Social Networking

Social networking can help or hurt corporate business. According to Claire Cain Miller of New York Times, Twitter can be used for virtual conferencing. Twitter has this feature called Twitter hashtags where people would input a tag at the end of their posts to make it easier for people to find their posts in a search. There was an exclusive TED conference in California with guest speaker Bill Gates. Those who attended posted on Twitter things they were learning or quoting from Bill Gates and just putting #TED at the end of their posts. Here's an example:

"By searching #TED on Twitter, people could read the latest updates (and skip the $6,000 attendance fee). People wrote quotes from the speakers, like this one: “ ‘If I only had only one wish for the next 50 years, it’d be to invent the thing that halves the cost of CO2’ — Bill Gates #TED.”

Twitter can also be helpful for businesses and organizations when it comes to emergency alerts. Just like with the virtual conference, people would hashtag their posts about latest news updates on weather and natural disasters to alert those on Twitter.

In this same article, it is discussed how a 16 year old's life may have been saved. A medical student posted a question on suggestions for a strange case regarding a young boys acute pancreatitis and was responded in a few hours on how to diagnose it.

Another interesting article I read on how these technologies may help business is by Frank Langfitt of NPR. In his article, "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", he discusses how job recruiters use Linkedin to find a fit for the job position they're looking to fill. Those with profiles on Linkedin provide information pertaining to their job, employment history, and background information. For some recruiters, this is the first place they look. They're also able to contact the potential employee via messaging.

The "dark side" of social networking for businesses and organizations is the bad publicity they get from their consumers. I actually had several friends post status updates on poor service or quality of a product they experienced from so and so. I'm sure the many people who read these updates take their friend's thoughts into consideration and possibly choose a competitor company instead.

Social networking can also be bad for the employees as well. I've seen videos on YouTube where the person I subscribed to has gotten fired for a certain tweet on Twitter or for a YouTube video they released. I'm also sure employers and recruiters look at Myspace, FaceBook, and Twitter before they finalize a decision on hiring a new employee. This is why I keep my profile private and my profile picture normal :]


Cite

Miller, Claire Cain, "Getting the Most Out of Twitter", New York Times, Technology, March 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/technology/04basics.html

Langfitt, Frank, "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", NPR, November 22, 2006
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf