Week 5 EOC: Social Networks and Job Hunting

Marketing has always been about reaching people. For years the method has been to use one sided media to reach the customer. Television, radio, newspaper, magazines billboards and mail flyers have the ability to reach many customers but are only one sided activities. The potential customer reads, views, or hears the marketing and then will either be influenced to start the purchase process or not. The company doing the selling has limited influence beyond the potential customer’s impression of what they saw. Worse the customer may never get the message due to that ability to change channels, disregard the flyer or with the advent of DVR’s just fast forwards.  To help avoid those shortcomings some companies are turning to brand ambassadors. “People love talking about things that make them happy—including their favorite products and brands.”(Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Philip p. 143). With a little training a person who is passionate about a product can become a powerful tool to help market the product.  The internet has had a huge impact on marketing since it became publicly available; now with social media it can have an even bigger impact.  Brand ambassadors have the ability to connect with a much larger audience than was previously possible.  Using social media, blogs and and their friends the circle of influence can be huge.  Another use that social media has besides marketing products is the potential to find employees.  There are numerous large job posting sites on the internet from LinkedIn to Monster, but cost can be a factor.  At the moment  “Facebook hires account for less than 1% of the total hires companies are making, according to Jobs2Web, which helps companies track the sources of candidates and hires.” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903885604576490763) Even though social media is having only a small impact on job posting sites now the projection is for growth in this area for the foreseeable future.