Microsoft applications like Hotmail, outlook, live, … but will also enter the living room through the kinetic and Xbox. This means that online communication, video conferencing, phone calls, .. just entered millions of living rooms, and become accessible for a whole new audience. (And off course Google did get it….yes competition is always around in the flat world.)

The huge amount, $8.5 bio, again starts discussion about a possible (social media) internet bubble.  LinkedIn also is hoping to collect $3.3 bio through an IPO later this month.  If you know LinkedIn has only got 1/13 or $250 mio on revenues…you just wonder. How and why would they want to collect so much money? But with this IPO out, LinkedIn is the first social media company who officially (over)values his assets, technology, …. I’m not investing, since Facebook is aiming at the professional market as well, and therefore LinkedIn will get into troubled times.

Avos is a completely different story…2 of the original entrepreneurs of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, are again entering the social media world. First with the acquisition of Delicious from yahoo, and just yesterday with the take over of Tap11 an analytics platform…and what’s next! It’s for shure that the sky is again the limit for those boys…intergrating bookmarks and analytics is probably the first step into an integrated service they want to offer their customer. There will probably be a good insight on customer added value to be reached through a combination of this services. As they write in their press-release: “create the world’s best platform for users to save, share, and discover new content” Which content is a bit flew right now, but wait and see….to be continued!

After Amazon Google launched it’s cloud player this week….we all know cloud is the future of storage and access, but I didn’t Amazon and Google to be the first companies offering this services… I was convinced Apple would be the first mover, but Amazon has first mover advantage, and even had a back door open to integrate the Amazon Cloud on iOS devices today. I’m looking out for the Apple move on this…will they be able to beat the first mover?

Interesting Times, and for sure to be continued !

JP Morgan boosts Twitter again….how big can the bubble get? [Updated]

450 million dollar….this is how much JP Morgan funds (Digital Growth Fund) is aiming to pay for a 10% participation in Twitter!
Adding this 450 million to the already huge value of Twitter, Twitter would value up to 4,5 billion dollar. Where only 2 months ago Twitter was valued 3,7 billion dollar in total. A raise in value of approx. 15%, I wish my investment was gaining capital at this rate!

Again this feeds the thoughts of a social media bubble….although Twitter declares making money, I still don’t see how but then again I’m not making their balance! So are we really heading for a bubble to burst?

Looking at different media and listening to different analysts, and insides (like Google’s CEO f.i.)….I must say I really don’t know. The signs are there. But is every bubble the same, and will it burst eventually? Let look at some signs….

• Is it hard to attract money for new social media/IT businesses? – NO. If you see how easy Facebook and Twitter have access to money!
• Are these businesses making money? – Not yet….and will they in the end….we’ll see!
• Are they showing a clear strategic vision? – Some are….and they have created new public needs (=social connection)
• Is their technology tailored to the needs of the market? – Yes, especially from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn who serve a different audience and on focus with their market. But huge investments are needed to maintain this technology (increasing demands!)
• Authentic leadership? Yes, Zuckerberg is a strong ‘brand’ with a clear vision on his ‘product’

So will it burst? It will burst for the small ones, like Netlog, Hyves, Hi5, …. who are competing in a highly aggressive world (unless they change their business model, and get a new focus on sharply chosen market!), but for the big ones….will have to wait and see!

But look at Amazon, they survided…..social media will survive as well! How and when….we’ll notice sooner or later!

If you want more predictions, check out these blogs, and webs:

• http://siliconangle.com/blog/2011/02/11/internet-bubble-again-yes-and-no/
• http://paidcontent.org/article/419-is-the-second-dotcom-bubble-underway-ten-telltale-signs/
• http://gigaom.com/2011/02/14/silicon-valley-the-land-of-confusion/
• http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/02/21/boom-or-bust-broadband-and-social-media-will-save-dotcom-2-0/
• http://www.businessinsider.com/cloud-computing-bubble-looks-like-dot-com-bubble-warns-ubs-2011-2
• http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3620882.ece
• http://www.quora.com/Will-we-have-a-new-dotcom-bubble-driven-by-Social-Networks-and-Social-Media-in-2011-or-2012
• http://www.actioncoachsocialmedia.com/social-media-bubble/
• ….[and many more]

(Picture from Actioncoachsocialmedia)

 [Update March 3, 2011 - Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, announces at Reuters, Twitter doesn't plan to put out an IPO, because Twitter has enough money for the next 12 months! We'll see!]

SM secrets – Antwerp (2/23/2011)

Antwerp – February 23, 2011 – Antwerp ZOO (of all places)

 ’startupbreaks‘ – a group of young and dynamic entrepreneurs who want to help out and connect with other entrepreneurs – launched SM Secrets (Social Media Secrets). A night to connect with, and ‘learn’ what social media is al about, and what social media can do to your business.  Through well casted testimonials from

• Princes_Misia – Marta Majewska on Twitter use
  A gorgeous young vice president of Porter Novelli (Brussels Office) gave a strong impression and easy to use tips on Twitter.
  
• Isabelle Dumortier on Facebook use
  Again – did they typecast – a young entrepreneur on the use of Facebook in your business. Taking the ‘stage’ for the first time Isabelle gave a strong personal story on how to use social media (like Facebook), implementing on a case study from ‘The Weekly World’, and standing up for her own strategy (which wasn’t the strategy from her boss!) 
• Nick the Mey on LinkedIn use
  Nick De Mey was bringing a story on how his own business is growing through efficient use of Social Media (LinkedIn). Again easy access tips and great knowledge sharing….[this would be a cool guy to have in the flat education section]
  

The audience got into a trance on using social media for Business – off course I was already convinced….but still nice to see my ideas aren’t that bad!

The second part showcased Mobile Vikings by  Chris Demeyere  and MedeMerkers and social media by Saskia Videler.
Chris made a stunning impression just by giving a brief presentation and pointing out: Mobile Internet is a right! (and a need for the future in my opinion). And Social Media is not only an online event, but also an off-line necessity.

Saskia Vediler gave an overview on the different social media use, and rounding up a great evening!

I hope to see more of these….

After the dotcom bubble, the social bubble?

Since rumours are rising about the take-over from Twitter, and the highly valued social media sites (like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, …), more and more analysts are seeing similarities with the dotcom bubble which busted 10 years ago. Overvalued dotcom – companies, which were not-profitable, went bankrupt and together with it millions of (invested) money and many jobs were lost!

It doesn’t seem so out of the ordinary to think this might happen as well with the social hype…..(over?)valued companies like Twitter (valued at 10 billion dollar) and Facebook (valued at almost 83 billion dollar) have seen a large growth over the last year(s). In March 2010 Facebook only valued a 12 billion dollar….so Facebook sevenfolded its value within the year. It look’s familiar to the Nasdaq chart (which was home of the dotcom industry) from early 21th century.

Off course….we learn lessons from the past but again the flat world has significantly changed since early 2001…we’re in the 2.0 era, and Mobile so….maybe these loss making companies will become profitable and were a good investment for those investors?! Time will tell, and yes….some social media hyped companies will go bankrupt, but others will survive, like Amazon survived the dotcom bubble. 

If you’re looking for key succes factor to survive a second flat world bubble….maybe you should check out my flat education section on building a flat business. And off course it’s not a bible, it is only a few ideas on how a business can survive in a flat world!

I would like to know your ideas on this new bubble en how to survive it….you just press comment!

(graph sources: http://mortgagedfuture.com/similar-chart-similar-ending/)

10 BIO dollar Tweet for privacy!

Twitter is being hunted down….since the value of this short message service has been estimated at 10 billion dollar both Google and Facebook are looking to buy Twitter (according to the Wall Street Journal).

The first negotiations were not positive, and it’s strange that both Google and Facebook are interested in company who still has an operational loss annualy! But the outlook for 2011 looks bright with a turnover between 100 and 110 mio dollar, will it be enough to make a profit….we’ll have to wait and see….

So why are Facebook and Google realy interested in Twitter: the data! As millions of users make billions of tweets their is a large sum of data to be collected. Data which is of interest for any (commercial) company! The Twitter community is highly valued amongst users.
If it comes to a take-over or merger between Twitter and Google/Facebook …a new datamogul rises and will have tons of data with valuable customer information which can and will be matched with the already exting data! Again less privacy, and more data in one hand….this company will rule our flat world on and off line when it comes to data mining!

Again it is time for a new flat statement:

In the flat world privacy is not an option.