Social Media Network and the News – Is Social Media All the Times Used in a Positive Way?

We all know about the revolutions that are taking place in the Arab countries a few months. Tunisia in December and January, Egypt in January and February and as of a few days ago Libya…

This topic got my attention when I heard yesterday morning in the news that Libya cut off the Internet network in the country. I also heard a month ago about the Egypt revolution.

I was wondering why? The first thing I thought was they did it because the government wanted to control the news that the foreign countries can get, by allowing just one or two TV channels to give the news about the situation. So, I looked on the Internet and that was not the reason or not the main one…

Those revolutions are actually started through the social media network. In their autocratic governments, the population was not used to express its feelings toward them. However, they did it through social media tools like Facebook or Twitter. According to, CNN the marches for the Egypt revolution started thanks to Facebook messages.

These last months, I got on my Facebook page so many “Facebook friends” status protesting for the Revolution and against Ben Ali (Ex Tunisia president)… So the protests were all over the web and all over the world.

This proliferation of rebellions against Arab governments has caused those revolutions and is still causing more. It is like a snow ball which does not stop and is getting bigger. Through the internet, the population of Arab countries gets to talk to each other and see what is happening in the neighboring countries. So the anger they have against their political leader is getting stronger as they see that in the other countries they are fighting for more liberty and for a new government and that seems to be working…

We can see these protests on all social media tools; the most popular are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. If you type into YouTube “Arab revolutions”, you will see a lot of videos appear. When you type more precise words you get to see how many home videos are made, people with their phones recorded all the scenes of the events in Tahrir Square, Egypt for example.

I will conclude on this topic by saying that social media network can be used in so many positive ways but also a few bad. I am not saying that asking for more liberty is bad, but I am saying that those revolutions are causing the death of thousands of people, so the consequences can be very negative.

On the other hand, the example of YouTube shows us, once again, that social media is good for us because we can see what is really happening over there and not being manipulated by journalists and/or governments.

Finally, these news events prove that we are in a new era where social media tools are essential and used as an everyday tool all over the world.

Articles related:

http://www.usavanguard.com/opinion/point-egyptian-revolution-can-it-be-replicated-peacefully-1.2007795

http://www.examiner.com/technology-in-cincinnati/should-internet-access-be-a-basic-human-right

http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/20/arab-revolts-another-good-week-for-social-media-a-bad-week-for-dictators/

Social Media Campaigns Can Be Successful, But Not Always...!

I know much more successful social media campaigns than failed ones.

The best viral marketing campaign that I know and that have been watched all over the world is “The Best Job in The World”. The video explains it all but in brief; the Queensland tourism office posted a job offer on the internet for the Best Job in The World. It consisted to spend 6 months in the Great Barrier Reef to clean the pool, feed the fish, explore the island and make reports for $US150000… 

This job offer is I guess the most famous in the world. If you watch the video, I am sure that you are saying to yourself “I would love doing this job”! I totally agree with you because that is what I am thinking when I am watching it!

This video became well-known because it came out during the economic crisis when the majority of the world had problems of money and were laid off. This job was a way to get a job, to get money, also to run away from the problems we all had and to spend six months in a paradisiacal island. So they chose the right moment to publish the video. Then, there were not an audience profile for this advertisement because EVERYBODY would dream to spend a semester in the Great Barrier Reef! The video is good quality and the pictures they chose would make everybody dream. This video is just yelling to us: Come to Visit Us!

So the Queensland tourism wanted thanks to this video to become famous all over the world (watched in over 200 countries, so that worked), find the best employee ever (they received impressive number of applications and 2.3 million of visits in their web site during the application period, so that worked) and finally get a lot of international tourists to come (I am positive: that worked!)

Then, I know one viral marketing campaign that did not work as the company expected.

In 2006, General Motor let its customers create their own advertisements about the Chevy Tahoe SUV. The company thought it was a good idea to make the internet users speak about its brand. They actually spoke about the Chevy Tahoe SUV but in a very negative way for most of them… This video can show you how this user promoted the car!

The biggest error GM made is not keeping in mind that we all are becoming more and more aware of the ecological problems. That is why let the users make marketing about a big car was not the best idea. They actually all focused on the pollution and the gas that this car uses. It was everything but “green”. 

So in a way, I could say that this campaign got viral and famous but not for the good reasons. General Motor got hurt for this campaign. As we all know, a negative advertisement hurts a lot and is very difficult to get rid of it.

I had another idea for a bad viral marketing campaign but I do not know if the campaign was perceived in the same way in Europe and in the US.

I think you all remember the viral marketing campaign of Budweiser when everybody was yelling “wazza”… Here is the link if you do not remember… In Europe, this campaign got very famous but nobody remembered who it came from. They all kept in mind a funny campaign with people having fun screaming WAZZZAAAA but they did not keep in mind that it was for Budweiser… So, for what I know in Europe this campaign did not work as Budweiser expected. 

How social media can help/hurt your professional life ?

The way of looking for a job and the way the recruiters look for new employees is changing…

As the article we read this week explained, a lot of people are unemployed (6.5%) and “there will be 1.5 million college graduates this year”. The most important fact on which I am going to focus today is : ” One in five hiring managers conduct background checks using social networks (primarily Facebook), while one in ten college admissions officers do the same.”

Is it a good or a bad news? I do not know yet… Until now all my managers were great and fun people so they were more playing with me when they were speaking about my Facebook pictures!

However, when I will look for a full time job after grad school i might change the privacy setting and/or delete some of my pictures…!

In fact, I spoke last year with two different directors of human resources of different organizations and they both had the same speech about social media content.

They actually look for Facebook pages (or other social media) before offering an interview.

In a way, they told me they strongly like to get to know the candidate in his/her “true” personal life before hiring him/her.

Everybody (or almost everybody) is trying during interviews to give the best of himself/herself but with social media we cannot have any secrets and everything we have done can be known by potential employers!

Today, most of recruiters are looking for a personality and not just skills. If what they can see in the pictures does not bother them but fit with the personality they are looking for, they will call the applicant, if not, they will not waste their time by offering them an interview.

My personal opinion is quite different. I think personal life and professional life are two separate worlds. My personality is festive as I am with my friends but I am also very professional and responsible while I am working.

So I think companies should look at special social media like LinkedIn or our professional Facebook profile but not our personal one. This other article explained it well by saying “Devote a Facebook page to your professional life”.

So to conclude my blog this week, I can say that yes for me some of social media tools can hurt our professional life. Our private life does not affect our boss or our future boss. 

However, social media, as LinkedIn or other networking sites dedicated to our professional life, are very good tools to use. It shows our experiences, academic career, interest and it is a platform to exchange with (potential) employers. We actually should make the most of it and create connections with the companies we like most. So we will be known by them and we will be able to let them know easily when we will be looking for a job.

Is social media marketing a fad or here to stay? What indicators suggest that social media is permanent vs. a fad?

“Years to reach 50 million users:

Radio 38 years,

TV 13 years,

Internet 4 years,

IPod 3 years,

… FACEBOOK ADDED OVER 200 MILLION USERS IN LESS THAN 1 YEAR”

I think social media marketing is not a fad but a novelty here to stay. 

Do you know a lot of people who do not have any Facebook / Twitter / MySpace accounts? Not so much…

Let’s try something else: this new phone that has just came out, what do you do? Maybe you write a new facebook status “what you think about this new phone?” or you go on forums to check out what the first buyers think about it?

This is word of mouth and according to this video 78% of consumers trust what their peers recommend (unlike 14% for an advertisement).

I do not think that it is just a trend. The companies earn a lot of money thanks to social media marketing. This other video proves it: “Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media” and of course, this is just an example. Do you think that businesses would like to stop earning money? I guess no! 

Social media marketing is now a fact that so many firms work with. 

The number of companies using, for example Facebook accounts for their recruitment, are growing every day. 

Everybody is using those social websites to keep in touch with friends/family/co-workers… 

The life is so international now that we need those kinds of tools to be able to communicate with people living on the other side of the world.  

This is becoming a necessity that is why social media is permanent.